About the Cypriot origin of the singer of love, oak forests and peace

In 1825, Alexander Pushkin wrote the poem “Andrei Chenier.” It described the fate of the famous French poet, who became one of the victims of revolutionary terror in France. Pushkin hardly suspected that his hero, Andre Chenier, was half Cypriot.

Chenier lived only 32 years, but thanks to his literary activities he earned the title of the forerunner of romanticism.

Born in 1762 in the family of the French consul in Constantinople, Louis Chenier and Elisavet Santi-Chenier, the daughter of a merchant from Larnaca.

From a young age, Chenier was a passionate admirer of the language and culture of Ancient Greece. While studying in Paris, he excelled in translating poetry from the Greek classics. In 1784 he traveled to Rome, Naples and Pompeii. Served in the diplomatic corps. A royalist, he initially supported the French Revolution, but later opposed the excesses of the Jacobin Terror. He exposed the dictatorship of Robespierre from the pages of French newspapers. In 1793 he was arrested on suspicion of connections with the royalists, and on July 25, 1794 he was executed by guillotine.

Chénier was known to his contemporaries only as the author of topical political works. The first collection of his poems appeared in print only in 1819 - 25 years after he himself died on the guillotine. In Russia, among Chenier’s admirers and translators were E. Baratynsky, A.K. Tolstoy, A. Fet, but above all, Pushkin, who transcribed several plays by the “singer of love, oak forests and peace.”

Pushkin was inspired by the fate of Andre Chenier, in whom he saw a persecuted genius and with whom he compared himself.

The poem “Andrei Chenier,” dedicated to the poet, can be read here.

André Chénier's mother, née Elisavet Lomakas, was born in Larnaca in 1729, the son of the merchant Antonis Lomakas. Elisavet was called a woman of amazing beauty and education. She was interested in ancient Greek culture and ancient authors. By religion, her family belonged to Catholicism and probably descended from noble families of medieval Cyprus.

Together with her parents she moved to Constantinople. There she met Louis Chénier, whom she married in 1754. All eight of her children were born in Constantinople: four boys and four girls. Of these, two more, besides Andre, were destined to leave a mark on the history of France. Louis-Sauveur Chenier (1761-1823) became a military man and participated in the Napoleonic Wars, Marie-Joseph Chenier (1764-1811) later became a famous playwright.

In 1765, the Chenier family left Constantinople and settled in Paris. There Elisavet began to actively communicate with writers and cultural figures. She herself wrote historical, ethnographic and literary works, some of which were published in 1879. In 1781, Elisavet opened a literary salon in the capital's Marais quarter.

She died in 1808.

The text was prepared based on materials from Polygnosi, Internet Archive and Wikipedia Read also

In 1917, the influential French perfumer François Coty released a perfume in which he mixed the scents of oakmoss, cistus and citrus. He named his new creation in honor of Cyprus - Chypre. More at the link.