Callinus (Ancient Greek: Καλλῖνος, Kallinos; fl. mid-7th c. BC)^[1] was an ancient Greek elegiac poet who lived in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor in the mid-7th century BC. His poetry is representative of the genre of martial exhortation elegy in which Tyrtaeus also specialized and which both Archilochus and Mimnermus appear to have composed.^[2] Along with these poets, all his near contemporaries, Callinus was considered the inventor of the elegiac couplet by some ancient critics.^[3]

He resided in Ephesus in Asia Minor.^[4] He is supposed to have flourished between the invasion of Asia Minor by the Cimmerians and their expulsion by Alyattes (630–560 BC). During his lifetime his own countrymen were also engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Magnesians. These two events give the key to his poetry, in which he endeavours to rouse the indolent Ionians to a sense of patriotism.^[5]

Only a few fragments of the Callinus' poetry have survived. One of the longest fragments, consisting of 21 lines of verse, is a patriotic exhortation to his fellow Ephesians urging them to fight the invading Cimmerians, who were menacing the Greek colonies in Asia Minor:

Works of martial elegy such as this often allude to the language and the thematic content of Homer's Iliad.^[7] It is likely that Callinus performed his poetry at symposia.^[8]