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Simonides of Ceos

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Simonides of Ceos (c. 556 BC – 469 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, born in Ioulis on Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric poets esteemed by them as worthy of critical study.

Quotes

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ἀνάγκᾳ δ᾿ οὐδὲ θεοὶ μάχονται.
Against necessity not even the gods fight.
  • ἀνθρώπων ὀλίγον μὲν
    κάρτος, ἄπρακτοι δὲ μεληδόνες,
    αἰῶνι δ᾿ ἐν παύρῳ πόνος ἀμφὶ πόνῳ·
    ὁ δ᾿ ἄφυκτος ὁμῶς ἐπικρέμαται θάνατος·
    κείνου γὰρ ἴσον λάχον μέρος οἵ τ᾿ ἀγαθοὶ
    ὅστις τε κακός.
    • Small is man's strength, incurable his woes,
      Short is his span, yet bringing toil on toil,
      While death that none may flee hangs over him;
      For the same end to good and bad alike
      By fate's allotted.
    • Fr. 520 PMG (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)
  • ἄνθρωπος ἐὼν μή ποτε φάσῃς ὅ τι γίνεται αὔριον,
    μηδ᾿ ἄνδρα ἰδὼν ὄλβιον ὅσσον χρόνον ἔσσεται·
    ὠκεῖα γὰρ οὐδὲ τανυπτερύγου μυίας
    οὕτως ἁ μετάστασις.
    • Mortal, proclaim not what to-morrow will bring forth,
      Nor for how long a man may count on happiness,
      For swifter than a fly with outstretched wings
      Fortune her station changeth.
    • Fr. 521 PMG (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)
  • πάντα γὰρ μίαν ἱκνεῖται δασπλῆτα Χάρυβδιν,
    αἱ μεγάλαι τ᾿ ἀρεταὶ καὶ ὁ πλοῦτος.
    • For all things come to the same
      Charybdis and are flushed away,
      all great distinction and wealth.
    • Fr. 522 PMG (tr. M. L. West, 1993)
  • ὁ δ᾿ αὖ θάνατος κίχε καὶ τὸν φυγόμαχον.
    • Death catches e'en the fugitive.
    • Fr. 524 PMG (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)
  • ῥεῖα θεοὶ κλέπτουσιν ἀνθρώπων νόον.
    • With ease the gods deceive the minds of men.
    • Fr. 525 PMG (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)
  • πάντας δ᾿ ἐπαίνημι καὶ φιλέω,
    ἑκὼν ὅστις ἔρδῃ
    μηδὲν αἰσχρόν· ἀνάγκᾳ
    δ᾿ οὐδὲ θεοὶ μάχονται.
    • I commend and love any man who of his own will does nothing shameful: against necessity not even the gods fight.
    • Fr. 542.27–30 PMG (tr. D. A. Campbell, 1991)
  • ἐστί τις λόγος
    τὰν Ἀρετὰν ναίειν δυσαμβάτοισ᾿ ἐπὶ πέτραις,
    †νῦν δέ μιν θοαν† χῶρον ἁγνὸν ἀμφέπειν·
    οὐδὲ πάντων βλεφάροισι θνατῶν
    ἔσοπτος, ᾧ μὴ δακέθυμος ἱδρὼς
    ἔνδοθεν μόλῃ,
    ἵκῃ τ᾿ ἐς ἄκρον ἀνδρείας.
    • There's a tale that Virtue dwelleth on a rock hard to climb and with a pure band of Goddesses to watch over it, nor may she ever be seen by eye of mortal, unless heart-devouring sweat come out of one and he reach unto the very top of manliness.
    • Fr. 579 PMG (tr. J. M. Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, vol. 2 (1924), p. 319)
  • ἔστι καὶ σιγᾶς ἀκίνδυνον γέρας.
    • Sure is the guerdon of silence.
    • Fr. 582 PMG (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)
  • τίς γαρ ἁδονᾶς ἄτερ θνα-
         τῶν βίος ποθεινὸς ἢ ποί-
         α τυραννίς;
    τᾶσδ᾿ ἄτερ οὐδὲ θεῶν ζηλωτὸς αἰών.
    • For, void of pleasure, what human life's
      desirable, what monarchy?
      Without that, even the gods' eternity
      were nothing enviable.
    • Fr. 584 PMG (tr. M. L. West, 1993)
  • τὸ δοκεῖν καὶ τὰν ἀλάθειαν βιᾶται.
    • Appearance does violence even to the truth.
    • Fr. 598 PMG (tr. D. A. Campbell, 1991)
  • νήπιοι, οἷς ταύτῃ κεῖται νόος, οὐδὲ ἴσασιν
    ὡς χρόνος ἔσθ᾿ ἥβης καὶ βιότοι᾿ ὀλίγος
    θνητοῖς.
    • Fools, who in this delight, and do not know
      How short the time of youth, the span of life
      For mortals.
    • Fr. 20.9–11 IEG (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)
  • πόλις ἄνδρα διδάσκει.
    • The city is teacher of the man.
    • Fr. 90 IEG (tr. D. A. Campbell, 1991)
  • μνῆμα τόδε κλεινοῖο Μεγιστία, ὅν ποτε Μῆδοι
         Σπερχειὸν ποταμὸν κτεῖναν ἀμειψάμενοι,
    μάντιος, ὃς τότε Κῆρας ἐπερχομένας σάφα εἰδώς
         οὐκ ἔτλη Σπάρτης ἡγεμόνας προλιπεῖν.
    • Here lies Megistias, who died
      When the Medes crossed Spercheius' tide.
      A great seer, yet he scorned to save
      Himself, and shared the Spartans' grave.
    • Ep. VI FGE; only likely authentic Simonidean epigram

Attributed

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  • roges me quid aut quale sit deus: auctore utar Simonide, de quo cum quaesivisset hoc idem tyrannus Hiero, deliberandi sibi unum diem postulavit; cum idem ex eo postridie quaereret, biduum petivit; cum saepius duplicaret numerum dierum admiransque Hiero requireret cur ita faceret, 'quia quanto diutius considero' inquit 'tanto mihi spes videtur obscurior.'
    • If you ask me what god is or what he is like, I shall follow the example of Simonides: when the tyrant Hiero asked him this very question, he requested one day for deliberation; when Hiero put the question on the next day, he asked for two days; and when he doubled the number of days several times and an astonished Hiero asked why, he replied, 'Because the longer I think about it, the fainter become my hopes of an answer.'
    • T 93a Poltera = 47c Campbell (tr. D. A. Campbell, 1991); Cicero, De natura deorum I.60
  • ὁ Σιμωνίδης τὴν μὲν ζωγραφίαν ποίησιν σιωπῶσαν προσαγορεύει, τὴν δὲ ποίησιν ζωγραφίαν λαλοῦσαν.
    • Simonides calls painting silent poetry and poetry painting that speaks.
    • T 101 Poltera = 47b Campbell (tr. D. A. Campbell, 1991); Plutarch, On the Fame of the Athenians 346f
    • Paraphrase (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897):
      • Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech.
    • See also: Ut pictura poesis

Misattributed

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  • οὐκ ἔστιν μείζων βάσανος χρόνου οὐδενὸς ἔργου,
         ὃς καὶ ὑπὸ στέρνοις ἀνδρὸς ἔδειξέ νόον.
    • There is no better test of a man's work than time, which also reveals the thought which lay hidden in his breast.
    • Adesp. el. 22 IEG (tr. J. Wood, 1893); anonymous fragment misattributed to Simonides due to a faulty conjecture by Wachsmuth in Stobaeus, Anthology I.8.15.

Epigrams

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A number of epigrams was circulated under Simonides' name by 100 BC. Modern scholarship has determined that, though many are of considerably early date, all except VI are most likely inauthentic (FGE pp. 119–123).
  • εἰ τὸ καλῶς θνῄσκειν ἀρετῆς μέρος ἐστὶ μέγιστον,
         ἡμῖν ἐκ πάντων τοῦτ᾿ ἀπένειμε Τύχη.
    • If virtue's noblest part's a noble death,
      We are by Fortune chosen for this boon.
    • Ep. VIII.1–2 FGE (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)
  • ἀκμᾶς ἑστακυῖαν ἐπὶ ξυροῦ Ἑλλάδα πᾶσαν
         ταῖς αὐτῶν ψυχαῖς κείμεθα ῥυσάμενοι.
    • We did not flinch but gave our lives to save Greece when her fate hung on a razor's edge.
    • Ep. XII FGE (tr. P. Jay, 1973)
  • ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
    κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.
    • Tell them in Lakédaimôn, passer-by,
      That here obedient to their word we lie.
    • Ep. XXII(b) FGE (tr. T. F. Higham, The Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation [1938])
    • Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by,
      That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.
    • Take word to Lacedaemon, passer-by,
      That here obedient to their laws we lie.
    • Go tell the Spartans, passerby:
      That here, by Spartan law, we lie.
  • Σπάρται δ᾿ οὐ τὸ θανεῖν ἀλλὰ φυγεῖν θάνατος.
    • We count it death to falter, not to die.
    • Ep. LXV.8 FGE (tr. J. H. Merivale, 1833)

References

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  • FGE = D. L. Page, Further Greek Epigrams (Cambridge, 1981)
  • IEG = M. L. West, Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati, vol. II (Oxford, 21992)
  • PMG = D. L. Page, Poetae melici Graeci (Oxford, 1962)
  • Campbell, D. A., Greek Lyric, vol. III (Cambridge [Mass.], 1991)
  • Poltera, O., Simonides lyricus. Testimonia und Fragmente (Basel, 2008)
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