Diony'sius or
Diony'siusScytobrachion34. Of MYTILENE, was surnamed Scytobrachion, and seems to have
lived shortly before the time of Cicero, if we may believe the report that he instructed M.
Antonius Gnipho at Alexandria (Suet. de Illustr. Gram. 7), for Suetonius
expresses a doubt as to its correctness for chronological reasons. Artemon (apud Athen. xii. p. 415) states, that Dionysius Scytobrachion was the author of
the historical work which was commonly attributed to the ancient historian Xanthus of Lydia,
who lived about B. C. 480. From this it has been inferred, that our
Dionysius must have lived at a much earlier time. But if we conceive that Dionysius may have
made a revision of the work of Xanthus, it does not follow that he must needs have lived very
near the age of Xanthus.
Works
Suidas attributes to him a metrical work, the expedition of Dionysus and Athena (
ἡ Διονύσου καὶ Ἁθηνᾶς στρατία), and a prose work on the
Argonauts in six books, addressed to Parmenon. He was probably also the author of the
historic Cycle, which Suidas attributes to Dionysius of Miletus. The Argonautica is often
referred to by the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, who likewise several times confounds the
Mytilenean with the Milesian (1.1298, 2.207, 1144, 3.200, 242, 4.119, 223, 228, 1153), and
this work was also consulted by Diodorus Siculus. (3.52, 66.)
Further Information
See Bernhardy, ad Dionys. Perieg. p. 490; Welcker, Der
Ep. Cyclus, p. 87.