User:GeorgiaAntoniou/sandbox/Thourios



Thourios is a patriotic hymn/ war song written by Rigas Feraios Velestinlis in 1797 and was sung at assemblies and gatherings with the aim of arousing the Greeks.

It is the 3rd part of a revolutionary political pamphlet, “The New Political Administration (Νέα Πολιτική Διοίκησις) of the citizens of Asia Minor of the Mediterranean islands, Transylvania, Moldova, and Wallachia”.

Written in meter (έμμετρο κείμενο) with many narrative details, Rigas attempts to express, explain and animate abstract ideas such as “Human Rights” and “Legislation”. As a title for his writing, Rigas chose the ancient Greek word “Thourios”, meaning impetuous, raging, and war-like to depict the mental disposition which he wanted to cultivate through his writing. As seen in his choice of title of this revolutionary hymn, Rigas expresses the relevance of the hymn to the ideological classism of the times. As such, Rigas is considered the “National Bard” due to his writing this hymn.

Historical framework of writing and publication
One of the means that Rigas used to aid the fight for freedom of the enslaved Greek nation was to publish a variety of writings, such as poems like Thourios. However, Thourios does not show us how Rigas’s specific revolutionary plan would be put into effect. Nonetheless, as Leandros Vranousis characteristically noted, “Thourios is not just a patriotic song, but an open proclamation, an invitation and an action plan; a revolutionary alarm for the Turkish controlled Balkans and the Turkish Near East (Εγγύς Ανατολή).”  No mention is made of help from European forces which shows that the Greeks were eventually becoming aware that liberation would come only at their own hand. Thourios was a revolutionary proclamation written in verse for even the most uneducated and illiterate person to learn by heart. According to the Austrian law enforcement authorities' report to the Ministry of Police according to their interrogations, Thourios written and published by Rigas was a revolutionary song. It is reported that a month after his arrival in Vienna (September 1796), Rigas sang and played Thourios on the flute at a friend’s house with his compatriots. Thourios was written after the French victories in Italy, in September 1796 or a little earlier. For Axelos it was written in Bucharest and possibly improved or even completed immediately after Rigas arrived in Vienna.

Name
The name Thourios itself was rendered incorrectly until its file was discovered in Vienna. Also, it was mistakenly considered as Thourios the poem which Rigas wrote entitled the Second Children of the Greeks (Δεύτε παίδες των Ελλήνων). However, it eventually became clear from the minutes of the interrogations that Thourios was the poem identified by Perraivos and Goudas from his first verse “Until when young men” (Ως πότε παλληκάρια).

Dissemination of Thourios
Initially, it seems that Rigas and his collaborators circulated Thorios handwritten copies. Later, in October 1797, it was printed, together with its Revolutionary Proclamation. Although about 3,000 copies were issued only 200 escaped confiscations because they had been secretly distributed or smuggled to insiders in Greece or Moldova and Wallachia. Unfortunately, none of these copies have been saved and the whereabouts of the original are unknown. Most of the copies that were released must have been destroyed by their owners after the conspiracy was exposed. A year later, in 1798 in Corfu, Christoforos Perraivos reissued the original illegal Vienna edition. The next edition is 1809 one to be found in the Bucharest library, which is full of spelling mistakes, visual misconstructions and inaccuracies. The scribe is Dimitrios Anagnostis, who lived in Iasi at that time. Another version of Thourios that survives, is a manuscript at the Hellenic Institute of Venice which was written by Panagis Kefalas during the years of the Revolution, not significantly different from the above editions but with perhaps intentional adaptations or omissions (no mention of Bulgarians and Arvanites or aversion to Pasvanoglou). Thourios became famous in Europe with the publication of an introduction and French translation by Claude Foriel in his work Chants Populaires de la Grèce Moderne (Paris 1825, vol. 2, p. 20).

Although Fauriel had some doubts concerning the poetic value of Thourios, he considered its resonance with the Greek nation allowed him to include it in this particular edition. Based on Foriel's translation, Giovani Niccolini translated Thourios into Italian in 1827.

In 1892 Miltiadis Vratsanos, the general inspector of primary schools wrote the textbook Contemporary History of the Greek Nation from the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks to the Kingdom of Otto as part of the ministry's syllabus to be used in Greek primary schools and kindergartens with Thourios being quoted on the fourth page. In the history textbook of the  6th grade of primary school by Konstantinos Sakkadakis, the students are expected to read the full version of Thourios while in G. Kafentzis’s version of the same textbook, students are expected to find and read Rigas’s Thourios. In the corresponding textbooks of the 6th grade written by Maria Repousi (2006) as well as in the History of the modern and contemporary world by Ioannis Koliopoulos, the term Thourios is explained in the Glossary. Finally, the first 8 verses of Thourios are be found in the Anthology of the 3rd and 4th grade of elementary school (school textbook 2006).

In 2005 it was translated into Spanish either knowingly or not by Isabel Garcia Galvez.

Rigas's Thourios and the other Thourioses
Indicative of the impact of Rigas’s Thourios is the circulation of other Thourioses attributed to Rigas. Written before the Greek Revolution of 1821, they were written and published anonymously by several thouriographers and attributed knowingly or not to other poets. One such instance is the Thourios, “Sons of the Greeks rise”, which is mistakenly attributed to Rigas by Amandos. Another example is “Anthem of Thourios” rescued from oblivion by Georgios Gazis Delvikaniotis who asserted that he had seen it in Iasi in 1815 when he attended the Authentic Academy of Iasi. This Thourios belongs to the era of the Serbian liberation struggles and is most likely an imitation written by one of Rigas’s emulators. Another imitation of Thourios is to be found in the Romanian Deçtepta-te Române by the Transylvanian poet Mureçianu (1848) but also in the Thourios of the Greek-speaking clergyman Naum Rimniceanou who promotes liberation from Turkish rule. Thourios is also reflected in Rakovsk's poetry.

Recruitment in the following historical periods
Thourios resonated with and impacted those "[...] whom intellectual enlightenment could not reach".

Claude Foriel testifies that in 1817 when a friend of his was traveling in Macedonia he met a young child from Epirus at an inn where he ended up staying, who asked him to read him a pamphlet that he had with him as an amulet, because the child itself did not know how to read. This pamphlet contained Thourios along with other songs by Rigas. When Foriel’s friend had finished reading it, the child explained with tears in his eyes that he would ask all travelers he met to read it to him.

Alexandros Rizos Ragavis recalls that in his childhood, even Turks would ignorantly sing Rigas’s Thourios unaware of its revolutionary message.

On April 3rd, 1821, the revolutionary flag was raised on Spetses and after an eulogy, the locals devoutly sang Thourios.

In June 1821 during the battle of Dragatsanis, the “Sacred Band” (ιερολοχίτες) were attacked while singing the Rigas’s Thourios.

In his autobiography, Guiseppe Garibaldi mentions that during a trip in 1822 from Nicaea to Odysseus, he stopped over in Mytilene where he first learned about Rigas’s Thourios.

In 1823 the volunteer colonel and Greek supporter (philhellene), Voutier, would record and translate two or three verses of Thurios in the publication of his memoirs.

In 1825, Auguste Bonjour dedicated a poem to the students of the Polytechnic School, a hymn to Rigas, beginning with the first verses by Thourios.

In 1859, during a celebratory speech given by Giorgios Tertsetis, he emphasized that Thourios is the most sacred song of the Greeks and the only one capable of establishing Rigas's glory.

For Marxist Kordatos, Thourios "was written especially for the Balkan peoples, it was a pan-Balkan awakening".

Via Thourios, Rigas is established as the ‘National Bard” of Greece.

According to Rebelis, Rigas’s Thourios "holds a place in the history of poetry similar to that of Thourios of Roygot de L'Isle. It is by no means inferior in terms of poetic beauty and lyrical power’. However, it "lags behind artistically".

On the eve of October events, Thourios is sung by the youth of Cyprus.

In 2001, the then dean of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Georgios Babiniotis, in his celebratory speech on March 25th, described the Thourios as a fellow revolutionary song that is reminiscent of the incitement of the French

During the 20th century, the name Thourios was given to the newspaper of the youth communist party of the K.K.E,  Ε.ΚΟ.Ν. Rigas Feraios (1967-1999).

Thourios in terms of literature and poetry
According to neo-Hellenist Lino Politis, Thourios "cannot be judged by the usual measures of poetry”. However, neo-Hellenistic philologist Mario Vitti, notes that Rigas's Thourios awakens a renewal in the subject matter of Greek poetry and tones, while being released from the "inertia of Arcadian sentimentality".  Rigas borrows the fast expressive rhythm from foreign models, while adapting his own lyrics to the music of well-known songs of his time.  Thourios is also an important source for the reconstruction of his author's life, as it solidifies the hypothesis that Rigas had met and collaborated with the powerful landowner in Vidini, Bulgaria, Pasvanoglou, who wanted to free himself from the control of the Turkish sultan.

Thourios's Melody
Despite being one of the most widespread and celebrated songs of modern Greece, the origin of Thourios’s melody remain unknown. Simon Karas and Branousis believe that Thourios was adapted in accordance with the Greek dance Syrtos. Nonetheless, under the title of Thourios, Rigas placed the title of the song, Μια προσταγή μεγάλη (A great command) so as to indicate the way and the purpose with which his song was to be sung. The popular song Μια προσταγή μεγάλη was sung four years after the end of Lambros Katsonis’s actions and praised his achievements in the Aegean Sea and the naval battle of Andros.

Thourios's ideological sigma
By means of Thourios, Rigas seeks to educate the enslaved Greeks in order for them to become fully aware of their situation and through self-knowledge search for the appropriate means to regain their freedom. Rigas's initial views on inter-Balkan cooperation are to be found in Thourios. He calls for an allied uprising not only of all the Balkan citizens of the Sultan, but also of all the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire, regardless of religion or race. Rigas calls them to a revolution so that everyone can live freely in their homeland with mutual respect for faith and worship:

[...] In East and West, and South and North, / For the Homeland we all, let us have a heart./ In the faith of each one, free to live, /

In the glory of war, let us run together./ Bulgarians, and Albanians, Armenians and Romans, / blacks, and whites, with a common momentum./ For freedom, let us live by the sword [...]

Thus human rights as enshrined in the Thourios transcend any individual framework as defined in the French declarations, but acquire a more social and universal content.

His message is secular, but the reference to religion is made in the oath: “Take the oath, on the Cross” and further down “High on the poles, lift the Cross” or “Dry land, and at sea, let the Cross shine” is related to the religion in which the vast majority of the people to whom Thourios is addressed believed. Rigas is fully aware that conservative Europe will not help the revolution, so he does not rely on the help of any major European power while he conceals his sentiments for France so that his movement does not appear tied to it. Nevertheless,  he cites the external solidarity of a small country, Malta:

[...] With us and you Maltese, give birth to a body, / Against tyranny, throw yourself with momentum.