Hippōnax

, a Greek poet born at Ephesus, 540 years before the christian era. He cultivated the same satirical poetry as Archil och us, and was not inferior to him in the beauty or vigour of his lines. His satirical raillery obliged him to fly from Ephesus. As he was naturally deformed, two brothers, Buphalus and An therm us, made a statue of him, which, by the deformity of its features, exposed the poet to universal ridicule. Hipponax resolved to avenge the injury, and he wrote such bitter invectives and satirical lampoons against them, that they hanged themselves in despair. Cicero , Letters to his Friends , bk. 7 , ltr. 24 .