Zenodorus was a scholar, or grammarian, active in the 2nd century BCE during the Hellenistic period. While his epithet indicates a professional focus on literature and language, he is remembered today for a significant contribution to mathematics. The details of his personal life and location are not recorded in surviving sources.

His known work is a mathematical treatise titled On Isoperimetric Figures. The original text is lost, but its contents were preserved through a summary written centuries later by the mathematician Pappus of Alexandria. The treatise proved a fundamental geometric principle: that among all flat shapes with an equal perimeter, the circle encloses the largest area, and among all solid shapes with an equal surface area, the sphere encloses the largest volume.

According to modern scholars, Zenodorus’s significance lies in his early and systematic work on this type of optimization problem, a field known as isoperimetry. His results formed an important link between earlier Greek geometry and later mathematical developments. As a grammarian who authored a mathematical treatise, he also exemplifies the wide-ranging intellectual pursuits common among Hellenistic scholars.