“I plume myself on this achievement more than I could possibly do on any kind of glory, political, poetical, or rhetorical.”

In Greek myth, the hero Leander swam four miles across the Hellespont—a choppy strait in Turkey now called the Dardanelles, which separates Europe from Asia—every night to visit Hero, a virgin priestess of Aphrodite, with whom he had fallen in love. He was guided through the turbulent waters by a light from Hero’s tower, but one stormy night, the light was extinguished, and Leander drowned. When his body washed up on Hero’s shore the next morning, she threw herself from the tower.

Romantic! Tragical! Sporty! Obviously, Lord Byron had to try it.…