Myrtis of Anthedon (Ancient Greek: Μύρτις) (6th century BC) was an ancient Greek poet from Anthedon, a town in Boeotia. She was said to have taught the poets Pindar and Corinna. The only surviving record of her poetry is a paraphrase by Plutarch. In antiquity she was included by Antipater of Thessalonica in his canon of nine female poets, and a bronze statue of her was reportedly made by Boïscus.

Life

Myrtis was from Anthedon, a small town in Boeotia, and is the earliest poet known to have come from this area of Greece.^[1] She dates to the sixth century BC,^[2] and was purported to be the teacher of Pindar of Thebes and Corinna of Tanagra.^[1]^[3]

Poetry

All that is known of Myrtis' poetry can be surmised from Plutarch's paraphrase of one of her poems.^[4]^[1]^[3] 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 Tanagra.^[1] In Myrtis' poem a woman named Ochna, Eunostos' cousin, was rejected by him and so told her brothers that Eunostos had raped her. The brothers killed Eunostus but were then taken captive by his father. Ochna then confessed that she had lied; her brothers were allowed to go into exile, and Ochna jumped off of a cliff to her death.^[1]

Corinna criticized Myrtis, as a woman, for venturing to compete with Pindar.^[5] This may reflect similarities between Pindar's and Myrtis's poetry in genre, style, or subject matter.^[3] Perhaps Myrtis therefore wrote on Panhellenic rather than local myths, though the poem described by Plutarch is of local interest and does not reflect this.^[6] Alternatively, Diane Rayor suggests that Corinna's criticism of Myrtis was due to her poetry being about male heroes, or for a male audience.^[7]

Reception

Myrtis was called "sweet-sounding" by Antipater of Thessalonica, who includes her in his canon of nine female poets, and "clear-voiced" by Corinna.^[1] 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.^[8]^[1]^[3] A fresco from Pompeii, now lost, is thought to show Corinna, Pindar, and Myrtis.^[9] She is included on Judy Chicago's Heritage Floor.^[10]

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Snyder 1989, pp. 40–41.
^ Natoli, Pitts & Hallett 2022, p. 60
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Plant 2004, pp. 36–37.
^ Plutarch, Greek Questions 40
^ Segal 1989, pp. 198–200.
^ Kirkwood 1974, p. 178
^ Rayor 1993, p. 229
^ Tatian, Address to the Greeks 33
^ Thorsen 2020, pp. 12–13
^ "Myrtis of Anthedon". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 19 January 2024.

Sources

Kirkwood, G. M. (1974). Early Greek Monody: The History of a Poetic Type. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Natoli, Bartolo A.; Pitts, Angela; Hallett, Judith P. (2022). Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome. Routledge.
Plant, Ian Michael, ed. (2004). Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology. London: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3621-9.
Rayor, Diane (1993). "Korinna: Gender and the Narrative Tradition". Arethusa. 26 (3): 219–231. JSTOR 26309654.
Segal, Charles (1989). "7 Choral Lyric in the Fifth Century". In Easterling, P.E.; Knox, B.M.W. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Classical Literature – Early Greek Poetry (Volume 1, Part 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 181–203. ISBN 9780521359818.
Snyder, Jane McIntosh (1989). The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809317066.
Thorsen, Thea S. (2020). "'Divine Corinna': Pre-Twentieth Century Receptions of an Artistic Authority" (PDF). EuGeStA. 10.

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