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Simonides of Ceos PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Simonides of Ceos HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK A WEEK: Here was that “pleasant harbor” which we had sighed for, PEOPLE OF where the weary voyageur could read the journal of some other A WEEK sailor, whose bark had ploughed, perchance, more famous and classic seas. At the tables of the gods, after feasting follow music and song; we will recline now under these island trees, and for our minstrel call on ANACREON. “Nor has he ceased his charming song, for still that lyre, Though he is dead, sleeps not in Hades.” — Simonides’ Epigram on Anacreon. I lately met with an old volume from a London bookshop, containing the Greek Minor Poets, and it was a pleasure to read once more only the words, Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, — those faint poetic sounds and echoes of a name, dying away on the ears of us modern men; and those hardly more substantial sounds, Mimnermus, Ibycus, Alcaeus, Stesichorus, Menander. They lived not in vain. We can converse with these bodiless fames without reserve or personality. SIMONIDES OF CEOS ANACREON HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 556 BCE At about this point Simonides was born at Ioulis on the island of Ceos. During his youth he would teach poetry and music, and compose paeans for the festivals of Apollo. He would relocate to Athens to seek favor at the court of Hipparchus. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Simonides of Ceos “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 514 BCE Hipparchus was assassinated and Simonides of Ceos withdrew from Athens to Thessaly to seek the protection and patronage of two important Thessalian families, the Scopadae and the Aleuadae. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Simonides of Ceos HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 490 BCE Subsequent to the battle of Marathon, Simonides of Ceos would return from Thessaly to Athens. He would soon at the invitation of Theron, tyrant of Acragas, and Hieron I, tyrant of Syracuse, depart for the city of Syracuse in Sicily. He would spend the remainder of his life at the court there. All Asia became filled with the preparations being made by King Darius I of Persia for a new expedition against Greece. Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to leave off dividing the proceeds of their silver mines among themselves, and to employ the money in strengthening their navy. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Simonides of Ceos HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 468 BCE At about this point, Simonides of Ceos died in Syracuse, Sicily. We have only fragments of his literary creativity. Sophocles took a first prize that had been competed for by Æschylus, in the annual festival at Athens’s Theatre of Dionysus. In all his life, he would never receive less than a second prize. Sophocles would perform in many of his own plays. In a performance of the Nausicaa or The Women Washing Clothes, his feats of juggling would be talked about in Athens for many years. Sophocles would serve for many years as an ordained priest in the service of two local heroes, Alcon and Æsclepius the god of medicine. He would also serve on the Board of Generals, a committee that administered civil and military affairs in Athens, and for a time would be the director of the Treasury, in control of the funds of the association of states known as the Delian Confederacy. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Simonides of Ceos “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK 1852 During this year was published Volume 34 of Bohn’s Classical Library, that would be included in the personal library of Waldo Emerson, entitled ANTHOLOGIA GRAECA. THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY, AS SELECTED FOR THE USE OF WESTMINSTER, ETON, AND OTHER PUBLIC SCHOOLS. LITERALLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE, CHIEFLY BY GEORGE BURGES, A.M. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. TO WHICH ARE ADDED METRICAL VERSIONS BY BLAND, MERRIVALE, AND OTHERS, AND AN INDEX OF REFERENCE TO THE ORIGINALS (London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, MDCCCLII). ANTHOLOGIA GRAECIA Thoreau scholars would at first presume that because this volume was available to Henry Thoreau it must have been the source for some of the classic epigrams included in AWEEK, such as the snippet from Crates of Thebes and the snippet from Simonides of Ceos’s “Epigram on Anacreon.” (However, eventually some marginally capable scholar would notice that this particular volume could not possibly have been Thoreau’s actual source not only because the material in this volume differed somewhat from what he had used, but also because actually this edition had not gone through the presses, and had not made its soft landing in this home library in Concord, until considerably after Thoreau had already created such classic references.) A WEEK: Here was that “pleasant harbor” which we had sighed for, PEOPLE OF where the weary voyageur could read the journal of some other A WEEK sailor, whose bark had ploughed, perchance, more famous and classic seas. At the tables of the gods, after feasting follow music and song; we will recline now under these island trees, and for our minstrel call on ANACREON. “Nor has he ceased his charming song, for still that lyre, Though he is dead, sleeps not in Hades.” — Simonides’ Epigram on Anacreon. I lately met with an old volume from a London bookshop, containing the Greek Minor Poets, and it was a pleasure to read once more only the words, Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, — those faint poetic sounds and echoes of a name, dying away on the ears of us modern men; and those hardly more substantial sounds, Mimnermus, Ibycus, Alcaeus, Stesichorus, Menander. They lived not in vain. We can converse with these bodiless fames without reserve or personality. SIMONIDES OF CEOS ANACREON HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK “MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FABULATION: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at <[email protected]>. “It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST Prepared: December 12, 2014 “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Simonides of Ceos HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT GENERATION HOTLINE This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF A WEEK: SIMONIDES OF CEOS PEOPLE MENTIONED IN A WEEK Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world. First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with <[email protected]>. Arrgh..
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