Philitas of Cos (
c. 340 – c.
285 BC) was a scholar and poet during the early
Hellenistic period of
ancient Greece. A Greek associated with
Alexandria, he
flourished in the second half of the 4th century BC and was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of
Ptolemaic Egypt. He was thin and frail;
Athenaeus later caricatured him as an academic so consumed by his studies that he wasted away and died. Philitas was the first major writer who was both a scholar and a poet. His reputation continued for centuries, based on both his pioneering study of words and his verse in
elegiac meter. His vocabulary
Disorderly Words described the meanings of rare literary words, including those used by
Homer. His poetry, notably his elegiac poem
Demeter, was highly respected by later ancient poets. However, almost all his work has since been lost. (
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