() was, according to Suidas (s.
v.), a very distinguished Greek grammarian of Phaenebythis in Egypt, who first taught at
Alexandria, and afterwards at Constantinople, in the reign of the emperor Theodosius.
Works
Horapollo is said to have written commentaries on Sophocles, Alcaeus, and Homer, and a
separate work, entitled
Τεμενικά, i. e. on τεμένη, or places sacred to the gods. (Conip. Steph. Byz. s. v.Φενέβηθις.) Photius (Bibl. Cod.
279, p. 536, ed. Bekker) speaks of him as a grammarian, and the author of a work, Περὶ τῶν πατρίων Ἀλεχανδρείας, though this may have been
the work of another Horapollo, who was likewise an Egyptian, but lived under the emperor
Zeno.
On Hieroglyphics
Under the name of Horapollo (or, as some erroneously call him, Horus), there
is still extant a work on hieroglyphics, entitled
Ὡραπόλλωνος
Νειλώνυ ἱερογλυφικά. The work purports to be a Greek translation, made by one
Philippus from the Egyptian. It consists of two books, and contains a series of explanations
of hieroglyphics, and is of great importance to those who study hieroglyphics, for it refers
to the very forms which are still seen on Egyptian monuments, which show that the work was
written by a person who knew the monuments well, and had studied them with care. The second
book is inferior to the first, and is probably disfigured by later interpolations. Whether
the whole is the production of the grammarian who lived under Theodosius, or of some other
person of the name, cannot be decided; but that the writer was a native of Egypt can
scarcely be doubted, from the nature of the work. As for the time at which it was written,
it seems probable that he lived about the beginning of the fifth century. Who the Greek
translator Philippus was, is quite uncertain; some even believe that he was a Greek of the
fifteenth century, and that the interpolations in the second book must be ascribed to him;
but there appears to be no good reason for placing him at so late a period.
Editions
The work was first printed in the collection of Greek fabulists, by Aldus, Venice,
1505, fol.; separate editions are those of Paris (1521, 8vo., with a Lat.
translation by Trebatius), of J. Mercer (Paris, 1548, 4to., 1551, 8vo.),
D. Höschel (Augsburg, 1595, 4to.), de Pauw (Utrecht, 1727,
4to., contains the notes of the previous editors); but the best critical
edition, with an extensive commentary, is that of Conr. Leemans (Amsterdam, 1835, 8vo.), who
has accompanied his edition with valuable prolegomena.
Further Information
Comp. Lenormant, Recherches sur l'Origine, &c., et l'Utilité
actuelle des Hiéroglyphiques d'Horapollon, Paris, 1838, 8vo.; Goulianoff, Essais sur les Hiéroglyph. d'Horapollon, Paris, 1827, 4to.; A. S.
Corey, The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, London, 1840, 8vo.; Bunsen, Aeqyptens Stelle in der Weltgesch. vol. i. p. 402, &c.