Ialemus in Greek mythology was a similar personification to that of Linus, and hence also called a son of Apollo and Calliope, and the inventor of the song Ialemus, which was a kind of dirge, or at any rate a song of a very serious and mournful character, and is only mentioned as sung on most melancholy occasions. (Aeschyl. Suppl. 106 ; Eurip, Herc. Fur. 109, SuppL 283.) In later times, this kind of poetry lost its popularity, and was ridiculed by the comic poets. Ialemus then became synonymous with cold and frosty poetry, and was used in this sense proverbially. (Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 1375, ad Apotton.Rhod. iv. 1304 ; Zenob. iv. 39.)
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).