Colluthus
Coluthus, often Colluthus, of Lycopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid, was an epic poet writing in Greek, who flourished during the reign of Anastasius I (491-518). This is according to the Suda, which adds that he was the author of a Calydoniaca in six books, doubtless an account of the Calydonian boar hunt, Persica, an account of the Persian wars, and Encomia, or laudatory poems.
These are all lost, but his poem in some 400 hexameters on The Rape of Helen is still extant, having been discovered by Cardinal Bessarion in Calabria. The poem is dull and tasteless, devoid of imagination, a poor imitation of Homer, and has little to recommend it except its harmonious versification, based upon the technical rules of Nonnus. It related the history of Paris and Helen from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis down to the elopement and arrival at Troy.
The first printed edition was by Aldus Manutius, Venice, possibly in 1505.[1] Early editions by John Daniel van Lennep (1747, the first critical edition, collating six mss.), G.F. Schafer (1825), E. Abel (1880) and W. Weinberger (Teubner, 1896) have been superseded by Enrico Livrea (1968).[2] The best manuscript of this difficult and corrupt text is the so-called Codex Mutinensis (Bibliothèque National suppl. graec. 388) which Hall, Companion to Classical Texts, p. 278, says "was never at Modena but was brought by the French in the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the 19th century from somewhere in North Italy."
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（Κόλουθος) and Colluthus (Κόλλουθος). A native of Lycopolis in Egypt, supposed to have lived about the beginning of the sixth century. He wrote a poem in six cantos, entitled Calydonica (Καλυδωνικά), as well as other pieces that are now lost. He is believed also, though without any great degree of certainty, to have been the author of a poem, in 392 verses, which bears the title of The Rape of Helen (Ἑλένης Ἁρπαγή). This poem commences with the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, and the poet goes on to recount the judgment of Paris, the voyage of that prince to Sparta, and the abduction of Helen, which takes place after the first interview. This poem of Coluthus was discovered by Cardinal Bessarion along with that of Quintus Smyrnaeus, and can be found in the Didot collection edited by Lehrs and Dübner.
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（Κόλουθος) and Colluthus (Κόλλουθος). A native of Lycopolis in Egypt, supposed to have lived about the beginning of the sixth century. He wrote a poem in six cantos, entitled Calydonica (Καλυδωνικά), as well as other pieces that are now lost. He is believed also, though without any great degree of certainty, to have been the author of a poem, in 392 verses, which bears the title of The Rape of Helen (Ἑλένης Ἁρπαγή). This poem commences with the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, and the poet goes on to recount the judgment of Paris, the voyage of that prince to Sparta, and the abduction of Helen, which takes place after the first interview. This poem of Coluthus was discovered by Cardinal Bessarion along with that of Quintus Smyrnaeus, and can be found in the Didot collection edited by Lehrs and Dübner.
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