Maid of Athens, ere we part

Hear my vow before I go, Ζωή μου, σᾶς ἀγαπῶ[2] Each stanza of the poem ends with the same Greek refrain, which Byron translated as "My life, I love you!".

Byron claimed to be in love with the child; in a letter to Henry Drury the poet declares to be "dying for love of three Greek Girls at Athens", "Teresa, Mariana, and Kattinka", and wrote the poem for her before departing for Constantinople.

On his way back from Turkey to the Morea, on 17 July 1810, he stayed at Makri's house for another ten days, during which time he offered her £500 for her daughter.

She eventually married James Black (1803–1868) and died impoverished in 1875 in Athens, Greece.

[4] The poem has been set to music by numerous composers, including Charles Gounod, William Horsley,[5] and Henry Robinson Allen.