The Tomb of Simonides

Fr. 64 Harder (= 64 Pf., = 163 Mass.)
  1-19 P.Oxy. 2211 fr. 1 verso, 10-28 [image], 
    Trismegistos 59407;
  7-9, 11-14 Sud. σ 441 Adler s.v. Σιμονίδης;
  8-9 Lex.Ambr. L s.v. Λεωπρέπης

This tale is narrated by the Cean poet Simonides, who speaks about his tomb in Acragas. The general, Phoenix, demolished it and incorporated it into a defensive wall for the city. The poet prays for revenge and recalls the following incident: apparently Simonides wrote an epinician for one of the Scopadae, who had won a victory in boxing.  As part of the epinician, Simonides praised the boxer Polydeuces. The Scopad refused payment claiming that the poet should seek it from Polydeuces. Subsequently the Dioscuri summoned him out of the banquet hall of the Scopadae just before it collapsed upon those within, killing them. The incident exemplifies the power of the poet, as well as his status, under the protection of deities. The same story is mentioned in Theocritus, id. 17. In addition this aition commemorates Simonides as the inventor of a technique for remembering and recollection. In its present state there is no indication of what the aition might be, though there have been a number of suggestions: an explanation for why there is no tomb, but only an inscription set in a wall or why the poet is buried in Acragas and not Ceos would be the most likely. The inclusion of Simonides fits well with the imitation of Pindar that opened book III and the allusions to Bacchylides in the Acontius and Cydippe episode.

Bibliography

Barbantani, Silvia. 2010. Three Burials (Ibycus, Stesichorus, Simonides): Facts and Fiction about Lyric Poets in Magna Graecia in the Epigrams of the Greek Anthology. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.

Livrea, Enrico. 2006. 'La tomba di Simonide da Callimaco a S. Saba.' Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 156:53-7.

Massimilla, Giulio. 2006. 'Il sepolcro di Simonide (Callimaco, fr. 64 Pf.).' In Callimachea I. Atti della prima giornata di studi su Callimaco (Roma, 14 maggio 2003), edited by Antonio Martina and Anna-Teresa Cozzoli, 33-52. Roma: Herder.