The Ancient Mediterranean didn’t produce many women writers: society left little room for girls’ education and artistic creativity. One important exception was the Hellenistic poet Anyte (writing about 300 BCE), whose epitaphs survive as poignant markers of moments of grief felt by people now long-dead. Compared to her male contemporaries, Anyte’s subjects included more women and girls, and her poems also featured beautiful rural backgrounds rather than urban landscapes. One of Anyte’s epitaphs is a not-serious but extremely charming poem featuring the sadness of a young girl over the loss of two bugs she was keeping as pets: “for her grasshopper (nightingale of the fields) and her cicada (dweller in the oak), Mylo made a common tomb; the girl shed maidenly tears, for Hades, who is hard to persuade, twice came and took away her playthings.” Sculpture of a young girl is from c. 200 BCE.
Source(s): Translation by Jane McIntosh Synder, _Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome_.
