Poets and Telchines in Callimachus' Aetia-Prologue

POETS AND TELCHINES IN CALLIMACHUS’ AETIA-PROLOGUE

KONSTANTINOS SPANOUDAKIS*

A fresh treatment of a passage that does not have its match in Greek literature as to the interpretations and discussions devoted to it, asks for an explanation. In this contribution I attempt to inves- tigate afresh the relation among the members of the elegiac trian- gle consisting of Mimnermus, Antimachus and Philitas. I make an eVort to re-establish the balance of power in Alexandrian poetics and to suggest further arguments asserting Antimachus’ presence in the Aetia-prologue. For this approach I take into consideration the recently established text of vv. 11-12 of the Aetia-prologue, a still unpublished epigram of Posidippus about a statue of the Coan poet and scholar Philitas in the Alexandrian royal house and a recently recovered anonymous elegiac fragment transmitted in Herodian. In the face of this evidence I try to re-evaluate Hermesianax’s references to the poets involved, as well as passages from Propertius, Longus and Gregory of Nazianzus. The paper concludes with text- critical and interpretative remarks in favour of Housman’s supplement drèn] at the beginning of v. 10 and Luppe’ s reading and supplement a[á gƒ palaÛ toi / n®niew] in vv. 11-12 of that passage. a. The Colophonian Liaison of Mimnermus and Antimachus Mimnermus, as the ‘inventor’ of Greek (narrative, I should add) elegy became a topical issue among Hellenistic elegists. 1) It has been

*) Abbreviations of modern collections of fragments are as in P. G. W. Glare (ed.), Liddell-Scott-Jones: A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised Supplement (Oxford 1996), except Suppl. Hell . = SH. References to Antimachus follow the numeration of Matthews. Note also: CA J. U. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford 1925). Kuchenmüller G. Kuchenmüller, Philetae Coi reliquiae (Diss. Berlin 1928). MatthewsV. J. Matthews, Antimachus of Colophon (Leiden 1996). Wyss B. Wyss, Antimachi Colophonii reliquiae (Berlin 1936). 1)See S. Szá deczky-Kardoss, AAntHung 16 (1968), 157-9, id., RE Suppl. XI

©Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2001 Mnemosyne, Vol. LIV, Fasc. 4 426 KONSTANTINOS SPANOUDAKIS observed that the tendency to appeal to Mimnermus may originate in his compatriot poet Antimachus. Broadly speaking, the Colophonian poets may have felt an allegiance with their compatriot predeces- sors, each one being part of a long and proud tradition, and cer- tainly with Mimnermus, who treated aspects of the Colophonian archaeology in Nanno (IEG 9-10). Nicander dealt with that tradition in his prose work PerÜ tÇ n ¤k KolofÇnow poihtÇn studying, among others, the Hellenistic elegist Hermesianax (FGrH 271-2 F 10 apud Schol. Nic. Ther. 3, p. 35.13 f. Crugnola). Nicander himself is said by the same scholium to be a zhlvt®w of Antimachus from whom (fr. 159) he picked up Doric paÇn in that line. 2) Antimachus may have shared these feelings of pride as in fr. 166 he—along with Nicander FGrH 271-2 F 36—claimed Homer as a Colophonian. From the scanty remains of Mimnermus and Antimachus a point of contact may be established on the basis of the appearance of Helios’ golden vessel in Nanno IEG 12 and in Lyde (?) fr. 86 (see Wyss xx). An association of the two may also be suggested by the re nedMilan-Scholiast ( pap.saec. p.C. II) ofAntimachus Artemis (?) fr. 105 adducing Mimnermus Smyrneis IEG 13a on the usage of unHomeric ¤nd¡jetai (< ¤nd¡knumi ‘order’). Such a coupling of Mimnermus and Antimachus occurs early enough in Aristotle fr. 676 Rose = test. 7 Mat. 3) and in Solinus Collect. rer. mem . 40.6 = test. 8 Mat. ingenia Asiatica inclita per gentes fuere. poetae Anacreon, inde Mimnermus et Antimachus, deinde Hipponax etc., commonly cited with Mommsen’s note “e fonte ignoto”. Furthermore, M. L. West identi ed an anonymous elegiac fragment from Herodian PerÜ t° w kayolik°w prosÄdÛ aw (apud H. Hunger, JÖByz 16 (1967), 20), which he published among the Fragmenta minus certe ad Lyden relata as Antimachus IEG *192

– Mimn¡rmou toè Kolofvniakoè

(1968), 949-51. Note in particular Aristotle’s (fr. 676 Rose) and his school’s inter- est in Mimnermus. 2) In Glossai fr. 138 Schneider Nicander discussed kel¡bhn as poimenikòn ggeÝon melithrñn citing three fragments from Antimachus ( Thebaid frr. 20, 22, 23). Nicander is also said to be the author of Colophoniaca FGrH 271-2 F 9. 3)Rose proposed to read Aristocles. The reference is in Schol. Bob. on Cic. Pro Archia 25.