Arctinus of Miletus Arctinus of Miletus Arctinus of Miletus or Arctinus Milesius () was a Greek epic poet whose reputation is purely legendary, as none of his works survive. Traditionally dated between 775 BC and 741 BC, he was said to have been a pupil of Homer. Phaenias of Eresus placed him in the 7th century BC and claimed that he was defeated by Lesches of Pyrrha in competition. One of the "cyclic poets", Arctinus composed the epics "Aethiopis" and "Sack of Troy", which were contributions to the Trojan War cycle, and possibly "Naupactia". These poems are lost, but an idea of the
The Lucy poems critic David Rannie praised the poems as a whole: "that strange little lovely group, which breathe a passion unfamiliar to Wordsworth, and about which he—so ready to talk about the genesis of his poems—has told us nothing [...] Let a poet keep some of his secrets: we need not grudge him the privacy when the poetry is as beautiful as this; when there is such celebration of girlhood, love, and death [...] The poet's sense of loss is sublime in its utter simplicity. He finds harmony rather than harshness in the contrast between the illusion of love and the fact