PHILETAS OF COS

born c. 330 BC died c. 270 BC Philetas also spelled Philitas Greek poet and grammarian from the Aegean island of Cos, regarded as the founder of the Hellenistic school of poetry, which flourished in Alexandria after c. 323 BC. He is reputed to have been the tutor of Ptolemy II and the poet Theocritus. The Roman poets Propertius and Ovid mention him as their model, but only fragments of his work have survived. His most important poem appears to have been the Demeter, an elegy narrating the wanderings of the goddess of the Earth, Demeter. He also compiled a dictionary of rare words from Homer, the Greek dialects, and other sources.