This article is about the historian and grammarian. For other men of the same name, see
Apollodorus. For the author of the Bibliotheca, see
Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus).
Chronicle (Χρονικά, Chronika), a Greek history in verse from the fall of
Troy in the 12th century BC to roughly 143 BC (although later it was extended as far as 109 BC), and based on previous works by
Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Its dates are reckoned by its references to the
archons of Athens. As most archons only held office for one year, scholars have been able to pin down the years to which Apollodorus was referring. The poem is written in comic
trimeters and is dedicated to the second-century BC king of Pergamon,
Attalus II Philadelphus.
On the Gods (Περὶ θεῶν, Peri theon, prose, in 24 books), lost but known through quotes to have included
etymologies[1] of the names and
epithets of the gods, rifled and quoted by the Roman Epicurean
Philodemus; further fragments appear in
Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
Other possible works include an early
etymology (possibly the earliest by an Alexandrian writer), and analyses of the poets
Epicharmus of Kos and
Sophron.
Apollodorus produced numerous other critical and grammatical writings, which have not survived.
His eminence as a scholar gave rise to several imitations, forgeries and misattributions. The encyclopedia of
Greek mythology called Bibliotheca, or Library, was traditionally attributed to him, but it cannot be his; as it cites
Castor the Annalist, who was a contemporary of
Cicero.[2] Rather, the author of the Bibliotheca is now designated
Pseudo-Apollodorus.
Notes
^Dignified as "philological inquiries" by Fritz Graf, Greek Mythology: an introduction 1996:276.
Bravo, Benedetto. La Chronique d'Apollodore et le Pseudo-Skymnos: érudition antiquaire et littérature géographique dans la seconde moitié du IIe siècle av. J.-C. (Leuven: Peeters, 2009) (Studia Hellenistica, 46).