Ophelios the Grammarian

Ophelios is named as a grammarian (grammatikos, a teacher of literature and language) and appears solely as the recipient of letters from Isidore of Pelusium (c. 360-c. 435), the ascetic and prolific letter-writer of the eastern Nile Delta in Egypt. He is otherwise unattested in the historical record: nothing of his birth, career, or fate is independently known. Like many of Isidore's roughly two thousand correspondents, he is best understood as a member of the educated provincial circle around Pelusium to whom Isidore addressed his characteristic blend of scriptural exegesis, moral exhortation, and literary advice. Any further detail about him would be conjecture.