Lesches (Lescheos in Pausanias x. 25. 5), the reputed author of the Little Iliad, one of the "cyclic poems." According to the usually accepted tradition, he was a native of Pyrrha in Lesbos, and flourished about 660 BC (others place him about 50 years earlier).

The Little Iliad took up the story of the Homeric Iliad, and, beginning with the contest between Ajax and Odysseus for the arms of Achilles, carried it down to the fall of Troy (Aristotle, Poetics, 23). According to the epitome in the Chrestomathy of Proclus, it ended with the admission of the wooden horse within the walls of the city. Some ancient authorities ascribe the work to a Lacedaemonian named Cinaethon, and even to Homer.

See FG Welcker, Der epische Cyclus (1865-1882); Müller and Donaldson, Hist. of Greek Literature, i. ch. 6; CH Bode, Geschichte der hellenischen Dichtkunst, i.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.