August 4, 1865: "Hymn to Freedom" is established as the National Anthem of Greecetranslated

Poem by Dionysios Solomos (1798-1857), the first two stanzas of which, set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros (1795-1872), form the National Anthem of Greece (1865) and Cyprus (1966). The Hymn to Freedom was written by the 25-year-old Solomos in Zakynthos, first in Italian and then in Greek, in May 1823, at a time when the Greek Revolution was in full swing. "...I don't want anyone to think that while our people are winning at Marathon, I am sitting and singing about a shepherd..." (The death of the shepherd), he wrote to his friend Georgios De Rossi at the same time.

Solomon's poem consists of 158 quatrains. The meter is trochaic with alternating heptasyllabic and octosyllabic verses. According to its content, it can be divided into the following parts:

Preface (pp. 1-34). The poet presents the goddess freedom, recalls the past martyrdoms of Hellenism, the revolt of the slaves, the joy of Hellenism, the enmity of the European rulers and the contemptuous indifference of the Greeks to their pro-Turkish feelings. The description of the Battle of Tripolitsa (pp. 35-74). The battle of Corinth and the destruction…