Mimnermus

, a Greek poet and musician of Colophon in the age of Solon. He chiefly excelled in elegiac poetry, whence some have attributed the invention of it to him; and, indeed, he was the poet who made elegy an amorous poem, instead of a mournful and melancholy tale. In the expre ion of love, Pro pert i us prefers him to Homer, as this verse shows: Plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero . In his old age Mimnermus became enamoured of a young girl called Nanno. Some few fragments of his poetry remain, collected by Stobæus. He is supposed by some to be the inventor of the pentameter verse, which others, however, attribute to Call in us or Archil och us. The surname of Ligustiades , λιγυς ( shrill-voiced ), has been applied to him, though some imagine the word to be the name of his father. Strabo , bks. 1 & 14.— Pausanias , bk. 9 , ch. 29 .— Diogenes Laërtius , bk. 1 .— Pro pert i us , bk. 1 , poem 9, li. 11 .— Horace , bk. 1 , ltr. 6 , li. 65 .