Rhodius Apollonius was a Greek epic poet and grammarian born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 222 B.C. In his youth he was instructed by Callimachus. Later he taught rhetoric with remarkable success. He afterwards returned to Alexandria, where he became chief librarian of the great library of Alexandria built by Ptolemy II. Rhodius Apollonius was a scholar of some note-a fact reflected in his main work titled Argonautica. It was based on the legend of the Argonauts, or men who sailed with Jason to search for the Golden Fleece. Somewhat pedantic, Argonautica is enlivened by the character of Medea. Virgil used Apollonius as a source for his portrayal of Dido in the Aeneid. The Rhodius of his name is… derived from his supposed retirement in Rhodes, probably after a literary feud with Callimachus over the relative merits of the long traditional epic as opposed to short, finished poems.