Simonides of Ceos (556 – 468 BC) was a Greek lyric poet who is considered to be the inventor of the art of mnemonics: "At a banquet hosted by a Thessalian nobleman named Scopas, Simonides recited a lyrical poem in honor of his host, which included a section in praise of Castor and Pollux. The thrifty Scopas told the poet that he would only pay him half of the agreed sum for the hymn, and that he should get the rest from the twin gods to whom he had dedicated half the poem. A little later, Simonides was told that two young men were waiting outside to speak to him. He left the banquet, but could not see anyone outside. During his absence, the roof of the banquet hall collapsed, burying Scopas and his guests under its rubble. The bodies were so crushed that the relatives who came to collect them for burial could not identify them. But because Simonides remembered how they had sat at the table, he was able to show the relatives who was their dead people. The invisible visitors, Castor and Pollux, had paid generously for their part in the hymn by removing Simonides from the banquet immediately before the collapse."
Cicero: De oratore, II, 352 f.
