 Very little of his poetry survives today but enough is recorded on papyrus fragments and in quotes by ancient commentators for many conclusions to be drawn at least "tentatively" (nobody knows if and when the sands of Egypt will reveal further discoveries).Simonides wrote a wide range of choral lyrics with an Ionian flavour and elegiac verses in Doric idioms.He is generally credited with inventing a new type of choral lyric, the encomium, in particular popularizing a form of it, the victory ode.