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Stesichorus

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Mastrangelo, Marc. Stesichorus. In Encyclopedia of the Ancient World, edited by Thomas J. Sienkewicz, Vol. 3, 1037-1038. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2001.

For more information on the published version, visit Salem Press's Website.

Life: Practically nothing is known of Stesichorus's (stuh-SIHK-uh ruhs) life. Ancient Greek tradition places him either in Himera or in Matauros. He composed lyric poetry for individual performance with lyre and perhaps for chorus. As a working poet of the era, he probably was patronized by aristocratic families and cities for which he composed works as part of civic celebrations. This relationship between poet and patron is better documented for Stesichorus's successors: Simonides, Pindar, and Bacchylides. The Greek historian Pausanias relates the fanciful story that Stesichorus was blinded for portraying Helen as an adulterer who followed Paris (Alexandros) to Troy. Stesichorus's retraction, which survives in fragments, gives an alternate version in which Helen's phantom image had gone to Troy, thus proving the real Helen's virtue. Pausanias says that as a result Stesichorus was given back his sight. The poet's works were collected in twenty-six books, of which quotations and fragmentary papyri survive. His poems achieve a heightened emotional effect from their combination of Homeric and other epic narratives with lyric meters.


MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Stesichorus. . 2001. dickinson.hykucommons.org/concern/generic_works/1fc2b66b-7a7c-44ab-bc0b-98d4c574203e?locale=en.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

(2001). Stesichorus. https://dickinson.hykucommons.org/concern/generic_works/1fc2b66b-7a7c-44ab-bc0b-98d4c574203e?locale=en

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Stesichorus. 2001. https://dickinson.hykucommons.org/concern/generic_works/1fc2b66b-7a7c-44ab-bc0b-98d4c574203e?locale=en.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

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