Matron
Μάτρων
(Μάτρων), of Pitana, a celebrated writer of parodies upon Homer, often quoted by Eustathius and Athenaeus. (Eustath. ad Hom. pp. 1067, 1571, &c.; Ath. i. p. 5a., p. 31b., xv. p. 699e., &c.)
He was probably a contemporary of Hegemon of Thasos. about the end of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth centuries B. C., but at all events he cannot be placed later than the time of Philip of Macedon. Athenaeus calls him Ματρέας in some places, but this is clearly an error of the transcriber.
Works
Parodies of Homer
Athenaeus (iv. pp. 134-137) quotes a long fragment from a poem of his, in which an Athenian feast was described, beginning: Δεῖπνα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα, πολύτροφα καὶ μάλα πολλά.
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.
Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 550; G. H. Moser, Ueber Matron den Parodiker, in Daub and Creuzer's Studien, vol. vi. p. 293; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtk. vol. ii. p. 324.
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.