Zoilus

Zoilus (Greek: Ζωΐλος Zoilos; c. 400 – 320 BC) was a Greek grammarian and literary critic from Amphipolis in Eastern Macedonia, then known as Thrace. He took the name Homeromastix (Ὁμηρομάστιξ "Homer whipper"; gen.: Ὁμηρομάστιγος) later in life.

Biography

According to Vitruvius (vii., preface), Zoilus lived during the age of Ptolemy Philadelphus, by whom he was crucified as the punishment of his criticisms on the king; but this account should probably be rejected as a fiction based on Zoilus' reputation.¹ Vitruvius goes on to state that Zoilus also may have been stoned at Chios or thrown alive upon a funeral pyre at Smyrna. Either way Vitruvius felt it was just as well since he deserved to be dead for slandering an author who could not defend himself. Zoilus appears to have been at one time a follower of Isocrates, but subsequently a pupil of Polycrates, whom he heard at Athens, where he was a teacher of rhetoric.¹

Zoilus was chiefly known for the acerbity of his attacks on Homer, chiefly directed against the fabulous element in the Homeric poems.

He authored several grammatical works, including Against the Poetry of Homer (9 speeches), a history spanning from the birth of the gods to the death of Philip of Macedon (3 books), On Amphipolis, Against the Rhetor Isocrates, and many other works, among them an invective against Homer.² He also wrote responses to works by Isocrates and Plato, who had attacked the style of of which he approved.