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'Rhyanus'
was a Greek poet and grammarian, a native of
Crete, friend and contemporary of Eratosthenes (275—195 B.c.). Suldas says he was at first a slave and overseer of a
palaestra, but obtained a
good education later in life, and devoted himself to grammatical studies, probably in
Alexandria. He prepared a new recension of the Iliad and Odyssey, characterized by
sound
judgment and poetical
taste. His bold atheteses are frequently mentioned in the scholia. He also wrote epigrams, eleven of which, preserved in the Greek
anthology and Athenaeus, show elegance and vivacity. But he was chiefly known as a writer of epics (mythological and ethnographical), the most celebrated of which was the Messeniaca in six books, dealing with the second Messenian
war and the exploits of its central figure
Aristomenes, and used by
Pausanias in his
fourth
book as a trustworthy authority. Other similar poems were the Achaica, Eliaca, and Thessalica. The Heracleia was a
long mythological epic, probably an
imitation of the poem of the same name by
Panyasis, and containing the same number of books (fourteen).
Fragments in A. Meineke, ''Analecta Alexandrina'' 1843; for Rhianus's
work in connection with
Homer.