Callimachus

Callimachus, an eminent poet, grammarian, and critic of the Alexandrian period, flourished about the middle of the 3d century B.C. He was born of a distinguished family at Cyrene in Libya; taught grammar and belles-lettres in Alexandria; was a favourite of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and his successor, Ptolemy Euergetes; and was made prin- cipal librarian of the Alexandrian Library. He is said to have written as many as eight hundred works on the most various subjects, but of these the merest fragments are extant, only six hymns and sixty-four epigrams being complete. His elegies were much admired by the Roman poets Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid. The remains we possess are enough to show that art and learning, rather than genius, characterised his poetry. The largest of his lost poems were Aitia ('Causes'), in four books, on the origin of mythical stories, and an epic Hekale. The best edition of the remains is that of O. Schneider (2 vols. 1870-73); of the Hymns and Epigrams, those of Meineke (1861) and Wilamowitz (1882).