Life Apollonides (Ἀπολλωνίδης) was a tragic poet of the 3rd century BCE during the Hellenistic period. The sole source for his biography is the 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, the Suda, which identifies him as a contemporary of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (r. 285–246 BCE) and the poet Sositheus [1]. This places him within the Alexandrian literary milieu centered on the Library and Museum, where tragedy was cultivated in a courtly and scholarly context [1, 2].

Works The Suda attributes a single tragedy to Apollonides: The Suppliants (Ἱκέτιδες), noted as a "new" play, indicating an original composition [1]. The work is lost, and no fragments survive.

Significance Apollonides is a documented, though minor, figure in the continuation of tragic poetry into the Hellenistic age. His recorded association with Ptolemaic Alexandria and with a known poet like Sositheus helps map the network of court-supported artists in the period [1, 3]. With no surviving text, his literary impact remains unknown, but his attestation contributes to the historical record of post-Classical drama.

Sources 1. Suda, entry Alpha 3420, "Apollonides" (Suda On Line): https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/alpha/3420 2. Encyclopædia Britannica, "Ptolemy II Philadelphus": https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ptolemy-II-Philadelphus 3. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics, "Tragedy, Hellenistic": https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-8112