of Crete, Greek lyric poet, who lived during the 2nd century A.D. He was a freedman of the emperor Hadrian, on whose favourite Antinous he is said to have written a panegyric. Two epigrams by him in the Greek anthology (Anthol. pal. xiv. 63, xvi. 323) and a hymn to Nemesis are extant. The hymn is of special interest as preserving the ancient musical notation written over the text. Two other hymns - to the muse Calliope and to the sun - formerly assigned to Dionysius of Alexandria, have also been attributed to him.
See J. F. Bellermann, Die Hymnen des Dionysius and Mesomedes (1840); C. de Jan, Musici scriptores graeci (1899); S. Reinach in Revue des etudes grecques, ix. (1896); Suidas, s.v.