| A | B |
|---|
| Archilochus | 7th c. poet from Paros who was known for invective and throwing away his shield |
| Tyrtaeus | 7th c. poet from Sparta who summed up his city's warrior ethic with "The Spartan Creed" |
| Alcman | 7th c. poet from Sparta who wrote parthenaia (maiden songs) |
| Hipponax | Mid 6th c. poet from Ephesus who was known for writing about crude topics and invective |
| Alcaeus | Late 7th/Mid 6th c. poet from Lesbos who was very involved in political and military matters |
| Sappho | Late 7th/Mid 6th c. female poet who wrote about girlhood, marriage and love |
| Xenophanes | Poet from Colophon living between c. 570 - early 5th c. who had counter-cultural ideas about the gods and athletics |
| Mimnermus | Late 7th c. poet from Colophon who wrote poems about old age |
| Theognis | 6th c. poet with a strong personality who was concerned about people stealing or changing his poetry |
| Solon | Athenian poet living between c. 640-after 561 who became a magistrate and law-giver |
| Anacreon | Poet from Teos who was born after c. 570. He was a big hit at parties because of his drinking songs and frivolous love songs |
| Ibycus | 6th c. poet from Rhegium in Southern Italy who wrote poems about love and mythology |
| Simonides | Poet from Keos who lived between 556-468. He was the first openly professional bard who was very popular with the tyrants due to the quality and variety of his poems. |
| Pindar | A poet from Thebes who lived between 518 and after 446 who is best known for his (epinician) odes dedicated to the winners of athletic competitions. |
| Bacchylides | The nephew of Simonides, from the island of Keos, who lived in the late 6th-early 5th c and wrote epinician odes and dithyrambs (hymns to Dionysos). |
| Callinus | 7th c. poet from Ephesus who encouraged his fellow citizens to fight the invading Cimmerians. |
| Semonides | 7th c. poet from Amorgos who wrote satirical poetry and had an influence on Solon. |
| Phocylides | Mid 6th c. poet from Miletus who specialized in "gnomai" - short, pointed epigrams which he often began with his own name (kind of like Elmo) |
| Terpander | 7th c. poet from Lesbos who emigrated to Sparta and helped make it a center of choral poetry. |
| Steisichorus | Late 7th/mid 6th c. poet from Himera, Sicily who used stories from the Epic Cycle and is said to have gone blind because he slandered Helen of Troy. |
| Hybrias | Cretan poet whose name means "bully" and is known for writing drinking songs. |
| Corinna | Late 6th/early 5th c. female poet who competed against Pindar in poetry competitions. |
| Timocreon | 5th c. poet from Rhodes who was a notorious glutton. He wrote drinking poems and fought with Themistocles and Simonides about having Persian sympathies. |
| Pratinas | Late 6th c. poet from Philius in the Peloponnese. One of the earliest tragic poets, he was known for his satyr plays and he competed against Aeschylus in poetry competitions. |
