Pigres of Halicarnassus

Pigres , was a native of Halicarnassus, and either the brother or the son of Artemisia, satrap of Caria. He is spoken of by the Suda as the author of the Margites and the Batrachomyomachia. The latter poem is also attributed to him by Plutarch and was probably his work. One of his feats was inserting a pentameter line after each hexameter in the Iliad, thus:

Sing, goddess, of the ruinous wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus. Muse, for you possess the means of all wisdom.

Bode believes that the Margites, though not composed by Pigres, suffered some alterations at his hands, and in that altered shape passed down to posterity. Some suppose that the iambic lines, which alternated with the hexameters in the Margites, were inserted by Pigres. He was the first poet, apparently, who introduced the iambic trimeter.

In literature

Pigres is one of the many historical characters featured in Gore Vidal's novel Creation. In Vidal's depiction, Pigres was Artemisia's brother - excluded by her from succession to their father's throne, living in fear of her and taking up comic poetry as a refuge.