Semonides was from the island of Amorgos, active in the early to mid-7th century B.C.E., and wrote elegy, iambics (which some say he was the first to compose) and an Archaeology of the Samians; his father's name was Krines. That is all the Byzantine encyclopedia, the Suda, has to say about him, though a few more details tucked into the entry for the Hellenistic poet Simmias of Rhodes seem to be about Semonides, namely that he was originally from the island of Samos, was appointed a leader by the Samians, and took part in the colonization of Amorgos, where he established the three poleis (city-states) of Minoia, Aigalos, and Arkesime.
Along with these varying accounts of Semonides’ original polis are variant spellings of his name. Most ancient sources refer to him as Simonides, the very same name as the lyric poet of Ceos (ca. 556-468 B.C.E.). A fragment of the 1st-century B.C.E. Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemus and a citation in the late 6th-century or 9th-century C.E. grammarian Choeroboskos refer to the name Semonides. Choeroboskos (meaning “pig-feeder,” i.e., “swineherd”) states that “in reference to the iambic poet, the name is written with an η, perhaps from σῆμα, ‘sign.’ But in reference to the lyric poet, the name is written with an ι, and perhaps from σιμός, ‘snub-nosed.’ Whatever the truth of these etymologies, that small difference of a letter is more than a little helpful in distinguishing between the two poets, especially as Simonides, along with many types of choral poetry and epigrams, also wrote elegies.