Greek Poets

  • Homer
    750 BCE

    Homer

    Homer, presumed author of the Iliad and Odyssey was one of the great poets despite of his blindness
  • Hesiod
    700 BCE

    Hesiod

    Hesiod, was known to be the “father of Greek didactic poetry.” Two of his complete epics have survived, the Theogony, relating the myths of the gods, and the Works and Days, describing peasant life.
  • Archilochus
    650 BCE

    Archilochus

    Archilochus, poet and soldier, the earliest Greek who wrote iambic, elegiac, and personal lyric poetry was one of the poets who writes about physical ability.
  • Solon
    630 BCE

    Solon

    Solon, Athenian statesman, known as one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. He was also a noted poet. He also laid the foundation of democracy in Athens.
  • Alcaeus
    620 BCE

    Alcaeus

    Alcaeus is a Greek lyric poet whose work was highly esteemed in the ancient world. He lived at the same time and in the same city as the poet Sappho.
  • Sappho
    610 BCE

    Sappho

    Sappho is a Greek lyric poet greatly admired in all ages for the beauty of her writing style. She ranks with Archilochus and Alcaeus, for her ability to impress readers with a lively sense of her personality.
  • Anacreon
    582 BCE

    Anacreon

    Anacreon is an ancient Greek lyric poet who wrote in the Ionic dialect. Only fragments of his verse have survived. Some of his works are Old Age and The Wiser Part.
  • Xenophanes
    560 BCE

    Xenophanes

    Xenophanes, Greek poet and rhapsode, religious thinker, and reputed precursor of the Eleatic school of philosophy, provides philosophical basis for the development of monotheism.