Teresa Makri, the subject of George Gordon Byron's poem "Maid of Athens, Ere We Part", in 1870, sixty years after Byron's poem . In the background the Acropolis of Athens (drawing). Photo F. Margaritis and Y. Konstantinou. 1879
Byron met the young girl (13 or 14 years old) in 1809 in Athens.(December) in the house of the widow Makri.
Maid of Athens, ere we part,
Give, oh give me back my heart!
Or, since that has left my breast,
Keep it now, and take the rest!
Hear my vow before I go,
Zoi mou sas agapo
By those tresses unconfined,
woo'd by each Ægean wind;
By those lids whose jetty fringe
Kiss thy soft cheeks' blooming tinge;
By those wild eyes like the roe,
Zoi mou sas agapo
By that lip I long to taste;
By that zone-encircled waist;
By all the token-flowers that tell
What words can never speak so well;
By love's alternate joy and woe,
Zoi mou sas agapo
Maid of Athens! I am gone:
Think of me, sweet! when alone.
Though I fly to Istambol,
Athens holds my heart and soul:
Can I cease to love thee? No!
Zoi mou sas agapo
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