The Eternal Fighting Spirit of 1821

 The Army Camp of Karaiskakis

by

 Theodoros Vryzakis 

This painting depicts the army camp of General Karaiskakis at Phaliron during Greek preparations to capture the Acropolis, besieged by the Turks, in April 1827. 

Greeks and philhellenes are arranged along a section in the foreground, while in the mid-ground on the right, the eye is guided towards the hill from which the leading officers of the army survey the battle field. In the background on the left can be seen the Acropolis. 

Almost in the centre, a Greek is leaning against an ancient marble in an allusion to the heritage of classical Greece. On the right, a priest is blessing the fighters. 

The officer in the blue uniform on the left is Bavarian philhellene Krazeisen, to whom the Greeks are grateful. He captured for posterity the figures of the 1821 freedom fighters as we know them today. It is from these drawings that Vryzakis sourced the portraits of the fighters on the hill: Karaiskakis, Makrygiannis, Tzavelas, Notaras, the Scot named Gordon, Englishman Hastings and Karl von Heideck, looking towards the Acropolis through a telescope. 

Heideck, who had first-hand experience of these events, painted the same subject, and Vryzakis quoted his painting much later, in 1855.

Source: National Gallery of Athens 

The Basic Needs of a Revolutionary

 

Or what you need to start a revolution:

1. A Regular wooden office 

2. A revolver & grenades

3. An Arditi Flag

THE PIC:

The office of Benito Mussolini in San Sepolcro, Milan in the early fascist period.

Forgotten Remains of True Europe

"Praise What Makes One Tough"

Taken from:

Forgotten Barracks of WW2

The God of Sleep

 

According to Hesiods Theogony, which was written in about 700 BC, Hypnos is the god of sleep, the son of Nyx (Night) and brother of Thanatos (Death). Like the latter, he lives where Night and Day meet and where Atlas is holding up the heavens. But while the merciless Thanatos has a heart of iron, Hypnos sweeps across land and sea, bringing peaceful and friendly sleep to men.

Hypnos, who according to Ovid (Metamorphoses 11.623) is the “gentlest” of the gods, is depicted as a naked youth, hurrying as though in flight, his torso bent forward and his right foot touching the ground only with its toes. In his outstretched right hand he is holding a horn from which a sleep-inducing liquid flows; his lowered left hand holds poppy capsules. Large wings, like those of the messenger of the gods, Hermes, are growing out of his full head of hair, which is held together by a band across his forehead and tied together in a knot at his neck. The sweeping gesture of his outstretched right arm corresponds to his right leg, which stretches backwards, while his left forearm points in the same direction as the left leg, on which his weight is resting.

The statuette is a smaller copy of a Greek original. The best-known copies are those in Madrid (marble) and London (bronze head), but unfortunately the original is not mentioned in the Classical literary sources. It is usually linked to artists of the 4th century BC (Praxiteles, Scopas, Leochares), but given the complexity of the motion depicted, it could also have been created in the later Hellenistic period.

The statuette comes from the collection of Joseph Angelo de France, who under Empress Maria Theresa was “director-general of the imperial and royal treasury, galleries and other precious collections”. He died in 1761, and his extensive collection of Classical bronzes was acquired from his heiress in 1808 for the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

SOURCE:

A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Edited by Wilfried Seipel. Vol. 4. Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Fiume o Morte!

 

Black is The Night

 BLACK IS THE NIGHT 

Black is the night on the mountains 

Snow fall on the rocks. 

In the dark, in the wild nature, on the rough stones, the narrows, the klepht hits his sword.

In his right hand holds a thunderbolt.

The mountain is his palace, the sky his covering and the gun his hope.

The tyrants flee scared by his black knife.

With sweat rains his bread, he knows how to live with honor, and how to die.The wiliness runs the world and the unjust fate.

The bad owns the wealth and here on the rocks resides, the hidden virtue.

---

Origin: March of the Hellenic Army

Poetry by: Alexandros Rizos Ragavis

Theme: Based on the life of Hellenic fighters (Klephtes) of the revolution of 1821.

Photo: The creator of the poetry

The Soul of Chivalry

 

IN THE MIDDLE AGES OF EUROPE, numerous knightly orders emerged, their esoteric secrets kept only for the initiates. Their adepts were steeped in the prowess of warriors, but had a strict code of honour and piety that governed their conduct. The practice of these virtues was the aim of chivalry, and the goal was nothing less than the transformation of the knight into a type of fighting ascetic seeking the Holy Grail.

World of Tradition Films and PhilosophiCat Present a Cat Weiss feature-length documentary on knighthood in the Middle Ages of Europe.