Dionysios Solomos

The Collected Works of Dionysios Solomos Greek edition

Dionysios Solomos (1798 - 1857) was a Greek poet from Zakynthos. He is best know for writing the Hymn to Liberty, of whihc the first two stanzas, set to music by Nikolaos Mantazaros, 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 it usefulness to modern literature. Other notable poems include The Cretan, 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.