A Guide to Hellenistic Literature

A Guide to Hellenistic Literature Kathryn Gutzwiller A Guide to Hellenistic Literature BLACKWELL GUIDES TO CLASSICAL LITERATURE Each volume offers coverage of political and cultural context, brief essays on key authors, historical figures, and the most important literary works, and a survey of crucial themes. The series provides the necessary background to read classical literature with confidence. Published A Guide to Hellenistic Literature Kathryn Gutzwiller A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama Ian C. Storey and Arlene Allan In preparation A Guide to Epic Poetry Brendon Reay and Timothy Hampton A Guide to Hellenistic Literature Kathryn Gutzwiller ß 2007 by Kathryn Gutzwiller BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Kathryn Gutzwiller to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2007 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2007 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gutzwiller, Kathryn J. A guide to Hellenistic literature / Kathryn Gutzwiller. p. cm.—(Blackwell guides to classical literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-631-23321-3 (hardcover: alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-631-23322-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Greek literature, Hellenistic—History and criticism. I. Title. PA3081.G88 2007 880.9’001–dc22 2006025004 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12.5 Calisto by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed and bound in Singapore by COS Printers Pte Ltd The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elemen- tary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com To Louise Price Hoy and In Memory of Barbara Hughes Fowler Contents List of Figures ix List of Maps x Preface xi 1 History and Culture 1 1.1 The Successors 2 1.2 Macedonia and Greece 4 1.3 Seleucid Asia 8 1.4 Attalid Pergamum 12 1.5 Ptolemaic Egypt 16 2 Aesthetics and Style 26 2.1 Aesthetic Principles 29 2.2 Meter, Dialect, and Diction 36 2.3 Literature as Artefact 43 3 Authors and Genres 50 3.1 Menander 50 3.2 Callimachus 60 3.3 Apollonius of Rhodes 74 3.4 Theocritus and the Other Bucolic Poets 84 3.5 Didactic Poetry 97 3.6 Epigrams 106 viii CONTENTS 3.7 Dramatic Poetry 120 3.8 Parodic and Philosophical Literature 131 3.9 Polybius 144 3.10 Technical Prose Writing 154 4 Topics in Hellenistic Literature 168 4.1 Learning and Innovation 169 4.2 Book Culture and Performance 178 4.3 Social and Political Background 188 4.4 The Critical Impulse in Literature and Art 202 4.5 Reception in Rome 213 Notes 223 Chronological Tables 228 Suggested Reading 230 Bibliography 239 Index 251 Figures 1.1 Tyche of Antioch 10 1.2 Altar of Zeus at Pergamum, as restored in Berlin 13 1.3 Dancing Satyr 15 1.4 Coin portrait of Ptolemy I Soter and Berenice I 16 1.5 Terracotta figurine of a young woman from Alexandria 19 1.6 Coin portrait of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II 20 2.1 Girl with tablet on her knees 44 2.2 Writing materials 45 3.1 Manuscript illustration from Apollonius of Citium’s On Joints 164 4.1 Gem with portrait of a Ptolemaic queen 196 4.2 Thetis and the shield of Achilles 211 Maps 0.1 The Hellenistic Kingdoms (ca. 240 BC) xiii 0.2 Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor xiv 1.1 Alexandria 18 Preface This Guide is intended to serve as an introduction to the literature of the Hellenistic age for students of classics and for general readers with an interest in the ancient world. Other books on the subject tend to focus on poetry and offer literary interpretation of major authors, together with a small number of more minor ones. This study covers a broader range of literature, so that, although poetry is treated most fully, prose texts, even those of a technical nature, receive some attention; an emphasis is placed on similarities and connections between literary texts within and across genres, and some attempt is made to set these works within their historical and cultural contexts. My goal is to inform rather than to argue positions or develop interpretations. The extant texts from the three centuries following the death of Alexander have been my main subject, but certain crucial works of Hellenistic literature, known only in fragmentary form, have been discussed as well. I also include a selection of other fragmentary texts and authors, in order to give a more rounded picture of genres and literary trends. The book begins with a chapter on history and culture, which focuses on the formation of the Hellenistic kingdoms and briefly discusses historical, cultural, and literary developments in the territories belonging to the Antigonids, Seleucids, Attalids, and Ptolemies. The second chapter provides basic information about the new aesthetics that informed Hellenistic literature. It includes a section on style, meter, and diction, and concludes with an overview of the physical nature of Hellenistic bookrolls. The third chapter is organized into sections on major authors and on selected generic types. Each section includes brief biographical xii PREFACE information, information about the literary forms being used, summary of the contents of texts, and brief interpretive remarks. The sections on generic types and multiple authors are designed to give a sense of the range of (often lost) Hellenistic literature and to suggest what cultural and aesthetic impulses produced the variety of literary forms found during the period. The last chapter treats major topics in Hellenistic literature. The interpretive trends presented here often overlap with more general approaches in literary criticism, even though scholars of Hellenistic literature tend not to fall into theoretical camps. Here I attempt to show how the philological approaches of nineteenth-century scholarship have shaped basic ideas about the learnedness of Hellenistic literature and its innovative features and how a growing awareness of the social background for the literature has produced a set of new, broader questions about such matters as the nature of reading and the role of performance, the interaction of authors with patrons, and methods of establishing identity within the complex world created in the aftermath of Alexander. In addition, I suggest some of the developing trends in scholarship, such as parallels between literature and art, the influence of philosophical criticism on literary practice, and the importance of technical and scientific prose for the new poetics. Lastly, some brief remarks are provided about the reception of Hellenistic literature in Rome, or perhaps better, the way Hellenistic literature was rewritten in Latin form for a Roman audience. Greek names, both for historical figures and literary characters, have been given a Latinized spelling. I have chosen to write, for instance, Cnemon rather than Knemon or Chrysippus rather than Khrusippos, in order to preserve the most familiar spelling for well-known persons and places and to provide consistency with the less-familiar proper nouns. Unless otherwise stated, all dates are BC (or BCE). This book is dedicated to two of my teachers – to Louise Price Hoy, who once suggested in the margins of an exam that Hellenistic literature might be more interesting than the handbooks allowed, and to the late Barbara Hughes Fowler, who showed me just what the handbooks had missed. Two of my own students, Joel Hatch and Valentina Popescu, gave me advice on the manuscript and helped me find errors; I am deeply grateful to both. I am also indebted to Sophie Gibson, my patient and inspiring editor, who helped shape the book in ways that I did not foresee. John Wallrodt, our technical wizard, has been invaluable in constructing the maps. Peter Bing took time from his year of residency as a Tytus Fellow at the University of Cincinnati to read the whole manuscript and offer many valuable suggestions. My thanks are due as well to Marco Fantuzzi and to Dee Clayman, who wrote a generous and encouraging report for the press. Map 0.1 The Hellenistic Kingdoms (ca. 240 BC). Map 0.2 Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor. 1 History and Culture The Hellenistic age is generally defined as the period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to Octavian’s defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII at Actium in 31 BC. During a short but brilliant career, Alexander had extended his father’s consolidation of Macedonian political power over mainland Greece through an extraordinary military cam- paign that brought under his control Syria and Palestine, Egypt, and the old Persian empire. His march to the east ended only within the borders of India. The geographical, political, social, and economic changes that took place as a result of these conquests profoundly affected the intellectual and literary production of the following era. Despite much cultural continuity in non-Greek areas, the elite members of the new multiethnic kingdoms developed a shared identity as Hellenes, based on an attachment to earlier Greek culture that was now viewed as a fixed element of a bygone era.

Load more