Dionysios Solomos (
Greek: Διονύσιος Σολωμός; 8 April 1798 – 9 February 1857) was a
Greek poet from
Zakynthos. He is best known for writing the
Hymn to Liberty (
Greek: Ὕμνος εἰς τὴν Ἐλευθερίαν, Ýmnos eis tīn Eleutherían), of which the first two
stanzas, set to music by
Nikolaos Mantzaros, became the Greek
national anthem in 1865. He was the central figure of the
Heptanese School of poetry, and 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 (Τhe Cretan), Ἐλεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι (
The Free Besieged) and others. A characteristic of his work is that no poem except the Hymn to Liberty was completed, and almost nothing was published during his lifetime.
Early life and education
Born 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. The Italian version of the family name is recorded as: Salamon, Salomon, Solomon, and Salomone.
[1] It is possible that his mother Angeliki Nikli came from the region of
Mani.
[2] Count Nikolaos Solomos was legally married to Marnetta Kakni, who died in 1802. From that marriage, he had two children: Roberto and Elena. Since 1796, Nikolaos Solomos had a parallel relationship with his housekeeper Angeliki Nikli, who gave birth to one more son apart from Dionysios, Dimitrios (born in 1801). His father married Dionysios' mother a day before he died on 27 February 1807, making the young Dionysios legitimate and a co-heir to the count's estate, along with his half-brother. The poet spent his childhood years on Zakynthos until 1808, under the supervision of his Italian tutor, abbot Santo Rossi. After his father's death, count Dionysios Messalas gained Solomos' custody, whereas his mother married Manolis Leontarakis in 15 August 1807. In 1808, Messalas sent Solomos to
Italy in order to study
law, as was customary with Ionian nobility, but possibly also because of Dionysios' mother's new marriage.
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