"Hymn to Eleftherian" is a poem written by Dionysios Solomos in May 1823 in Zakynthos. It consists of 158 verses or 632 verses and a year later, it was printed in Messolonghi.
The poem was first written in Italian and later in Greek at a time of particular escalation of the Greek Revolution. "I don't want anyone to think that when our people win in Marathon, I sit and sing about a shepherd boy" (The death of the shepherd), he wrote to his friend George De Rossi at the same time.
Soon his fame spread and he came out of Zakynthos.
In 1824 part of it was translated into English and the whole into French. In the same year, it was published in Messolonghi, in the newspaper "Ellinika Chronika" by Iakovos Mager. Other publications will follow next year, while in October 21 of 1825 the first critique of the poem by Spyridon Trikoupis will be published in «General Gazette of Greece ", published in Nafplio.
Between 1828 and 1830…
Ο «Hymn to Liberty» It was set to music by composer Nikolaos Mantzaros for a four-part men's choir and was heard with enthusiasm at national holidays in the Ionian Islands. In December 1844, Mantzaros presented a new composition of the poem and submitted it to King Othon, hoping to become the "national song" of the country. Until then, the National Anthem of Greece was the Bavarian (the well-known melody of Heiden, which is now the national anthem of Germany and Austria). The work was accepted only as a composition and was awarded the Silver Cross of the Order of the Savior.
Ο Nicholas Mantzaros, the composer who composed the anthem.
In 1865, during his visit to Corfu, the King George I He heard the version of the composition of Mantzaros for wind orchestra from the band of the Corfu Philharmonic Society and he was impressed. This was followed by its Royal Decree August 4th 1865, which he described as an "official national song," and its execution was extended "to all the naval units of the Royal Navy." Also, the foreign ambassadors were informed, so that it can be repulsed by foreign ships in the case of awarding honors to the King of Greece or the Greek Flag.
Since then the «Hymn to Liberty» of Dionysios Solomos, set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros, is considered the national anthem of Greece. From the 18 November In 1966, with the decision 6133 of the Council of Ministers, it was established as the national anthem of the Republic of Cyprus.
Source: ant1iwo.com