MINNERMUS, an ancient poet and musician, flourished about the beginning of the sixth century B.C. He was of Smyrna, and contemporary with Solon. Athenæus gives him the invention of pentameter verse. His elegies, of which only a few fragments are preserved, were so much admired in antiquity, that Horace preferred them to those of Callimachus. He composed a poem of this kind, as we learn from Pausanias, upon the battle fought between the people of Smyrna, Minnermus, and the Lydians under Gyges. He likewise was author of a poem in elegiac verse, quoted by Strabo, which he entitled Nemo, and in which we may suppose he chiefly celebrated a young and beautiful girl of that name, who, according to Athenæus, was a player on the flute, with whom he was enamoured in his old age. With respect to love matters, according to Propertius, his verses were more valuable than all the writings of Homer.

Plur in amore valet Minnermi versus Homero.

Lib. I. Eleg. ix. v. 11.

And Horace bears testimony to his abilities in describing that seducing passion:

Si Minnermus uti censet, sine amore jocisque Nil est jucundum, vivas in amore jocisque.

Lib. I. Epist. vi. v. 65.

If, as wise Minnermus said, Life unblest with love and joy Ranks us with the senseless dead, Let these gifts each hour employ.

Alluding to some much admired lines of the Greek poet, which have been preserved by Stobæus:

Τίς δ' ἔστι, τίς δ' ὑπὸ τοῦτο καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς Ἀφεδρότατος, &c.

What is life and all its pride, If love and pleasure be denied? Snatch, snatch me hence, ye Fates, whene'er The amorous bliss I cease to share. Oh let us crop each fragrant flow'r While youth and vigour give us pow'r: For frozen age will soon destroy The force to give or take a joy; And then, a prey to pain and care, Detested by the young and fair, The sun's best beams will hateful grow, And only shine on scenes of woe.