The Isles of Greece – Stanza 13

Small note from me - I have cut down on history because it has come to my attention that this becomes very heavy reading. So, what I have done and will continue to do, is first just write a small reference paragraph after which I will give the entire history. I hope this works better for you.

The Isles of Greece – Stanza 13

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!

On Suli's* rock, and Parga's* shore,

Exists the remnant of a line

Such as the Doric* mothers bore;

And there, perhaps, some seed is sown,

The Heracleidan* blood might own.



- And once again we see a continuation of Byron’s previous stanzas, this time referring to more than one ancestry’s descendants; and their resistance to alien forces threatening to destroy their lineage and take from them everything they stand for.

Suli, Parga are both places in Greece, and he is hailing the Doric and Heracleidan lineage.

Heracleidae & Dorians Tribes through the Ages (they were part of the same.)
(from 1600 - 1100 BC to Today)

1. Pontians

2. Macedonians ( Remember King Phillip II and his son Alexander the Great?)

3. Cretans

4. Spartans (Remember King Leonidas and Achilles?)

5. Epirotes

6. Rhodians

7. Cypriots

8. Troyans also called Trojans, city of Troy. (remember Helen of Troy and Achilles?)

New evidences (2008) in south Italy reports: "part of people of Troy should be primal Dorian race"


This much information will suffice to follow the poem as we may completely understand why Byron is reminiscing about them. These were the races which boasted the bravest and most legendary heroes. Apart from that, these races were also responsible for the birth of several world renowned scholars, philosophers, artists and poets.

To understand the entire history, read on:

Suli: "on Suli's rock, on Parga's shore/ Exist the remnant of a line", here Byron is honoring the sacrifice and courage of Suli. Suli was a mountain settlement which had successfully evaded the Ottoman (Turkish) rule over the years.
When finally they were invaded the population fought heroically and the women & children, preferring to die than be anything but free Greeks, jumped from the village's high cliffs. The Ottomans entered a dead town.

Parga is another city (but this city is located on a shore whereas Suli is mountainous and rocky) which has survived invasions of numerous countries. It also boasts of brave Grecians who warded off invaders and stood their ground in spite of being outnumbered.
Parga was also passed around to several different dynasties.

Mythic origins

According to a myth based on an etymological fantasy, the Dorians were named for the minor district of Doris in northern Greece. Their leaders were mythologized as the Heracleidae, the sons of the legendary hero Heracles, and the Dorian incursion into Greece in the distant past was justified in the mythic theme of the "Return of the Heracleidae".

The most famous of Dorian groups were the Spartans, whose austere and martial lifestyle was much admired and feared.

Upon the death of Eurystheus an oracle tells the Mycenaeans to choose a Pelopid king and Atreus and Thyestes — already installed in nearby Midea by Sthenelus — contend for the prize. Atreus eventually wins out and his son, Orestes, returns to Mycenae and seizes the throne from Aletes, son of Aegisthus.
Orestes expanded his kingdom to include all of Argos, and he became king of Sparta by marrying Hermione, his cousin and the daughter of Menelaus and Helen (This is The Helen of Troy – the face that launched a 1000 ships, watch the film Troy, it is a very good depiction of Achilles and Helen and the Trojan Horse). Finally, Tisamenus, Orestes' son by Hermione, the daughter of Helen, inherits the throne.

The Heracleidae ("children of Heracles") return to the Peloponnese, led by Hyllus, the son of Heracles, and Iolaus, Heracles' nephew, and contend with the Pelopidae ("children of Pelops") for possession of the Peloponnese.

The Heracleidae base their claim to power on their descent, through Heracles, from Perseus, the founder of Mycenae, whereas Tisamenus was a Pelopid whom the Heracleidae regard as a usurper.

After a year, the Heracleidae are driven out by plague and famine. Upon consulting the Delphic oracle, they were told that they had returned before their proper time: the god said they should await "the third crop."

Accordingly, after three years, the Heracleidae invade the Peloponnese again, and Hyllus challenges the Peloponnesians to single-armed combat. In the ensuing duel with Echemus, king of Arcadia, Hyllus is killed and the Heracleidae undertake to withdraw for fifty years.

The Heracleidae invade again, under the leadership of Aristomachus, the son of Hyllus and Heracles' grandson. But Aristomachus is slain in combat with Tisamenus and his army, and the Heracleidae withdraw once again.

Upon consulting the oracle again, the Heracleidae are told that "the third crop" referred to the third generation of Heracles' descendants.

The Return of the Heracleidae under Heracles' great-grandsons is finally successful — although Aristodemus is slain by a thunderbolt, and his sons Procles and Eurysthenes assume leadership of his forces.

Temenus, Procles and Eurysthenes (the sons of Aristodemus), and Cresphontes cast lots for the kingdoms. Temenus becomes master of Argos, Procles and Eurysthenes of Sparta, and Cresphontes of Messenia.

Cresphontes secured the rule of Messenia for himself by the following stratagem: it was agreed that the first drawing of lots was for Argos, the second for Lacedaemon, and the third for Messenia. Both Temenus and the sons of Aristodemus throw stones into a pitcher of water, but Cresphontes cast in a clod of earth; since it was dissolved in the water, the other two lots turned up first.

Traditionally, this "Return of the Heracleidae" takes place eighty years after the Trojan war — between 1100 and 950 bc — and is represented as the recovery by the descendants of Heracles of the rightful inheritance of their hero ancestor and his sons.

For ancient historians, the Return of the Heracleidae explained the spread of Doric language and culture throughout areas regarded as Achaean during the Minoan and Mycenean eras: in the historical period the whole of the Peloponnese with the exception of Arcadia, Elis, and Achaea is Doric, along with Doris in northern Greece and the islands of Crete and Rhodes.

The traditional date of the "Dorian Invasion" correlates with archaeological evidence of widespread burning, destruction, or abandoning of Bronze Age sites on both Crete and the mainland in Late Helladic IIIC (1200-1050 bc), and the beginning of the Dark Ages in Greece.

The destructions are clear, but their causes are much disputed — theories run the gamut from economic factors, to social upheaval, climatic change, or external invasion.

And it is generally agreed that Doric speakers did enter Greece around this time, but most likely as a migration after the Mycenaean centers were destroyed. (The late Bronze Age was a period of migration throughout the Mediterranean basin.)