ero.
Hoelderlin calls it "ein Roman," but it would be rather inaccurately
described by the usual translation of that term. It is not only the
poetic climax of his Hellenism, but also the most complete expression of
his Weltschmerz in its various phases. It must naturally be both, for
the poet and the hero are one. He speaks of it as "mein Werkchen, in dem
ich lebe und webe."[59] Its subject is the emancipation of Greece. What
little action is narrated may be very briefly indicated. Russia is at
war with Turkey and calls upon Hellas to liberate itself. The hero and
his friend Alabanda are at the head of a band of volunteers, fighting
the Turks. After several minor successes Hyperion lays siege to the
Spartan fortress of Misitra. But at its capitulation, he is undeceived
concerning the Hellenic patriots; they ravage and plunder so fiercely
that he turns from them with repugnance and both he and Alabanda abandon
the cause of liberty which they had championed. To his bride Hyperion
had promised a redeemed Greece--a lament is all that he can bring her.
She dies, Hyperion comes to Germany where his aesthetic Greek soul is
severely jarred by the sordidness, apathy and insensibility of these
"barbarians." Returning to the Isthmus, he becomes a hermit and writes
his letters to Bellarmin, no less "thatenarm und gedankenvoll" himself
than his unfortunate countrymen whom he so characterizes.[60]

"Hyperion," though written in prose, is scarcely anything more than a
long drawn out lyric poem, so thoroughly is action subordinated to
reflection, and so beautiful and rhythmic is the dignified flow of its
periods. But having said that the locality is Greece and its hero is
supposed to be a modern Greek, that in its scenic descriptions Hoelderlin
produces some wonderfully natural effects, and that the language shows
the imitation of Greek turns of expression--Homeric epithets and
similes--having said this, we have mentioned practically all the Greek
characteristics of the composition. And there is much in it that is
entirely un-Hellenic. To begin with, the form in which "Hyperion" is
cast, that of letters, written not even during the progress of the
events narrated, but after they are all a thing of the past, is not at
all a Greek idea. Moreover Weltschmerz, which constitutes the
"Grundstimmung" of all Hoelderlin's writings, and which is most plainly
and persistently expressed in "Hyperion," is not Hellenic. Not that we
should have to lo