(Μίμνερμος), a celebrated elegiac poet. There were various accounts as to his birthplace. Some authorities spoke of Colophon, others of Smyrna, others of Astypalaea (it is not specified which of the places of that name) as his native city. (Suidas, s. v. Μίμερμνος.) He was generally called a Colophonian (Strab. xiv. p.643); but from a fragment of his poem entitled Nanno it appears that he was descended from those Colophonians who reconquered Smyrna from the Aeolians (Strab. xiv. p.634), and that, strictly speaking, Smyrna was his birthplace. Mimnermus flourished from about B. C. 634 to the age of the
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seven sages (about B. C. 600). He was a contemporary of Solon, who, in an extant fragment of one of his poems, addresses him as still living (Diog. Laert. 1.60; Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci, p. 331). No other biographical particulars respecting him have come down to us, except what is mentioned in a fragment of Hermesianax (Athen. 13.597) of his love for a flute-player named Nanno, who does not seem to have returned his affection.[C.P.M]