Callimachus

Callimachus (lived 3rd century bc), Alexandrian poet, grammarian, and employee of the famous ancient Library of Alexandria. He was born in Cyrene (now Shaḩḩāt, Libya), Africa, and educated in Athens. After teaching at Eleusis, near Alexandria, Egypt, Callimachus joined the staff of the famous library in Alexandria. By his teaching and writing Callimachus exerted a great influence on scholars and poets of the day. Callimachus reputedly wrote more than 800 books. Of his learned works in prose, one of the most important was the Pinakes (Tables), a catalog in 120 volumes of the works contained in the Alexandrian library. Through this catalog Callimachus became the founder of the critical study of Greek literature. As a poet he won distinction chiefly through his short poems, of which 6 hymns and about 60 epigrams are extant. Also surviving are fragments of his most outstanding poetic work, Aetia, a collection of Greek etiological legends in elegiac verse, and the miniature epic Hecale, which recounts an episode from the adventures of the hero Theseus. Callimachus extolled the short, highly elaborated poem in preference to the lengthier forms in which his rival and former pupil Apollonius of Rhodes excelled. In this field Callimachus greatly influenced the Roman poets, especially Catullus, Ovid, and Propertius.