Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 22, 2026

Constantine Kephalas

Constantine Kephalas was a Byzantine scholar known as the compiler of the Greek Anthology. His life is almost entirely unknown, but he was active in the late 9th or 10th centuries, possibly as early as the 880s. His anthology, containing mostly ancient pagan poems with a sprinkling of Christian and 9th-century epigrams, was an immediate success, and was copied, in part or in whole, during the following decades. However, the 10th-century Palatine Anthology is considered to include an entire copy of Kephalas' work, augmented with other poems.

Last revised
Jul 22, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
145 w
Citations
3
Source
A page of the Palatine Anthology (Codex Palatinus 23), 10th century, from the Library of the University of Heidelberg source ↗

Constantine Kephalas (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Κεφαλᾶς) was a Byzantine scholar known as the compiler of the Greek Anthology. His life is almost entirely unknown, but he was active in the late 9th or 10th centuries, possibly as early as the 880s.1 His anthology, containing mostly ancient pagan poems with a sprinkling of Christian and 9th-century epigrams, was an immediate success, and was copied, in part or in whole, during the following decades.1 However, the 10th-century Palatine Anthology is considered to include an entire copy of Kephalas' work, augmented with other poems.1

References

References

  1. Spingou 2019, p. 389.
Sources

Sources