The Shelves · Lyric (melic) poetry
Ἶβις
In the table of Lyric (melic) poetry: “curse poem”
Conjecturedvery likely classc. 305–240 BCE. The great poet of the Ptolemaic court (Aitia, Hymns, Hecale, Iambi, epigrams) and the compiler of the Pinakes, a 120-book bio-bibliography of Greek literature. The papyrus list of heads does not name him, and he was probably never head; the Latin Scholium Plautinum calls him royal librarian.
Ibis
Ἶβις
Opening words not preserved.
Length: not counted
Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.
Lost
Known from the Suda and from Ovid's imitation, also called Ibis.
Written in Alexandria.
In the cupboard: written at Alexandria by a scholar or court writer a source places there.
The show has not yet spoken of this work.
Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›
ΙΒΙΣ
The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.
The Suda, a Byzantine lexicon compiled some twelve centuries later, says Callimachus wrote the Ibis against Apollonius of Rhodes.
Told by The Suda, c. 970 CE, some twelve centuries later
The Ibis was a deliberately obscure curse poem, known from the Suda and from Ovid's imitation. Modern scholars think the famous quarrel was largely built by later biographers out of notes like this one.