Myrtis of Anthedon


Myrtis of Anthedon was an ancient Greek poet and is purported to be the teacher of Pindar of Thebes and Corinna of Tanagra. Scholars believe that she was the earliest in the line of lyric poets who emerged from the district of Boeotia.
Of Myrtis’ poetry, all that is known can be surmised from Plutarch's paraphrase of one of her prose poems. 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, Myrtis was called “sweet-sounding” by Antipater of Thessalonica 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, a 2nd-century AD travelling rhetorician and Christian apologist, said that a bronze statue of Myrtis was made by the sculptor Boïscus, otherwise unknown.

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