[machogirl]

Sounds like it is a beautiful place. (all that history)

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes--I have been there. Very scenic. It is a small island (12 miles by 6 miles) and hilly with a lot of terracing. Near the most important town (Kea or Ioulida) there is a granite statue of a lion that is said to date to the 6th century BC (about 10 feet high and 20 feet long). Besides the poets Simonides and Bacchylides it was also the birthplace of the sophist Prodicus.

The name is also found as Ceos or Keos--sounds similar to "Chios" both in English and Greek. (There is a joke in Aristophanes that depends on the names Ceos and Chios sounding very nearly alike.)

We have bits of the poetry of Simonides and Bacchylides. Simonides wrote some poems having to do with the Persian Wars. The famous epigram about the 300 Spartans who died at Thermopylae is possibly by him:

"Go tell them in Sparta, passer-by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie."