Archelaus (Ancient Greek: Ἀρχέλαος), a poet of ancient Greece, is called in ancient sources an Egyptian, and is believed to have been a native of a town in Egypt called Chersonesus, as he is also called "Chersonesita". He wrote epigrams, some of which are still extant in the Greek Anthology.
Classical scholar Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Jacobs seemed to infer from an epigram of his on Alexander the Great that Archelaus lived in the time of Alexander and Ptolemy I Soter (that is, the 4th century BCE). Other scholars like Christian Lobeck place him in the reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon (2nd century BCE). But both of these opinions are connected with chronological difficulties, and William Linn Westermann showed that Archelaus in all probability flourished under Ptolemy Philadelphus, around the 3rd century BCE, to whom, according to Antigonus of Carystus, he narrated wonderful stories (παράδοξα, or "paradoxes") in epigrams.
Besides this peculiar kind of epigram, Archelaus wrote a work called ἰδιοφυῆ ("strange or peculiar animals"), which seems to have likewise been written in verse, and to have treated on strange and paradoxical subjects, like his epigrams.
Notes
- Antigonus of Carystus, Successions of Philosophers 19
- Athen. 12.554
- Anthology of Planudes 120
- Christian Lobeck, Aglaophamus p. 749
- Antigonus of Carystus, Successions of Philosophers 89
- Athen. 9.409
- Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 2.17
- Pliny Elench. lib. xxviii.
- Schol. ad Nicand. Ther. 822
- Artemidorus, Oneirocritica 4.22
- Compare Westermann, Scriptor. Rer. mirabil. Graeci, p. xxii., &c., who has also collected the extant fragments of Archelaus, p. 158, &c.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Archelaus". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 264.
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