Polycrates

Polycrates was tyrant of Samos in the sixth century BC and a powerful naval ruler in the Aegean. Ancient tradition remembered him for wealth, ambition, piracy and a dramatic downfall at Persian hands.

Polycrates was born in Samos and died in Sardis. Herodotus describes Polycrates as extraordinarily fortunate until the Persian satrap Oroetes lured him to the mainland and had him killed; the story of the ring of Polycrates became a famous meditation on prosperity and reversal.

In Mary Renault’s The Praise Singer, Apprenticed to the travelling singer Kleobis, he learns oral composition and the compromises required to earn patronage at courts such as that of Polycrates on Samos.