A

• Adaios
  Adaios
  Adaios, also known as Adaeus, was a Macedonian poet of whomh little is known, save that he made two notable contributions to literature and history. When his good friend Euripides died in exile and was refused burial in his native Athens, Adaios composed the epitaph that graced the playwright's...
  
   (lived ca. 450 BC)
• Adrianus (poet)
  Adrianus (poet)
  Adrianus was a Greek poet who wrote an epic poem on the history of Alexander the Great, which was called the Alexandriad . We chiefly know of this poem from a mention of the seventh book in the Suda, but we possess only a fragment consisting of one line...
  
  , wrote an epic poem
  Epic poetry
  An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
  
   on the history of Alexander the Great, of which only one line is extant.
• Aeschylus
  Aeschylus
  Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
  
   (Greek: Αἰσχύλος, ˈɛskələs, 525–456 BC)
• Aeschylus of Alexandria
  Aeschylus of Alexandria
  Aeschylus of Alexandria was an epic poet who must have lived before the end of the 2nd century, and whom Athenaeus calls a well-informed man. One of his poems bore the title "Amphitryon," and another "Messeniaca." A fragment of the former is preserved in Athenaeus. According to Zenobius, he had...
  
  , epic poet, 2nd century
• Agathon
  Agathon
  Agathon was an Athenian tragic poet whose works, up to the present moment, have been lost. He is best known for his appearance in Plato's Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in . He is also a prominent character in...
  
   (Greek Ἀγάθων) (c. 448–400 BC)
• Alcaeus of Mytilene (ca. 620 BC-6th century BC), lyric poet who supposedly invented the Alcaic verse
• Alcman
  Alcman
  Alcman was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta. He is the earliest representative of the Alexandrinian canon of the nine lyric poets.- Family :...
  
   (also Alkman, Greek Ἀλκμάν, 7th century BC) choral lyric poet from Sparta; earliest representative of the Alexandrinian canon of the Nine lyric poets
  Nine lyric poets
  The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study.They were:*Alcman of Sparta...
  
  .
• Alexander Aetolus
  Alexander Aetolus
  For other uses, see Alexander and Alexander Alexander Aetolus was a Greek poet and grammarian, the only known representative of Aetolian poetry...
  
   of Pleuron
  Pleuron, Aetolia
  Pleuron was an ancient city in Aetolia, Greece. The town is said to have been founded by Pleuron, son of Aetolus. It was the birthplace of the ancient Greek poet Alexander Aetolus....
  
   in Aetolia
  Aetolia
  Aetolia is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern prefecture of Aetolia-Acarnania.-Geography:...
  
  , poet and man of letters, the only representative of Aetolian poetry, flourished about 280 BC
  280 BC
  Year 280 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Laevinus and Coruncanius...
  
  
• Alexandrian Pleiad
  Alexandrian Pleiad
  The Alexandrian Pleiad is the name given to a group of seven Alexandrian poets and tragedians in the 3rd century BC working in the court of Ptolemy II Philadelphus...
  
   is the name given to a group of seven Alexandrian poets and tragedians in the 3rd century BC.
• Alexis
  Alexis
  Alexis was a Greek comic poet of the Middle Comedy period, born at Thurii in Magna Graeca and taken early to Athens, where he became a citizen, being enrolled in the deme Oion and the tribe Leontides. It is thought he lived to the age of 106 and died on the stage while being crowned...
  
  (ca. 375 BC-ca. 275 BC), comic poet of the Middle Comedy, born at Thurii
  Thurii
  Thurii , called also by some Latin writers Thurium , for a time also Copia and Copiae, was a city of Magna Graecia, situated on the Tarentine gulf, within a short distance of the site of Sybaris, whose place it may be considered as having taken...
  
   and taken early to Athens, where he became a citizen
• Amphis
  Amphis
  Amphis was an Athenian Comic poet of uncertain origin from approximately the 4th century BC.Pollux seems to refer to Amphis as a Middle Comic poet, and Amphis' own repeated references to the philosopher Plato place him in the early to mid-4th century BC...
  
   was an Athenian comic poet of uncertain origin from approximately the 4th century BC
• Anacreon
  Anacreon
  Anacreon was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets.- Life :...
  
   (Greek Ἀνακρέων, born ca. 570 BC), lyric poet, notable for drinking songs and hymns and included in the canonical list of Nine lyric poets
  Nine lyric poets
  The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study.They were:*Alcman of Sparta...
  
  
• Antimachus
  Antimachus
  Antimachus, of Colophon or Claros, Greek poet and grammarian, flourished about 400 BC.Scarcely anything is known of his life. His poetical efforts were not generally appreciated, although he received encouragement from his younger contemporary Plato .His chief works were: an epic Thebais, an...
  
   , of Colophon
  Colophon
  Colophon was a city in the region of Lydia in antiquity dating from about the turn of the first millennium-BC. It was likely one the oldest of the twelve Ionian League cities, between Lebedos and Ephesus and its ruins are in the eponymously named modern region of Ionia.The city's name comes from...
  
   or Claros
  Claros
  Claros is a prophecy center of Colophon, one of the twelve Ionic cities. Claros is built between two cities; it is 13 kilometers south of Colophon and two kilometers north of Notion. The Temple of Apollo here was a very important center of prophecy as in Delphi and Didyma. The oldest information...
  
  , poet and grammarian, flourished about 400 BC
  400 BC
  Year 400 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Esquilinus, Capitolinus, Vulso, Medullinus, Saccus and Vulscus...
  
  
• Antimachus of Teos
  Antimachus of Teos
  Antimachus of Teos was an early Greek epic poet. According to Plutarch, he observed an eclipse of the sun in 753 BC, the same year in which Rome was founded. The epic Epigoni, a sequel to the legend of Thebes, was apparently sometimes ascribed to Antimachus of Teos. However, confusion is possible...
  
   epic poet said to have observed an eclipse of the sun in 753 BC
• Antipater of Sidon
  Antipater of Sidon
  Antipater of Sidon , Antipatros or Antipatros Sidonios in the Anthologies, was a Greek poet in the second half of the 2nd century BC....
  
   (2nd century BC) writer and poet best known for his list of Seven Wonders of the World
• Antipater of Thessalonica
  Antipater of Thessalonica
  Antipater of Thessalonica was the author of over a hundred epigrams in the Greek Anthology. He is the most copious and perhaps the most interesting of the Augustan epigrammatists...
  
   author of more than a hundred epigrams in the Greek Anthology
  Greek Anthology
  The Greek Anthology is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature...
  
  ; flourished around 15 BC
  15 BC
  Year 15 BC was either a common year starting on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...
  
  
• Anyte of Tegea
  Anyte of Tegea
  Anyte of Tegea was an Arcadian poet, admired by her contemporaries and later generations for her charming epigrams and epitaphs...
  
   (fl. early 3rd century BC) Arcadian poet, admired for her epigrams and epitaphs
• Apollodorus
  Apollodorus
  Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
  
   (born c. 180 BC
  180 BC
  Year 180 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Luscus and Piso/Flaccus...
  
  ) grammarian, writer and historian most famous for a verse chronicle of Greek history from the fall of Troy in the 12th century BC to 144 BC
  144 BC
  Year 144 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Galba and Cotta . The denomination 144 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for...
  
  
• Apollonius of Rhodes
  Apollonius of Rhodes
  Apollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes , early 3rd century BCE – after 246 BCE, was a poet, and a librarian at the Library of Alexandria...
  
   also known as Apollonius Rhodius (Latin; Greek Ἀπολλώνιος Ῥόδιος Apollōnios Rhodios; born early 3rd century BC — died after 246 BC
  246 BC
  Year 246 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Crassus and Licinus...
  
  ) was an epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of Alexandria.
• Aratus
  Aratus
  Aratus was a Greek didactic poet. He is best known today for being quoted in the New Testament. His major extant work is his hexameter poem Phaenomena , the first half of which is a verse setting of a lost work of the same name by Eudoxus of Cnidus. It describes the constellations and other...
  
   (Greek Aratos; ca. 315 BC/310 BC – 240 BC) Macedonian Greek didactic poet, known for his technical poetry
• Archestratus
  Archestratus
  Archestratus was an Ancient Greek poet of Gela or Syracuse, in Sicily, who wrote some time in the mid 4th century BCE. His humorous didactic poem Hedypatheia , written in hexameters, advises a gastronomic reader on where to find the best food in the Mediterranean world...
  
   (Greek Archestratos; fl. 330 BC
  330 BC
  Year 330 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Crassus and Venno...
  
  ) poet of Gela
  Gela
  Gela is a town and comune in the province of Caltanissetta in the south of Sicily, Italy. The city is at about 84 kilometers distance from the city of Caltanissetta, on the Mediterranean Sea. The city has a larger population than the provincial capital, and ranks second in land area.Gela is an...
  
   or Syracuse
• Archilochus
  Archilochus
  Archilochus, or, Archilochos While these have been the generally accepted dates since Felix Jacoby, "The Date of Archilochus," Classical Quarterly 35 97-109, some scholars disagree; Robin Lane Fox, for instance, in Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer , p...
  
   (Greek: Ἀρχίλοχος; ca. 680 BC - ca. 645 BC) poet and mercenary
• Arctinus of Miletus
  Arctinus of Miletus
  Arctinus of Miletus or Arctinus Milesius was a Greek epic poet whose reputation is purely legendary, as none of his works survive. Traditionally dated between 775 BC and 741 BC, he was said to have been a pupil of Homer. Phaenias of Eresus placed him in the 7th century BC and claimed that he was...
  
   epic poet whose reputation is purely legendary, as none of his works survive; traditionally dated between 775 BC and 741 BC
• Aristeas
  Aristeas
  Aristeas was a semi-legendary Greek poet and miracle-worker, a native of Proconnesus in Asia Minor, active ca. 7th century BCE. In book IV of The Histories, Herodotus reports...
  
  , semi-legendary poet and miracle-worker, a native of Proconnesus in Asia Minor
  Asia Minor
  Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
  
  , active ca. 7th century BC
• Aristophanes
  Aristophanes
  Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
  
  , c. 456-386 BC, known as the Father of Comedy
• Asclepiades of Samos
  Asclepiades of Samos
  Asclepiades of Samos was an ancient Greek epigrammatist and lyric poet. He was a friend of Theocritus, who flourished about 270 BC. He was the earliest and most important of the convivial and erotic epigrammists. Only a few of his compositions are actual inscriptions. Others sing the praises of...
  
   epigrammatist, lyric poet, and friend of Theocritus
  Theocritus
  Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.-Life:Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems commonly attributed to him have little claim to...
  
  , who flourished about 270 BC
  270 BC
  Year 270 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Clepsina and Blasio...
  
  
• Aulus Licinius Archias
  Aulus Licinius Archias
  Aulus Licinius Archias was a Greek poet born in Antioch in Syria . In 102 BC, his reputation having been already established, especially as an improvisatore, he went to Rome, where he was well received amongst the highest and most influential families. His chief patron was Lucullus, whose gentile...
  
   (fl. ca. 120 BC-61 BC) poet born in Antioch
  Antioch
  Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
  
   in Syria
  Syria
  Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
  
   (modern Antakya
  Antakya
  Antakya is the seat of the Hatay Province in southern Turkey, near the border with Syria. The mayor is Lütfü Savaş.Known as Antioch in ancient times, the city has historical significance for Christianity, as it was the place where the followers of Jesus Christ were called Christians for the first...
  
   in Turkey
  Turkey
  Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
  
  )

B

• Bacchylides
  Bacchylides
  Bacchylides was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets which included his uncle Simonides. The elegance and polished style of his lyrics have been a commonplace of Bacchylidean scholarship since at least Longinus...
  
   lyric poet born at Iulis, on the island of Ceos; Eusebius says he flourished in 467 BC
  467 BC
  Year 467 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Mamercus and Vibulanus...
  
  
• Bion of Smyrna bucolic poet born at Phlossa near Smyrna
  Smyrna
  Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
  
  ; flourished 100 BC
  100 BC
  Year 100 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Marius and Flaccus...
  
  

C

• Callimachus
  Callimachus
  Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes...
  
   (Greek: Καλλίμαχος; ca. 305 BC- ca. 240 BC), poet and critic; native of Cyrene and scholar of the Library of Alexandria
• Callinus
  Callinus
  Callinus was a poet who lived in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus in Asia Minor in the mid-7th century BC. He is the earliest known Greek elegiac poet. Very little is known about his life....
  
   (also known as Kallinus) of Ephesus in Asia Minor, flourished mid-7th century BC; the earliest known Greek elegiac poet
• Chaeremon
  Chaeremon
  Chaeremon was an Athenian dramatist of the first half of the fourth century BCE. He was generally considered a tragic poet like Choerilus. Aristotle said his works were intended for reading, not for representation...
  
   Athenian dramatist of the first half of the fourth century BC generally considered a tragic poet
• Choerilus (tragic poet)
  Choerilus (tragic poet)
  Choerilus was an Athenian tragic poet, who exhibited plays as early as 524 BC.-Biography:Choerilus was said to have competed with Aeschylus, Pratinas and even Sophocles. According to Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker, however, the rival of Sophocles was a son of Choerilus, who bore the same name. The...
  
   Athenian tragic poet, who exhibited plays as early as 524 BC
• Choerilus of Iasus
  Choerilus of Iasus
  Choerilus of Iasus was an epic poet of Iasus in Caria, who lived in the 4th century BC. He accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns as court-poet. He is well known from the passages in Horace according to which he received a piece of gold for every good verse he wrote in celebration of the...
  
  , epic poet of Iasus in Caria, who lived in the 4th century BC.
• Choerilus of Samos
  Choerilus of Samos
  Choerilus of Samos was an epic poet of Samos, who flourished at the end of the 5th century BC.-Biography:After the fall of Athens Choerilus settled at the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon, where he was the associate of Agathon, Melanippides, and Plato the comic poet...
  
  , epic poet of Samos, who flourished at the end of the 5th century BC
• Cinaethon of Sparta
  Cinaethon of Sparta
  Cinaethon of Sparta or Kinaithon of Lakedaimon is a legendary Greek poet to whom different sources ascribe the lost epics Oedipodea, Little Iliad and Telegony. Eusebius says that he flourished in 764/3 BC.-References:...
  
   or Kinaithon of Lakedaimon, a legendary early Greek poet sometimes called the author of the lost epics Oedipodea, Little Iliad and Telegony; Eusebius says that he flourished in 764/3 BC
• Cleophon (poet) (Greek: Kλεoφῶν, Kleophōn), Athenian tragic poet who flourished in the 4th century BC
• Corinna
  Corinna
  Corinna or Korinna was an Ancient Greek poet, traditionally attributed to the 6th century BC. According to ancient sources such as Plutarch and Pausanias, she came from Tanagra in Boeotia, where she was a teacher and rival to the better-known Theban poet Pindar...
  
   (or Korinna) poet traditionally attributed to the 6th century BC
• Creophylus of Samos
  Creophylus of Samos
  Creophylus or Kreophylos is the name of a legendary early Greek singer, native to Samos or Chios. He was said to have been a contemporary of Homer and author of the lost epic Capture of Oechalia. According to some sources Homer gave the poem to Creophylus in return for hospitality; one source...
  
   (in Greek Kreophylos) legendary early Greek singer, native to Samos or Chios, said to have been a contemporary of Homer
• Crobylus
  Crobylus
  Crobylus is assumed to be an Athenian Middle Comic poet, although there is no specific ancient evidence to this effect. Eleven fragments of his comedies survive, along with three titles: The Man Who Tried to Hang Himself, The Woman Who Was Trying to Leave Her Husband or The Woman Who Left Her...
  
   possible Middle Comedian, lived some time after 324 BC
• Crinagoras of Mytilene
  Crinagoras of Mytilene
  Crinagoras of Mytilene, also known as Crinogoras, sometimes spelt as Krinagorasis or Krinagoras was a Greek Epigrammatist and ambassador, who lived in Rome as a court poet.-Early life:...
  
  
• Cyclic poets
  Cyclic Poets
  Cyclic Poets is a shorthand term for the early Greek epic poets, approximate contemporaries of Homer. We know no more about these poets than we know about Homer, but modern scholars regard them as having composed orally, as did Homer. In the classical period, surviving early epic poems were...
  
  
• Cynaethus
  Cynaethus
  Cynaethus or Cinaethus of Chios was a rhapsode, a member of the Homeridae, sometimes said to have composed the Homeric Hymn to Apollo.The main source of information on Cynaethus is a Scholium to Pindar's second Nemean ode...
  
  

D

• Diagoras
  Diagoras
  Diagoras may refer to:*Diagoras of Melos Atheist philosopher and poet *Diagoras of Rhodes boxer, olympionike *Diagoras a Greek physician quoted in Natural History of Pliny*Diagoras F.C...
  
   the Atheist of Melos, poet and sophist of the 5th century BC
• Dionysius Chalcus
  Dionysius Chalcus
  Dionysius Chalcus was an ancient Athenian poet and orator. According to Athenaeus, he was called Chalcus because he advised the Athenians to adopt a brass coinage . His speeches have not survived, but his poems are referred to and quoted by such authors as Plutarch , Aristotle , and Athenaeus...
  
   (Greek: Διονύσιος ὁ Χαλκοῦς) an ancient Athenian poet and orator

E

• Elephantis
  Elephantis
  Elephantis was a Greek poetess apparently renowned in the classical world as the author of a notorious sex manual. Her works have not survived.-Works:...
  
  , poetess apparently renowned in the classical world as the author of a notorious (lost) sex manual
• Epicharmus of Kos
  Epicharmus of Kos
  Epicharmus is thought to have lived within the hundred year period between c. 540 and c. 450 BC. He was a Greek dramatist and philosopher often credited with being one of the first comic writers, having originated the Doric or Sicilian comedic form. Aristotle writes that he and Phormis invented...
  
   flourished sometime between c. 540 and c. 450 BC; a dramatist and philosopher often credited with being one of the first comic writers
• Epimenides
  Epimenides
  Epimenides of Knossos was a semi-mythical 6th century BC Greek seer and philosopher-poet. While tending his father's sheep, he is said to have fallen asleep for fifty-seven years in a Cretan cave sacred to Zeus, after which he reportedly awoke with the gift of prophecy...
  
  , of Knossos (Crete) (Greek: Ἐπιμενίδης), a semi-mythical 6th century BC Greek seer and philosopher-poet
• Erinna
  Erinna
  Erinna was a Greek poet, a contemporary and friend of Sappho, a native of Rhodes or the adjacent island of Telos or even possibly Tenos, who flourished about 600 BC...
  
  , female contemporary and friend of Sappho; a native of Rhodes, Telos or Tenos; flourished about 600 BC
• Eubulus (poet)
  Eubulus (poet)
  Eubulus was an Athenian "Middle Comic" poet, victorious six times at the Lenaia, first probably in the late 370s or 360s BC According to the Suda , which dates him to the 101st Olympiad Eubulus was an Athenian "Middle Comic" poet, victorious six times at the Lenaia, first probably in the late 370s...
  
  , Athenian Middle Comedy poet, flourished 370s and 360s BC
• Eugammon of Cyrene
  Eugammon of Cyrene
  Eugammon of Cyrene was an early Greek poet to whom the epic Telegony was ascribed. According to Clement of Alexandria, he stole the poem from the legendary early poet Musaeus; meaning, possibly, that a version of a long-existing traditional epic was written down by Eugammon. He is said to have...
  
  
• Eumelus of Corinth
  Eumelus of Corinth
  Eumelus of Corinth or Eumelos of Korinthos, of the clan of the Bacchiadae, is a semi-legendary early Greek poet, the Corinthian author of the Prosodion, the treasured processional anthem of Messenian independence that was performed on Delos. One small fragment of it survives in a quote by Pausanias...
  
  
• Euphorion of Chalcis
  Euphorion of Chalcis
  Euphorion, Greek poet and grammarian, born at Chalcis in Euboea about 275 BC.Euphorion spent much of his life in Athens, where he amassed great wealth. After studying philosophy with Lacydes and Prytanis, he became the student and eromenos of the poet Archeboulus. About 221 he was invited by...
  
  
• Eupolis
  Eupolis
  Eupolis was an Athenian poet of the Old Comedy, who flourished during the time of the Peloponnesian War.-Biography:Nothing whatsoever is known of his personal history. There are few sources on when he first appeared on the stage...
  
  
• Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
  
• Evenus of Paros

H

• Hermesianax
  Hermesianax
  Hermesianax of Colophon was an Ancient Greek elegiac poet of the Hellenistic period, said to be a pupil of Philitas of Cos; the dates of his life and work are all but lost, but Philitas is supposed to have been born c. 340....
  
   of Colophon, elegiac poet of the Alexandrian school, flourished about 330 BC
• Hermippus
  Hermippus
  Hermippus was the one-eyed Athenian writer of the Old Comedy who flourished during the Peloponnesian War. He was the son of Lysis, and the brother of the comic poet Myrtilus. He was younger than Telecleides and older than Eupolis and Aristophanes. According to the Suda, he wrote forty plays, and...
  
   the one-eyed, Athenian writer of the Old Comedy, flourished during the Peloponnesian War
  Peloponnesian War
  The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...
  
  .
• Herodas
  Herodas
  thumb|The first column of the Herodas papyrus, showing Mimiamb 1. 1–15.Herodas , or Herondas , was a Greek poet and the author of short humorous dramatic scenes in verse, written under the Alexandrian empire in the 3rd century BC.Apart from the intrinsic merit of these pieces, they are...
  
  
• Hesiod
  Hesiod
  Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
  
  
• Hipponax
  Hipponax
  Hipponax of Ephesus and later Clazomenae was an Ancient Greek iambic poet who composed verses depicting the vulgar side of life in Ionian society in the sixth century BC...
  
  
• Hoganos of Appolonios
• Homer
  Homer
  In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
  
  

I

• Ibycus
  Ibycus
  Ibycus , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet, a citizen of Rhegium in Magna Graecia, probably active at Samos during the reign of the tyrant Polycrates and numbered by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria in the canonical list of nine lyric poets...
  
   (Ἴβυκος), lyric poet of Rhegium in Italy, contemporary of Anacreon
  Anacreon
  Anacreon was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets.- Life :...
  
  , flourished in the 6th century BC; one of the Nine lyric poets
  Nine lyric poets
  The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study.They were:*Alcman of Sparta...
  
  
• Ion of Chios
  Ion of Chios
  Ion of Chios was a Greek writer, dramatist, lyric poet and philosopher. He was a contemporary of Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. Of his many plays and poems only a few titles and fragments have survived...
  
  , dramatist, lyric poet and philosopher, contemporary of Euripides
  Euripides
  Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
  
  
• Iophon
  Iophon
  Iophon was an Greek tragic poet and son of Sophocles.Iophon gained the second prize in tragic competition in 428 BC, Euripides being first, and Ion third...
  
   (flourished 428 BC–405 BC), tragic poet, son of Sophocles
  Sophocles
  Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
  
  
• Isyllus
  Isyllus
  Isyllus was a Spartan poet , whose name was rediscovered in the course of excavations on the site of the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus.An inscription was found engraved on stone, consisting of 72 lines of verse , mainly in the Doric Greek dialect...
  
   poet whose name was rediscovered in the course of excavations on the site of the temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, where an inscription was found engraved on stone, consisting of 72 lines of verse and preceded by two lines of prose giving this author's name

L

• Lasus
  Lasus
  Lasus of Hermione was a Greek lyric poet of the 6th century BC from the city of Hermione in the Argolid. He is known to have been active at Athens under the reign of the Peisistratids. Pseudo-Plutarch's De Musica credits him with innovations in the dithyramb hymn. According to Herodotus, Lasus...
  
   lyric poet of the 6th century BC
• Lesches
  Lesches
  Lesches is a semi-legendary early Greek poet and the reputed author of the Little Iliad. According to the usually accepted tradition, he was a native of Pyrrha in Lesbos, and flourished about 660 BC . Proclus refers to him as "Lesches of Mytilene"...
  
   a semi-legendary poet and reputed author of the Little Iliad
  Little Iliad
  The Little Iliad is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the "Trojan" cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Little Iliad comes chronologically after that of the Aethiopis, and is followed by that of the...
  
  ; traditionally a native of Pyrrha
  Pyrrha
  In Greek mythology, Pyrrha was the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora and wife of Deucalion.When Zeus decided to end the Bronze Age with the great deluge, Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha, were the only survivors...
  
   in Lesbos; flourished about 660 BC (according to others, about 50 years earlier)

M

• Menippus
  Menippus
  Menippus of Gadara, was a Cynic and satirist. His works, which are all lost, were an important influence on Varro and Lucian. The Menippean satire genre is named after him.-Life:...
  
   of Gadara in Coele-Syria
  Coele-Syria
  Coele-Syria , or Cœle-Syria or Celesyria, traditionally given the meaning 'hollow' Syria, was the region of southern Syria disputed between the Seleucid dynasty and the Ptolemaic dynasty. Rather than limiting the Greek term to the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, it is often used to cover the entire area...
  
  , cynic and satirist, flourished 3rd century BC
• Mesomedes
  Mesomedes
  Mesomedes of Crete was a Greek lyric poet and composer of the early 2nd century.He was a freedman of the Emperor Hadrian, on whose favorite Antinous he is said to have written a panegyric, specifically called a Citharoedic Hymn . Two epigrams by him in the Greek Anthology Mesomedes of Crete was a...
  
   lyric poet and composer of the early 2nd century
• Mimnermus
  Mimnermus
  Mimnermus was a Greek elegiac poet from either Colophon or Smyrna in Ionia, who flourished about 630-600 BC. He was strongly influenced by the example of Homer yet he wrote short poems suitable for performance at drinking parties and was remembered by ancient authorities chiefly as a love poet...
  
   of Colophon
  Colophon
  Colophon was a city in the region of Lydia in antiquity dating from about the turn of the first millennium-BC. It was likely one the oldest of the twelve Ionian League cities, between Lebedos and Ephesus and its ruins are in the eponymously named modern region of Ionia.The city's name comes from...
  
  , elegiac poet, flourished about 630-600 BC.
• Moschus
  Moschus
  Moschus , ancient Greek bucolic poet and student of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace, was born at Syracuse and flourished about 150 BC...
  
   bucolic poet and friend of Aristarchus of Samothrace
  Aristarchus of Samothrace
  Aristarchus of Samothrace was a grammarian noted as the most influential of all scholars of Homeric poetry. He was the librarian of the library of Alexandria and seems to have succeeded his teacher Aristophanes of Byzantium in that role.He established the most historically important critical...
  
  , born at Syracuse, flourished about 150 BC.

N

• Naumachius
  Naumachius
  Naumachius was a Greek gnomic poet.Of his poems, seventy-three hexameters are preserved by Stobaeus in his Florilegium; they deal mainly with the duty of a good wife...
  
  
• Nicander
  Nicander
  Nicander of Colophon , Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros, , near Colophon, where his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo. He flourished under Attalus III of Pergamum.He wrote a number of works both in prose and verse, of which two survive complete...
  
  
• Nicarchus
  Nicarchus
  Nicarchus or Nicarch was a Greek poet and writer of the 1st century AD, best known for his epigrams, of which forty-two survive under his name in the Greek Anthology, and his satirical poetry. He was a contemporary of, and influence on, the better-known Latin writer Martial. A large proportion of...
  
  
• Nine lyric poets
  Nine lyric poets
  The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study.They were:*Alcman of Sparta...
  
  
• Nonnus
  Nonnus
  Nonnus of Panopolis , was a Greek epic poet. He was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid, and probably lived at the end of the 4th or early 5th century....
  
  
• Nossis
  Nossis
  Nossis was an ancient Greek woman epigrammist and poet, c. 300 BCE, who lived in Locri. Her epigrams were inspired by Sappho.Twelve epigrams of hers survive in the Greek Anthology....
  
  

O

• Olen (poet)
  Olen (poet)
  Olen was a legendary early poet from Lycia who went to Delos, where his hymns celebrating the first handmaidens of Apollo in the island of the god's birth and other "ancient hymns" were still part of the cult at Delos in the time of Herodotus:...
  
  , early poet from Lycia
  Lycia
  Lycia Lycian: Trm̃mis; ) was a region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey. It was a federation of ancient cities in the region and later a province of the Roman Empire...
  
   who went to Delos
  Delos
  The island of Delos , isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece...
  
  
• Onomacritus
  Onomacritus
  Onomacritus , also known as Onomacritos or Onomakritos, was a Greek chresmologue, or compiler of oracles, who lived at the court of the tyrant Pisistratus in Athens...
  
  , (c. 530 - 480 BC), also known as Onomacritos or Onomakritos, a chresmologue, or compiler of oracles
• Oppian
  Oppian
  Oppian or Oppianus was the name of the authors of two didactic poems in Greek hexameters, formerly identified, but now generally regarded as two different persons: Oppian of Corycus in Cilicia; and Oppian of Apamea in Syria.-Oppian of Corycus:Oppian of Corycus in Cilicia, who flourished in the...
  
   or Oppianus (in Greek, Οππιανος) was the name of the authors of two (or three) didactic poems in Greek hexameters, formerly identified as one poet, but now generally regarded as two:
  • Oppian of Corycus (or Anabarzus) in Cilicia, who flourished in the reign of Marcus Aurelius
  • Oppian of Apamea (or Pella) in Syria. His extant poem on hunting (Cynegetica) is dedicated to the emperor Caracalla, so that it must have been written after 211

P

• Palladas
  Palladas
  Palladas was a Greek poet, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. All that is known about this poet has been deduced from his 151 epigrams preserved in the Greek Anthology....
  
   (flourished 4th century AD) of Alexandria; unknown except for his epigrams in the Greek Anthology
• Panyassis
  Panyassis
  Panyassis of Halicarnassus, sometimes known as Panyasis , was a 5th century BC Greek epic poet, famous for the Heracleia and the Ionica. It is believed that he also wrote other works which have since been lost. He was critically unappreciated during his lifetime, but was posthumously recognised as...
  
   of Halicarnassus (sometimes known as Panyasis), 5th century BC epic poet, wrote the Heracleia and the Ionica
• Parthenius of Nicaea
  Parthenius of Nicaea
  Parthenius of Nicaea or Myrlea in Bithynia was a Greek grammarian and poet. According to the Suda, he was the son of Heraclides and Eudora, or according to Hermippus of Berytus, his mother's name was Tetha. He was taken prisoner by Cinna in the Mithridatic Wars and carried to Rome in 72 BC. He...
  
   of Nicaea in Bithynia; grammarian and poet taken prisoner in the Mithridatic Wars and carried to Rome in 72 BC. He taught Virgil
  Virgil
  Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
  
   Greek.
• Peisander
  Peisander
  Peisander of Camirus in Rhodes, Ancient Greek epic poet, supposed to have flourished about 640 BC.He was the author of a Heracleia - Ἡράκλεια, in which he introduced a new conception of the hero Heracles costume, the lions skin and club taking the place of the older armor of the heroic era. He is...
  
   of Camirus in Rhodes, epic poet who flourished about 640 BC.
• Phanocles
  Phanocles
  Phanocles, Greek elegiac poet, probably flourished about the time of Alexander the Great.His extant fragments show resemblances in style and language to Philitas of Cos, Callimachus and Hermesianax...
  
   elegiac poet who probably flourished about the time of Alexander the Great
• Pherecrates
  Pherecrates
  Pherecrates, was an Greek poet of Athenian Old Comedy, and a rough contemporary of Cratinus, Crates and Aristophanes. He was victorious at least once at the City Dionysia, first probably in the mid-440s Pherecrates, was an Greek poet of Athenian Old Comedy, and a rough contemporary of Cratinus,...
  
   Athenian Old Comedy poet and rough contemporary of Cratinus, Crates and Aristophanes.
• Philemon (poet)
  Philemon (poet)
  Philemon ; was an Athenian poet and playwright of the New Comedy. He was born either at Soli in Cilicia or at Syracuse in Sicily but moved to Athens some time before 330 BC, when he is known to have been producing plays....
  
   (c. 362 BC – c. 262 BC) Athenian New Comedy poet and playwright born either at Soli in Cilicia or at Syracuse in Sicily but moved to Athens some time before 330 BC
• Philitas of Cos
  Philitas of Cos
  Philitas of Cos , sometimes spelled Philetas , was a scholar and poet during the early Hellenistic period of ancient Greece. A Greek associated with Alexandria, he flourished in the second half of the 4th century BC and was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of Ptolemaic Egypt...
  
   (c. 340 – c. 285 BC), Alexandrian poet and critic, founder of the Alexandrian school of poetry
• Philoxenus of Cythera
  Philoxenus of Cythera
  Philoxenus of Cythera was a Greek dithyrambic poet, an exponent of the "new music."On the conquest of the island by the Athenians he was taken as a slave to Athens, where he came into the possession of the dithyrambic poet Melanippides, who educated him and set him free...
  
   (435 BC–380 BC) a dithyrambic poet
• Phocylides
  Phocylides
  Phocylides , Greek gnomic poet of Miletus, contemporary of Theognis of Megara, was born about 560 BC.A few fragments of his "maxims" have survived , in which he expresses his contempt for the pomps and vanities of rank and wealth, and sets forth in simple language his ideas of honour, justice and...
  
   gnomic poet of Miletus, contemporary of Theognis of Megara, born about 560 BC.
• Phrynichus (comic poet), poet of the Old Attic comedy and contemporary of Aristophanes, flourished around 429 BC
• Pindar
  Pindar
  Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
  
  
• Plato (comic poet)
  Plato (comic poet)
  Plato was an Athenian comic poet and contemporary of Aristophanes. None of his plays survive intact, but the titles of thirty of them are known, including a Hyperbolus , Victories , Cleophon , and Phaon . The titles suggest that his themes were often political...
  
  
• Polyeidos (poet)
  Polyeidos (poet)
  Polyeidos was an ancient Greek dithyrambic poet who was also skillful as a painter; he seems to have been esteemed almost as highly as Timotheus, whom one of his pupils, Philotas, once conquered in competition. It seems from a passage of Plutarch Polyeidos (Greek: ) (ca. 400 BCE) was an ancient...
  
  
• Poseidippus of Pella
• Poseidippus of Cassandreia
  Poseidippus of Cassandreia
  Posidippus of Cassandreia , Poseidippos, 316 BC – ca. 250 BC) son of Cyniscus, a Macedonian who lived in Athens, was a celebrated comic poet of the New Comedy. He produced his first play in the third year after Menander had died, . Cooks held an important position in his list of characters...
  
  
• Pratinas
  Pratinas
  Pratinas was one of the earliest tragic poets of Athens, he was a native of Phlius in Peloponnesus. About 500 BC he competed with Choerilus and Aeschylus, when the latter made his first appearance as a writer for the stage....
  
  
• Praxilla
  Praxilla
  Praxilla of Sicyon, was a Greek lyric poet of the 5th century BC. She was a contemporary of Telesilla. Antipater of Thessalonica lists her first among his canon of nine 'immortal-tongued' women poets She was highly esteemed in her time. Evidence of this is shown in that Lysippus, a famous...
  
  

R

• Rhyanus poet and grammarian, native of Crete
  Crete
  Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
  
  , friend and contemporary of Eratosthenes (275—195 BC)

S

• Sappho
  Sappho
  Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
  
   (Attic Greek Σαπφώ, Aeolic Greek Ψάπφω) lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos
• Semonides iambic poet, flourished in the middle of the 7th century BC, native of Samos
• Simonides of Ceos
  Simonides of Ceos
  Simonides of Ceos was a Greek lyric poet, born at Ioulis on Kea. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets, along with Bacchylides and Pindar...
  
   (ca. 556 BC-469 BC), lyric poet born at Ioulis on Kea; named one of the Nine lyric poets
  Nine lyric poets
  The nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study.They were:*Alcman of Sparta...
  
  
• Solon
  Solon
  Solon was an Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens...
  
   (Greek: Σόλων, ca. 638 BC–558 BC. Pronounced sŏ'lōn), famous Athenian lawmaker and lyric poet
• Sositheus
  Sositheus
  Sositheus , Greek tragic poet, of Alexandria Troas, a member of the Alexandrian "pleiad".He must have resided at some time in Athens, since Diogenes Laërtius tells us that he attacked the Stoic Cleanthes on the stage, and was hissed off by the audience...
  
  
• Sotades
  Sotades
  Sotades was an Ancient Greek poet.Sotades was born in Maroneia, either the one in Thrace, or in Crete. He was the chief representative of the writers of obscene and even pederastic satirical poems, called Kinaidoi, composed in the Ionic dialect and in the "sotadic" metre named after him...
  
  
• Stasinus
  Stasinus
  According to some ancient authorities, Stasinus of Cyprus, a semi-legendary early Greek poet, was the author of the Cypria, in eleven books, one of the poems belonging to the Epic Cycle that narrated the War of Troy...
  
  
• Stesichorus
  Stesichorus
  Stesichorus was the first great poet of the Greek West. He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres but he is also famous for some ancient traditions about his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris, and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing...
  
  
• Susarion
  Susarion
  Susarion, an Archaic Greek comic poet, was a native of Tripodiscus in Megaris and is considered one of the originators of metrical comedy and, by others, he was considered the founder of Attic Comedy."The claim from the Megarian side that comedy developed there in the time of their democracy seems...
  
  
• Syagrus (legendary poet)
  Syagrus (legendary poet)
  Syagrus is a legendary ancient Greek oral poet. He is said in a traditional list to have been a rival of Homer; elsewhere it is said that he followed Orpheus and Musaeus in chronological sequence and was the first maker of an epic on the Trojan War...
  
  

T

• Telecleides
  Telecleides
  Telecleides was an Athenian Old Comic poet, and dates to the 440s and 430s BCE. Only six titles and a few fragments of his plays survive. One of his plays was The Amphictyons, in which Telecleides presented a Golden Age of impossibly effortless plenty....
  
   poet of comedy in the 5th century BC, and violent opponent of Pericles
• Telesilla
  Telesilla
  Telesilla was a Greek poet, native of Argos, and was named one of the nine lyric muses.-History:According to the traditional story, when Cleomenes, king of Sparta, invaded the land of the Argives in 510 BC, and defeated and killed the men of Argos in battle, Telesilla, dressed in men's clothes,...
  
  , poetess, native of Argos, named one of the nine lyric muses
• Terpander
  Terpander
  Terpander , of Antissa in Lesbos, was a Greek poet and citharede who lived about the first half of the 7th century BC.About the time of the Second Messenian War, he settled in Sparta, whither, according to some accounts, he had been summoned by command of the Delphic Oracle, to compose the...
  
   of Antissa in Lesbos; poet and citharode who lived about the first half of the 7th century BC
• Theocritus
  Theocritus
  Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.-Life:Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems commonly attributed to him have little claim to...
  
  
• Theodectes
  Theodectes
  Theodectes was a Greek rhetorician and tragic poet, of Phaselis in Lycia who lived in the period which followed the Peloponnesian War. Along with the continual decay of political and religious life, tragedy sank more and more into mere rhetorical display. The school of Isocrates produced the...
  
  
• Theognis of Megara
  Theognis of Megara
  Theognis of Megara was an ancient Greek poet active sometime in the sixth century BC. The work attributed to him consists of gnomic poetry quite typical of the time, featuring ethical maxims and practical advice about life...
  
  
• Thespis
  Thespis
  Thespis of Icaria , according to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, was the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor playing a character in a play...
  
  
• Thestorides of Phocaea
  Thestorides of Phocaea
  Thestorides of Phocaea was a legendary or semi-legendary early Greek poet, one of those to whom the epic Little Iliad was ascribed.Thestorides figures as a major character in the fictional Life of Homer fraudulently ascribed to Herodotus...
  
  
• Tyrtaeus
  Tyrtaeus
  Tyrtaeus was a Greek poet who composed verses in Sparta around the time of the Second Messenian War, the date of which isn't clearly establishedsometime in the latter part of the seventh century BC...
  
  

See also

• Ancient Greek literature
  Ancient Greek literature
  Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Ancient Greek language until the 4th century.- Classical and Pre-Classical Antiquity :...
  
  
• Lists of poets
• List of Modern Greek poets