Leonidas of Taranto

Leonidas of Taranto (born in 320 BC) is a Greek poet, author of epigrams.

Gadary's Meleager placed in his anthology the epigrams of about 60 BC. more than a hundred poems by Leonidas. Thanks to this, from the originated around 900 in Byzantine so-called. The Palatinate Anthology, we can learn the work of this outstanding poet. Two poems survived by Stobajos, and one survived by papyrus.

Leonidas' themes for his works were mainly drawn from the lives of poor people: craftsmen, fishermen, and laborers. He described the life of the poor in various cities of Great Greece. Hence he is supposed to be a poor wanderer. The life and work of simple people Leonidas described elaborate and sophisticated style using often rare words and creating neologisms. In his descriptions of nature, there is an effect of Anyte from Tegea. Part of the epigrams concerns works of art and literary works, while in Leonidas's work there are no typical poetry, poetry, and erotic themes.

The influence of Leonidas is visible in Greek epigrams until the 6th century. They knew and admired him Roman poets: Propercius, Virgil, Ovid. They were using their motifs to create epigrams. Bibliography

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