Semonides of Amorgos
Encyclopedia
For the lyric poet, see Simonides of Ceos
Semonides (Greek: Σιμωνίδης Ἀμοργῖνος) of Amorgos
, was an ancient Greek poet who composed verses in the iambus
genre, for which reason he is often associated with two of its other celebrated exponents, Archilochus
and Hipponax
. The chief information which we have respecting him is contained in two articles of the Suda
from which we learn that his father's name was Crines, and that he was originally a native of Samos. Although the Suda makes him a contemporary of Archilochus, modern scholars generally consider his floruit to be somewhat later. The statement of the Suda that he flourished 490 years after the Trojan War, would place him in the seventh century BC.
He is best known today for fr. 7, often titled "On Women."
Simonides of Ceos
Simonides of Ceos was a Greek lyric poet, born at Ioulis on Kea. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets, along with Bacchylides and Pindar...
Semonides (Greek: Σιμωνίδης Ἀμοργῖνος) of Amorgos
Amorgos
Amorgos is the easternmost island of the Greek Cyclades island group, and the nearest island to the neighboring Dodecanese island group. Along with several neighboring islets, the largest of which is Nikouria Island, it comprises the municipality of Amorgos, which has a land area of...
, was an ancient Greek poet who composed verses in the iambus
Iambus (genre)
Iambus was a genre of ancient Greek poetry that included but was not restricted to the iambic meter and whose origins modern scholars have traced to the cults of Demeter and Dionysus. The genre featured insulting and obscene language...
genre, for which reason he is often associated with two of its other celebrated exponents, Archilochus
Archilochus
Archilochus, or, Archilochos While these have been the generally accepted dates since Felix Jacoby, "The Date of Archilochus," Classical Quarterly 35 97-109, some scholars disagree; Robin Lane Fox, for instance, in Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer , p...
and Hipponax
Hipponax
Hipponax of Ephesus and later Clazomenae was an Ancient Greek iambic poet who composed verses depicting the vulgar side of life in Ionian society in the sixth century BC...
. The chief information which we have respecting him is contained in two articles of the Suda
Suda
The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...
from which we learn that his father's name was Crines, and that he was originally a native of Samos. Although the Suda makes him a contemporary of Archilochus, modern scholars generally consider his floruit to be somewhat later. The statement of the Suda that he flourished 490 years after the Trojan War, would place him in the seventh century BC.
He is best known today for fr. 7, often titled "On Women."
External links
- Audio: A poem by Semonides of Amorgos read by poet and translator Edmund Keeley from The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present (2010, W. W. Norton)