One of the most celebrated lyric poets of Greece; spent most of his life in Athens, employed his poetic powers in celebrating the events and heroes of the Persian wars; gained over Aeschylus the prize for an elegy on those who fell at Marathon; composed epigrams over the tombs of the Spartans who fell at Thermopylae, and in his eightieth year was crowned victor at Athens; shortly after this was invited by Hiero to Syracuse, at whose court he died; his poetry was distinguished at once for sweetness and finish; he was a philosopher as well as a poet (556-467 B.C.).