Alcæus OF MITYLENE, one of the greatest lyric poets of Greece, flourished about 600 B.C. Most of his odes, in the Æolic dialect, are occupied with his grief for the dissensions of his country, his hatred of tyrants, his own misfortunes, and the sorrows of exile; in some he celebrates the praises of love and wine. He is said to have been an admirer of Sappho, who was a contemporary.
Alcæus himself took part in the civil war, first as the coadjutor of Pittacus, but afterwards against him, when he proved a tyrant. Being banished from Mitylene, he endeavoured, at the head of the other exiles, to force his way back; but in this attempt he fell into the hands of Pittacus, who, however, granted him his life and freedom. He was the inventor of the Alcaic verse, which Horace, the happiest of his imitators, transplanted into the Latin language (see METRE). Of the ten books of his odes, the few fragments that remain are collected in Bergk's Poëte Lyrici Græci (4th ed. 1882).