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Zenodotus, Greek grammarian and critic, pupil of Philetas of Cos, was a native of Ephesus. He lived during the reigns of the first two Ptolemies, and was at the height of his reputation about 280 BC.

He was the first superintendent of the library at Alexandria and the first critical editor (Sto/ottoTijs) of Homer. His colleagues in the librarianship were Alexander of Aetolia and Lycophron of Chalcis, to whom were allotted the tragic and comic writers respectively, Homer and other epic poets being assigned to Zenodotus.

Although he has been reproached with arbitrariness and an insufficient knowledge of Greek, in his recension he undoubtedly laid a sound foundation for future criticism. Having collated the different manuscripts in the library, he expunged or obelized doubtful verses, transposed or altered lines, and introduced new readings. He divided the Homeric poems into books (with capitals for the Iliad, and small letters for the Odyssey), and possibly was the author of the calculation of the days of the Iliad in the Tabula Iliaca.

He does not appear to have written any regular commentary on Homer, but his Homeric yhwao-ai (lists of unusual words) probably formed the source of the explanations of Homer attributed by the grammarians to Zenodotus. He also lectured upon Hesiod, Anacreon and Pindar, if he did not publish editions of them. He is further called an epic poet by Suidas, and three epigrams in the Greek Anthology are assigned to him.

There appear to have been at least two other grammarians of the same name:

  1. Zenodotus of Alexandria, surnamed S ~v ~or€t
  2. Zenodotus of Mallus, the disciple of CratesCrates of Mallus in Cilicia, a Greek grammarian and Stoic philosopher of the 2nd century BC, leader of the literary school and head of the library of Pergamum. His principles were opposed to those of Aristarchus, the leader of the Alexandrian school., who like his master attacked AristarchusAristarchus ( 310 BC circa 230 BC) was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, born in Samos, Greece. He is the first recorded person to propose a heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the known universe (h.

See FA WolfFriedrich August Wolf ( February 15, 1750 August 8, 1824) was a German philologist and critic. He was born at Hainrode, a village not far from Nordhausen, in the province of Hanover. His father was the village schoolmaster and organist. In time the family, Prolegomena ad Homerum, section 43 (1859 edition); H DüntzerJohann Heinrich Joseph Duntzer ( July 12, 1813 December 16, 1901), German philologist and historian of literature, was born at Cologne. After studying philology and especially ancient classics and Sanskrit at Bonn and Berlin (1830-1835), he took the degre, De Zenodoti studiis Homericis (1848) A Römer, Uber die Homerrecension des Zenodotus (Munich, 1885); F Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit, i. p. 330, ii. p. 14; JE SandysSir John Edwin Sandys was a classical scholar. He was born at Leicester on 19 May 1844, a son of the Reverend Timothy Sandys of the Church Missionary Society and Rebecca nee Swain. Living at first in India, he returned to England at the age of 11, and was, Hist. of Class. Schol. (1906), ad. 2, vol. i. pp. 119-121.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica



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