Moero

Moero or Myro (<a href="/facts/Greek_language/pzDd6eIz">Greek</a>: Μυρώ) was a woman <a href="/facts/Poet/KpH2BTgg">poet</a> of the <a href="/facts/Hellenistic_period/q6BgQsaF">Hellenistic period</a> from the city of <a href="/facts/Byzantium/BxG3nhnt">Byzantium</a>. She was the wife of Andromachus Philologus and the mother – the <a href="/facts/Suda/qXBhyANI">Suda</a> says daughter, but this is less likely – of the tragedian <a href="/facts/Homerus_of_Byzantium/0X4Ks9IK">Homerus of Byzantium</a>. Moero was probably active during the late fourth and early third centuries BC.
Little of Moero's poetry has survived. Ten lines from her epic poem Mnemosyne are quoted by <a href="/facts/Athenaeus/qDV1DyQ9">Athenaeus</a>, and though <a href="/facts/Meleager_of_Gadara/78GCUThT">Meleager</a> mentions "many" epigrams by Moero in the introductory poem to his Garland, only two four-line poems remain in the <a href="/facts/Greek_Anthology/gAL32Qj3">Greek Anthology</a>. She also wrote a poem called Arai ("Curses"). This is known only through a <a href="/facts/Scholion/BRmywf2t">scholion</a> on <a href="/facts/Parthenius_of_Nicaea/zA9Srhuu">Parthenius of Nicaea</a>'s Erotica Pathemata, which notes that the myth of <a href="/facts/Alcino%C3%AB_of_Corinth/B4L9Uz4a">Alcinoë</a> is told in it. Finally, <a href="/facts/Eustathius_of_Thessalonica/JR8AltHe">Eustathios</a> mentions that she wrote a hymn to Poseidon.
The surviving fragment of Moero's Mnemonsyne tells the story of Zeus' childhood on Crete, where he had been hidden by his mother Rhea to save him from being killed by his father Cronus. Like the surviving fragment of <a href="/facts/Corinna/0TKe8eBv">Corinna</a>'s <a href="/facts/Contest_of_Cithaeron_and_Helicon/MVa04LXK">poem on the contest between Cithaeron and Helicon</a> (PMG 654 col. i), it retells an episode of Zeus' early life to emphasise the role of women. Moero's surviving epigrams are stylistically similar to the works of <a href="/facts/Anyte/V9YQJmlS">Anyte</a>. One is addressed to a <a href="/facts/Bunch_of_grapes/hNpla4IF">bunch of grapes</a>; the other asks some dryads to protect a man who has carved a statuette for them. The latter is imitated by Hermocreon (AP 9.327). Judging by her surviving poetry, Moero's work explored motherhood, women's responsibilities to their families, and female sexual desire.
Moero seems to have had a high reputation as a poet in antiquity. <a href="/facts/Antipater_of_Thessalonica/MA3meySJ">Antipater of Thessalonica</a> includes her in his list of famous women poets, and Meleager's proem to his Garland refers to her as a "lily", putting her alongside <a href="/facts/Sappho/Uaw6mHyJ">Sappho</a> and Anyte. According to Tatian, <a href="/facts/Cephisodotus_the_Younger/0hnu4T0C">Cephisodotus</a>, the son of <a href="/facts/Praxiteles/8xG7jk9L">Praxiteles</a>, sculpted her. Two epigrams which refer to Moero, composed by <a href="/facts/Anyte/V9YQJmlS">Anyte</a> and <a href="/facts/Marcus_Argentarius/vbKmkFyX">Marcus Argentarius</a>, survive in the Greek Anthology, and may be a reworking of a now-lost poem by Moero. In the twentieth century, Moero was referenced by the <a href="/facts/Imagist/cHbUWbPJ">imagist</a> poet <a href="/facts/H._D./mKD59vzd">H. D.</a> in her poem "Nossis" and novel Palimpsest, and was included in <a href="/facts/Judy_Chicago/hIxoVgdS">Judy Chicago</a>'s Heritage Floor.

Moero open-in-new

Moero