Matthew Barabas is a renowned French poet and politician of Greek descent. Born in Constantinople in 1795, he is the son of the now dead Theodoros Barabas. Theodoros was a
Phanariot, and so he had the money and influence to be able to send his son to study in the Medical University of Paris in 1812. Despite graduating as a doctor, Matthew quickly abandoned his science and devoted himself to poetry.
His first poet was "Anna", a simple but very touching love poem. But his greatest creation is "Hymn to Liberty":
I shall always recognize you
by the dreadful sword you hold
as the Earth with searching vision
you survey with spirit bold
From the graves of our slain,
Shall thy valour prevail,
As we greet thee again,
Hail, Liberty! Hail!
This poem effectively made Matthew national poet of the French Republic. Despite not being a French citizen, he was given French citizenship in 1820, in recognition of his poetic work.
In 1821, Matthew wrote
"The Cretan", taking place after the French landing in Crete in June 18 1807, during Napoleon's (I) war against the Ottomans. The work describes the story of a Cretan who left from Crete after the French invasion, the shipwreck and his efforts to save his beloved from the tempest. A central point in the work is the apparition of an oracle, the Feggarontymeni (meaning the one dressed by the moon), who is described as the 'goddess' and reads in his heart his story.
The narrator of the story is the Cretan himself: he starts telling his story many years later, when he is living alone as a beggar, doing flashbacks (from his life on Crete and the shipwreck) and talking about the future (the resurrection of the dead and his encounter with his beloved one in Paradise).
In 1826, he decided to enter politics and joined the "Liberal Party". He is now a member of the French Parliament.
