Poets Of The Ancient World Codexery

Apollonius of Rhodes

Ancient Greek poet and librarian, author of the Argonautica.

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Apollonius of Rhodes was an ancient Greek poet active in the first half of the 3rd century BC, best known for his epic poem the Argonautica.[1] He served as a scholar and librarian at the Library of Alexandria.[2] The details of Apollonius's life are largely unknown, and whether he had any real link to Rhodes is uncertain.[2]

Life and work

These stories were likely invented to explain variant readings indicating a second edition of the Argonautica.[3] A supposed literary feud with Callimachus is much discussed but has very little evidence.[2] His other poems, surviving only in fragments, concerned the foundations of cities like Alexandria and Cnidus.[2] He is considered one of the period's most important authors on geography.[4]

Apollonius produced the earliest scholarly monograph on Homer from that period, which was critical of the editions prepared by his predecessor Zenodotus.[4]

What the cited sources add

Ancient sources describe Callimachus's lost poem Ibis as a polemic, with some identifying Apollonius as the target.[5] Apollonius's foundation-poem fragments have received recent attention regarding their authenticity and geopolitical significance for Ptolemaic Egypt.[6] Ancient biographies frequently depict poets leaving their homes due to ingratitude from citizens, as seen in accounts of Homer, Aeschylus, and Euripides.[3] Most contemporary scholars of Hellenistic literature think the supposed feud has been greatly exaggerated, if it ever existed.[5]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Apollonius of Rhodes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: S. Stephens, Ptolemaic Epic, 96-8. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Apollonius of Rhodes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: W. Race, Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica, ix-x; T. Papanghelis and A. Rengakos, Editors' Introduction, xi-xii. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Apollonius of Rhodes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: M. Lefkowitz, Myth and History in the Biography of Apollonius, 59-61 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Apollonius of Rhodes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dee Clayman, Timon of Phlius 2009 pp 187-200.; A. Rengakos, Apollonius Rhodius as a Homeric Scholar, 244, 265.; W. Race, Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica, xi (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Apollonius of Rhodes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: R. Hunter, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, Book III, 6.; A. Cameron, Callimachus and his Critics, 228. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Apollonius of Rhodes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: E. Sistakou, In Search of Apollonius' 'Ktisis' Poems, 312-13. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Apollonius of Rhodes (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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