First Poetesses: The Code of Ancient Greek Women’s Poetry

Sappho, Myrtis, Telesilla, and others

The phenomenon of women writing poetry first arose in Аncient Greece. Alexandrian scholars established the canon of Greek poetesses, which included Sappho, Myrtis, Telesilla, Praxilla, Corinna, Erinna, Anyte, Nossis, and Moero (from the seventh to the third century B. C.). But there were also poetesses outside this canon, such as Hedyle, Philinna, Melinno, Julia Balbilla, Caecilia Trebulla, Damo, Cleopatra, Theosebeia, and Eudocia Augusta (third century B. C. to the fifth century A. D.). The Code of Ancient Greek Women’s Poetry is the first complete edition of these canonical and non-canonical poetesses and their works in Ukrainian translation. It contains over 350 poetic texts and fragments from Sappho to Eudocia Augusta, i. e., from the priestess to the empress. This collection of the entirecorpora of ancient Greek women’s poetry was compiled from classical anthologies and is substantially supplemented by recent epigraphic and papyrological publications.