Dionysios Solomos | Corfuin.com - All about Corfu

Dionysios Solomos

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Early Life and Education
He was born in 1798 as the illegitimate child of a wealthy count, Nikolaos Solomos, and his housekeeper, Angeliki Nikli, but his father married his mother a day before his death, making the young Dionysios legitimate and a co-heir of the estate with his half-brother. In 1808 he went to Italy, where he studied law, Latin and Italian literature in Venice, Cremona and Pavia. He was friends with the poet Ugo Foscolo (who was also born in Zakynthos). Solomos' first literary language was Italian. After 10 years he returned to Zakynthos with a solid background in literature. Solomos became famous as a poet during this time, while still a young man. His early poetry (sonnets and other short forms) was in Italian. His education in Greek was minimal, which kept him free of any scholarly influences, that might have led him to write in katharevousa, a "purist" language heavily influenced by ancient Greek. Instead he wrote in the language of the common people of his native island. The result was the first extensive body of literature written in the demotic language, the influence of which on subsequent writers was significant.
Later Life and Death
At the end of 1828 he left Zakynthos and settled in Kerkyra ("Corfu") in order to dedicate himself to poetry. Solomos died in February 1857 from apoplexy. His remains were transferred to Zakynthos in 1865.

Literary Influences and Major Works
Solomos was heavily influenced by European romanticism, including Byron and Leopardi. He was also exposed to the cultural and political ferment of the Enlightenment and the ideas of the French Revolution, and he identified with Italian national sentiments for unification and liberation from the Habsburgs.
Solomos' only complete major works are two long poems (of 158 and 166 stanzas respectively). The first was the epic Hymn to Freedom, the first two stanzas of which became the Greek national anthem. This work salutes the War of Greek Independence, started in 1821, by invoking the personified image of Liberty, reborn and renewed out of "the sacred bones of the Greeks." Of particular interest to non-Greeks are references to all the great powers of the time, which include the "heartfelt joy of Washington's land" that "remembered the irons that bound her also," and a savage dig at the Austrian Eagle "that feeds on the entrails of the Italians to grow wings and talons" and does his best to harm Liberty. Solomos' own Ionian islands, under British rule at the time, are described as being "artfully chained" and having "'False Freedom' written on their foreheads." The poem does not shrink from the savagery of the war, and ends with exhortations to the revolutionaries to maintain unity and avoid civil war, which had already erupted at the time of writing.
The second long poem, On the Death of Lord Byron, is labeled a lyrical one and was written after Byron died during the siege of Mesolongi, but the subject matter and form are epic.

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