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84-461: The Ioulida of today, while popular with both tourists and middle-class Athenians, is relatively unspoiled in that cars must be left at the entrance of the town, and "life is pretty much the way it has always been." As in Korissia, "the architectural style is not like the typical Cycladic. The heart of Chora is the square with the grand city hall." The ancient city (also called Iulis ) was celebrated as

168-531: A scholiast on Pindar, he once acted as peace-maker between Hieron and another Sicilian tyrant, Theron of Acragas , thus ending a war between them. 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 (see the articles on Bacchylides and Pindar ). If the stories of rivalry are true, it may be surmised that Simonides's experiences at

252-499: A city and archaeological site in Egypt that has yielded papyrus fragments from over a century of excavations. He is included in narratives as diverse as Mary Renault 's modern historical novel The Praise Singer (where he is the narrator and main character), Plato 's Protagoras (where he is a topic of conversation), and some verses in Callimachus ' Aetia (where he is portrayed as

336-562: A commemorative song for Leonidas and his men, a dedicatory epigram for Pausanias , and poems on the battles of Artemisium , Salamis , and Plataea . 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

420-530: A dithyramb, Memnon , in which Simonides located the hero's tomb in Syria, indicating that he didn't compose only on legends of Dionysus.) Simonides has long been known to have written epitaphs for those who died in the Persian Wars and this has resulted in many pithy verses being mis-attributed to him "... as wise saws to Confucius or musical anecdotes to Beecham ." Modern scholars generally consider only one of

504-452: A form of it, the victory ode . These were extensions of the hymn , which previous generations of poets had dedicated only to gods and heroes: But it was Simonides who first led the Greeks to feel that such a tribute might be paid to any man who was sufficiently eminent in merit or in station. We must remember that, in the time of Simonides, the man to whom a hymn was addressed would feel that he

588-485: A genre of choral lyric that Simonides pioneered—the victory ode . Indeed, the grandfather of Simonides' nephew, Bacchylides, was one of the island's notable athletes. 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 , a patron of the arts. His rivalry there with another chorus-trainer and poet, Lasus of Hermione , became something of

672-528: A ghost complaining about the desecration of his own tomb in Acragas ). 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 Olympiad (556/552 BC) or according to some writers in the 62nd (532/528 BC) and he survived until

756-549: A good poet, since an honest magistrate keeps the laws and a good poet keeps in tune. 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. 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

840-409: A hard surface with their edges slightly overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at right angles. The strips may have been soaked in water long enough for decomposition to begin, perhaps increasing adhesion, but this is not certain. The two layers possibly were glued together. While still moist, the two layers were hammered together, mashing the layers into a single sheet. The sheet

924-457: A joke to Athenians of a later generation—it is mentioned briefly by the comic playwright Aristophanes who earmarked Simonides as a miserly type of professional poet (see The Miser below) After the assassination of Hipparchus (514 BC), Simonides withdrew to Thessaly , where he enjoyed the protection and patronage of the Scopadae and Aleuadae . These were two of the most powerful families in

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1008-618: A loanword of unknown (perhaps Pre-Greek ) origin. Greek has a second word for it, βύβλος ( byblos ), said to derive from the name of the Phoenician city of Byblos . The Greek writer Theophrastus , who flourished during the 4th century BCE, uses papyros when referring to the plant used as a foodstuff and byblos for the same plant when used for nonfood products, such as cordage, basketry, or writing surfaces. The more specific term βίβλος biblos , which finds its way into English in such words as 'bibliography', 'bibliophile', and 'bible', refers to

1092-449: A long roll, or scroll, was required to create large-volume texts. Papyrus had the advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness. Unless the papyrus was of perfect quality, the writing surface was irregular, and the range of media that could be used was also limited. Papyrus was gradually overtaken in Europe by

1176-456: 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." 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

1260-465: A man's good enough as long as he's not too lawless, and has the sense of right that does cities good: a solid guy. I won't find fault with a man like that. After all, isn't there a limitless supply of fools? The way I see it, if there's no great shame in it, all's fair. So I'm not going to throw away my dole of life on a vain, empty hope, searching for something there cannot be, a completely blameless man—at least not among us mortals who win our bread from

1344-663: A matter of decades; a 200-year-old papyrus was considered extraordinary. Imported papyrus once commonplace in Greece and Italy has since deteriorated beyond repair, but papyri are still being found in Egypt; extraordinary examples include the Elephantine papyri and the famous finds at Oxyrhynchus and Nag Hammadi . The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum , containing the library of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus , Julius Caesar 's father-in-law,

1428-487: 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. According to Athenaeus , when Simonides was at Hieron's court in 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." Aristotle reported that

1512-472: A prominent international figure at that time, particularly as the author of commemorative verses. According to an anonymous biographer of Aeschylus , the Athenians chose Simonides ahead of Aeschylus to be the author of an epigram honouring their war-dead at 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 —

1596-590: A real influence on the sophistic enlightenment of the Classical era . 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 Quintilian (35–100 AD): 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

1680-436: A rival writing surface that rose in prominence known as parchment , which was made from animal skins . By the beginning of the fourth century A.D., the most important books began to be manufactured in parchment, and works worth preserving were transferred from papyrus to parchment. Parchment had significant advantages over papyrus, including higher durability in moist climates and being more conducive to writing on both sides of

1764-406: A single flaw; only a god can have that prize; but a man, there's no way he can help being bad when some crisis that he cannot deal with takes him down. Any man's good when he's doing well in life, bad when he's doing badly, and the best of us are those the gods love most. But for me that saying of Pittacus doesn't quite ring true (even though he was a smart man): he says "being good is hard": for me,

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1848-431: 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!" In a quote recorded by Plutarch , he once complained that old age had robbed him of every pleasure but making money. All these amusing anecdotes might simply reflect

1932-541: A victory by his grandfather in a poetry competition in Athens in 489/488 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,

2016-450: Is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface . It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus , a wetland sedge . Papyrus (plural: papyri or papyruses ) can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined side by side and rolled up into a scroll , an early form of a book. Papyrus was first known to have been used in Egypt (at least as far back as

2100-519: Is also remarkable for his restraint and balance. His expression was clear and simple, relying on straightforward statement. An example is found in a quote by Stobaeus paraphrased here to suggest the original Aeolic verse rhythms, predominantly choriambic ( ¯˘˘¯, ¯˘˘¯ ), with some dactylic expansion (¯˘˘¯˘˘¯) and an iambic close (˘¯,˘¯): Being a man you cannot tell what might befall when tomorrow comes Nor yet how long one who appears blessed will remain that way, So soon our fortunes change even

2184-509: Is commended by Plutarch. He was highly successful in dithyrambic competitions according to an anonymous epigram dating from the Hellenistic period, which credited him with 57 victories, possibly in Athens. The dithyramb , a genre of lyrics traditionally sung to Dionysus, was later developed into narratives illustrating heroic myths; Simonides is the earliest poet known to have composed in this enlarged form (the geographer Strabo mentioned

2268-442: Is of highly rot-resistant cellulose , but storage in humid conditions can result in molds attacking and destroying the material. Library papyrus rolls were stored in wooden boxes and chests made in the form of statues. Papyrus scrolls were organized according to subject or author and identified with clay labels that specified their contents without having to unroll the scroll. In European conditions, papyrus seems to have lasted only

2352-474: Is recorded on papyrus fragments and in quotes by ancient commentators for many conclusions to be drawn at least tentatively (nobody knows if and when the sands of Egypt will reveal further discoveries). Simonides wrote a wide range of choral lyrics with an Ionian flavour and elegiac verses in Doric idioms. He is generally credited with inventing a new type of choral lyric, the encomium , in particular popularising

2436-637: 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. 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

2520-602: The Cambridge Antiquarian Society , one of the Papyri Graecae Magicae V, translated into English with commentary in 1853. Papyrus was made in several qualities and prices. Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus that were sold in the Roman market of the day. These were graded by quality based on how fine, firm, white, and smooth the writing surface was. Grades ranged from

2604-609: The First Dynasty ), as the papyrus plant was once abundant across the Nile Delta . It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region. Apart from writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other artifacts , such as reed boats , mats , rope , sandals , and baskets . Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the third millennium BCE. The earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus

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2688-569: The Islamic world , which originally learned of it from the Chinese. By the 12th century, parchment and paper were in use in the Byzantine Empire , but papyrus was still an option. Until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known, and museums simply showed them as curiosities. They did not contain literary works. The first modern discovery of papyri rolls

2772-538: The Merovingian chancery was with a document from 692 A.D., though it was known in Gaul until the middle of the following century. The latest certain dates for the use of papyrus in Europe are 1057 for a papal decree (typically conservative, all papal bulls were on papyrus until 1022), under Pope Victor II , and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by less expensive paper introduced by

2856-507: 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

2940-600: The poleis of Koressos and Poieessa were absorbed by their neighbours Ioulis and Karthaia, and in the Late Roman period Karthaia ceased to exist, leaving Ioulis (Chora) as the single polis of the island." In the thirteenth century it seems to have been still the only town on the island. Its ruins were visited by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in 1700 and identified by P. O. Brønsted in 1826. Simonides Simonides of Ceos ( / s aɪ ˈ m ɒ n ɪ ˌ d iː z / ; Ancient Greek : Σιμωνίδης ὁ Κεῖος ; c. 556 – 468 BC)

3024-402: The 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 , Plato numbered Simonides with Homer and Hesiod as precursors of the sophist . A number of apocryphal sayings were attributed to him. Michael Psellos accredited him with "the word is the image of

3108-466: The 'memory theatre' or ' memory palace ', a system for mnemonics widely used in oral societies until the Renaissance . 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." The Suda credits Simonides with inventing "the third note of

3192-560: The 18th century, a library of ancient papyri was found in Herculaneum , ripples of expectation spread among the learned men of the time. However, since these papyri were badly charred, their unscrolling and deciphering are still going on today. Papyrus was made from the stem of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus . The outer rind was first removed, and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips about 40 cm (16 in) long. The strips were then placed side by side on

3276-457: The 78th (468/464 BC), having lived eighty-nine years." 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. Coincidentally he also composed a dithyramb on the subject of Perseus that is now one of the largest fragments of his extant verses. Modern scholars generally accept 556-468 BC as

3360-588: The Introduction), Horace (" Ceae ... munera neniae "), Catullus (" maestius lacrimis Simonideis ") and Dionysius of Halicarnassus , where he says: Observe in Simonides his choice of words and his care in combining them; in addition—and here he is found to be better even than Pindar—observe how he expresses pity not by using the grand style but by appealing to the emotions. Simonides was adept too at lively compositions suited to dancing ( hyporchema ), for which he

3444-514: 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. According to the Suda, this grandson was yet another Simonides and he was the author of books on genealogy. Simonides was the son of Leoprepes, and the grandson or descendant of Hylichus. He was born in Ioulis on Ceos (Ἰουλίς, Κέως), the outermost island of

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3528-596: The Thessalian feudal aristocracy yet they seemed notable to later Greeks such as Theocritus only for their association with Simonides. Thessaly at that time was a cultural backwater, remaining in the 'Dark Ages' until the close of the 5th century. According to an account by Plutarch , the Ionian poet once dismissed the Thessalians as "too ignorant" to be beguiled by poetry. Among the most colourful of his "ignorant" patrons

3612-494: The age of individualism in lyric poetry has passed." Or so it seemed to modern scholars until the recent discovery of papyrus P.Oxy.  3965 in which Simonides is glimpsed in a sympotic context , speaking for example as an old man rejuvenated in the company of his homo-erotic lover, couched on a bed of flowers. Some of the short passages identified by ancient or modern authors as epigrams may also have been performed at symposia. Very little of his poetry survives today but enough

3696-543: The attributed epigrams to be unquestionably authentic (an inscription for the seer Megistius quoted by Herodotus ), which places in doubt even some of the most famous examples, such as the one to the Spartans at Thermopylae, quoted in the introduction. He composed longer pieces on a Persian War theme, including Dirge for the Fallen at Thermopylae , Battle at Artemisium and Battle at Salamis but their genres are not clear from

3780-492: The birthplace of Simonides , Bacchylides , Prodicus , Erasistratus , and Aristo ; it was said to have been built by "Eupylos the son of Chryso the demi-goddess." It led a revolt against Athens in 364/3 BC; an Athenian decree has been preserved imposing a fine and punishing rebels, of which "ll. 27-42 contain 'the most formidably complex sentence so far to be found in classical Athenian decrees' ( KJ Dover , TPS 1981, 1-14 at 8-11)." A nineteenth-century description says: Iulis

3864-427: The boxer) that Scopas told him to collect half the commissioned fee from them — he would only pay the other half. Simonides however ended up getting much more from the mythical twins than just a fee; he owed them his very life (see 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

3948-1263: The broad earth. (If I do find one, mind you, I'll be sure to let you know.) So long as he does nothing shameful willfully, I give my praise and love to any man. Not even the gods can fight necessity. ἄνδρ' ἀγαθὸν μὲν ἀλαθέως γενέσθαι χαλεπὸν, χερσίν τε καὶ ποσὶ καὶ νόωι τετράγωνον, ἄνευ ψόγου τετυγμένον· θεὸς ἂν μόνος τοῦτ' ἔχοι γέρας‧ ἄνδρα δ' οὐκ ἔστι μὴ οὐ κακὸν ἔμμεναι, ὃν ἀμήχανος συμφορὰ καθέληι· πράξας γὰρ εὖ πᾶς ἀνὴρ ἀγαθός, κακὸς δ' εἰ κακῶς, <οὓς δ' οἱ θεοὶ φιλέωσιν πλεῖστον, εἰσ' ἄριστοι.> οὐδ᾽ ἐμοὶ ἐμμελέως τὸ Πιττάκειον νέμεται, καίτοι σοφοῦ παρὰ φωτὸς εἰ- ρημένον· χαλεπὸν φάτ' ἐσθλὸν ἔμμεναι. <ἐμοὶ ἀρκέει> μητ' <ἐὼν> ἀπάλαμνος εἰ- δώς τ' ὀνησίπολιν δίκαν, ὑγιὴς ἀνήρ· οὐ<δὲ μή νιν> ἐγώ μωμήσομαι· τῶν γὰρ ἠλιθίων ἀπείρων γενέθλα. πάντα τοι καλά, τοῖσίν τ' αἰσχρὰ μὴ μέμεικται. τοὔνεκεν οὔ ποτ' ἐγὼ τὸ μὴ γενέσθαι δυνατὸν διζήμενος κενεὰν ἐς ἄ- πρακτον ἐλπίδα μοῖραν αἰῶνος βαλέω, πανάμωμον ἄνθρωπον, εὐρυεδέος ὅσοι καρπὸν αἰνύμεθα χθονός· ἐπὶ δ' ὔμμιν εὑρὼν ἀπαγγελέω. πάντας δ' ἐπαίνημι καὶ φιλέω, ἑκὼν ὅστις ἔρδηι μηδὲν αἰσχρόν· ἀνάγκαι δ' οὐδὲ θεοὶ μάχονται. Papyrus Papyrus ( / p ə ˈ p aɪ r ə s / pə- PY -rəs )

4032-433: 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. However, Pindar scholiasts are generally considered unreliable, and there is no reason to accept their account. The Hellenistic poet Callimachus revealed in one of his poems that Simonides was buried outside Acragas , and that his tombstone

4116-516: 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 . 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. Plato , in The Republic , numbered Simonides with Bias and Pittacus among

4200-453: The form of codices akin to the modern book. This may have been mimicking the book-form of codices created with parchment . Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Greco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices. Codices were an improvement on the papyrus scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking, and

4284-790: The fragmentary remains - the first was labelled by Diodorus Siculus as an encomium but it was probably a hymn and the second was characterised in the Suda as elegiac yet Priscian , in a comment on prosody, indicated that it was composed in lyric meter. Substantial fragments of a recently discovered poem, describing the run-up to the Battle of Plataea and comparing Pausanias to Achilles , show that he actually did compose narrative accounts in elegiac meter. Simonides also wrote Paeans and Prayers/Curses ( κατευχαί ) and possibly in some genres where no record of his work survives. Like other lyric poets in late Archaic Greece , Simonides made notable use of compound adjectives and decorative epithets yet he

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4368-642: The genre. He is popularly associated with epitaphs commemorating fallen warriors, as for example the Lacedaemonians at the Battle of Thermopylae : Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι. Tell them in Lacedaemon, passer-by That here, obedient to their word, we lie, Today only glimpses of his poetry remain, either in the form of papyrus fragments or quotations by ancient literary figures, yet new fragments continue to be unearthed by archaeologists at Oxyrhynchus ,

4452-455: 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 . 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

4536-504: The immense pressures that life places on human beings. This attitude is evident in the following poem of Simonides (fr. 542), quoted in Plato's dialogue, the Protagoras , and reconstructed here according to a recent interpretation, making it the only lyric poem of Simonides that survives intact: For a man it's certainly hard to be truly good—perfect in hands, feet, and mind, built without

4620-479: The inner bark of the papyrus plant. Papyrus is also the etymon of 'paper', a similar substance. In the Egyptian language , papyrus was called wadj ( w3ḏ ), tjufy ( ṯwfy ) , or djet ( ḏt ). The word for the material papyrus is also used to designate documents written on sheets of it, often rolled up into scrolls. The plural for such documents is papyri. Historical papyri are given identifying names – generally

4704-464: The island with his companions, who all subsequently drowned. 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 ) at the table before his departure. He later drew on this experience to develop

4788-440: The long strip scrolls required, several such sheets were united and placed so all the horizontal fibres parallel with the roll's length were on one side and all the vertical fibres on the other. Normally, texts were first written on the recto , the lines following the fibres, parallel to the long edges of the scroll. Secondarily, papyrus was often reused, writing across the fibres on the verso . One source used for determining

4872-466: The long-winged fly Turns around less suddenly. The only decorative word is 'long-winged' ( τανυπτέρυγος ), used to denote a dragonfly , and it emerges from the generalised meanings of the passage as an 'objective correlative' for the fragility of the human condition. The rhythm evokes the movement of the dragonfly and the mutability of human fortunes. Simonides championed a tolerant, humanistic outlook that celebrated ordinary goodness, and recognized

4956-485: The lyre" (which is known to be wrong since the lyre had seven strings from the 7th century BC), and four letters of the Greek alphabet. 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 and he gave persuasive expression to a new set of ethical standards (see Ethics ). In his play Peace , Aristophanes imagined that

5040-607: The major events and with the personalities of their times. Lessing , writing in the Enlightenment era , referred to him as "the Greek Voltaire ." 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 mnemonics ; and the inventor of some letters of the Greek alphabet ( ω, η, ξ, ψ ). Such accounts include fanciful elements, yet he had

5124-416: The method by which papyrus was created in antiquity is through the examination of tombs in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes , which housed a necropolis containing many murals displaying the process of papyrus-making. The Roman commander Pliny the Elder also describes the methods of preparing papyrus in his Naturalis Historia . In a dry climate , like that of Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it

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5208-408: The morals of the citizens and their mode of life. One of them quoted by Menander was particularly celebrated: ὀ μὴ δυνάμενος ζῆν καλῶς οὑ ζῇ κακῶς ["whoever cannot live well should (at least) not live badly"]. Under Roman rule it enjoyed political supremacy as well has been the main population center of the island. A process of nucleation reduced the number of population centers: "By the 2nd century BC

5292-851: The name of the discoverer, first owner, or institution where they are kept – and numbered, such as " Papyrus Harris I ". Often an abbreviated form is used, such as "pHarris I". These documents provide important information on ancient writings; they give us the only extant copy of Menander , the Egyptian Book of the Dead , Egyptian treatises on medicine (the Ebers Papyrus ) and on surgery (the Edwin Smith papyrus ), Egyptian mathematical treatises (the Rhind papyrus ), and Egyptian folk tales (the Westcar Papyrus ). When, in

5376-462: 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 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 ..." This however was not the only miraculous escape that his piety afforded him. There are two epigrams in

5460-464: 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 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 BC at the age of ninety yet, in another entry, it lists

5544-437: The story is probably based on the inventions of comic dramatists but it is likely that Simonides did in fact write some kind of commemorative verses for the Athenian victory at Marathon. 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,

5628-408: The superfine Augustan, which was produced in sheets of 13 digits (10 inches) wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits (four inches) wide. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping. The English word "papyrus" derives, via Latin , from Greek πάπυρος ( papyros ),

5712-488: The surface. The main advantage of papyrus had been its cheaper raw material — the papyrus plant is easy to cultivate in a suitable climate and produces more writing material than animal hides (the most expensive books, made from foetal vellum would take up to dozens of bovine fetuses to produce). However, as trade networks declined, the availability of papyrus outside the range of the papyrus plant became limited and it thus lost its cost advantage. Papyrus' last appearance in

5796-463: The thing." Plutarch commended "the saying of Simonides, that he had often felt sorry after speaking but never after keeping silent" and observed that "Simonides calls painting silent poetry and poetry painting that speaks" (later paraphrased by the Latin poet Horace as ut pictura poesis ). Diogenes Laërtius , after quoting a famous epigram by Cleobulus (one of ancient Greece's 'seven sages') in which

5880-608: The tiniest part of a point." 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." 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!". Simonides composed verses almost entirely for public performances and inscriptions, unlike previous lyric poets such as Sappho and Alcaeus , who composed more intimate verses to entertain friends—"With Simonides

5964-547: The tourist trade was developed in 1962 by the Egyptian engineer Hassan Ragab using plants that had been reintroduced into Egypt in 1872 from France. Both Sicily and Egypt have centres of limited papyrus production. Papyrus is still used by communities living in the vicinity of swamps, to the extent that rural householders derive up to 75% of their income from swamp goods. Particularly in East and Central Africa, people harvest papyrus, which

6048-569: 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." A 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

6132-440: 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." According to an anecdote recorded on a papyrus, dating to around 250 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." He once rejected

6216-564: The wild. During the 1920s, when Egyptologist Battiscombe Gunn lived in Maadi , outside Cairo, he experimented with the manufacture of papyrus, growing the plant in his garden. He beat the sliced papyrus stalks between two layers of linen and produced successful examples of papyrus, one of which was exhibited in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The modern technique of papyrus production used in Egypt for

6300-419: Was a Greek lyric poet , born in Ioulis on Ceos . The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric poets esteemed by them as worthy of critical study. Included on this list were Bacchylides , his nephew, and Pindar , reputedly a bitter rival, both of whom benefited from his innovative approach to lyric poetry. Simonides, however, was more involved than either in

6384-428: 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

6468-634: Was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf , an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. These documents, the Diary of Merer , date from c.  2560 –2550 BCE (end of the reign of Khufu ). The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza . For multiple millennia, papyrus was commonly rolled into scrolls as a form of storage. However, at some point late in its history, papyrus began being collected together in

6552-470: Was later misused in the construction of a tower. Traditional accounts of the poet's life embody a variety of themes. 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

6636-557: Was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Until then, the only papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times. Scholarly investigations began with the Dutch historian Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens (1793–1835). He wrote about the content of the Leyden papyrus , published in 1830. The first publication has been credited to the British scholar Charles Wycliffe Goodwin (1817–1878), who published for

6720-472: Was preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius but has only been partially excavated. Sporadic attempts to revive the manufacture of papyrus have been made since the mid-18th century. Scottish explorer James Bruce experimented in the late 18th century with papyrus plants from Sudan , for papyrus had become extinct in Egypt. Also in the 18th century, Sicilian Saverio Landolina manufactured papyrus at Syracuse , where papyrus plants had continued to grow in

6804-502: Was receiving a distinction which had hitherto been reserved for gods and heroes. — In one victory ode, celebrating Glaucus of Carystus, a famous boxer, Simonides declares that not even Heracles or Polydeuces could have stood against him—a statement whose impiety seemed notable even to Lucian many generations later. Simonides was the first to establish the choral dirge as a recognized form of lyric poetry, his aptitude for it being testified, for example, by Quintillian (see quote in

6888-481: Was situated on a hill about 25 stadia from the sea, in the northern part of the island, on the same site as the modern Zea, which is now the only town in the island. There are several remains of Iulis: the most important is a colossal lion, about 20 feet in length, which lies a quarter of an hour east of the town.... The laws of Iulis were very celebrated in antiquity; and hence "Cean Laws" were used proverbially to indicate any excellent institutions... These laws related to

6972-499: 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 and Quintilian , 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

7056-467: Was then dried under pressure. After drying, the sheet was polished with a rounded object, possibly a stone, seashell , or round hardwood. Sheets, or Mollema, could be cut to fit the obligatory size or glued together to create a longer roll. The point where the Mollema are joined with glue is called the kollesis. A wooden stick would be attached to the last sheet in a roll, making it easier to handle. To form

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