Anyte

Little is known of her life, but twenty-four epigrams attributed to her are preserved in the Greek Anthology, and one is quoted by Julius Pollux; nineteen of these are generally accepted as authentic.

[1] Twenty-five epigrams attributed to Anyte in antiquity survive,[5] one quoted by Julius Pollux and the remainder in the Palatine or Planudean Anthology.

[16] It is often interested in women and children, and Kathryn Gutzwiller argues that it was deliberately composed in opposition to traditional epigrams, which were by anonymous authors and from a masculine and urban perspective.

[22] For instance, Anyte's epigram 6, an epitaph dedicated to the unmarried Antibia, repeatedly echoes phrases from the Iliad and Odyssey.

[23] She also echoes Homer in her frequent use of compound adjectives, such as her description of the poikilodeiros ("with a neck of many colours") snake in epigram 10.

[24] Her work references Hesiod,[25] archaic Greek lyric and Attic drama,[3] and shows evidence that she was familiar with the epigrams of Simonides of Ceos and Anacreon.

[27] Anyte's pastoral poems and epitaphs for pets were important innovations, with both genres becoming standards in Hellenistic poetry.

[28] Her pastoral works may have influenced Theocritus, and both Ovid and Marcus Argentarius wrote adaptations of her poems;[28] the epigrammatist Mnasalces produced an epigram collection in imitation of Anyte.

[29] Mary Maxwell suggests that the style of the Augustan poet Sulpicia was influenced by Anyte and her contemporary, Nossis.