Summary of “Hyperion”
Lyrical novel – the largest work of the writer – is written in an epistolary form. The name of the protagonist – Hyperion – refers to the image of a titan, the father of the sun god Helios, whose mythological name means High-Go. It seems that the action of the novel, which is a sort of “spiritual odyssey” of the hero, unfolds beyond time, although the arena of events that are occurring is Greece of the second half of the 18th century. located under the Turkish yoke (this is indicated by references to the uprising in Morey and the Battle of Chesma in 1770).
After the trials that fell to his lot, Hyperion departs from the struggle for the independence of Greece, he lost hopes for the near liberation of his homeland, he is conscious of his impotence in modern life. From now on he chose for himself the path of asceticism. Having received the opportunity to return to Greece again, Hyperion settles on the Isthmus of Corinth, from where he writes letters
It would seem that Hyperion achieved the desired, but contemplative hermitage also does not bring satisfaction, nature no longer reveals his embrace to him, he, always eager for merging with her, suddenly feels himself a stranger, does not understand it. It seems that he is not destined to find harmony neither inside himself, nor outside.
In response to the requests of Bellarmine, Hyperion wrote to him about his childhood spent on the island of Tinos, dreams and hopes of that time. He reveals the inner world of a richly gifted teenager, extraordinarily sensitive to beauty and poetry.
A huge influence on the formation of the views of the young man is provided by his teacher Adamas. Hyperion lives in the days of bitter decline and national enslavement of its country. Adamas instills in the pupil a feeling of admiration for the ancient era, visits with him the majestic ruins of his former glory, talks about the valor and wisdom of great ancestors. Hyperion is seriously going through the upcoming parting with his beloved mentor.
Full of spiritual
Hyperion is experiencing another crisis, he returns home, but the world around is discolored, he leaves for Kalavia, where communication with the beauties of the Mediterranean nature again awakens him to life.
A friend of Notar leads him to a house where he meets his love. Diomita seems to him divinely beautiful, he sees in it an unusually harmonious nature. Love connects their souls. The girl is convinced of the high calling of her chosen one – to be the “educator of the people” and lead the struggle of patriots. And yet Diomita is against violence, albeit for the creation of a free state. And Hyperion enjoys the happiness that has come to him, acquired spiritual balance, but anticipates the tragic denouement of the idyll.
He receives a letter from Alabanda with a report on the upcoming performance of Greek patriots. After saying goodbye to her lover, Hyperion hurries to join the ranks of fighters for the liberation of Greece. He is full of hopes for victory, but is defeated. The reason is not only in the impotence before the military power of the Turks, but also in disagreement with the surrounding, the clash of the ideal with everyday reality: Hyperion feels the impossibility of planting paradise with the help of a band of robbers – soldiers of the liberation army commit robbery and slaughter, and they can not be restrained by anything.
Deciding that he and his compatriots have nothing more in common, Hyperion enters the service in the Russian fleet. From now on, the fate of the exile awaits him, even his own father cursed him. Disappointed, morally contrite, he seeks death in the Chesme naval battle, but remains alive.
After retiring, he intends to finally live peacefully with Diomita somewhere in the Alps or the Pyrenees, but receives the news of her death and remains inconsolable.
After many wanderings Hyperion gets to Germany, where she lives for a long time. But the reaction and backwardness that reign there seem to him suffocating, in a letter to a friend, he sarcastically comments about the falsity of a dead public order, the lack of civil feelings, the pettiness of desires, reconciliation with reality.
Once the teacher Adamas predicted to Hyperion that such natures as he are doomed to loneliness, wandering, to eternal discontent with himself.
And Greece is defeated. Diomita died. He lives Hyperion in a hut on the island of Salamis, sorts out memories of the past, mourns for losses, the unrealisability of ideals, tries to overcome internal discord, experiences a bitter feeling of melancholy. It seems to him that he repaid with black ingratitude to mother earth, with disdain for both his life and all the gifts of love that she lavished. His destiny is contemplation and contemplation, as before he remains faithful to the pantheistic idea of the kinship of man and nature.
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