Antimăchus in Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities

Antimăchus （Ἀντίμαχος). A Greek poet and critic of Colophon, an elder contemporary of Plato, about B.C. 400. By his two principal works-the long mythical epic called Thebaïs (Quint.x. 1） and a cycle of elegies named after his loved and lost Lydé, and telling of famous lovers parted by death -he became the founder of learned poetry, precursor and prototype of the Alexandrians, who, on account of his learning, assigned him the next place to Homer among epic poets. (See Canon Alexandrinus.) In striving to impart strength and dignity to language by avoiding all that was common, his style became rigid and artificial, and naturally ran into bombast. But we possess only fragments of his works. As a scholar, he is remarkable for having set on foot a critical revision of the Homeric poems. See Homerus.

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