Timocreon

A lip cup from Ialysos, dated around 550–540 BC, showing couples in athletic poses. Timocreon, also from Ialysos, composed songs for drinking parties and was himself an athlete

Timocreon of Ialysus in Rhodes (‹See Tfd›Greek: Τιμοκρέων, gen.: Τιμοκρέοντος) was a Greek lyric poet who flourished about 480 BC, at the time of the Persian Wars. His poetry survives only in a very few fragments, and some claim he has received less attention from modern scholars than he deserves.[1] He seems to have composed convivial verses for drinking parties. However, he is remembered particularly for his bitter clashes with Themistocles and Simonides over the issue of his medizing (siding with the Persian invaders), for which he had been banished from his home around the time of the Greek victory at the Battle of Salamis. He was also an athlete of some distinction and reputedly a glutton.[2][3]

An epitaph for him, appearing in the Palatine Anthology, was credited to his rival, Simonides: "After much drinking, much eating and much slandering, I, Timocreon of Rhodes, rest here."[4]

  1. ^ Rachel M. McMullin, 'Aspects of Medizing: Themistocles, Simonides and Timocreon of Rhodes', The Classical Journal Vol. 97, No. 1 (October -November 2001), page online here
  2. ^ David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric IV, Loeb Classical Library (1992), page 4
  3. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  4. ^ David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric III, Loeb Classical Library (1991), page 555