Simmias of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

( grc, Σιμμίας ὁ Ῥόδιος), was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

poet and grammarian of the Alexandrian school, which flourished under the early Ptolemies. He was earlier than the tragic poet

Philiscus of Corcyra Philiscus of Corcyra ( grc, Φιλίσκος ὁ Κερκυραῖος), or Philicus, was a distinguished tragic poet, and one of the seven who formed the Tragic Pleiad, was also a priest of Dionysus, and in that character he was present at the c ...

, whose time is about 300 BC, at least if we accept the assertion of Hephaestion (p. 31), that the choriambic

hexameter Hexameter is a metrical line of verses consisting of six feet (a "foot" here is the pulse, or major accent, of words in an English line of poetry; in Greek and Latin a "foot" is not an accent, but describes various combinations of syllables). It w ...

, of which Philiscus claimed the invention, had been previously used by Simmias. Simmias of Rhodes - Wings

The 10th-century encyclopaedia, the '' Suda'', reports that Simmias wrote three books of ''Glossai'' (collections of obscure words) and four books of miscellaneous poems (, ''poiemata diaphora'');Suda σ 431 the latter part of the article in the ''Suda'' is obviously misplaced, and belongs to the life of

Semonides of Amorgos Semonides of Amorgos (; grc-gre, Σημωνίδης ὁ Ἀμοργῖνος, variantly ; fl. 7th century BC) was a Greeks, Greek Iambus (genre), iambic and elegiac couplet, elegiac poet who is believed to have lived during the seventh century BC ...

. Of his grammatical works nothing more is known; but his poems are frequently referred to, and some of them seem to have been, epic. His '' Gorgo'' is quoted by

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...

(xi. p. 491); his ''Months'' and ''Apollon'' by Stephanus Byzantinus and a fragment of thirteen lines from the latter poem is preserved by

Tzetzes John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He was able to pr ...

(Chil. vii. 144), and has been edited by Brunck. As an epigrammatist, Simmias had a place in the Garland of Meleager, and the '' Greek Anthology'' contains six epigrams ascribed to him, besides three short poems of that fantastic species called '' carmina figurata'', that is, pieces in which the lines are so arranged as to make the whole poem resemble the form of some object; those of Simmias are entitled, from their forms, the ''Pteryges'' (''Wings''), the ''Oon'' (''Egg''), and the '' Pelekys'' (''Hatchet'').

References

* {{authority control Ancient Rhodian grammarians Ancient Greek poets Ancient Rhodian poets Ancient Greek grammarians Ancient Greek lexicographers 4th-century BC poets Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology 4th-century BC Rhodians