Dionysios Solomos Hymn To Liberty

Let me start by stating that no matter how many years are going to pass by, every Greek citizen and everyone who considers himself to have a Greek soul, will admire and be familiar with the name Dionysios Solomos, one of the most important National Poets and composer of the Greek National Anthem.
Both of my parents come from the small town of Mesolonghi, the place where I spend my Elementary and Middle school years. Mesolonghi is the place where Greece made its last stand against the Ottomans and the ultimate sacrifice during the revolution of 1821. It was the resistance of a few thousand people against the Ottoman hordes, their heroic exodus (exit) and their sacrifice that inspired the poet Dionysios Solomos to write the “Hymn to Liberty”,
Years of battles have left the residents tired and skinny, with hunger being their worst enemy. Their weapons now weigh more than themselves. They eat rats and grass to survive. They can no longer live like that. They choose to fight the enemy even though they know they will lose. But no matter what they think their plan has been betrayed. The Turkish and the Egyptians are waiting for them. They kill them one by one and even though they people of Mesolonghi know that this is the last night of their lives, they continue to fight and they choose to die heroically. The sky is dark and nature is silent, as if she is mourning for the loss of all those heroic people. The inhabitants of Mesolonghi try to change their fate but it is pointless. They are outnumbered. The canons roar and in every single sound they make they take dozens of lives with them. And at the same time that the canons roar and kill the people of Mesolonghi, Dionysios Solomos decides to bring them back to life, once and for all, by writing one of his greatest poems, the “The Free Besieged”. Dionysios Solomos was very close to the residents of Mesolonghi throughout the three sieges by the Turks, then known as the Ottomans. He was very sympathetic to their cause and wanted to contribute in their fight for independence. During the Greek War of
He was born on April 8, 1798 in Zakynthos, a Greek island in the west part of Greece, the Ionian Sea, which is the part of Adriatic Sea, the band of water that separates (but also connects) Greece and Italy. He is the son of count Nikolaos Solomos and his housekeeper Angeliki Nikli. His father was a rich aristocrat and a count, who was married to Marnetta Kakni and had two children with her, Roberto and Elena before she died in 1802. At the same time Nikolaos Solomos had an affair with Dionysios’ mother, Angeliki. After Marnetta’s death, Nikolaos married Angelikh and had two children with her, Dionysios and Dimitrios. Unfortunately, on 27th February 1807 Nikolaos died and Dionysios became an orphan at a very young age. When he was ten years old, in 1808, Dionysios went to Italy with his Italian tutor, named abbot Santo Rossi. In 1815 he graduated from Cremona’s high school and he was enrolled in the University of Pavia, majoring in Law. While he was studying Law, Solomos started writing his first poems in Italian. Some of his first poems that turned him into a respected poet in Italy include the “Ode per la prima messa” and “La distruzione di Gerusalemme”. He graduated from Pavia’s University’s Faculty of Law in 1817, and in 1818 he decided to move back to Zakynthos. There, Dionysios Solomos was