year of his death - Jebb, for example sets it at 428 BC and yet a date around 451 BC is more favoured.

Keos, where Bacchylides was born and raised, had long had a history of poetical and musical culture, especially in its association with Delos, the focal point of the Cyclades and the principal sanctuary of the Ionian race, where the people of Keos annually sent choirs to celebrate festivals of Apollo. There