Apollonius of Rhodes was a poet and scholar (grammarian) who lived and wrote in the Alexandria region of Egypt in the 3rd century BC. He is considered the main representative of the Alexandrian mythological epic and is the one who revives this particular genre during the Hellenistic times.

The few details that provide information about him and his life come from two brief "lives" that have been annexed to the comments of his main work, from the Suda lexicon, and from a papyrus catalog of the librarians of the Alexandrian library. These details likely originate from a common source which served as the basis for the various "lives" of the poet that followed in later tradition.

Apollonius, the son of Silleys from the Ptolemaic tribe, lived approximately from 295 BC to 115 BC mainly in Alexandria, Egypt, in the kingdom of the Ptolemies. The exact chronological placement of the poet is uncertain, and critics have offered a plethora of possible birth dates that, however, cannot be considered certain.

The aforementioned "lives" of Apollonius contain several contradictory elements and are not able to provide certain knowledge about the poet. First of all, regarding his origin and the nickname (Rhodes), there is no clear indication that he hails from the island of the same name. It is most likely that he earned this nickname because he spent a considerable amount of time on that island at some point in his life.

It is said that Rhodes served as the refuge for the poet when he needed to work on his great work, the "Argonautica," and to revise some parts of it, because it did not receive the appropriate or desired reception from the circle of Alexandria.

ZETROS APOLLONIUS OF RHODES ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE

ZETROS APOLLONIUS OF RHODES