Simonides of Ceos [key], c.556–468? b.c., Greek lyric poet, b. Ceos. At Athens for a time under the patronage of Hipparchus, he seems then to have gone to Thessaly, returning to Athens at the time of the Persian Wars. He was a friend of most prominent Athenians. After the wars he went (with his nephew Bacchylides) to the court of Hiero I of Syracuse, where he was a rival of Pindar. There are only fragments left of his work, but they contain some of the finest Greek poetry. He wrote, in an epigrammatic manner, verses of many kinds; some of these—encomia, epinicia, and dirges—he brought to a new perfection. Two of his finest epitaphs are on the fallen at Marathon and at Thermopylae.
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