<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> The Ciris, a Latin mythological poem of contested date and authorship, has received a certain amount of scholarly attention during the twentieth century, but on the whole has failed to meet with an adequate appreciation. This study is aimed at vindicating the Ciris, mainly by exploring its use of pre-Virgilianpoetic texts largely ignored in previous scholarship.