Ibycus

Ibycus (; ; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet, a citizen of Rhegium in Magna Graecia, probably active at Samos during the reign of the tyrant PolycratesDavid A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 305 and numbered by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. He was mainly remembered in antiquity for pederastic verses, but he also composed lyrical narratives on mythological themes in the manner of Stesichorus.David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 8 His work survives today only as quotations by ancient scholars or recorded on fragments of papyrus recovered from archaeological sites in Egypt, yet his extant verses include what are considered some of the finest examples of Greek poetry.David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 306, referring to fragments 286 and 287

As is the case with many other major poets of ancient Greece, Ibycus became famous not just for his poetry but also for events in his life, largely the stuff of legend: the testimonia are difficult to interpret and very few biographical facts are actually known.

Life The Byzantine encyclopaedia Suda represents a good example of a problematic biography, here translated by David Campbell:

Suda's chronology has been dismissed as "muddled" since it makes Ibycus about a generation older than Anacreon, another poet known to have flourished at the court of Polycrates, and it is inconsistent with what we know of the Samian tyrant from Herodotus.Herodotus 3.39, cited by C.M.Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry from Alcman to Simonides, Oxford University Press (1961, reprinted 2000), page 248 Eusebius recorded the poet's first experience of fame ("agnoscitur") somewhere between 542 and 537 BCDavid A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 211, note 2:the given range of dates reflects differences between manuscripts and this better fits the period of Polycrates' reign. Suda's account seems to be corroborated by a papyrus fragment (P.Oxy.1790), usually ascribed to Ibycus, glorifying a youthful Polycrates, but this was unlikely to have been the Polycrates of Samos and might instead have been his son, mentioned in a different context by Himerius as Polycrates, governor of Rhodes.Douglas E. Gerber, A Companion to the Greek Lyric Poets, Brill (1997), page 188, referring to Himerus Or. 29.22 ff. Colonna Suda's list of fathers of Ibycus also presents problems:David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 208, notes 2–4 there were no historians in the early 6th century and Cerdas looks like an invention of the comic stage (it has low associations).

There was a Pythagorean lawgiver of Rhegium known as Phytius, but the early 6th century is too early for this candidate also. Ibycus gives no indication of being a Pythagorean himself, except in one poem he identifies the Morning Star with the Evening Star, an identity first popularized by Pythagoras.Scholiast on Basil, Genesis, cited by David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 283C.M.Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry from Alcman to Simonides, Oxford University Press (1961, reprinted 2000), page 241

Ibycus provided the first attestation of an historical Thracian or Thraco-Dacian bard Orpheus, purported composer of the Orphic Hymns; ("The earliest literary reference to Orpheus is a two-word fragment of the 6th century BC lyric poet Ibycus of Samos: onomaklyton Orphēn ('Orpheus famous-of-name')."), whose name might indicate an origin in slavery {Orpheus#Etymology}. Not incidentally, enslavement of Thraco-Dacians in Samos, in particular, is also (dimly) attested by the history of another such personnage who rose to prominence among the pre-Hellenistic Greeks: namely, X/Zalmoxis, reputedly a Thraco-Dacian slave in the household of reputed-one-time Hierophant of Eleusis, Pythagoras (also of Samos). X/Zalmoxis apparently achieved some form of apprenticeship with that most famous practitioner of Pythagoreanism, and evidently goes on to earn his freedom as well as a reputation as a great healer of 'body and soul (psyche),' via Plato (see Zalmoxis#"Religion of the Getae") ...Plato attributes an holistic approach to healing body and soul (psyche)... in the latter case, not unlike Orpheus..who ended up with a cave-based oracle in nearby Lesbos island, in the region of Ionia's northern neighbors, the Aeolians. Notably, Using music to relieve lustful urges was a Pythagorean remedy stemming from an anecdote from the life of Pythagoras claiming that, when he encountered some drunken youths trying to break into the home of a virtuous woman, he sang a solemn tune with long spondees and the boys' "raging willfulness" was quelled.

Suda's extraordinary account of the poet's death is found in other sources, such as PlutarchPlutarch, De Garrulitate 14 (Steph. 509 E-F) and Antipater of SidonPalatine Anthology 7.745: Antipater of Sidon xix Gow-Page and later it inspired Friedrich Schiller to write a ballad called "The Cranes of Ibycus"Campbell, David David A. Greek Lyric Poetry. MacMillan 1967, p. 305 – 306. yet the legend might be derived merely from a play upon the poet's name and the Greek word for the bird or ibyx—it might even have been told of somebody else originally.David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 211, note 12However, according to Hesychius (s.v. iota 138) is a form of ibis, while the common Greek word for "crane" (, geranos) is used of the birds associated with the death of Ibycus Another proverb associated with Ibycus was recorded by Diogenianus: "more antiquated than Ibycus" or "more silly than Ibycus". The proverb was apparently based on an anecdote about Ibycus stupidly or nobly turning down an opportunity to become tyrant of Rhegium in order to pursue a poetic career insteadDiogen.2.71, cited by David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 213 (one modern scholar however infers from his poetry that Ibycus was in fact wise enough to avoid the lure of supreme power, citing as an example Plato's quotation from one of his lyrics: "I am afraid it may be in exchange for some sin before the gods that I get honour from men").Plato, Phaedrus (242D), cited by C.M.Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry from Alcman to Simonides, Oxford University Press (1961, reprinted 2000), page 245 There is no other information about Ibycus' activities in the West, apart from an account by Himerius, that he fell from his chariot while travelling between Catana and Himera and injured his hand badly enough to give up playing the lyre "for some considerable time."Himer.Or.69.35, cited by David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 291

Some modern scholars have found in the surviving poetry evidence that Ibycus might have spent time at Sicyon before journeying to Samos—mythological references indicate local knowledge of Sicyon and could even point to the town's alliance with Sparta against Argos and Athens.Douglas E. Gerber, A Companion to the Greek Lyric Poets, Brill (1997), page 189 His depiction of the women of Sparta as "thigh-showing" (quoted by Plutarch as proof of lax morals among the women there) is vivid enough to suggest that he might have composed some verses in Sparta also.Plut.comp.Lyc. et Num., cited by David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 289; see also comment page 7 It is possible that he left Samos at the same time as Anacreon, on the death of Polycrates, and there is an anonymous poem in the Palatine Anthology celebrating Rhegium as his final resting place, describing a tomb located under an elm, covered in ivy and white reeds.Anth.Pal.7.714, cited by David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 215

Poetry Ibycus' role in the development of Greek lyric poetry was as a mediator between eastern and western styles:

Although scholars like Bowra have concluded that his style must have changed with his setting, such a neat distinction is actually hard to prove from the existing verses, which are an intricate blend of the public, "choral" style of Stesichorus, and the private, "soloist" style of the Lesbian poets.G. O. Hutchinson, Greek Lyric Poetry: a commentary on selected larger pieces, Oxford University Press (2001), page 234D.A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 7 It is not certain that he ever in fact composed monody (lyrics for solo performance), but the emotional and erotic quality of his verse, and the fact that his colleague in Samos was Anacreon, who did compose monody, suggest that Ibycus did too.D.A.Campbell, "Monody", in P.Easterling and B.Knox (ed.s), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, Cambridge University Press (1985), page 214 On the other hand, some modern scholars believe that 'choral' lyrics were actually performed by soloists and therefore maybe all Ibycus' work was monody.Gregory Nagy, Greek Literature Vol.7: Greek Literature in the Hellenistic Period, Routledge (2001), page 287 He modelled his work on the "choral" lyrics of Stesichorus at least in so far as he wrote narratives on mythical themes (often with original variations from the traditional stories) and structured his verses in triads (units of three stanzas each, called "strophe", "antistrophe" and "epode"), so closely in fact that even the ancients sometimes had difficulty distinguishing between the two poetsD.A.Cambell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 305Cambell elsewhere (Greek Lyric III, Loeb, page 63) cites this comment by Athenaeus (4.172de): "but Stesichorus or Ibycus had previously said in a poem entitled Funeral Games ..." Whereas however ancient scholars collected the work of Stesichorus into twenty-six books, each probably a self-contained narrative that gave its title to the whole book,David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, Bristol Classical Press (1982), page 254 they compiled only seven books for Ibycus, which were numbered rather than titled and whose selection criteria are unknown. Recent papyrus finds suggest also that Ibycus might have been the first to compose 'choral' victory odes (an innovation usually credited to Simonides).D.A.Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), pages 8–9Cambell cites P.Oxy.2637 and finds also a pindaric/epinikion tone in a quote from Porphyry (comment. in Ptolem. harmon. iv):"with the gluttonous mouth of Strife will one day arm for battle against me."; translated by Cambell, Loeb III, page 271