Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/846

Rh 834 SIMONIDES. arising upon the Athenians," in an epigram (No. i87), which we may suppose to have been in- smbed upon the base of the statues set up to Har- modius and Aristogeiton after the expulsion of Hippias, B. c. 510. (Pans. i. 8. § 5.) It was probably the next period of his life which Simonides spent in Thessaly, under the patronage of the Aleuads and Scopads, whose names, accord- ing to Theocritus {Id. xvi. 34) were only preserved from oblivion by the beautiful poems in which the great Ceian bard celebrated the victories gained by their swift horses in the sacred games. Of these poems we still possess a considerable portion of the celebrated Epinician Ode, on the victory of Scopas with the four-horsed chariot (No. 13), which is preserved and commented upon by Plato in the Protagoras ; and fragments of the Threnes on the general destruction of the Scopads (No. 46), and on the Aleuad Antioclius (No. 48) ; and it is not improbable that the magnificent Lament of Dandi (No. 50) was a Threne composed for one of the Aleuads. If we may believe Plutarch, the poet was obliged to confess that the charms of his song failed to humanise the rugged spirits of the Thessalians, 'A/jLaQearepoi yap claiv^ ^ ws vrr h/j-ov i^aTTToda-dai (Plut. deAud. Poet. p. 15, c). Even the tyrants whom he celebrated are said to have grudged him his just reward. (Sozora. //. E. p. 4.) Respecting these relations of the poet to the ty- rants of Thessaly, a most interesting story is told by several of the ancient writers. The best form of it is probably that which Cicero gives, on the autho- rity of Callimachus (de Orat. ii. 86). At a banquet given by Scopas, when Simonides had sung a poem which he had composed in honour of his patron, and in which, according to the custom of the poets (in their Epinician Odes), he had adorned his com- position by devoting a great part of it to the praises of Castor and Pollux, the tyrant had the meanness to say that he would give the poet only half of the stipulated payment for his Ode, and that he might apply for the remainder, if he chose, to his Tyndarids, to whom he had given an equal share of the praise. It was not long before a message was brought to Simonides, that two young men were standing at the door, and earnestly de- manding to see him. He rose from his seat, went out, and found no one ; but, during his absence, the building he had just left fell down upon the ban- queters, and crushed to death Scopas and all his friends, whom we may suppose to have laughed heartily at his barbarous jest. And so the Dioscuri paid the poet their half of the reward for the Ode. Callimachus, in a fragment which we still possess, puts into the poet's mouth some beautiful elegiac verses in celebration of the event (Fr. 71, Bentley). It is not worth while to discuss the variations upon the story as related by other writers, and especially by Quintilian (xi. 2. § 11 ; comp. Val. Max. i. 8 ; Aristeid. Orat. iv. p. 584 ; Phaed. Fab. iv. 24 ; Ovid. 16. 513,514, &c. ; see Schneidewin, pp. xi. foil.). It appears that the Ode believed to have been sung on this occasion was that same Epinician Ode to which allusion has been already made, and of which we possess the half relating to Scopas himself, though we have lost the other hali^ which referred to the Dioscuri. That the story is altogether fabulous can by no means be maintained ; although, in the form in which it has now come down to us, it must be classed with those legends which embodied the pre- SIMONIDES. vailing sentiment, that the poet was the beloved servant of the gods, who would interpose to pre- serve him from injury, or to avenge his wrongs ; as in the cases of Arion, saved by the dolphin, and Ibycus, avenged by the cranes. That some over- whelming and general calamity, amounting to an almost total extinction, befell the family of the Scopads about this time, is evident from the threne composed for them by Simonides (No. 46), and from the absence of any mention of them in those events connected with the Persian invasion, in which the Aleuads took so prominent a part (Herod, vii. 6) ; not to mention the testimony of Phavorinus (ap, Stob. Serm. c. cv. 62) and other writers, which is perhaps derived only from the threne itself (Schn. p. xiii.). Schneidewin suggests an ingenious explanation of the story, but con- ceived in too rationalistic a spirit to be hastily ad- mitted ; namely, that Scopas, whose tyrannical character is shown, both by the story itself and by the apologetic tone in which Simonides speaks of him in his Ode, was so odious to the people, that the}' plotted his destruction by undermining the building in which he was about to hold the festival in commemoration of his victory at the games ; but that they saved Simonides, by a timely warning, on account of his sacred character as a poet. Schneidewin quotes, in confirmation of this view of the case, the testimony of Phanias of Eresos (ap. Ath. X. p. 438, e.), who placed the death of j Scopas under the head of the Destruction of Ty- ! rants through Revenge. (Schn. p. xv.) J Whether in consequence of this calamity, or on account of the impending Persian invasion, or for some other reason, Simonides returned to Athens, and soon had the noblest opportunity of employing his poetic powers in the celebration of the great events of the Persian wars. At the request of Miltiades, he composed an epigram for the statue of Pan, which the Athenians dedicated after the battle of Marathon (No. 188). In the following year, in the archonship of Aristeides, B. c. 489, he conquered Aeschylus in the contest for the prize which the Athenians offered for an elegv on tiiose who fell at Marathon (Fr. 58, Epig. 149). Ten years later, he composed, at the request of the Amphictyons, the epigrams which were inscribed upon the tomb of the Spartans who fell at Ther- mopylae, as well as an encomium on the same heroes (Epig. 150 — 155, Fr. 9); and he also cele- brated the battles of Artemisium and Salamis, and the great men who commanded in them (Fr. 2 — 8, Epig. 157—160, 190—194). He lived upon in- timate terms with Themistocles, and a good story is told of the skill with which the statesman re- buked the immoderate demands of the poet (Plut. Tliem. 5 ; Praecept. Polit. p. 807, a.; Reg. ei Imp. Apophth. p. 1 85, c. ; for another story see Cic. Fin, ii. 32). One of his epigrams (No. 197) was written on the occasion of the restoration of the sanctuary of the Lycomidae by Themistocles. Respecting the enmity between Simonides and the poet Timo- creon of Rhodes, see Schneidewin, p. xviii. The battle of Plataeae (b. c. 479) furnished Simonides with another subject for an elegy (Fr. 59 ; comp. Epig. 199), and gave occasion for the celebrated epigram (No. 198), which he composed for Pausanias, who inscribed it on the tripod dedi- cated by the Greeks at Delphi out of the Persian spoils ; but which, on account of its arrogant ascription of all the honour of the victory to Pau-