As a poet George Gordon Noel Byron, better known as Lord Byron (*1788 in London, †1824 in Messolongi, Greece), struggled with the debt owed by European civilization of the early 19th century to the Hellenes of antiquity as well as the contemporary plight of the modern Greeks. After revolution against the Ottoman Empire broke out in Greece in 1821, Lord Byron chose for political reasons to participate actively. He was convinced that the future of Greece would also help determine the future shape of the European continent. The lecture will examine Lord Byron's philhellenism and will deal with his participation in the Greek War of Independence.

Beaton's publications include the monographs An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature (1999), George Seferis: Waiting for the Angel: A Biography (2003), and Byron's War (2013). Several of his main fields of research are the national identity formation in Greek literature, European philhellenism, and New Greek literature in a comparative perspective.