Orientalist Propaganda | Ary Scheffer

The Souliot Women 1827 Oil on canvas

Mavi Boncuk |

During the war between the Souliotes and Ali Pasha, when the villages of Souli were being evacuated by the defeated Greeks, a group of 22 Souliot women and their children were trapped by Muslim troops in the mountains of Zalongo in Epirus, on 16 December 1803. In order to avoid capture and enslavement, they threw first their children and then themselves off a steep cliff, committing suicide.

The incident became soon known in Philhellene circles in Europe. In 1827, a French artist, Ary Scheffer [1] created a Romantic picture depicting the event (The Souliot Women, now held in the Louvre in Paris). The term Dance of Zalongo refers to an event in Greek history, and to a popular Greek dance song commemorating this event.

Notes
[1] Ary Scheffer (February 10, 1795 - June 15, 1858), French painter of Dutch extraction, was born at Dordrecht.Scheffer often painted subjects from literature, especially the works of Byron and Goethe.