Byron was the man!
I have always liked Edgar Allan Poe and his Gothic literature, and had never paid much attention to another Gothic writer of the same time: Lord Byron. The guy fought in the Greek War of Independence, lay with men and women, including his half-sister, was one of the earliest writers to describe the effects of the weed and crossed the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles Strait) swimming, a feat that until today is celebrated at events where several swimmers make the crossing, reliving one of Byron's greatest achievements. The distance at the narrowest point on the Hellespont to the other shore is almost a mile and there is a steady stream from the Marmara Sea to the Archipelago. This feat was first performed by Leandro, a young man from Abydos, a town on the Asian bank of the Strait. On the opposite bank of the strait, in the town of Sestos, lived the maiden Hero, priestess of Venus. Leandro loved her and used to cross the strait, swimming every night, to enjoy the company of t