Callimachus

Catullus 66

Callimachus was an Alexandrine grammarian and poet, a native of Cyrene, and a resident of Alexandria during the reigns of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Eurgetes. He was chief librarian of the famous library at Alexandria from ca. 260 until his death, ca. 240, and a prolific writer, believed to have produced more than eight hundred works.

Callimachus’ extant works consist of six hymns – to Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, Delos, the Bath of Pallas, and Demeter; sixty-four epigrams; and various fragments from Aetia, an elegiac poem in four books dealing with the aetiology of myths, rites, and customs; Iambi, a book of thirteen iambic poems; Hecale, an epic poem on Theseus; and minor epic and elegiac poems.

Callimachus’ writings had very great influence, especially on the tendencies of the Alexandrian school of poets. Today Callimachus is best known for his brilliant epigrams, the most famous of which is the one written upon the death of Heraclitus of Halicarnassus. 

Ginny