Philētas

, a grammarian and poet of Cos, in the reign of king Philip, and of his son Alexander the Great. He was made preceptor to Ptolemy Philadelphus. The elegies and epigrams which he wrote have been greatly commended by the ancients, and some fragments of them are still preserved in Athenæus. He was so small and slender, according to the improbable accounts of Ælian, that he always carried pieces of lead in his pockets, to prevent being blown away by the wind. Ælian , Varia Hist or i a , bk. 9 , ch. 14 .— Ovid , Fasti , bk. 1 , poem 5.— Pro pert i us , bk. 3 , poem 1.――An historian.