Simonides of Keos

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Simonides von Keos ( ancient Greek Σιμωνίδης ὁ Κεῖος Simōnídēs ho Keíos ; * 557/556 BC in Iulis on Keos ; † 468/467 BC in Akragas ) was a Greek poet and belongs to the canon of the nine lyric poets .

Life

Simonides von Keos came from an aristocratic family. On his mother's side he was an uncle of the choral lyricist Bakchylides . After his musical training on Keos, he worked for some time in the vicinity of his home island before he went to Athens, which experienced a cultural heyday under Hipparchus and was home to poets such as Anakreon and Lasos . After the assassination of Hipparchus (514 BC), Simonides served various Thessalian princely families in Krannon and Pharsalos . During the Persian Wars (490-480 BC) he stayed in Athens again. He was a close friend of the Athenian Themistocles and the Spartan Pausanias , both important military leaders during the Persian Wars. Hieron I of Syracuse invited him and Bacchylides to Sicily , where both poets met the choral lyricist Pindar . With diplomatic skill, Simonides managed to prevent a war between the tyrants Hieron and Theron of Akragas . Simonides died at an advanced age around 468 BC. In Akragas .

poetry

The extensive work of Simonides has only survived in extremely fragments. It comprised songs of victory ( Epinikien ), which the Alexandrians arranged according to the type of battle. Simonides probably founded this genre. He composed a large number of dithyrambs , with which he won 56 times in the agon , as well as paiane , threnoi and monodic poetry sung by an individual (e.g. a fragmentary drinking song for Prince Skopas II, handed down from Plato, and - recently made more recognizable by new fragments - songs and elegies on the occasion of the Persian Wars ). A book Epigrams achieved particular fame .

Simonides is said to have written the Thermopylae epigram , the inscription on the memorial stone for the Spartans who lived in 480 BC. In the defense of Thermopylae against the Persians sacrificed down to the last man. In Schiller's translation it reads:

"Wanderer, if you come to Sparta, proclaim there that you saw
Us lying here as the law commanded."

Invention of mnemonics

The Greeks and Romans considered Simonides von Keos to be the inventor of the art of memory, the mnemonics . Relevant statements can be found in Cicero , Quintilian , Pliny , Aelianus , Ammianus Marcellinus , Suidas and in the Parian Chronicle . The Parian Chronicle is a marble tablet from around 264 BC, found in Paros in the 17th century, which records the legendary dates of discoveries such as that of the flute, the introduction of grain by Ceres and Triptolemus, and the publication of Orpheus ' poems; as well as in the historical period especially festivals and the prizes awarded. Among them there is also a passage about Simonides: Since the time when the Keaner Simonides, son of Leoprepes, the inventor of the system of memory aids, won the choir prize in Athens and statues were erected in honor of Harmodios and Aristogeiton , 213 years. (That would be 477 BC.)

“At a banquet organized by a Thessalian noble named Skopas, Simonides recited a lyric poem in honor of his host, which also contained a section on the fame of Castor and Pollux. The thrifty Skopas informed the poet that he would only pay him half of the sum agreed for the song of praise and that the rest should be given by the twin gods to whom he had dedicated half the poem. A little later the news was brought to Simonides that two young men were waiting outside to speak to him. He left the feast but could not see anyone outside. During his absence, the roof of the ballroom collapsed, burying Skopas and his guests under its rubble. The bodies were so crushed that the relatives trying to pick them up for burial could not identify them. But since Simonides remembered how they had sat at table, he was able to show the relatives which one was their dead person. The invisible visitors, Castor and Pollux, paid generously for their part in the hymn of praise by removing Simonides from the feast just before the collapse. "

- Cicero : De oratore , II, 352 f.

This event is said to have made it clear to him that it is above all order that makes a good memory. The motivation to pass on Simonides as the inventor of mnemonic technology may be to be found in the fact that he saw the strongest of all senses in sight and understood painting as silent poetry. This connection between word and image can be found in the classical art of memory, where words to be remembered are symbolized by images. With the knowledge of rhetorical mnemonics, the Simonides myth can be understood as a prime example of mnemonics.

Editions and translations

  • Orlando Poltera (Ed.): Simonides lyricus. Testimonia and Fragments . Schwabe, Basel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7965-2430-1 ( Swiss contributions to classical studies . Volume 35)
  • Oskar Werner (Ed.): Simonides. Bakchylides. Heimeran, Munich 1969 (Greek and German)

literature

Overview representations

Introductions

Investigations and Comments

  • Deborah Boedeker, David Sider (Eds.): The New Simonides: Contexts of Praise and Desire. Oxford University Press, New York / Oxford 2001.
  • Luigi Bravi: Gli epigrammi di Simonide e le vie della tradizione . Edizioni dell'Ateneo, Roma 2006 ( Filologia e critica , 94).
  • John H. Molyneux: Simonides: A Historical Study. Wauconda IL 1992.
  • Andrej Petrovic: Commentary on the Simonideic verse inscriptions . Brill, Leiden 2007 ( Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava. Supplementum , 282).
  • Orlando Poltera: Le langage de Simonide. Etude sur la tradition poetique et son renouvellement. Peter Lang, Bern 1997.
  • Stefan Goldmann: Instead of death, memory - to the invention of mnemonics by Simonides von Keos . In: Poetica , 21, 1989, pp. 43-66.
  • Aleida Assmann : Spaces of Memory: Forms and Changes in Cultural Memory . 3. Edition. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-50961-4 , p. 35 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Schiller : The Walk ( Wikisource )
personal data
SURNAME Simonides of Keos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek poet
DATE OF BIRTH 557 BC BC or 556 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH Iulis on Keos
DATE OF DEATH 468 BC BC or 467 BC Chr.
Place of death Akragas