His most original contribution to the substance of Roman literature was that he first shaped into poetry the experience of his own heart, as it had been shaped by Alcaeus and Sappho in the early days of Greek poetry.
About 611, with the assistance of the brothers of the poet Alcaeus, he overthrew Melanchrus, tyrant of Lesbos.
In 589 his fellow citizens entrusted Pittacus with despotic power (with the title of Aesymnetes) for the purpose of protecting them against the exiled nobles, at the head of whom were Alcaeus and his brother Antimenides.
He is acquainted with the poems of the epic cycle, the Cypria, the Epigoni, &c. He quotes or otherwise shows familiarity with the writings of Hesiod, Olen, Musaeus, Bacis, Lysistratus, Archilochus of Paros, Alcaeus, Sappho, Solon, Aesop, Aristeas of Proconnesus, Simonides of Ceos, Phrynichus, Aeschylus and Pindar.
After his father he is often called Amphitryoniades, and also Alcides, after the Perseid Alcaeus, father of Amphitryon.