MELEAGER AND 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 () 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, , Antagoras ca. 270 Euphorion, Rhianus, Hegesippus (?) ca. 250 Nicaenetus, Damagetus, Mnasalces, Dioscorides, Theo- doridas, Phaedimus (?) ca. 230–220 Samius, Alcaeus ca. 180 , 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.

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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, (third century B.C.?), , Nicarchus, Nicomachus, Timocles. List in Radinger (1895: 92, n. 1), but I exclude Pisander of Rhodes, of Bithynia and Xenocritus of Rhodes, who occur outside rmly Meleagrian contexts. 5 We have only two epigrams of Polystratus, 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).

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