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Callinus (, Kallinos; fl. mid-7th c. BC) was an ancient Greek elegiac couplet poet who lived in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor in the mid-7th century BC. His poetry is representative of the genre of martial exhortation elegy in which Tyrtaeus also specialized and which both Archilochus and Mimnermus appear to have composed.. Along with these poets, all his near contemporaries, Callinus was considered the inventor of the elegiac couplet by some ancient critics.. Cf. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.21.131, "Semonides is assigned to the era of Archilochus; Callinus is not much older" (Σιμωνίδης sic μὲν οὖν κατὰ Ἀρχίλοχον φέρεται, Καλλῖνος δὲ πρεσβύτερος οὐ μακρῷ, cf. Orion, Etymologia s.v. ἔλεγος), and Terentianus 1721–2,"People are unsure who was the first author to fashion the pentameter: some do not hesitate to say it was Callinus" ( Pentametrum dubitant quis primus finxerit auctor: quidam non dubitant dicere Callinoum).
He resided in Ephesus in Asia Minor.Herodian, De orthographia s.v. Καλλῖνος, Photius, Bibliotheca cod. 239, p. 319b12. He is supposed to have flourished between the invasion of Asia Minor by the Cimmerians and their expulsion by Alyattes (630–560 BC). During his lifetime his own countrymen were also engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Ancient Magnesia. These two events give the key to his poetry, in which he endeavours to rouse the indolent Ionians to a sense of patriotism.
Only a few fragments of the Callinus' poetry have survived. One of the longest fragments, consisting of 21 lines of verse, is a patriotic exhortation to his fellow Ephesians urging them to fight the invading Cimmerians, who were menacing the Greek colonies in Asia Minor:
| It is honorable and splendid for a man to fight for his country and children and wedded wife against enemies, but death will come whenever the Moirai so spin. | τιμῆέν τε γάρ ἐστι καὶ ἀγλαὸν ἀνδρὶ μάχεσθαι γῆς πέρι καὶ παίδων κουριδίης τ' ἀλόχου δυσμενέσιν· θάνατος δὲ τότ' ἔσσεται, ὁππότε κεν δὴ Μοῖραι ἐπικλώσωσ᾽.Callinus fr. 1.6–9. |
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