Born: fl. 4th c. AD
Died: fl. 4th c. AD
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
Occupation: Author

Nationality: Ancient Rome
Executive summary: Hieroglyphics

Horapollon, of Phaenebythis in the nome of Panopolis in Egypt, Greek grammarian, flourished in the 4th century AD during the reign of Theodosius I. According to Suïdas, be wrote commentaries on Sophocles, Alcaeus and Homer, and a work on places consecrated to the gods. Photius (codex 279), who calls him a dramatist as well as a grammarian, ascribes to him a history of the foundation and antiquities of Alexandria (unless this is by an Egyptian of the same name, who lived in the reign of Zeno, 474-491). Under the name of Horapollon two books on Hieroglyphics are extant, which profess to be a translation from an Egyptian original into Greek by a certain Philippus, of whom nothing is known. The inferior Greek of the translation, and the character of the additions in the second book point to its being of late date; some have even assigned it to the 15th century. Though a very large proportion of the statements are absurd, there is some evidence in both the books, in individual cases, that the tradition of the values of the hieroglyphic signs was not yet extinct in the days of their author. His work was reprinted extensively in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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