According to Philodemus, who presented it as a little-known fact, Tyrtaeus was honoured above others because of his music, not just his verses. Pollux stated that Tyrtaeus introduced Spartans to three choruses based on age (boys, young and old men), and some modern scholars in fact contend that he composed his elegies in units of five couplets each, alternating between exhortation and reflection, in a kind of responsion similar to Greek choral poetry. Ancient commentators included Tyrtaeus with Archilochus and Callinus as the possible inventor of the elegy.