The national poet of Greece, Dionysios Solomos, was born in Zakynthos on April 8, 1798, the son of Nikolaos Solomos and his maid Angeliki Niklis.

At a very young age he was orphaned and in 1808 he went to Italy to study with his Italian teacher Rossi. Seven years later he graduated from the High School of Cremona and enrolled at the University of Pavia, where he graduated in law.

He was called National Poet of Greece, not only for what he wrote, the National Anthem, but also because he used the earlier poetic tradition (Cretan literature, Folk song) and was the first to systematically cultivate the vernacular and pave the way for its use in literature.

The Nation must consider the national as true.

I have nothing else in mind, but freedom and language.

Have you seen how the hen loses its feathers and the wind catches them? That is how the Nation goes.

Pleasures and riches to lose and kingdoms and everything is nothing if the soul remains upright and straight.

My unhappy people, good and beloved, always gullible and always betrayed.

Beautiful world, moral, angelic.

Your strength is the sea and my will is the rock.

Always open, always alert, the eyes of my soul.

A night full of darkness, a night sown with magic.

At the edge of the grave, silence reigns on the plain. A bird chirrups and gets a pimple, and the mother is jealous.

Life is sweet and death is dark.

Those who risk nothing are not worthy to be loved. Love to live, live to love.

Never bow your head, hold it high to gaze at the sun of life.

Eros had a dance started with blonde April and nature found its good and sweet time.

A light shone and the young man learned about himself.

From the realm of Truth and Love, where he is, he will continue to do us good, whatever we like best.

Enchantment of nature and a dream in beauty and grace, the black stone all gold and the dry grass. With a thousand springs it pours, with a thousand tongues it cries "He who dies today, dies a thousand times".