Loukas

Loukas is a teenage valet in Lord Byron’s entourage, carrying the bags as the party approaches its new home. Byron’s charity had helped Loukas’s family in Zakynthos, but gratitude does not make the boy comfortable with the aristocrat’s persistent amorous attention. Though his part in the narrative is brief and largely observed by others, Loukas stands at the crossing point of two unequal forms of desire: the sisters’ captivated looking and Byron’s pursuit of a boy who does not welcome it.

Identity and Introduction

Loukas first appears behind Byron’s party, a slim, dark-haired teenager with a sullen expression. His position is ambiguous to Fotini at first: from his demeanour, she cannot tell whether he is a friend or a servant. The bags he carries disclose his role; he is Byron’s valet. The detail places him physically at the rear of the entourage, close to the aristocrat but not his equal, and makes his service visible before his personal circumstances are known.

Those circumstances complicate the appearance of a simple servant relationship. Byron had shown charity to Loukas’s family back in Zakynthos, and Loukas is grateful for that help. At the same time, he has begun to feel uncomfortable because Byron directs relentless amorous attention towards him. The narrative holds the two facts together rather than treating gratitude as consent: Loukas’s dependence and appreciation coexist with an unease that the powerful benefactor’s attention imposes on him.

Seen by Fotini and Despina

As the party passes, Fotini notices Loukas behind Byron and tugs at Despina’s sleeve to draw her attention to the boy. Despina, however, has eyes only for Byron. Her gaze remains fixed on the older man, while Fotini’s interest turns away from him and settles on Loukas, whom she privately nicknames the little princeling. The sisters look in opposite directions within the same procession: Despina is absorbed by the celebrated aristocrat, while Fotini attends to the sullen teenager following at its edge.

The contrast also marks a difference in duration. Fotini soon forgets Loukas, but Despina cannot get Byron out of her head; for days she is unable to sleep or eat, trapped in a childish crush. Loukas is therefore not the object of an enduring pursuit by either sister. His brief appeal to Fotini is a momentary diversion, set against Despina’s consuming infatuation and Byron’s more troubling, sustained attention to the boy.

Byron’s Attention and Loukas’s Unease

The scene presents Loukas’s discomfort without giving him a spoken response. His sullen demeanour and growing unease are described from outside; he carries the bags and trails behind the party while Byron’s attention presses upon him. That imbalance matters: Loukas is not shown initiating or reciprocating the attraction, and his gratitude to Byron’s family benefactor does not erase his discomfort. The narrative makes the boy’s position legible through the distance between what Byron wants and what Loukas appears to welcome.

Later, the narrator reflects on Byron’s final months as a period of illness, delirium and desperate passion for a teenage boy whose love was not returned. This retrospective account places Loukas’s earlier discomfort beside the larger pattern of Byron’s unrequited attachments. The novel does not develop Loukas’s private response beyond that unease, nor does it give him a later confrontation or resolution. His silence is part of the episode’s shape: Byron’s desire and the sisters’ fascination are described at length, while Loukas remains the young person looked at, burdened with service and attention he has not chosen.

Narrative Role

Loukas’s brief appearance redirects the scene’s gaze. Byron arrives as the focus of Despina’s fascination, but Fotini’s glance reveals the valet behind him; the entourage contains not only the charismatic aristocrat but also a teenager whose own discomfort unsettles the romance of Byron’s image. The difference between the sisters’ responses further prevents the procession from becoming a single, shared spectacle: Despina idealizes Byron, Fotini momentarily sees Loukas, and Loukas himself experiences Byron’s attention as uncomfortable.

The narrative later frames Byron’s passion for a teenage boy as unrequited and deeply painful, linking private desire to the sickness and despair of his last months. Loukas’s role in that pattern remains limited to the evidence the story supplies: he is Byron’s teenage valet, grateful for earlier assistance to his family, and increasingly uneasy about the aristocrat’s amorous pursuit. That limitation is significant. The episode offers no claim that Loukas returns Byron’s feelings; instead, it preserves the asymmetry between the man who pursues and the boy who must follow behind, carrying his bags.