The reading collection
A selection of ancient works and attested missing titles, not a recovered Library inventory. This version needs neither JavaScript nor 3D graphics.
Iliad
Homeric tradition · Late eighth or early seventh century BCE · surviving
The wrath of Achilles, the grief of Priam, and a few weeks in the final year of the Trojan War. All 24 books.
Early Alexandrian scholars, especially Zenodotus, studied and edited Homer. Their work is evidence for a local scholarly tradition, but it does not identify a surviving physical copy, shelf, or exact reading in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 2199
Translation: Samuel Butler · Prose translation, 1898
Odyssey
Homeric tradition · Late eighth or seventh century BCE · surviving
Odysseus returns to Ithaca through stories of shipwreck, hospitality, disguise and recognition. All 24 books.
Early Alexandrian scholars, especially Zenodotus, studied and edited Homer. Their work is evidence for a local scholarly tradition, but it does not identify a surviving physical copy, shelf, or exact reading in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1727
Translation: Samuel Butler · Prose translation, 1900
Works and Days
Hesiod · About 700 BCE · surviving
A poem of work, justice, seasons and precarious livelihood, addressed to the poet’s brother Perses.
A Greek work composed before the reconstruction’s date, included as a plausible part of the literary world that Alexandrian scholars collected and studied. No surviving inventory proves this particular title was on a shelf here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 348
Translation: Hugh G. Evelyn-White · Loeb Classical Library, 1914
Theogony
Hesiod · About 700 BCE · surviving
The origins and succession of the gods, from Chaos to Zeus. A poem about cosmic order and the authority of song.
A Greek work composed before the reconstruction’s date, included as a plausible part of the literary world that Alexandrian scholars collected and studied. No surviving inventory proves this particular title was on a shelf here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 348
Translation: Hugh G. Evelyn-White · Loeb Classical Library, 1914
Idyll I · Thyrsis
Theocritus · First half of the third century BCE; exact dates debated · surviving
A goatherd asks Thyrsis to sing the death of Daphnis; an elaborately carved cup becomes the promised reward.
Theocritus wrote poetry connected with Ptolemy II’s court and, in Idyll XV, Alexandria itself. These complete poems fit the cultural setting; possession of a particular copy is not attested.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 11533
Translation: C. S. Calverley · Theocritus, translated into English Verse, third edition
Idyll VII · The Harvest Home
Theocritus · First half of the third century BCE; exact dates debated · surviving
A walk to a harvest festival becomes an exchange of songs and a meditation on a poet’s craft.
Theocritus wrote poetry connected with Ptolemy II’s court and, in Idyll XV, Alexandria itself. These complete poems fit the cultural setting; possession of a particular copy is not attested.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 11533
Translation: C. S. Calverley · Theocritus, translated into English Verse, third edition
Idyll XV · The Women at the Adonis Festival
Theocritus · First half of the third century BCE; exact dates debated · surviving
Two Syracusan women make their way through the crowd in Alexandria to an Adonis festival associated with Queen Arsinoe.
Theocritus wrote poetry connected with Ptolemy II’s court and, in Idyll XV, Alexandria itself. These complete poems fit the cultural setting; possession of a particular copy is not attested.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 11533
Translation: C. S. Calverley · Theocritus, translated into English Verse, third edition
Idyll XVII · The Praise of Ptolemy
Theocritus · First half of the third century BCE; exact dates debated · surviving
A court encomium to Ptolemy II. Read it as praise shaped by patronage, not as a neutral report on the kingdom.
Theocritus wrote poetry connected with Ptolemy II’s court and, in Idyll XV, Alexandria itself. These complete poems fit the cultural setting; possession of a particular copy is not attested.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 11533
Translation: C. S. Calverley · Theocritus, translated into English Verse, third edition
Hymn to Zeus
Callimachus · Early third century BCE; precise date disputed · surviving
Zeus’s birth and kingship lead to praise of a contemporary ruler, conventionally identified as Ptolemy II.
Callimachus is closely associated with Alexandrian scholarship and Ptolemaic patronage. The hymn’s precise occasion and date are debated; it is not a transcript of a known performance in this building.
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Source: A. W. Mair’s 1921 translation · Theoi transcription
Translation: A. W. Mair · Loeb Classical Library 129, 1921
Phaenomena
Aratus of Soli · About 275 BCE · surviving
A hexameter guide to constellations, seasonal signs and weather. The complete astronomical poem and its weather-sign section.
Aratus wrote at the Macedonian court of Antigonus II, not as a documented resident of this Library. His poem belongs to the same Hellenistic scholarly world and draws on Eudoxus’s earlier astronomy.
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Source: G. R. Mair’s 1921 translation · Theoi transcription
Translation: G. R. Mair · Loeb Classical Library 129, 1921
Histories
Herodotus · Later fifth century BCE · surviving
Investigations of peoples, customs and the Persian Wars, including the long account of Egypt. All nine books.
A Greek work composed before the reconstruction’s date, included as a plausible part of the literary world that Alexandrian scholars collected and studied. No surviving inventory proves this particular title was on a shelf here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 2707
Translation: G. C. Macaulay · Two-volume translation, 1890
History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides · Late fifth and early fourth centuries BCE · surviving
The war between Athens and Sparta, with accounts of plague, civil conflict, power and public speech. All eight surviving books.
A Greek work composed before the reconstruction’s date, included as a plausible part of the literary world that Alexandrian scholars collected and studied. No surviving inventory proves this particular title was on a shelf here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 7142
Translation: Richard Crawley · Translation, 1874
Anabasis
Xenophon · Fourth century BCE · surviving
Greek mercenaries retreat from Mesopotamia after the failure of Cyrus the Younger’s campaign. All seven books.
A Greek work composed before the reconstruction’s date, included as a plausible part of the literary world that Alexandrian scholars collected and studied. No surviving inventory proves this particular title was on a shelf here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1170
Translation: H. G. Dakyns · The Works of Xenophon, 1890–1897
Hellenica
Xenophon · Fourth century BCE · surviving
Greek affairs from 411 to 362 BCE, continuing beyond the point where Thucydides’s narrative stops. All seven books.
A Greek work composed before the reconstruction’s date, included as a plausible part of the literary world that Alexandrian scholars collected and studied. No surviving inventory proves this particular title was on a shelf here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1174
Translation: H. G. Dakyns · The Works of Xenophon, 1890–1897
Agamemnon
Aeschylus · 458 BCE · surviving
The king returns from Troy to a household shaped by sacrifice, war and revenge.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 8604
Translation: E. D. A. Morshead · The House of Atreus, public-domain verse translation
The Libation Bearers
Aeschylus · 458 BCE · surviving
Orestes and Electra confront the murder of their father and the demand for another act of vengeance.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 8604
Translation: E. D. A. Morshead · The House of Atreus, public-domain verse translation
The Eumenides
Aeschylus · 458 BCE · surviving
The pursuit of Orestes by the Erinyes leads to a trial at Athens and a contested settlement of inherited violence.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 8604
Translation: E. D. A. Morshead · The House of Atreus, public-domain verse translation
Oedipus the King
Sophocles · Fifth century BCE; exact production date uncertain · surviving
A king’s investigation of a killing reveals the truth of his own parentage and marriage.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 31
Translation: Francis Storr · Loeb Classical Library, 1912
Oedipus at Colonus
Sophocles · First performed in 401 BCE, after Sophocles’s death · surviving
The aged Oedipus reaches a sacred grove near Athens, seeking refuge and a final place to belong.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 31
Translation: Francis Storr · Loeb Classical Library, 1912
Antigone
Sophocles · About 441 BCE · surviving
Antigone’s burial of her brother brings a conflict between family duty, divine law and civic command.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 31
Translation: Francis Storr · Loeb Classical Library, 1912
Medea
Euripides · 431 BCE · surviving
Medea, abandoned by Jason, turns betrayal and exile into a devastating revenge.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 35451
Translation: Gilbert Murray · Oxford University Press, 1912 printing of the 1906 translation
Bacchae
Euripides · First performed about 405 BCE, after Euripides’s death · surviving
Dionysus returns to Thebes, where Pentheus refuses to recognize his divinity.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 35173
Translation: Gilbert Murray · George Allen, 1906 edition
The Trojan Women
Euripides · 415 BCE · surviving
The women of defeated Troy wait to learn their fates as captives of the Greek victors.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 10096
Translation: Gilbert Murray · 1915 edition of Murray’s translation
Electra
Euripides · Later fifth century BCE; exact date debated · surviving
Electra and Orestes plan vengeance in a world where heroic certainty has become difficult to sustain.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 14322
Translation: Gilbert Murray · Translation first published in 1905
Alcestis
Euripides · 438 BCE · surviving
Alcestis agrees to die in her husband’s place; grief, hospitality and Heracles’s arrival reshape the household.
Classical Athenian drama was studied by Alexandrian scholars. Galen’s much later story about the royal acquisition of the tragedians’ Athenian copies concerns Ptolemy III, after this setting; it cannot prove this play’s presence here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 10523
Translation: Gilbert Murray · Translation first published in 1915
Clouds
Aristophanes · First version 423 BCE; surviving revision later in the fifth century · surviving
A comic “thinking-shop” offers Strepsiades an education in arguments that might free him from his debts.
A Greek work composed before the reconstruction’s date, included as a plausible part of the literary world that Alexandrian scholars collected and studied. No surviving inventory proves this particular title was on a shelf here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 2562
Translation: William James Hickie · Public-domain prose translation
Frogs
Aristophanes · 405 BCE · surviving
Dionysus descends to the underworld to recover a poet; Aeschylus and Euripides compete over tragedy’s worth.
A Greek work composed before the reconstruction’s date, included as a plausible part of the literary world that Alexandrian scholars collected and studied. No surviving inventory proves this particular title was on a shelf here in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 7998
Translation: B. B. Rogers · Harvard Classics, volume 8, 1909
Republic
Plato · Fourth century BCE · surviving
Justice in the city and the person, the education of guardians, the cave, and the story of Er. All ten books.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 55201
Translation: Benjamin Jowett · Third edition of Jowett’s separate Republic, 1888
Apology
Plato · Fourth century BCE · surviving
Plato’s presentation of Socrates’s defence at his trial, not a verbatim court transcript.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1656
Translation: Benjamin Jowett · Benjamin Jowett’s public-domain translation
Phaedo
Plato · Fourth century BCE · surviving
Socrates’s final conversation explores death, philosophy and arguments for the soul’s immortality.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1658
Translation: Benjamin Jowett · Benjamin Jowett’s public-domain translation
Symposium
Plato · Fourth century BCE · surviving
A sequence of speeches at a drinking party considers the nature of love.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1600
Translation: Benjamin Jowett · Benjamin Jowett’s public-domain translation
Phaedrus
Plato · Fourth century BCE · surviving
A conversation outside Athens about love, the soul, rhetoric, memory and writing.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1636
Translation: Benjamin Jowett · Benjamin Jowett’s public-domain translation
Timaeus
Plato · Fourth century BCE · surviving
A cosmological account of the ordering of the universe, the human body and the soul.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1572
Translation: Benjamin Jowett · Benjamin Jowett’s public-domain translation
Politics
Aristotle · Fourth century BCE · surviving
An investigation of households, citizenship, constitutions, political change and education. All eight books.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 6762
Translation: William Ellis · Translation first published in 1776; later public-domain edition
Poetics
Aristotle · Fourth century BCE · surviving
Aristotle’s surviving discussion of poetry, especially tragedy, plot and recognition.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 1974
Translation: S. H. Butcher · Public-domain translation
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · Fourth century BCE · surviving
An inquiry into flourishing, character, practical judgement, friendship and contemplation. All ten books.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 8438
Translation: D. P. Chase · Public-domain translation with an introduction by J. A. Smith
History of Animals
Aristotle and the transmitted Aristotelian corpus · Fourth-century BCE core; composition of some books disputed · surviving
A wide-ranging inquiry into animals, their bodies, reproduction and ways of life.
Included as a pre-existing philosophical work, not as a documented Alexandrian holding. The transmission and early circulation of the philosophical schools’ writings are unevenly attested; later collection stories do not establish a copy in 250 BCE.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 59058
Translation: Richard Cresswell · 1862 translation, George Bell & Sons edition of 1887
On Ancient Medicine
An author of the Hippocratic corpus · Late fifth or early fourth century BCE · surviving
An argument that medicine should learn from diet, experience and individual differences, rather than a single simplifying hypothesis.
Alexandria became an important centre of medical inquiry, but the Hippocratic collection is multi-author and took shape over time. Inclusion here is contextual: neither attribution to Hippocrates himself nor possession of this exact treatise in the Library is certain.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 72583
Translation: Francis Adams · 1849 translation, reprinted by William Wood in 1886
On Airs, Waters, and Places
An author of the Hippocratic corpus · Later fifth century BCE · surviving
A physician’s account of environment, seasons, water and human health, including ancient generalizations about peoples.
Alexandria became an important centre of medical inquiry, but the Hippocratic collection is multi-author and took shape over time. Inclusion here is contextual: neither attribution to Hippocrates himself nor possession of this exact treatise in the Library is certain.
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Source: Project Gutenberg · ebook 72583
Translation: Francis Adams · 1849 translation, reprinted by William Wood in 1886
The Greek Pentateuch
Anonymous Jewish translators of the Torah · Third century BCE; completion by 250 BCE uncertain · surviving
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy: the five books of the Torah in an English translation of their Greek text. Religious narrative and law, not the entire later Septuagint.
The Greek Pentateuch is generally associated with third-century BCE Alexandria. The Letter of Aristeas tells a later story of a commission under Ptolemy II, but is not a contemporary library record. The exact date and institutional circumstances remain debated; a complete copy on these shelves in 250 BCE is not established.
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Source: Brenton’s English Septuagint · eBible.org
Translation: Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton · English Septuagint, 1851; eBible.org verse-per-line transcription
Enquiry into Plants
Theophrastus · Late fourth and early third centuries BCE · surviving
A systematic investigation of plant forms, growth, habitats and uses. All nine surviving books are available in two complete bilingual scanned volumes.
The botanical work of Aristotle’s successor at the Lyceum belongs to the scientific literature available before 250 BCE. Its inclusion is contextual; neither Theophrastus’s presence in this building nor a particular Library copy is documented.
Volume I · Books I–V (PDF scan)
Volume II · Books VI–IX and separate minor works (PDF scan)
Source: Hort’s 1916 translation · Internet Archive scans
Translation: Arthur Hort · Enquiry into Plants and Minor Works on Odours and Weather Signs, Loeb Classical Library, 1916
Elements
Euclid · About 300 BCE · surviving
The thirteen books of geometry, proportion, number and solid figures. A complete historical English edition with the essential diagrams.
Euclid’s work is traditionally placed in early Ptolemaic Alexandria, chiefly on the testimony of the much later Proclus. A specific teaching room, appointment in the Mouseion, or Library copy is not documented.
Volume I · Introduction and Books I–II (PDF scan)
Volume II · Books III–IX (PDF scan)
Volume III · Books X–XIII and later appendices (PDF scan)
Source: Heath’s 1908 edition · Internet Archive scans
Translation: Thomas L. Heath · The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements, Cambridge University Press, 1908
Pinakes
Callimachus · Third century BCE; precise date uncertain · fragmentary
A large classified bibliography of writers and their works, reported as 120 books. It is lost as a continuous work and known through later references and fragments; its relation to a shelf-by-shelf Library catalogue is debated.
Callimachus’s bibliographical scholarship is closely associated with Alexandria. Neither a full list of its entries nor its exact form as an institutional catalogue survives. The number 120 is an ancient report about books or rolls, not 120 modern printed volumes.
Source: Suda, kappa 227 · Suda On Line, University of Kentucky
Aetia · the earlier books
Callimachus · Earlier phase possibly about 270 BCE; chronology debated · fragmentary
Stories explaining the origins of rituals, names and customs. The earlier material of Books I–II is the part plausibly relevant here; the poem survives in quotations and papyrus fragments.
An Alexandrian poet’s major work, but not all of its eventual four-book form belongs in this scene. Books III–IV, including the Lock of Berenice, contain material later than 250 BCE and are explicitly excluded.
Source: Susan A. Stephens, Introduction to the Aetia · Dickinson College Commentaries
Hecale
Callimachus · Third century BCE; exact date disputed · fragmentary
A narrative poem that gives an aged woman’s hospitality to Theseus a central place in heroic myth. Its text must be pieced together from quotations and papyri.
A work of Callimachus’s Alexandrian literary world. Its exact date relative to 250 BCE is not secure; this record marks the uncertainty rather than pretending to place an original roll.
Source: Susan A. Stephens, Callimachus of Cyrene · Dickinson College Commentaries
Songs
Sappho · Late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE · fragmentary
Sappho’s poetry survives unevenly: some poems or substantial passages can be read, including the Ode to Aphrodite, while much of the collection is fragmentary or lost. This is not a claim that all her poetry vanished.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Selections from Sappho · Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University
Songs
Alcaeus of Mytilene · Late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE · fragmentary
Lyric songs of politics, drinking, desire and exile survive in ancient quotations and pieces of papyrus. “Songs” is a descriptive collection label, not the title of a securely reconstructed Alexandrian roll.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus · Loeb Classical Library
Cypria
Traditionally attributed to Stasinus; authorship disputed · Archaic period; individual dates and attributions uncertain · fragmentary
Events before the Iliad: the origins of the war, the gathering of the Greeks and the early campaigns. Only fragments and later summaries remain.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Proclus, Chrestomathy · Living Poets, Durham University
Aethiopis
Traditionally attributed to Arctinus of Miletus · Archaic period; individual dates and attributions uncertain · fragmentary
The arrival of Penthesilea and Memnon, the death of Achilles, and the contest over his armour are known from a summary and sparse fragments.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Proclus, Chrestomathy · Living Poets, Durham University
Little Iliad
Traditionally attributed to Lesches; attribution uncertain · Archaic period; individual dates and attributions uncertain · fragmentary
The later siege of Troy, including the armour judgement and the wooden horse, survives only through fragments and later accounts.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Proclus, Chrestomathy · Living Poets, Durham University
Iliupersis · The Sack of Troy
Traditionally attributed to Arctinus of Miletus · Archaic period; individual dates and attributions uncertain · fragmentary
The fall of Troy was the subject of its own epic. A later summary and a few fragments are not enough to reconstruct its full language.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Proclus, Chrestomathy · Living Poets, Durham University
Nostoi · The Returns
Traditionally attributed to Agias of Troezen · Archaic period; individual dates and attributions uncertain · fragmentary
The homecomings of Greek heroes other than the Odyssey’s principal narrative. Its surviving fragments and summaries are only a small part of the original poem.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Proclus, Chrestomathy · Living Poets, Durham University
Telegony
Traditionally attributed to Eugammon of Cyrene · Archaic period; individual dates and attributions uncertain · fragmentary
A continuation of the Odyssean story, including Odysseus’s death at the hands of Telegonus, survives through sparse fragments and summary.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Proclus, Chrestomathy · Living Poets, Durham University
Catalogue of Women · Ehoiai
Hesiodic tradition · Archaic period; often placed in the sixth century BCE · fragmentary
Genealogical poetry about mortal women, divine unions and heroic families. Papyri preserve substantial pieces, but no continuous complete copy survives; attribution to Hesiod himself is disputed.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Hesiodic fragments · Evelyn-White’s 1914 Loeb edition
Ichneutae · The Trackers
Sophocles · Fifth century BCE; exact date unknown · fragmentary
A satyr play in which trackers search for Apollo’s stolen cattle and discover the young Hermes and his lyre. A major papyrus preserves a substantial but incomplete portion.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: P. J. Finglass, Sophocles: Introduction · Cambridge New Surveys in the Classics
Tereus
Sophocles · Fifth century BCE · fragmentary
The story of Procne and Philomela survives through quotations, papyri and ancient discussion. Reconstructions of a full script go beyond that evidence.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: David Fitzpatrick, Sophocles’ Tereus · Open University
Hypsipyle
Euripides · About 410–407 BCE · fragmentary
A nurse, a child’s death, and the arrival of the Seven against Thebes are part of a play substantially recovered from papyri, but not preserved complete.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Euripides, Fragments: Aegeus–Meleager · Loeb Classical Library
Phaethon
Euripides · Fifth century BCE; exact date disputed · fragmentary
Phaethon’s attempted drive of the sun chariot belongs to a tragedy known from a palimpsest, papyri and quotations. The surviving pieces do not constitute a complete play.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Euripides, Fragments: Oedipus–Chrysippus · Loeb Classical Library
Protrepticus
Aristotle · Fourth century BCE · fragmentary
An exhortation to philosophy. Later quotations and possible reuse, especially in Iamblichus, support attempts at reconstruction, but the boundaries and wording of the original remain disputed.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Aristotle’s Protrepticus · scholarly reconstruction project
On Piety
Theophrastus · Late fourth or early third century BCE · fragmentary
A discussion of religious practices and sacrifice, known in considerable part through much later quotation and reuse in Porphyry. It is not preserved as a complete independent work.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Theophrastus · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
On Cheerfulness
Democritus · Fifth or fourth century BCE · fragmentary
The title is attested in the ancient catalogue of Democritus’s writings. Ethical sayings survive under his name, but their authenticity and precise assignment to this book are not always secure.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Diogenes Laertius 9.46–49 · Perseus Digital Library
Phaenomena · prose account of the sky
Eudoxus of Cnidus · Fourth century BCE · fragmentary
An earlier prose description of the constellations, distinct from Aratus’s surviving poem. Quotations and criticism in Hipparchus help recover parts of Eudoxus’s astronomy, not a complete text.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Eudoxus of Cnidus · MacTutor, University of St Andrews
On Anatomy · Anatomika
Herophilus · Early third century BCE · fragmentary
An anatomical work known from fragments and later medical discussion. It cannot be read as a recovered complete treatise; even the organization of its books is reconstructed from witnesses.
Herophilus’s medical work is strongly associated with early Ptolemaic Alexandria. That is evidence of a local scholarly practice, not proof of a particular medical room or Library roll.
Source: Heinrich von Staden, Herophilus · Cambridge University Press, 1989
On Fevers
Erasistratus · Third century BCE; exact date uncertain · fragmentary
A medical work named by Galen. The original treatise does not survive complete, and a precise date relative to 250 BCE cannot be established.
Erasistratus belongs to early Hellenistic medicine. The extent and timing of his own activity at Alexandria are disputed, so neither his personal presence nor this treatise is staged as a documented fact.
Source: Galen, On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato 396.3–33 · Erasistratus fr. 201 Garofalo
Aegyptiaca · History of Egypt
Manetho · Early Ptolemaic period; exact date debated · fragmentary
An Egyptian priest’s Greek-language history, known through quotations, epitomes and difficult layers of transmission. Later authors preserve king lists and narratives but not the complete work.
The work belongs to the early Ptolemaic encounter between Egyptian historical traditions and Greek readers. Its commissioning, original contents and presence in the royal Library should not be inferred from later legends.
Source: Josephus, Against Apion I · University of Chicago
Babyloniaca · History of Babylonia
Berossus · Early third century BCE · fragmentary
A Babylonian priest’s Greek account of the past, known through later quotations and epitomes, including material transmitted by Josephus and Eusebius.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Josephus, Against Apion I · University of Chicago
Periodos Ges · Circuit of the Earth
Hecataeus of Miletus · About 500 BCE · fragmentary
A geographical work conventionally divided into Europe and Asia, known mainly through later geographical quotations. Its author is Hecataeus of Miletus, not the later Hecataeus of Abdera.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Hecataeus and the Circuit of the Earth · Jacoby Online, Brill
Porisms
Euclid · About 300 BCE · lost
A three-book geometrical work described by Pappus. Later attempts to reconstruct its propositions are hypotheses, not a rediscovered text of Euclid.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, Euclid · Dictionary of Scientific Biography, hosted by St Andrews
Conics
Euclid · About 300 BCE · lost
A work on conic sections known from later testimony. It must not be confused with the surviving Conics of Apollonius of Perga, composed after this setting.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, Euclid · Dictionary of Scientific Biography, hosted by St Andrews
Pseudaria · Fallacies
Euclid · About 300 BCE · lost
Proclus describes a work that trained beginners to detect fallacious reasoning in geometry. No continuous text survives; no example here is presented as an authentic quotation from it.
An attested ancient work included to show what survives only in part, or not at all. No surviving inventory establishes a copy in the Library in 250 BCE, and the cause and date of its loss are unknown.
Source: Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, Euclid · Dictionary of Scientific Biography, hosted by St Andrews