a Greek lyric poet of the sixth century B.C., was a native of Rhetium, in Italy. Almost nothing is known of his personal history beyond the fact that he spent the greater part of his life at the court of Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos. A curious legend is told of the manner of his death. Travelling through Greece, he was waylaid by robbers in the neighbourhood of Corinth, and barbarously murdered. As he lay mortally wounded on the ground he looked up, and seeing a flock of cranes flying overhead, he called upon them to avenge his death. The murderers betook themselves to Corinth, and while sitting in the theatre there saw the cranes hovering about. One of them, in a paroxysm of fear, cried out "Behold the avengers of Ibycus," and thus gave the clue to the detection of the crime. The "Cranes of Ibycus" became a favourite proverb with the Greeks ever after. Only a few fragments of Ibycus have come down to us, but these afford sufficient traces of the passionate nature for which Ibycus was famed beyond nearly all the erotic poets of Greece. He also attempted heroic and mythical subjects, but with less success. The best edition of the fragments of Ibycus is that of Schneidewin, Gottingen, 1835.