John Galt visited Athens in February of 1810 while some of the famous Elgin Marbles (the preferred term now is “Parthenon sculptures”) were being prepared for shipping to London. In Letters from the Levant he writes of his time in Athens:-
“The rape of the temples by Lord Elgin was at that time the
theme of every English tongue that came to Athens. While there, I wrote the Athenaid, a mock
epic, in which the gods and goddesses avenge the cause of Minerva.”
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| Lord Elgin - source |
A quote from Galt’s Athenaid reads:-
“Fired by the scheme, his way Brucides took,And public tasks, and trusts of state forsook;With ready gold he calls men, carts and cords,Cords, carts and men, rise at the baited words.The ropes asunder rive the wedded stone,The mortals labour, and the axles groan,Hymettus echoes to the tumbling fane,And shook th’ Acropolis, - shakes all the plain.”
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin's original intention was to make drawings and casts of the sculptures. He employed Giovanni Battista Lusieri (1755-1821), known as Don Tita a landscape artist and architect formerly in the employ of the King of Naples to undertake this work. Lusieri was the agent who dealt with the matter for Elgin.
The French Consul, Louis Francois Sebastien Fauvelle who was also an archaeologist, tried to stop Elgin from removing the marbles to Britain as he wanted them for France and Napoleon. Elgin's defence was that if he did not take them, they would be destroyed by the Turks or stolen by the French. Elgin claimed that he had a firman (permit or authority) to remove them, Galt says that he saw the firman, but being unable to read Turkish was told that it confirmed that the Earl had permission to remove one stone. (Galt, Autobiography, Part 1, p160). Of course, later Elgin sold the marbles to the British Government, and they are still on display in the British Museum in London.
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| Parthenon, Athens |
In his Autobiography (Part I, p158) Galt relates that he may have had an opportunity to acquire the marbles as he was informed - “Luseri’s bills, on account of the marbles, were not honoured by the earl’s agents, nevertheless he kept his knowledge of the facts to himself”. The marbles were shipped to Malta, but Luseri told Galt that he was concerned that he would not be paid by Elgin.
Galt writes:-
"Here was a chance of the most exquisite relics of art in the world becoming mine, and a speculation by the sale of them in London that would realize a fortune. The temptation was too great. My correspondents at Malta were Messrs. Struthers, Kennedy, and Co., to whom I wrote to pay the bills upon receiving the stones, etc etc and I shipped myself on board the vessel that I might see her safely to Hydra, where she was to put herself under the protection of a man of war. Accordingly, that evening we sailed with our precious cargo, and next morning arrived at Hydra, from which the vessel was conveyed to Malta. But on her arrival, there, the agent for the earl paid the bills, and my patriotic cupidity was frustrated."
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| Lord Byron - source |
Lord Byron who was in Greece at the time, also criticised Elgin in his epic The Curse of Minerva, which, says Galt, Byron wrote after reading his Athenaid. (John Galt was a friend of Byron and wrote a biography of the poet, The Life of Lord Byron, which he published in 1830.) In the biography (Chapter 28, p178) Galt writes:-
However, it would appear that John Galt, despite his poetic outpourings, was not exactly
taken with his view of the Parthenon. In
Letters from the Levant (p113), Galt writes:-
"The distant appearance of the Acropolis somewhat resembles that of Stirling Castle, but it is inferior in altitude and general effect."
(Galt often compares buildings, places and people to Scottish equivalents!)
