Philitas of Cos (/fɪˈlaɪtəs/; Greek:Φιλίτας, Philītas; c.340 – c.285 BC), sometimes spelled Philetas (/faɪˈliːtəs/; Φιλήτας, Philētas; see Bibliography below), was a scholar and poet during the early Hellenistic period of ancient Greece. A Greek associated with Alexandria, he flourished in the second half of the 4th century BC and was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of Ptolemaic Egypt. He was thin and frail; Athenaeus later caricatured him as an academic so consumed by his studies that he wasted away and died.