Peisander (; ) of Camirus in Rhodes, Ancient Greek epic poet, supposed to have flourished about 640 BC. Biography Peisander was the author of a Heracleia (Ἡράκλεια), in which he introduced a new conception of the hero Heracles' costume, the lions skin and club taking the place of the older armor of the heroic era. He is also said to have fixed the number of the labors of Heracles at twelve. The work, which according to Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, yr. ch. 2) was simply a plagiarism from an unknown Pisinus of Lindus, enjoyed so high a reputation that the Alexandrian critics admitted the author to the epic canon. From an epigram (22) of Theocritus we learn that a statue was erected in honor of Peisander by his countrymen. He is to be distinguished from Peisander of Laranda in Lycia, who lived during the reign of Alexander Severus and wrote a poem on the mixed marriages of gods and mortals, after the manner of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women. References Fragments in G. Kinkel, Epicorum graecorum fragmenta (1878). F. G. Welcher, Kuleana Schriften, vol. i. (1844); on the twelve labors of Heracles in Peisander. External links "Peisander" in William George Smith (ed), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London : J. Walton, 1849 Ancient Rhodian poets Early Greek epic poets 7th-century BC Greek people 7th-century BC poets Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown