Stesichorus

Stesichorus was an ancient Greek lyric poet from Himera whose long, narrative poems retold myths, including stories of Helen and the Trojan War.

Ancient Greek lyric: Ancient Greek lyric is poetry composed for musical performance, often by a solo singer or chorus. Stesichorus belongs to this broad poetic tradition, though his surviving poems often tell extended stories.
Palinode of Stesichorus: The Palinode is Stesichorus’s poem retracting the claim that Helen went to Troy, saying instead that only her phantom did. It is his best-known mythic reversal and links Helen’s story to his legendary blindness.
Himera: Himera was an ancient Greek city on the northern coast of Sicily. Ancient sources identify it as Stesichorus’s birthplace.
Pindar: Pindar was a Greek lyric poet renowned for victory odes composed for athletic and musical contests. His expansive choral odes belong to a tradition in which Stesichorus was a major precursor.
Choral lyric: Choral lyric is poetry composed for performance by a singing and dancing group. Stesichorus’s long poems are associated with choral performance rather than brief personal song.
Geryoneis: The Geryoneis is Stesichorus’s fragmentary poem about Heracles’ expedition to fetch the cattle of Geryon. Its extended treatment of Heracles shows the scale and narrative ambition of his poetry.
Magna Graecia: Magna Graecia was the collection of Greek colonies and settlements in southern Italy and Sicily. Himera belonged to this Greek-speaking colonial world.
Euripides: Euripides was an Athenian tragedian whose plays include several retellings of mythic stories. His Helen drama shares the alternative myth that Helen never reached Troy, known from Stesichorus’s Palinode.
Greek mythology: Greek mythology is the body of traditional stories about Greek gods, heroes, and legendary events. Its familiar narratives supplied the plots Stesichorus reshaped in song.
Iliupersis of Stesichorus: The Iliupersis is Stesichorus’s poem about the sack of Troy, preserved only in fragments. It offers his poetic treatment of the Trojan War’s catastrophic conclusion.

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Nine Lyric PoetsBroader topic: His work shows how choral lyric could retell epic myths in song.