Simonidis o Keios

Simonides of Ceos (556 BC-469 BC) was a Greek lyric poet. He was born on the island of Ceos, where he was taught poetry and music and composed paeans to Apollo. He moved to Athens under the patronage of Hipparchus. After the assassination of his patron in 514 BC, he relocated to Thessaly. Following the Battle of Marathon, he returned to Athens and shortly thereafter went to Sicily to the court of Hieron, where he remained until his death. He composed elegies, choral poems, victory odes, dithyrambs, parthenia, laments, and epigrams, among which those for the fallen at Thermopylae and Marathon are considered excellent. He was highly renowned for his knowledge. He was a personal friend of Themistocles and Pausanias. His poetry during the war with the Persians greatly boosted Greek national consciousness