Melinno ( grc, Μελιννῶ) was a Greek lyric poet. She is known from a single surviving poem, known as the "Ode to Rome". The poem survives in a quotation by the fifth century AD author

Stobaeus Joannes Stobaeus (; grc-gre, Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος; fl. 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containin ...

, who included it in a compilation of poems on manliness. It was apparently included in this collection by mistake, as Stobaeus misinterpreted the word ρώμα in the first line as meaning "strength", rather than being the Greek name for the city of Rome. Nothing is known of Melinno or her life. Scholars have suggested dates ranging from the third century BC to the second century AD.

C. M. Bowra Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra, (; 8 April 1898 – 4 July 1971) was an English classical scholar, literary critic and academic, known for his wit. He was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1970, and served as Vice-Chancellor of the Unive ...

argued based on the content of the poem attributed to her that the first half of the second century BC was likely; and most scholars agree with a date in the republican period. The fact that she wrote a poem about the power of Rome without any mention of the emperor suggests that she was writing before the beginning of the principate. Literary parallels have been suggested between Melinno's poetry and poems in honour of Tiberius Quinctius Flaminius from 191 BC. However, some scholars, such as

Hugh Lloyd-Jones Sir Peter Hugh Jefferd Lloyd-Jones FBA (21 September 1922 – 5 October 2009məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ..., in 1982, and spent his last 27 years at their home in Wellesley. Major publicat ...

, argue for a date in the second century AD. Lloyd-Jones sees the poem as characteristic of the Greek revivalism of the period, and draws comparisons to the poetry of

Mesomedes Mesomedes of Crete ( grc, Μεσομήδης ὁ Κρής) was a Greek citharode and lyric poet and composer of the early 2nd century AD in Roman Greece. Prior to the discovery of the Seikilos epitaph in the late 19th century, the hymns of Mesom ...

and

Julia Balbilla Julia Balbilla (Greek: Ἰουλία Βαλβίλλα, AD 72 – after AD 130) was a Roman noble woman and poet.Plant I. M. ''Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology'' University of Oklahoma Press, 2004, chapter 43. , 9780806136219 ...

. According to Stobaeus, Melinno was from the island of

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Anatolia, Asia Minor ...

. This may have been based on her use of the

Sapphic stanza The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form of four lines. Originally composed in quantitative verse and unrhymed, since the Middle Ages imitations of the form typically feature rhyme and accentual prosody. It is "the longest ...

in her poetry. However, she does not use a Lesbian dialect in her poetry, and aside from Stobaeus' testimony there is nothing to link her to the island. Melinno's "Ode to Rome" is a hymn to the goddess

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, made up of five Sapphic stanzas. It is written in an artificial choral dialect, and Melinno's use of this dialect and the Sapphic stanza, which was rarely used after

Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...

's day, suggest that she was well-educated. Each of Melinno's stanzas is a self-contained unit, unlike the practice of the archaic Lesbian poets. C. M. Bowra describes the effect as being "stiff and stilted", but suggests that these sharp divisions between the stanzas were to allow the poem to be performed as part of a ritual, with each stanza performed separately. Josephine Balmer notes that despite the stiffness of the poem, which "even Melinno's apologists" acknowledge, it is filled with mythological and literary allusions. The poem resembles the traditional form of a hymn, with the first stanza as an invocation to the goddess, and the remaining stanzas praising her. It does not end with the prayer which would traditionally make up the third part of a hymn; it is uncertain whether the poem originally contained such a prayer which is lost.

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Works cited

* * * * * * * {{Authority control Ancient Roman women writers Ancient Greek women poets Ancient Italian history 2nd-century BC Greek women