Meleager of Gadara - The Garland of Meleager

The Garland of Meleager

Meleager is famous for his anthology of poetry entitled The Garland (Greek: Στέφανος). Polemon of Ilium and others had created collections of monumental inscriptions, or of poems on particular subjects earlier, but Meleager first did so comprehensively. He collected epigrams by forty-six Greek poets, from every lyric period up to his own. His title referred to the commonplace comparison of small beautiful poems to flowers, and in the introduction to his work, he attached the names of various flowers, shrubs, and herbs — as emblems — to the names of the several poets. He arranged his Garland in alphabetical order according to the initial letter of each epigram. The Garland itself has survived only as the original constituent root to the Anthologia Graeca.