Editing Simonides of Ceos (section)

== Biography ==
Few clear facts about Simonides' life have come down to modern times in spite of his fame and influence. Ancient sources are uncertain even about the date of his birth. According to the Byzantine encyclopaedia, [[Suda]]: "He was born in the 56th&nbsp;Olympiad (556/552&nbsp;BC) or according to some writers in the 62nd (532/528 BC) and he survived until the 78th (468/464 BC), having lived eighty-nine years."<ref>''Suda'', Simonides (1st notice), translated by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 331</ref> Simonides was popularly accredited with the invention of four letters of the revised alphabet and, as the author of inscriptions, he was the first major poet who composed verses to be read rather than recited.<ref name="Charles Segal 1985 page 225">Charles Segal, ''Choral lyric in the fifth century'', 'The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature' (1985), P. Easterling and B. Knox (eds), page 225</ref> Coincidentally he also composed a [[dithyramb]] on the subject of Perseus that is now one of the largest fragments of his extant verses.<ref>Fr.543, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 437–438</ref>

Modern scholars generally accept 556–468&nbsp;BC as the span of his life in spite of some awkward consequences—for example it would make him about fifty years older than his nephew Bacchylides and still very active internationally at about 80&nbsp;years of age. Other ancient sources also have awkward consequences. For example, according to an entry in the [[Parian Marble]], Simonides died in 468/467&nbsp;BC at the age of ninety yet, in another entry, it lists a victory by his grandfather in a poetry competition in Athens in 489/488&nbsp;BC — this grandfather must have been over a hundred years old at that time if the birth dates for Simonides are correct. The grandfather's name, as recorded by the Parian Marble, was also Simonides, and it has been argued by some scholars that the earliest references to Simonides in ancient sources might in fact be references to this grandfather. However, the Parian Marble is known to be unreliable and possibly it was not even the grandfather but a grandson that won the aforementioned victory in Athens.<ref>John H. Molyneux, ''Simonides: A Historical Study'', Balchazy-Caducci Publishers (1992), pages 26, 67–68</ref> According to the Suda, this grandson was yet another [[Simonides the genealogist|Simonides]] and he was the author of books on genealogy.<ref>''Suda'', Simonides (4th notice), cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 335</ref>

===Early years: Ceos and Athens===
[[File:Ioulida3.jpg|right|thumb|Ioulis, present-day capital of Kea (Ceos in Ancient Greek), including remnants of the ancient acropolis. Like most Cycladic settlements, it was built inland on a readily defensible hill as protection against pirates]]
Simonides was the son of Leoprepes, and the grandson or descendant of Hylichus.<ref>[[Herodotus]], [[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]   [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D228 7.228]; Callimachus fr. 222 Pfeiffer; [[Suda]] {{lang|grc-x-medieval|σ}} [https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/sigma/439 439–441].</ref> He was born in [[Ioulis]] on [[Kea (island)|Ceos]] (Ἰουλίς, Κέως), the outermost island of the  [[Cyclades]]. The innermost island, [[Delos]], was the reputed birthplace of [[Apollo]], where the people of Ceos regularly sent choirs to perform hymns in the god's honour. [[Carthaea]], another Cean town, included a choregeion or school where choirs were trained, and possibly Simonides worked there as a teacher in his early years.<ref> Athenaeus 10.456c-57b.</ref>

In addition to its musical culture, Ceos had a rich tradition of athletic competition, especially in running and boxing (the names of Ceans victorious at Panhellenic competitions were recorded at Ioulis on slabs of stone) making it fertile territory for a genre of [[choral poetry|choral lyric]] that Simonides pioneered—the [[Epinikion|victory ode]]. Indeed, the grandfather of Simonides' nephew, Bacchylides, was one of the island's notable athletes.<ref>Jebb, ''Bacchylides: the poems and fragments'', Cambridge University Press (1905), page 5 [https://archive.org/stream/bacchylidespoem00jebbgoog#page/n9/mode/1up digitalized by Google]</ref>

Ceos lies only some fifteen miles south-east of [[Attica]], whither Simonides was drawn, about the age of thirty, by the lure of opportunities opening up at the court of the tyrant [[Hipparchus (son of Pisistratus)|Hipparchus]], a patron of the arts. His rivalry there with another chorus-trainer and poet, [[Lasus of Hermione]], became something of a joke to Athenians of a later generation—it is mentioned briefly by the comic playwright [[Aristophanes]]<ref>[[Aristophanes]], ''[[The Wasps]]'' 1411 [[wikt:ff.|ff.]], cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 299</ref> who earmarked Simonides as a miserly type of professional poet (see [[Simonides#The miser|The Miser]] below)

===Middle career: Thessaly===
After the assassination of Hipparchus (514&nbsp;BC), Simonides withdrew to [[Thessaly]], where he enjoyed the protection and patronage of the [[Aleuadae#Historical Aleuadae|Scopadae and Aleuadae]]. These were two of the most powerful families in the Thessalian feudal aristocracy yet they seemed notable to later Greeks such as [[Theocritus]] only for their association with Simonides.<ref>Theocritus, 16.42–47, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 341</ref> Thessaly at that time was a cultural backwater, remaining in the 'Dark Ages' until the close of the 5th&nbsp;century. According to an account by [[Plutarch]], the Ionian poet once dismissed the Thessalians as "too ignorant" to be beguiled by poetry.<ref>Plutarch, ''aud. poet.'' 15c, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 341</ref>

Among the most colourful of his "ignorant" patrons was the head of the Scopadae clan, named Scopas. Fond of drinking, convivial company and vain displays of wealth, this aristocrat's proud and capricious dealings with Simonides are demonstrated in a traditional account related by [[Cicero]]<ref>Cicero, ''de orat.'' 2.86.351-3, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 375</ref> and [[Quintilian]],<ref>Quintilian, ''Inst.'' 11.2.11–16, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 377</ref> according to which the poet was commissioned to write a victory ode for a boxer. Simonides embellished his ode with so many references to the twins [[Castor and Pollux]] (heroic archetypes of the boxer) that Scopas told him to collect half the commissioned fee from them — he would only pay the other half.<ref>John H. Molyneux, ''Simonides: A Historical Study'', Bolchazy-Caducci Publishers (1992), pages 117–24</ref> Simonides however ended up getting much more from the mythical twins than just a fee; he owed them his very life (see [[Simonides#Miraculous escapes|Miraculous escapes]]). According to this story he was called out of the feast hall to see two visitors who had arrived and were asking for him – presumably Castor and Pollux. As soon as he left the hall, it collapsed, killing everyone within. These events were said to have inspired him to develop a system of mnemonics based on images and places called the [[method of loci]]. The method of loci is one component of the [[art of memory]].

===Career highlight: Persian Wars===
The Thessalian period in Simonides' career is followed in most biographies by his return to Athens during the [[Persian Wars]] and it is certain that he became a prominent international figure at that time,<ref>John H. Molyneux, ''Simonides: A Historical Study'', Bolchazy-Caducci Publishers (1992), page 147</ref> particularly as the author of commemorative verses. According to an anonymous biographer of [[Aeschylus]],<ref>''Vit. Aesch.'', cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 342-2</ref> the Athenians chose Simonides ahead of Aeschylus to be the author of an epigram honouring their war-dead at [[Battle of Marathon|Marathon]], which led the tragedian (who had fought at the battle and whose brother had died there) to withdraw sulking to the court of [[Hieron of Syracuse]] — the story is probably based on the inventions of comic dramatists<ref name="David Campbell 1982 page 378">David Campbell, ''Greek Lyric Poetry'', Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 378</ref> but it is likely that Simonides did in fact write some kind of commemorative verses for the Athenian victory at Marathon.<ref>John H. Molyneux, ''Simonides: A Historical Study'', Bolchazy-Caducci Publishers (1992), page 153</ref>

His ability to compose tastefully and poignantly on military themes put him in great demand among Greek states after their defeat of the second Persian invasion, when he is known to have composed epitaphs for Athenians, Spartans and Corinthians, a commemorative song for [[Leonidas]] and his men, a dedicatory epigram for [[Pausanias (general)|Pausanias]], and poems on the battles of [[Battle of Artemisium|Artemisium]], [[Battle of Salamis|Salamis]],<ref name="David Campbell 1982 page 378"/> and [[Battle of Plataea|Plataea]].<ref>D. Boedeker and D. Sider (eds), ''The New Simonides:contexts of praise and desire'', Oxford University Press (2001)</ref>

According to [[Plutarch]], the Cean had a statue of himself made about this time, which inspired the Athenian politician [[Themistocles]] to comment on his ugliness. In the same account, Themistocles is said to have rejected an attempt by the poet to bribe him, then likened himself as an honest magistrate to a good poet, since an honest magistrate keeps the laws and a good poet keeps in tune.<ref>Plutarch ''Them.'' 5.6–7, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), pages 339, 353</ref> [[Suda]] mentions a feud between Simonides and the Rhodian lyric poet, [[Timocreon]], for whom Simonides apparently composed a mock epitaph that touches on the issue of the Rhodian's [[medism]]—an issue that also involved Themistocles.<ref>David Campbell, ''Greek Lyric IV'', Loeb Classical Library (1992), pages 84–97</ref>

===Final years: Sicily===
The last years of the poet's life were spent in Sicily, where he became a friend and confidant of Hieron of Syracuse. According to a [[scholia]]st on Pindar, he once acted as peace-maker between Hieron and another Sicilian tyrant, [[Theron of Acragas]], thus ending a war between them.<ref>Scholiast on Pindar, ''Ol.'' 2.29d, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 345</ref> Scholiasts are the only authority for stories about the rivalry between Simonides and Pindar at the court of Hieron, traditionally used to explain some of the meanings in Pindar's victory odes<ref>Geoffrey S. Conway, ''The Odes of Pindar'', John Dent and Sons (1972), pages 10, 88–89</ref> (see the articles on [[Bacchylides]] and [[Pindar]]). If the stories of rivalry are true, it may be surmised that Simonides's experiences at the courts of the tyrants, Hipparchus and Scopas, gave him a competitive edge over the proud Pindar and enabled him to promote the career of his nephew, Bacchylides, at Pindar's expense.<ref>Jebb, ''Bacchylides: the poems and fragments'', Cambridge University Press (1905), pages 12–26</ref> However, Pindar scholiasts are generally considered unreliable,<ref>Ian Rutherford, ''Pindar's Paeans'', Oxford University Press (2001), pages 321–322</ref> and there is no reason to accept their account.<ref>D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric IV: Bacchylides, Corinna and Others'', Loeb Classical Library (1992), page 6</ref> The Hellenistic poet [[Callimachus]] revealed in one of his poems that Simonides was buried outside [[Agrigento|Acragas]], and that his tombstone was later misused in the construction of a tower.<ref>Callim. fr.64.1–14, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), pages 345–346</ref>

===Biographical themes===
Traditional accounts of the poet's life embody a variety of themes.

====Miraculous escapes====
As mentioned above, both Cicero and Quintilian are sources for the story that Scopas, the Thassalian nobleman, refused to pay Simonides in full for a victory ode that featured too many decorative references to the mythical twins, Castor and Pollux. According to the rest of the story, Simonides was celebrating the same victory with Scopas and his relatives at a banquet when he received word that two young men were waiting outside to see him. When he got outside, however, he discovered firstly that the two young men were nowhere to be found and, secondly, that the dining hall was collapsing behind him. Scopas and a number of his relatives were killed. Apparently the two young men were the twins and they had rewarded the poet's interest in them by thus saving his life. Simonides later benefited from the tragedy by deriving a system of mnemonics from it (see [[Simonides#The inventor|The inventor]]). Quintilian dismisses the story as a fiction because "the poet nowhere mentions the affair, although he was not in the least likely to keep silent on a matter which brought him such glory&nbsp;..."<ref>{{cite book |author=Quintilian |chapter=''Inst''. 11.2.11–16 |translator=Campbell, D. |title=Greek Lyric III |page=379}}</ref> This however was not the only miraculous escape that his piety afforded him.

There are two epigrams in the [[Palatine Anthology]], both attributed to Simonides and both dedicated to a drowned man whose corpse the poet and some companions are said to have found and buried on an island. The first is an epitaph in which the dead man is imagined to invoke blessings on those who had buried the body, and the second records the poet's gratitude to the drowned man for having saved his own life – Simonides had been warned by his ghost not to set sail from the island with his companions, who all subsequently drowned.<ref>''A.P.'' 7.7 and 7.516</ref><ref>Cicero ''de Div.'' 1.27.56; cited by D. Campbell in ''Greek Lyric III'', page&nbsp;589</ref>

====The inventor====
During the excavation of the rubble of Scopas's dining hall, Simonides was called upon to identify each guest killed. Their bodies had been crushed beyond recognition but he completed the gruesome task by correlating their identities to their positions (''loci'' in [[Latin language|Latin]]) at the table before his departure. He later drew on this experience to develop the 'memory theatre' or '[[memory palace]]', a system for [[mnemonic]]s widely used in [[orality|oral]] societies until the [[Renaissance]].<ref>[[Francis A. Yates]]. 'The Art of Memory', University of Chicago Press, 1966, p. 2</ref> According to Cicero, Themistocles wasn't much impressed with the poet's invention: "I would rather a technique of forgetting, for I remember what I would rather not remember and cannot forget what I would rather forget."<ref>Cicero ''de Fin.'' 2.104, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 351</ref> 

The [[Suda]] credits Simonides with inventing "the third note of the lyre" (which is known to be wrong since the lyre had seven strings from the 7th&nbsp;century BC), and four letters of the Greek alphabet.<ref>Suda Σ&nbsp;439, cited, translated and annotated by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', page 330.</ref> Whatever the validity of such claims, a creative and original turn of mind is demonstrated in his poetry as he likely invented the genre of the victory ode<ref>D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric Poetry'', Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 379</ref> and he gave persuasive expression to a new set of ethical standards (see [[Simonides#Ethics|Ethics]]).

====The miser====
In his play ''[[Peace (play)|Peace]]'', [[Aristophanes]] imagined that the tragic poet [[Sophocles]] had turned into Simonides: "He may be old and decayed, but these days, if you paid him enough, he'd go to sea in a sieve."<ref>Aristophanes, ''[[Peace (play)|Peace]]'' 695&nbsp;[[wikt:ff.|ff.]], translated by A.H. Sommerstein, ''Aristophanes: The Birds and Other Plays'', Penguin Books (1978), page 121</ref> A [[Scholion|scholiast]], commenting on the passage, wrote: "Simonides seems to have been the first to introduce money-grabbing into his songs and to write a song for pay" and, as proof of it, quoted a passage from one of Pindar's odes ("For then the Muse was not yet fond of profit nor mercenary"), which he interpreted as covert criticism of Simonides. The same scholiast related a popular story that the poet kept two boxes, one empty and the other full – the empty one being where he kept favours, the full one being where he kept his money.<ref>For scholiast see D.A. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', page 349</ref><ref>for Pindar's ode, see ''Isthmian'' 2, antistrophe&nbsp;1</ref> According to [[Athenaeus]], when Simonides was at Hieron's court in [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]], he used to sell most of the daily provisions that he received from the tyrant, justifying himself thus: "So that all may see Hieron's magnificence and my moderation."<ref>Athenaeus 14.656de, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 349</ref> [[Aristotle]] reported that the wife of Hieron once asked Simonides whether it was better to be wealthy or wise, to which he apparently replied: "Wealthy; for I see the wise spending their days at the doors of the wealthy."<ref>Aristotle ''Rhet.'' 16 Feb, 1391a, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 365</ref>

According to an anecdote recorded on a papyrus, dating to around 250&nbsp;BC, Hieron once asked the poet if everything grows old: "Yes," Simonides answered, "all except money-making; and kind deeds age most quickly of all."<ref>''Hibeh Papyrus'' 17, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 365</ref> He once rejected a small fee to compose a victory ode for the winner of a mule race (it was not a prestigious event) but, according to Aristotle, changed his mind when the fee was increased, resulting in this magniloquent opening: "Greetings, daughters of storm-footed steeds!"<ref>Aristotle ''Rhet.'' 3 February 1405b, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 383</ref> In a quote recorded by [[Plutarch]], he once complained that old age had robbed him of every pleasure but making money.<ref>Plutarch ''an Seni'' 768b, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 365</ref>

All these amusing anecdotes might simply reflect the fact that he was the first poet to charge fees for his services – generosity is glimpsed in his payment for an inscription on a friend's epitaph, as recorded by [[Herodotus]].<ref>David Campbell, ''Greek Lyric Poetry'', Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 379, citing ''Herodotus'' 7.228.3–4</ref> Herodotus also mentions an earlier poet [[Arion]], who had amassed a fortune on a visit to Italy and Sicily, so maybe Simonides was not the first professional poet, as claimed by the Greeks themselves.<ref>Hdt. 1.24.1, cited by C.M. Bowra, ''Pindar'', Oxford University Press (reprint 2000), p.&nbsp;355</ref>

====The sage and wit====
[[File:Lyric-poetry-Walker-Highsmith.jpeg|thumb|390px|''Lyric Poetry'', painted by [[Henry Oliver Walker]] (Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington D.C.).<br>"''Simonides calls painting silent poetry and poetry painting that speaks''" — [[Plutarch]].]]
[[Plato]], in ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'', numbered Simonides with [[Bias of Priene|Bias]] and [[Pittacus of Mytilene|Pittacus]] among the [[Seven Sages of Greece|wise and blessed]], even putting into the mouth of [[Socrates]] the words "it is not easy to disbelieve Simonides, for he is a wise man and divinely inspired," but in his dialogue ''[[Protagoras (dialogue)|Protagoras]]'', Plato numbered Simonides with [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]] as precursors of the [[sophist]].<ref>Plato ''Resp.'' i 331de and 335e, and ''Prot.'' 316d, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), pages 357, 497</ref> A number of apocryphal sayings were attributed to him.

[[Michael Psellos]] accredited him with "the word is the image of the thing."<ref>Michael Psellos, ''On the Working of Demons'', cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 363</ref> Plutarch commended "the saying of Simonides, that he had often felt sorry after speaking but never after keeping silent"<ref>Plutarch, ''de garr.'' 514f-515a, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 367</ref> and observed that "Simonides calls painting silent poetry and poetry painting that speaks"<ref>Plutarch, ''De gloria Atheniensium'' 3.346f, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 363</ref> (later paraphrased by the Latin poet [[Horace]] as [[ut pictura poesis]]).

[[Diogenes Laërtius]], after quoting a famous epigram by [[Cleobulus#Works|Cleobulus]] (one of ancient Greece's 'seven sages') in which a maiden sculptured on a tomb is imagined to proclaim her eternal vigilance, quotes Simonides commenting on it in a poem of his own: "Stone is broken even by mortal hands. That was the judgement of a fool."<ref>Diogenes Laërtius, ''Lives of the Philosophers'', cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 465</ref> His rationalist view of the cosmos is evinced also in Plutarch's letter of consolation to Apollonius: "according to Simonides a thousand or ten thousand years are an indeterminable point, or rather the tiniest part of a point."<ref>Plutarch, ''consol. Apoll.'' 17, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 501</ref>

Cicero related how, when Hieron of Syracuse asked him to define god, Simonides continually postponed his reply, "because the longer I deliberate, the more obscure the matter seems to me."<ref>{{cite book |author=Cicero |author-link=Cicero |title=De Natura Deorum |trans-title=On the Nature of the Gods |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Natura_Deorum |publisher=Academica |translator=Rackham, Harris |page=59 |year=1933 |orig-year=45 BC |id=1.22.60 }} [https://archive.org/stream/denaturadeorumac00ciceuoft#page/58/mode/2up Alt URL]</ref> [[Stobaeus]] recorded this reply to a man who had confided in Simonides some unflattering things he had heard said about him: "Please stop slandering me with your ears!".<ref>Stobaeus, ''Ecl.'' 3.2.41, cited by D. Campbell, ''Greek Lyric III'', Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 367</ref>