text: philitas of cos philitas of cos ( / / ; greek : , ; c . 340 – c . 285 bc ) , sometimes spelled philetas ( / / ; , ; see bibliography below ) , 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 greek 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 . life little is known of philitas ' life . ancient sources refer to him as a coan , a native or long - time inhabitant of cos , one of the dodecanese islands in the aegean sea just off the coast of asia . his student theocritus wrote that philetas ' father was ( , ) and his mother , assuming the manuscript is supplemented correctly , ( , ) . from a comment about philitas in the suda , a 10th - century ad historical encyclopedia , it is estimated he was born c . 340 bc , and that he might have established a reputation in cos by c . 309 / 8 bc . during the wars of the diadochi that followed the death of alexander the great and divided alexander 's empire , ptolemy had captured cos from his rival successor , antigonus , in 310 bc ; his son , ptolemy ii philadelphus , was born there in 308 bc . it was a favorite retreat for men of letters weary of alexandria . philetas was appointed philadelphus ' tutor , which suggests he moved to alexandria c . 297 / 6 bc and moved back to cos in the later bc . he may also have tutored arsinoe ii , philadelphus ' older sister and eventual wife . later tutors of royal offspring in ptolemaic egypt generally headed the library of alexandria , but it is unknown whether philitas held that position . philitas also taught the poets hermesianax and theocritus and the grammarian , and after he returned to cos he seems to have spent at least ten years leading a brotherhood of intellectuals and poets that included aratus , hermesianax , and theocritus . hermesianax wrote of " philitas , singing of nimble " , and ovid twice calls her " battis " . it is commonly thought that or battis was philitas ' mistress , and that hermesianax referred to love poetry ; another possibility is that her name connoted " chatterbox " , and that she was a humorous personification of philitas ' passion for words . philitas was thin and frail , and may have suffered and died from a wasting disease . he seems to have died in cos sometime in the bc . his pupil hermesianax wrote that a statue of him was erected under a plane tree by the people of cos , depicting him as " frail with all the glosses " . his contemporary wrote that philadelphus commissioned a bronze of philitas in old age from the sculptor hecataeus , which " included nothing from the physique of heroes . no , ... he cast the old man full of cares . " the 3rd century ad roman author aelian skeptically passed along a story that philitas was so thin that he put lead weights in the soles of his shoes to avoid being blown away by a stiff wind . a 2nd century ad greek author , athenaeus of , wrote that philitas studied false arguments and erroneous word - usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death , and that his epitaph read : st. george stock analyzed the story as saying philitas studied the megarian school of philosophy , which cultivated and studied paradoxes such as the liar paradox : if someone says " i am lying " , is what he says true or false ? stock wrote that philitas worried so much over the liar paradox that he died of insomnia , and translated the epitaph as follows : a more literal translation suggests that the invented epitaph pokes fun at philitas ' focus on using the right words : works philitas wrote a vocabulary explaining the meanings of rare literary words , words from local dialects , and technical terms ; it probably took the form of a lexicon . the vocabulary , called disorderly words ( , ) , has been lost , with only a few fragments quoted by later authors . one example , quoted in athenaeus , is that the word ( ) meant " wine cup " in the ancient greek region of boeotia ; this was evidently contrasted to the same word meaning " milk pail " in homer 's iliad . , another scholarly work , probably contained philitas ' versions and critical interpretations of homer and other authors . about thirty fragments of philitas ' poetry are known , along with four definite titles : demeter , philitas ' most famous work , consisted of elegiac couplets , or couplets in the elegiac meter . its few surviving fragments suggest that it narrated the grain goddess demeter 's hunt for her daughter persephone . the fragments describe demeter 's arrival on cos and warm welcome by its royal family of , or humans twice normal size , thus presenting the founding myth of a local cult of demeter on cos . hermes was an , or brief mythological narrative , written in hexameter . it had the structure of a hymn , with a central narrative telling of odysseus ' visit to the island of the king aeolus , keeper of the winds , and of odysseus ' secret affair with the king 's daughter . it is also possible that hermes was a collection of such stories , with the patronage of hermes himself as the common thread . playthings ( , ) had two shorter collections . these poems had the structure of epigrams and their themes may have included erotica . the only surviving poem contains two elegiac couplets and has a puzzle or riddle structure characteristic of some ancient greek drinking - party songs . only one of the has been fully reconstructed . another possible poem is telephus , which may have been a companion to demeter . at most fifty verses of philitas survive . below is an example fragment of two verses , which was quoted in the collection of paradoxical stories , whose putative author antigonus ( often identified with antigonus of carystus , a near - contemporary ) does not specify which work they came from ; indirect evidence suggests demeter . these two verses show the confluence of philitas ' interests in poetry and obscure words : according to antigonus , the " cactus " ( κάκτος , ) was a thorny plant from sicily , and " when a deer steps on it and is pricked , its bones remain soundless and unusable for flutes . for that reason philitas spoke of it . " antigonus quotes one more passage , and the 5th century ad anthologist stobaeus quotes eleven passages from philitas ; the remaining fragments are derived from ancient commentators who quoted philitas when discussing rare words or names used by other authors . influence philitas was the most important intellectual figure in the early years of hellenistic civilization . he gained instant recognition in both poetry and literary scholarship , and , as far as is known , was the first person called " poet as well as scholar " ( καὶ , [ h ] ) . as tutor to philadelphus he is assumed to have had great influence on the development of the at alexandria , a scholarly institution that included the famous library of alexandria . a statue was erected of him , possibly at a at cos , and his work was explicitly acknowledged as a classic by both theocritus and callimachus . his reputation for scholarship endured for at least a century . in athens , the comic playwright strato made jokes that assumed audiences knew about philitas ' vocabulary , and the vocabulary was criticized more than a century later by the influential homeric scholar aristarchus of samothrace in his against philitas ( , ) . the geographer strabo described him three centuries later as " simultaneously a poet and a critic " . philitas was the first writer whose works represent the combination of qualities now regarded as hellenistic : variety , scholarship , and use of homeric sources in non - epic works . he directly influenced the major hellenistic poets callimachus and apollonius of rhodes . his poetry was mentioned or briefly quoted by callimachus and by other ancient authors , and his poetic reputation endured for at least three centuries , as augustan poets identified his name with great elegiac writing . propertius linked him to callimachus with the following well - known couplet : the 1st - century ad rhetorician quintilian ranked philitas second only to callimachus among the elegiac poets . philitas ' influence has been found or suspected in a wide range of ancient writing ; ' 2nd century ad novel daphnis and chloe contains a character likely named after him . almost all that he wrote seems to have disappeared within two centuries , though , so it is unlikely that any writer later than the 2nd century bc read any but a few of his lines .