Myrtis (fl. early 5th c. bce)

Poet of the early 5th century bce, probably from Boeotia .

The earliest known Boeotian poet, Myrtis taught the craft of poetry to the more famous Pindar and Corinna . Although Pindar is better known to posterity than Corinna, Myrtis' students were frequent rivals in literary contests and Corinna is said to have defeated her more famous rival several times in head-to-head competition. After one such loss, Pindar angrily referred to his feminine nemesis as a "sow." Long after all of the principals were dead, it was alleged that Corinna's stunning beauty, not her poetry, was what led to Pindar's defeat, but such rationalizations for a woman's victory over a celebrated masculine rival were easily invented after the fact in antiquity. Whatever qualities as a poet Myrtis possessed (her work is lost), Corinna thought herself far superior to her teacher in talent, and perhaps rightfully so, since Corinna published some 50 books of poetry and had a statue erected in Tanagra, the Boeotian village of her birth. Nevertheless, Myrtis' contemporary fame was enough to attract to her school some of the best poetic talent of her time. Antipater of Thessalonica, writer of epigrams, described her poetry as "sweet-sounding." Corinna referred to the poet as "clear-voiced." A 2nd-century Christian writer, Tatian, wrote of a statue of Myrtis by the sculptor Boiscus.

The only known details of Myrtis' work come from the second-century Greek writer Plutarch, who wrote a prose-narrative paraphrase of her poem about a girl named Ochna. After being jilted by her lover Eunostus, Ochna falsely accuses him of rape. Her brother kills the innocent man and Ochna, overcome with guilt and grief, commits suicide by jumping off a cliff. The scenario is typical of Greek lyric poetry, which often laments lost love.

William Greenwalt , Associate Professor of Classical History, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California