Philitas of Cos
Author
2024 – 1969
Who was Philitas of Cos?
Philitas of Cos, sometimes spelled Philetas, was a scholar and poet during the early Hellenistic period of ancient Greece. A Greek associated with Alexandria, he flourished in the second half of the 4th century BC and was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of Ptolemaic Egypt. He was thin and frail; Athenaeus later caricatured him as an academic so consumed by his studies that he wasted away and died.
Philitas was the first major Greek writer who was both a scholar and a poet. His reputation continued for centuries, based on both his pioneering study of words and his verse in elegiac meter. His vocabulary Disorderly Words described the meanings of rare literary words, including those used by Homer. His poetry, notably his elegiac poem Demeter, was highly respected by later ancient poets. However, almost all his work has since been lost.
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- Born
- Apr 26, 2024
- Nationality
- Ptolemaic Kingdom
- Profession
- Died
- Dec 31, 1969
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Philitas of Cos." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/philetas_of_cos>.
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