Telephus of Pergamum
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Telephus of Pergamum (Ancient Greek: Τήλεφος ὁ Περγαμηνός) was a Greek Stoic grammarian and historian who flourished in the second century CE. He was a tutor of the future Roman emperor Lucius Verus.[1][2]
According to his fellow Pergamene, Galen, Telephus lived to nearly one hundred years of age.[3]
Telephus appears to have maintained that Homer represented the purest form of Greek, opposing stricter Atticist scholars who regarded Classical Athenian Greek as the only proper linguistic model.[3]
The following works are attributed to Telephus of Pergamum by Suda:[4]
- A grammatical work (its title is lost).
- On the Rhetorical Figures in Homer (2 books).
- On the Syntax of Attic Discourse (5 books).
- On Rhetoric in Homer.
- On the Agreement of Homer and Plato.
- Love of Varied Learning (2 books).
- Lives of Tragic and Comic Dramatists.
- Expertise concerning Books (3 books).
- That Homer Alone among the Ancients Writes Correct Greek.
- Description of Pergamum.
- On the Temple of Augustus in Pergamum (2 books).
- On the Courts in Athens.
- On the Laws and Customs of Athens.
- On the Kings of Pergamum (5 books).
- On the Names and Usage of Clothing and Other Everyday Objects.
- On the Wanderings of Odysseus.
- Easy Birth (10 books), a collection of epithets and expressions intended to assist writers and orators in achieving fluent expression.
All of his works are lost,[5] although a number of fragments and testimonia attributed to Telephus survive.[6]