Alexander Aetolus (, Ἀléxandros ὁ Aἰtōlós) was a Greek poet and grammarian, the only known representative of Aetolian poetry.
Life
Alexander was the son of Satyrus (Σάτυρος) and Stratocleia (Στρατόκλεια), and was a native of Pleuron in Aetolia, although he spent the greater part of his life at Alexandria, where he was reckoned one of the seven tragic poets who constituted the Tragic Pleiad.Suda, s.
v.Eudoc.
p. 62Pausanias, Description of Greece ii.
22. § 7Scholiast, ad Hom Il.
xvi. 233
Alexander flourished about 280 BC, in the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
He had an office in the Library of Alexandria, and was commissioned by Ptolemy to make a collection of all the tragedies and satyric dramas that were extant.
He spent some time, together with Antagoras and Aratus, at the court of Antigonus II Gonatas.Aratus, Phaenomena et Diosem.
ii. pp.
431, 443, &c. 446, ed.
Buhle
Notwithstanding the distinction Alexander enjoyed as a tragic poet, he appears to have had greater merit as a writer of epic poems, elegies, epigrams, and cynaedi.
Among his epic poems, we possess the titles and some fragments of three pieces: the Fisherman,, Athenaeus, vii.
p. 296 Kirka or Krika,Athenaeus, vii.
p. 283 which, however, is designated by Athenaeus as doubtful, and Helena,August Immanuel Bekker, Anecdota Graeca p. 96  Of his elegies, some beautiful fragments are still extant.Athenaeus, iv.
p. 170, xi.
p. 496, xv.
p. 899Strabo, xii.
p. 556, xiv.
p. 681Parthen.
Erot.
4John Tzetzes, ad.
Lycophron 266.Scholiast and Eustathius, ad Il.
iii. 314  His Cynaedi, or Ionic poems (), are mentioned by StraboStrabo, xiv.
p. 648 and Athenaeus.Athenaeus, xiv.
p. 620  Some anapaestic verses in praise of Euripides are preserved in Gellius.Aulus Gellius, xv.
20 References
Sources
Further reading
J U Powell (ed), Collectanea Alexandrina: reliquiae minores poetarum graecorum aetatis ptolemaicae, 323–146 A.C. (1972)
Enrico Magnelli (ed), Alexandri Aetoli Testimonia et Fragmenta.
Studi e Testi 15. (1999)
