Nossis ( grc-gre, Νοσσίς) was a

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

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 ...

from

Epizephyrian Locris Locri is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Reggio Calabria, Calabria, southern Italy. Its name derives from that of the ancient Greek region of Locris. Today it is an important administrative and cultural centre on the Ionia ...

in today's

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

(Southern Italy). She seems to have been active in the early third century BC, as she wrote an epitaph for the Hellenistic dramatist

Rhinthon Rhinthon ( grc-gre, Ῥίνθων, ''gen''.: Ῥίνθωνος; c. 323 – 285 BC) was a Hellenistic dramatist. The son of a potter, he was probably a native of Syracuse and afterwards settled at Tarentum. He invented the '' hilarotragoedia,'' a ...

. She primarily wrote

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

s for religious dedications and epitaphs. Her epigrams were inspired by

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 ...

, whom she claims to rival. She may have also been influenced by

Erinna Erinna (; grc-gre, Ἤριννα) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek poet. She is best known for her long poem "The Distaff", a 300-line dactylic hexameter, hexameter lament for her childhood friend Baucis, who had died shortly after her mar ...

and

Anyte Anyte of Tegea was a Hellenistic poet from Tegea in Arcadia. Little is known of her life, but twenty-four epigrams attributed to her are preserved in the ''Greek Anthology'', and one is quoted by Julius Pollux; nineteen of these are generally a ...

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 ...

included her in his canon of nine female poets. Nossis is one of the best preserved Greek women poets, with twelve epigrams attributed to her preserved as part of the ''

Greek Anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' ( la, Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Pa ...

'', the majority of which are about women. One of these poems (preserved as A. P. 5.170) is modelled after Sappho's fragment 16.

Meleager of Gadara Meleager of Gadara ( grc-gre, Μελέαγρος ; fl. 1st century BC) was a poet and collector of epigrams. He wrote some satire, satirical prose, now lost, and some sensual poetry, of which 134 epigrams survive. Life Meleager was the son of E ...

mentions Nossis in his ''Garland'', where he describes her as a love poet, though only one of her surviving epigrams is about love. Nossis states in her work that her mother was named Theuphila, the daughter of Cleouchas. In another epigram, she mentions that she had a daughter named Melinna.William Smith, ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...

'', London: Murray (1849), "Nossis"

References

External links

*
Text of her 12 surviving epigrams
{{Authority control 4th-century BC women writers 4th-century BC writers 3rd-century BC women writers 3rd-century BC writers 3rd-century BC poets Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology Poets of Magna Graecia Doric Greek poets Epizephyrian Locrians Ancient Greek women poets 4th-century BC Greek women 3rd-century BC Greek women

References

Further reading

External links