Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/230

208 208 HISTORY OF THE habited bylonians; according to his own testimony *, about Olymp 56. 1. b. c. 556. He lived, according to a precise account, 89 years, and died in 78. 1. b. c. 468. He belonged to a family which sedu- lously cultivated the musical arts ; his grandfather on the paternal side had been a poetf; Bacchylides, the lyric poet, was his nephew; and Simonides the younger, known by the name of " the genealogist," on account of a work on genealogies (jrepl yeveaXoytiHr}, was his grand- son. He himself exercised the functions of a chorus-teacher in the town of Carthaea in Ceos ; and the house of the chorus (xoprjytiov) near the temple of Apollo was his customary abode . This occupa- tion was to him, as to Stesichorus, the origin of his poetical efforts. The small island of Ceos at this time contained many things which were likely to give a good direction to a youthful mind. The lively genius of the Ionic race was here restrained by severe principles of modera- tion ((Twfooavvr]) ; the laws of Ceos are celebrated for their excel- lence § ; and although Prodicus of Ceos is named among the sophists attacked by Socrates, yet he was considered as a man of probity, and the friend of a beneficent philosophy. Simonides, also, appears throughout his whole life, to have been attached to philosophy ; and his poetical genius is characterized rather by versatility and purity of taste than by fervid enthusiasm. Many ingenious apophthegms and wise sayings are attributed to him, nearly resembling those of the seven sages ; for ex- ample, the evasive answer to the question, what is God ? is attributed both to Simonides and Thales : in the one anecdote the questioner is Hiero, in the other Crcesus. Simonides himself is sometimes reck- oned among the philosophers, and the sophists considered him as a predecessor in their art. The " moderation of Simonides" became proverbial || ; a modest consciousness of human weakness, and a re- cognition of a superior power, are everywhere traceable in his poetry. It is likewise recorded that Simonides used, and perfected, the contri- vances which are known by the name of the Mnemonic art. It must be admitted, that, in depth and novelty of ideas, and in the fervour of poetical feeling, Simonides was far inferior to his contem- porary Pindar. But the practical tendency of his poetry, the worldly wisdom, guided by a noble disposition, which appeared in it, and the delicacy with which he treated all the relations of states and rulers, made him the friend of the most powerful and distinguished men of his Schneidewin). f Marm. Par. ep. 49. according to Boeckh's explanation, Corp. Insciip. vol. ii. p. 319. § Midler's ^Eginetica, p. 132. note u. p. 510. Dindorf. Simonidis reliquiae ed. Schneidewin, p. xxxiii.
 * In the epigram in Planudes, Jacobs Anthol. Palat. Append. Epigr. 79. (203
 * Chamaeleon ap. Ath. x. p. 456. E.
 * 'H lipav'thov ffutp^ixrvv/i . Aristides vnfi rou va.oa<p6. III. p. 645 A. Canter. II.