RHAPSODIC HYMNS AND EPYLLIA1 Ivana Petrovic 1. The Origins of Hellenistic Short Hexameter Narratives The term ἐπύλλιον was used in various literary contexts in antiquity and in the modern age.2 In modern classical scholarship, “epyllion” came to be used as a technical term for a body of poetry.3 Presently it is assumed that ancient Greek poems we call epyllia constitute a genre. We came to asso- ciate a set of formal and thematic characteristics with this body of poetry,4 but scholars disagree in regard to the question of which characteristics are the most important.5 However, “short hexameter narrative on mythologi- cal subjects” seems to be a description which satisfies all tastes. Since most transmitted poems from the Hellenistic period are short and, to use Gutzwiller’s neat characterisation, most are “written in the manner of the slender Muse of Callimachean poetics,”6 we tend to see the poems we call epyllia and correspondingly epyllion as a genre as typical 1 My warmest thanks is due to the participants of the conference and to colleagues who have read and commented on the various drafts of this paper: Egbert Bakker, Peter Bing, Marco Fantuzzi, Barbara Graziosi, Richard Hunter, Melissa Mueller, Gregory Nagy, and Andrej Petrovic. 2 See Tilg in this volume. 3 The body of Greek poetry classified as epyllia is by no means static. Some scholars restrict the corpus drastically—Gutzwiller (1981) for instance discusses the following: The- ocritus’ three poems on Heracles, Callimachus’ Hymn to Demeter and Hecale, Moschus’ Europa, and the fragmentary Epithalamium of Achilles and Deidamia. Others, like Fan- tuzzi (1998a), are less restrictive and consider even elegiac narratives worthy of admis- sion: Moiro’s Mnemosyne, Philetas’ Hermes, Telephos, Demeter, Alexander Aetolus’ Halieus, Kirka; Hedyle, Skylla, Simias’ Apollon, Callimachus’ Hecale, Galateia, Glaukos; Theocritus 13, 18, 22, 24, (25), 26; Nikainetos’ Lyrkos, Eratosthenes’ Hermes, Anterinys, Erigone; works of Euphorion, Moschos’ Europa, Parthenius’ Anthippe, Heracles, Bion’s(?) Epithalamium of Achilles and Deidamia. 4 Cf. Baumbach in this volume, pp. 144–145. 5 Scholars have singled out the following characteristics as specific for epyllion: long speeches (Crump [1931] 22); ecphrasis and/or digression (Crump [1931] 23; 100; Hollis [22009] 25; Toohey [1992] 10). Some see the emphasis on female characters and their plight and emotions as specific for epyllion (Jackson [1913] 41; 46–50; Merriam [2001]); others still emphasize the humorous tone (Crump [1931] 6–7; Fantuzzi [1998a] 32) and subversion (Gutzwiller [1981]). 6 Gutzwiller (1981) 5. 150 ivana petrovic products of the Hellenistic period.7 So circular arguments abound and could be summarized as: – Transmitted Hellenistic poetry is slender, refined, allusive, short(ish). – Epyllion is slender, refined, allusive, short. – Epyllion is a typical product of the Hellenistic period. Each of three lines can be used as first, middle and last. The fact that there is a fair number of transmitted hexameter narra- tive poems from the Hellenistic period brings Cameron (1995) 447–453 to an entirely different conclusion. Taking inscriptional evidence into account as well, he concludes that short hexameter poems in the epic mode on local cults and myths, encomia of local aristocrats and epitha- lamia, epicedia and other occasional poetry must have been ubiquitous in the Hellenistic period. Only a fraction (perhaps the best?) of these sur- vived. If we take inscriptional evidence of the festivals into consideration, we must conclude that many short hexameter narratives were composed and often performed in the Hellenistic period. Are we to assume that the whole genre of short hexameter narratives originated and spread like a wild fire at one point in the early Hellenistic Period? Perhaps such poems from the Hellenistic Period happen to be transmitted, whereas the textual tradition and the sources for the Archaic and Classical Periods simply do not provide much information about short hexameter narratives. How- ever, there is some evidence for early short hexameter narratives, notably the longer Homeric hymns and the ps.-Hesiodic Shield of Heracles. These texts were sometimes mentioned as similar to Hellenistic epyllia8 or even as possible models.9 7 Ambühl (2010) provides a sensible and balanced discussion of the generic criteria thus far argued for “epyllia” and their methodological pitfalls. 8 Fantuzzi (1998a). Crump (1931) 7–8 and Gutzwiller (1981) 8–9 mention Homeric hymns as possible models of Hellenistic epyllia. On the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite see Baumbach in this volume. Fantuzzi/Hunter (2004) 193 argue that the shorter narrative units of the rhapsodic tradition and shorter Hesiodic poems were important influences in the genesis of the Hellenistic tradition of narrative. Tilg (this volume) has unearthed a whole new chapter in the history of the term “epyllion.” In German scholarship, this term was probably first applied to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes and the Batrachomyomachia in Karl David Ilgen’s 1796 edition of the Homeric Hymns. In nineteenth-century German scholarship, almost all short hexameter narrative poetry is referred to as “epyllia.” Modern classical scholarship seems to have ignored this completely. 9 Cameron (1995) 447–453, Fantuzzi (1998a), and Bing in this volume discuss the ps.-Hesiodic Shield of Heracles..