Starting with a few general reflections about the actuality of philhellenism and a detailed review of the Greek struggle for Independence, this volume retraces the Romantic Period's attitude towards contemporary Greece and her inhabitants whom many Europeans regarded as the heirs of Antiquity, and supported in an idealistic way during their struggle 1821-1829 against the Ottoman domination. Being such an important socio-political movement for 'liberty' and against 'tyranny' it quite naturally finds its way into the contemporary literature where the Greek cause becomes a cry for changes in other European countries. Esthetically elaborated and often politically transformed in armorial-bearings for revolutionary thought the literary Philhellenism represents an early example for an 'engaged literature'.