Zenodotus of Ephesus

Zenodotus of Ephesus was appointed the first superintendent (prostates) of the Library of Alexandria under Ptolemy I Soter and Ptolemy II Philadelphus, making him the founding head of the greatest library of the ancient world. He was the tutor of the children of Ptolemy I and went on to become the pioneering figure of Alexandrian scholarship. His most important contribution was the first critical edition of the Homeric poems, in which he divided the Iliad and Odyssey into 24 books each (the division still used today) and marked problematic or spurious lines with the obelos — establishing practices of textual criticism that shaped literary scholarship for centuries.

• Nationality: greek
• Roles: intellectual