Apollodorus of Athens
Apollodorus of Athens (Greek Ἀπολλόδωρος Apollodorus; † after 120/119 BC ) was a grammarian and a successful and versatile writer of the second half of the 2nd century BC, who worked in Alexandria, Pergamon and Athens.
Life
Apollodorus was the son of Asclepiades of Athens, and a pupil of the Stoic Diogenes of Babylon, the Panaetius and Aristarchus of Samothrace.
From his philological work on the Museion is known that he published the text of the comedies of Epicharmos. His stay in Alexandria probably put the scholar persecution under Ptolemy VIII Physcon ( 145/144 BC) to an end.
As he devoted his world history Attalos II of Pergamum, it can be assumed that he at least temporarily staying in Pergamon. Then he lived until his death in Athens.
Works
None of his works is obtained ( except in fragments ). The 356 fragments are obtained mainly in Homer scholia.
To the title by Apollodorus known works include:
- Χρονικά ( Chronicles ), a world history in four books of the capture of Troy by the year 119 BC, written in iambic trimeters.
- Περὶ θεῶν ( Peri Theon, "On the Gods" ), a philological and theological work in 24 books, as a representation of Greek religion
- Περὶ τοῦ νεῶν καταλόγου, a commentary on Homer's Catalogue of Ships in 2 of the Iliad in 12 books
- Περὶ τῶν Αθήνησιν ἑταιρίδων ( "On the Athenian courtesans " )
- Περὶ Ἐπιχάρμου, the above-mentioned Epicharmos commentary in 10 books
- Περὶ Σώφρονος ( " About Sophron ," at least 4 books)
- Ἐτυμολογίαι ( " etymologies " )
The best known in antiquity as today work that is associated with his name, called the Libraries of Apollodorus, probably (at least 61/60 BC) and therefore can not have Apollodorus the author dates from the 1st century of our era. But when compiling mythological knowledge of the early imperial period, it is a valuable source for Greek mythology.
Text output
- Felix Jacoby: The fragments of the Greek historians. Part 2, 1929, reprint 1962, No. 244