DOCSLIB.ORG

MELEAGER and PHILIP AS EPIGRAM COLLECTORS Lorenzo

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
MELEAGER and PHILIP AS EPIGRAM COLLECTORS Lorenzo MELEAGER AND PHILIP AS EPIGRAM COLLECTORS Lorenzo Argentieri 1. The Epigram Crisis in the Second Century B.C. Meleager is our source of knowledge for the most important period of Greek epigram. As both poet and editor, he created an anthology called the Garland (%c' #) at the beginning of the rst century B.C., comprising many epigrams by older poets, to which he added his own. Meleager’s decision to form such a collection represents a major departure from earlier Hellenistic practice, which had been satis ed with merely gathering together and cataloguing the works of past authors.1 A glance at the poets named by Meleager in the opening poem of the Garland (AP 4.1 = 1 GP) reveals a rather uneven chronological distribution. Here they are ranked by date of birth:2 Up to 350 B.C. Archilochus, Sappho, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, Plato, Erinna ca. 330–320 Anyte, Nossis, Moero, Leonidas, Asclepiades, Simias, Perses (?) ca. 310–300 Posidippus, Hedylus, Alexander Aetolus, Nicias, Cal- limachus, Aratus, Antagoras ca. 270 Euphorion, Rhianus, Hegesippus (?) ca. 250 Nicaenetus, Damagetus, Mnasalces, Dioscorides, Theo- doridas, Phaedimus (?) ca. 230–220 Samius, Alcaeus ca. 180 Antipater, Phanias, Polystratos It is remarkable that after including many poets of the third century B.C., he has only three from the second. This difference may be due to Meleager’s personal taste; he preferred third-century authors (rightly, to 1 Argentieri (1998: 2–4). 2 Revised from Page (1975: xi) and the introductions to individual poets in Gow- Page (1965). I do not deal with the thorny problem of epigrams ascribed to ancient authors (“up to 350”), which however Meleager held for genuine; see the introductions in Gow-Page (1965) to Sappho and Erinna, and Page (1980) for all the others, along with Sider in this volume. BRUSS-BING_f9_147-164.indd 147 2/16/2007 5:53:03 PM 148 lorenzo argentieri judge from the extant epigrams). It may also be that among the poets whose chronology is uncertain3 many belong to second century B.C. The same may be true for the poets not mentioned in the proem but who surely entered the collection, as evident in extant sections of the Garland.4 But even so, it seems undeniable that in the second century fewer epigrams were written and of lower quality. Epigram was brought to its height by two generations of poets born between 330 and 300 B.C., the earlier, that of Anyte, Nossis, Leonidas and Asclepiades; and the latter, that of Theocritus, Hedylus, Posidip- pus and above all Callimachus. Already for mid-third century poets like Mnasalces, Theodoridas, Damagetus and Dioscorides, traditional themes had gone stale; the last wave of novelty came with Alcaeus of Messene (born ca. 230) in his use of a quite unusual topic for epigrams, politics. In the second half of the second century the genre seems to continue its decline. We have only two poets whose oeuvre is sizable enough to give us an overall idea, Antipater of Sidon (ca. 180/70–100 B.C.) and Phanias.5 Antipater imitates older poets (mainly Leonidas) to varying degrees in at least 36 of 86 epigrams, and even writes multiple variations on the same theme,6 thereby pushing the limits of monotony. Phanias is not very different: 4 of the 7 catalogue offerings, again much in the manner of Leonidas, and one takes up the very common topos of body hair putting an end to a boy’s beauty.7 3 Chaeremon, Hermodorus, Phaennus, Pancrates, Pamphilus, Tymnes; add Parthe- nides, Polyclitus, Melanippides, Euphemus (mentioned by Meleager but with no surviving epigram), and Diotimus and Menecrates, names which cover several persons. 4 Among the poets not named in the proem we can date Phalaecus (born ca. 330 B.C.), Heraclitus and Theaetetus (friends of Callimachus) and the philosopher Zeno- dotus (born ca. 180 B.C.). Philetas might be the famous scholar (ca. 340–290 B.C.); Nicander could be either the older poet ( ] oruit ca. 250 B.C.) or the younger ( ] oruit ca. 200 B.C. according to Cameron (1995: 199–202), ca. 150–30 according to Gow- Scho eld (1953: 8)). Others are impossible to date: Agis, Antimachus, Aristodicus, Ariston, Artemon, Carphyillides, Dionysius of Rhodes, Dionysius of Cyzicus, Hecataeus of Thasus, Aeschylus, Hegemon, Philoxenus (third century B.C.?), Glaucus, Nicarchus, Nicomachus, Timocles. List in Radinger (1895: 92, n. 1), but I exclude Pisander of Rhodes, Demetrius of Bithynia and Xenocritus of Rhodes, who occur outside rmly Meleagrian contexts. 5 We have only two epigrams of Polystratus, Zenodotus and Amyntes, on whom see below, and one of Moschus. I do not include those ascribed to Dionysius, whose name hides several persons; see Gow-Page (1965: 2.231) and Page (1981: 40–1). 6 E.g., on Myron’s Cow (AP 9.720–4 = 36–40 GP) or riddle epitaphs (AP 7.423–7 = 28–32 GP). On imitation in Antipater see Argentieri (2003: 84–8). 7 Votive catalogues: AP 6.294–5, 297, 299 (= 2–5 GP). Hair epigram: AP 12.31 (= 1 GP); on the topos see Tarán (1985). BRUSS-BING_f9_147-164.indd 148 2/16/2007 5:53:03 PM.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hellenistic Poetry Before Callimachus an Enquiry Into Two Lost Generations University of Liverpool, 14-15 June 2016
    Hellenistic Poetry Before Callimachus An Enquiry Into Two Lost Generations University of Liverpool, 14-15 June 2016 Ewen Bowie (Oxford) Pauline LeVen (Yale) School of the Arts Library Benjamin Cartlidge (Oxford) Enrico Magnelli (Florence) 19 Abercromby Square Martine Cuypers (TCD) Thomas Nelson (Cambridge) Marco Fantuzzi (Macerata) Maria Noussia (Thessaloniki) L69 7ZG Liverpool Lucia Floridi (Milan) S. Douglas Olson (Freiburg) Marco Perale Annette Harder (Groningen) Peter Parsons (Oxford) [email protected] Richard Hunter (Cambridge) Marco Perale (Liverpool) Guendalina Taietti Gregory Hutchinson (Oxford) K. Spanoudakis (Rethymno) [email protected] Jan Kwapisz (Warsaw) Guenda Taietti (Liverpool) Jan Kwapisz Rebecca Lämmle (Basel) Agnieszka Toma (Wrocław) [email protected] Hellenistic Poetry before Callimachus An international conference at the University of Liverpool 14-15 June 2016 You who walk past my tomb, know that I am son and father of Callimachus of Cyrene. You must know both: the one led his country’s forces once, the other sang beyond the reach of envy. Callimachus, Epigram 21 Pf., tr. F.J. Nisetich Callimachus’ epitaph for the tomb of his father is notorious for how perplexingly little it says about the deceased. We are told neither his name nor profession, whereas the name that resounds loud and clear is that of the author of the epigram. This is a measure of how Callimachus outshone his father. The Greeks may have found delight in being defeated by their children (cf. Pl. Mx. 247a), yet we are less impressed. Even for the sake of Callimachus himself, would it not be rewarding to know who his father was? The epigram illustrates the broader problem we have with the poet’s closest literary ancestors.
    [Show full text]
  • Fantasy and Metaphor in Meleager
    TAPA 145 (2015) 233–251 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 2015 New Orleans, Louisiana Fantasy and Metaphor in Meleager KATHRYN GUTZWILLER University of Cincinnati MELEAGER OF GADARA IS ONE OF THOSE INCREASINGLY RARE GREEK AUTHORS whose works are somewhat known to many classicists but whose influence on ancient and later literature remains underappreciated. Meleager’s anthol- ogy of Greek epigrams called the Garland produced Latin imitations shortly after its creation in the early first century B.C.E., and allusions to Meleager’s own, mostly erotic poems are found in prominent programmatic passages of Latin poetry. Examples include the first three poems and the last poem of the Catullan liber, the opening of Propertius’s Monobiblos, the first speech in Vergil’s Eclogue 1, and the opening lines of Tibullus 1.2.1 I would assert that as a model for Latin erotic poetry Meleager rivals Callimachus in both direct allusions and as a source of topoi and imagery. Alessandro Barchiesi has spo- ken of the Garland as a model for elegant poetry books because of its careful arrangements,2 but what was it about Meleager’s own poetry that appealed to Roman poets? Pointing toward an answer to that question, I here examine 1 Catull. 1 and 116, the beginning and end of the liber as we have it, contain a com- plicated and interrelated series of allusions to the proem and concluding epigram of Meleager’s Garland (Anth. Pal. 4.1, 12.257). The paired sparrow poems (Catull. 2–3) owe much to Meleager’s paired insect epigrams (Anth. Pal. 7.195–96), while Verg.
    [Show full text]
  • The Successors: Alexander's Legacy
    The Successors: Alexander’s Legacy November 20-22, 2015 Committee Background Guide The Successors: Alexander’s Legacy 1 Table of Contents Committee Director Welcome Letter ...........................................................................................2 Summons to the Babylon Council ................................................................................................3 The History of Macedon and Alexander ......................................................................................4 The Rise of Macedon and the Reign of Philip II ..........................................................................4 The Persian Empire ......................................................................................................................5 The Wars of Alexander ................................................................................................................5 Alexander’s Plans and Death .......................................................................................................7 Key Topics ......................................................................................................................................8 Succession of the Throne .............................................................................................................8 Partition of the Satrapies ............................................................................................................10 Continuity and Governance ........................................................................................................11
    [Show full text]
  • S. R. Slings E 8934 2254)
    S. R. SLINGS HERMESIANAX AND THE TATTOO ELEGY (P. BRUX. INV. E 8934 AND P. SORB. INV. 2254) aus: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 98 (1993) 29–37 © Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn 29 HERMESIANAX AND THE TATTOO ELEGY (P.BRUX. INV. E 8934 AND P.SORB. INV. 2254) For Dirk Schenkeveld A newly published Brussels papyrus makes a join with an already published Sorbonne papyrus of Hellenistic elegy; we owe this splendid discovery to M. Huys1. The find confirms an intuition of Barns and Lloyd-Jones that the poem is about tattooing an adversary with various unedifying scenes from mythology - this had been contradicted with unscholarly fervour by Giangrande and K. Alexander2. At the same time, it refutes a conjecture of Lloyd- Jones', namely that this poem is the work of Phanocles: until Huys' discovery, it was possible to suppose that Phanocles fr. 1 Powell, which ends with the Thracian women being tattooed by their husbands because of their murdering Orpheus, was an aition preceding a Dirae type elegy saying 'I will tattoo you likewise'. But the Brussels papyrus is quite clearly the beginning of a poem (cf. especially i 3 mnÆ!ontai éoida¤), so this attribution has lost what plausibility it may have had before Huys' discovery. All the same, the identification of the author with Phanocles has influenced the general judgement of the author's standing to an extent which, to my mind, is hardly justified. Papathomopoulos, the author of the editio princeps of the Sorbonne papyrus3, had diagnosed the poet as a minor, provincial versifier of the Hellenistic period.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Poetry as window and mirror : Hellenistic poets on predecessors, contemporaries and themselves Klooster, J.J.H. Publication date 2009 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Klooster, J. J. H. (2009). Poetry as window and mirror : Hellenistic poets on predecessors, contemporaries and themselves. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:03 Oct 2021 INTRODUCTION Twenty years ago, Hellenistic literary studies were in a sorry state, judging by the introduction of Gregory Hutchinson’s 1988 book Hellenistic Poetry: The celebrated poets of the third century BC have not received much literary treatment; what is sadder, they seem fairly seldom to be read with much enjoyment and understanding.
    [Show full text]
  • An Edition with Commentary of the Batrachomyomachia
    An edition with commentary of the Batrachomyomachia Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford Matthew Hosty St John’s College Michaelmas Term 2013 ii CONTENTS Abstract v Acknowledgements vii Note on abbreviations ix Introduction 1 I. Date and Authorship 1 II. Parody and Pastiche 23 III. Frogs and Mice 36 IV. Language and Style 51 V. Reception and Influence 82 VI. Text and Transmission 96 Text and apparatus criticus 117 Note on the apparatus 117 ΒΑΤΡΑΧΟΜΥΟΜΑΧΙΑ 119 Deleted lines 131 Translation 135 Commentary 145 Bibliography 357 Appendix A: images 367 Appendix B: lines omitted and retained in the principal MSS 369 iii iv An edition with commentary of the Batrachomyomachia Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Matthew Hosty, St John’s College, Oxford Michaelmas Term 2013 ABSTRACT The thesis consists of three main sections: the Introduction, the text (with apparatus), and the Commentary. The Introduction begins with a survey of the available evidence for the poem’s date and authorship, before moving on to consider its generic affiliations and influences, focusing on two particular areas: its links with the ill-defined genre of παρῳδία, and its relationship to animal-narratives elsewhere in ancient literature (particularly fable) and visual art. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the poem’s style and metre, a brief tour of its Nachleben up to the 13th century, and a summary of the notoriously tangled manuscript tradition. The text is new, and differs substantially from both that of Allen (in the OCT) and of West (the most recent English edition).
    [Show full text]
  • Companion Cavalry and the Macedonian Heavy Infantry
    THE ARMY OP ALEXANDER THE GREAT %/ ROBERT LOCK IT'-'-i""*'?.} Submitted to satisfy the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. in the School of History in the University of Leeds. Supervisor: Professor E. Badian Date of Submission: Thursday 14 March 1974 IMAGING SERVICES NORTH X 5 Boston Spa, Wetherby </l *xj 1 West Yorkshire, LS23 7BQ. * $ www.bl.uk BEST COPY AVAILABLE. TEXT IN ORIGINAL IS CLOSE TO THE EDGE OF THE PAGE ABSTRACT The army with which Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire was "built around the Macedonian Companion cavalry and the Macedonian heavy infantry. The Macedonian nobility were traditionally fine horsemen, hut the infantry was poorly armed and badly organised until the reign of Alexander II in 369/8 B.C. This king formed a small royal standing army; it consisted of a cavalry force of Macedonian nobles, which he named the 'hetairoi' (or Companion]! cavalry, and an infantry body drawn from the commoners and trained to fight in phalangite formation: these he called the »pezetairoi» (or foot-companions). Philip II (359-336 B.C.) expanded the kingdom and greatly increased the manpower resources for war. Towards the end of his reign he started preparations for the invasion of the Persian empire and levied many more Macedonians than had hitherto been involved in the king's wars. In order to attach these men more closely to himself he extended the meaning of the terms »hetairol» and 'pezetairoi to refer to the whole bodies of Macedonian cavalry and heavy infantry which served under him on his campaigning.
    [Show full text]
  • The Macedonian Patriot: the Diadoch Craterus Edward M
    The Macedonian Patriot: The Diadoch Craterus Edward M. Anson Much has been written concerning the man whom Alexander “honored most” (Plut. Alex. 47. 10) who was described as the king’s “most loyal follower” (Arr. Anab. 7. 12. 3), generally recognized as his closest companion after Hephaestion (Diod. 17. 114. 1-2), and among Alexander’s commanders “arguably the best” (Heckel 1992: 107), but who in the final analysis failed to become one of the major players in the aftermath of Alexander’s death. He has been termed “the right man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time” (Ashton 1993: 131); proclaimed that he “lacked that fine edge of ruthlessness necessary for supreme power” (Green 1990: 8). This paper will suggest that Craterus was not the victim of being in the wrong place at the critical time, caught between Macedonia and Babylon, nor did he lack the ability to be ruthless, but was in the final analysis a Macedonian patriot (as noted by Heckel 1992: 107), who was content to serve the royal family and his kingdom. As Plutarch (Alex. 47. 10) comments, Craterus was “king loving.” It was in defense of his king and country that Craterus could be quite ruthless. While Waldemar Heckel’s claim that the oft termed “Philotas Plot” against the life of Alexander was in reality a plot against the life of Philotas orchestrated by Craterus and others in part due to their personal ambitions (Heckel 1977: 9-21; 1992: 115-118; 2006: 27-33, 218-19), this is too strong an indictment of Craterus’ personal ruthlessness, but it is a clear example that the friend and Somaphylax was capable of savagery in defense of the crown.
    [Show full text]
  • Poets and Poetics in Greek Literary Epigram
    Poets and Poetics in Greek Literary Epigram A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classics by Charles S. Campbell B.A. Grinnell College M.A. University of Cincinnati November, 2013 Committee Chair: Dr. Kathryn J. Gutzwiller, Ph.D. 1 Abstract This dissertation offers a new analysis of the treatment of poets and poetics in Greek literary epigram from the early Hellenistic Period (3rd century BCE) down to the early Roman Imperial Period (1st century CE). In their authorial self-representations (the poetic ego or literary persona), their representation of other poets, and their thematization of poetry more generally, literary epigrammatists define, and successively redefine, the genre of epigram itself against the background of the literary tradition. This process of generic self-definition begins with the earliest literary epigrammatists’ fusion of inscriptional epigram with elements drawn from other genres, sympotic and erotic poetry and heroic epic, and their exploitation of the formal and conceptual repertoire of epigram to thematize poetic discourse. With the consolidation of the epigrammatic tradition in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, the distinctively epigrammatic poetic discourse that had evolved in the 3rd century BCE was subsumed into the persona of the poet himself, who is now figured as the very embodiment of the epigrammatic tradition and genre. In the first century BCE, as epigram was transplanted from Greece to the new cultural context of Roman Italy, the figure of the epigrammatist served to articulate the place of both poetry and the poet in this new world.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Groningen Tiberius and Hellenistic Poetry Klooster, Julia
    University of Groningen Tiberius and Hellenistic Poetry Klooster, Julia Published in: Aitia : regards sur la culture hellénistique au XXIe siècle DOI: 10.4000/aitia.1766 IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2017 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Klooster, J. (2017). Tiberius and Hellenistic Poetry. Aitia : regards sur la culture hellénistique au XXIe siècle, 7(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.4000/aitia.1766 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum.
    [Show full text]
  • Stratēgoi and the Administration of Greece Under the Antigonids
    STRATĒGOI AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF GREECE UNDER THE ANTIGONIDS Alexander Michael Seufert A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History (Ancient). Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by: Fred Naiden Richard Talbert Joshua Sosin ©2012 Alexander Michael Seufert ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT ALEXANDER MICHAEL SEUFERT: Stratēgoi and the Administration of Greece under the Antigonids. (Under the direction of Fred Naiden) This thesis investigates the policies of the Antigonid Dynasty towards the poleis of its kingdom by examining the highest military office of the kingdom, the stratēgos. This work takes special care to mark the civic responsibilities of the office from the time of Antigonus Gonatas to the eventual conquest by Rome in order to elucidate the manner in which the Macedonians oversaw the difficult task of establishing and maintaining control over their subject cities. The thesis aims to show that the Antigonid kings sought to create a delicate balance between their own interests and the interests of the populace. In doing so, they were keen to take traditional sensibilities into account when governing over the poleis. Contrary to previous scholarship, this thesis shows that the Antigonids allowed local elections of military positions to take place, and did not suppress existing magistracies within subject cities. iii Table of Contents Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................v
    [Show full text]
  • Greek Mythology Link (Complete Collection)
    Document belonging to the Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology Characters • Places • Topics • Images • Bibliography • Español • PDF Editions About • Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. This PDF contains portions of the Greek Mythology Link COMPLETE COLLECTION, version 0906. In this sample most links will not work. THE COMPLETE GREEK MYTHOLOGY LINK COLLECTION (digital edition) includes: 1. Two fully linked, bookmarked, and easy to print PDF files (1809 A4 pages), including: a. The full version of the Genealogical Guide (not on line) and every page-numbered docu- ment detailed in the Contents. b. 119 Charts (genealogical and contextual) and 5 Maps. 2. Thousands of images organized in albums are included in this package. The contents of this sample is copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. To buy this collection, visit Editions. Greek Mythology Link Contents The Greek Mythology Link is a collection of myths retold by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology, published in 1993 (available at Amazon). The mythical accounts are based exclusively on ancient sources. Address: www.maicar.com About, Email. Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. ISBN 978-91-976473-9-7 Contents VIII Divinities 1476 Major Divinities 1477 Page Immortals 1480 I Abbreviations 2 Other deities 1486 II Dictionaries 4 IX Miscellanea Genealogical Guide (6520 entries) 5 Three Main Ancestors 1489 Geographical Reference (1184) 500 Robe & Necklace of
    [Show full text]