Ibycus

Ibycus, Greek lyric poet, a native of Rhegium, in Italy, flourished about 540 B.C., and lived some time at the court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. According to the legend he was slain by robbers near Corinth, and dying called upon a flock of cranes that he saw flying overhead to avenge him. The cranes went and hovered over the theatre at Corinth, where the people were assembled. One of the murderers, seeing them, exclaimed involuntarily, 'Behold the avengers of Ibycus.' This led to an inquiry, and to the conviction of the guilty. The story is best told in Schiller's beautiful ballad. Ibycus wrote chiefly erotic poetry. The fragments that survive are printed in Bergk's Poetæ Lyrici Græci (vol. iii.) and in Schneidewin's Delectus Poesis Græcorum Elegiæcæ (1839).