Les Orientales

Les Orientales (French pronunciation: [lez‿ɔʁjɑ̃tal]) is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, inspired by the Greek War of Independence.

They offer a series of highly coloured tableaux depicting scenes from the eastern Mediterranean that, reflecting the cultural and political bias of the French public, underscore the contrast between freedom-loving Greeks and imperialist Ottoman Turks.

Although Hugo described it as "this impractical book of pure poetry" (ce livre inutile de poesie pure), the general theme of the poems is a celebration of liberty, linking the Ancient Greeks with the modern world, freedom in politics with freedom in art, and reflecting the evolution of Hugo's political views from the royalism of his early twenties to a rediscovery of the Napoleonic enthusiasms of his childhood (for example, see the fortieth, Lui).

This poem, written in May 1828,[1] deals with the legendary story of Ivan Mazepa who was punished because he was caught in a love affair with a Polish nobleman's wife.

The poem is organized in two parts: the first one is about Mazeppa's physical travel across the plains of Russia, strapped naked on the horse's back, until its death.