Kipling and ‘Agamemnon’

Both Rudyard Kipling and the Royal Navy saw Greek sovereignty as a universal symbol of freedom.

1918

King George V 1910-1936

Introduction

In 1821, the Greeks declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, setting off a bloody revolution that ended in victory for the Greeks. A century later, as the Ottoman Turks shared defeat with Germany in the Great War, Kipling and the Royal Navy rubbed a little salt in wounds old and new.

by Clay Lane

RUDYARD Kipling liked to pretend that he was hopeless at classical languages.

Yet he wrote half-a-dozen stories set in classical antiquity, and as the Great War drew to a close in 1918, sent to the ‘Telegraph’ a translation of the Greek national anthem, ‘Hymn to Liberty’, composed in 1823 as Greece fought for independence from the Turks.*

The Greek government later presented Kipling with a medal for championing modern Greek verse, but British support in the war was more vital — and more quickly rewarded.

Just two weeks after Kipling’s translation appeared on 17th October, the Ottoman Turks surrendered to the British, and their crumbling empire of nearly five centuries broke up.

The armistice was signed aboard HMS Agamemnon, a battleship named after the legendary warrior in Homer’s Iliad, who commanded the victorious Greek forces at the siege of Troy, now Hissarlik in Turkey.

Whether the classical allusion was lost on Kipling or not, it certainly would not have been lost on the Turks.

by Clay Lane

You can read Kipling’s poem here on my website: ‘Hail, Liberty!’; see also The Siege of Troy.

Précis

In October 1918, the surrender of the Ottoman Empire, allies of Germany, was received by the British aboard HMS Agamemnon, named after the legendary Greek hero. Just two weeks earlier, Rudyard Kipling had published an English translation of the Greek National Anthem, written in their revolution against Ottoman rule. For the British, Greek independence was a symbol of everyone’s freedom.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

Which historical event is commemorated in Kipling’s poem ‘Hymn to Liberty’?

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Kipling translated the Greek national anthem. The Greek government was grateful. They gave him a medal.

Kipling and ‘Agamemnon’

Introduction

Précis

Sevens

Jigsaws

Tags

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