In the 1900s the Greek political system was in crisis, with the succession of short-lived governments in power, an international commission controlled the country’s poor finances, while the prevalent national narrative of the Great Idea had lost its credibility. In this context, politicians, young scholars and public writers sought the ‘soul of the Greek people’, that eventually would regenerate the wounded state and nation. Pericles Giannopoulos (1871-1910), writer, translator, essayist and journalist, followed the current of Helleno-centrism, which he combined with an equally fierce attack against Christianity and Western civilization. However, during his lifetime he was best known for his eccentric life in the social circles of Athens than for the works he regularly published (The Greek Line, The Greek Color, Toward the Greek Renaissance, Xenomania). During his short life he was considered by some a ‘romantic’, a ‘harmless madman’, and by others an abuser of Orthodoxy, while some recognized the originality of his thought. In any case, he never had the wider acceptance he craved as a writer, let alone to reform Greek society according to his vision. On April 8, 1910, Giannopoulos, wearing a laurel wreath, rode a white horse into the sea, in the area of Skaramagas, and committed suicide with a revolver. Initially, his suicide was attributed to disappointed love or professional difficulties. Gradually, however, when the preparations he had made before the act began to come to light, the first hypotheses about the ‘true motives’ behind the suicide of Pericles Giannopoulos appeared in the Athenian press. This paper describes, firstly, the debate conducted through the press about Giannopoulos’ suicide and, secondly, tries to explain its transformation from an act of desperation to a voluntary sacrifice for the awakening of Hellenism by linking it to the concerns of political and intellectual circles of the period for the future direction of Hellenism.