Editing Alexander Aetolus

{{Short description|3rd-century BC Greek poet and grammarian}}
{{distinguish|Alexander (Aetolian general)}}

'''Alexander Aetolus''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Αἰτωλός}}, ''Alexandros ho Aitōlos'') or '''Alexander the Aetolian ''' was a [[Hellenistic]] Greek poet and [[Alexandrine grammarians|grammarian]], who worked at the [[Library of Alexandria]] and composed poetry in a variety of genres, now almost entirely lost. He is the only known Aetolian poet of antiquity.<ref>Knaack 1894; Dover 1996.</ref> 

==Life and works==
Alexander was a native of [[Pleuron, Aetolia|Pleuron]] in [[Aetolia]]. A contemporary of [[Callimachus]] and [[Theocritus]], he was born c. 315 BC, and according to the [[Suda]] the names of his parent were Satyros and Stratokleia.<ref>Knaack 1894; Dover 1996; [[Suda]], [http://www.stoa.org/sol-entries/alpha/1127 α 1127] = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 106–107, test. 1.</ref> By the 280s he was one of a group of literary scholars working at the [[Library of Alexandria]], where [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]] commissioned him to organize and correct the texts of the tragedies and satyr plays in the collection of the Library.<ref>Dover 1996; Lightfoot 2009, pp. 110–115, test. 7.</ref> Later, along with [[Antagoras]] and [[Aratus]], he spent time at the court of the Macedonian king [[Antigonus II Gonatas]].<ref>Schmitz 1870; Knaack 1894; Dover 1996; Lightfoot 2009, pp. 106–111, test. 2–6.</ref>

In addition to his work as a scholar, Alexander was a versatile poet who produced verse in a variety of meters and genres, although only about 70 lines of his work survive, mostly in short fragments quoted by later sources.<ref>Olson 2000.</ref> He was admired for his tragedies, which earned him a place among the seven Alexandrian tragedians who constituted the so-called [[Tragic Pleiad]].<ref>Schmitz 1870; Knaack 1894; Dover 1996; [[Suda]], [http://www.stoa.org/sol-entries/alpha/1127 α 1127] = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 106–107, test. 1.</ref> One of his tragedies (or perhaps a satyr play),<ref>Spanoudakis 2005.</ref> the ''Astragalistai'' ("Knucklebone-players"), described the killing of a fellow student by the young [[Patroclus|Patroklos]].<ref>Dover 1996; Scholiast to ''Iliad'' 2386 = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 134–135, fr. 17.</ref> Alexander also wrote [[epic poems|epics]] or ''[[epyllia]]'', of which a few names and short fragments survive: the ''Halieus'' ("Fisherman"), about the sea-god Glaukos,<ref>Knaack 1894; Athenaeus 7.296e = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 120–123, fr. 3.</ref> and the ''Krika'' or ''Kirka'' (perhaps "Circe"?)<ref>Knaack 1894; Olson 2000; Athenaeus 7.283a = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 122–123, fr. 4. The interpretation of the title is uncertain, and Athenaeus indicates that there was doubt about the authenticity of the poem.</ref> The longest surviving example of his work is a 34-line excerpt from the ''Apollo'', a poem in [[elegiac couplet]]s, which tells the story of Antheus and Cleoboea.<ref>Dover 1996; preserved in Parthenius 14 = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 594–599.</ref> A few other elegiac fragments are quoted by other authors,<ref>Athenaeus 15.699c; Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 5.22.4–5; Strabo 12.4.8 (C566).</ref> and two [[epigram]]s in the [[Greek Anthology]] are usually considered his work.<ref>''AP'' 7.709, ''A. Plan'' 4.172 = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 118–119, fr. 1 and 2; see Gow and Page 1965 for discussion of other epigrams sometimes attributed to him.</ref> Ancient sources also describe him as a writer of ''kinaidoi'' (obscene verses, known euphemistically as "Ionic poems") in the manner of [[Sotades]].<ref>Knaack 1894; Lightfoot 2009, pp. 102; Strabo 14.1.41 (C648) and Athenaeus 14.620e, 136–137 = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 136–137, fr. 18a, b.</ref> A short fragment in [[anapestic tetrameter]]s compares the gruff and sullen personality of [[Euripides]] with the honeyed quality of his poetry.<ref>Dover 1996; Aulus Gellius 15.20 = Lightfoot 2009, pp. 138–139, fr. 19. The attribution of these verses is uncertain; see Lloyd-Jones 1994.</ref>

==Editions==
* A. Meineke, [https://archive.org/details/analectaalexand00meingoog/page/215/ ''Analecta alexandrina''] (Berlin 1843), pp. 215–251.
* J. U. Powell, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002326711&seq=145 ''Collectanea alexandrina: Reliquiae minores poetarum graecorum aetatis ptolemaicae, 323–146 A.C.''] (Oxford 1925), pp. 121–129.
* E. Magnelli, ''Alexandri Aetoli testimonia et fragmenta'' (Florence 1999).
* J. L. Lightfoot, ''Hellenistic Collection'' (Loeb Classical Library: Cambridge, Mass. 2009), pp. 99–145 (with English translation).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Dover, K. 1996. "Alexander of Pleuron", ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'', 3rd ed., Oxford, p. 60.
* Gow, A. S. F., and D. L. Page. 1965. ''The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams'', Cambridge, vol. 2, pp. 27–29.
* Knaack, G. 1894. [https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/RE:Alexandros_84 "Alexandros 84"], ''[[Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft]]'' I.2, 1894, cols. 1447–1448.
* Lightfoot, J. L., ed. 2009. ''Hellenistic Collection'', Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Mass., pp. 99–145.
* Lloyd-Jones, H. 1994. "Alexander Aetolus, Aristophanes, and the Life of Euripides", ''Storia poesia e pensiero nel mondo antico: Studi in onore di M. Gigante'', Naples, pp. 371–379. 
* Olson, S. 2000. [https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2000/2000.11.14 review of Enrico Magnelli, ''Alexandri Aetoli testimonia et fragmenta''], ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' 2000.11.14.
*{{DGRBM|title=Alexander Aetolus|author-last=Schmitz|author-first=Leonard|volume=1|page=111|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_Greek_and_Roman_Biography_and_Mythology/Alexander_Aetolus}}
* Spanoudakis, K. 2005. "Alexander Aetolus' ''Astragalistai''", ''Eikasmos'' 16, pp. 149–154.


{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Aetolians]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek tragic poets]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek epic poets]]
[[Category:Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek elegiac poets]]
[[Category:3rd-century BC Greek poets]]
[[Category:Ptolemaic court]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]