_The Curse of Minerva_, composed at approximately the same time as _Hints from Horace_,--it is dated from the Capuchin Convent at Athens, March 17, 1811--was actually printed in 1812, but not for public circulation. The first edition, probably unauthorized, was brought out in Philadelphia in 1815. Meanwhile the 54 introductory lines, beginning:-- “Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, Along Morea’s hills the setting sun,” had appeared in Canto III of the _Corsair_ (1814). A fragmentary version of 111 lines, entitled _The Malediction of Minerva, or the Athenian Marble-Market_, signed “Steropes” and published in the _New Monthly Magazine_ for April, 1815, was disowned by Byron as a “miserable and villanous copy.”[143] The stanzas on Lord Elgin in _Childe Harold_[144] had already expressed Byron’s condemnation of the conduct of that nobleman, and the poet doubtless believed that nothing was to be gained by again airing his indignation. Possibly, too, as Moore suggests,[145] a remonstrance from Lord Elgin or some of his relatives may have been an inducement to sacrifice a work which could add little to his reputation. _The Curse_, unlike _Hints from Horace_, has the advantage of a definite and undivided aim. It is an exposure and denunciation of Lord Elgin, who, appointed in 1799 to the embassy from England at the Porte, had interested himself in the remains of Greek architecture and sculpture on the Acropolis and had secured the services of the Neapolitan painter, Lusieri, to sketch the ruins. In 1801 he obtained a firman from the Sultan allowing him to carry away “any pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures thereon,” and accepting this as a guaranty against molestation in his project, he at once proceeded, at his own expense, to dismantle the Parthenon and to ship the finest specimens to England. Although he left Turkey in 1803, the work continued through his agents until 1812. His collection, the cost of accumulating which was estimated at 74,000 pounds, was purchased by the nation for 35,000 pounds in 1816, and now forms part of the so-called “Elgin Marbles” in the British Museum. Although opinions as to the propriety of Elgin’s actions differed widely at the time, it is now fairly well established that his foresight prevented the ultimate destruction of the statuary by war and the elements. Byron’s conclusions, formed on the spot where the operations were being carried on, have, however, some justification. He felt that it was the degradation of Greece at the hands of a foreign despoiler, and he resented the intrusion as interference in the affairs of a helpless people. In _English Bards_ he had mentioned Elgin, along with Aberdeen, as fond of “misshaped monuments and maimed antiques,” and had ridiculed him for making his house a mart, “For all the mutilated works of art.”