If anyone is interested, I’m currently on the island of Kea (where Simonides of Ceos was born), and I posted a few photos of Simonides’ hometown in my blog:
(Simonides invented the method of loci, according to legend…)
Dude, I must say… am a bit Jealous. lol. Looks excellent. I’ve considered such a trip pretty much since reading Yeats. The idea of student walking around in contemplation being associated with Journey formation… and the idea that you could have, at least highly similar Loci. Cool stuff.
The Archaeological Museum was especially interesting since some of the items would have existed during his life.
One thing I wonder about is, if the legend is basically true to some extent, how would the ancient poets have memorized tens of thousands of lines of Homer without the method of loci, a few hundred years before Simonides?
I would try to stop by Crannon (Thessaly) on my way north, but I couldn’t find anything about its location on a map. Cicero’s story might not have even had all the details correct. Check out what Quintilian has to say about it:
Simonides, by the aid of his memory, is said to have pointed out the bodies to their friends in the exact order in which they had sat. But it is by no means agreed among authors whether this ode was written for Glaucus of Carystus or Leocrates, or Agatharcus, or Scopas, and whether the house was at Pharsalus, as Simonides himself seems somewhere to intimate and as Apollodorus, Eratosthenes, Euphorion, and Eurypylus of Larissa have stated, or at Cranon, as asserted by Apollas Callimachus, whom Cicero has followed, giving wide circulation to his account of the story. It is generally believed that Scopas, a Thessalian nobleman, was killed at that banquet; his sister’s son is said to have perished with him, and some think that most of the family of another and older Scopas was killed at the same time. However, that part of the story relating to Castor and Pollux appears to me to be utterly fabulous, as the poet himself has nowhere alluded to the occurrence, and he assuredly would not have been silent about an incident so much to his honor.
I would seriously doubt that mneumonics were really founded by Simonides. Perhaps he was one of the earliest to make it systematic or something, but I don’t feel it originated with him. I mean look at the purported dates of birth for Simonides and Pythagorus.
Pythagorus - 579 B.C.A
Simonides - 556 B.C.A
Wheares Socrates was like 469 B.C.A
So nearly 100 years earlier, there was already apparently a movement occuring towards mental skills etc. The Socratic/Post-Socratic philosophers are cool and all. Don’t get me wrong. But it seems those that were pre-socratic delved into the powers of mind more. I mean the pythagorean school could easily be associated as the begining of “mental math” etc. around the same time.
That doesn’t take away from the legend aspect of it of course.
And keep writing about your trip through these places. I’m totally keeping watch on your stuff. I have noticed how you always make sure to interact with other peoples posts and I respect this. It’s strange, but there doesn’t seem to be a strong sense of community in memory enhancement. Like no sense of community. Or at least not that I’ve found. I normally would just read your stuff and not neccesarilly comment, but I want to emphasize that I am enjoying it and it’s certainly not an effort without audience. Cool stuff man.
1 Like
Thanks…
I try to make sure that every post gets at least one reply, though it sometimes takes me a week or two to catch up. 
It would be great to get more community going in the memory techniques field. This site is getting almost 10,000 visits per month at the moment. It would be great to find a way to get more of the visitors registered and joining discussions…
Yeah, I think that the wiki has a lot of untapped potential as well. Do you mind if I start up a section on Nootropics?
Sure… feel free to add anything related to mind skills there.
A bit off topic but I’ve recently visited Crete, the architecture there is fabulous. Just remember to take your sun-tan cream it’s baking!
Nice… I am there now.
Where did you go on Crete?
I’m on the south coast…
Hey Josh,
Hope you are having a relaxing time and it’s not too hot!
Crete to me seems like a rock with lots of trees on it, great place, we loved it; we were in Hersonnosis.
I was thinking about the site while i was away and was going to get some pics of Knossos Place but we didn’t get time in the end. There is a lot of unfinished buildings, really intersting though because you could see the shell/structure with the stairs in place but with no outer walls.
I think i’m a bit like you, i have loads of projects on the go. Keeping organized and single pointed is the key, else nothing seems to get done. Less is sometimes more.
Speak soon! Enjoy.
IIRC, it has something to do with keeping money in the bank. It might be better to invest money piece by piece into new construction than to store it in the bank(?) I could be wrong…
Another possibility is “siga siga”… (slowly, slowly)…