A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Βακχυλίδης).

1. One of the great lyric poets of Greece, was a native of Iulis in the island of Ceos, and the nephew as well as fellow-townsman of Simonides. (Strab. x. p.426; Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἰουλίς.) His father is variously called Medon (Suidas, s. v. Βακχυλίδης), Meilon (Epigr. in novem Lyr. apud Böckh, Schol. Pind. p. 8), or Meidylus (Etym. M. p. 582. 20): his paternal grandfather was the athlete Bacchylides. We know nothing of his life, except that he lived at the court of Hiero in Syracuse,

together with Simonides and Pindar. (Aelian, Ael. VH 4.15.) Eusebius makes him flourish in B. C. 450; but as Hiero died B. C. 467, and Bacchylides obtained great fame at his court, his poetical reputation must have been established as early as B. C. 470. The Scholiast on Pindar frequently states (ad Ol. 2.154, 155, ad Pyth. 2.131, 161, 166, 167, 171) that Bacchylides and Pindar were jealous of and opposed to one another; but whether this was the fact, or the story is to be attributed to the love of scandal which distinguishes the later Greek grammarians, it is impossible to determine.