Eutecnius the Paraphrast (Εὐτέκνιος) was a late antique author, traditionally placed between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE. He is distinguished from a later 6th-century sophist of the same name [1]. No details of his origin or life survive.

His extant works are prose paraphrases of Hellenistic didactic poems: Oppian’s Halieutica and Cynegetica, Dionysius Periegetes’s Periegesis, and Nicander’s Theriaca [2][3][4]. These transformed complex hexameter verse into accessible technical prose.

Eutecnius’s significance lies in transmitting and popularizing scientific poetry. His paraphrases served educational purposes, preserving the core content of these works through the medieval period and providing valuable witnesses for modern textual criticism [2][3][4]. His output exemplifies the late antique scholarly practice of metaphrasis.

Sources 1. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics (Oxford University Press): https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-2567 2. Perseus Digital Library (Tufts University): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0471 3. ToposText (Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation): https://topostext.org/author/356 4. Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (University of California, Irvine): https://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/authorworkindex.php?auth=4020