Zenodotus

(Ζηνόδοτος).

1. Of Ephesus, a celebrated grammarian, was the first superintendent of the great library at Alexandria, in which office he was succeeded by Callimachus. He lived during the reigns of the first and second Ptolemies, the son of Lagus and Philadelphus, but as he was probably not appointed librarian till the reign of Philadelphus, he may be said to have flourished about B. C. 280. Suidas places him under the first Ptolemy, and says that he educated the children of Ptolemy; but it is more probable that these were the children of Philadelphus than of the first Ptolemy. Zenodotus was a pupil of the grammarian Philetas, who was probably also the instructor of Philadelphus. Works Editions of Greek Poets

Zenodotus was employed by Philadelphus together with his two great contemporaries. Alexander the Aetolian and Lycophron the Chalcidian, to collect and revise all the Greek poets. Alexander, we are told. undertook the task of collecting the tragedies, Lycophron the comedies, and Zenodotus the poems of Homer, and of the other illustrious poets (Homeri poemata et reliquorum inlustrium poetarum). This important statement, preserved by the Scholiast on Plautus, from the commentary of Tzetzes on the Plutus of Aristophanes, has given rise to much discussion. By " the other illustrious poets," Welcker supposed that the epic poets, and Müller that the lyric poets were intended; but as it was evidently the intention of Philadelphus to make a complete collection of the Greek poets, there is no reason why we should not take the words of the Scholiast in their plain obvious meaning, and believe that Zenodotus made a collection of all the other illustrious poets both epic and lyric.

It has been shown satisfactorily by more than one modern writer that Zenodotus made a collection of all the poems belonging to the epic cycle. and that his labours were not confined to the Iliad and Odyssey. It was, however, to the latter poems that he devoted his chief attention. Hence he is called the first Διορθωτής of Homer, and his recension (Διόρθωσις) of the Iliad and Odyssey obtained the greatest celebrity.

It is frequently quoted by Eustathius, the Venetian Scholia, and other grammarians under various titles, such as, ἡ Ζηνοδότειος, ἡ Ζηνοδότου, ἡ Ζηνοδότου διόρθωσις, αἱ Ζηνοδότου, αἱ Ζηνοδότου διορθώσεις, τὰ Ζηνοδότου, τὰ Ζηνοδότεια, &c.

The corrections which Zenodotus applied to the text of Homer were of three kinds. 1. He expunged verses. 2. He marked them as spurious, but left them in his copy. 3. He introduced new readings or transposed or altered verses. Examples of these corrections are given by Clinton. (Fasti Hell. vol. iii. p. 491, foll.)

The great attention which Zenodotus paid to the language of Homer caused a new epoch in the grammatical study of the Greek language. The results of his investigations respecting the meaning and the use of words were contained in two works which he published under the title of a Glossary (Γλῶσσαι, Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod. 2.1005; Schol. ad Theocr. 5.2) and a Dictionary of barbarous or foreign phrases (Λέξεις ἐθνικαὶ, Galen, Gloss, Hippocr. s. vv. πέζαι and πέλλα). It was probably from his glossary, as Wolf has remarked, that the grammarians took the few explanations of the passages of Homer, which they cite under the name of Zenodotus, since it is very doubtful whether he wrote Commentaries (ὑπομνήματα) on Homer. Ἐπιτομαὶ and Ἱστορικὰ ὑπομνήματα

Athenaeus likewise quotes two other works by Zenodotus, one called Ἐπιτομαὶ (x. p. 412a), and the other Ἱστορικὰ ὑπομνήματα (iii. p. 96. f), but it is doubtful whether they were written by this Zenodotus, or by Zenodotus the Alexandrine mentioned below. Further Information

Wolf, Prolegom. ad Hom. ; Heffter, De Zenodoto ejusque studiis Homericis, Brandenburg, 1839; Düntzer, De Zenodoti Studiis Homericis, Göttingen, 1848; Gräfenhan, Geschichte der Klassichen Philologie, vol. i. pp. 379, 430, 534, 542, vol. ii. p. 32.

2. Of Alexandria, a grammarian, lived after Aristarchus, whose recension of the Homeric poems he attacked. He is distinguished by the epithet ὁ ἐν ἄστει κλήθεις by Suidas. Work

Suidas assigns the following works to him : 1. Πρὸς τὰ ὑπʼ Ἀριστάρχου ἀθετούμενα τοῦ ποιητοῦ. 2. Πρὸς Πλάτωνα περὶ θεῶν. 3. Περὶ τῆς Ὁμηρικῆς συνηθείας. 4. Λύσεις Ὁμηρικῶν ἀπορημάτων. 5. Εἰς τὴν Ἡσιόδου θεογονίαν. Grammarians named Zenodotus

Suidas mentions only two grammarians of the name of Zenodotus, the Ephesian and the Alexandrine; but besides these we read of two others, Zenodotus ὁ Μαλλώτης, that is, of Mallus (Theon, ad Arat. Phaen. 33); and Zenodotus ὁ Κρατήτειος, that is, a disciple of Crates. (Schol. ad Hom. Il. 23.79.)

Wolf thinks (Prolegom. p. cxcix.) that the two last are the same person as the Alexandrine; that he was called of Mallus from the place of his birth, the Alexandrine from the place of his residence, and the Cratetean, from his being a disciple of Crates, who was also a native of Mallus. He remarks that as Crates was the great opponent of Aristarchus, his disciple would naturally be the adversary of the same great scholar. It may readily be admitted that Zenodotus of Mallus and Zenodotus the disciple of Crates are the same person; but it appears improbable that the same person should have had two such opposite surnames as ὁ ἐν ἄστει and Μαλλώτης.

We are therefore disposed to adopt the views of Düntzer and other scholars that there were three grammarians of this name, 1. Zenodotus of Ephesus, 2. Zenodotus of Alexandria. 3. Zenodotus of Mallus, the disciple of Crates. Zenodotus of Mallus

It is very likely however that some of the works assigned by Suidas to the Alexandrine were written by the disciple of Crates. (Düntzer, De Zenodoti Studiis Homericis, pp. 24, 25.)

3. Of Troezen, wrote a history of Umbria, in which he spoke of the rape of the Sabine women. (Dionys. A. R. 2.49; Plut. Rom. 14.)

4. The Stoic, a disciple of Diogenes, wrote an Epigram on Zenon, which is quoted by Diogenes Laertius (7.29, 30).

5. The Epigrammatist, one of whose epigrams is preserved in the Greek Anthology (7.315).

6. The Aetolian, mentioned by Caesar Germanicus at the commencement of his Commentary on the Phaenomena of Aratus.

7. A NEO-PLATONIC philosopher, was a favourite of Proclus, whom he succeeded in his school. (Phot. Bibl. 181, p. 127a. 3, Cod. 242, p. 346a. 24, ed. Bekker.)

8. The Sophist, more usually called Zenobius. [Zenobius.]

(Ζηνόδοτος). A celebrated grammarian of Ephesus, superintendent of the great library at Alexandria, who flourished under Ptolemy Philadelphus, about B.C. 308. Zenodotus was employed by Philadelphus, together with his two contemporaries, Alexander the Aetolian and Lycophron the Chalcidian, to collect and revise all the Greek poets. Alexander, we are told, undertook the task of collecting the tragedies, Lycophron the comedies, and Zenodotus the poems of Homer and of the other illustrious poets. Zenodotus, however, devoted his chief attention to the Iliad and Odyssey. Hence he is called the first reviser (διορθωτής) of Homer, and his recension (διόρθωσις) of the Iliad and Odyssey obtained the greatest celebrity. The corrections which Zenodotus applied to the text of Homer were of three kinds: (1) He expunged verses;

(2) he marked some as spurious, but left them in his copy;

(3) he introduced new readings and transposed or altered verses. The great attention which Zenodotus paid to the language of Homer caused a new epoch in the grammatical study of the Greek language. The results of his investigations respecting the meaning and the use of words were contained in two works which he published under the title of a glossary (Γλῶσσαι), and a dictionary of barbarous or foreign phrases. See Düntzer, De Zenodoti Studiis Homericis (Göttingen, 1848); Römer, Ueber die Homerrecension des Zenod. (Munich, 1885); and the article Textual Criticism.