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Stesichorus (Ancient Greek
Ancient greek language

#REDIRECT Ancient Greek...
: , English translation
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
: "he who sets up the chorus, choirmaster") (640 - 555 BC) was a Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 lyric poet
Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings, which may or may not be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics , contrasted lyric poetry with drama and epic poetry....
 from Himera
Himera

Himera , was an important ancient Greece city of Sicily, situated on the north coast of the island, at the mouth of the river of the same name , between Panormus and Cephaloedium ....
 in Sicily
Sicily

Sicily is an Autonomous regions with special statute of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km? and currently has just over five million inhabitants....
, one of the nine lyric poets
Nine lyric poets

The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greece composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study....
 esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , 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....
 as worthy of study.

ible chronologic
Chronology

Chronology is a chronicle or arrangement of events in their occurrence order. General chronology is the science of locating and resolution of temporal sequence of past events in time...
 disputes aside, there is a note in the Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press

Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913....
' Loeb Classical Library
Loeb Classical Library

The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by the Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek Literature and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each left-hand leaf, and a fairly...
's Introduction to Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (pp. xvi) concerning the story of the death of Hesiod
Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek language oral poet, his date is uncertain but leading scholars agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE....
, in which briefly it is told that after Hesiod won a tripod for the contest in song at Chalcis, he "went to Delphi and there was warned that the 'issue of death should overtake him in the fair grove of Nemean Zeus'".






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Stesichorus (Ancient Greek
Ancient greek language

#REDIRECT Ancient Greek...
: , English translation
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
: "he who sets up the chorus, choirmaster") (640 - 555 BC) was a Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 lyric poet
Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings, which may or may not be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics , contrasted lyric poetry with drama and epic poetry....
 from Himera
Himera

Himera , was an important ancient Greece city of Sicily, situated on the north coast of the island, at the mouth of the river of the same name , between Panormus and Cephaloedium ....
 in Sicily
Sicily

Sicily is an Autonomous regions with special statute of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km? and currently has just over five million inhabitants....
, one of the nine lyric poets
Nine lyric poets

The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greece composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study....
 esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , 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....
 as worthy of study.

Life and chronology

Possible chronologic
Chronology

Chronology is a chronicle or arrangement of events in their occurrence order. General chronology is the science of locating and resolution of temporal sequence of past events in time...
 disputes aside, there is a note in the Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press

Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913....
' Loeb Classical Library
Loeb Classical Library

The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by the Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek Literature and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each left-hand leaf, and a fairly...
's Introduction to Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (pp. xvi) concerning the story of the death of Hesiod
Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek language oral poet, his date is uncertain but leading scholars agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE....
, in which briefly it is told that after Hesiod won a tripod for the contest in song at Chalcis, he "went to Delphi and there was warned that the 'issue of death should overtake him in the fair grove of Nemean Zeus'". Avoiding therefore Nemea on the Isthmus of Corinth
Corinth

Corinth, or Korinth Corinth is now the capital of the Prefectures of Greece of Corinthia. The city is surrounded by the coastal townlets of Lechaio, Isthmia, Kechries, and the inland townlets of Examilia and the archaeological site....
, to which he supposed the oracle to refer, Hesiod retired to Oenoe
Oenoe

Oenoe , also written Oinoi or Oene, referred to several cities in ancient Greece:*Oenoe,a town in Kastoria prefecture,modern oinoi...
 in Locris
Locris

Locris was a region of ancient Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of two districts. Opuntian Locris or Eastern Locris was on the mainland coast stretching from Thermopylae to Larymna, opposite Euboea, while Ozolian Locris or Western Locris was on the northern coast of the Corinthian Gulf between Naupactus and Crisa, going inland...
 where he was entertained by Amphiphanes and Ganyctor, sons of a certain Phegeus
Phegeus

Phegeus was a Greek mythology king who offered succor and his daughter, Arsinoe , to Alcmaeon , who was fleeing from the Erinyes. Alcmaeon left his mother's, Eriphyle's, jewelry and clothing with him and then returned for it later in order to please the river god Achelous and have his daughter, Callirhoe, in marriage....
." This place also being sacred to Nemea
Nemea

For other articles related to Nemea see Nemea 'Nemea is an ancient site near the head of the valley of the River Elissos in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese, in Greece....
n Zeus
Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
, the poet suspected of seducing their sister was murdered. The Note reads: "She is said to have given birth to the lyrist Stesichorus." Not wishing to late-date Hesiod, there could still be descendant substance to the note. Or "he is "The Son of Hesiod" because he drew heavily on the Hesiodic poems particularly "The Catalogue". According to the Suidas he lived from the 37th Olympiad
Olympiad

An Olympiad is a period of four years, associated with the Ancient Olympic Games of Classical Greece. In the Hellenistic period, beginning with Ephorus, Olympiads were used as Epoch ....
 to the 56th and had two brothers: Mamertinus and Helianax.

Works

Stesichorus was included in a list of nine respected lyric poets
Nine lyric poets

The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greece composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study....
 by the scholars of ancient Alexandria. Like the other eight lyric poets, much of his work is lost, and he is known today through fragments and through descriptions and quotations in later works. A very large fragment was found in mummy
Mummy

A mummy is a corpse whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness, very high humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs....
 cartonnage
Cartonnage

Cartonnage is a type of material composing Egyptian funerary masks from the First Intermediate Period onward. It was made of layers of linen or papyrus covered with plaster....
 in Lille
Lille

Lille is a city in northern France. It is the principal city of the Urban Community of Lille M?tropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille....
 in the 1960s, and forms the core of the known corpus.

Several poems dealing with the Trojan War
Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
 are attributed to him, as well as an Oresteia believed to have influenced Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
 in his own Oresteia. Fragments also survive from a poem about the monster Geryon
Geryon

In Greek mythology, Geryon , son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe and grandson of Medusa was a fearsome giant who dwelt on the island Erytheia of the mythic Hesperides in the far west of the Mediterranean....
, defeated by Herakles in his bid to steal Geryon's red cattle as his Tenth Labor.

Stesichorus is also famous for his palinode
Palinode

A palinode or palinody is an ode in which the writer Retraction a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem. The first recorded use of a palinode is in a poem by Stesichorus in the 7th century BC....
 and the legend surrounding it: Allegedly, Stesichorus wrote a negative poem about Helen
Helen

In Greek mythology, Helen , better known as Helen of Sparta later Helen of Troy, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda , wife of King Menelaus of Sparta and sister of Castor and Pollux, Castor and Pollux and Clytemnestra....
 and the traditional story of the Trojan War, and was immediately blinded. He then composed a palinode to retract his statements about Helen, and his sight was miraculously restored; afterwards he promoted the idea that the real Helen remained in Egypt, while an illusion created by her father Zeus
Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
 continued on to Troy
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
. Plato
Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
 in his Phaedrus
Phaedrus (Plato)

The Phaedrus , written by Plato, is a dialogue between Plato's main protagonist, Socrates, and Phaedrus, an interlocutor in several dialogues....
 preserved an introductory fragment of Stesichorus' palinode, which reads:
That story is not true.
You [Helen] never sailed in the benched ships.
You never went to the city of Troy.


His work is reputed to have paralleled most closely that of Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
. He favored epic themes, but unlike Homer he was also known for his erotic works.

Further reading

  • Barrett, W. S.
    Spencer Barrett

    Spencer Barrett British Academy, was an England classical scholar, Fellow and Sub-Warden of Keble College, Oxford, and Reader in Greek Literature in the University of Oxford....
    , Greek Lyric, Tragedy, and Textual Criticism: Collected Papers, edited for publication by M. L. West (Oxford & New York, 2007)
  • Carson, Anne
    Anne Carson

    Anne Carson is a Canada poet, essayist, translator, and a professor of Classics and comparative literature at the University of Michigan. Carson lived in Montreal for several years and taught at McGill University....
    , Autobiography of Red
    Autobiography of Red

    Autobiography of Red is a verse novel by Anne Carson, based loosely on the myth of Geryon and the Twelve Labors of Herakles, especially on surviving fragments of the lyric poet Stesichorus' poem Geryonis....
    . Modern retelling of Stesichoros' fragments.