Ibycus (Ancient Greek: ) (6th century BC), of Rhegium in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, was an
Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
lyricLyric poetry usually refers nowadays to a short poem that expresses personal feelings. It need not be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics 1447a, merely mentions lyric poetry along with drama, epic poetry, dancing, painting and other forms of mimesis...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
. He was included in the
canonicalA canon, in terms of a fictional universe, is a body of material that is considered to be "genuine" or "official", that can be directly referenced as, or as if it were, material produced by the original author or creator of a series...
list of
nine lyric poetsThe nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study.They were:*Alcman *Sappho...
by the scholars of Hellenistic
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric and
epinicianThe epinikion or epinicion is a genre of occasional poetry also known in English as a victory ode...
poetry.
Very little is known about his life. He was offered the position of
tyrantIn classical politics, a tyrant is one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power. This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny....
of Rhegium. When he refused the position, he took up a wandering life before ending up at the Aegean island of
SámosSamos is a Greek island in the North Aegean sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor.-Geography:...
where he worked at the court of the
tyrantIn classical politics, a tyrant is one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power. This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny....
PolycratesPolycrates , son of Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from c. 538 BC to 522 BC.He took power during a festival of Hera with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson, but soon had Pantagnotus killed and exiled Syloson to take full control for himself. He then allied with Amasis II, pharaoh of Egypt, as...
.
According to legend Ibycus was on his way to the chariot races and musical competitions held at the
Isthmus of CorinthThe Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word "isthmus" comes from the Ancient Greek word for "neck" and refers to the narrowness of the land. To the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of...
.
Ibycus (Ancient Greek: ) (6th century BC), of Rhegium in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, was an
Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
lyricLyric poetry usually refers nowadays to a short poem that expresses personal feelings. It need not be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics 1447a, merely mentions lyric poetry along with drama, epic poetry, dancing, painting and other forms of mimesis...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
. He was included in the
canonicalA canon, in terms of a fictional universe, is a body of material that is considered to be "genuine" or "official", that can be directly referenced as, or as if it were, material produced by the original author or creator of a series...
list of
nine lyric poetsThe nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study.They were:*Alcman *Sappho...
by the scholars of Hellenistic
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric and
epinicianThe epinikion or epinicion is a genre of occasional poetry also known in English as a victory ode...
poetry.
Life
Very little is known about his life. He was offered the position of
tyrantIn classical politics, a tyrant is one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power. This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny....
of Rhegium. When he refused the position, he took up a wandering life before ending up at the Aegean island of
SámosSamos is a Greek island in the North Aegean sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor.-Geography:...
where he worked at the court of the
tyrantIn classical politics, a tyrant is one who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power. This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny....
PolycratesPolycrates , son of Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from c. 538 BC to 522 BC.He took power during a festival of Hera with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson, but soon had Pantagnotus killed and exiled Syloson to take full control for himself. He then allied with Amasis II, pharaoh of Egypt, as...
.
Death
According to legend Ibycus was on his way to the chariot races and musical competitions held at the
Isthmus of CorinthThe Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word "isthmus" comes from the Ancient Greek word for "neck" and refers to the narrowness of the land. To the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of...
. He was attacked and mortally wounded by a band of robbers. In his dying moments, Ibycus saw a flock of cranes flying over head and swore "Those cranes will avenge me." Shortly afterward one of robbers was sitting in a theatre and saw a flock of cranes flying by. He joked to a friend "there go the avengers of Ibycus." Ironically this was overheard and the robbers were arrested (
PlutarchPlutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
,
De Garrulitate, xiv.) This legend is probably a play on the similarity between the poet's name and the Ancient Greek word for "crane" (ibyx). The phrase "the cranes of Ibycus" became a proverb among the Greeks for the discovery of crime through divine intervention. Centuries later in 1797 a German poet
Friedrich SchillerJohann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller [johan/joːhan krɪstɔf friːtʁɪç fɔn ʃɪləʁ/ʃɪlɐ] was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright...
wrote a ballad called "The Cranes of Ibycus" about this legend.
Surviving work
Alexandrian scholars in the 3rd or 2nd century BC aseembled his work into seven books or papyrus rolls. Only fragments of these books survive. In modern times fragments papyrus containing poetry attributed to Ibycus were discovered in
OxyrhynchusOxyrhynchus is a city in Upper Egypt, located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo, in the governorate of Al Minya. It is also an archaeological site, considered one of the most important ever discovered...
(now al-Bahnasā, Egypt). The surviving fragments his poems consisted mainly of narrative choral lyric and encomia (Greek choral hymns) in the manner of
StesichorusStesichorus was a Greek lyric poet from Himera in Sicily, one of the nine lyric poets esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of study....
. This similarity sometimes made it hard for ancient scholars to tell their work apart. Although the metre and dialect are
DorianDoric or Dorian was a dialect of ancient Greek. Its variants were spoken in the southern and eastern Peloponnese, Crete, Rhodes, some islands in the southern Aegean Sea, some cities on the coasts of Asia Minor, Southern Italy, Sicily, Epirus and Macedon. Together with Northwest Greek, it forms the...
, which is normally not particularly euphonious, the poems have the spirit of
AeolianAeolic or Aeolian Greek is a linguistic term used to describe a set of rather archaic Greek sub-dialects, spoken mainly in Boeotia , in Lesbos and in other Greek colonies.The Aeolic dialect shows many archaisms, in comparison to the other Greek dialects Aeolic or Aeolian Greek (also known...
melic poetry.