Agallis

For the flowering plant, see Tropidocarpum.

Agallis (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαλλίς; called Anagallis Ancient Greek: Ἀναγαλλίς by the Suda) of Corcyra was a female grammarian who wrote about Homer. She, or her father, was a student of Aristophanes of Byzantium.[1][2]

According to Athenaeus, she argued that ball games were invented by Nausicaa.[1] Two scholiasts on the Iliad quote an argument that the two cities that Homer describes on the Shield of Achilles represented Athens and Eleusis; one attributes this to "Agallias of Corcyra", the other to "Dalis of Corcyra". Some scholars believe that Agallias was Agallis' father; others that it is an error and Agallis was the source of this argument.[3]

Agallis is sometimes incorrectly described as a philosopher. This derives from the misconception that Ptolemy's Life of Aristotle was dedicated to her; it is now known to have been dedicated to a man named Gallus.[1]

References

1. Cullhed, Eric (2013). "Homer on the Origins of Athens: Agallis of Corcyra and the Shield of Achilles". Symbolae Osloenses. 87: 64. doi:10.1080/00397679.2013.805907.
2. Pomeroy, Sarah B. (1990). Women in Hellenistic Egypt: From Alexander to Cleopatra. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-8143-2230-1.
3. Cullhed, Eric (2013). "Homer on the Origins of Athens: Agallis of Corcyra and the Shield of Achilles". Symbolae Osloenses. 87: 64–65. doi:10.1080/00397679.2013.805907.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Agallis". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.