Simonides of Ceos

Simonides of Ceos was a <a href="/facts/Greek_lyric_poet/k83GkRIV">Greek lyric poet</a>, born in <a href="/facts/Ioulis/YULgmVQl">Ioulis</a> on <a href="/facts/Kea_(island)/Nc7Xtm4u">Ceos</a>. The scholars of <a href="/facts/Hellenistic/q6BgQsaF">Hellenistic</a> <a href="/facts/Alexandria/hdg1twWA">Alexandria</a> included him in the canonical list of the <a href="/facts/Nine_lyric_poets/mGz9EoxD">nine lyric poets</a> esteemed by them as worthy of critical study. Included on this list were <a href="/facts/Bacchylides/lnNBpHN9">Bacchylides</a>, his nephew, and <a href="/facts/Pindar/ceN1a17e">Pindar</a>, reputedly a bitter rival, both of whom benefited from his innovative approach to lyric poetry. Simonides, however, was more involved than either in the major events and with the personalities of their times. 
<a href="/facts/Gotthold_Ephraim_Lessing/Wr0jEPWD">Lessing</a>, writing in the <a href="/facts/Age_of_Enlightenment/Uj2Fa8Mk">Enlightenment era</a>, referred to him as "the Greek <a href="/facts/Voltaire/h2pyULrC">Voltaire</a>." His general renown owes much to traditional accounts of his colourful life, as one of the wisest of men; as a greedy miser; as an inventor of a system of <a href="/facts/Mnemonic/6HfDn0ks">mnemonics</a>; and the inventor of some letters of the <a href="/facts/History_of_the_Greek_alphabet/8bLa0nuo">Greek alphabet</a> (ω, η, ξ, ψ). Such accounts include fanciful elements, yet he had a real influence on the sophistic enlightenment of the <a href="/facts/Classical_Greece/WoUfexFx">Classical era</a>. His fame as a poet rests largely on his ability to present basic human situations with affecting simplicity. In the words of the Roman rhetorician <a href="/facts/Quintilian/b1jMLAbI">Quintilian</a> (35–100 AD):

<blockquote>Simonides has a simple style, but he can be commended for the aptness of his language and for a certain charm; his chief merit, however, lies in the power to excite pity, so much so that some prefer him in this respect to all other writers of the genre.</blockquote>
He is popularly associated with epitaphs commemorating fallen warriors, as for example the <a href="/facts/Lacedaemonians/6V9o1DSz">Lacedaemonians</a> at the <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Thermopylae/XE83betI">Battle of Thermopylae</a>:

<table><tbody><tr><td>Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδεκείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.</td><td>Tell them in Lacedaemon, passer-byThat here, obedient to their word, we lie,</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>—Translated by <a href="/facts/F._L._Lucas/9bUzJx1X">F. L. Lucas</a>as an English <a href="/facts/Heroic_couplet/7PPqGehy">heroic couplet</a></td></tr></tbody></table>
Today only glimpses of his poetry remain, either in the form of <a href="/facts/Papyrus/RMbJNcXu">papyrus</a> fragments or quotations by ancient literary figures, yet new fragments continue to be unearthed by archaeologists at <a href="/facts/Oxyrhynchus/k5L9VJNm">Oxyrhynchus</a>, a city and archaeological site in <a href="/facts/Egypt/8Ttg0JwB">Egypt</a> that has yielded papyrus fragments from over a century of excavations. He is included in narratives as diverse as <a href="/facts/Mary_Renault/YTRP7CNl">Mary Renault</a>'s modern <a href="/facts/Historical_novel/fIhoVb6M">historical novel</a> The Praise Singer (where he is the narrator and main character), <a href="/facts/Plato/jGtT1UD5">Plato</a>'s <a href="/facts/Protagoras_(dialogue)/3NvIcxQ0">Protagoras</a> (where he is a topic of conversation), and some verses in <a href="/facts/Callimachus/5rMWX2a0">Callimachus</a>' <a href="/facts/Aetia_(Callimachus)/JUV6W2rh">Aetia</a> (where he is portrayed as a ghost complaining about the desecration of his own tomb in <a href="/facts/Agrigento/KJIFjFs2">Acragas</a>).

Simonides of Ceos open-in-new

Simonides of Ceos