Lyric poet (c.630 BC – 555 BC)
Stesichorus was one of the nine Lyric Poets of antiquity. He descended from Magna Graecia, known today as Sicily. His name, which means “teacher of chorus”, was adopted during his career as a lyric poet. He is commemorated by numerous scholars, namely Lucian and Cicero.
Stesichorus was a highly influential and prolific writer. His works were compiled into a collection of 26 books, which included poems, hymns, elegies, hasmata etc. The themes of his work were borrowed from Ancient Greek mythology. Notable ones include Helen, The Wooden Horse, Oresteia and Homecoming of the Heroes, based on Homer’s Iliad, works based on the Argonauts by the Orphics and the labours of Heracles. They would be instantly recognized by the public and were beloved even centuries after his death, when the tragedians of the Golden Age used his works as an influence for their masterpieces. Like all lyric poets, Stesichorus accompanied his songs with a lyre or kithara and a chorus that danced to the words sang.
Moreover, Stesichorus wrote poems centered on love, virtue and religion. The technique of his poetry was innovative. He is credited with the invention of the triad: three stanza metrical groupings, antistrophic lines of the same meter and an epode. This became so popular that the phrase “He does not even know the three of Stesichorus” was coined to show ones’ ignorance.
Stesichorus was the greatest prodrome of Pindar and one of the most renowned representatives of Ancient Greek lyrical poetry. Simonides of Ceos compared him to Homer in that “…just like Homer, Stesichorus sang for the people” while Antipatrus of Sedona said that Homer had descended to inhabit Stesichorus’ body. His influence on art and sculpture was enormous. After his death at the age of 85, the Himerians minted coins with Stesichorus depicted on them in memory of his glory.
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