Simónides: el epitafio y la poética del intercambio

Abstract

There is no other poetic gender deeper than the epitaph to give a foundational character to the “word” since the aim of the epitaph is to insert the dead past into a vivid present. Simonides of Ceos granted the writing of epitaphs an artistic form. He was the most prolific epitaph’s writer of the ancient world. His futures relevance has been due to the factor that he established the genre’s conventions. From then on his name has become attached to every instance of the epitaph. Simonides inaugurated an style of thinking and talking about death and he created the metaphysics of “interchange”, through the writing word.