EUPHORION

born c. 275 BC? Greek poet and grammarian, of Chalcis in Euboea, whose poetry was highly regarded in Hellenistic literary circles and later among Catullus' generation of Roman poets in the 1st century BC. Euphorion studied philosophy at Athens. Soon after 223 BC, Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, gave him the coveted post of royal librarian at Antioch. His works included small-scale epics (epyllia) on mythological themes, poetic invectives and epigrams, as well as scholarly treatises. Surviving fragments reveal him as a plagiarist possessed of a willfully obscure and turgid style.