Phanocles


Phanocles was a Greek elegiac poet who 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. He was the author of a poem on pederasty, entitled Loves or Beautiful Boys. A lengthy fragment in Stobaeus describes the love of Orpheus for the youthful Calaîs, son of Boreas, and his subsequent death at the hands of the Thracian women. It is one of the best extant specimens of Greek elegiac poetry.