Zenodotus ( grc-gre, Ζηνόδοτος) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

grammarian,

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, Homeric scholar, and the first

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

of the

Library of Alexandria The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, th ...

. A native of

Ephesus Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...

and a pupil of

Philitas of Cos Philitas of Cos (; el, Φιλίτας ὁ Κῷος, ''Philītas ho Kōos''; – ), sometimes spelled Philetas (; , ''Philētas''; see #Bibliography, Bibliography below), was a Greeks, Greek scholar, poet and grammarian during the early Hellen ...

, he lived during the reigns of the first two

Ptolemies The Ptolemaic dynasty (; grc, Πτολεμαῖοι, ''Ptolemaioi''), sometimes referred to as the Lagid dynasty (Λαγίδαι, ''Lagidae;'' after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal dynasty which ruled the Ptolemaic K ...

, and was at the height of his reputation about 280 BC.

Biography

Zenodotus was the first superintendent of the Library of Alexandria and the first critical editor ( ''diorthōtes'') of

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

. In 284 BC, the Ptolemaic court appointed Zenodotus as the first Director of the library and also the official tutor to the royal children. His colleagues in the librarianship were

Alexander of Aetolia Alexander Aetolus ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Αἰτωλός, ''Ἀléxandros ὁ Aἰtōlós'') was a Greeks, Greek poet and grammarian, the only known representative of Aetolian poetry. Life Alexander was the son of Satyrus (Σάτυρο ...

and Lycophron of Chalcis, to whom were allotted the tragic and comic writers respectively, Homer and other epic poets being assigned to Zenodotus.

Work

Although he has been reproached with arbitrariness and insufficient knowledge of Greek, his recension undoubtedly laid a sound foundation for future criticism. Having collated the different manuscripts in the library, he expunged or obelized doubtful verses, transposed or altered lines, and introduced new readings. It is probable that he was responsible for the division of the Homeric poems into twenty-four books each, and possibly was the author of the calculation of the days of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...

'' in the ''

Tabula Iliaca The ''Tabulae Iliacae'' ("Iliadic tables", "Iliac tables" or "Iliac tablets"; singular ''Tabula Iliaca'') are a collection of 22 stone plaques (''pinakes''), mostly of marble, with reliefs depicting scenes from Greek epic poetry, especially of th ...

''.

Homeric glosses

He does not appear to have written any regular commentary on Homer, but his Homeric ('' glōssai'', "lists of unusual words,

glosses A gloss is a brief notation, especially a marginal one or an interlinear one, of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text or in the reader's language if that is different. A collection of glosses is a ''g ...

") probably formed the source of the explanations of Homer attributed by the grammarians to Zenodotus. He also lectured upon

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

Anacreon Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...

and

Pindar Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is ...

, if he did not publish editions of them. He is further called an epic poet by the ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

,'' and three epigrams in the ''

Greek Anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' ( la, Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Pa ...

'' are assigned to him.

Library organisation

Classification

In addition to his other scholarly work, Zenodotus introduced an organization system on the materials in the Library of Alexandria whereby texts were assigned to different rooms based on their subject matter (verse or prose, literary or scientific), and the various sub-classifications within each.

Ordering

Within their subjects, Zenodotus organized the works

alphabetically Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is t ...

by the first letter of the name of their author. The principle of the alphabetic organization was introduced by Zenodotus.

Tagging

In addition, library staff attached a small tag to the end of each scroll. These tags gave authors' names as well as other identification and had been added during the accessions procedure but often without a title; many a roll contained more than one work, and many works, such as compilations of poetry, warranted more than a single title. When a title was lacking, Zenodotus had to unroll and pass an eye over the text. Such tags enabled the scrolls to be easily returned to the area in which they had been classified and also ensured that library users did not have to unroll each scroll in order to see what it contained.Casson, L. (2001). Libraries in the Ancient World. Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Brothers. p. 37 This was the first recorded use of

metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

, a landmark in library history. Not until the second century A.D. does fuller alphabetization make an appearance.

Notes

References

* Attribution: * Endnotes: ** F. A. Wolf, ''

Prolegomena ad Homerum In an essay, Article (publishing), article, or book, an introduction (also known as a prolegomenon) is a beginning section which states the purpose and goals of the following writing. This is generally followed by the body text, body and conclus ...

'', section 43 (1859 edition) ** H. Düntzer, ''De Zenodoti studiis Homericis'' (1848) ** A. Römer, ''Über die Homerrecension des Zenodotus'' (Munich, 1885) ** F. Susemihl, ''Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit'', i. p. 330, ii. p. 14 ** J. E. Sandys, ''Hist. of Class. Schol. (1906), ed. 2, vol. i. pp. 119–121.