IBYCUS  , of Rhegium in

Italy, Greek lyric poet, contemporary of Anacreon, flourished in the 6th century B.C . Notwithstanding his good position at home, he lived a wandering life, and spent a considerable time at the court of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos . The story of his death is thus related: While in the neighbour-hood of Corinth, the poet was mortally wounded by robbers . As he lay dying he saw a flock of cranes flying overhead, and called upon them to avenge his death . The murderers betook themselves to Corinth, and soon after, while sitting in the theatre, saw the cranes hovering above . One of them, either in alarm or jest, ejaculated, "Behold the avengers of Ibycus," and thus gave the clue to the detection of the crime (Plutarch, De Garrulitale, xiv.) . The phrase, " the cranes of Ibycus," passed into a proverb among the Greeks for the discovery of crime through divine intervention . According to Suidas, Ibycus wrote seven books of lyrics, to some extent mythical and heroic, but mainly erotic (Cicero, Tusc . Disp. iv . 33), celebrating the charms of beautiful youths and girls . F . G .

Welcker suggests that they were sung by choruses of boys at the " beauty competitions " held at Lesbos . Although the metre and dialect are Dorian, the poems breathe the spirit of Aeolian melic poetry . The best editions of the fragments are by F . W . Schneidewin (1833) and Bergk, Poetae lyrici Graeci .