<P> Poetry flourished in Alexandria in the third century BC . The chief Alexandrian poets were Theocritus, Callimachus, and Apollonius of Rhodes . Theocritus, who lived from about 310 to 250 BC, invented a new genre of poetry--bucolic, a genre that the Roman Virgil would later imitate in his Eclogues . </P> <P> Callimachus, who lived at the same time as Theocritus, worked his entire adult life at Alexandria and compiled a prose treatise entitled the Pinakes which catalogued the great works held in the library . Aside from a collection of hymns, only fragments of his poetry survive . The most famous work was Aetia (Causes). In four books of elegiac couplets it explained the legendary origin of obscure customs, festivals, and names . Its structure became a model for the work of the Roman poet Ovid . Of his elegies for special occasions, the best known is the Lock of Berenice, a piece of court poetry which formed part of the Aetia and was later adapted by the Roman Catullus . Callimachus also wrote short poems for special occasions and at least one short epic, the Ibis, which was directed against his former pupil Apollonius . </P> <P> Apollonius of Rhodes was born about 295 BC . He is best remembered for his epic poem The Argonautica, about Jason and his shipmates, the Argonauts, in search of the Golden Fleece . Apollonius studied under Callimachus, with whom he later quarreled . He also served as librarian at Alexandria for about 13 years . Apart from the Argonautica, he wrote poems on the foundation of cities as well as a number of epigrams . The Roman poet Virgil was strongly influenced by the Argonautica in writing his Aeneid . Lesser 3rd - century poets include Aratus of Soli and Herodas . Aratus wrote the Phaenomena, a poetic version of a treatise on the stars by Eudoxus of Cnidus, who had lived in the 4th century . Herodas wrote mimes reminiscent of those of Theocritus . His works give a hint of the popular entertainment of the times . Mime and pantomime were a major form of entertainment during the early Roman Empire . </P> <P> During the Hellenistic Era, the Old Comedy of the Classical Era was replaced by New Comedy . The most notable writer of New Comedy was the Athenian playwright Menander . None of Menander's plays have survived to the present day in their complete form, but one play, The Bad - Tempered Man, has survived to the present day in a near - complete form . Large portions of another play entitled The Girl from Samos have also survived . </P>

What is considered the first great work of greek literature