(Στεισίχορος), a famous Greek poet, said to have been born in Himera in Sicily B.C. 632. He was accordingly a contemporary of Sappho, Alcaeus, Pittacus, and Phalaris. His father was probably a native of Mataurus, which would go far to explain the tradition of his being sprung from Hesiod, for it is well known that in that district there lived a race of epic poets who claimed kindred with the most ancient singer of Greece. The name which this poet is said first to have received was Tisias, and afterwards it was converted into Stesichorus, from his first having established a chorus for singing to the harp. Like all great poets his birth is said to have been accompanied by an omen. A nightingale is said to have sat upon the babe's lips and sung. Little is known regarding his life with certainty. The myths of Suidas unfortunately render the authentic portion of his narrative quite untrustworthy. Stesichorus probably died at Catanna sometime between 560 B.C. and 552 B.C., at the age of eighty, or, probably, eighty-five. He was one of the nine great lyric poets recognised by the ancients. His choral odes contained all the essential elements of perfect choral poetry. He was the first to break the monotony of the strophe and antistrope, by the introduction of the epode. Kleine, who has furnished by far the most useful edition of the fragments of Stesichorus (Berolini, 1828), has classified his extant poems into mythical poems, hymns, erotic poems, pastoral poems, fables, and elegies. The fragments of Stesichorus were first printed together with the works of Pindar in 1560. Among recent editions are those of Suchfort, Schneidewin, Bergk, Blomfield, and Gaisford.