Matron of Pitane

Matron of Pitane (Greek: Μάτρων, Mátrōn; ) was an Ancient Greek poet and parodist.

Life Matron, a native of Pitane in Aeolis, was a celebrated writer of parodies upon Homer, often quoted by Eustathius and Athenaeus.

Athenaeus quotes a long fragment from this poem, beginning: Δεῖπνα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροφα καὶ μάλα πολλά (‘Tell me, Muse, of the many nourishing dinners’), an obvious parody of the opening of Homer's Odyssey. Matron's parody is in the tradition of Hegemon and Archestratus.

Editions The fragments of his parodies were printed by H. Stephens, in the Dissertation on Parodies, appended to the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, 1573, 8vo., and in Brunck's Analecta, vol. ii. p. 245.