Moero or Myro ( el, Μοιρώ and Μυρώ) was a woman

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

of the

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

from the city of Byzantium. She was the wife of Andromachus Philologus and the mother – the

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

says daughter, but this is less likely – of the tragedian Homerus of Byzantium. Moero was probably active during the late fourth and early third centuries BC. Little of Moero's poetry has survived. Ten lines from her epic poem ''Mnemosyne'' are quoted by

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of t ...

, and

Meleager In Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, th ...

includes two four-line epigrams in his ''Garland''. Additionally, she is known to have written a poem called ''Arai'' ("Curses"). This is known only through a scholion on

Parthenius of Nicaea Parthenius of Nicaea ( el, Παρθένιος ὁ Νικαεύς) or Myrlea ( el, ὁ Μυρλεανός) 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 ...

's ''Erotica Pathemata'', which notes that the myth of Alcinoe is told in Moero's ''Curses''. Finally, Eustathios mentions that she wrote a hymn to Poseidon. The surviving fragment of Moero's ''Mnemonsyne'' tells the story of Zeus' childhood on Crete, where he had been hidden by his mother Rhea to save him from being killed by his father Cronus. Like the surviving fragment of Corinna's poem on the contest between Cithaeron and Helicon (PMG 654 col. i), it retells an episode of Zeus' early life to emphasise the role of women. One of her surviving epigrams is addressed to a bunch of grapes; the other asks some dryads to protect a man who has carved a statuette for them. Moero seems to have had a high reputation as a poet in antiquity. Antipater of Thessalonica includes her in his list of famous women poets,Fernandez Robbio, Matías S. (2014) «''Musas y escritoras: el primer canon de la literatura femenina de la Grecia antigua (AP IX 26)''». Praesentia, v. 15, 2014, pp. 1-9. ISSN (en línea): 1316-1857.
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and Meleager's proem to his ''Garland'' refers to her as a "lily", putting her alongside

Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied ...

and Anyte. According to Tatian, Cephisodotus, the son of

Praxiteles Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubi ...

, sculpted her. Two epigrams which refer to Moero, composed by Anyte and

Marcus Argentarius Marcus Argentarius ( grc-gre, Μάρκος Ἀργεντάριος; fl. ) was a Greek epigrammatist. Some thirty-seven epigrams are attributed to Marcus in the '' Greek Anthology'', most of which are erotic, and some are plays on words. Stylist ...

, survive in the Greek Anthology, and may be a reworking of a now-lost poem by Moero.

References

Works cited

* * * * {{Authority control 3rd-century BC women writers 3rd-century BC writers 3rd-century BC Greek people 3rd-century BC poets Ancient Byzantines Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology Ancient Greek epic poets Ancient Greek elegiac poets Ancient Greek lyric poets Ancient Greek women poets Women satirists 3rd-century BC Greek women