Biography
Callinus (Ancient Greek: Καλλῖνος, Kallinos) was an ancient Greek elegiac 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.[1] Along with these poets, all his near contemporaries, Callinus was considered the inventor of the elegiac couplet by some ancient critics.[2]
He resided in Ephesus in Asia Minor.[3]
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
