Stückelberg Myrthis und Corinna beim Töpfer Agathon 1897

Myrtis of Anthedon (6th century BC) was an ancient Greek

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, purported to be the teacher of

Pindar Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is ...

of Thebes and Corinna of

Tanagra Tanagra ( el, Τανάγρα) is a town and a municipality north of Athens in Boeotia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Schimatari. It is not far from Thebes, and it was noted in antiquity for the figurines named after it. The Ta ...

... Scholars believe that she was the earliest in the line of lyric poets who emerged from the district of

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its lar ...

( Anthedon was a small town in the district of Boeotia, which adjoins

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

to the north-west). All that is known of Myrtis' poetry can be surmised from

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...

's (himself Boeotian) paraphrase of one of her prose poems (''Greek Questions'' 40). Plutarch cites Myrtis as the source for the story that explained why women were forbidden to set foot in a sacred grove dedicated to a local hero, Eunostos, in the Boeotian town of Tanagra. Evidently Myrtis' poem related how a woman named Ochna, Eunostos' cousin, was rejected by him and, in a fit of anger and in despair over her unrequited love, she told her brothers that Eunostos had raped her, whereupon they killed Eunostus but were then taken captive by his father. Ochna, pitying her brothers, confessed her lie; they were allowed to go into exile, and Ochna ended her life by jumping from a cliff. According to the ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

'', Myrtis was called "sweet-sounding" by

Antipater of Thessalonica Antipater of Thessalonica ( grc-gre, Ἀντίπατρος ὁ Θεσσαλονικεύς; c. 10 BC - c. AD 38) was a Greek epigrammatist of the Roman period. Biography Antipater lived during the latter part of the reign of Augustus, and perha ...

and "clear-voiced" by Corinna. Antipater of Thessalonica included her in his canon of nine female poets. Apparently, Corinna also criticized Myrtis, as a woman, for venturing to compete with Pindar..

Tatian Tatian of Adiabene, or Tatian the Syrian or Tatian the Assyrian, (; la, Tatianus; grc, Τατιανός; syc, ܛܛܝܢܘܣ; c. 120 – c. 180 AD) was an Assyrian Christian writer and theologian of the 2nd century. Tatian's most influential wor ...

, a 2nd-century AD travelling rhetorician and Christian apologist, said (''Against the Greeks'' 33) that a bronze statue of Myrtis was made by the sculptor Boïscus, otherwise unknown.

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* * * {{Authority control Ancient Greek writers known only from secondary sources Ancient Greek women poets Ancient Boeotian poets 6th-century BC Greek people 6th-century BC Greek women