Ancient sources refer to him as a Coan, a native or long-time inhabitant of Cos,[3] one of the Dodecanese islands in the Aegean Sea just off the coast of Asia.

His student Theocritus wrote that Philetas' father was Telephos (Τήλεφος, Tḗlephos) and his mother, assuming the manuscript is supplemented correctly, Euctione (Εὐκτιόνη, Euktiónē).

[10] Later tutors of royal offspring in Ptolemaic Egypt generally headed the Library of Alexandria, but it is unknown whether Philitas held that position.

[3] His pupil Hermesianax wrote that a statue of him was erected under a plane tree by the people of Cos, depicting him as "frail with all the glosses".

[7] His contemporary Posidippus wrote that Philadelphus commissioned a bronze of Philitas in old age from the sculptor Hecataeus,[1][13] which "included nothing from the physique of heroes.

"[7][14] The 3rd century AD Roman author Aelian skeptically passed along a story that Philitas was so thin that he put lead weights in the soles of his shoes to avoid being blown away by a stiff wind.

[6][11] The vocabulary, called Disorderly Words (Ἄτακτοι γλῶσσαι, Átaktoi glôssai), has been lost, with only a few fragments quoted by later authors.

[24] These two verses show the confluence of Philitas' interests in poetry and obscure words: According to Antigonus, the "cactus" (κάκτος, káktos) was a thorny plant from Sicily, and "When a deer steps on it and is pricked, its bones remain soundless and unusable for flutes.

[26] He gained instant recognition in both poetry and literary scholarship,[4] and, as far as is known, was the first person called "poet as well as scholar" (ποιητὴς ἅμα καὶ κριτικός, poiētḕs [h]áma kaì kritikós).

A statue was erected of him, possibly at a Mouseion at Cos,[28] and his work was explicitly acknowledged as a classic by both Theocritus and Callimachus.

[25] His poetry was mentioned or briefly quoted by Callimachus and by other ancient authors,[30] and his poetic reputation endured for at least three centuries, as Augustan poets identified his name with great elegiac writing.

[33] Philitas' influence has been found or suspected in a wide range of ancient writing;[21] Longus' 2nd century AD novel Daphnis and Chloe contains a character likely named after him.