Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings 1.7.ext. 3
“The gods were much kinder to the poet Simonides, whose safety they guarded with firm advice through a warning dream. For, when he had brought his ship to rest on shore and had entrusted a body that was unburied to a sepulcher, he was warned by the same soul not to sail on the following day and he remained on land.
Those who embarked the next day were overcome by waves and gales in his sight. He was happy that he had trusted his own life to a dream instead of a ship. He preserved the memory of this help to eternity with the most elegant poem, crafting a better and longer-lasting tomb in the minds of men than he had built on barren and unknown sands.”
Longe indulgentius di in poeta Simonide, cuius salutarem inter quietem admonitionem consilii firmitate roborarunt: is enim, cum ad litus navem appulisset inhumatumque corpus iacens sepulturae mandasset, admonitus ab eo ne proximo die navigaret, in terra remansit. qui inde solverant, fluctibus et procellis in conspectu eius obruti sunt: ipse laetatus est quod vitam suam somnio quam navi credere maluisset. memor autem beneficii elegantissimo carmine aeternitati consecravit, melius illi et diuturnius in animis hominum sepulcrum constituens quam in desertis et ignotis harenis struxerat.
Some report that Greek Anthology 7.77 is the poem Simonides wrote in thanks:
“This is the savior of Keian Simonides,
A man who although dead paid thanks to the living.”
Οὗτος ὁ τοῦ Κείοιο Σιμωνίδεω ἐστὶ σαωτήρ,
ὃς καὶ τεθνηὼς ζῶντ᾿ ἀπέδωκε χάριν.
Of course, this reminded me of Sir Elton John.
