Editing Mimnermus (section)

===Comments by other poets===

====Solon====
Addressing Mimnermus and criticizing him for his stated wish to die at sixty years of age, as quoted above in [[Mimnermus#Life and work|Life and work]], the Athenian sage said:
{{Verse translation|italicsoff=y|lang=grc|
ἀλλ᾽ εἴ μοι κἂν νῦν ἔτι πείσεαι, ἔξελε τοῦτον:{{emdash}}
:μηδὲ μέγαιρ᾽ ὅτι σεῦ λῷον ἐπεφρασάμην:{{emdash}}
καὶ μεταποίησον, Λιγυαιστάδη, ὧδε δ᾽ ἄειδε:
:'''ὀγδωκονταέτη μοῖρα κίχοι θανάτου.'''<ref>Solon quoted by Diogenes Laertius 1.60</ref>
|
But if even now you will listen to me, remove this (i.e. Mimnermus's objectionable verse){{emdash}}
:and do not be offended because my thoughts are better than yours{{emdash}}
and changing it, Ligyaistades, sing as follows:
:'''May my fated death come at eighty.'''<ref>Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Elegiac Poetry'', Loeb (1999), page 141</ref>}}

====Hermesianax====
{{Blockquote|And Mimnermus who, after much suffering, discovered the sweet sound and breath given off by the soft pentameter, was on fire for Nanno...<ref>Hermesianax fr.7.35-37 Powell ap. Ath. 13.597f, cited by Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Elegiac Poetry'', Loeb (1999), page 75</ref>}}

====Callimachus====
Defining the kind of poetry he liked and believed best suited to his own, much later times, the Alexandrian scholar-poet commended Mimnermus thus [brackets indicate gaps in the text]:
{{Blockquote|Of the two [types of poetry] it was his slender [verses?], not the big lady, that revealed Mimnermus' sweetness.}}

====Propertius====
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|la|plus in amore valet Mimnermi versus Homero:
:carmina mansuetus lenia quaerit Amor.}}<ref>Propertius 1.9.11-12</ref>
|
In love the verses of Mimnermus prevail over those of Homer.
:Gentle love calls for soft songs.<ref>Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Elegiac Poetry'', Loeb (1999), page 79</ref>}}

====Horace====
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|la|si, Mimnermus uti censet, sine amore iocisque
nil est iucundum, vivas in amore iocisque.}}<ref>Horace, ''epist.'' 1.6.65-66</ref>
|
If, as Mimnermus believes, without love and jests
There is no joy, may you live amid love and jests.<ref>Douglas E. Gerber, ''Greek Elegiac Poetry'', Loeb (1999), page 79</ref>}}