Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer's portrait of Moero for Les Kitharèdes by Renée Vivien

Moero (Greek: Μοιρώ) or Myro (Greek: Μυρώ) was a woman poet of the Hellenistic period from the city of Byzantium. She was the wife of Andromachus Philologus and the mother – the Suda says daughter, but this is less likely – of the tragedian Homerus of Byzantium. Moero was probably active during the late fourth and early third centuries BC.^[1]

Little of Moero's poetry has survived. Ten lines from her epic poem Mnemosyne are quoted by Athenaeus, and though Meleager mentions "many" epigrams by Moero in the introductory poem to his Garland, only two four-line poems remain in the Greek Anthology.^[2][3] She also wrote a poem called Arai ("Curses"). This is known only through a scholion on Parthenius of Nicaea's Erotica Pathemata, which notes that the myth of Alcinoe is told in it.^[4] Finally, Eustathios mentions that she wrote a hymn to Poseidon.^[2]

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.^[5] Like the surviving fragment of Corinna's poem on the contest between Cithaeron and Helicon (PMG 654 col. i), it retells an episode of Zeus' early life to emphasise the role of women.^[6] One of Moero's surviving epigrams is addressed to a bunch of grapes; the other asks some dryads to protect a man who has carved a statuette for them.^[7] Judging by her surviving poetry, Moero's work explored motherhood, women's responsibilities to their families, and female sexual desire.^[8]

Moero seems to have had a high reputation as a poet in antiquity.^[9] Antipater of Thessalonica 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 Sappho and Anyte.^[1] According to Tatian, Cephisodotus, the son of Praxiteles, sculpted her.^[1] Two epigrams which refer to Moero, composed by Anyte and Marcus Argentarius, survive in the Greek Anthology, and may be a reworking of a now-lost poem by Moero.^[10] In the twentieth century, Moero was referenced by the imagist poet H. D. in her poem "Nossis" and novel Palimpsest,^[11] and was included in Judy Chicago's Heritage Floor.^[12]

References

Works cited

• Bowman, Laurel (2019). "Hidden Figures: The Women Who Wrote Epigram". In Henriksén, Christer (ed.). A Companion to Ancient Epigram. Blackwell.
• "Moero of Byzantium". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
• Gregory, Eileen (1997). H. D. and Hellenism: Classic Lines. Cambridge University Press.
• Gutzwiller, Kathryn (2007). A Guide to Hellenistic Literature. Blackwell. ISBN 9780470690185.
• Gutzwiller, Kathryn (2016). "Moero". In Sider, David (ed.). Hellenistic Poetry: A Selection. University of Michigan Press.
• Natoli, Bartolo A.; Pitts, Angela; Hallett, Judith P. (2022). Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome. Routledge.
• Plant, I. M. (2004). Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology. University of Oklahoma Press.
• Skinner, Marylin B. (2005). "Homer's Mother". In Greene, Ellen (ed.). Women Poets in Ancient Greece and Rome. University of Oklahoma Press.