Matris
Μᾶτρις
(Μᾶτρις), of Thebes, is called ὑμνογράφος by Ptolemy Hephaestion (apud Phot. Bibl. p. 148b. 1, ed. Bekker), and may therefore be identified with the Matris mentioned by Athenaeus (x. p. 412b.) as the author of an encomium upon Heracles. In another passage (ii. p. 44d.) Athenaeus copies from Hephaestion the story of his great abstemiousness, but calls him an Athenian. Diodorus Siculus (1.24) refers to his etymology of the name Ἡρακλῆς, as if from the hero's gaining his fame (Κλέος) on account of Hera. Longinus (§ 3) criticises his inflated style.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.