Ibycus

Ibycus, fl. before 500 B.C., Greek lyric poet, b. Rhegium, S Italy. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric. He spent some time at the court of Polycrates of Samos. The "cranes of Ibycus" as an expression of triumphant justice refers to the tale that Ibycus, murdered at sea, was revenged by cranes who saw the crime and eventually revealed the murderers.

Ibycus (Ancient Greek: Ἴβυκος) (6th century BC), of Rhegium in Italy, was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric and epinician poetry.

Life
Very little is known about his life. He was offered the position of tyrant of Rhegium. When he refused the position, he took up a wandering life before ending up at the Aegean island of Sámos where he worked at the court of the tyrant Polycrates.

Death
According to legend Ibycus was on his way to the chariot races and musical competitions held at the Isthmus of Corinth. 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 (Plutarch, 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 Schiller 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 Oxyrhynchus (now al-Bahnasā, Egypt). The surviving fragments his poems consisted mainly of narrative choral lyric and encomia (Greek choral hymns) in the manner of Stesichorus. This similarity sometimes made it hard for ancient scholars to tell their work apart. Although the metre and dialect are Dorian, which is normally not particularly euphonious, the poems have the spirit of Aeolian melic (lyric) poetry.

Sources

External links

http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/POXY/VExhibition/images/1790.jpg