Dionysios Solomos

Dionysios Solomos (; Greek: Διονύσιος Σολωμός [ði.oˈnisios soloˈmos]; 8 April 1798 – 9 February 1857) was a Greek poet from Zakynthos, who is considered to be Greece's national poet. He is best known for writing the Hymn to Liberty (Greek: Ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν, Ýmnos eis tīn Eleutherían), which was set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros and became the Greek and Cypriot national anthem in 1865 and 1966 respectively. He was the central figure of the Heptanese School of poetry. He is considered the national poet of Greece, not only because he wrote the national anthem, but also because he contributed to the preservation of earlier poetic tradition and highlighted its usefulness to modern literature. Other notable poems include Ὁ Κρητικός (The Cretan), Ἐλεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι (The Free Besieged). A characteristic of his work is that no poem except the Hymn to Liberty was completed, and almost nothing was published during his lifetime.

Life

Early life and education

Born in Zakynthos in 1798, Dionysios Solomos was the illegitimate child of a wealthy count, Nikolaos Solomos, and his housekeeper, Angeliki Nikli. Nikolaos Solomos was of Cretan origin; his family were Cretan refugees who settled on Zakynthos in 1670 after Crete's conquest by the Ottoman Empire in 1669, and was connected with the Venetian patrician family of Salamon, who had settled on the island of Crete in the 15th century. It is possible that his mother Angeliki Nikli came from the region of Mani. The Italian version of the family name is recorded as: Salamon, Salomon, Solomon, and Salomone.