Editing Bacchylides (section)

==Life==
{{cquote|One canon is there, one sure way of happiness for mortals – if one can keep a cheerful spirit throughout life.<ref>Frag. 7 {{harvnb|Jebb|1905}}</ref>}}

This precept, from one of Bacchylides' extant fragments, was considered by his modern editor, [[Richard Claverhouse Jebb]], to be typical of the poet's temperament: "If the utterances scattered throughout the poems warrant a conjecture, Bacchylides was of placid temper; amiably tolerant; satisfied with a modest lot; not free from some tinge of that pensive melancholy which was peculiarly Ionian; but with good sense..."<ref>{{harvnb|Jebb|1905|p=60}}</ref>

Bacchylides' lyrics do not seem to have been popular in his own lifetime. Lyrics by his uncle, Simonides, and his rival, Pindar, were known in Athens and were sung at parties, they were parodied by [[Aristophanes]] and quoted by [[Plato]], but no trace of Bacchylides' work can be found until the Hellenistic age, when [[Callimachus]] began writing some commentaries on them.<ref>Maehler 2004, p. 25</ref> Like Simonides and Pindar, however, Bacchylides composed lyrics to appeal to the sophisticated tastes of a social elite<ref>Maehler 2004, p. 3</ref> and his patrons, though relatively few in number, covered a wide geographical area around the Mediterranean, including for example [[Delos]] in the [[Aegean Sea]], [[Thessaly]] in the north of the Greek mainland, and Sicily or [[Magna Graecia]] in the west.<ref>{{harvnb|Jebb|1905|pp=25–26}}</ref> It has been inferred from the elegance and quiet charm of his lyrics that he only gradually acquired fame towards the end of his life.<ref>{{harvnb|Jebb|1905|p=3}}</ref>

Being drawn from sources compiled long after his death, the details of Bacchylides's life are sketchy and sometimes contradictory. According to [[Strabo]], he was born in [[Ioulis]], on the island of [[Keos]], and his mother was the sister of Simonides.<ref>Strabo x p.486, cited by {{harvnb|Jebb|1905|p=1}}</ref> According to [[Suda]], his father's name was Meidon and his grandfather, also named Bacchylides, was a famous athlete,<ref>cited by {{harvnb|Jebb|1905|p=1}}</ref> yet according to [[Etymologicum Magnum]] his father's name was Meidylus.<ref>''Et. Mag.'' 582.20, cited by Campbell 1982, p. 413</ref> There is an ancient tradition, upheld for example by [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]] and [[Thomas Magister]], that he was younger than Pindar and some modern scholars have endorsed it, such as [[Richard Claverhouse Jebb|Jebb]], who assigns his birth to around 507 BC,<ref>{{harvnb|Jebb|1905|pp=2–4}}</ref> whereas [[Maurice Bowra|Bowra]], for example, opted for a much earlier date, around 524–1 BC. Most modern scholars however treat Bacchylides as an exact contemporary of Pindar, placing his birth around 518 BC.<ref name=g278>{{harvnb|Gerber|1997|p=278}}</ref> According to one account, Bacchylides was banished for a time from his native Keos and spent this period as an exile in [[Peloponnesus]], where his genius ripened and he did the work which established his fame.<ref>Plutarch ''de exil.'' 14.605c</ref> [[Plutarch]] is the only ancient source for this account and yet it is considered credible on the basis of some literary evidence<ref>Maehler 2004, p. 10</ref> (Pindar wrote a [[paean]] celebrating Keos, in which he says on behalf of the island "I am renowned for my athletic achievements among Greeks" [Paean 4, epode 1], a circumstance that suggests that Bacchylides himself was unavailable at the time.) Observations by [[Eusebius of Alexandria|Eusebius]] and [[Georgius Syncellus]] can be taken to indicate that Bacchylides might have been still alive at the outbreak of the [[Peloponnesian War]],<ref name="Campbell 1982, p. 414" /> but modern scholars have differed widely in estimates of the year of his death – Jebb, for example sets it at 428 BC<ref>{{harvnb|Jebb|1905|p=4}}</ref> and yet a date around 451 BC is more favoured.<ref name=g278/>

[[Ceos|Keos]], where Bacchylides was born and raised, had long had a history of poetical and musical culture, especially in its association with [[Delos]], the focal point of the [[Cyclades]] and the principal sanctuary of the [[Ionians|Ionian race]], where the people of Keos annually sent choirs to celebrate festivals of Apollo. There was a thriving cult of Apollo on Keos too, including a temple at Carthaea, a training ground for choruses where, according to [[Athenaeus]],<ref>Athenaeus 10 p. 456 F, cited by {{harvnb|Jebb|1905|p=5}}</ref> Bacchylides's uncle, Simonides, had been a teacher in his early years. Ceans had a strong sense of their national identity, characterized by their own exotic legends, national folklore and a successful tradition of athletic competition, especially in running and boxing – making the island a congenial home for a boy of quick imagination.<ref>{{harvnb|Jebb|1905|p=7}}</ref> Athletic victories achieved by Ceans in panhellenic festivals were recorded at Ioulis on slabs of stone and thus Bacchylides could readily announce, in an ode celebrating one such victory (Ode 2), a total of twenty-seven victories won by his countrymen at the [[Isthmian Games]]. Ceans had participated in the defeat of the Persians at the [[Battle of Salamis]] and they could take pride in the fact that an elegy composed by Bacchylides's uncle was chosen by Athens to commemorate the Athenians who fell at the [[Battle of Marathon]]. Being only thirteen miles from the Athenian cape [[Sunium]], Keos was in fact necessarily responsive to Athenian influences.

Bacchylides's career as a poet probably benefited from the high reputation of his uncle, Simonides, whose patrons, when Bacchylides was born, already included [[Hipparchus (brother of Hippias)|Hipparchus]], brother of [[Hippias (tyrant)|Hippias]] the tyrant of Athens (527–10 BC) and cultural coordinator of the city at that time. Simonides later introduced his nephew to ruling families in Thessaly and to the Sicilian tyrant, [[Hieron of Syracuse]], whose glittering court attracted artists of the calibre of Pindar and [[Aeschylus]].<ref>Maehler 2004, p. 9</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Jebb|1905|pp=11–12}}</ref> Bacchylides's first notable success came sometime after 500 BC with commissions from Athens for the great Delian festival (Ode 17) and from Macedonia for a song to be sung at a [[symposium]] for the young prince, [[Alexander I of Macedon|Alexander I]] (fr. 20B). Soon he was competing with Pindar for commissions from the leading families of [[Aegina]] and, in 476 BC, their rivalry seems to have reached the highest levels when Bacchylides composed an ode celebrating Hieron's first victory at the Olympian Games (Ode 5). Pindar celebrated the same victory but used the occasion to advise the tyrant of the need for moderation in one's personal conduct (Pindar's Olympian Ode 1), whereas Bacchylides probably offered his own ode as a free sample of his skill in the hope of attracting future commissions.{{sfn|Schmidt|1987|pp=20–23}} Bacchylides was commissioned by Hieron in 470 BC, this time to celebrate his triumph in the chariot race at the [[Pythian Games]] (Ode 4). Pindar also composed a celebratory ode for this victory (Pindar's Pythian Ode 1), including however stern, moral advice for the tyrant to rule wisely. Pindar was not commissioned to celebrate Hieron's subsequent victory in the chariot race at the Olympic Games in 468 BC – this, the most prestigious of Hieron's victories, was however celebrated by Bacchylides (Ode 3). The tyrant's apparent preference for Bacchylides over Pindar on this occasion might have been partly due to the Cean poet's simpler language and not just to his less moralizing posture,<ref name=c415/> and yet it is also possible that Bacchylides and his uncle were simply better suited to palace politics than was their more high-minded rival.<ref>{{harvnb|Jebb|1905|pp=13–20}}</ref> [[Alexandria]]n scholars in fact interpreted a number of passages in Pindar as hostile allusions to Bacchylides and Simonides and this interpretation has been endorsed by modern scholars also.<ref name="Campbell 1982, p. 414">Campbell 1982, p. 414</ref>

As a composer of choral lyrics, Bacchylides was probably responsible also for the performance, involving him in frequent travel to venues where musicians and choirs awaited instruction. Ancient authorities testify to his visit to the court of Hieron (478–467)<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus]] ''Varia historia'' iv.15.</ref> and this is indeed indicated by his fifth Ode (476 BC), where the word ''xenos'' (V.11) implies that he had already been Hieron's guest, (probably accompanied by his uncle).<ref name="Campbell 1982, p. 414"/> Verses 15 and 16 of his third ode (468 BC), also for Hieron, indicate that he might have composed that work at [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]].<ref>Campbell 1982, p. 418</ref>