HEPHAESTION, a grammarian of Alexandria, who flourished in the age of the Antonines. He was the author of a manual (abridged from a larger work in 48 books) of Greek metres (Ἐγχειρίδιον περὶ μέτρων), which is most valuable as the only complete treatise on the subject that has been preserved. The concluding chapter (Περὶ ποιήματος) discusses the various kinds of poetical composition. It is written in a clear and simple style, and was much used as a school-book.
Editions by T. Gaisford (1855, with the valuable scholia); R. Westphal (1886, in Scriptores metrici Graeci) and M. Consbruch (1906); translation by T. F. Barham (1843); see also W. Christ, Gesch. der griech. Litt. (1898); M. Consbruch, De veterum Περὶ ποιήματος doctrina (1890); J. E. Sandys, Hist. Class. Schol. i. (1906).