Alcaeus

Alcaeus (fl. about 600 bc), Greek poet, who invented the Alcaic stanza (verse metre occurring in four line stanzas), which Horace adapted to Latin lyric poetry. He was born on the island of Lésvos. Alcaeus became a leader against the Lesbian tyrant Pittacus; he was banished but, after being pardoned, he returned to Lésvos. Of the ten books of his odes, only a few poems in fragmentary form still exist; these, all composed in the Aeolic dialect, are concerned with his grief over the state of Lésvos, his hatred of tyrants, and his own misfortunes; in some of the poems he gives praise to love and wine.