Who's Who Ancient Greece: The Arts

Vakilidhis (510-440 BC)
Poet

Ranked as one of the nine greatest lyric poets by the Alexandrine Canon, Vakilidhis was the nephew of the poet Simonidhis,with whom he studied, and almost a contemporary of Pindar, to whom he was a rival. Little is known of his life, though it is possible that he lived in Syracuse at the court of the tyrant Ieron. A papyrus discovered in Egypt in 1869 provided about one thousand compolete, or near complete lines of his verse. Previously only 100 lines had been found. Six of the nine books into which he works were divided contain sacred poetry while the other three contain secular. His use of language is simple and full of folk wisdom, yet with lively narrative scenes. Some of the words used by him are his own inventions, and are usually compound adjectives (eg. bronze-helmeted).