This lecture will explore the seventeenth-century English poet John Milton’s relationship with the Greek ambassador and scholar Leonard Philaras. Drawing on archival research from the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, France and England, the lecture will focus on Philaras’ European network, ranging from Venice to Moscow, and his extraordinary efforts to bring about a revolutionary uprising in Ottoman-ruled Greece. Milton is widely considered to be the first English philhellene, as evidenced by one of his letters to Philaras from June 1652 in which he passionately supports the cause of liberating Greece from Ottoman rule. The lecture will focus on the development of Milton’s political philhellenism and the vital role that Philaras played in changing Milton’s attitudes towards contemporary Greece.

Respondent: Anthony Grafton, Department of History

Image: Leonard Philaras (c. 1595 – 1673), by Claude Mellan. Line engraving, mid-seventeenth century.

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