Hippomax

Poet from Ephesus who lived in he middle of the 6th century BC. He was forced to live as a beggar after the Persian tyrant had banished him from his home.

His poems were much flavoured by this lifestyle, and Hippomax wrote about life in the gutter in an ironic way. This has given him the tile "inventor of parody".

Hippomax also invented the "skazon", a iambic meter with a halting, comic effect.