Simonides, << sy MON ih deez, >> of Ceos (556?-469? B.C.) was a Greek lyric poet. He wrote lyrics of many kinds, from majestic choral odes to short epigrams to be inscribed on devotional offerings or monuments. His most famous epigram is an epitaph for the heroes of Thermopylae: “Tell them in Lacedaemon, passer-by, That here obedient to their word we lie.”
Simonides could be thoughtful, but also lively or sad. His elegy on the heroes of Marathon is perhaps his best. Simonides was born in Ceos (now Keos), Greece.
