Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)

[3] Oral tradition and the plays written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides also factored into the compilation of myth in the Bibliotheca.

[5] Most extant manuscripts of the text end during the narration of Theseus's exploits, with there surviving only two codices, discovered in the 19th century, which transmit the remainder of the work.

It is known—from references in the minor scholia on Homer—that Apollodorus of Athens did leave a similar comprehensive repertory on mythology, in the form of a verse chronicle.

[6] The first mention of the work is by Photius, patriarch of Constantinople in 9th century CE, in his "account of books read".

[1] Byzantine author John Tzetes, who lived in Constantinople in the twelfth century, often cited the Bibliotheca in his writings.

[5][8][1] In 1921 Sir James George Frazer published an epitome of the book by conflating two manuscript summaries of the text,[9] which included the lost section.

[5] Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries CE, the Bibliotheca was referred to in scholarship about Ancient Greece most often found in letters from scholars of the time.