LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
Academy · Biography & Mythology

Palaephatus

1. Of Athens, an epic poet, to whom a mythical origin was assigned. According to some he was a son of Actaeus and Boeo, according to others of Iocles and Metaneira, and according to a third statement of Hermes. The time at which he lived is uncertain, but he appears to have been usually placed after Phemonoe [PHEMONOE], though some writers assigned him even an earlier date. he is represented by Christodorus (Anth. Graec. i. p. 27, ed. Tauchnitz) as an old bard crowned with laurel

δάφνή μὲν πλοκαμῖδ Παλαίφατος ἔπρετε μάντις δτεψάμενος, δόκεεν δὲ χέειν μαντώδεα φωνήν.

Suidas has preserved the titles of the following poems of Palaephatus: Ἔγραψε δὲ (1) κοσμοποιΐ εἰς ἔπη έ, (2) ʼΑπόλλωνος καὶ ʼΑτέμιδος γονὰς ἔπη γ́, (3) Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ Ἔρωτος φωνὰς καὶ λόγους ἔπη έ, (4) Ἀθηνᾶς ἔριν καὶ Ποσειδῶνος ἔπη ά, (5) Αητοῦς πλόκαμον.

From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.