A COMPANION TO HELLENISTIC LITERATURE

BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO THE ANCIENT WORLD

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A COMPANION TO
HELLENISTIC
LITERATURE
Edited by
James J. Clauss
and Martine Cuypers

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication

This edition first published 2010
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A companion to Hellenistic literature / edited by James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers.

p. cm. – (Blackwell companions to the ancient world)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-3679-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Greek literature, Hellenistic–History and criticism.
I. Clauss, James Joseph. II. Cuypers, Martine.
PA3081.C63 2010
880.09–dc22
2009025321

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Set in 10/12.5pt Galliard

by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
Printed in Singapore

I 2010
 Contents

List of Maps viii

Notes on Contributors ix
Preface xiv
Acknowledgments xvi
Abbreviations xvii

1 Introduction 1
James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

PART I Contexts 15
2 From Alexander to Augustus 17
Andrew Erskine
3 Literature and the Kings 30
Rolf Strootman
4 Ptolemaic Alexandria 46
Susan Stephens
5 Education 62
Jessica Wissmann

PART II Poetry 79

6 The Prefigured Muse: Rethinking a Few Assumptions

on Hellenistic Poetics 81
Benjamin Acosta-Hughes
7 Callimachus’ Aetia 92
Annette Harder
vi Contents

8 Hellenistic Elegy: Out from Under the Shadow

of Callimachus 106
Jackie Murray
9 Epigram 117
Jon S. Bruss
10 Apollonius’ Argonautica 136
Adolf Ko
¨ hnken
11 Narrative Hexameter Poetry 151
Annemarie Ambühl
12 Hymns and Encomia 166
Anthony W. Bulloch
13 Sung Poetry: The Case of Inscribed Paeans 181
Marco Fantuzzi
14 Aratus 197
Katharina Volk
15 Nicander 211
Enrico Magnelli
16 The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus 224
Mark Payne
17 Idyll 6 and the Development of Bucolic after Theocritus 238
J. D. Reed
18 Iambos and Parody 251
Ruth Scodel
19 Herodas and the Mime 267
Elena Esposito
20 Menander’s Comedy 282
Susan Lape
21 Hellenistic Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 297
Alexander Sens

PART III Prose 315

22 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science: Rethinking

a Few Assumptions on Hellenistic Prose 317
Martine Cuypers
23 Literary Criticism 337
Kathryn J. Gutzwiller
24 Philosophy after Aristotle 366
Stephen A. White
 Contents vii

25 From Polybius to Dionysius: The Decline and Fall

of Hellenistic Historiography 384
Alain M. Gowing
26 Prose Fiction 395
Tim Whitmarsh

PART IV Neighbors 413

27 Jewish Literature 415

Erich S. Gruen
28 Egyptian Literature 429
Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer
29 Literature in Western Asia 448
Silke Knippschild
30 From the Head of Zeus: The Beginnings
of Roman Literature 463
James J. Clauss

Bibliography 479
Index 535
 Maps

2.1. The Hellenistic Kingdoms (c. 240 BCE ) 18

4.1. Ancient Alexandria 50
 Notes on Contributors

Benjamin Acosta-Hughes is Professor of gram and Hellenistic poetry, and he is

Greek and Latin at the Ohio State Univer- the co-editor of Brill’s Companion to
sity. His principal interests are Hellenistic Hellenistic Epigram: Down to Philip
poetry and Archaic lyric. He is the author (2007).
of Polyeideia: The Iambi of Callimachus
and the Archaic Iambic Tradition Anthony W. Bulloch is Professor of
(2002), and of Arion’s Lyre: Archaic Classics at the University of California,
Lyric into Hellenistic Poetry (2010). With Berkeley. He is the author of Callimachus:
Susan Stephens he is currently co-author- The Fifth Hymn (1985), the section on
ing a book on Callimachus. Hellenistic poetry in The Cambridge His-
tory of Classical Literature, vol. 1 (1985),
Annemarie Ambühl has taught at the and co-editor of Images and Ideologies:
University of Basel and the University Self-definition in the Hellenistic World
of Groningen. Her publications include (1993). He is also joint editor of the on-
Kinder und junge Helden: Innovative going University of California Press series
Aspekte des Umgangs mit der literarischen Hellenistic Culture and Society.
Tradition bei Kallimachos (2005) and
articles on Hellenistic epigram. She is James J. Clauss is Professor of Classics at
currently working as a post-doctoral re- the University of Washington, Seattle.
searcher at Groningen on the reception He is the author of The Best of the Argo-
of Attic tragedy and Hellenistic poetry in nauts: The Redefinition of the Epic Hero
Lucan’s Bellum civile. in Book 1 of Apollonius’ Argonautica
(1993), the co-editor of Medea: Essays
Jon S. Bruss has taught at Bethany on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy,
Lutheran College, St. Olaf College, the and Art (1997), and the co-translator of
University of the South, and the Univer- Rome and Environs: An Archaeological
sity of Kansas. He is the author of Hid- Guide by Filippo Coarelli (2007).
den Presences: Monuments, Gravesites,
and Corpses in Greek Funerary Epigram Martine Cuypers is Lecturer in Greek at
(2005) as well as various articles on epi- Trinity College Dublin. She is preparing
x Notes on Contributors

a commentary on Apollonius’ Argonau- is close to completing a commented edi-

tica and the co-editor of Beginning from tion of the Rhesus ascribed to Euripides.
Apollo: Studies in Apollonius and the His next book project is a commentary
Argonautic Tradition (2005). She also on Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ De com-
maintains the online Hellenistic Biblio- positione verborum.
graphy.
Alain M. Gowing is Professor of Clas-
Jacco Dieleman is Assistant Professor of sics at the University of Washington,
Egyptology at the University of Califor- Seattle. His chief interests lie in the area
nia, Los Angeles. He is the author of of Roman historiography and literature,
Priests, Tongues, and Rites: The London- especially of the Imperial period. His
Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Trans- publications include The Triumviral
lation in Egyptian Ritual (2005), and Narratives of Appian and Cassius Dio
co-editor of the UCLA Encyclopedia of (1992), and Empire and Memory: The
Egyptology. Representation of the Roman Republic in
Andrew Erskine is Professor of Ancient Imperial Culture (2005). He is currently
History at the University of Edinburgh. working on a book tentatively titled
A specialist in Hellenistic history, he is ‘‘Genius urbis: The City of Rome in
the author of Troy between Greece and Latin Historiography.’’
Rome: Local Tradition and Imperial Erich S. Gruen is Gladys Rehard Wood
Power (2001) and The Hellenistic Stoa: Professor of History and Classics Emeri-
Political Thought and Action (1990). tus at the University of California, Ber-
He is also the editor of A Companion to keley. His contributions in Hellenistic
the Hellenistic World (2003) and A Com- and Jewish studies include The Hellenistic
panion to Ancient History (2009). World and the Coming of Rome (1984),
Elena Esposito is Lecturer at the Univer- Heritage and Hellenism (1998), Dia-
sity of Florence, Istituto papirologico ‘‘G. spora: Jews amidst Greeks and Romans
Vitelli,’’ and Tutor in Greek Literature at (2002), Cultural Borrowings and Ethnic
the University of Bologna. Her main Appropriations in Antiquity (ed. 2005),
interests are Hellenistic poetry and and survey articles in the Blackwell Com-
Greek lexicography. She has published Il panion to the Hellenistic World (2003),
Fragmentum Grenfellianum (P.Dryton the Cambridge Companion to the Hellen-
50) (2005) and many articles on Herodas istic World (2006), and the Oxford
and the mime. Her current project is a Handbook of Biblical Studies (2006). He
commented edition of Greek lexica pre- is currently completing a book tenta-
served on papyri for the series Commen- tively titled ‘‘Confronting the ‘Other’:
taria et Lexica Graeca in Papyris Reperta. Greek, Roman, and Jewish Impressions
of the Alien.’’
Marco Fantuzzi teaches Greek literature
at Columbia University, New York, and Kathryn J. Gutzwiller is Professor of
at the University of Macerata. He has Classics at the University of Cincinnati.
published widely on Hellenistic poetry She has published widely in Hellenistic
and Athenian tragedy, and is the author literature, the interaction of art and text,
of Bionis Smyrnaei Adonidis epitaphium and literary criticism. Recent books are
(1985), Ricerche su Apollonio Rodio: dia- Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in
cronie della dizione epica (1988), and, Context (1998), A Guide to Hellenistic
with Richard Hunter, Tradition and In- Literature (2007), and an edited volume
novation in Hellenistic Poetry (2004). He entitled The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic
 Notes on Contributors xi

Poetry Book (2005). Her current projects Erzählstrategien in antiken Texten

include the collaborative publication of (2006). He has published widely on
new Menander mosaics from Antioch Archaic and Hellenistic poetry, the Argo-
and a commentary with critical edition nautic tradition, narratology, historio-
for the epigrams of Meleager. graphy, drama, ancient literary criticism,
and the history of Classical scholarship,
Annette Harder is Professor of Ancient
and is co-editor of the journal Hermes
Greek Language and Literature at the
and the series Texte und Kommentare.
University of Groningen. She has written
on Greek tragedy and published a num- Susan Lape is Associate Professor of
ber of mythographic papyri, but her main Classics at the University of Southern
field of interest is Hellenistic poetry, on California. She has published Repro-
which she has published extensively. She ducing Athens: Menander’s Comedy,
is the organizer of the Groningen Work- Democratic Culture, and the Hellenistic
shops on Hellenistic Poetry, held bienni- City (2004) and various articles on Me-
ally since 1992, and co-editor of their nander and Roman comedy. Her book
proceedings in the series Hellenistica Before Race: Citizen Identity in Demo-
Groningana. She has also published a cratic Athens is scheduled to appear with
Dutch translation of a selection of Cal- Cambridge University Press in 2010.
limachus’ poetry (2000), and is in the Enrico Magnelli is Lecturer in Greek
process of finishing a commented edition Literature at the University of Florence.
of Callimachus’Aetia. He has published widely on Greek poetry
Silke Knippschild is Lecturer in Ancient from the Hellenistic to Byzantine
History at the University of Bristol. Her periods, Attic comedy, and meter, in-
main research interests lie in the field of cluding Alexandri Aetoli testimonia et
intercultural relations and cross-cultural fragmenta (1999) and Studi su Euforione
influences between the ancient Near (2002). He is currently preparing a
East, Greece, and Rome. She is the monograph on the use of Homer in
author of ‘‘Drum bietet zum Bunde die Greek comedy and satyr-play, a critical
Hände’’: Rechtssymbolische Akte in zwi- edition of Greek epigrams on poets of
schenstaatlichen Beziehungen im orienta- the Imperial period and late antiquity
lischen und griechisch-römischen Altertum (with Gianfranco Agosti), and a com-
(2002) and co-editor of Ceremoniales, mented edition of the fragments of
Ritos y Representación del Poder (2004) Euphorion.
and Imagines: Antigüedad en las Artes Ian S. Moyer is Assistant Professor of
Escénicas y Visuales (2008). She is cur- History at the University of Michigan,
rently working on a monograph entitled Ann Arbor. He has published articles on
‘‘Spoils and Iconoclasm,’’ dealing with Herodotus and Egypt, ancient cross-cul-
the destruction and theft of political tural interactions, and Graeco-Egyptian
and religious identifiers in the first mil- magic. He is currently completing a book
lennium BCE . entitled Egypt and the Limits of Hellenism,
in which he explores the history and his-
Adolf Köhnken is Emeritus Professor of
toriography of cultural and intellectual en-
Classics (Greek) at the Westfälische Wil-
counters between Greeks and Egyptians.
helms-Universität Münster. He is the
author of Apollonios Rhodios und Theokrit Jackie Murray is Assistant Professor of
(1965), Die Funktion des Mythos bei Pin- Classics at Skidmore College. Her prin-
dar (1971), and Darstellungsziele und cipal interests are Hellenistic, Archaic,
xii Notes on Contributors

and Latin poetry, and she has published Samos for Oxford University Press, and
articles on Apollonius Rhodius, Callima- is currently at work on a commentary on
chus, Ovid, Homer, and epigram. She is select Hellenistic epigrams. His interest
presently co-editing The Cambridge in Lycophron continues to grow, and he
Companion to Apollonius Rhodius’ Argo- hopes to pursue further work on that
nautica and revising her dissertation poet’s Alexandra in the future.
Polyphonic Argo (2005) into a mono-
Susan Stephens is Professor of Classics
graph.
at Stanford University. Her work in-
Mark Payne is Associate Professor of cludes contributions to the Oxyrhynchus
Classics at the University of Chicago. Papyri and Yale Papyri in the Beinecke
He is the author of Theocritus and the Library, vol. 2 (1985); with Jack Winkler
Invention of Fiction (2007) and articles she co-authored Ancient Greek Novels:
on Greek poetry and poetics from the The Fragments (1995). The political and
Archaic to the Hellenistic periods. He is social context of Hellenistic poetry has
currently working on a book about the been the focus of her recent research,
representation of animals in poetry. articulated in Seeing Double: Intercul-
tural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexandria
J. D. Reed is Professor of Classics at
(2003) as well as numerous articles on
Brown University. His interests lie mainly
individual poets. She is currently working
in Hellenistic and Latin poetry, especially
on ‘‘geo-poetics,’’ or how poets created
in questions of cultural identity. He is the
a collective identity for the newly estab-
author of Bion of Smyrna: The Fragments
lished city of Alexandria.
and the Adonis (1997), and Virgil’s Gaze:
Nation and Poetry in the Aeneid (2008). Rolf Strootman is Lecturer in History at
He has also published on the ancient cult Utrecht University. His main interest lies
and myth of Adonis and their reception in the history, ideology, and organization
in modern literature. of imperial states in the ancient Middle
East and Central Asia, particularly the
Ruth Scodel is D. R. Shackleton Bailey
Seleucid Empire. He completed his dis-
Collegiate Professor of Greek and Latin
sertation ‘‘The Hellenistic Royal Court’’
at the University of Michigan, Ann
in 2007, and has contributed to the En-
Arbor. Her publications include Credible
cyclopaedia Iranica and published articles
Impossibilities: Strategies of Verisimilitude
on aspects of monarchy and empire in
in Homer and Greek Tragedy (1999),
the Hellenistic period.
Listening to Homer (2002), Whither
Quo Vadis (2008, with Anja Betten- Katharina Volk is Associate Professor of
worth), and Epic Facework: Self-presenta- Classics at Columbia University. She is
tion and Social Interaction in Homer the author of The Poetics of Latin Didac-
(2008). tic: Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid, Manilius
(2002) and Manilius and his Intellectual
Alexander Sens is Joseph Durkin SJ Pro-
Background (2009), as well as many
fessor of Classics at Georgetown Univer-
other publications on Greek and Latin
sity. He is the author of a commentary on
poetry and its relation to philosophy,
Theocritus’ Hymn to the Dioscuri (1997)
science, and the history of ideas.
as well as (with S. Douglas Olson) edi-
tions of Archestratus of Gela (2000) and Stephen A. White is Professor of Clas-
Matro of Pitane (2000). He recently sics and Philosophy at the University
completed an edition of Asclepiades of of Texas at Austin. He is the author of
 Notes on Contributors xiii

Sovereign Virtue: Aristotle on the Relation Empire: The Politics of Imitation (2001),
between Prosperity and Happiness (1992) Ancient Greek Literature (2004), and The
and articles on many areas of ancient phil- Second Sophistic (2005). He edited The
osophy and literature, including Callima- Cambridge Companion to the Greek and
chus, Stoicism, and Hellenistic ethics; co- Roman Novel (2008), and co-edited Or-
editor with W. W. Fortenbaugh of two dering Knowledge in the Roman Empire
volumes on the Hellenistic Lyceum, Lyco (2007). He is currently finishing a book
of Troas and Hieronymus of Rhodes (2004) on narrative and identity in the Greek
and Aristo of Ceos (2006); and area editor novel, and running a research project on
for philosophy and science for the Oxford Greek and Near Eastern fiction.
Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome.
Jessica Wissmann lectures at the Ruhr-
He is currently preparing a translation of
Universität Bochum. Her publications in-
Diogenes Laertius.
clude Motivation und Schmähung: Feigheit
Tim Whitmarsh is Tutorial Fellow in in der Ilias und in der griechischen Tragödie
Greek and E. P. Warren Praelector at Cor- (1997) and articles on Imperial Greek
pus Christi College, Oxford. His books literature. She is working on a monograph
include Greek Literature and the Roman on Homer in ancient education.
 Preface

This Companion is intended to serve as an introduction to the Greek literature of the

Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE ) for slightly advanced students of Classics. Its organ-
ization largely follows genre, and therefore quite a few authors are discussed in more
than one chapter (Callimachus and Theocritus were especially lucky). Poetry takes up
more space than prose, as the state of the evidence commands, but a variety of prose
texts are also discussed in the Contexts and Neighbors sections. The latter section is
perhaps the most unusual feature of this volume. It explores the cultural dialogue
between the Greeks and their Egyptian, Jewish, Western Asian, and Roman literary
interlocutors.
Although we underscored particularly apposite connections among the chapters
through cross-references and offered an overview of the contributions in the
Introduction, we chose not to synthesize, generalize, or construct a grand narrative.
Collectively authored companions are by nature polyphonic, and this one is perhaps
even more so than others. Our contributors represent three scholarly generations and
a wide range of academic traditions, experiences, and fields, and their topics invite or
rather require very different approaches. It is our hope that the volume we have
produced reflects the variety of scholarship on the Hellenistic world as well as the
state of the field and current trends in research. Certainly included among these
trends is an emphasis on the contexts of literature production and cultural continuity.
Greek and Latin are cited more frequently than in most other volumes in this series
because we felt the absence of the original text and a total ban on ‘‘philological’’
discussion would have impoverished discussions of Hellenistic literature, especially
given the fact that this was the era when philology was born. All Greek and Latin are
translated and, where discussions turn technical, we have tried to organize them so
that their general drift should also be clear to readers who have no access to the
original text. Among omissions, inevitable even in a volume of this size, we want to
single out reception. Because so many Latin authors directly engage with Hellenistic
 Preface xv

literature, we felt this topic could not be satisfactorily discussed even in a number of
wide-ranging chapters.
We are very grateful to our contributors for the time and energy they have invested
in this project and for putting up with our editorial demands and interventions. Many
went beyond the call of duty in commenting on the contributions of others and
tailoring their own chapters to them. All have been remarkably patient, given the fact
that this project has taken longer than planned. The volume has also benefited from
the suggestions of the three anonymous reviewers for the press, and from the input of
the final year Greek classes of 07/08 and 08/09 at Trinity College Dublin, who test-
drove many of its chapters. At Wiley-Blackwell, Al Bertrand and Ben Thatcher were
there at the beginning, Galen Smith, Haze Humbert, Janey Fisher, and Rebecca du
Plessis at the end; all showed admirable fortitude during the long time in between.
Seattle and Dublin
James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers
 Acknowledgments

The editors and publishers gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to repro-
duce the copyright material in this book.
Maps 2.1 and 4.1 on pp. 18 and 50 reprinted by permission of John Wiley and
Sons, Inc. from pp. xiii and 18 of Kathryn Gutzwiller, A Guide to Hellenistic
Literature, Malden, Oxford, and Carlton: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. # 2007.
Material on p. 117 reprinted by permission from page 145 of First Things: A
Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life, Issue 145, # August 2004.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permis-
sion for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or
omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that
should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
 Abbreviations

Ancient Authors
A.R. Apollonius of Rhodes (unspecified references are to Arg.)
Arg. Argonautica
CA see Reference Works
Ach. Tat. Achilles Tatius
Ael. Aelian
VH Varia Historia (Historical Miscellany)
Aesch. Aeschylus
Eum. Eumenides
Alex. Aet. Alexander Aetolus
Anac. Anacreon
Antim. Antimachus
Antipat. Sid. Antipater of Sidon
Antipat. Thess. Antipater of Thessalonica
AP Anthologia Palatina (Palatine Anthology)
APl. Anthologia Planudea (Anthology of Planudes)
App. Appian
Mith. Mithridatica (Mithridatic Wars)
Syr. Syriaca (Syrian Wars)
Ar. Aristophanes
Av. Aves (Birds)
Eccl. Ecclesiazusae (Assemblywomen)
Thesm. Thesmophoriazusae (Women at the Thesmophoria)
Arat. Aratus
Phaen. Phaenomena
Archestr. Archestratus
Archil. Archilochus
xviii Abbreviations

arg. argumentum (introductory summary of a literary work)

Arist. Aristotle
(Ps.) Ath. Pol. Athenaiōn Politeia (Constitution of the Athenians)
Poet. Poetics
Rhet. Rhetoric
Arr. Arrian
An. Anabasis
Asclep. Asclepiades
Ath. Athenaeus
b. born
Bacch. Bacchylides
c. circa
Call. Callimachus
Aet. Aetia
Dieg. Diegeseis (ancient summaries)
ep. Epigrams
h. Hymns
Hec. Hecale
ia. Iambs
Pf. and SH see Reference Works
Char. Chariton
Cic. M. Tullius Cicero
Ac. Academica
Arch. Pro Archia (Defense of Archias)
Att. Letters to Atticus
Brut. Brutus
de Orat. de Oratore (On the Orator)
Div. de Divinatione (On Divination)
Fin. de Finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Ends of Good and
Evil)
Leg. de Legibus (On the Laws)
ND de Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods)
Sen. de Senectute (On Old Age)
Tusc. Tusculanae Disputationes (Tusculan Disputations)
Clem. Al. Clement of Alexandria
Strom. Stromata (Miscellanies)
Curt. Q. Curtius Rufus
d. died
D.H. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (unspecified references are to
AR)
AR Antiquitates Romanae (Roman Antiquities)
Comp. de Compositione Verborum (On the Arrangement of Words)
Isoc. de Isocrate (On Isocrates)
Lys. de Lysia (On Lysias)
Orat. Vett. de Oratoribus Veteribus (On the Ancient Orators)
Pomp. Epistula ad Pompeium (Letter to Pompeius)
 Abbreviations xix

D.L. Diogenes Laertius

D.S. Diodorus Siculus
Dem. Demosthenes
Phil. Philippica (Orations against Philip)
Demetr. Demetrius
Eloc. de Elocutione (On Style)
Diod. Diodorus (epigrammatist)
Dio Chrys. Dio Chrysostom
Or. Orations
Dion. Scyt. Dionysius Scytobrachion
Dion. Thr. Dionysius Thrax
Diosc. Dioscorides (epigrammatist)
Enn. Ennius
Ann. Annales
Sk. see Reference Works
Euph. Euphorion
Eur. Euripides
El. Electra
Hec. Hecuba
Med. Medea
Or. Orestes
Phoen. Phoenissae (Phoenician Women)
(ps.) Rh. Rhesus
Eus. Eusebius
PE Praeparatio Evangelica
F or fr. fragment
fl. floruit (flourished; i.e., active around a certain date)
Gal. Galen
h.Ap. Homeric Hymn to Apollo
Hdt. Herodotus
Heraclit. Heraclitus
All. Allegoriae (Homeric Allegories, Homeric Problems)
Hermes. Hermesianax
Hermog. Hermogenes
Id. Peri ideōn (On Types of Style)
Herod. Herodas
Mimi. Mimiambs
Hes. Hesiod
Th. Theogony
WD Works and Days
Hor. Horace
Ars Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry)
Carm. Carmina (Odes)
Ep. Epistulae (Letters)
Sat. Satires
Hsch. Hesychius
xx Abbreviations

Il. Iliad
Is. Isocrates
Jos. Josephus
AJ Antiquitates Judaicae (Jewish Antiquities)
Ap. contra Apionem (Against Apion)
Leon. Tar. Leonidas of Tarentum
LetArist Letter of Aristeas
‘‘Longin.’’ Pseudo-Longinus
Subl. de Sublimitate (On the Sublime)
Luc. Lucian
Hist. Conscr. Quomodo Historia Conscribenda sit (How to Write History)
DDS De Dea Syria (On the Syrian Goddess)
Lucr. Lucretius
Lyc. Lycophron
Lys. Lysias
Macc. Maccabees
Manetho Manetho
Dyn. Dynasty
Men. Menander
Asp. Aspis (Shield)
Sam. Samia (Samian Girl )
Mimn. Mimnermus
Nic. Nicander
Al. Alexipharmaca
Cyn. Cynegetica
Georg. Georgica
Heter. Heteroioumena
Oit. Oitaica
Sik. Sikelia
Th. Theriaca
Theb. Thebaica
obv. obverse
Od. Odyssey
Ov. Ovid
Ars Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
Am. Amores
Met. Metamorphoses
Rem. Am. Remedia Amoris (Love’s Remedies)
Tr. Tristia
Parth. Parthenius
Erot. Path. Erōtika Pathēmata (Love Stories)
Paus. Pausanias
Philostr. Philostratus
VS Vitae Sophistarum (Lives of the Sophists)
Phld. Philodemus
Mus. On Music
 Abbreviations xxi

Po. On Poems
Rh. On Rhetoric
Pi. Pindar
I. Isthmian Odes
N. Nemean Odes
O. Olympian Odes
P. Pythian Odes
Pl. Plato
Crat. Cratylus
Phdr. Phaedrus
Prot. Protagoras
Rep. Republic
Sym. Symposium
Plb. Polybius
Plin. NH Pliny the Elder, Natural History
Plin. Ep. Pliny the Younger, Epistulae (Letters)
Plu. Plutarch
Alex. Life of Alexander
Ant. Life of Antony
Cato Ma. Life of Cato the Elder
Cic. Life of Cicero
Cleom. Life of Cleomenes
Conv. Convivium Septem Sapientium (Banquet of the
Seven Sages)
Crass. Life of Crassus
De Is. et Os. De Iside et Osiride (On Isis and Osiris)
Dem. Life of Demosthenes
Demetr. Life of Demetrius
Mor. Moralia (Ethical Treatises)
Pyrrh. Life of Pyrrhus
Sol. Life of Solon
Posidip. Posidippus
pr. prologue, foreword
proleg. prolegomena (introductory matter)
Procl. Proclus
in Ti. in Timaeum (On Plato’s Timaeus)
Prop. Propertius
Ps. Pseudo- (falsely attributed to)
Quint. Quintilian
Inst. Institutio Oratoria
Rh. Rhesus, a tragedy falsely attributed to Euripides
Rhet. Her. Rhetorica ad Herennium (anonymous handbook)
schol. scholion (commentary note in a manuscript)
sed. inc. sede incerta (fragment of unknown location)
Semon. Semonides
Sen. Seneca the Younger
xxii Abbreviations

Ep. Epistulae (Letters)

Sext. Emp. Sextus Empiricus
Math. Against the Mathematicians
PH Pyrrhōneioi Hypotypōseis (Outlines of Pyrrhonism)
Sib. Oraculae Sibyllinae (Sibylline Oracles)
Soph. Sophocles
Stob. Stobaeus
Str. Strabo
Suet. Suetonius
de Gram. et Rhet. de Grammaticis et Rhetoribus (On Teachers of Grammar
and Rhetoric)
T or test. testimonium (evidence for an author’s life or work)
Theoc. Theocritus (unspecified references are to the Idylls)
ep. epigrams
Id. Idylls
Theod. Prisc. Theodorus Priscianus
Eup. Euporiston (Household Remedies)
Theophr. Theophrastus
Char. Characters
Thgn. Theognis
Thuc. Thucydides
Val. Max. Valerius Maximus
Var. M. Terentius Varro
LL On the Latin Language
Men. Menippean Satires
Verg. Vergil
Aen. Aeneid
Ecl. Eclogues
Vitr. Vitruvius
Xen. Xenophon
Mem. Memorabilia (Memories of Socrates)

Reference Works
AB Austin, C. and Bastianini, G. Posidippi Pellaei quae super-
sunt omnia. Milan 2002.
ABC Grayson, A. K. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles.
Locust Valley 1975.
ANRW Temporini, H. and Haase, W. (eds.). Aufstieg und Nie-
dergang der römischen Welt. Berlin 1972–98.
BCHP Finkel, I. and Van der Spek, R. J. Babylonian Chronicles of
the Hellenistic Period. Prepublished at www.livius.org/
babylonia.html.
 Abbreviations xxiii

Bl. Blänsdorf, J. Fragmenta poetarum latinorum epicorum et

lyricorum praeter Ennium et Lucilium. Stuttgart and
Leipzig 1995.
BM British Museum Catalogue. London.
BNJ Worthington, I. Brill’s New Jacoby: The Fragments of the
Greek Historians. At www.brillsnewjacoby.com.
CA Powell, I. U. Collectanea Alexandrina. Oxford 1925.
CAF Kock, T. Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta. 3 vols. Leip-
zig 1880–8.
CEG Hansen, P. A. Carmina Epigraphica Graeca. 2 vols. Berlin
1983, 1989.
CG Catalogue général du Musée de Caire. Cairo.
CGFP Austin, C. Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta in Papyris
reperta. Berlin 1973.
CID Corpus Inscriptionum Delphicarum. Paris 1977–.
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlin 1853–.
Cr Cribiore, R. Writing, Teachers, and Students in Graeco-
Roman Egypt. Atlanta 1996.
Cu. Cunningham, I. C. Herodae Mimiambi, cum Appendice
Fragmentorum Mimorum Papyraceorum. Leipzig 1987.
DK Diels, H. and Kranz, W. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker.
6th edition. Berlin 1952.
EGF Davies, M. Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta. Göttingen
1988.
EK Edelstein, L. and Kidd, I. G. Posidonius I: The Fragments.
Cambridge 1972.
FGE Page, D. L. Further Greek Epigrams. Cambridge 1981.
FGrH Jacoby, F. Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker. Ber-
lin 1922–56, Leiden 1994–. See also BNJ.
FHSG Fortenbaugh, W. W., Huby, P., Sharples, R., and Gutas,
D. Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his Life, Writings,
Thought, and Influence. 2 vols. Leiden 1992.
GLP Page, D. L. Select Papyri: Literary Papyri. Cambridge, MA
1941.
GP Gow, A. S. F. and Page, D. L. Hellenistic Epigrams. 2 vols.
Cambridge 1965.
GPh Gow, A. S. F. and Page, D. L. The Garland of Philip.
2 vols. Cambridge 1968.
GS Gow, A. S. F. and Scholfield, A. F. Nicander, The Poems
and Poetical Fragments. Cambridge 1953.
GSHE Irby-Massie, G. I. and Keyser, P. T. Greek Science of the
Hellenistic Era: A Sourcebook. London.
ID Inscriptions de Délos. Paris 1926–37.
IEG West, M. L. Iambi et Elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum can-
tati. 2nd edition. Oxford 1992.
IG Inscriptiones Graecae. Berlin 1873–.
xxiv Abbreviations

IKyme Engelmann, H. Die Inschriften von Kyme. Bonn 1976.

IMEG Bernand, É. Inscriptions métriques de l’Égypte gréco-ro-
maine. Paris 1969.
KA Kassel, R. and Austin, C. Poetae Comici Graeci. Berlin
1983–.
Loeb Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA.
Lom. Lomiento, L. Cercidas, testimonia et fragmenta. Rome
1993.
LP Lobel, E. and Page, D. L. Poetarum Lesbiorum fragmenta.
2nd edition. Oxford 1963.
LSCG Sokolowski, F. Lois sacrées des cités grecques. Paris 1962.
MP3 Mertens, P. and Pack, R. A. Catalogue des papyrus litté-
raires grecs et latins. 3rd edition. Prepublished at
http://promethee.philo.ulg.ac.be/cedopal/index.htm.
MW Merkelbach, R. and West, M. L. Fragmenta Hesiodea.
Oxford 1969.
OCT Oxford Classical Texts. Oxford.
OLD Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford 1982.
PCG see KA
PEG Bernabé, A. Poetae Epici Graeci. Part 1. Stuttgart and
Leipzig 1996.
Pf. Pfeiffer, R. Callimachus. 2 vols. Oxford 1949, 1953.
PMG Page, D. L. Poetae Melici Graeci. Oxford 1962.
PMGF Davies, M. Poetarum Melicorum Graecorum fragmenta.
Oxford 1991.
Powell see CA
RE Pauly, A. von, Wissowa, G. and Kroll, W. Realencyclopädie
der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Stuttgart 1893–
1980.
ROL Warmington, E. H. Remains of Old Latin. 4 vols. Cam-
bridge, MA 1932.
SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. Amsterdam
1923–.
SH Lloyd-Jones, H. and Parsons, P. Supplementum Hellenis-
ticum. Berlin 1983.
SIG3 Dittenberger, W. Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum. 3rd
edition. Leipzig 1915–24.
Sk. Skutsch, O. The Annals of Quintus Ennius. Oxford 1985.
SLG Page, D. L. Supplementum Lyricis Graecis. Oxford 1974.
SSH Lloyd-Jones, H. Supplementum Supplementi Hellenistici.
Berlin 2005.
SVF Arnim, H. von Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta. Berlin.
TrGF Snell, B., Radt, S. L. and Kannicht R. Tragicorum Grae-
corum Fragmenta. Göttingen 1971–2004.
 Abbreviations xxv

Papyri
P.Col.Zen. Papyri from the Zenon archive in the collection of
Columbia University, New York
P.Egerton Papyri of the Egerton collection in the British Museum,
London
P.Heid. Papyri in the collection of the University of Heidelberg
P.Herc. Papyri found in Herculaneum, Italy
P.Hibeh Papyri found in el-Hibeh, Egypt
P.Köln Papyri in the collection of the University of Cologne
P.Lond.Lit. Greek literary papyri in the collection of the British Mu-
seum, London
P.Mich. Papyri in the collection of the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor
P.Mil.Vogl. Papyri in the collection of the Università degli Studi,
Milan, initially edited by A. Vogliano
P.Oxy. Papyri found in Oxyrrhynchus, Egypt, kept in the Bod-
leian Library, Oxford
P.Par. Papyri in the collection of the Musée du Louvre, Paris
 CHAPTER ONE

Introduction
James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

Under Alexander and his successors, new Greek civic centers arose throughout the
Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia, and the political structure of the oikoumenē,
the ‘‘inhabited world,’’ changed drastically, as the competition between poleis and
regional leagues became subordinated to a competition between imperial states ruled
by Greco-Macedonian kings. Once a balance of power had been reached, these rulers
turned toward the project of transforming their courts and capitals into fully
Hellenized centers, replicating the traditional Greek city for those living in diaspora
and showcasing their power and refinement to the world, eager to prove their right to
represent and manage Hellenic culture. Local elites followed suit, for very similar
reasons.
In their eagerness to establish Greekness abroad, the Hellenistic rulers and cities
could be said to have created a sort of virtual reality whereby all could have the
experience of living, if not in Greece, at least in an idea of Greece. Alexander led the
way toward the creation of this Virtual Greece when he paid his respects at Troy on
his way to do battle with the Persians. He self-consciously assumed the role of a new
Achilles, heralding a return to an age of heroes (Erskine). In its modern use, virtual
reality involves interaction with a computer-simulated environment. The Hellenistic
Virtual Greece was a political game played by way of creative postures and literary
illusions. In the film The Matrix, the world was in fact a post-holocaust wasteland but
people experienced reality through a computer program (the Matrix) that created
what human minds, based on past experience, were conditioned to perceive as normal
lives. Hellenistic Greekness is likewise a construct, mindset, or concept, based on a
past presented as common and cultural traditions perceived as shared. Yet the
Hellenistic world crucially differs from the world of The Matrix in that Hellenized
minds were not disconnected from the Real. Although reality was sometimes literally
a desert, it was metaphorically far from that. The citizens of Virtual Greece were in
the end still denizens of Egypt, Asia Minor, or Mesopotamia, regions with their own
history, literature, and culture, their own economic and social infrastructures, their
2 James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

own religions and ideologies of kingship. Although the impact of these realities on
Hellenistic literature and culture is not always obvious, it should not be ignored
(Stephens).
In their patronage of the arts and sciences, Hellenistic kings were following in the
tradition of tyrants such as Polycrates and Pisistratus. Their courts supported gener-
ations of intellectuals who studied and rescripted traditional literature and knowledge
in a competitive environment that fostered innovation (Strootman). Their achieve-
ments provided entertainment for the new elites at customary venues, such as festivals
and the symposium, only this time situated in multicultural enclaves far from Hellas.
Here all ‘‘friends of the king’’ jockeyed for attention and influence, whether they
were poets or soldiers, diplomats or astronomers, philosophers or administrators.
Regardless of pursuits, all were courtiers first. Alexandria even went so far as to vie
with Athens as an intellectual center, creating the massive Library and think-tank
Museum in imitation of Aristotle’s Lyceum, and asserting its cultural affinity with
Athens by giving prominence to tragic performances and applying the name Eleusis
to the quarter that housed its principal cult site of Demeter. The famous anecdote
about a Ptolemy relinquishing the huge deposit paid for original copies of the plays of
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides likewise hints at the transference of cultural
prestige from Athens to Alexandria (Stephens).
The importance attached to literature by the highest strata of society, local no less
than royal, is reflected in education (Wissmann). In support of Virtual Greece,
gymnasia sprouted throughout the Hellenic oikoumenē. They played a critical role
in the education of the young, promulgating traditional concepts considered central
to Greek culture, not in the last place through poems such as the Homeric epics.
A substantial number of school texts from locations throughout Egypt provide a
sense of the average curriculum. More can be gleaned from the many references to
education in Hellenistic literature, which sketch a picture of the schooling not just of
ordinary children but also of mythological figures such as Heracles, the ultimate icon
of Greekness. These testify to a general interest in the practice of education, which in
this period became increasingly formalized and professionalized, assuming the gen-
eral shape it was to retain until well into the Byzantine period.
The literary work that stands out as quintessentially Hellenistic and that dominated
the literary discussion in its day and beyond was Callimachus’ Aetia, which, as fate
would have it, survives only in random citations, translations, and papyrus scraps
(Harder). Featured in this (paradoxically) playful and scholarly elegiac poem of four
books is a non-continuous and impressionistic history of Hellas from Minos to
Berenice through ‘‘origins’’ (aitia), making of Ptolemaic Alexandria the culmination
of Greek advancement, the obvious model for Ovid’s future Metamorphoses. The
apparent seamlessness of the transition from Greek to Macedonian cultural hege-
mony represents perhaps the greatest illusion of its time.
The primacy of the Aetia is also to some extent an illusion, one which is actively and
openly propagated by its poet. Modern critics sometimes create the impression that
Callimachus’ poetry created a kind of Copernican revolution, establishing a new
poetics which caused a radical paradigm shift and obliterated ‘‘old-fashioned’’ types of
poetry. It is perhaps more accurate to say that Callimachus identified and appropriated
the poetic spirit of his time. It is not at all obvious, for example, with whom or what
 Introduction 3

he is actually polemicizing at the start of the Aetia and elsewhere, and many of the
tropes and features which are generally considered emblematic of ‘‘Callimachean’’
poetics are already prefigured in Archaic and Classical poetry, including, indeed, its self-
consciousness and polemical stance (Acosta-Hughes). In Hellenistic poetics, tradition
and innovation are paradoxically intertwined. The themes, forms, and principles of the
poetic past are scrutinized, appropriated, and developed further, and then further, until
they become something that is at the same time daringly novel and surprisingly
familiar.
Nowhere does the figure of Callimachus loom as large as in elegy, where, due to the
Roman poets’ embracement of the Aetia as a prime model, other incarnations of the
genre were virtually eclipsed (Murray). It is telling that Quintilian in the first century
CE recommends only Callimachus and Philitas as reading for the aspiring orator and
not, for example, the fourth-century BCE innovator Antimachus or any of the earlier
elegists, such as Mimnermus or Simonides. If, however, one looks backward not from
Roman poetry but from Callimachus, one might argue that the Aetia successfully
revised the history of elegy and established itself as the new aition of a protean genre.
Elegy took many forms from Archaic times onward, and it underwent many crucial
developments in the late fifth through fourth centuries BCE due to changes to the way
poetry was produced and consumed. The demarcation between long elegiac poems
and hexameter poetry became even vaguer than before, and short elegiac poetry and
epigram melted together in the genre of literary epigram, composed for the book roll
and symposium, which included much of the thematic ground of earlier elegy.
The writing of epigrams in fact became a major literary fashion of the Hellenistic
age (Bruss). Many of these pose as genuine inscriptions, playing with the conventions
and teasing out the possibilities of poems such as commonly found on tombstones
and dedicated objects. Epigrams imagine, for example, conversations between the
deceased and passersby and suitable epitaphs for famous people. They present ordi-
nary and bizarre dedications never made, some mimicking the shape of the item
dedicated. Others, such as sympotic, erotic, or scoptic epigrams, forego the inscrip-
tional fiction entirely. Drawing their inspiration primarily from the sympotic poetry of
the past, elegy and iambos, they present imaginary symposia, fantasy love affairs, and
staged feuds. Labels and classifications, however, do not do justice to the versatility of
this genre, which offers an exceptionally large scope for experimentation and seems
infinitely capacious of ideas, motifs, and forms from other types of literature. These
brief, polymorphic poems generally demand an intensive interpretational effort from
the reader, and many remain ultimately elusive.
While the inscribed epigrams of earlier days rather straightforwardly reflect the
interests and ideology of those wealthy enough to commission such poems and the
dedications and monuments on which they were inscribed, Hellenistic literary epi-
gram, whether produced at court or in other elite circles, displays throughout a keen
interest in ordinary people and everyday life, a ‘‘realism’’ that is also manifested in
other literary genres and in the art of the period. However genuine or voyeuristic this
interest in artisans, herdsmen, and prostitutes may also be, their mimēseis in any case
functioned as a virtual alternative reality, a looking-glass image of the concerns of the
court and public life. A song from the musical Camelot captures this elite fascination
as well as any scholarly discussion:
4 James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

GUENEVERE
What do the simple folk do
To help them escape when they’re blue?
The shepherd who is ailing, the milkmaid who is glum,
The cobbler who is wailing from nailing his thumb.
When they’re beset and besieged
The folk not noblessly obliged,
However do they manage to shed their weary lot?
Oh, what do simple folk do we do not?
ARTHUR
I have been informed by those who know them well
They find relief in quite a clever way.
When they’re sorely pressed, they whistle for a spell
And whistling seems to brighten up their day.
And that’s what simple folk do,
So they say.

Although composed in a more traditional genre and on a much larger scale than
epigram, Apollonius’ epic Argonautica was no less in tune with contemporary tastes
(Köhnken). In fact, it has many points of contact with Callimachus’ Aetia, belying the
ancient biographical tradition that promulgated the story of a bitter argument
between the two poets. Like the Aetia, the Argonautica contains numerous ‘‘origins’’
and is related by a prominent narrator who relies on the Muses but also talks like a
historian. And like the Aetia, it is highly episodic but by no means disjointed, its
episodes being connected through numerous thematic links, shared intertexts (from
Homer to Pindar, Herodotus, and Euripides), cross-references, foreshadowing, and
bridging devices. Quintessentially Hellenistic is also the epic’s main hero, Jason.
Apollonius has so reduced Jason’s stature that modern scholars question his heroic
status, particularly as he appears to have been fully upstaged in the course of the poem
by a seemingly all-powerful Medea. Jason’s diminished abilities resonate, however,
with contemporary interest in realism. In reality, an average young man like Jason
cannot handle fire-breathing bulls or single-handedly kill scores of earthborn warriors.
This could only happen through the intervention of some superhuman force.
Apparently, Hellenistic audiences found such a figure more engaging than a godlike
hero, predetermined for success.
Unfortunately, apart from the Argonautica no other long narrative hexameter
poems survive from the Hellenistic era. We have titles and fragments of other epics,
but not enough to determine if Apollonius’ approach to the genre was an exception
or the rule. What do survive are short narrative poems on mythological topics which
scholars have come to call epyllia, ‘‘little epics’’ (Ambühl). Such poems typically treat
select episodes of familiar stories from novel angles, leaving out key parts of the story
to be supplemented by the readers. A number of the surviving texts focus on the
ultimate Greek hero, Heracles, in unconventional ways, presenting him in love,
childhood, disguise, or absentia. Remarkably often in Hellenistic poetry the interest
in the human side of the great mythological figures takes the form of a prequel.
Theocritus’ Heracles (Idyll 24), Callimachus’ Theseus (Hecale), and Apollonius’
Jason and Medea (Argonautica) are represented in the process of becoming the
 Introduction 5

figures celebrated in earlier literature. In this way Hellenistic literature turns literary
chronology on its head.
Hellenistic hymnal and encomiastic poems raise many thorny questions, first and
foremost regarding their context and function. While earlier praise poems, from the
Homeric Hymns to Simonides’ encomia, were first and foremost scripts to be per-
formed at some sort of public occasion, many of their Hellenistic incarnations are
more redolent of the library than the festival (Bulloch). The borders between hymn,
encomium, and epyllion are often blurred, as gods, heroes, and kings are matched up
in poems that praise but also, as in mythological epic, show their subjects’ human
side. In evidence throughout the extant corpus is a novel mixture of traditional
religious-political thought and contemporary ideologies, from Egyptian concepts of
kingship, as in Callimachus and Theocritus, to Stoic theology, as in Cleanthes.
Several of Callimachus’ hymns create the illusion of a festival, including, as it were,
their performance context within the text. Something similar happens in contempo-
rary paeans, songs for Apollo and Asclepius composed by otherwise unknown poets
(Fantuzzi). All are preserved in inscriptions which elaborately contextualize the
paeans’ lyrics, providing a key to, for example, the original performance context,
the propagandistic subtext, the authority of poet, patron, and poem, and in some
cases even the music. These texts with their tendency toward self-conscious innova-
tion, intertextuality, and self-justification suggest that even far from the courts poets
were touched by contemporary poetic trends. They also show that a tradition of sung
poetry still flourished in the sanctuaries of the Greek homeland at a time when avant-
garde poets used dactylic meters even for themes that were originally melic, creating a
sort of virtual music.
No poetic genre reflects Hellenistic writers’ interest in learning more clearly than
didactic. It therefore seems appropriate that the key representative of this genre,
Aratus’ Phaenomena, should vie with Callimachus’ Aetia for the title of the period’s
most influential poem (Volk). The Phaenomena refashions contemporary research on
astronomy and meteorology along the lines of the Works and Days, and to such an
extent that Callimachus observed about the Phaenomena that ‘‘the song and manner
are Hesiod’s.’’ As in the case of the Aetia, modern scholarship has found it difficult to
see past the poem’s Roman reception, which fogs up Aratus’ relationship to his
predecessors and sources, and his intentions in this poem. Although the
Phaenomena has been widely used as a textbook, its explicit didactic goal of teaching
farmers and sailors is clearly a conceit. Nor is the Phaenomena merely an attempt to
show that a good poet can make pleasing poetry out of any material. Rather, it is
didactic in a broad sense, providing lessons about the nature of the universe, the
divine, and the human condition – be they Stoic or more generally philosophical –
focusing on the importance of ‘‘signs’’ and their interpretation.
Much the same applies to the Theriaca and Alexipharmaca, the didactic diptych of
Nicander, who at least a generation later achieved a comparable result in reconstructing
Hesiod’s Works and Days, this time with poisonous creatures and antidotes as the
unlikely subjects (Magnelli). Here too, common laborers are the explicit beneficiaries,
but the ideal audience would consist of those who not only knew Hesiod but also
Aratus, Callimachus, Theocritus, and Apollonius well enough to appreciate Nicander’s
allusions, verbal plays, and metrical finesse. More so than in the Phaenomena, verbal
6 James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

virtuosity takes center stage, in keeping, it seems, with the underlying didactic agenda.
Nicander’s display of poetic technē mirrors his emphasis on the technicalities as
opposed to the practicalities of toxicology in these poems, which both open without
a reference to the gods but with a triumphant ‘‘easily,’’ a catch word that matches
Aratus’ ‘‘signs’’ and may suggest that, in Nicander’s worldview, human control comes
not through recognizing signs but through technē.
Theocritus’ bucolic poetry takes the creation of fictional realities even further than
other Hellenistic genres. Its humble herdsmen spend their time singing and in love in
pleasurable surroundings without pressing needs, inhabiting a fiction that belongs to
no world, mythological or real, outside the individual poems in which they appear
(Payne). While these poems have a dramatic setting, they are largely plotless: the
action revolves around the performance of songs, in which the herdsmen poets, all
highly conscious of their predecessors, identify themselves with figures such as
Daphnis or Polyphemus, creating microcosms within the poem that are somehow
related to, yet separate from, the world of the dramatic frame. There can be little
doubt that Theocritus himself appears as a fictional character in Idyll 7 under the
guise of Simichidas, which raises the question of whether the poet is also represented
in the other poems. While Callimachus and Herodas receive their inspiration in
dreams, Theocritus inserts himself as a sort of avatar into an illusory world in order
to actualize an aspect of the self that cannot be attained otherwise: he achieves the
status of a Hesiodic poet through the re-enactment of a poetic investiture overseen by
a mysterious goatherd. Ironically, only by becoming another can the poet, like his
characters, realize the self to which he aspires.
Later writers of bucolic poetry followed Theocritus’ precedent and freely inserted
themselves into fictional worlds of their own invention. Some also inserted other
historical figures, from historical predecessors, such as the poet Bion in the Epitaph
for Bion, to contemporaries, such as Augustus in Vergil’s Eclogues. Vergil’s move
proved a crucial one, as it gave rise to a tradition of bucolic poetry that creates a full-
fledged counter-image of historical reality to offer a social critique. By Vergil’s time,
however, Theocritus’ experimental poems about herdsmen had spawned a literary
genre with its own conventions and a coherent fictional world, recognizable, for
example, in Moschus and Bion. At an early point in the process of genre-formation
stand three poems preserved among the works of Theocritus: Idyll 6, ascribed to
Theocritus himself, and Idylls 8 and 9, generally considered post-Theocritean (Reed).
All three seem to be synthesizing Theocritus’ (earlier) bucolic poetry. Treating its
innovations as conventions with which to work, they codify a specific type of herds-
men’s exchange and pastoral world, and stereotype its intertextual tropes in such a
way that they become stepping-stones to a new poetics.
The Archaic iambic poet Hipponax was resurrected during the Hellenistic era, even
literally in Callimachus’ first Iamb. As was the case for other authors whose works
were appropriated as models at this time, iambographers updated Hipponactean verse
in tune with the intellectual trends and literary tastes of the day (Scodel). Most
importantly, Hellenistic iambos and its sister parody are no longer vitriolic and cruel
but relatively mild and amusing. The people lampooned are largely straw men, and
personal invective and gross obscenity have been replaced by general moral advice.
Where the Archaic iambographer presented himself as a drinker, brawler, and seducer,
 Introduction 7

the main models of his Hellenistic incarnation are philosophers such as Socrates,
Diogenes, and Pyrrho, socially marginal ‘‘wise men’’ who mock common behavior
and teach virtue and detachment – but most of all, happiness. As far as Hellenistic
iambos is still hostile and contemptuous, it is to conventional beliefs, to wealth
and power, in short, to any sort of pretension, including literary. Beyond this overall
‘‘philosophical’’ atmosphere the extant satiric-parodic texts vary widely. Boundaries
between genres, styles, and illocutionary modes are porous, and so are those between
schools of philosophy. Phoenix’s choliambs dispense lighthearted moral advice,
perhaps with a Cynic flavor. Callimachus’ learned and complex Iambi are only
loosely attached to the spirit and form of Archaic iambos, containing poems in different
meters and on non-satiric topics; in some Plato is an important model. Cercidas
introduced meliambic verse, a meter related to the dactylo-epitrite, to sing a Cynic
tune in a Doric literary dialect. Macho’s Chreiai are vulgar anecdotes with punch lines
in prosaic diction and regular iambic trimeters. The hexameters of Timon of Phlius
satirize the philosophical schools from a Skeptical perspective; those of Crates of
Thebes sell Cynicism through poetic parody (White). A mixed bag indeed.
Herodas’ Mimiambs offer another take on the iambic genre, blending iambos and
mime, with Hipponax himself showing up for Herodas’ consecration as iambic poet,
a Hesiodic theme explored by so many Hellenistic and, later, Roman poets
(Esposito). Herodas’ depiction of the lives of ordinary people, such as cobblers,
housewives, and school masters, is also typical of the period. The Mimiambs’ unpre-
tentious subject matter and seemingly realistic dialogue led some earlier critics to
evaluate them as popular poetry or even, with a Marxist twist, as an indictment of the
elitist literature of the court. Yet the simplicity of these poems is deceptive. Just like
Theocritus’ hexameter ‘‘urban mimes’’ (Idylls 2, 14, and 15), they address an audi-
ence equipped to appreciate complex allusions and philological games, and they
likewise seem to support a Ptolemaic cultural agenda. They are, in fact, far removed
from the anonymous ‘‘popular’’ mimes which were performed by traveling troops
throughout Hellenistic Egypt. These, as fragmentary scripts and related documents
testify, drew their effect from various combinations of scripted dialogue, impro-
visation, music, song, and dance. Although the Mimiambs too may have been
performed in some manner and context, Herodas clearly had attentive readers in
mind as well.
The passage of time was not kind to Hellenistic drama, but Menander’s comedies
were so ubiquitous in Greco-Roman Egypt that many chunks and scraps survived in
the dry sands, to resurface only in recent years. We have one virtually complete play
(Dyskolos) as well as large parts of a handful of others from which to get a good sense
of what was happening on the comic stage. To this we can add the surviving Roman
adaptations by Plautus and Terence, although their evidence should be handled with
care. Throughout the Hellenic oikoumenē, rulers and civic elites embraced drama to
advertise their allegiance to Greek culture in general and Athenian culture in particu-
lar – for despite the rise of an international theatre industry and professional theatrical
guilds, drama retained its special connection with Athens and drama produced in
Athens enjoyed a broad appeal. What makes this remarkable in the case of Menander
is that his comedies, complex five-act marriage plots, are centered around problems
which are highly specific to life in the Athenian polis with its exclusive citizenship laws
8 James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

(Lape). Why, one might ask, would a Syracusan living in Alexandria want to see the
travails of a young Athenian in love? One reason is surely that citizenship was an issue
of intense interest to the mixed populations of the Hellenistic kingdoms, and that
Menander’s plays, although they are ultimately faithful to the tenets of Athenian civic
identity – legitimacy, nativity, and freedom – also kick against them by constantly
exploring the relationship between character and birth. But we may be dealing with a
more generic issue as well. Asking why Menander’s comedy appealed to a non-
Athenian audience is like asking why modern audiences across the world like west-
erns, police dramas, and martial arts flicks. What these genres have in common is that
they offer audiences who are not Athenian citizens, cowboys, police officers, or kung
fu masters a fictional world with clearly defined parameters and conventions as a
counter-image of their own reality. In this respect, the worlds of Menander and
bucolic have something in common.
Hellenistic tragedy is almost entirely covered in darkness. We know that mytho-
logical dramas continued to be produced, and that there were historical tragedies as
well as satyr-plays, but little more (Sens). What might the plays written by members of
the so-called Pleiad, the most important dramatists of the time, have looked like?
Would we encounter the mixing and blending of genres, Homeric glosses, and intru-
sion of contemporary issues observed elsewhere? To judge from the names of tra-
gedians we know, which include the scholarly poets Alexander Aetolus, Lycophron,
Philicus, and Sositheus, and from the evidence for actual texts, it would appear that like
so many genres, tragedy came to Alexandria through the rabbit hole. In Sositheus’
Daphnis or Lityerses, Daphnis, searching the world for the nymph he loved, found her
as a slave at the court of the Phrygian king Lityerses, who required strangers to engage
in a contest of reaping and killed them when he won; the play ended with Heracles
decapitating Lityerses and returning the nymph to her lover. The main hero is a bucolic
icon, the outcome that of a Euripidean tragedy, while the overall plot recalls satyr-play,
epic, and the later novel. Whatever this play was, it was just as remarkable as the two
best preserved Hellenistic ‘‘tragedies,’’ Ezekiel’s Exagoge, which dramatizes the story
of Exodus (Gruen), and Lycophron’s Alexandra (Sens). Lycophron’s curious piece
consists entirely of what represented only one scene of a typical tragedy, the messenger
speech. In almost 1,500 lines, a messenger reports to King Priam an oracular utterance
by Alexandra (i.e., Cassandra, the sister of Alexander/Paris), the prophet whom no one
believed, couched in mystifying neologisms and recherché kennings. Cassandra’s
words provide an account of the Trojan cycle, but in such a way that the original
audience would have required the equivalent of a PhD to understand their meaning.
For the doctus lector able to decrypt it, the Alexandra explores the interrelationship
between epic and tragedy, the historical conflict between East and West culminating in
the rise of Rome, and last but not least the very hermeneutic effort required to access
Hellenistic poetry’s manifold levels of signification, ‘‘winding and traversing, ponder-
ing with wise mind, the obscure path of riddles’’ (lines 9–11). Such pondering
presupposes reading, and it is indeed hard to imagine any audience decyphering the
entire Alexandra in performance.
Whereas for poetry we possess a substantial number of key texts by key authors in
their original form, the situation is radically different for prose. The three centuries
after the death of Alexander are unquestionably important in intellectual history,
 Introduction 9

showing crucial developments in fields such as philosophy, literary criticism, oratory,

mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. Yet our evidence for these developments is
almost entirely indirect. With some notable exceptions (such as the Histories of
Polybius and technical works) we are able to access the prose literature of the period
only through its reception, through discussions, summaries, and the occasional
quotation in the works of later authors, writing in Latin as often as in Greek. Such
testimonies and fragments allow us to say something – and sometimes even a lot –
about the content of texts, but they rarely tell us much about the text as a text. For
this reason Hellenistic prose tends to fill relatively few pages in literary histories.
Rhetoric and its most immediate application, oratory, are cases in point. Formal
speeches doubtless played an important role in law, politics, and display within and
among courts and cities. Yet not a single speech, whether forensic, epideictic, or
diplomatic, survives: nearly all our information about Hellenistic speech-writing
comes from authors such as Cicero and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who were active
at the very end of our period and favored the orators of the fourth century over
Hellenistic styles (Cuypers). For theoretical thinking about language use and text
composition – usually covered under rhetoric and literary criticism – we rely on
largely the same set of authors, but with one crucial addition. Thanks to modern
imaging techniques and new editions, we are increasingly able to interpret the
carbonized papyrus texts of early first century BCE works by Philodemus of Gadara,
found at Herculaneum. In addition to providing insight in Hellenistic theoretical
discussions we previously knew little about, they show that many strands of criticism
which were once thought to be peculiar to later writers in fact perpetuate centuries-
old discussions (Gutzwiller). Philodemus treats fundamental questions regarding the
function of literature, the nature of the poetic, the relationship between poetry’s
subject matter, language, style, and thought, and how to judge a literary work; he
also discusses the so-called euphonist critics, who prioritized the sound of poetry over
all other aspects, and allegorical approaches, which emphasized poetry’s hidden
lessons.
As an author of works on phenomenology, theology, ethics, rhetoric, music,
poetry, and the history of philosophy, Philodemus also illustrates the breadth of the
territory covered by philosophia after Aristotle and the interconnectedness of the fields
within it (White). Of the three basic spheres of Hellenistic philosophy, physics dealt
with the natural world as a whole, encompassing not only cosmology, theology, and
metaphysics, but also, for example, biology, geology, and meteorology. Ethics cov-
ered all aspects of human conduct and therefore studied not only character and values
but also the organization of cities and empires and the responsibilities of leaders and
intellectuals. Logic went beyond formal logic and epistemology to include grammar,
rhetoric, and literary criticism. Many who bore the label philosopher ranged even
wider: Philodemus wrote poetry and was a historian (of philosophy at least); others
were, for example, mathematicians. Although there are differences between first-
century Rome and third-century Alexandria, there can be little doubt that in
Callimachus’ time philosophy, rhetoric, and literary criticism were as strongly inter-
connected, as established within Hellenic paideia, and as relevant to poetry produc-
tion as they were in Philodemus’ time. On the impact of these interrelated spheres on
Hellenistic poetry much work remains to be done.
10 James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

As for philosophical literature in the narrower sense, all that survives intact of the
colossal production of Hellenistic Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics, and
Academics are three letters by Epicurus and collected excerpts from his writings;
short poems (notably Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus); some pseudepigrapha preserved
under the names of Plato, Aristotle, and others; and a few documents such as wills
(White). For everything else we rely on the testimony of authors such as Cicero,
Lucretius, and Sextus Empiricus. In the many forms philosophical literature took, a
feature that stands out is the prominence of the persona and voice of the philosopher
himself, engaged in communication in genres such as dialogues, biographies, anec-
dotes, and letters; this phenomenon may be usefully compared to trends in contem-
porary poetry and historiography. As in the case of oratory, the close of the era saw a
renewed interest in the originary texts of the discipline. Unlike Hellenistic oratory,
however, Hellenistic philosophy was not obliterated by this development but
remained the basis for interaction with the works of Classical authors such as Plato
and Aristotle for a long time to come.
It is a tenet that philosophers increasingly led what we would call an academic life,
devoted to study and reflection. Yet they could and did wield influence. As intellectual
icons of their community they could be paraded, for example, on diplomatic missions
(Erskine), and they instructed the future political and intellectual elite. Just as
Aristotle had taught Alexander, his successor Demetrius of Phalerum, after governing
Athens for Cassander, became a tutor to the Ptolemies, whose Museum, as we saw,
was modeled upon the Lyceum. At Alexandria and elsewhere, philosophers partici-
pated in the intellectual competition and complex politics of the court just like all
other courtiers, be they poets or generals.
Ironically, the area of Hellenistic prose where most texts are extant also happens to
be the one least accessible to most students of Greek literature. Scientific writing,
even if it could be classified under philosophy, was somewhat separate back then as it
is now. It addressed an audience of specialists through concise verbal explanation with
visual illustration, using formal conventions which are surprisingly similar across
disciplines (Cuypers). Substantially preserved (occasionally in Arabic translation) are
works on mathematics, optics, astronomy, and mechanics by over a dozen authors,
including key figures such as Euclid and Archimedes. As in the case of poets and
philosophers, the biographical tradition often insists that these men were primarily
motivated by intellectual challenges per se and regarded real-world applications with
disdain; but although there are indeed important similarities in spirit between science
and contemporary poetry, it is a fact that the mechanical treatises of Biton and Philo
describe war machines and artillery – also the area where Archimedes proved his
worth to Hiero of Syracuse – and that Apollonius of Citium, the author of the only
extant medical treatise of the era, criticizes his predecessors precisely for their lack of
hands-on experience. Scientists too had patrons and were expected to make them-
selves useful.
In historiography the only text to survive (though not completely) is Polybius’
Histories, which forms an island in the sea of fragments that leads from the fourth
century BCE to Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the late first (Gowing). Features of
some pre-Polybian histories can be gleaned from Polybius’ criticism of them, even
if, as in the case of Callimachus’ Aetia prologue, we should perhaps be slightly wary
 Introduction 11

of Polybius’ insistence that the ‘‘dramatic’’ and ‘‘universal’’ histories of his pre-
decessors were much inferior to his own Thucydidean ‘‘pragmatic’’ history. Not
only do veridical polemics come with the territory, many of Polybius’ predecessors
also worked in a different tradition, which privileged romantic storytelling, exoti-
cism, and wonder. This tradition can be traced from Herodotus through fourth-
century authors such as Theopompus and Ctesias to various ill-demarcated
literary categories of the Hellenistic period, including paradoxography, utopia,
biography, and local history, in which history and myth, fact and fiction, Greek
and non-Greek were closely interwoven (Whitmarsh). There were, for example,
countless local historians who wrote about the peoples, places, and events associated
with their own towns and regions in stories and histories, putting them on the
cultural map of the Hellenic oikoumenē. Local lore and wonders likewise occupy a
prominent place in poems such as Callimachus’ Aetia and Apollonius’ Argonautica,
both of which also include their share of eros. The exploits of Alexander the
Great, first recorded by ‘‘serious’’ historians whose works we can now only glimpse
through Diodorus, Plutarch, and Arrian, also gave rise to many tales of wonder, as
preserved in the Alexander Romance. Although there is no straight road from
Hellenistic literature to the erotic-exotic novels of Imperial times, it is clear that in
this period a crucial development occurred. Various Hellenistic innovations in what
we would call prose fiction are the products of genuine cross-cultural hybridity,
fusing Greek, Egyptian, and Western Asian elements into something recognizably
new.
This cross-cultural dialogue goes far beyond prose fiction. Although Greek became
the lingua franca in all lands under Greco-Macedonian rule, this did not imply that
indigenous elites were simply ‘‘assimilated’’ or that the Hellenic elite was ignorant of
local cultural traditions. Literature continued to be written in Egyptian, Akkadian,
and Aramaic. Some genres remained exactly as they were, others underwent more or
less substantial developments, but few disappeared completely. When indigenous
elites adopted the Greek language and Greek literary forms, it was often not so much
to demonstrate their Greekness but for self-presentation to a broad audience. Jewish
writers penned dramas, epics, ktisis tales, histories, letters, and dialogues, and through
these insinuated themselves brilliantly into Greek cultural history and reached out to
an increasingly Greek-speaking Jewish population in diaspora (Gruen). A similar ploy
can be seen in the Alexander Romance, in its origin a product of Ptolemaic Egypt,
where Nectanebo, the last pharaoh of Egypt, goes to the court of Philip II and
impregnates Olympias with Alexander, persuading her that she would be sleeping
with Amun. Accordingly, Alexander and his successors could be seen as the natural
successors of indigenous rulers (Dieleman and Moyer). The strategy is also employed
in the Babyloniaca, written by Bel-re’-ushu (Berossus). In this historical work, the
Seleucids were portrayed as the final stage in the succession of empires stretching back
to Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar (Knippschild). Much like the
Aegyptiaca of the Egyptian priest Manetho, Berossus’ work was not a straightforward
imitation of Greek historiography but to some extent adhered to indigenous con-
ventions of form; and with respect to their message both works cut both ways,
flattering not only the rulers but also the ruled, whose cultural pride was clearly very
much intact.
12 James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

While Greeks had dealt with the peoples of Western Asia and Egypt for centuries,
Rome was a new power which established itself on the Mediterranean stage in a
relatively short time in the third century and proceeded to swallow up the Hellenistic
kingdoms at a swift pace. Apart from being unfamiliar to the Greeks and being the
ruler instead of ruled, the Romans also did not have a long and distinguished literary
history, even if they had a strong and distinct cultural tradition. For all these reasons
the interaction between Greeks and Romans was fundamentally different.
Greek historiography provides us with a fascinating view of how the Greek attitude
toward the Romans shifted over time (Gowing). For Polybius, writing in the second
century, the Romans were still the Other who had recently gained an empire, for
which reason it was necessary to explain to Greeks who they were and how they had
become so successful. In the later writings of Polyhistor, Posidonius, and Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, we see the perspective gradually change as Roman hegemony
becomes more and more a fact of life and a new symbiosis develops between the
Roman elite and the Greek intellectuals streaming into Rome: not an uneasy pact
between conqueror and conquered, but a relationship of mutual interest and respect.
In time, Dionysius would go so far as to see the Romans as honorary Greeks, which is
not so startling a thought when one considers the extent to which Roman writers,
thinkers, and artists absorbed Hellenic culture.
This should not, however, be taken to imply that Roman literature simply took
over Greek concepts, forms, and styles; rather, it assimilated them, individuating
itself from Hellenistic literature with great success. This process of assimilation
and individuation culminated in the first century but began as early as the third. In
their adaptation of Greek poetic genres, Roman authors managed to maintain their
own voice from the start. Enough survives of the earliest Roman epics by Livius
Andronicus, Naevius, and Ennius to demonstrate a keen awareness of Hellenistic
sensitivities (Clauss). With respect to their learnedness, playfulness, and self-
consciousness these poems might have been at home in Alexandria; yet in their
content and ethics they are unmistakably Roman. The contemporary comedies of
Plautus, which are both firmly connected to and significantly different from
Hellenistic comedy, allow a similar analysis.
Historians almost universally let the Hellenistic period end in 31/30 BCE , the years
of the Battle of Actium, the fall of Alexandria, and the death of Cleopatra, after which
Augustus ruled, effectively with sole power, over much of the area once dominated by
Alexander and his successors. It was also shortly after Actium that Dionysius of
Halicarnassus arrived in Rome, an event that provides an appropriate book-end to a
chapter in literary history whose beginning was marked by the deaths of Aristotle and
Demosthenes. The city in which Dionysius arrived must have looked to him very
much like a Hellenistic metropolis. It was filled with Greek sculptures and paintings,
peripteral temples in foreign marble instead of the local stone, public buildings and
porticos faced with Corinthian columns and ornate entablatures. Intellectuals from all
over the oikoumenē flocked to the Seven Hills to give displays of their erudition. In
the decades that followed Actium, Rome came to resemble a Hellenistic city even
more, and Alexandria in particular, as intellectual life blossomed and construction
boomed. Among other allusions to Alexander’s great city, Augustus built a magnifi-
cent mausoleum in imitation of the great Macedonian general’s tomb, in front of
 Introduction 13

which stood two obelisks. He also commissioned a monumental Horologium whose

gnomon was another obelisk, and to his home he added a temple to Apollo and
libraries, an obvious nod to the Alexandrian Library and Museum. It seems fitting,
therefore, that Medieval and Renaissance Europe would become acquainted with
Hellenistic literature primarily through Rome. While the Roman poets, rhetors,
philosophers, and historians of the early Empire went their own way, they indirectly
preserved much of the Hellenistic literary tradition of which they were the immediate
heirs. Due to the vagaries of history, many of their works survived while the
Hellenistic texts did not. Our direct knowledge of these texts has begun to grow
significantly only since the nineteenth century, thanks to finds such as the
Herculaneum scrolls, the Archimedes palimpsest, and most of all, of course, the
numerous literary papyri that have emerged from the sands of Egypt, with the
‘‘New Posidippus’’ as the most spectacular recent example. It is to be hoped that
such finds will continue to increase our understanding of Hellenistic literature in the
future.

FURTHER READING
Hellenistic literature often fares poorly in histories of Greek literature, most of which explicitly
or implicitly offer a rise-and-fall narrative that privileges the Classical period and sees the
Hellenistic period as a time of decline. The almost complete loss of much of the period’s prose
literature makes it even easier to give it short shrift. Kassel 1987 is an informative survey of the
demarcation and evaluation of the Hellenistic period in literary histories from Vossius to
modern times, which foregrounds the rehabilitation of Hellenistic poetry, if not of
Hellenistic literature at large, at the end of the nineteenth century, the time of the first major
papyrus finds. Kassel rightly singles out the contribution of the vehemently anti-Classicistic
Wilamowitz, directly through publications (see notably 1912, 1924) and indirectly through his
students. Tellingly, the Hellenistic section of Schmid and Stählin’s revision of Christ’s
Geschichte der griechischen Literatur grew to 506 pages in the fifth edition of 1911, then to
662 in the sixth edition of 1920. This work, which remains the most comprehensive survey of
Hellenistic literature to date, posits a cultural break at 146 BCE between ‘‘the creative period of
Hellenistic literature’’ and ‘‘the period of the transition to Classicism,’’ which it lets end around
100 CE – an analysis challenged by various chapters in this Companion.
An accessible book-length introduction to Hellenistic literature is Gutzwiller 2007a, which
inevitably focuses on poetry but includes substantial discussions of prose that survives in its
original form (Polybius, technical treatises). Almost half of the volume is devoted to analytic
discussions of topics such as historical context, learning, book culture, aesthetics, and the critical
impulse in literature and art. Recent bite-sized introductions are Hunter 2003b and Krevans and
Sens 2006, both largely restricted to poetry. Substantial discussions of Hellenistic literature in
broader literary histories include Lesky 1971 (German) and 1966: 642–806 (English); Dihle
1991 (German) and 1994: 231–311 (English); Saı̈d 1997: 277–402 (French; a radically abbre-
viated English version in Saı̈d and Trédé 1999: 93–118). Schmitt and Vogt 2005 includes
substantial entries on all major Hellenistic authors and genres.
Recent surveys of Hellenistic poetry in particular include Bulloch 1985, Hutchinson 1988,
Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004, and Manakidou and Spanoudakis 2008 (in Greek). Influential older
14 James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers

surveys are Couat 1882 (English version 1931), Susemihl 1891–2, Legrand 1924, Wilamowitz
1924, and Körte 1925 (English version 1929; revised as Körte and Händel 1960). Fowler
1990 anthologizes Hellenistic poetry in English translation; Hopkinson 1988, in the original
Greek.
PART ONE

Contexts
 CHAPTER TWO

From Alexander to Augustus

Andrew Erskine

For a Greek at the time of Alexander’s accession in 336 BCE the Persian Empire was
part of the very structure of the world, a superpower whose territory stretched from
Asia Minor to Bactria, or in modern terms from Turkey to Afghanistan. Under the
Achaemenid dynasty it had dominated the East for almost two centuries and had long
stirred the imagination of Greek observers. Yet, within a few years it would have
ceased to exist, defeated by a young Macedonian king who would himself take the
place of the Great King. Alexander’s empire, however, would not have the longevity
of its predecessor. When he died in Babylon in 323, he left no viable heir to hold these
diverse territories together; instead his death inaugurated several decades of war
between members of the Macedonian elite, who shaped kingdoms for themselves
out of parts of Alexander’s empire.
This chapter is concerned to offer some sense of the historical context in which
Hellenistic literature was produced. The fundamental shift from the Classical period is
the appearance of powerful Greco-Macedonian kings with vast territories and enor-
mous wealth. These kings resonate throughout the chapter. After briefly examining
the emergence of the Hellenistic kingdoms, I move on to explore three key themes
which have particular relevance to our understanding of literature in this transformed
world: first, the relationship between royal power and literary culture (discussed in
more detail by Stephens and Strootman in this volume), then the place of the polis in
this world after Alexander, and finally the impact of Rome.

After Alexander
Alexander’s death left a vast empire without an obvious ruler. The kingship was initially
shared between his infant son, Alexander IV, and his allegedly mentally disabled half-
brother, Philip Arrhidaeus, neither of whom were in a position to rule. Nor was there
Map 2.1. The Hellenistic Kingdoms (c. 240 BCE ).
 From Alexander to Augustus 19

anyone who ruled undisputed on their behalf. Instead Alexander’s generals seem to
have tried to carry on as before, administering the empire, allocating governorships,
minting Alexander’s coins and putting down the revolt in Greece. They were in all
likelihood also planning their individual strategies for the future, but whatever plans
they may have had, they affected support for the empire and the two kings. Even so, in
the turbulent years that followed Alexander’s death the casualty rate was high.
Antipater, Craterus, and Perdiccas must number amongst the political and military
heavyweights at the end of Alexander’s reign but none made effective use of the new
situation and all were dead within four years of Alexander’s own death, the result of old
age, battle, and mutiny respectively. Eumenes, who had been victorious over Craterus,
went on to achieve significant success despite being Greek rather than Macedonian,
until he himself succumbed to Antigonus Monopthalmus. Polyperchon, entrusted
with Alexander IV and Philip Arrhidaeus by Antipater, failed to follow up this advan-
tage and was soon bettered by Antipater’s son Cassander. Kingship did not save Philip
Arrhidaeus and his wife Eurydice, who met their end at the hands of Philip’s step-
mother Olympias. She in turn was executed by Cassander.
Few would have predicted that within fifteen years of Alexander’s death the leading
figures in this Macedonian Empire would have been Antigonus, Cassander, Ptolemy,
Lysimachus, and Seleucus. Even Alexander IV was no more, secretly executed by
Cassander before he came of age and thus called into question Cassander’s position
as ruler of Macedon. Ptolemy had laid claim to the governorship of Egypt when the
satrapies were distributed after Alexander’s death and had defended it against any
assault, such as the invasion in which Perdiccas lost his life; similarly Lysimachus had
taken over Thrace. While not foregoing expansionist adventures, both men concen-
trated on strengthening their positions in their acquired possessions. Seleucus had a
more difficult time establishing himself as governor of Babylon; toppled by Antigonus,
he was only reinstated with the assistance of Ptolemy. The dominant figure in the latter
part of the fourth century, however, was Antigonus, whose ambition, it is believed, was
to reunite the empire under his sole rule. Constantly at war and controlling Asia Minor
and at times central Asia too, he prompted his rivals to unite against him on several
occasions, decisively so at the Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia in 301, where he died on the
battlefield and his son Demetrius Poliorcetes fled.
Significantly, even after the murder of Alexander IV none of these warlords hurried
to claim the title of king. Indeed so strong was the need to maintain some form of
belief in the existence of a unified Macedonian Empire that Alexander IV’s regnal
years continued to be used for dating purposes in both Babylon and Egypt until 306/
5, several years after his death. In 306 Antigonus, perhaps predictably, was the first
to claim the royal title for himself, but his rivals soon followed suit. This marked the
end of any pretense that Alexander’s empire still existed, and opened the way for
the development of separate kingdoms and their accompanying royal ideologies.
Becoming a king, however, did not entail founding a dynasty. That required taking
suitable care of the succession, something both Cassander and Lysimachus failed to
do. On Cassander’s death in 297, his sons fought it out in a civil war in which their
mother, Philip II’s daughter Thessalonice, was a victim. Neither son gained the
kingdom, which was seized and soon lost by Demetrius. Lysimachus, on the other
hand, made the mistake of executing his eldest son so it was already a weakened
20 Andrew Erskine

kingdom that he left behind him when he was killed in battle against Seleucus at
Corupedium in 281.
Such instability in the northern regions of Macedon and Thrace created the
conditions for one of the events fundamental in shaping the worldview of the third-
century Greek. Early in the 270s groups of Celts, usually called Galatians by the
Greeks, broke through Macedon and so exposed the vulnerability of the Greek world.
They succeeded in reaching as far south as the great sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, an
opportunity for divine intervention and a heroic defense by the Aetolians. Some,
going through Thrace across into Asia Minor, eventually settled in the area that
would come to be known as Galatia, and became a constant irritant for neighboring
Greeks. For the Greeks of the time this was their equivalent of the Persian invasion,
complete with its own Battle of Thermopylae (279). When Antigonus Gonatas, son
of Demetrius and grandson of Antigonus Monopthalmus, defeated some 15,000
Celts at Lysimacheia on the Thracian side of the Hellespont in 277, he was hailed as
Savior (Soter) for a victory that helped to establish him as king of Macedon (Mitchell
2003). Finally, the Antigonids had won a kingdom that they would keep, at least until
the arrival of the Romans.
Of these kingdoms, therefore, three key dynasties survived to be significant forces
throughout the third century. The Ptolemies were based in Egypt, although at
various times their power extended to Cyprus and into the Aegean Sea; the
Seleucids established themselves in Syria and Babylonia and thus took over the heart
of the old Persian Empire; and the Antigonids came to rule Macedon itself and to
exert considerable influence over mainland Greece. Powerful Greco-Macedonian
families thus ruled the East, but this was no mere change in political superstructure.
Macedonian rule brought new Greek foundations and a Greek immigrant population
to go with them. Most prominent amongst these new cities was Alexandria in Egypt,
but there were many others, such as Antioch on the Orontes in Syria or Seleuceia on
the Tigris not far from Babylon. There were even Greek cities as far east as Bactria,
as the excavations at Ai-Khanoum demonstrate (Holt 1999). The relationship
between the new and the old populations is one of the major questions of
Hellenistic scholarship. Kings with large multi-ethnic populations took care to appeal
beyond the Greek and Macedonian core to other ethnic groups; thus, for example,
Antiochus I takes on the guise of a native king at Babylon, while in Egypt portraits of
the Ptolemies could depict the king either within a Greek tradition or in the manner
of an Egyptian pharaoh (Kuhrt and Sherwin-White 1991; Walker and Higgs 2001:
40–5). Where scholarship previously considered Alexandria to be emphatically Greek,
archaeology is now showing that visually the city was far more complex than this, and
that the Ptolemies themselves appear to have promoted Egyptian and Egyptian-
influenced architecture and sculpture within the city as well as Greek (Ashton 2004;
McKenzie 2003; Stephens in this volume).
These kings were to hold sway over the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond for
more than a hundred years, the only challenges to their rule coming from each other.
In the West, however, Rome’s victories over Carthage in the first two Punic Wars
(264–241 and 218–201) revealed a new and dynamic military power. Within ten
years, at the beginning of the second century, two major Hellenistic dynasties, the
Antigonids and the Seleucids, were defeated by Roman legions, making Greeks aware
 From Alexander to Augustus 21

of the emergence of a new world order. By the middle of the century the Antigonid
dynasty was no more. The Seleucids remained a significant power in Asia for much of
the second century, but with the loss of Babylonia to the Parthians their dynasty was
considerably weakened, and in 64 BCE it was finally laid to rest by Pompey. Caught up
in the Roman civil wars, the last of the original successor kingdoms ended with the
suicide of Cleopatra in 30 BCE , the year frequently designated by scholars as the end
not only of the Ptolemaic dynasty but also of the Hellenistic Age.

The Dagger and the Iliad

Within a year of Alexander’s accession a rumor reached Thebes that the new
Macedonian king had died in battle. The Theban response was to revolt; only when
Alexander and his army were a few hours from the city did the Thebans learn the
unfortunate truth. After their revolt was crushed, the city was razed to the ground
and the population sold into slavery, an example to any who might consider resisting
Alexander’s authority in the future. There was, however, a striking exception to the
general destruction. The house of the poet Pindar was to be left intact and his
descendants were to be exempted from the fate of their fellow citizens (Arr. An.
1.7–9; Plu. Alex. 12). This combination of violence and literary sensibility was to be a
continuing feature of the Hellenistic world. Alexander was a man who slept, so it was
said, with two objects under his pillow, a dagger and a copy of Homer’s Iliad, the
latter considered by him to be a manual of the art of war. Indeed, when he had to
choose his most precious possession to place in a valuable casket seized from Darius, it
was the Iliad that he selected (Plu. Alex. 8, 26).
By 334 Alexander had asserted his control over Macedon and the Greek mainland.
Any rivals for the Macedonian throne were dead, Thebes was a ruin, and Alexander was
ready for the crossing to Asia. The manner of the crossing is telling. On the European
side of the Hellespont Alexander paid his respects at the sanctuary of the hero
Protesilaus, the first man ashore in the campaign against Troy. In doing this he recalled
the heroic age while also contrasting his own religious observance with the earlier
Persian desecration of the shrine (Hdt. 7.33, 9.116–20). Landing in the Troad at the
so-called harbor of the Achaeans, Alexander is said to have been the first to leap from
the ships before going on to lay claim to the territory with the throw of a spear (D.S.
17.17; Arr. An. 1.11.5; Stewart 1993: 78). Imitation here blurs the boundaries
between history and myth, literature and life.
This evocation of the Iliad and the age of heroes is further reinforced by a visit to
Troy. Many stories circulated about this visit: he paid homage to the tomb of Achilles
while his close friend Hephaestion did likewise at the tomb of Patroclus; he viewed
relics from the Trojan War in the temple of Athena and exchanged his own armor for
some of the weapons on display there, including a shield which was later carried
before him into battle; and he sacrificed to Priam at the altar of Zeus Herceius, where
his ancestor Neoptolemus had killed the Trojan king. Throughout his career
Alexander created an image of himself as an epic hero, a new Achilles. He is said to
have been nicknamed ‘‘Achilles’’ as a child by his tutor, to have lamented that there
22 Andrew Erskine

was no Homer to celebrate his deeds, to have mourned Hephaestion as Achilles

mourned Patroclus. Such stories may be the result of later elaboration but they are
based on an image that Alexander himself was projecting during his lifetime. For
Alexander, a powerful leader with a large army of followers, operating outside the
structure of the polis, the analogy with the Homeric hero was especially appealing and
appropriate. The influence of this idea is seen in the way that Hellenistic kings are
later depicted in the heroic manner, beardless and sometimes nude. Alexander was
not only leading a campaign against the Persians, he was also leading a return to the
age of heroes (Plu. Alex. 15, Arr. An. 1.11–12; Erskine 2001: 227–30).
Alexander’s journey across Asia to the river Indus can be portrayed as a drunken
orgy of killing and destruction, yet quality reading material was a necessary accom-
paniment. Even in the furthest reaches of Asia Alexander did not forget his Greek
literature, and he is reported to have dispatched an instruction to Harpalus to send
him some books. He received, writes Plutarch, the histories of Philistus, tragedies by
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and poetry by Telestes and Philoxenus (Alex. 8;
Brown 1967). Such a request highlights the barbarian, non-Greek setting he now
found himself in and serves to repudiate those who wished to insinuate that the
Macedonians were not proper Greeks (Dem. Phil. 3.31–2; Badian 1982).
It is indicative of the political and social changes brought about by Alexander that in
the third century BCE the largest collection of Greek books in the ancient world was to
be found not in mainland Greece, housed in a famed city of culture such as Athens, but
in Egypt (Stephens and Gruen in this volume). Nor was this the collection of some
intellectual or philosopher but rather of a military commander who had accompanied
Alexander on his campaign and participated in the bloody warfare along the Indus.
Ptolemy, son of Lagus, who converted his governorship of Egypt into a kingship and
himself into Ptolemy Soter, took note of Alexander’s lesson on the need for Greek
literature in barbarian lands and used his newly acquired power to lay the foundations
for the Library and Museum of Alexandria. Ptolemy’s literary aspirations were such
that not only did he collect books, he also wrote his own, namely an account of
Alexander’s campaigns, since lost but a major source for Arrian’s history of Alexander.
The Museum and the Library were complementary institutions, the former a
community of scholars, the latter a collection of books. They can be viewed from
two perspectives, both as part of the history of literature, scholarship, and science,
and also within the context of the goals and ideology of the Ptolemaic monarchy and
court. The first perspective would emphasize the names of those who worked there
(Euclid, Callimachus, Eratosthenes), the range of disciplines (literature, medicine,
mathematics, astronomy), and especially the innovative literary activity, whether that
be the writing of poetry or the editing of classic texts such as those of Homer and the
Athenian dramatists. The two institutions were, however, the creation of the
Ptolemaic kings and operated in a monarchic framework, the physical manifestation
of which was their location within the palace complex. The patronage of writers and
intellectuals was not new among rulers, not even among Macedonians; Archelaus, the
fifth-century Macedonian king, had played host to Euripides and Philip II had
employed Aristotle as tutor to Alexander. But this Ptolemaic venture was on an
unprecedented scale, so much so that it was in effect something quite different: this
was institutional patronage that continued from generation to generation.
 From Alexander to Augustus 23

The Ptolemies no doubt did seek the kudos that comes from patronage just as their
predecessors had, but they were also driven by their own particular situation. They and
their Greek and Macedonian subjects were far from their homeland; in Egypt they were
effectively on the periphery of the Greek world. By gathering together and taking
control of Greek literature and scholarship in this way the Ptolemies assert that they are
part of that Greek world, both to themselves and to others. Indeed they are staking an
ambitious claim to be its cultural center, one that mirrors and reinforces their claim to
political leadership in the Greek world. In this capacity they presented a gymnasium
and library to the city of Athens, a gift from the new cultural capital of Greece to the old
(Paus. 1.17.2; Habicht 1992). Later the upstart Attalids would signal their arrival as
major players in Hellenistic international relations by imitating the Ptolemies. They set
up a rival library and they too acted as benefactors to Athens, sponsoring the construc-
tion of the Stoas of Attalus and Eumenes (Erskine 1995; Nagy 1998).
Not all kings went so far as to institutionalize patronage in this way but Greek
intellectuals and literary men were a feature of courts throughout the Hellenistic
world, their presence a statement of common Greek culture (Strootman in this
volume). The court of mid-third-century Macedon under the lengthy rule of
Antigonus Gonatas is well represented in our somewhat scattered and anecdotal
evidence. Power, wealth and importantly stability brought many leading figures here.
There were at various times philosophers such as Menedemus of Eretria, the Stoic
Persaeus, and the Cynic-inspired Bion of Borysthenes, and poets such as Aratus, whose
Phaenomena was said to have been written at Antigonus’ request, and the now obscure
Antagoras of Rhodes (Vita Arati 15; for philosophers, Erskine 1990). Antagoras, the
author of an epic Thebaid, is the subject of a revealing anecdote recorded by Athenaeus
(8.340f). When Antigonus finds Antagoras cooking conger eels, he asks him whether
Homer would have ever written the Iliad celebrating Agamemnon if he had spent all
his time cooking conger eels. Antagoras replies that Agamemnon would never have
done those famous deeds if he had spent his time nosing around to see who was
cooking eels in his camp. A similar informality is evident in another story, this time
from the court of Antiochus III, the Seleucid warrior king, face battle-scarred and teeth
missing. Antiochus and his court are taking turns to dance in arms; the historian
Hegesianax of Alexandria Troas asks permission to substitute a reading of his poetry
for dancing and is rewarded for his poetic eulogy of the king with the status of king’s
friend or philos (Ath. 4.155b; Ma 1999: 226). Here in both the Antigonid and Seleucid
courts we can observe the recurring Hellenistic interplay between war and literature,
the dagger and the Iliad, on the one hand the violence that brought about and
maintained the kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean, on the other hand the com-
mon Greek culture that bound them together.

The Place of the Polis

Kings and their courts tend to be highlighted as distinctive features of the Hellenistic
world, while the polis, the city-state, is downplayed. Indeed it has often been claimed
that the polis died with Demosthenes in 322 or even earlier with Philip’s victory at
24 Andrew Erskine

Chaeronea in 338. Increasingly, however, scholarship has been showing that this view
will not stand up to examination; it reflects the common prioritizing and idealization
of the Classical period in contrast to the ‘‘debased’’ Hellenistic period that followed.
Advocates of the death of the polis have argued that with the rise of the kings, the polis
was no longer the independent entity it had once been. Yet, was it ever? It is primarily
the focus on Athens that leads anyone to suppose that independence should be
treated as a defining characteristic of the polis. Many cities may have found their
freedom constrained by the new monarchies, but many too had suffered similar
restrictions in earlier centuries when faced with the power of Athens or Sparta.
What is less evident in the Hellenistic period is the presence of hegemonic poleis of
this latter sort. Instead poleis are often found organized in federations, the most
prominent of which were the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues in Greece.
If we direct our attention towards the thousands of published inscriptions from the
cities of the Hellenistic world, a different picture emerges. What we see here is the
tremendous vitality of civic life in this period. Assemblies and councils are passing
decrees, honoring the city’s benefactors (euergetai), organizing festivals, producing
regulations for local education and the gymnasium, receiving and responding to
letters from kings, arranging embassies to kings and to other cities near and far.
Much of this is as before. Even local wars continue, often over land and boundaries.
What is new, at least in its pervasiveness, is the emergence of the king and the
powerful citizen benefactor as significant influences on civic life, their status reflected
in honorary decrees. The king, transformed into the object of cult, could even
become part of the religious structure of the city.
Far from the death of the polis one might even see its reinvigoration as kings,
following the example of Alexander, set about founding new cities and in this way
simultaneously affirmed their power and their Greek identity. Seleucus I was reputed
to have been especially fond of founding cities (App. Syr. 57, trans. White 1899):

He built cities throughout the entire length of his dominions and named sixteen of them
Antioch after his father, five Laodicea after his mother, nine after himself, and four after
his wives, that is, three Apamea and one Stratonicea. Of these the two most renowned at
the present time are the two Seleuceias, one on the sea and the other on the river Tigris,
Laodicea in Phoenicia, Antioch under Mount Lebanon, and Apamea in Syria. To the
others he gave names from Greece or Macedonia, or from his own exploits, or in honor
of Alexander; whence it comes to pass that in Syria and among the barbarous regions of
upper Asia many of the towns bear Greek and Macedonian names, such as Berrhoea,
Edessa, Perinthus, Maronea, Callipolis, Achaea, Pella, Oropus, Amphipolis, Arethusa,
Astacus, Tegea, Chalcis, Larissa, Heraea, and Apollonia; in Parthia also Sotera, Calliope,
Charis, Hecatompylos, Achaea; in India Alexandropolis; among the Scythians an
Alexandreschata. From the victories of Seleucus come the names of Nicephorium in
Mesopotamia and of Nicopolis in Armenia very near Cappadocia.

There is, no doubt, some exaggeration here, but even if Seleucus founded only a
quarter of these it is clear that he attached considerable importance to the polis.
Furthermore, the names themselves are revealing about the post-Alexander world.
Where Alexander monotonously founded cities bearing his own name, Seleucus is
thinking dynastically. It is not the name of Seleucus alone that is being stamped across
 From Alexander to Augustus 25

his empire but those of his relatives as well, both male and female; thus the dynasty
and the land they control become one. The other theme that emerges from the
nomenclature of the cities is nostalgia for the homeland, as Greece and Macedon are
built anew in the East. This phenomenon recalls the Ptolemies’ desire to lay claim to
their Greek heritage through their library.
Polis status became something to aspire to and the king was the person who could
make it happen. There is a fascinating letter from the Attalid king Eumenes II to a
community in Phrygia, dating from the first half of second century, in which he grants
the inhabitants’ request that their community become a polis. The letter was subse-
quently inscribed as public confirmation of their new status. We see too what might
be required for such an elevation. They had requested, writes Eumenes, that ‘‘a polis
constitution be granted to [them], and [their] own laws, and a gymnasium, and as
many things as consistent with those’’ (Jonnes and Ricl 1997; Bagnall and Derow
2004: no. 43). The Phrygian community in this text is not only becoming a polis, it is
also becoming visibly Greek. The almost contemporary case of Jerusalem, however,
shows that taking on the trappings of Greekness might not come without tension in
the community; in the Jewish accounts of the controversial high-priesthood of Jason
it is the gymnasium which symbolizes the Greek way of life (1 Macc. 1.10–15,
2 Macc. 4.9–19).
Greekness may always have been a fairly flexible notion, as the fluctuating perception
of the ethnic identity of the Macedonians demonstrates, but from the fourth century
onwards there seems an increasing willingness for peoples who would most naturally be
seen as non-Greek to represent themselves in Greek terms and even to claim Greek
identity. The Lycians, for instance, were a non-Greek people from Asia Minor with
their own language, funeral practices, and religious customs, but more and more they
borrowed from their Greek neighbors until in the Hellenistic period Lycian public
inscriptions are in Greek (Bryce 1986: 42–54, 214–15). In the late third century the
Lycian city of Xanthus is visited by an embassy from Cytinium on the Greek mainland
seeking funds for the reconstruction of their city-walls. The ambassadors in a learned
speech full of complex genealogical arguments show how the Xanthians and the
Cytinians are kin, with a shared ancestry that can be traced back to heroic times. The
speech clearly excited the interest of the Xanthians, who proudly inscribed a summary
of it, proof that they were part of the community of Greeks (Bousquet 1988; Erskine
2005: 126–7). Further east in Asia Minor, something similar was happening: cities in
Pamphylia and Cilicia, such as Aspendos, Soloi, and Mallos, were turning themselves
into Greeks with an Argive past (Scheer 2003: 226–31). Greekness could be further
affirmed by participation in one of the Panhellenic festivals that flourished in the
Hellenistic period, not only the old festivals at Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia, or Nemea
but newly created ones, such as the festival of Artemis Leucophryene, established at
Magnesia-on-the-Meander in the late third century, or that of Athena Nicephorus at
Pergamum, which achieved Panhellenic status in 182 under Eumenes II (Rigsby 1996:
179–85, 363–6).
Within this broad community of Greeks, cities also had a very strong sense of civic
identity; on the one hand they looked to what they shared with other Greeks, on the
other they emphasized and prided themselves on their distinctiveness. This is appar-
ent from the number of local histories that are known to have been written, although
26 Andrew Erskine

their parochial nature did little for their chances of survival. This pride in the
community and its past comes out clearly in the opening of a verse inscription from
Halicarnassus, which takes the form of a question addressed to Aphrodite: ‘‘What is it
that brings honor to Halicarnassus?’’ Aphrodite then answers, first with an account of
the gods and heroes that had had some part in the early history of the area, then with
the city’s poets and historians, among whom Herodotus is prominent. The section on
gods and heroes is especially interesting; it illustrates how each city, while sharing in
the common Greek mythology, had its own distinctive version. The names and
characters are familiar, but their activities and contexts are not: Zeus is born in
Halicarnassus, Hermaphroditus is the inventor of lawful marriage, Bellerophon and
Endymion are somehow involved in the foundation of the city. All these stories are
unique to this inscription and to Halicarnassus (Isager 1998; Lloyd-Jones 1999).
This inscription may honor the city itself but far more common are decrees that
honor rich citizens who have acted as civic euergetai, ‘‘benefactors,’’ for instance by
going on an embassy or assisting in a grain shortage. This culture of elite benefaction
has become known as euergetism. Especially important among this group of citizens
are those who act as intermediaries between the city and the king and who may be
numbered among the philoi, ‘‘friends,’’ of the king, as Hegesianax of Alexandria
Troas was a philos of Antiochus III. This proximity to the power of the king confers
great prestige on the individual within his home community. An early example is an
Athenian inscription of 283/2, which honors the comic poet Philippides, a philos of
Lysimachus. Philippides’ interventions with the king on behalf of Athens are traced
over a period of circa fifteen years. He requests successfully that Lysimachus release
those Athenians who had fought on the Antigonid side at Ipsus, he obtains gifts of
grain from the king and support for the Panathenaic festival, and he wins assurances
of help after the city has won its freedom from Demetrius Poliorcetes in 287.
Philippides’ services to the city are not limited to soliciting these favors from the
king in which the king himself is the chief benefactor. Philippides is clearly a very rich
man and repeatedly used his wealth on behalf of the city. In addition to paying the
cost of the burial of the Athenian dead at Ipsus and providing money for the
repatriation of survivors, he spent a considerable amount on contests and sacrifices
in Athens. Noticeably absent from the inscription is any explicit reference to his
successful career as a dramatist, although it is alluded to by the decision to crown
him during the Great Dionysia and to place a bronze statue of him in the theatre
(SIG 3 374; Bagnall and Derow 2004: no. 13; Plu. Dem. 12). It is the great power of
the Hellenistic monarchs, operating outside civic structures, that gives rise to men
like Philippides and Hegesianax, men whose lives and influence cross between the city
and the court, the one reinforcing the other.

The Impact of Rome

Where Greeks of the fourth century had grown up with the Persian Empire as a fact of
political life, their late third-century descendants grew up with the Hellenistic kings.
For the Achaean historian Polybius what needed explaining was the rise of Rome and
 From Alexander to Augustus 27

the collapse of the political world his contemporaries had known, a world which until
Rome appeared must have looked unlikely to change. This was the subject of his
history, clearly stated at the beginning (1.1.4–5):

For the very unexpectedness of the events about which I have chosen to write is enough
to challenge and provoke everyone, old and young, to read my history. For who is so
petty or apathetic that they would not wish to know how and by what sort of govern-
ment in less than 53 years almost the whole inhabited world was subjugated and brought
under the sole rule of the Romans, the like of which has never happened before.

Polybius’ 53 years begin with the 140th Olympiad (220–216), during which he
believes the history of Italy and Libya merged with that of Greece and Asia; the
period concludes with the end of the Macedonian Kingdom following Rome’s defeat
of Perseus at the Battle of Pydna in 168, after which point all must obey Roman
orders (Plb. 1.3, 3.4). The transformation was that much more unexpected because
in 220 all three main dynasties could be seen as recently revitalized by the accession of
young kings, at least two of whom were impressively dynamic: Philip V, who at the
beginning of his reign was felt to promise so much for Greece, and Antiochus III,
who would spend the next 30 years systematically reclaiming the vast empire of his
ancestor Seleucus I. But two decisive battles, Cynoscephalae in 197 and Magnesia in
189, put an end to the ambitions of each of these two kings in turn and left them
paying war indemnities to Rome.
Polybius’ claim that by 168 the whole world was subject to Rome might seem
questionable; Rome did not, for example, maintain occupying forces in Greece after
the dissolution of the Macedonian monarchy. For Polybius, however, it was not
garrisons or taxes that defined power, but the capacity to enforce obedience
(Derow 1979). This was a capacity that Rome had, as was dramatically illustrated in
the same year by its response to Antiochus IV’s invasion of Egypt. A single and abrupt
instruction from the Roman legate, C. Popillius Laenas, was sufficient to force
Antiochus to abandon his invasion and withdraw; famously he drew a circle round
Antiochus and told the king he could not leave it until he had given him a decision
(Plb. 29.27).
The Attalids of Pergamum, longstanding Roman allies in the East, had been early
beneficiaries of these radical changes. A third-century break-away from the Seleucid
Kingdom, they took advantage of the weakening of their Antigonid and Seleucid
neighbors to establish themselves as a major power in Asia Minor. They publicized
themselves as saviors of the Greeks against the troublesome Celts of central Asia
Minor. Their palace complex on the acropolis of Pergamum became an advertisement
for Attalid political and cultural aspirations. Here they embarked upon an elaborate
building program, the construction of the Great Altar with its lavish and distinctive
sculptural decoration, and the establishment of a library. Again the complex character
of Hellenistic kingship is evident as Attalids look not only to a Greek heritage but also
to an Anatolian one, laying claim to the leadership in the Greek world but also
rooting themselves in Asia (Kuttner 2005). The end of the Macedonian Kingdom
in 168 brought the Attalids to even greater prominence in the East but also strained
their relationship with Rome. When the last of the dynasty, Attalus III, died
28 Andrew Erskine

prematurely in 133, he left his kingdom to Rome in his will. It is a reflection of the
changing nature of Roman involvement in the East that rather than installing a new
ruler the Romans took control themselves and the kingdom became the Roman
province of Asia. Whether this development took place fairly quickly or at a leisurely
pace is a matter of debate among scholars, whose differences here reflect broader
differences on the character of Roman imperialism.
The second century saw a gradual transformation of the East as Roman control
deepened. Initially Rome had announced itself as the liberator of Greece with a
celebrated proclamation at the Isthmian Games near Corinth in 196, but by the
end of the century Macedon and Asia had Roman governors and were paying tax to
Rome. An ill-considered assertion of independence by the Achaean League in the
140s led to the destruction of Corinth by the Roman consul L. Mummius, the choice
of city starkly symbolic of the end of Greek freedom. Yet Roman control could still be
shaken, as Mithridates was to show in the following century, when he seized first Asia
Minor then mainland Greece in a campaign that revealed the fragility of Roman rule
and also the hostility felt towards Rome by some Greeks. The notorious massacres of
Romans and Italians that took place in Asia Minor at this time could only have
happened with the participation of Greeks there (App. Mith. 22–3). Sulla’s destruc-
tive siege of Athens in 86 during the First Mithridatic War marked a striking contrast
to Ptolemaic and Attalid patronage of the city (Hoff 1997).
Rome’s increasing influence in the East is matched by a corresponding increase in
the presence of intellectuals and literary figures in Rome. Initially they tended to
come to Rome as ambassadors. Hegesianax of Alexandria Troas, the historian and
friend of Antiochus III, was in Rome in the 190s to negotiate an alliance on behalf of
the Seleucid king; Crates of Mallos, the Cilician city which used Argive ancestry to
affirm its Greek identity, visited Rome on behalf of Attalus II, reputedly breaking his
leg and thus being forced to remain in the city and give lectures; and in 155 there was
the famous Athenian embassy, led by the heads of the three philosophical schools,
although it was the disturbing skepticism of the Academic Carneades that most
engaged the Romans rather than the embassy itself (Suet. de Gram. et Rhet. 2; Plu.
Cato Ma. 22; Pliny NH 7.112–13). Not all came to Rome so willingly. Polybius
himself was among 1,000 hostages from the Achaean League and spent more than 15
years there until allowed to leave in 150 BCE . While in Rome he became a friend of the
Scipio family, a relationship that might echo those between prominent Greek citizens
and the kings, but now it is one between a Greek and a single powerful family. Even in
the mid-second century Polybius is commenting on the large number of learned men
coming to Rome (31.24), something that was to become even more common in the
next century. Greeks such as these are frequently found associated with a leading
Roman, whether in Rome or elsewhere. Thus the philosopher Panaetius of Rhodes is
associated with Scipio Aemilianus, the poet Archias from Antioch with L. Licinius
Lucullus, and the Mytilenian politician and historian Theophanes with Pompey
(Erskine 1990: 211–14; Gold 1987: 71–107).
This movement towards Rome can be explained by a number of factors. There is
the condition of the Hellenistic kingdoms, deceased or in decline; thus of the two
great sponsors of Greek culture, the Attalids bequeath themselves to Rome in 133
and the Ptolemaic tradition of cultural sponsorship never recovers from Ptolemy VIII
 From Alexander to Augustus 29

Euergetes II’s expulsion of Alexandria’s leading intellectuals and scholars in the later
140s. One can also point to the widespread disruption caused by the Mithridatic
Wars, not least the sack of Athens; again some came voluntarily looking for patronage
while others such as the poet Parthenius and the scholar Tyrannio came as prisoners.
Above all, however, there is the simple pull of Roman power (Rawson 1985: 14–18).
The Hellenistic period began with a single monarch whose kingdom encompassed
the eastern Mediterranean and beyond as far as Afghanistan, but Alexander’s empire
was soon fragmented into smaller kingdoms. When these met defeat at the hands of a
city-state from the West, the focus of power moved from the eastern part of the
Mediterranean to its center. Sole rule, however, was not to be so easily put to one
side. The period ends with the re-establishment of a single ruler, as Augustus emerges
victorious from Rome’s civil wars in 31 BCE . Senatorial government is replaced by an
emperor, and the Hellenic world has to adapt yet again.

FURTHER READING

Shipley 2000 offers the best recent single-author introduction to the Hellenistic world and can
be supplemented by the essays in Erskine 2003 and Bugh 2006. In addition there are Walbank
1992 (a succinct survey), Green 1990 (readable and distinctive), Will 1979–82 (political
history), Préaux 1978 (a more thematic approach), and the chapters in vol. 7.1 of the
Cambridge Ancient History (2nd edition, 1984). All students of the Hellenistic world should
also consult Rostovtzeff’s 1941 classic. Translated source material, including inscriptions and
papyri, is conveniently collected in Austin 2006, Bagnall and Derow 2004, Burstein 1985, and
Sherk 1984.
The early wars of the successors are treated by Bosworth 2002, while the dominating figure,
Antigonus, is the subject of biographies by Billows 1990 and Wehrli 1968. On Lysimachus, see
Lund 1992 with Delev 2000; on Seleucus, Mehl 1986 and Grainger 1990, with Austin 2003
and Sherwin-White and Kuhrt 1993 on the Seleucid dynasty; Ptolemy I is best approached
through the studies of the Ptolemies by Hölbl 2001 and Huss 2001; for the various rulers of
Macedon, Hammond and Walbank 1988 and Errington 1990. On the Attalids Hansen 1971 is
now rather dated but still the fullest account; it should be supplemented by Koester 1998,
Gruen 2000, Kosmetatou 2003 and Kuttner 2005. On the nature of Hellenistic kingship,
Austin 1986, Koenen 1993, Ma 2003; for the complexity of court life, Ogden 1999 and
Herman 1997.
On the character of the Hellenistic polis, see Shipley and Hansen 2006, Billows 2003, Ma
1999, Gruen 1993, Gauthier 1993; Giovannini 1993 is an excellent study of the relationships
between cities. The essential study of the practice of civic euergetism is Gauthier 1985. Much of
the material for ruler cult is collected in Habicht 1970, which should be read together with
later studies by Chaniotis 2003 and Price 1984. On warfare, both between kings and as it
affected cities, Chaniotis 2004.
For Roman conquest of the Greek world, see in particular Gruen 1984 and Derow 1989,
2003. Holleaux 1921 has been fundamental to the way the debate over the Roman conquest of
the East has developed (for his thesis in English, volumes 7 and 8 of the first edition of the
Cambridge Ancient History, 1928) and is now revived by Eckstein 2008 in terms of inter-
national systems realism. For the cultural interaction between Greece and Rome, see Ferrary
1988, Gruen 1990 and 1992, with Erskine 2001 on the Trojan myth in Rome.
 CHAPTER THREE

Literature and the Kings

Rolf Strootman

Although literature also thrived in the poleis (Hunter 2003b: 477–9), the most
successful writers were drawn to the major centers of power. Most of the key
Hellenistic texts that survive today were written at the royal courts, under the
patronage of kings, queens, and powerful courtiers. Discussions of this backdrop
(including the present one) tend to focus on poetry, but it is important to emphasize
that poets stayed at court in the company of philosophers, historians, geographers,
astronomers, botanists, technicians, physicians, sculptors, and painters. As royal
patronage of art and science is most successful in times of economic and political
stability (De Bruijn, Idema, and Van Oostrom 1986), it is unsurprising that art and
science flourished notably at the Alexandrian court under the first three Ptolemies
and to a lesser degree at the Seleucid and Antigonid courts of the same age. Third-
century Alexandria did not become the unrivaled center of art and learning because of
the Ptolemies’ greater wealth, as is commonly thought. With an annual revenue of
15,000–20,000 talents of silver from taxes alone (Aperghis 2004: 251), the Seleucids
in their heyday presumably were richer. Rather, it was the stability of Alexandria as an
imperial center that gave the Ptolemies a crucial advantage over their main rivals, the
Seleucids, whose court was peripatetic and traveled between several capitals through-
out their vast empire.
This chapter focuses on the position and function of literature at the royal courts of
the Hellenistic kingdoms, starting with a brief outline of the court culture, in which
Achaemenid, Macedonian, and Greek traditions came together and developed into a
new phenomenon which, transmitted to Western Europe via the Roman Empire, left
its imprint on the courts of the Renaissance and the Ancien Régime. We will then
look at the position of men of letters within the court society and look at the reasons
why they aspired to become courtiers, and, conversely, why kings attracted them to
their courts. It is my contention that their position did not fundamentally differ from
that of the ‘‘regular’’ courtiers, who commanded the king’s armies and fleets,
administered the empire’s revenues or served as diplomats. I will also argue that
 Literature and the Kings 31

Hellenistic court patronage in general was characterized by an atmosphere of experi-

ment and innovation. Originality was a requirement of the court, which may have
been an ivory tower of sorts but not one which produced ‘‘art for art’s sake.’’

The Hellenistic Royal Court

The court culture of the three great Hellenistic dynasties – Seleucids, Ptolemies, and
Antigonids – was strikingly similar, due to intermarriage, diplomatic contact, com-
petition, and a shared Macedonian background. The royal court was essentially the
oikos, ‘‘household,’’ of the royal family, and is often referred to as such in the sources.
Another common designation is aulē, ‘‘court,’’ derived from the fact that the
architectural center of the Hellenistic palace was an open courtyard surrounded by
andrōnes, banqueting rooms (Nielsen 1994). However, in ancient historiography and
documentary evidence the royal court is usually defined as the people surrounding
the king, with terms like ‘‘retinue’’ (therapeia), ‘‘the people of the court’’ (hoi peri tēn
aulēn), and notably ‘‘the friends of the king’’ (hoi philoi tou basileōs); in fact, philos,
‘‘friend,’’ may be regarded as the technical term for courtier in the Hellenistic age.
The philoi constituted a status group that shared in the power and prestige of the
king. They were neither servants nor officials, but free men who were bound to the
king by philia, a form of ritualized friendship between individuals with traits of fictive
kinship. They were drawn to the courts by xenia (or philoxenia), a ritualized friend-
ship between families usually translated as ‘‘guest-friendship.’’ From Archaic times
onward, xenia networks constituted supranational, ‘‘horizontal’’ elite structures,
linking together families of approximately equal social status but of separate social
units, i.e., of different poleis (Herman 1987). Gift exchange, a fundamental aspect of
philia and xenia, was central to social relations at court. The Hellenistic courts were
imbued with competition for favor, power, and status, and were frequently torn apart
by faction strife and dynastic infighting.
The friends of the king were for the most part Greeks and Macedonians (Habicht
1958), although Hellenized non-Greeks also sometimes turn up in the role of
‘‘favorites’’ (Strootman 2007: 172–8) or as lesser officials (Sherwin-White and
Kuhrt 1993: 121–5). They came from a wide range of cities, often from beyond
the empires’ borders, making the court a kind of ‘‘cosmopolis’’ (Herman 1997: 208).
Through family ties and their own xenia networks, philoi maintained bonds with their
cities of origin, where they promoted the interests of the monarchy; conversely, they
promoted the interests of their families, friends, and cities at court. The philoi served
the king as military commanders, diplomats, administrators, and so on. They were
rewarded for their services with favors, privileges, estates and other material gifts, and
status. From Macedonian and Achaemenid antecedents an increasingly elaborate
system of court titles developed, first at the Seleucid and soon after also at the
Ptolemaic court. This court titulature included honorific titles such as Relative of
the King or Most Honored Friend, and more functional titles like Major-Domo,
Chamberlain, and Master of the Hunt. They reflected the hierarchy among the
courtiers, particularly the degree to which a courtier had access to the king. Men
32 Rolf Strootman

who had served together with the reigning king as Royal Pages (basilikoi paides, sons
of aristocrats) received the title of Foster-Brother (suntrophos) of the King, and were
addressed by the king as ‘‘brother.’’ In the early Hellenistic Age kings presumably
were able to control the social composition of their courts to a large extent; from the
second half of the third century, however, it became increasingly more difficult for
kings to remove courtiers from important positions and replace them by others
(Strootman forthcoming b). It is generally assumed that in the second century the
court system, notably in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, became more rigid, with a heredi-
tary court aristocracy at the top and professional administrators at the lower levels of
the hierarchy.

Court Culture and the Arts

Royal patronage of the arts was a Macedonian tradition predating the Hellenistic Age.
Already at the end of the fifth century, the philhellene Macedonian king Archelaus
had been the host of the tragedians Euripides and Agathon, and the painter Zeuxis.
Philip II and Alexander had also earned themselves a reputation as magnanimous
patrons. Cultural patronage by rulers is in fact an almost universal phenomenon.
Historians of early modern Europe have long recognized that during the Renaissance
and Ancien Régime royal patronage guided the emergence of modern science and art
(Lytle and Orgel 1981; Kent, Simons, and Eade 1987; Moran 1991b; Biagioli 1993;
Griffin 1996). For Renaissance rulers, this type of patronage ‘‘seemed . . . to have a
moral and political dimension and to be part of statecraft’’ (Stroup 1991: 211); or in
other words, ‘‘the practice of art patronage and art collection were obviously
regarded as activities related, but not secondary, to the exercise of power, [and] were
considered operational expenses’’ (Gardini 1986: 93). Galileo Galilei, as one historian
put it, ‘‘fixed one eye on the moons of Jupiter and the other on his patron’’ (Moran
1991a: 196). In the study of Hellenistic culture, however, the romantic modern
notion that art and science are incompatible with politics is still widespread, and it
has been common to characterize Hellenistic poetry as l’art pour l’art, ‘‘art for art’s
sake’’ (e.g., Schwinge 1986; Bulloch 1989; Green 1990; Kerkhecker 1997). This
view is now losing ground, and Hellenistic literature is more often related to the
social and cultural context in which it was produced and received, in particular
the royal court (Weber 1993; Stephens 1998, 2000, 2003). But what exactly is the
relevance of this context?
Some Hellenistic literary works obviously made a direct contribution to royal
propaganda. Explicitly laudatory texts include panegyric, paeans, epinician odes, epic,
and epigrams celebrating special events or successes of the dynasty. Philosophers
elaborated the genre of the Fürstenspiegel. Court historians recorded military cam-
paigns. Most surviving court literature, however, at first sight does not seem explicitly
concerned with kingship. How do genres such as mime, bucolic poetry, mythog-
raphy, geography, or ethnography pertain to the court? Some scholars have tried to
evade this problem by stating that Hellenistic literature, although written at court,
was not written for the court (Zanker 1983; Cameron 1995a; Kerkhecker 1997).
 Literature and the Kings 33

Others have focused on the political dimensions of explicitly encomiastic poetry

(Griffiths 1979; Mineur 1984; Gutzwiller 1992; Hunter 2003a) or tried to find
‘‘hidden’’ ideological messages, particularly references to pharaonic ideology
(Merkelbach 1981; Gelzer 1982; Koenen 1983; Bing 1988; Stephens 2002, 2003;
Noegel 2004). There is, however, more to say about the way Hellenistic literature
relates to the royal court.
First, literature was functional within the social milieu of the court. Poetry, as well as
philosophy and science, entertained courtiers and guests during symposia (Weber
1993: 165–70; Cameron 1995a: 71–103), and provided them with subjects for debate
and thus opportunities to compete. Learned allusion and suggestion prompted the
audience to ‘‘decode’’ the text (Zanker 2004), as E. A. Barber unwittingly acknowl-
edged when he despairingly exclaimed that Lycophron’s Alexandra is ‘‘one vast
riddle’’ and that even Callimachus ‘‘does not spare his audience,’’ for example when
in his elegiac Victory of Sosibius, ‘‘he refers to the victor on the strength of his Isthmian
and Nemean successes as ‘‘twice-crowned by both children, the brother of Learchus
and the infant who was suckled with Myrine’s milk.’’ A hard nut to crack without a
mythological dictionary!’’ (Barber 1928: 271; Call. fr. 384.24–6 Pf.). The virtuosity
and inventiveness of Hellenistic poetry, its preference for rare words and obscure
versions of myths, its fascination for faraway lands and the remote past – it all marks
out Hellenistic poetry as typical court poetry, written for the sake of a privileged, self-
confident, and highly educated upper class. It is not surprising that such genres as
riddle poetry, didactic poetry, and bucolic fiction matured at the courts, where court-
iers competed in learning and wit, or made fun of people of lesser standing, as in
Theocritus’ Idyll 15, which humorously portrays the rabble that is allowed into the
Alexandrian palace gardens for the royal Adonis festival. It was customary for courtiers
to discuss philosophical and literary topics during symposia (Ath. 6.211d) as if they had
as much time on their hands as the herdsmen of pastoral poetry – like Bion’s
Cleodamus, who asks: ‘‘Of spring, Myrson, and winter and autumn and summer,
which do you prefer? . . . Come, tell me . . . , as we have plenty of time for a chat’’ (fr.
2.1–8 Reed 1997).
As amusement and subject for debate, literature served a similar purpose to the
devices that Hellenistic engineers (mēchanikoi) developed for their royal patrons,
such as Ctesibius’ pneumatic organ or Hero’s robot in the shape of Heracles, which
could automatically shoot an arrow at a hissing serpent. Peter Green has called these
inventions, ‘‘a collection of elaborate mechanical toys [and] curiosities [of] complete
irrelevance’’ (1990: 478–9). But the technological principles demonstrated through
these toys could also be applied in agriculture, mining, or construction (Schürmann
1991; White 1993), and could be employed to awe the crowd during public cele-
brations. Court poetry likewise could be double-edged. It could, for instance, be
written for religious festivities connected with kingship. The poet Hermocles, an
Antigonid courtier, composed paeans in praise of Antigonus Monophthalmus before
writing the notorious ithyphallic hymn that the Athenians sang for Demetrius
Poliorcetes when he entered their city in 291 or 290 BCE (Duris FGrH 76 F 13 ¼
Ath. 6.253b–f).
Men of letters, especially scholars and philosophers, were assigned the task of
educating the children of the king together with the Royal Pages. The intellectual
34 Rolf Strootman

education of princes and pages was a principal responsibility of the head of the
Museum at Alexandria (Str. 17.1.8; P.Oxy. 1241); it was arguably the principal reason
why the Museum was founded in the first place and why the other dynasties, too,
maintained libraries in their capitals (Strootman 2007: 186; Plu. Ant. 28 and 58;
Suda s.v. ‘‘Euphorion’’; Malalas 235.18–236.1). The pages at the court of Ptolemy
Soter were educated by Strato of Lampsacus and others, and at the court of Ptolemy
Philadelphus by Philitas of Cos, Apollonius of Rhodes, and Aristarchus of Samothrace
(Delia 1996: 41–51). Antigonus II Gonatas brought the Stoic philosopher Persaeus
to his court for the same reason (D.L. 7.6–9; cf. Plu. Mor. 1043c); the philosopher
and tragedian Euphantes of Olynthus was tutor and subsequently philos of Antigonus
III Doson, to whom he dedicated a treatise On Kingship (D.L. 2.110). Furthermore,
prominent representatives of major philosophical schools – Aristotle, Zeno, Cleanthes,
and many others – wrote treatises on the art of kingship for the benefit of the king’s
children.
Another reason why rulers acted as patrons was the fact that patronage as such
added to their prestige. By accommodating poets and scholars at his court, a king met
several of the requirements for being an ideal ruler. He proved that he was hospitable,
benevolent, and generous. The accumulation of art and knowledge in the house of
the king added to his charisma. Famous writers and scholars were living status
symbols, and by patronizing such men a ruler demonstrated wisdom, learnedness,
and good taste. Better still was to write oneself. Throughout history, rulers have been
actively involved in science and literature. Princes such as Charles d’Orléans,
Süleyman the Magnificent, or Lorenzo de’ Medici were not only great patrons of
the arts, but poets of distinction themselves. In Renaissance Italy, the connection
between rulership and the arts had a theoretical basis in the ideal of the ‘‘learned
prince’’ (Eamon 1991: 32). The Hellenistic period likewise cherished this ideal.
Alexander the Great (a pupil of Aristotle) was called ‘‘a philosopher in arms’’ by a
contemporary (Onesicritus FGrH 134 F 17a ¼ Str. 15.1.64). Ptolemy Soter was
celebrated as a historian and wrote a tragedy Adonis (TGrF 1.119). Antiochus VIII
wrote didactic poetry (Pliny NH 20.264). Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Ptolemy III
Euergetes, and Philip V were epigrammatists of some renown.
Competition with rival courts constitutes a further reason. Just as kings would send
athletes and horses to Panhellenic Games, so too they competed with one another in
poetry, scholarship, and science. Plutarch says that ‘‘kings hunt for men by attracting
them with gifts and money, and then catching them’’ (Cleom. 13.5). Indeed, various
anecdotes emphasize the efforts kings made to attract famous intellectuals to their
courts, even using force if necessary (D.L. 2.115 and passim). Thus, Aristophanes of
Byzantium was reputedly locked up in Alexandria when it came out that he planned
to join the Attalid court (Vitr. 7 pr. 5–7). The intellectual and artistic competition
between courts – a phenomenon that is common to court culture throughout the
ages (Kruedener 1973: 21–2) – induced kings to look for poets and philosophers
whose work would amaze the world.
This competition to a large extent accounts for the innovative and experimental
nature of Alexandrian literature and scholarship. Poets and scholars who worked for
kings did not barter away their integrity and intellectual freedom. Kings were not
particularly keen on docile propaganda-makers. On the contrary, the court offered
 Literature and the Kings 35

opportunities to freely do and say things that public morality in the Classical polis
prohibited. The early Ptolemaic court in particular was a safe haven for intellectuals
with unorthodox, even subversive views. The philosopher Theodorus of Cyrene,
called the Blasphemer, was allegedly banished from Athens because he denied the
existence of the gods; but a later notorious ‘‘atheist,’’ Euhemerus of Messene, found
a warm welcome first at the court of Cassander and later in Alexandria (D.L. 2.102–3;
Ath. 12.611b; Cic. Tusc. 1.102). Under the protection of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the
astronomer Aristarchus of Samos formulated the unorthodox theory that the sun was
the center of the universe, even though his ideas were widely criticized on moral
grounds (D.L. 7.174). The Ptolemies likewise ignored public morality when they
enabled the physicians Herophilus and Erasistratus to perform systematic dissections
on human cadavers, which allowed them to chart the human vascular and nervous
systems, causing a revolution in medical science. The work of other courtiers was less
controversial but equally revolutionary. Protected and encouraged by kings,
Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth, Hero built a steam engine,
Euclid and Archimedes innovated mathematics. Originality was a requirement of the
court, in literature no less than in any other field.
Literature could also be more directly employed for competition. The perennial
war between rival dynasties regularly continues in poetry, particularly epigram, a
genre practiced by kings, courtiers, and ‘‘professional’’ poets alike. A straightforward
example is the votive inscription which Leonidas of Tarentum wrote for the Celtic
shields dedicated by Pyrrhus of Epirus after he had defeated Antigonus Gonatas (AP
6.130 ¼ 95 GP; cf. Plu. Pyrrh. 26.5 and Paus. 1.13.2):

τοὺс θυρεοὺс ὁ Mολοссὸс Ἰτωνίδι δωÐ ρον Ἀθάναι

Πύρροс ἀπὸ θραсέων ἐϰρέμαсεν ΓαλαταÐ ν,
πάντα τὸν Ἀντιγόνου ϰαθελὼν сτρατόν οὐ μέγα θαυÐ μα
αἰχμηταὶ ϰαὶ νυÐ ν ϰαὶ πάροс Αἰαϰίδαι.
These shields, now dedicated to Athena Itonis,
Pyrrhus the Molossian took from the fearless Celts
after defeating the entire army of Antigonus: no great wonder:
the Aeacids are valiant spear-fighters, now as in the past.

An indirect attack is contained in the notorious epigram of Timon of Phlius, in which

he ridicules the Alexandrian Museum (SH 786 ¼ Ath. 1.22d ¼ fr. 12 Di Marco
1989):

πολλοὶ μὲν βόсϰονται ἐν Αἰγύπτωι πολυϕύλωι

βιβλιαϰοὶ χαραϰιÐ ται ἀπείριτα δηριόωντεс
Μουсέων ἐν ταλάρωι.
In the thronging land of Egypt there are many who are feeding, many scribblers on
papyrus, ever ceaselessly contending, in the birdcage of the Muses.

Since Timon was an Antigonid courtier, this is surely not mere squabbling between
scholars, it has a clear political dimension. The same may be true for the end of
Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo, where the poet writes that ‘‘the Assyrian river (i.e., the
36 Rolf Strootman

Euphrates) has a broad stream but carries down much filth and refuse on its waters’’
(h. 2.108–9), which apart from its metapoetic significance, I would suggest, consti-
tutes a quip against the Seleucids.
Collecting art and knowledge at royal courts demonstrated political control
(Eamon 1991: 39; Griffin 1996: 39–44). Just as an epigram to Lorenzo de’ Medici
proclaimed that ‘‘because you know everything, you are all-powerful’’ (Eamon 1991:
32), so, too, did the efforts of Hellenistic kings to control art and science mirror their
efforts to control territory, wealth, and manpower. The accumulation of knowledge
and objects at the imperial center showed how far-reaching and all-embracing royal
power was. Exotic animals and plants were gathered in the palace gardens of
Alexandria and exhibited to the public during the Ptolemaia festival. Geographers
and ethnographers described faraway lands and peoples. One may also think of
Berossus’ Babyloniaca, a history of Mesopotamia commissioned by Antiochus I,
Manetho’s Aegyptiaca, written at the request of Ptolemy I or II, and Josephus’
statement that Ptolemy II ordered a translation of the Torah principally to create
‘‘a work glorious to himself’’ (AJ 12.49; on these works see Knippschild, Dieleman
and Moyer, Gruen in this volume). Collecting books, and translating them into
Greek, was a means of accumulating and controlling knowledge. According to
Josephus, it was Ptolemy I’s ambition ‘‘to gather together all the books that existed
in the entire inhabited world’’ (AJ 12.20), and tradition has preserved colorful
accounts of the Ptolemies’ efforts to lay their hands on them (Stephens in this
volume).
A last explanation is the wish of kings to present themselves as philhellenes to
acquire the goodwill of the Greek, or Hellenized, elites of the cities. This was
important because their own ethnicity was ambiguous. The Ptolemaic, Seleucid and
Antigonid kings were ethnic Macedonians and needed to emphasize their
Macedonian identity vis-à-vis the Macedonian soldiers who constituted the backbone
of their armies and the small Macedonian aristocratic class constituting the core of
their courts. The rulers of the smaller Hellenistic states in Asia Minor and the Seleucid
vassal kingdoms in the Middle East, most of whom were patrons of Greek culture
too, were not even semi-Greek Macedonians, but (mainly) Iranians. Whatever their
background, Hellenistic kings had to maintain good relations with various indigen-
ous civic and priestly elites, whether these consisted of Iranians, Babylonians, Jews,
Egyptians, or Greeks. But they singled out the Greeks because their power rested to a
large extent on the support of, and tribute paid by, cities. The city was the place where
the agrarian surplus of its hinterland was collected, and part of it turned into cash.
Keeping good relations with the many cities in the realm was therefore a principal
concern of royal administrations. Most cities in the Seleucid west, the Ptolemaic
Mediterranean and, of course, Antigonid Greece, were either Greek cities or cities
whose ruling families had adopted aspects of Hellenic culture precisely because of
their connections with the monarchy. The court, too, was for the greatest part
composed of Greeks from the poleis.
Notwithstanding the cultural heterogeneity of the empires and the cosmopolitan
character of some of their capital cities – Antioch on the Orontes, Seleucia on the
Tigris, Ptolemaic Alexandria – the culture of the court was predominantly Hellenic.
Non-Greeks were not entirely absent from the courts, but they seldom held
 Literature and the Kings 37

important positions. Due to intermarriage with Iranian dynasties and a system of

delegating power to vassal kings, the Seleucid court probably on the whole included
more non-Greeks than the Ptolemaic, but they were rarely among the king’s principal
advisors and commanders. When in both empires non-Greeks do turn up in the upper
echelons of the court, they are mostly ‘‘favorites’’ of the king, a position they could
obtain precisely because they were outsiders (Strootman 2007: 172–8).
Non-Greek artists, writers, and scholars were likewise almost completely absent
from court circles as philoi. Those who were present – Berossus, Manetho – wrote in
Greek for a Greek-speaking audience. In other words, kings protected not culture in
general, but Greek culture in particular, and for this reason they promoted the study
of the Greek past. Hellenistic scholars and poets (often scholar-poets) studied ‘‘clas-
sic’’ Greek literature (such as the poetry of Homer), and were obsessed with the
Greek mythological legacy. Hellenistic literature differed from Classical literature in
its tendency to iron out regional differences among the Greeks, redefining Greek
culture in the light of a more cosmopolitan worldview in which non-Greek culture
and knowledge, after being Hellenized, could be integrated. It was this ‘‘non-ethnic’’
Hellenism that provided the umbrella culture of empire.
Thus, the Hellenism of the court was instrumental in creating an imperial elite
culture, intensifying a process of Hellenization that was also at work independently in
the poleis. In world history, court culture has often served to tie together local elites,
creating coherence in culturally and ethnically heterogeneous empires, and binding
these elites to the political centre by ‘‘the power of memory, of imagination, and of
language’’ (Burke 1992: 57; cf. Strootman 2007: 215).

Kings and Poets

Cultural patronage was an organic part of court society. Men of letters were con-
sidered genuine courtiers, ‘‘friends of the king’’ (philoi tou basileōs). Some even
reached the upper echelons of the court and were given political, diplomatic or
military responsibilities (Erskine in this volume). Onesicritus of Astypalaea, a pupil
of Diogenes and the author of an account of Alexander’s campaigns, served
Alexander as a navigator in India, and in 325/4 was lieutenant to Alexander’s admiral
Nearchus. The historian Hieronymus of Cardia served as military commander for the
Antigonids. Antigonus Gonatas put the Stoic philosopher Persaeus in charge of the
Acrocorinth citadel.
If poets, artists, and intellectuals were not servants, what was the nature of their
relationship with the king? The contemporary evidence that is most illuminating in
this respect is Theocritus’ Idyll 16. This poem is principally an encomium of the
Sicilian ruler Hiero II. It is also a request for a gift and an attempt of the poet to be
accepted by Hiero as his philos. Because Theocritus came from Syracuse (ep. 27 Gow)
it is usually assumed that the poem was written at the beginning of his career, and that
he moved to Alexandria because Hiero was not interested in his services (Gow 1952b:
xvii; Green 1990: 240), but this is far from certain (Bulloch in this volume). In the
poem, Theocritus evokes the styles of Bacchylides, Pindar, and Simonides (Hunter
38 Rolf Strootman

1996: 82–90, 97–109). All three had enjoyed the patronage of Hiero’s namesake and
predecessor, the fifth-century Syracusan tyrant Hiero I, a ruler who was particularly
renowned for his protection of the arts (Gold 1987: 21–30). Theocritus now urges
the second Hiero to support poetry too, in particular his own (16.22–9, trans. Verity
2002):

τί δὲ ϰέρδοс ὁ μυρίοс ἔνδοθι χρυсὸс

ϰείμενοс; οὐχ ἅδε πλούτου ϕρονέουсιν ὄναсιс,
ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν ψυχαÐ ι; τὸ δέ πού τινι δουÐ ναι ἀοιδωÐ ν
πολλοὺс ευ ἔρξαι πηωÐ ν; πολλοὺс δὲ ϰαὶ ἄλλων
ἀνθρώπων; αἰεὶ δὲ θεοιÐ с ἐπιβώμια ρ έζειν,
μηδὲ ξεινοδόϰον ϰαϰὸν ἔμμεναι ἀλλὰ τραπέζηι
μειλίξαντ ἀποπέμψαι ἐπὴν ἐθέλωντι νέεсθαι,
Μοιсάων δὲ μάλιсτα τίειν ἱεροὺс ὑποϕήταс.
What is the point of hoarding masses of gold?
Wealth, says the man of sense, should be used to indulge
yourself – and after that, perhaps, to give a poet a little;
to do a good turn to one’s relations, and to others, as far
as you can; to offer regular gifts on the gods’ altars;
to be a generous and kindly host, not sending your guest from
your table until he’s ready to go; but above all, to honor the Muses’
priestly interpreters.

With these words Theocritus appeals to the Hellenistic ruler’s self-image as a gener-
ous host who entertains many philoi in his house. Theocritus wants to be invited too,
and he embeds his request in the moral complex of xenia (‘‘guest-friendship’’) with
its ideals of generosity, gift exchange, and reciprocity, a central Greek virtue and of
particular importance in royal courts. The reciprocal nature of xenia is stressed
throughout the poem, notably in its play with the double meaning of charites,
‘‘graces,’’ as favors and as goddesses. The latter represent poetry, making it clear
that Theocritus offers his writings to Hiero as gifts, for which he expects gifts in
return.
Apart from the prestige to be gained from hospitality and generosity, Theocritus
mentions another reason why Hiero should extend his xenia to him. The argument is
as simple as it is, by modern standards, presumptuous: reward me, and you will buy
yourself immortality. After all, ‘‘who would ever have known the long-haired sons of
Priam’’ (48–9), or Achilles (74), or wandering Odysseus (51–4), had not Homer put
their deeds into words? Now, thanks to the poet, not only the heroes are remem-
bered, but even Odysseus’ swineherd, Eumaeus (54–5). Hiero, the Achilles of our
age, also needs a poet to immortalize his heroic exploits (listed in 76–100), and
spread his glory ‘‘across the Scythian Sea’’ (99), that is, to the end of the earth
(16.30–3, trans. Verity 2002):

ὄϕρα ϰαὶ εἰν Ἀίδαο ϰεϰρυμμένοс ἐсθλὸс ἀϰούсηιс

μηδ ἀϰλεὴс μύρηαι ἐπὶ ψυχρουÐ Ἀχέροντοс,
ὡсεί τιс μαϰέλαι τετυλωμένοс ἔνδοθι χειÐ ραс
ἀχὴν ἐϰ πατέρων πενίην ἀϰτήμονα ϰλαίων.
 Literature and the Kings 39

so that men may speak well of you

even when you’re hidden deep in Hades. Do this, and you won’t
be forced to grieve without honor on Acheron’s chill banks,
like a poor man, his hands callused by the spade’s toil,
who complains about his inheritance of helpless poverty.

Alluding to the exclamation of Achilles’ spirit that he would rather be a farmhand on

earth than a king in the underworld (Od. 11.489–91), Theocritus here pushes the
point that all a man has left after death is kleos (‘‘reputation’’) and that great deeds
become null and void unless they are celebrated in poetry (Griffiths 1979: 14). Only
praise sung by a great poet will for all posterity reach such a large and widespread
audience that the poem’s protagonist will be truly immortalized. Conversely, the
ambitious poet is also in need of great subject matter to attain fame. The prestige of
the poet will, in a sense, be added to the prestige of the patron.
What more concrete benefits did poets expect to gain from patronage? Of course
one must first think of material rewards. Ptolemy Soter allegedly gave Strato of
Lampsacus the astronomical sum of eighty talents for tutoring his son (D.L. 5.58).
Unlike long-term labor for hire, which was considered tantamount to servitude, gift
exchange was honorable, operating in a sphere of philia that was free of subordination
(Konstan 1997: 82). Even so it was also a mechanism to confer and confirm social
status. This means that the value of rewards went beyond the material. Antiochus the
Great rewarded the polymath Hegesianax with money and a court title for reciting his
work (Ath. 4.155b). The Epicurean philosopher Diogenes received status gifts,
including the purple costume of a philos, from Alexander Balas (Ath. 6.211d). The
Ptolemaic title of Head of the Museum (epistatēs tou Mouseiou) was a genuine court
title, like Chamberlain or Master of the Hunt. Consequently, we may infer that the
production of literature or scholarship was instrumental in obtaining access to the
presence of the king, or more precisely, to be admitted to royal symposia. This in turn
was a means to acquire status, favors, and privileges, not only for oneself but also for
one’s family, friends or hometown.
The court was a place where the lines separating the hierarchical layers of society
could be crossed. But to gain access to the king – or the queen, a prince, or an important
courtier – one had to attract attention by distinguishing oneself, and so win favor and
build a personal network of influential philoi. This in-house competition, too, which
challenged men to prove their worth and demonstrate their skills, is reflected in the
mannerism and erudition of Hellenistic literature, with its in-crowd allusions and parti-
ality for obscure myths and rare words. One reason why the work of court poets was so
subtle and intellectual was that they had to distinguish themselves before an audience of
courtiers – an audience that was perceptive and critical, and expected to be confirmed in its
self-image as an educated leisure class. The entire set-up was predicated on competition –
hence the envy that according to some sources spoiled the atmosphere at the Alexandrian
Museum (Timon SH 786; Call. fr. 191 Pf.). The rivalry could take the form of open
contest, when for instance poets and courtiers competed by writing epigrams on a given
subject during symposia (Cameron 1995a: 83).
Another benefit of patronage was that the court provided, on a regular basis, an
ideal audience – an audience that was educated, influential, and rich. Mainly at
40 Rolf Strootman

symposia, when the king entertained guests and courtiers, poems and treatises were
read, inventions were demonstrated, and new ideas proposed. Besides philoi, foreign
guests and ambassadors would frequently be present. Not all court poetry of course
was aimed exclusively at court circles. Some of it was written for a broader audience,
for example epigrams inscribed at sanctuaries, or hymns sung during festivities. We
can be sure, however, that most poetry was in the first instance written for an elite
circle of educated royal friends and other aristocrats. Competition for honor and
prestige was a major drive in the life of a Greek poet, and to be associated with such an
elite milieu increased one’s status more than success among lower levels of society.
The members of the upper level of the court each had their own network of xenoi and
maintained relations with their families’ cities of origin. Thus the court was the
nucleus of an international elite infrastructure through which texts, ideas, and repu-
tations could circulate throughout the Hellenistic world. For an ambitious poet, the
court was the gateway to international success.

The Poetics of Power

While most of the surviving texts are not explicitly concerned with kingship, enough
panegyric survives to prove that this was a cardinal aspect of Hellenistic poetry and to
allow us to identify some motifs that recur throughout Hellenistic poetry as ideo-
logically charged. One of these is the image of the ruler’s empire encompassing the
entire inhabited world (oikoumenē). On an ideological level, the Ptolemies, Seleucids,
and Antigonids cultivated claims to universal dominion, regardless of the actual
political state of affairs (Strootman forthcoming a). Although in diplomatic contacts
Hellenistic kings negotiated as equals, in propaganda rivals were routinely presented
as rebellious princelets. The Hellenistic image of world-empire was in part an ela-
boration of Near Eastern royal ideology (Liverani 1990), and would in turn influence
images of empire in Roman panegyric (Asche 1983; Rees 2002: 88–9; also Weinstock
1971: 371–84; MacCormack 1981: 17–61).
In court poetry we often find the themes of the victory of Order over Chaos, and
the spread of (Greek) civilization to the ends of the earth. A recurring topic in
Callimachus’ Aetia is the expansion and progress of civilization, often featuring the
‘‘royal god’’ Heracles in his role as savior and culture hero (Harder 2003b and in this
volume). In Apollonius’ Argonautica, Greeks travel to the edge of the world, leaving
a trail of sacred objects and rituals wherever they go (Hunter 1993a: 152–69;
Stephens 2003: 171–237). Another crucial element of Hellenistic royal ideology,
obvious from royal ceremonial and iconography, which recurs in court poetry, is the
association of the king with the sun and the conception of his rule as a Golden Age.
Here the sun god Apollo, vanquisher of barbarians, and conquering Dionysus, the
bringer of good fortune, figure most prominently. Last but not least, there is the
equation of the earthly rule of the king with the cosmic rule of Zeus.
The association of king and Zeus is made explicit in Theocritus’ seventeenth Idyll,
an encomium of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (also discussed by Bulloch in this volume).
In the opening lines Theocritus says (17.1–4):
 Literature and the Kings 41

ἐϰ Διὸс ἀρχώμεсθα ϰαὶ ἐс Δία λήγετε ΜοιÐ сαι,

ἀθανάτων τὸν ἄριсτον; ἐπὴνy ἀείδωμεν ἀοιδαιÐ с
ἀνδρωÐ ν δ αυ ΠτολεμαιÐ οс ἐνὶ πρώτοιсι λεγέсθω
ϰαὶ πύματοс ϰαὶ μέссοс ὁ γὰρ προϕερέсτατοс ἀνδρωÐ ν.
From Zeus let us begin, and at Zeus make your end, O Muses,
the best of the immortals, whenever we celebrate in song.
But among men Ptolemy should be named first
and last, and also in the middle, for he is the greatest of men.

Zeus is King of Heaven, Ptolemy King of the World. Theocritus later refines this
notion. When Ptolemy was born the heavens opened and a great eagle descended, ‘‘a
bird of omen, a sign from Zeus.’’ Three times the eagle cries above the cradle, thus
making it known that Ptolemy is Zeus’ chosen one (71–6). At that point Theocritus
has already described how the king’s father, Ptolemy I Soter, acquired a place among
the Olympian gods: in the house of Zeus three thrones have been set up; on one of
these sits Ptolemy, while beside him sit the deified Alexander and his ancestor
Heracles (16–25). The presence of Heracles is significant. As a mortal who became
an Olympian god (according to most sources, in reward for the help he gave to the
gods in their struggle against the forces of chaos, i.e., the Giants), Heracles provided a
model for Hellenistic royal apotheoses (Strootman 2005; Huttner 1997).
Ptolemy Soter, Theocritus continues, has bequeathed to his son a limitless empire
and inexhaustible wealth (75–94), making the Ptolemaic household the symbolic
center of the world: ‘‘All the sea and all the land and the rushing rivers are subject to
Ptolemy. . . . He is wealthier than all other kings together, such riches arrive each day
at his sumptuous oikos from all directions’’ (91–2, 95–7). Where Philadelphus rules,
there is harmony: ‘‘His people can work their fields in peace, for no enemy crosses the
teeming Nile by land to raise the battle cry in towns that are not his, no enemy jumps
ashore from his swift ship to seize with weapons the cattle of Egypt. Too great a man
is settled in those broad fields, golden-haired Ptolemy, skilled with the spear’’ (97–
103). The image of the king as a ‘‘spear-fighter’’ was pivotal to the ideology of all
Hellenistic kingdoms. The king was presented as a Homeric hero, whose personal
bravery as a promachos (‘‘fore-fighter’’) in battle brought his kingdom victory
(Gehrke 1982; Strootman 2007: 31–53). In lines 5 to 8, Theocritus declares that
he will celebrate the ‘‘noble deeds’’ (kala erga) of Ptolemy as Homer honored the
deeds of Trojans and Achaeans. And in lines 53 to 56 Ptolemy is even directly equated
with Achilles, who once was, as Ptolemy is now, the best of men.
In his Hymn to Zeus, Callimachus too compares the rule of Philadelphus with the
rule of Zeus. There are other kings, of course, but Callimachus presents Philadelphus
as the only real king on earth because he is Zeus’ chosen one (h. 1.79–90). In the
Hymn to Delos Callimachus in turn equates his patron directly with Apollo. When the
pregnant Leto is approaching the island of Cos to give birth to Apollo and Artemis,
suddenly Apollo’s voice sounds from her womb, urging his mother not to give birth
on that island because it is destined to become the birthplace of ‘‘another god,’’ a
Macedonian of ‘‘the sublime lineage of the Saviors.’’ Under his rule, Apollo pro-
phesies, ‘‘will be the two lands and the countries that lie on the sea, as far as the ends
of the earth, where the swift horses always carry Helius’’ (h. 4.162–70).
42 Rolf Strootman

Ptolemy’s power is thus presented as limitless: his empire stretches from sunrise to
sunset. Although the reference to ‘‘the two lands’’ presumably is a reference to Egypt
(Hunter 2003a: 168), it would be rash to understand the solar imagery in this hymn,
as in other Alexandrian poetry, as simply a continuation of pharaonic ideology. The
image of the sun as a symbol of universal monarchy is a generic one. We see it also in
connection with ancient Mesopotamian and Persian monarchy (L’Orange 1953). But
it was in the Hellenistic kingdoms that the solar iconography of kingship reached its
zenith (Bergmann 1998; Strootman forthcoming a). Already in the ithyphallic hymn
for Demetrius Poliorcetes (291/290 BCE , quoted in Ath. 6.253b–f ¼ Duris FGrH
76 F 13 ¼ CA pp. 173–4) we read (9–12):

сεμνόν; ὅθι ϕαίνεθ ; οἱ ϕίλοι πάντεс ϰύϰλωι,

ἐν μέсοιсι δ αὐτόс,
ὅμοιοс ὥсπερ οἱ ϕίλοι μὲν ἀсτέρεс,
ἥλιοс δ ἐϰειÐ νοс.
An august picture is revealed: all the friends around him, and he in the middle of them.
Just as the friends are like the stars, his semblance is like the sun.

At the same time that this hymn was sung, the Athenians commissioned a fresco
depicting Demetrius enthroned on the oikoumenē, the ‘‘inhabited world’’ (Ath.
12.535f). The sun surrounded by stars also turns ups as a heraldic emblem on early
Antigonid and Seleucid shields (Liampi 1998). The Hellenistic equation of monarchy
to the sun, with its radiant crowns and other solar imagery, was transmitted to the
Roman and Sassanid empires, and eventually provided a model for the image of
Christ in late antiquity.
A related image is the expectation of a new Golden Age. In the introduction to his
astronomical poem Phaenomena, Aratus evokes an image of the universe as an all-
embracing, harmonious unity under the universal rule of Zeus, who appears as ‘‘an
absolutist god-king’’ (Hose 1997: 62), in control of everything (Phaen. 1–4, quoted
by Volk in this volume). These first lines are complemented by an extensive celebra-
tion of the Golden Age and the rule of Justice (Phaen. 98–136). Aratus, who worked
at the court of Antigonus Gonatas, does not mention his patron by name, but his
image of the universe under Zeus’ reign perfectly mirrors the universalistic preten-
sions in Hellenistic royal ideology. In the Hymn to Zeus, Callimachus places the birth
of Zeus not on Crete, but gives preference to an Arcadian birth myth. According to
this myth, Arcadia, once a dry and inhospitable country, becomes instantly fertile
when Zeus is born, and changes into a land of bliss (h. 1.18–35). In the Hymn to
Delos, Callimachus contrasts the disorderly world before Apollo with the peace and
harmony after the god’s birth (Bing 1988: 30–5), and links the god’s birth to the
birth of Ptolemy Philadelphus. In Theocritus’ encomium of Philadelphus, too,
images of fertility and peace abound (17.75–80, trans. Verity 2002):

πολὺс δέ οἱ ὄλβοс ὀπαδειÐ ,

πολλαÐ с δὲ ϰρατέει γαίαс; πολλαÐ с δὲ θαλάссαс:
μυρίαι ἄπειροί τε ϰαὶ ἔθνεα μυρία ϕωτωÐ ν
λήιον ἀλδήсϰουсιν ὀϕελλόμεναι Διὸс ὄμβρωι,
 Literature and the Kings 43

ἀλλ οὔτιс τόсα ϕύει ὅсα χθαμαλὰ Αἴγυπτοс,

ΝειÐ λοс ἀναβλύζων διερὰν ὅτε βώλαϰα θρύπτει (:::Þ.
Great wealth goes hand in hand
with such a man, and his rule spreads far abroad over land and sea.
There are numberless lans peopled by numberless nations
who harvest their crops through the generosity of Zeus’ rain,
but none is as fertile as low-lying Egypt when the overflowing Nile
saturates and crumbles its soil.

Theocritus’ Idyll 16 even more explicitly emphasizes the causal connection between
kingship and prosperity, peace, and harmony. The poet first describes a confused,
violent world in which greed prevails over honor, war over peace, and the barbaric
Carthaginians have the better of the civilized Greeks. The coming of Hiero,
Theocritus prophesies, will change everything. In fact, the Carthaginians already
tremble from fear as the warrior Hiero girds himself for battle. Only a handful of
barbarians will be left alive to return to Africa and spread the fame of Hiero ‘‘with
tidings of the deaths of loved ones to mothers and wives’’ (86–7). When this work has
been done, Theocritus prays, harmony will be restored to Sicily (16.88–97, trans.
Verity):

ἄсτεα δὲ προτέροιсι πάλιν ναίοιτο πολίταιс,

δυсμενέων ὅсα χειÐ ρεс ἐλωβήсαντο ϰατ ἄϰραс
ἀγροὺс δ ἐργάζοιντο τεθαλόταс αἱ δ ἀνάριθμοι
μήλων χιλιάδεс βοτάναι διαπιανθειÐ сαι
ἂμ πεδίον βληχωÐ ιντο; βόεс δ ἀγεληδὸν ἐс αυ λιν
ἐρχόμεναι сϰνιϕαιÐ ον ἐπιсπεύδοιεν ὁδίταν
νειοὶ δ ἐϰπονέοιντο ποτὶ сπόρον; ἁνίϰα τέττιξ
ποιμέναс ἐνδίουс πεϕυλαγμένοс ὑψόθι δένδρων
ἀχειÐ ἐν ἀϰρεμόνεссιν ἀράχνια δ εἰс ὅπλ ἀράχναι
λεπτὰ διαсτήсαιντο; βοαÐ с δ ἔτι μηδ ὄνομ εἴη.
May the cities which enemy hands have cruelly razed
be once again peopled by their former inhabitants.
May rich harvests repay their toil, and may sheep in their
countless thousands fatten in pastures, bleating across
the plain; and may herds of cattle as they wander back
to their folds quicken the evening traveler’s steps.
May fallow land be ploughed again, ready for seed-time,
at the season when the cicada, keeping watch over the shepherds
in the noonday sun, sings loudly high up in the tree branches.
May their armor be covered with spiders’ fine-spun webs, and
even the name of the battle-cry be forgotten.

This image is comparable with the idyllic pastoral world of bucolic poetry. However,
to bring peace, first war must be waged. To secure order, chaos has to be defeated.
A central theme in royal ideology was the presentation of the king as a savior from
barbarians, just as the Olympian gods once brought peace and order by defeating
Titans and Giants (Strootman 2005). In Idyll 16 the Carthaginians are staged as the
44 Rolf Strootman

barbarian foes (Hans 1985), but the archetypal enemies of the Hellenistic order were
the Celts. In 279 BCE Celts had invaded Greece, to be defeated only when they had
come as far as Delphi. The saving of Delphi was attributed to the intervention of
Apollo himself. Soon after kings took over the role as the protectors of civilization
from the gods. In the summer of 276 BCE , Antigonus Gonatas defeated a Celtic
army near Lysimacheia – a feat commemorated in a lost poem by Aratus (Tarn 1913:
175–6) – and used this victory to legitimize his usurpation of the Macedonian throne
in the same year. Celtic tribes invaded Asia Minor as well. Both Antiochus I and
Attalus I styled themselves sōtēres, ‘‘saviors,’’ after defeating the invaders in battle, and
were subsequently awarded divine honors by the Greeks of Asia Minor. The triumphs
were abundantly celebrated in epic poetry (Barbantani 2001), in victory monuments,
and on coins. The divine salvation of Delphi figures in the Hymn to Delos (h. 4.171–
90), where Callimachus manages to give Ptolemy Philadelphus a share of the honor,
even though he had no part in the action, by linking Apollo’s sōtēria with
Philadelphus’ suppression of a mutiny of his own Celtic mercenaries in Egypt during
the First Syrian War (274–271 BCE ). By directly equating Philadelphus’ triumph in
Egypt with Apollo’s victory in Greece over these ‘‘later-born Titans’’ (h. 4.174),
Callimachus presents Philadelphus as a savior god who has delivered the civilized
world from barbaric chaos. In a similar vein, the Hymn to Apollo claims (h. 2.26–7):

ὃс μάχεται μαϰάρεссιν; ἐμωÐ ι βαсιληÐ ϊ μάχοιτο

ὅсτιс ἐμωÐ ι βαсιληÐ ϊ; ϰαὶ Ἀπόλλωνι μάχοιτο.
Whoever fights against the blessed gods, fights with my king;
whoever fights against my king, fights with Apollo.

Being the earthly champions of the gods was not an exclusive privilege of the
Ptolemies. The Antigonid king Philip V used a famous poem on Zeus by his courtier
Samus to claim the same. In 218 Philip had demolished Thermus, the holy place of
the Aetolians, in retaliation for some sacrilegious act of the Aetolian League. When
the army departed, a line from Samus’ poem was left behind as a graffito on a ruined
wall (Plb. 5.8.5–6): ‘‘Seest thou how far the divine bolt hath sped?’’ This single line
has far-reaching implications. Its comparison of Philip’s military action with a bolt of
lightning associates Philip with Zeus, presents his power as irresistible and boundless,
reaching even the remotest of places, and portrays Philip as a just ruler who punishes
wrongdoers on behalf of the supreme god, restoring order and peace.

The Ivory Tower

Unlike the literature of the Classical polis, the literature of the Hellenistic courts was
not ‘‘national.’’ It leveled the differences between the various Greek ‘‘tribes’’ and
reinvented Hellenicity in the light of a new cosmopolitan worldview. In the world-
view propagated by the Hellenistic empires a shared culture united all, from the
Macedonian imperial upper class to the Hellenized non-Greeks in the cities. At the
same time the literature of the court was elitist, being aimed in the first instance at a
 Literature and the Kings 45

court audience. Although produced in an atmosphere of competition, it was instru-

mental in the creation of group cohesion and identity among the royal philoi, who
had disparate origins. Moreover, by their appreciation of complex and erudite litera-
ture, courtiers distanced themselves from other social groups. This is typical of court
culture: ‘‘the court, shielded from the outside world, projects an image of itself as
mysterious and inaccessible; its power is enhanced by the double aim of seeming both
very learned and very glorious’’ (Bertelli 1986: 17). Hellenistic court poetry was not
‘‘art for art’s sake,’’ but it was produced in, and for the sake of, an ivory tower: the
ivory tower of the court.
In the second instance, court poetry spread to an audience of regional and civic
elites, Greeks as well as non-Greeks. Hellenism became a means of defining who did
and who did not participate in the imperial order of the Hellenistic kings. Indigenous
upper-class families developed a multiple identity (e.g., Greek-Egyptian, Greek-
Babylonian, Greek-Jewish) when their political prevalence depended on allegiance
to the empire and the favor of the king. The adoption of Greek culture bound them
to the monarchy and distanced them from those who did not share in the power.
Thus Hellenism became the ‘‘high culture’’ of empire, creating, at the highest level of
society, a sense of commonwealth in states that were characterized by their political,
ethnical, and cultural heterogeneity. It was a non-national, ‘‘cosmopolitan’’ form of
Greekness in which indigenous ideas and forms could be amalgamated, not unlike
Ottoman culture in the empire of the sultans. Royal patronage of the arts made it
manifest that the court was the heart of this unifying culture.

FURTHER READING

Seminal works on the royal court are Elias 1969 and Kruedener 1973, although many of their
theories concerning the function of the court have now been adjusted or even wholly rejected:
see Duindam 1995. The courts of the Renaissance and Ancien Régime are discussed in Dickens
1977, Bertelli, Cardini, and Garbero Zorzi 1986, Asch and Birke 1991, Adamson 1999, and
Duindam 2003. Specifically on patronage of the arts and sciences at early modern courts see
Trevor-Roper 1976, Lytle and Orgel 1981, and Moran 1991b. Biagioli 1993 is a revealing case
study on Galileo. The essays in Spawforth 2007 discuss various ancient courts, including
Alexander’s.
Although studies of individual aspects of the Hellenistic royal courts abound, so far only
Herman 1997 and Weber 1997 offer a broader perspective. On court titulature and prosopo-
graphical aspects see Berve 1926 and Heckel 1992 (the Argead court under Alexander);
Peremans, Van’t Dack, and Mooren 1968, Mooren 1975 and 1977, Herman 1981
(Ptolemies); and Savalli-Lestrade 1998 (Seleucids and Attalids). For Hellenistic palace archi-
tecture see Nielsen 1994, Brands and Hoepfner 1996; on the ideology of Hellenistic kingship
Walbank 1984, Ma 2003, and Chaniotis 2003. A general overview of patronage of literature in
the ancient world is Gold 1987. Literary patronage at the courts of the Argeads and early
Antigonids is discussed in Weber 1992 and 1995. Weber 1993 and Meissner 1992 are extensive
studies of poets and historians respectively at the Hellenistic courts.
 CHAPTER FOUR

Ptolemaic Alexandria
Susan Stephens

In 333 BCE Alexandria did not exist. Fifty years later, at the accession of Ptolemy II
Philadelphus, it was well on the way to becoming the first city of the Mediterranean,
a status it enjoyed for two centuries until displaced by Rome. The story goes that
following the dictates of an oracle or a prophetic dream Alexander himself laid out the
city that was to become the capital of the Ptolemies, the rulers of Egypt for the next
300 years. The new city sat on a slender neck of land that ran above Lake Mareotis, on
the site of an older Egyptian village or border fort called Rhacotis (McKenzie 2007:
36–9). The island of Pharos lay before the harbor and about 15 miles to the east was
the westernmost (Canopic) branch of the Nile and the promontory of Cape
Zephyrium. The city was connected to the Canopic branch by a channel that allowed
efficient transport of grain from Upper Egypt as well as of luxury goods brought from
the Red Sea overland to Coptos and then shipped down river. How large the city was,
who lived there, even when the Ptolemies first took up official residence (320/19 or
312/11 BCE ) are all matters of debate. The first surviving description of the city’s
layout is that of Strabo, who visited in the 20s BCE , and is therefore to be used with
caution in assessing the early city; archaeological excavations are hindered by the
overlying modern city; underwater work in the harbor area is very recent and the
finds not well understood; and the inevitable baggage, both ancient and modern,
continues to cloud the picture (McKenzie 2007). The physical and psychological
space that was early Ptolemaic Alexandria must have shaped the literature produced
there. At the same time the glimpses we get from third-century and later authors
undoubtedly condition modern impressions of the city. In what follows I will use
modern historical and archaeological analyses to contextualize what writers such
as Callimachus and Theocritus, assorted epigrammatists, historians, and pseudo-
historians say. Ancient writers are eclectic: sometimes their observations converge
with what we learn from other sources; more often what they tell us belongs to the
mythology of Alexander or derives from the ideological positioning of the Ptolemies
as they negotiate a space for themselves between Macedon, Greece, and Egypt.
 Ptolemaic Alexandria 47

The People
In the absence of accurate population data for Alexandria, Walter Scheidel has com-
pared two pre-modern cities, London and Tokyo, to provide ‘‘probabilistic predic-
tions’’ for size and growth patterns of the new foundation. On the basis of these data he
observes that Alexandria should have seen a very steep growth curve during its initial
fifty years, reaching a total population of around 150,000 by 270 BCE . It may then have
grown to a population of about 300,000 by 200 BCE (Scheidel 2004: 12–15), though
even these figures may be too high. Recent estimates for the size of the land occupied
by the early city are in the range of 200 to 250 hectares, a size capable of supporting a
population of 60,000 to 80,000 (Grimm 1996). These numbers bring the early
Ptolemaic city closer in size to an Athens than a Rome, though with different social
and political hierarchies. For the period when most of the surviving Alexandrian poetry
was produced (c.285–c.240 BCE ), the population of Greek elite males must have been a
relatively discrete group, and principally attached to the royal house. The larger
population would have consisted of mercenary soldiers and the trades- and craftsmen
that the court and court-centered elite groups required to support their lifestyle.
Egyptians would have already been resident in Rhacotis and the surrounding villages,
and would have been needed in some numbers for manual labor; they will have
constituted at least half and more likely a higher percentage of the urban population.
Sustained population growth, however, would have depended on a constant stream of
immigrants from other locations in the Mediterranean and Egypt proper, and, in the
second century BCE , Jews (Scheidel 2004: 27; Fraser 1972: 1.73).
Katja Mueller’s recent study of foreign ethnic designations found on papyri and
inscriptions within Hellenistic Egypt provides a rough snapshot of migration in the
first three centuries. Regional and city ethnic designations for the whole period in
decreasing order of frequency include: Cyrenaica (201) and Cyrene (173), Thrace
(199), Judaea (102), Attica (63) and Athens (58), Crete (80), Thessaly (58), Caria
(53), Ionia (37), Miletus (21), Syracuse (19), Corinth (18) (Mueller 2005: 87–92).
The preponderance of immigrants from Cyrene or the Cyrenaica in Egypt makes it
likely that Alexandria (although no evidence survives for the city) saw a similarly high
number of Cyrenean immigrants. If so Callimachus would have been a member of
one of, if not the largest Greek-speaking ethnic group in the city. Posidippus, from
Pella, would also have found a substantial immigrant community, and Theocritus was
unlikely to have been an isolated Syracusan. From third-century literature we can
infer that under the early Ptolemies there was as yet no pervasive sense of Alexandrian
identity. Callimachus in the Aetia provides the instructive vignette of Pollis, a recent
immigrant from Athens, who is hosting a private symposium (fr. 178 Pf.). The guests
include Theogenes, a visitor from the island of Icus, and Callimachus from Cyrene,
who critiques Thessalian drinking practices. Neither Callimachus nor Pollis regard
themselves as ‘‘Alexandrian,’’ and if permanent immigrants (rather than visitors),
they remain closely tied to their places of origin. The women in Theocritus’ Idyll 15
describe themselves as immigrants, and they take pride in the fact that they are
Syracusans (90). The singer within the poem is described simply as ‘‘the Argive
woman’s daughter’’ (97). By the Roman period ‘‘Alexandrian’’ was a desirable status
48 Susan Stephens

distinct from the Greeks (or more likely Greco-Egyptians) living in the rest of Egypt,
but this cannot be assumed for or retrojected onto the reigns of the earliest
Ptolemies. In fact, the ethnicities most often mentioned in the early poets –
Cyrenean, Athenian, Thessalian, Syracusan – would seem to be a reliable reflection
of the earliest migration patterns to the new city and this raises the possibility that
when poets refer to places outside of Egypt (like Cyrene, Syracuse, or Athens) they
are appealing to recent immigrants from those locations.
We do not know whether the Ptolemies provided financial incentives for immigra-
tion, but their immense wealth, and Alexandria as a magnet for those seeking wealth
is a recurring theme in early poetry. Herodas’ much-quoted statement from his first
Mimiamb describes the city as a place for those in search of economic advancement
(1.26–31):

τὰ γὰρ πάντα,
ὄсс ἔсτι ϰου ϰαὶ γίνετ ; ἔсτ ἐν Αἰγύπτωι
πλουÐ τοс; παλαίсτρη; δύναμιс; εὐδίη; δόξα,
θέαι; ϕιλόсοϕοι; χρυсίον; νεηνίсϰοι,
θεωÐ ν ἀδελϕωÐ ν τέμενοс; ὀ βαсιλεὺс χρηсτόс,
ΜουсηÐ ιον; οι νοс; ἀγαθὰ πάντ ὄс ἂν χρήιζηι,
All that exists and is produced anywhere can be found in Egypt: wealth, wrestling
grounds, power, leisure, reputation, spectacles, philosophers, money, young men, the
precinct of the Theoi Adelphoi, a king who is good, the Museum, wine, every fine thing
that one can desire.

Posidippus echoes this sentiment in a newly discovered roll of his epigrams.

Throughout the first section of the collection there is movement from the eastern
periphery of Alexander’s empire towards the land of the Ptolemies (mentioned in the
final poems of the section) as luxury goods and individuals are inexorably drawn to
Egypt (1–20 AB; Stephens 2004: 63–86; Bing 2005: 119–40). The most obvious
group attracted to Egypt would have been soldiers. The frequent wars between
Alexander’s successors meant that the new reign had a constant need for troops and
that loyalties went to the general with the best pay package. The early literature provides
us with a picture of military service under the first Ptolemies as a character in Theocritus’
Idyll 14 gives his friend the following advice: ‘‘Ptolemy [sc. II] is the best paymaster for a
free born man . . . so if you are bold enough to stand against a bold man’s charge, then go
quickly to Egypt’’ (59, 66–8). Troops of soldiers figure prominently in the celebration
of the Ptolemaia (Callixenus in Ath. 5.201d), and we see the intersection of the civilian
and military and the clash of cultures in the city also in Theocritus, where the women on
an outing to enjoy the Adonia complain about the king’s horsemen (15.46–8).
Macedonian soldiers would have constituted the palace guard and thus may have been
the most visible military force in early Alexandria, even if they were not otherwise
significant in the composition of the army (Fraser 1972: 1.52–4). The Ptolemies were
successful in retaining soldiers by making provisions of land on which they might settle.
To this end a region west of Memphis (the Fayum) was opened up under Ptolemy II.
The new land generated income, provided a stable Greek-speaking population, and de
facto a military class as sons of soldiers in turn served in the army (Bagnall and Rathbone
 Ptolemaic Alexandria 49

2004: 127–54). This policy will have guaranteed a certain loyalty to the reign and may
well stand behind the poetic enthusiasm for Ptolemaic wealth or Ptolemy as paymaster.
Any consideration of the demographic gives us a substantial Egyptian population,
and that should be factored into the picture. Their presence within the city is felt in
Theocritus’ Idyll 15 when the Syracusan ladies praise Ptolemy for reducing the
thievery of Egyptians (47–50). We can infer that they were numerous and mingled
freely with, if not welcomed by, the Greek populace. Callimachus’ fragment from the
opening of the victory poem for Berenice II (SH 254) presents a slightly different
picture: he alludes to the Egyptian ceremony of mourning for the death of the Apis
bull, an event that took place early in Philadelphus’ reign and again towards its end
(Thompson 1988: 190–209). We also know that under the first two Ptolemies some
Egyptians were closely associated with the new monarchy: Manetho, a high priest
from Sebennytos, wrote a history of Egypt and a tract on Egyptian religion that took
into account Greek philosophical speculation on the elements (Dieleman and Moyer
in this volume). A number of hieroglyphic inscriptions testify to Egyptians holding
what appear to be high military and administrative offices under the first Ptolemies,
one even bearing the title of Overseer of the King’s Harem (Lloyd 2002: 117, 136).
Since the Ptolemies needed a bilingual bureaucracy to administer the new state,
reliance on Egyptians is not surprising, and recent studies continue to expand the
role of natives in central areas like the army and the regional administration (Clarysse
1985; Thompson 1994; Lloyd 2002: 119–22).

Alexander in Alexandria
Egyptian Alexandria was only one of the numerous cities founded in the wake of
Alexander’s conquests, though it is the one that subsequently was most closely
associated with him. Myth-making about Alexander began in his own lifetime, and
increased at his death as the successors enhanced their own status via association with
the now divinized king. Ptolemy I Soter was assiduous in his efforts to reinforce
Alexander’s status as a god and promote himself as his legitimate successor. He wrote
a history of Alexander’s campaigns (now lost), and recent scholars credit him with the
original version of the Liber de morte, an account of Alexander’s death that now
stands at the end of the Alexander Romance (Bosworth 2000: 206–41). This fictive
pastiche, the oldest parts of which seem to have originated in Ptolemaic Alexandria,
indicate Alexander’s centrality to Ptolemaic ideology (Fraser 1996: 211–12;
Dieleman and Moyer, Whitmarsh in this volume). The text links Alexander first with
Egypt as its rightful king and then with Alexandria as its founder. Here we are told
that Egypt’s last pharaoh, Nectanebo II, fleeing the Persians, escaped to Macedon
disguised as a magician. He ingratiated himself with Olympias, seduced her by
pretending to be the Egyptian god, Amun, and decked out as the god (with a ram’s
head) fathered Alexander. Alexander as both Macedonian and Egyptian serves as a
model for the dual aspects of Ptolemaic rule and for the city itself (Stephens 2003:
64–73). In the Alexander Romance, he asks the Egyptians to give to him the tribute
they formerly paid to the Persians ‘‘not so that I may add it to my treasury, but so that
50 Susan Stephens

Pharus
Lighthouse
Temple of
Isis
Ancient
ISLAND OF PHARUS
Ptolemaic Cape Lochias Alexandria
GREAT Palace
Temple of HARBOR Royal
Poseidon Island Harbor
Palace
EUNOSTOS HARBOR

Caesarium JEWISH
QUARTER
Hippodrome EASTERN
Gate of
CEMETERIES
the Sun
Gate Canopic Street
of the
Moon Lake
Harbor

Temple of
WESTERN CEMETERY HELLENISTIC CITY WALLS
Eleusis

Map 4.1. Ancient Alexandria.

I may spend it on your city of Alexandria, which lies before Egypt, and is the capital of
the whole world’’ (1.34.9, Recension B).
A clever move in this high stakes game was Ptolemy I Soter’s appropriation of
Alexander’s body. According to Diodorus he intercepted the funeral cortege carrying
the embalmed body from Babylon to what was to be its final resting place in the
shrine of Zeus Amun in Libya. Details are murky, but the likeliest scenario is that the
body was first taken to Memphis, the old capital of Egypt, after which either Soter or
Philadelphus entombed it in a central place in the new city (D.S. 28.3–5; Curt.
10.5.4, 10.20; Liber de morte 129). The fourth Ptolemy is credited with building
the mausoleum that held Alexander and the Ptolemies themselves. As part of the
process of legitimating their own dynasty, the Ptolemies established the cult of the
divinized Alexander and associated members of their own family with him in the cult
(Erskine 2002). The Ptolemies also capitalized on a crucial story in Alexander’s life:
his trek to the shrine at Siwah in the Libyan desert, where the local priests apparently
proclaimed him the son of the god, Amun (Plu. Alex. 27.5–9; Curt. 4.7.9). The
Ptolemies issued coinage featuring either Alexander in conjunction with themselves
or members of the royal family in the accoutrements of Alexander, for example,
depicted with Amun’s ram’s horn above the ear. Statues of Ptolemy and Alexander
together are mentioned in Callixenus’ description of the procession for the Ptolemaia
around 276 BCE (Ath. 5.201d), and Theocritus links Alexander and Soter, now dead,
on Olympus (17.16–19):

τηÐ νον ϰαὶ μαϰάρεссι πατὴρ ὁμότιμον ἔθηϰεν

ἀθανάτοιс; ϰαί οἱ χρύсεοс θρόνοс ἐν Διὸс οἴϰωι
δέδμηται παρὰ δ αὐτὸν Ἀλέξανδροс ϕίλα εἰδώс
ἑδριάει; Πέρсαιсι βαρὺс θεὸс αἰολομίτραс.
[Ptolemy] the father [sc. Zeus] made equal in honor with the blessed immortals, and he
established a golden throne for him in the house of Zeus. By his side in friendship sits
Alexander, bane of the Persians, god of the glittering diadem.
 Ptolemaic Alexandria 51

Alexander and his mythical ancestors – notably Dionysus, Perseus, and Heracles –
became the de facto ancestors of the Ptolemies, and they along with ancestors of the
Macedonian royal house – Argaeus, Coeneus, and Temenus, who were said to be
descended from Heracles – are commemorated in the names of Alexandrian civic
units or ‘‘demes’’ (Fraser 1972: 1.44–8; Satyrus, On the demes of Alexandria ¼ P.Oxy.
27.2465 fr. 1 col. 2).

Buildings and Monuments

Recent archaeological work in Alexandria makes it clear that while the Ptolemaic
buildings were mainly in the Greek style, Egyptian decorative elements such as
sphinxes, obelisks, and columns, imported from elsewhere in Egypt, were used as
ornamentation (McKenzie 2007: 33–4, 121–45). We have at least one example found
within Alexandria of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II represented in the pharaonic mode,
just as they were in numerous other locations throughout Egypt (Stanwick 2002: 100
A10). In the Alexander Romance, Alexander is particularly attentive to the religious
life of Egyptians. He worships the Apis bull and establishes a temple to Isis after
moving the local Egyptians into the newly founded city (1.31.4). A papyrus letter
from 257 BCE confirms that at least one Isis festival was celebrated within the city
(P.Col.Zen. 59154). A Greco-Egyptian religious liaison was created when the
Ptolemies introduced the divinity Sarapis, who blended elements of Egyptian Osiris
and Greek Dionysus. The so-called Great Serapeum, erected by Ptolemy III upon an
earlier foundation, was the most important religious structure in the new city.
Dedicatory plaques inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek found in the foun-
dations of the building testify to the dual ethnicity of the new god (McKenzie 2007:
53–6).
In the Alexander Romance Alexander gives orders for the foundation known as
Parmenion’s Serapeum. After he received an oracle about his death and the prediction
that Alexandria would be his permanent resting place (this was blatant propaganda for
the Ptolemies, since after his death they gained possession of his corpse), Alexander
ordered Parmenion to build a shrine to Sarapis that seems not to have been the
precursor to the Great Serapeum but an early separate temple (Fraser 1972: 1.270–1;
P.Col.Zen. 59355). According to the scholiast on Callimachus’ first Iamb (Dieg. VI
2.3 Pf.), this is the temple to which Hipponax, returning from the dead, summons
the ‘‘critics’’ in order to chastise them for their quarrelsomeness: ‘‘[come] here to the
shrine that stands in front of the city wall, when the old man who fashioned Pangaean
Zeus of old [sc. Euhemerus] chatters scratching out his impious books’’ (9–11).
Euhemerus, a somewhat older contemporary of Callimachus who wrote in the court
of Cassander, had acquired the reputation for impiety because he invented gods or
rather presented divinities like Zeus as once human and having achieved divine status
though their services to mankind (Whitmarsh in this volume). Callimachus’ associa-
tion of Euhemerus with a temple of Sarapis may be a pointed allusion to the newly
created status of Sarapis as well as to Ptolemies’ habit of turning their family members
into gods.
52 Susan Stephens

One of Alexandria’s earliest monuments was the lighthouse built on the Pharos,
the island that stood before the harbor. According to Posidippus (115 AB, trans.
Austin):

 Ελλήνων сωτηÐ ρα; Φάρου сϰοπόν; ω ἄνα ΠρωτευÐ ,

Σώсτρατοс ἔсτηсεν Δεξιϕάνουс Κνίδιοс
οὐ γὰρ ἐν Αἰγύπτωι сϰοπαὶ οὔρεοс οιffl  ἐπὶ νήсων,
ἀλλὰ χαμαὶ χηλὴ ναύλοχοс ἐϰτέταται.
τουÐ χάριν εὐθειÐ άν τε ϰαὶ ὄρθιον αἰθέρα τέμνειν
πύργοс ὅδ ἀπλάτων ϕαίνετ ἀπὸ сταδίων
ἤματι; παννύχιοс δὲ θοωÐ с ἐν ϰύματι ναύτηс
ὄψεται ἐϰ ϰορυϕηÐ с πυÐ ρ μέγα ϰαιόμενον,
ϰαί ϰεν ἐπ αὐτὸ δράμοι Ταύρου Κέραс; οὐδ ἂν ἁμάρτοι
ΣωτηÐ ροс; ΠρωτευÐ ; Ζηνὸс ὁ τηÐ ιδε πλέων.
As a savior of the Greeks, this watchman of Pharos, O lord Proteus,
was set up by Sostratus, the son of Dexiphanes, from Cnidus,
for in Egypt there are no look-out posts on a mountain, as in the islands,
but low lies the breakwater where ships take harbor.
Therefore this tower, in a straight and upright line,
appears to cleave the sky from countless furlongs away
during the day, but throughout the night quickly a sailor on the waves
will see a great fire blazing from its summit.
And he may even run to the Bull’s horn and not miss
Zeus the Savior, O Proteus, whoever sails this way.

A statue of Zeus Soter probably stood on the top of the monument, and he may have
been the principal dedicatee. Five centuries later Lucian claims that the original inscrip-
tion was to the Savior Gods – from the context he surely means the Dioscuri –, but
covered over in plaster on which the name of the current king was written (Hist. Conscr.
62). Given the importance of the Dioscuri in protecting sailors, their inclusion in the
dedication would be appropriate, and they are elsewhere well represented in Ptolemaic
Egypt. There was a temple to them in Naucratis, an early temple to the Dioscuri in the
city (noted in Satyrus), and the two are individually commemorated with Alexandrian
deme names (Fraser 1972: 1.207; Satyrus, P.Oxy. 27.2465 fr. 11.5). Divinities associ-
ated with the lighthouse may have included the first royal couple, Ptolemy I Soter and
Berenice I, who after their deaths were added to the Alexander cult with the title of Theoi
Soteres, ‘‘Savior Gods.’’
The other monument frequently commemorated in early poetry was the temple of
Aphrodite Zephyritis, located on a promontory facing the Mediterranean some
fifteen miles east of the city. The subject of several epigrams and mentioned tangen-
tially in Callimachus’ Lock of Berenice, the temple was unique because its divinity at a
very early date was associated with the deified Arsinoe II, the sister-wife of Ptolemy II
(Posidippus 39, 116, 119 AB; Call. ep. 5 Pf. ¼ 14 GP and Aet. fr. 110 Pf.; Hedylus
4 GP). This was not a case of the Egyptian practice of co-templing, in which there
were two associated divinities and two cult statues. The dead queen was completely
identified with or assimilated to Aphrodite. Again we are indebted to Posidippus for
the temple’s dedicatory epigram (119 AB, trans. Austin):
 Ptolemaic Alexandria 53

τουÐ το ϰαὶ ἐν πόντωι ϰαὶ ἐπὶ χθονὶ τηÐ с Φιλαδέλϕου

Κύπριδοс ἱλάсϰεсθ ἱερὸν Ἀρсινόηс,
ἣν ἀναϰοιρανέουсαν ἐπὶ Ζεϕυρίτιδοс ἀϰτηÐ с
πρωÐ τοс ὁ ναύαρχοс θήϰατο Καλλιϰράτηс
ἡ δὲ ϰαὶ εὐπλοίην δώсει ϰαὶ χείματι μέссωι
τὸ πλατὺ λιссομένοιс ἐϰλιπανειÐ πέλαγοс.
Both on land and sea make offering to this shrine
of Aphrodite-Arsinoe-Philadelphus.
She it was, ruling over the Zephyrian promontory
whom Callicrates, the admiral, was the first to consecrate,
and she will grant safe sailing and in the midst of the storm
will make smooth the wide sea for those who entreat her.

Louis Robert has argued that Callicrates of Samos, who was the head of Ptolemy’s
naval forces, dedicated this temple as a promotional policy for the Ptolemaic fleet
(Robert 1966). The temple is one of many monuments dedicated to Arsinoe II found
throughout the lands under Ptolemaic influence. Towns and whole regions, like the
Arsinoite nome of Upper Egypt, were named for her; and her cult quickly gained
acceptance in Egypt proper, where she was co-templed with Egyptian divinities.
The temple of Arsinoe-Aphrodite Zephyritis was located near the Canopic mouth
of the Nile. An underwater excavation nearby has produced a colossal statue of the
Nile god, Hapi, represented with pendulous breasts that must have been standing
during the early Ptolemaic period. The fusion of mortal (Arsinoe II) with immortal
(Aphrodite) in the Cape Zephyrium temple and the Egyptian Hapi are typical of the
divinities found in the new city and its environs. They differ from the traditional
Olympic pantheon, who are not represented in the city’s early buildings (the excep-
tion is Demeter, on whom see below). There was no temple to Zeus or Apollo or
Hera or Athena, although temples to Olympian Zeus and to Athena were to be found
in the older Greek city of Naucratis, some fifty miles up the Canopic branch of the
Nile. Instead of shrines for Olympians we find Serapea, Isis temples, or monuments
like the Arsinoeion, which was apparently mentioned by Callimachus in his poem on
the deification of Arsinoe (fr. 228 Pf.). This was a mortuary temple built for Arsinoe
II by Ptolemy II. If the description in Pliny is even close to correct the building was an
extravagant tour de force that featured a magnetic roof under which a statue of the
dead queen was suspended in air (NH 34.148). Pliny tells us that the mortuary
temple had an Egyptian element: an obelisk carved in the reign of Nectanebo I or II
(McKenzie 2007: 51) apparently stood in front of the edifice (NH 36.67). These
monuments, if only in a small way, provide us with a glimpse of the visual dynamics of
early Alexandria and its surroundings, whose ‘‘Greek’’ identity was constructed
alongside of a self-consciously appropriated native tradition.
The initial building phase of the city under Soter and Philadephus included an
imperial palace that seems to have been complete by the time of Theocritus’ Idyll 15.
It is here that Arsinoe II stages the tableau that he describes as part of a festival for
Adonis (the Adonia). The palace buildings, which included the Museum and the
tomb of Alexander, extended along the waterfront from the promontory of
Antirrhodos to Cape Lochias (McKenzie 2007: 173–5). A number of large houses
54 Susan Stephens

datable to the early Ptolemaic period have been found here, many with their elaborate
mosaic flooring nearly intact (McKenzie 2007: 66–9). In some houses dining rooms
with their placement of couches are still discernable, remnants of the elegant dinner
parties that contemporary poets might have graced. Callimachus gives us a glimpse of
one such party in the Aetia (fr. 178.2–8 Pf.):

Ἰϰαρίου ϰαὶ παιδὸс ἄγων ἐπέτειον ἁγιсτύν,

Ἀτθίсιν οἰϰτίсτη; сὸν ϕάοс; Ἠριγόνη,
ἐс δαίτην ἐϰάλεссεν ὁμηθέαс; ἐν δέ νυ τοιÐ сι
ξειÐ νον ὃс Αἰγύπτωι ϰαινὸс ἀνεсτρέϕετο
μεμβλωϰὼс ἴδιόν τι ϰατὰ χρέοс η ν δὲ γενέθλην
Ἴϰιοс; ωffl ι ξυνὴν ει χον ἐγὼ ϰλιсίην
Celebrating the annual ceremony of Icarius’ child, your day, Erigone, lady most lamen-
ted by Attic women, [Pollis] invited friends to a banquet, and among them a guest who
had just arrived in Egypt, having come on some private affair. He was an Ician by birth,
and I shared a couch with him.

Pollis, the Athenian immigrant, celebrates his own version of an Athenian festival, and
his guests include Callimachus, a Cyrenean, and a visitor from the island of Icus. Here
Callimachus and Theocritus, who in Idyll 14 describes a symposium at some
unknown country location (outside of Egypt), show us the importance of these
private events in forging and maintaining Greek social bonds.

Museum and Library

Traditionally the Museum and the Library have been assigned to the reign of
Ptolemy II, although the evidence is late and problematic. According to Strabo the
Museum was part of the palace complex (13.608, 17.793–4). Herodas is the earliest
to mention the Museum, as we saw above (1.26–31), but the earliest explicit infor-
mation about the Library comes from a fictional letter of one Aristeas urging Ptolemy
II to underwrite a translation into Greek of the holy books of Jewish law. This
intriguing text, also discussed by Gruen in this volume, opens with Demetrius of
Phalerum urging Ptolemy II to build the library (LetArist 9–11):

Placed in charge of the king’s library, Demetrius of Phalerum received large sums to
gather together, if possible, all the books in the world. Making purchases and copies he
accomplished as best he could the wishes of the king. Now in my presence he was asked:
‘‘How many tens of thousands of books are there?’’ He responded: ‘‘More than twenty
(sc. 200,000), O King, and in a short time I will collect the remainder, up to fifty
(sc. 500,000).’’

If Demetrius of Phalerum was instrumental in the Library’s establishment, it must

have been a project of the first Ptolemy, since he fell out of favor at Philadelphus’
accession as sole ruler (D.L. 5.78). Demetrius is attractive as the facilitator because of
his connection with Aristotle, whose philosophical school, the Lyceum, with its
 Ptolemaic Alexandria 55

shrine of the Muses (Museum) and Library has often been seen as the model for the
Ptolemies (Fraser 1972: 1.312–19). However, Ptolemy I, who began his rule in
Memphis and depended on the Egyptian elite to consolidate power, would have
had an Egyptian model at hand as well. Many Egyptian temples featured Houses of
Life and Houses of Books in which priests and scholars collected, copied, and
commented on religious works, medicine, geography, chronological and historical
narratives, and even fiction. When Greeks are credited with studying in Egypt (for
example, Thales, Pythagoras, Eudoxus, and Plato) or consulting priests for informa-
tion (Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus) these are the institutions that might have
accommodated them. The House of Life also served as a scribal school and played a
role in educating elites (Strouhal 1989: 235–42). An Egyptian model for the Library
becomes more cogent if, as many scholars have argued, the library within the Great
Serapeum that is attested in the Roman period began its life under the early Ptolemies
(Fraser 1972: 1.323–4; McKenzie 2007: 55).
Aristeas asserts that the total number of manuscripts housed in the Library was
200,000 to 500,000 rolls, and other writers report even higher numbers. Rudolf
Blum questioned these numbers, as has Roger Bagnall (Blum 1991: 107; Bagnall
2002). Even if we take into account that the book roll was considerably shorter than
the codex (which only came into use during the second to fourth centuries CE ), and
that the bulk of the Library might have consisted of copies, Aristeas’ estimates are far
greater than holdings of any pre-twentieth-century library in the West, at a period
when the total number of books available for collection would have been signifi-
cantly larger (Bagnall 2002: 356 and n.36). Bagnall also points out that Callimachus’
Pinakes (catalogue notes) could not possibly have held enough information to
catalogue holdings of hundreds of thousands of rolls. Every work of Greek that we
know to have been written before the end of the third century BCE would occupy no
more than about 250 to 350 rolls. Even if we assume that what survives represents
no more than a hundredth of all that was written, the increase (25,000–35,000 rolls)
is still far below traditional estimates unless the bulk of the collection consisted of
duplicates (Bagnall 2002: 353–6). Even within these lower numbers, it is important
to recognize that the reading and collating would have been a task for professional
readers (anagnōstai) and scribes (grammateis). Callimachus and the associated
librarians and scholars surely functioned as overseers and the final authority for
decision-making. They would have been the final arbiters of a reading or assignment
to genre or authentication of authorship, but they were not cataloguers in the
modern sense.
The real significance of the library is that the Ptolemies were engaged in the
competitive collecting of Greek literature and its commodification as a symbol of
political power. They began a process that, because of its scale and their apparent
desire to possess as much of Greek literature as possible, turned what earlier had been
a small-scale civic or religious or private act (as in the case of philosophers’ libraries)
into a major political statement. What the Ptolemies did in Egypt, the Attalids did in
Pergamum. Anecdotes that surround collecting, for example, that of a Ptolemy
depositing 15 talents to ‘‘borrow’’ Athens’ official copies of the tragedies of
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, then foregoing the talents for the original rolls,
are not about building a library (Galen 17A.606–7 Kühn; Fraser 1972: 1.305–35;
56 Susan Stephens

Erskine 1995). It would have been easier, cheaper, and more conventional to have
had the tragedies copied in Athens. The point of the anecdote is to enhance the status
accruing to the possessors (now the Ptolemies) of the most distinguished literary
production of the Athenian state, and to mark via the physical transport of the
Athenian books to Egypt the passing of power from old Athens to this new city.

Festivals
The new city initially lacked cults and festivals, the time-honored means of forging a
cultural identity. The challenge for the Ptolemies was to establish the city as a Greek
space, especially since the Greek population was so diverse, yet also to accommodate
the large number of non-Greeks and the even larger number of ethnic Egyptians.
The public performance of tragedy was one means of accomplishing the first goal,
since the repertory with its familiar myths would have reinforced a collective
‘‘Greekness.’’ Traditional tragedy and comedy were staged in Alexandria as well as
mime or farce, rhapsodic competitions, and musical events. The theatre of Dionysus
is not mentioned before Polybius (15.30.4, referring to events of 204 BCE ), but
‘‘artists of Dionysus’’ (technitai Dionusou) are participants in the Ptolemaia around
276 BCE (Ath. 5.198b–c). They are led by Philicus, who has on plausible grounds
been identified as a member of the Pleiad, a group of Hellenistic tragedians associated
in the sources with the reign of Philadelphus (Rice 1983: 55–6; Fraser 1972: 2.859
n.407). How many tragedians actively produced for the Alexandrian stage is not
known, but the number of early Hellenistic papyri of tragedy with musical notation
discovered in Upper Egypt suggests an active performance culture (Pöhlman and
West 2001: 12–55). The fourth Ptolemy (Philopator) is even credited with writing a
tragedy on Adonis in the manner of Euripides (schol. Ar. Thesm. 1059).
City dwellers could and did attend the theater, and festival occasions in Alexandria,
like those found elsewhere in the Hellenistic world, featured a growing number of
musical, athletic, and other events. Theocritus, for example, alludes to Alexandrian
poetic competitions, although the specific event cannot be identified (17.112–16):

οὐδὲ Διωνύсου τιс ἀνὴρ ἱεροὺс ϰατ ἀγωÐ ναс

ἵϰετ ἐπιсτάμενοс λιγυρὰν ἀναμέλψαι ἀοιδάν,
ωffl ι οὐ δωτίναν ἀντάξιον ὤπαсε τέχναс.
Μουсάων δ ὑποϕηÐ ται ἀείδοντι ΠτολεμαιÐ ον
ἀντ εὐεργεсίηс.
A man never comes to the sacred contests of Dionysus without receiving from Ptolemy
the gift his art deserves, if he knows how to sing a clear-voiced song. And those
interpreters of the Muses sing of Ptolemy for his benefactions.

The richness of their public spectacles seem to have characterized the reign of the
early Ptolemies. Court-sponsored festivals included the Basileia, which apparently
combined an older Macedonian festival of Zeus Basileus and royal birthday celebra-
tions. Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus and Theocritus’ Heracliscus (Id. 24) may have been
 Ptolemaic Alexandria 57

written to celebrate the Basileia at the time of Ptolemy II’s assumption of the co-
regency in 285/4 (Clauss 1986; Cameron 1995: 58; Stephens 2003: 77–9, 125–7).
Other festivals for which we have evidence include the Soteria (probably in honor
of Ptolemy I Soter), the Arsinoeia (in honor of Arsinoe II), the Adonia (a festival of
Adonis, delineated in Theocritus’ Idyll 15), and more than one festival in honor of
Demeter (Perpillou-Thomas 1993: 151–75). There were also the Egyptian events
mentioned above, Isis festivals and the ritual mourning that took place at the death of
the Apis bull, and very possibly notionally Greek festivals included elements to appeal
to the Egyptian population.
The Ptolemaia, for which Callixenus provides a detailed (and the only) account (Ath.
197c–203b), gives us considerable insight into the ideological underpinnings of
Ptolemaic rule. The festival was first celebrated around 276 BCE by Ptolemy II in honor
of his father. It began with a procession that wound through the city stadium (this has
been identified as the Lageion, near the Great Serapeum). It was timed for the
appearance of the Morning Star, whose wagon opened the procession, followed by
the divinized parents of the royal couple, and all the gods, and finally the Evening Star.
Figures of temporality, Eniautos (‘‘yearly’’) and Penteteris (‘‘every five years’’), carried
the persea crown and palm, pharaonic signs of reign and long life (Stephens 2002: 249).
Next in order of appearance came the priest of Dionysus and the artists of Dionysus.
The tableaus presented on wagons included events from Dionysus’ life: Semele, his
mother; Nysa, the city of his nurture; the ‘‘return of Dionysus from India,’’ which
assimilates him to Alexander; his pursuit by Hera; and finally a phallus pole. The
procession included statues of Alexander, the king’s throne with a crown, and a variety
of subjects, animals, and objects that signaled the wealth and breadth of the empire,
including (if true) an extraordinary number of infantry (57,000) and cavalry (23,000).
Both Callimachus and Posidippus celebrate the athletic contests that were part of
the Ptolemaia, in contexts that reinforce the status of the events as ‘‘isolympic’’ (SIG 3
390). One of the new epigrams attributed to Posidippus, from the section labeled
Hippika, reads (76 AB, trans. adapted from Austin):

ἐϰτέτα½ται π½ροτ½ρέχ ων ἀϰρώνυχοс; ὡс Ἐτεάρχωι

: : : :: : : : : : : :
½ουffl τοс ϰ½λεινὸс Ἄραψ ἵπποс ἀεθλοϕορειÐ 
:: : : ::
½νιϰήс½αс ΠτολεμαιÐ α ϰαὶ Ἴсθμια ϰαὶ Νεμέαι δὶс
: : :: : : : :
½τοὺс Δελϕοὺс πα½ριδειÐ ν οὐϰ ἐθέλει сτεϕάνουс
: : : ::: : : : :
This famous Arab horse is stretched out, galloping on the edge of its hooves, and thus it
carries off the prize for Etearchus. Victorious at the Ptolemaia and the Isthmia, and at
Nemea twice, it refuses to overlook the Delphic crowns.

Callimachus, in celebrating Sosibius’ victory at Nemea in a now fragmentary elegiac

epinician, contextualizes the win by mentioning Sosibius’ earlier victories at the
Athenian Panathenaia and in the Ptolemaia (fr. 384.40–2 Pf.). He celebrates the
uniqueness of the victor by stressing the fact that Sosibius was born in Egypt. The Nile
proclaims: ‘‘a beautiful reward my nursling has brought me, for until now no one had
brought a . . . trophy to the city from these sepulchral festivals’’ (i.e., the Nemean
Games), and all of North Africa is imagined as turning out to celebrate (29–31).
58 Susan Stephens

Demeter was introduced in Alexandria probably in the reign of Soter. At least one
reason for her introduction was her close connection to the Egyptian goddess, Isis,
whose cult already in the fourth century had been exported from Egypt into the
northern Mediterranean. Demeter’s principal cult site seems to have been in an
eastern suburb of the city called Eleusis, after the district of Attica where the famous
Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated. Hereditary priests of Demeter were credited
with bringing her cult to Alexandria, though some modern scholars reject the stories
(Fraser 1972: 1.199–202; Hopkinson 1984a: 32–9). It is, however, worth consider-
ing the naming of Eleusis in conjunction with the procession of Dionysiac artists and
the phallus pole in the Ptolemaia – are these events in some measure deliberately
staged to compete with Athens? Eleusis appears in a recently discovered poem of
Posidippus in a way that leaves ambiguous until the final line whether Eleusis is in
Attica or in Egypt (20 AB, trans. adapted from Austin; Lehnus 2002):

ὡс πάλαι ὑψηλὴν Ἑλίϰην ἑνὶ ϰύματι παίсαс

παÐ сαν ἅμα ϰρημνοιÐ с ἤγαγεс εἰс ἄμαθον,
ὥс ϰ ½ἐπ ἘλευсιÐ να πρηсτὴρ ἑϰατόγγυοс ἤρθηс
εἰ μὴ Δημήτηρ сὴν ἐϰύνηсε χέρα
νυÐ ν δέ; Γεραίсτι ἄναξ; νήсων μέτα τὴν Πτολεμαίου
γαιÐ αν ἀϰινήτην ἴсχε ϰαὶ αἰγιαλούс.

As long ago you struck lofty Helike with a single wave and reduced it, cliffs and all, to
sand dunes, so you would have come against Eleusis as a gigantic hurricane, had Demeter
not kissed your hand. Now, Lord of Geraestus (sc. Poseidon), along with the islands,
keep Ptolemy’s land and shores unshaken.

And the scholiast on Callimachus’ Hymn to Demeter claims the cult was introduced in
imitation of Athens (Pfeiffer 1953: 77):

Ptolemy Philadelphus in imitation established some customs of the Athenians in

Alexandria, among which was the procession of the basket; for in Athens customarily
the basket was carried on a designated day on a vehicle in honor of Demeter.

‘‘The basket carried in honor of Demeter’’ refers to the Eleusinian Mysteries, and it is
Callimachus’ only hymn that hints of an Alexandrian connection, though we saw
above that the first Iamb is set in a local temple, and he does mention other local
monuments in his poetry. Because there was also a Thesmophorion in the city, at least
by the time of Ptolemy IV, Callimachus’ hymn, whether or not it was written for a
specific occasion, will have had a local resonance (Plb. 15.29.8).
Theocritus’ poem on the Adonia (Idyll 15) rounds out our picture: here we see
Greek housewives in Alexandria, immigrants from Syracuse or the Peloponnese,
approaching the royal palace to view an elaborate tableau of Aphrodite mourning
Adonis. The Adonia, like the Mysteries, was celebrated in Athens, but well suited for
transportation to a city located in Egypt. The underlying story of Aphrodite mourn-
ing her lover – who is promoted as ‘‘bridegroom’’ in Theocritus – has the contours of
the Egyptian myth of Isis mourning her dead husband Osiris (Reed 2000). Equally
the event reinforces the wealth of the Ptolemies by implicitly associating it with
nature’s abundance in the tableau of the dead Adonis. Like Sarapis, Adonis had
 Ptolemaic Alexandria 59

dimensions that both Greek and Egyptian might appreciate, though in Theocritus the
Egyptian population is kept at a distance and referred to as an underclass (47–50). It
is interesting that the Adonia and the mourning for the Apis bull are the only two
Alexandrian religious events that Hellenistic poets mention explicitly, and neither is
for a traditional Olympian deity.

The Mythological Landscape

Apart from the connection with Alexander, the new city lacked heroes. From the
earliest period therefore, we see poets forging links between the new city and earlier
Greek myths in which Egypt was prominent. The most important were stories that
associated the region with Homer or with Homeric poetry. One version of the
founding of Alexandria, for example, relates that when Alexander had, with the
advice of his architects settled on a site, the following dream came to him (Plu.
Alex. 26.5–7):

A man with very white hair and venerable in aspect seemed to stand by him and speak the
following lines: ‘‘Now there is an island in the much buffeting sea, in front of Egypt.
Men call it Pharos’’ (Od. 4.354–6). Immediately Alexander arose and went to Pharos,
which was still an island . . . , not yet attached to the mainland by a causeway. When he
saw the natural advantages of the site . . . , he said that Homer was not only marvelous in
all other respects, but also the wisest of architects, and he had his city plan drawn to suit
the location.

Alexander’s dream of Homer provides a different version of the founding of

Alexandria than the instructions he received from Amun when he visited the Siwah
oasis. But alternative versions of the foundation should not be thought of as mutually
exclusive so much as mutually reinforcing – each serves a particular purpose in
locating the new city within existing Greek and/or Egyptian culture at the same time
that it delineates the city’s uniqueness. Alexandrians cannot boast of autochthony but
they can lay claim to a land with ancient Greek connections. In addition to the story
of Alexander’s dream of Homer, prior Homeric myth allows the new city to be
inscribed into the oldest and most venerable of Greek stories, that of the Trojan
War. Useful for this purpose are figures such as Helen and Menelaus and Proteus,
who are connected with Egypt as early as the Odyssey (el-Abbadi 2004).
The Egyptian town of Canopus, lying to the east of Alexandria, was according to
Stephen of Byzantium named for the helmsman of Menelaus, who died there.
Apollonius wrote a choliambic poem on the subject, from which only two scant
fragments have survived. A scholium to Nicander tells us that in Apollonius’ poem
Canopus fell asleep on the shore, was bitten by a poisonous snake, and died (Powell
1925: 4–5; Krevans 2000: 76–8). Somewhat later, pseudo-Eratosthenes lists
Canopus among those turned into stars (Catasterisms fr. 37), and according to
Conon, a court astronomer under Ptolemy II, Proteus’ daughter Theonoe was in
love with him, and when he died of snakebite, Menelaus and Helen buried him locally
(FGrH 26 F 1 VIII). Although their origin is now impossible to determine, these
60 Susan Stephens

stories featuring Canopus provide clear examples of how one seemingly obscure
Greek myth might come to assume regional prominence.
Helen and Menelaus are also important figures in the mythology of Alexandria. In
the Odyssey, Menelaus tells Telemachus how he was blown off course on his return
from Troy (now in possession of his erring spouse) and stranded in Egypt, but the
version attributed to Stesichorus, recounted in Herodotus’ Histories (2.112–20), and
the basis of Euripides’ tragedy Helen, seems to have been preferred by local poets. In
the passage from Callimachus quoted below, ‘‘Helen’s island’’ can only allude to her
sojourn in Egypt, and to the version of her story in which she remains the faithful
wife. In this version Egypt can claim to be the land that preserved her virtue. In Idyll
18, Theocritus gives us an epithalamium for Helen and Menelaus, and Callimachus
associates her with Arsinoe II in his now fragmentary poem on Arsinoe’s deification
(fr. 383 Pf.). Both poets emphasize Helen’s quasi-divine status, and like Alexander
she comes to function as a local hero.
Proteus is a central actor in the story of Menelaus and Helen in Egypt. In the
Odyssey Proteus is ‘‘the old man in the sea’’ and a seer, tending his seals on the Pharos
(4.351–570), but in Euripides’ Helen he becomes an Egyptian king, noted for his
wisdom, who guards Helen until Menelaus can claim her. The most explicit (in a
manner of speaking) Hellenistic version is found in Lycophron’s Alexandra. Here
Proteus rescues Helen from Paris, her abductor, and we learn that Proteus had
married a nymph in Thrace, Pallene, but overcome by the lawlessness of the place
returned to Egypt via an underground river (111–29; Sens in this volume). Thus for
Lycophron’s Proteus too, Egypt is a space of moral integrity.
Callimachus depends on these mythologies in the opening of his elegy for
Berenice’s chariot victory at the Nemean games to create the link between Greece
and Egypt (SH 254.1–6):

Ζηνί τε ϰα˩ὶ Νεμέηι τι χαρίсιον ἕδνον ὀϕείλω,

νύμϕα; ϰα½сιγνήτων : ἱερὸν αιffl μα θεωÐ ν,
:
ἡμ½ετερο:½. . . . . .: εων :
ἐπινίϰιον ἵππω½ν.
ἁρμοιÐ γὰρ ˩ΔαναουÐ γ˩ηÐ с ἀπὸ βουγενέοс
εἰс Ἑλένη½с νηсιÐ δα: ϰαὶ εἰс Παλληνέα μά½ντιν,
ποιμένα ½ϕωϰάων; χρύсεον η λθεν ἔποс.

To Zeus and Nemea I owe a debt of gratitude, bride, holy blood of the Sibling Gods, in the
form of a victory song for your . . . horses, because recently a gilded tale has come from the
land of cow-born Danaus to Helen’s island and to the Pallenean prophet, shepherd of
seals.

Via ‘‘Helen’s island’’ (Pharos) and the ‘‘Pallenean prophet’’ (Proteus) Callimachus
provides a Greek pedigree for the Egyptian space, while Greece is redefined as ‘‘the
land of cow-born Danaus,’’ that is, in terms of Egypt. Danaus, like Alexander in the
Alexander Romance, is Greco-Egyptian. His ancestor was Io, the Argive girl who was
turned into a cow by her lover, Zeus, to keep Hera from detecting the affair. Hera
then drove her in her cow form to wander the earth until she arrived in Egypt where
she bore Zeus’ son, Epaphus (‘‘Touching’’). In the Prometheus Bound (846–55)
 Ptolemaic Alexandria 61

Prometheus informs Io about the end of her wandering and her destiny as mother of
nations:

There is a city, Canopus, at the end of the earth, by the very mouth and outpouring of
the Nile. There Zeus will make you sound, touching you with a touch that does not
cause fear . . . You will give birth to dark-skinned Epaphus, whose name recalls his
begetting by Zeus. He will reap the fruit of all the land the broad-flowing Nile inundates,
and in five generations his descendants, fifty female children, will return to Argos, against
their will, fleeing a marriage with their cousins.

Epaphus’ descendants in the fourth generation were the brothers Danaus and
Aegyptus, eponymous ancestors to the Greeks (Danaans) and Egyptians respectively.
Alexandria and its landscape by means of reciprocal Greek and Egyptian tales (Pharos,
Canopus) is linked to a distant Greek past, and endowed with heroes who, if not the
founders, are long established in the place and complement the myths of Alexander. It
is important to note that both sets of myths – those related to Alexander and those
derived from earlier Greek literature – emphasize that the city is both Greek and
Egyptian. Mythologically speaking, the two cultures are no longer defined as polar
opposites, as they are in Herodotus. They are now related by blood.

FURTHER READING

Although written almost forty years ago, Fraser’s Ptolemaic Alexandria (1972) remains the
most helpful source on the subject. More recent studies have challenged many of his assertions,
but the encyclopedic quality of the notes alone make it indispensable, and virtually all subse-
quent work is dependent on him. Two more recent essay collections worth consulting are
Alexandria and Alexandrianism 1996 and Harris and Ruffini 2004. Scheidel in the latter sets
out desiderata for a better historical understanding of the city. The Library has generated a
considerable literature: Bagnall 2002: 348 has a useful bibliography. McKenzie 2007 provides
the most up-to-date archaeological reconstruction of the ancient city with a full bibliography.
Our understanding of the Egyptian presence under the early Ptolemies continues to grow; see
Lloyd 2002 and Baines 2004. For the relationship of Alexandrian poetry to the Ptolemies see
Weber 1993, Stephens 2003, Strootman in this volume, and specifically on Posidippus of Pella,
Stephens 2004 and Bing 2005, Fantuzzi 2005, and Thompson 2005.
 CHAPTER FIVE

Education
Jessica Wissmann

There are two ways in which literature and education converge. Literature, especially
poetry, was an important part of education and schooling. The numerous school texts
from Hellenized Egypt that survive thanks to the arid climate contain a substantial
amount of poetry and some prose. Those from the Hellenistic period are especially
important in that they constitute the earliest extensive evidence concerning the use of
literature in education. Literature and education also converge in the many references
to education found in Hellenistic literature, especially poetry, which reflect an
increased interest in everyday life in general and the practice of education in
particular.
Poetry was used in ancient schools to teach reading and writing, but also because
knowledge of poetry was a staple of education. In the first half of this chapter I will
examine what texts were selected and how they were used. Cribiore (1996, 2001a)
and Morgan (1998a) have discussed literate education in the Greco-Roman world
extensively. Here, the focus will be on school texts from the third to first centuries
BCE . In this period, education became more formalized and institutionalized than
before; and even though, by and large, schools in the Roman Empire well into the
Byzantine period followed the patterns laid out in the Hellenistic era, there are some
differences between Hellenistic and schools of subsequent centuries in their dealings
with literature. A short discussion of the afterlife of Hellenistic poetry in classrooms of
the Roman and Byzantine periods will conclude the examination of school texts.
The second half of the chapter will deal with what we can learn about education in
the Hellenistic period from the literature of that time. Although many theoretical
treatises and practical manuals were written about the topic, unfortunately none have
survived, and there is little one can say about them based on only a few titles, even
fewer fragments, and their use by later writers. We do, however, have surprisingly
many Hellenistic poems (as well as some prose texts) that touch upon education. This
topic has not yet been studied systematically, perhaps because education was seen as
an everyday activity like all the others depicted in poetry of that time. It is, however,
 Education 63

of special importance because education is immediately relevant to the production

and reception of literature. The poets’ interest in education mirrors an increased
practical concern with the subject, and their works in many ways complement the
evidence of the school texts.

Literature Used in Education: School Texts

Stories have always been part of education. Mothers and nurses tell stories to little
children (Pl. Rep. 377c); in school, the poetic praise of ‘‘good men of old’’ was
supposed to set an example for students to emulate (Pl. Prot. 325c–326a). It is this
latter use of stories that the school texts from Hellenistic Egypt can illuminate,
providing – like other evidence from Egypt concerning education – ‘‘a window on
the vast panorama of educational practices around the Mediterranean’’ (Cribiore
2001a: 1–2). More than 400 school texts from Greco-Roman Egypt have been
collected by Cribiore (1996) based on criteria such as writing material, handwriting,
signs facilitating the reading of continuous writing, and content. In addition to these
texts, there are numerous papyri, ostraca, and writing tablets that do not show the
typical signs of school exercises, yet may have been used in school, for example, for
studying an author at a more advanced level. As certainty is impossible, our picture of
what was read in ancient classrooms is by no means complete.
Still, it is worthwhile to examine which authors pupils in Hellenistic Egypt
encountered. Dramatic texts are represented in 13 of the 33 extant school exercises
from the third to first centuries BCE that contain literary texts, yielding 28 fragments.
Of these, nine fragments, found in five exercises, are from comedies, mostly ades-
pota; of the tragedians, Euripides is represented with 17 passages in 10 exercises,
Aeschylus with two fragments; Sophocles is absent. Euripides outdoes Homer, who
is represented with nine passages in eight exercises. This is surprising: within the
corpus of ancient school texts as a whole Homer easily surpasses any other author
(Cribiore 1997, 2001a: 195–7; Morgan 1998a: 104–9). The distribution of the
Homeric passages also holds a little surprise: five are from the Iliad, four (in three
school texts) are from the Odyssey. Even though such a mere handful of texts does
not warrant any definite conclusions, this ratio is quite different from that in the
school texts of the Roman and Byzantine periods, where passages from the Iliad
outnumber those from the Odyssey by a significant degree. The four passages from
the Odyssey were taken from books 5, 11, 18, and 21; the books of the Iliad
represented are 1, 5, 6, 10, and 18, a wider range of books than in school texts
from subsequent centuries. Because so few Hellenistic school texts have survived, we
cannot be certain, but these facts may well indicate a greater diversity of reading in
the Hellenistic period, preceding a stricter canonization. There are also other indi-
cators of more varied reading than in subsequent times. Hellenistic school texts
contain passages from Archaic poets: Hesiod, Hipponax, Sappho, and Theognis;
Hesiod alone appears in later school texts, and even he only once. They also contain
Hellenistic, i.e. ‘‘contemporary’’ poets, such as Antimachus, Menander, Leonidas,
Philemon, and (probably) Posidippus. School teachers of later centuries seem to
64 Jessica Wissmann

have no interest in Hellenistic authors (with the exception of Menander), let alone
writers of their own time.
The diversity of the attested readings makes it difficult to detect the criteria
behind the selection of certain genres, authors, and passages. But an attempt to
find such criteria is by no means hopeless, because the type of exercise can help
determine its purpose and thus the criteria for the choice of texts. Two of the
Hellenistic school texts that contain literature (Cribiore 1996 [henceforward Cr]:
no. 129, 130) are writing exercises, intended solely for improving the student’s
handwriting (Cribiore 1996: 43–5). It is probably not a coincidence that both
contain the opening line of a play by Euripides (Bacchae 1 and Phoenissae 3, the
original beginning). It is easy to imagine a school teacher giving his student a line to
copy that he himself easily remembered (for the Bacchae as a popular school text, see
Cribiore 2001b).
Soon thereafter the student would be confronted with the first coherent pieces of
poetry (Cribiore 1996: 46–7). Of the extant ‘‘short passages’’ (as Cribiore calls
them), three were copied by a younger student (Cr 177, 178, 180). One of these
reproduces Iliad 6.147–9, part of the simile where Glaucus compares the short life-
cycle of humans to that of leaves. This image, frequently reworked in later poetry
(e.g., Simonides 1EG 19), was clearly selected for the lesson it contained (Cribiore
1994). The other two texts are epigrams, a genre not frequently found among the
ancient school texts overall. One illustrates Spartan virtue in the form of an anecdote
about a lame Spartan soldier who stands his ground (Cr 178, with 179 ¼ SH 971).
The competition of numerous cities to be Homer’s birthplace is the topic of the
other (Cr 177 ¼ SH 973), which ‘‘solves’’ the issue by proclaiming the Odyssey
Homer’s ‘‘fatherland.’’ Based on such admittedly lacunose evidence, one might say
that the ‘‘minimal cultural package’’ (Cribiore 2001a: 178) already included two
major icons of Greekness: Homer and Sparta (Wissmann 2002: 218–22). Sparta was,
of course, not so much the political entity but the idea of Sparta, with an educational
system that fostered typical Spartan virtues. The veneration of Homer, and his use in
education, goes back at least to the Classical era; obviously a poem about Homer as
the Greek poet instilled a long-lasting reverence for the poet in the young pupil’s
mind, especially if such texts were also memorized, as was likely the case.
Copying and memorizing went on for years in a student’s life, the passages
becoming longer over time. Although the exercises which Cribiore classifies as
‘‘long passages’’ cannot easily be assigned to a particular level (1996: 47–9), it is
clear that these texts were not primarily used to improve the student’s reading
and writing skills but were studied for their content under the guidance of a
grammarian. It is here that a search for selection criteria can yield the best results.
Because not all texts of this type can be examined within the confines of this chapter,
I will focus on three illustrative collections of texts: two sets of ostraca or papyri, each
written by the same individual, and a teacher’s textbook. I will be referring to these
collections as ‘‘anthologies,’’ understood in the broadest possible sense. Even
though not all texts of these sets can be subsumed under a single category, each
set shows a clear tendency towards certain types of texts: moralizing content, interest
in literature and culture, and language seem to have been the prevalent criteria for
the selections made.
 Education 65

Anthology (1): Moralizing

Gnōmai, or maxims, were regarded as an especially suitable tool for conveying moral
lessons about life: they are short statements of a generality that makes it difficult to
question their truthfulness and authority. It is hardly surprising, then, that they were
extensively collected and used in school (see Morgan 1998a: 120–51, on the import-
ance of such collections and the range of topics covered). The first set, a series of ostraca
(Cr 234–6) in the hand of either a teacher or an advanced student, is a good example of
this tendency: they abound with gnōmai, but also contain shorter passages from poetry
that were probably also supposed to contribute to the moral development of the
students. On the ostracon Cr 234, which contains 11 extracts, the first five are probably
from comic poets (PCG 1 F 248 [(Ps.) Epicharmus, two passages] and 8 F*1029–31);
the subjects illustrated are good sense, the dangers of pleasure, the true value of a man,
learning, justice. More gnomic statements follow: ‘‘the strong arm does not withstand
battle any better than the weak’’ (Eur. El. 388–9); ‘‘not even Zeus can please everyone,
neither when he lets it rain nor when he withholds it’’ (Thgn. 25–6). But then the
sequence of gnōmai is interrupted by the beginning of a speech from the Odyssey –
Antinous scolding the beggar Irus, 18.79–80, lines which may have been taken as
paraenetic. And after Hesiod’s gnomic insight that ‘‘it is easy to seize baseness in
quantity’’ (WD 287), another quotation from Euripides again does not fit the category
of maxims but certainly embodies a moral (Hecuba scolds orators for playing along
with the mob, Hec. 254–6). The last two passages are again decidedly gnomic (the
authors are not known): the student learned that ‘‘stupidity is not a good excuse’’ and,
as part of a prose-story about a man and pigs, that everything is relative.
The other two ostraca in the series show the same mixture of gnomic and non-
gnomic passages, with the gnōmai setting the heavily moralizing tone. One ostracon
contains a few lines from Theognis (434–8) in an order that follows Plato’s Meno
(95e), and a short comic fragment addressed to someone who was only concerned
about his own safety and abandoned others (PCG 8 F 1049). The third ostracon
contains a tragic maxim about excellence to be displayed also in death by a man who
has stumbled (Eur. Aegeus TrGF 5 F 11), a maxim of Socrates about not living in
order to eat but eating in order to live (turned into a chreia), and finally a list, culled
from a comedy, of character-flaws such as rashness, heedlessness, thoughtlessness,
‘‘and countless other such traits’’ (PCG 8 F*1050). The editor of these two ostraca,
arguing from, among other things, the fact that one reproduces Plato’s order of the
lines from Theognis, which does not quite make sense outside its Platonic context,
surmised that a student had been given the assignment to read through various
writings and collect sayings and quotations about virtues and vices (Viereck 1925:
257). Whether it was a student who gathered these lines or a teacher who handed
them to a student for copying, it was the teacher who set the criteria for the selection
of texts. The extracts show a deeply moralistic slant, covering many areas of life. Not
many of them would have been applicable to the life of a young student yet; but the
character-flaws on the list are typically attributed to youths. All in all, the selection of
texts on these ostraca represents the purest form of a ‘‘utilitarian’’ reading of poetry
not for its own merits but for the lessons to be taken from it.
66 Jessica Wissmann

Anthology (2): Literature and Culture

The second set of texts (Cr 244–6) has much less of a moralizing character and is
more ‘‘literary’’ in nature. The passages were copied by a certain Apollonius, about
whom we know more than we do about most students in ancient Egypt (Thompson
1988: 212–65). His brother was confined to the Serapeum in Memphis, where young
Apollonius temporarily joined him. It is not quite clear whether the texts Apollonius
copied were part of a school exercise (he may have attended school in the Serapeum;
Thompson 1988: 245) or copies he made independently (Cribiore 2001a: 188–9);
but even if he just copied them for his own use, they certainly reflect a practice typical
of the ancient school: making excerpts. To some degree, they may also reflect a
literary taste shaped in school. Of the four passages Apollonius copied on Cr 244
and 246, two are narrative speeches, from Euripides’ Medea (5–12) and Telephus
(TrGF 5 F 696 ¼ GLP 17). As parts of prologues, both passages provide the
necessary background information to the plot in a nutshell, supplying a conveniently
epitomized version of the relevant myth. The same is true of the third tragic excerpt,
from Aeschylus’ Carians: Europa narrates the story of her abduction by Zeus and the
birth of his sons (TrGF 3 F**99). Also from a prologue, a comic one this time, is a
fragment in which a young man describes how he was ‘‘reborn’’ after joining a
philosopher’s school in Athens (PCG 8 F 1001; attributed to Menander by Koerte
1.145b ¼ GLP 53). So was Apollonius or whoever selected these passages specifically
excerpting dramatic prologues? And if so, why?
Another text on Cr 244 may help here: Apollonius also copied a comic passage
(falsely attributed to Euripides) that had been written by a different hand on the other
side of the same papyrus (PCG 8 F 1000). In this passage, which clearly does not come
from a prologue, a young woman complains to her father about his plans to separate
her from her present husband and marry her off to another man. Only with difficulty
could Apollonius have copied the passage from the other side of the same papyrus.
More likely, he learned it by heart and then wrote it down from memory (Thompson
1988: 259–60), a common procedure in the memorization of poetry within a school
context (Cribiore 2001a: 213). It would appear, then, that Apollonius was memoriz-
ing dramatic passages. Longer narrative rhēseis were more suitable for memorization
than dialogue, and as prologues usually take this form, they were an obvious choice. As
the collection of texts in Cr 244 has a header – probably ‘‘Lessons of Aristo, the
philosopher’’ – Apollonius possibly followed the instructions of a teacher.
This does not, however, exclude more personal selection criteria (either of the
teacher or of Apollonius himself). The dramatic excerpts display an atmosphere of
turmoil, illustrate the difficulties of living in a foreign country, or have a religious
dimension that has affinity with life in the Serapeum (Thompson 1988: 260–1). The
co-existence of Egyptian and Greek culture was probably very keenly felt by
Apollonius, who shared his life in the temple with Egyptian detainees, in a bilingual
and bicultural environment (Thompson 1988: 261–5). Apollonius’ daily contact with
Egyptians and their culture, probably combined with a personal interest in dreams
(his brother, Ptolemaeus, apparently wrote down some dreams he had; Thompson
1988: 259) may have been the reason why Apollonius became interested in, and
 Education 67

made a copy of, ‘‘Nectanebo’s Dream,’’ a tale about the last native pharaoh (Cr 245;
Dieleman and Moyer in this volume).
Apollonius’ interest in Egyptian culture does not correspond to the overall picture
one gets from the school texts (Cribiore 2001a: 179–80). Even in the case of those few
that contain Egyptian material, the primary interest appears not to have been in the
different culture, but, as in the anthology discussed in the previous section, in moral
lessons in the form of gnomic sayings and injunctions. One school text, an ostracon,
contains a Greek version of the Egyptian ‘‘Commandments of Amenotes’’ (Cr 239,
perhaps a teacher’s model; for the text see Totti 1985: no. 46). These commandments
are combined with other maxims, among them three that also form part of a collection
of maxims that Stobaeus attributes to Sosiades, who apparently collected them from
the inscriptions at Delphi (Stob. 3.1.173). They were so popular that they were also
collected by philosophers and copied on stones found as far away as Afghanistan
(Oikonomides 1980: 179–81). They were an obvious choice for use in school, as is
indicated also by the fact that some of the same maxims recur in another school text,
written in a beginner’s hand (Cr 238). Their very brief injunctions – ‘‘follow the god,’’
‘‘save time,’’ ‘‘respect your parents’’ – would have been especially suitable for teaching
young pupils, offering short phrases for letter practice and moral guidance in one.
This is about as far as the interest in Egyptian culture went. In fact, even ‘‘Nectanebo’s
Dream’’ was clearly adapted for a Greek audience (Koenen 1985: 172), and Greek
interest in the tale may have had a lot to do with one of the Greeks’ own cultural heroes:
Nectanebo plays a major role in the first 15 chapters of the Alexander Romance, where he
is said to have been Alexander’s real father (Stoneman 1991: 16–7; Whitmarsh,
Dieleman and Moyer in this volume). Alexander himself figures prominently in another
school papyrus (Cr 380, probably written by a teacher), the second half of which offers a
list of famous men, the Seven Wonders, largest islands, highest mountains, rivers and
springs – the sort of facts an educated Greek ought to know. The text about Alexander
himself is a dialogue with the Gymnosophists, the ‘‘naked philosophers’’ of India.
Versions of this conversation recur in the Alexander Romance (3.5–6, where the
Gymnosophists act as one body) and Plutarch’s Life of Alexander (64). It is a competi-
tion of cleverness: Alexander asks subtle questions, such as whether the dead or the living
are more numerous, and the Gymnosophists offer their answers. Considering the lack of
practical relevance of the questions and answers, one may wonder why this specific text
was used in school. The question-and-answer format was popular in school, as is clear
from the so-called Erōtēmata in later papyri, which contain entries such as ‘‘Who was the
father of Hector?’’ (Cr 405–6; Cribiore 2001a: 208–9). In the dialogue with the
Gymnosophists, however, the questions and answers are not anonymous but asked by
Alexander and answered by the ring-leaders behind a rebellion against him. The
Gymnosophists’ answers are judged to be poor and unhelpful, proving their intellectual
inferiority to the king, who comes out as an icon of Greekness. Texts about Alexander
seem to have remained a staple of the curriculum well into the Roman era (Cr 347–50).
Heracles is the other Greek hero whose importance is reflected in the school texts.
One advanced student in the second century BCE copied or composed a narrative of
Heracles’ labors (Cr 344). The text is a paraphrase, perhaps of a drama or an epic
poem; on a purely technical level it shows that paraphrasing, a frequent exercise in the
rhetorical training of later times, was already practiced in the Hellenistic era (similarly
68 Jessica Wissmann

Cr 345, a combination of lines from the Iliad and summaries of events in books 18
and 19). Heracles as a subject was an obvious choice, for the Ptolemies traced their
descent back to him (Fraser 1972: 1.202–3; Koenen 1993: 44–6; Huttner 1997:
124–45). Dionysus was another putative ancestor (Fraser 1972: 1.201–7), and he too
appears in the school texts: a papyrus from the second or first century BCE contains
the first 23 lines of the first Homeric Hymn to Dionysus (Cr 251).

Anthology (3): Language

One of the most informative extant school texts is a teacher’s textbook from the third
century BCE (Cr 379, in the editio princeps erroneously thought to be a student’s
book). Even in its damaged state (the upper part of the papyrus roll has broken off
and a considerable amount of text is lost), this book clearly reflects a curriculum of
education, predominantly literate. It starts out with very basic exercises (a syllabary, a
list of Macedonian months, a series of numbers, a list of monosyllables, one of names
of divinities, another of polysyllabic nouns), then moves on to literary texts, and
concludes with some mathematical exercises.
The literary texts show an astonishing variety. The first two are moralizing speeches
from Euripides on the dangers of ambition and arrogance (Phoen. 529–34; Ino TrGF
5 F 420). Like the preceding exercises, they have been facilitated for beginning
readers by dividing the words into syllables. One of the main obstacles in learning
to read was that texts were written in scriptio continua, i.e. without any spaces
between words. Beginners were therefore trained to identify syllables and words with
the help of lectional signs (Cribiore 2001a: 174–5). It cannot be ruled out that the
two passages also served as models for copying in a writing exercise, and their
moralizing content was also appropriate to an educational context; but their principal
use appears to have been that of a primer for reading. Apparently writing, in the strict
sense of copying, and reading were taught independently (Cribiore 2001a: 176–8).
The next passage, under the heading ‘‘Epic Poetry,’’ consists of a few lines from
Odyssey 5. As the lectional signs are no longer used, the reading of a text is taken to a more
advanced level. The choice of this passage is surprising: it is the beginning of Calypso’s
complaint that Hermes and the other gods begrudge her relationship with Odysseus
(116–24). It cannot possibly have been regarded as very edifying; perhaps its interest lay
in the story of Orion, coveted by Dawn as Calypso covets Odysseus. However, the
excerpt probably continued beyond this exemplum at the missing top of the next
column of the papyrus, and the rationale for its inclusion remains ultimately unclear.
The selection criterion for the remaining texts seems more obvious: the distinctive
feature of these texts, two epigrams and three passages from comic poets, is that they
abound in difficult words. This makes perfect sense if the book was a primer for
reading – there was a tendency in antiquity to give exercises of greater difficulty than
was actually necessary. Syllabaries, for example, contain almost unpronounceable and
sometimes nonsensical words, so-called chalinoi, the most notorious being knaxkhbi
(Cribiore 2001a: 166). So in school the student encountered words he would hardly
use in everyday life. Not all the texts in the teacher’s handbook show the same density
 Education 69

of unusual words. Of the two epigrams (SH 978–9 ¼ FGE anon. 151a/b ¼ GLP
105a/b), the first (perhaps by Posidippus: *113 AB) is over-fraught with the tech-
nical vocabulary of architecture; the remnants of the second, however, are a simple
dedication of a building to Homer (further discussed below). Perhaps the teacher
copied the two poems from a collection of epigrams on buildings: the first of the pair
drew his interest on account of its vocabulary, the second, which might have followed
in the collection, was included because it praised the cultural icon Homer and
reflected the Ptolemies’ interest in education.
An interest in unusual words possibly also is behind the choice of the three comic
fragments, all monologues of cooks (PCG 8 F 1072; 1073 ¼ GLP 59; Strato Phoenissae
1 PCG 7 ¼ GLP 57). Cooks who used elaborate culinary vocabulary and boasted about
their art in great detail were stock-characters in Middle and New Comedy (Nesselrath
1990: 298–309). Of the first passage only a few lines survive, which contain some
technical terms for the preparation of food. The second passage is almost like a
catalogue of culinary jargon and types of food and spices. In the third passage,
preserved also in Athenaeus (9.382c), the cook is so educated that he uses Homeric
words in inquiring about the details of the meal to be prepared. His employer is at a
complete loss and complains that one would need the ‘‘books of Philitas,’’ who wrote a
glossary of obscure words, to understand what the man is talking about. Clearly,
‘‘difficult words,’’ especially Homeric glosses, are what this passage is all about. The
memorization of Homeric vocabulary had already been part of teaching Homer for a
long time (in Aristophanes’ Banqueters, for example, a father quizzes his son on it, PCG
3.2 F 233), and the great number of Homeric glossaries among the school texts from
the Roman era testifies to its continued importance. This probably explains why the
teacher used the comic passage replete with Homeric words in class.
Striking about the textbook as a whole is the large proportion of texts outside the
‘‘mainstream’’ which it contains. In general, Hellenistic school texts include a wider
range of authors than school texts of subsequent centuries. It has been mentioned
already that Hipponax, Sappho, and Theognis appear only in school texts from the
Hellenistic era (Cr 234–5, 237, 247). Hesiod is included in one Hellenistic and only
one later school text (Cr 234 and 386). Finally, two of the three school texts with
Aeschylus are Hellenistic (Cr 244, 250), and the later example (Cr 277) is uncertain,
reflecting perhaps a line from Euripides’ Hypsipyle (TrGF 5.2 F 757, verse 891) rather
than Aeschylus’ Persians (483). The presence of these authors in Hellenistic school
texts may reflect the academic interest Alexandrian scholars took in the poets of old
(Cribiore 2001a: 202). But antiquarian interest cannot have been the sole principle
governing the selection of texts, for Hellenistic school texts also contain more
Hellenistic poetry than later school texts.

The Reception of Hellenistic Poetry in School Texts

The textbook just discussed (Cr 379) is extraordinary in that at least three and
possibly even five of its eight reading passages are Hellenistic. It is perhaps no
coincidence that two of these texts are epigrams. In addition to these, there are the
70 Jessica Wissmann

three epigrams mentioned above used as writing exercises (Cr 177, 178/9). Another
school text (Cr 243 ¼ SH 976) contains only the beginnings of a number of
epigrams, two of them by Leonidas (25, 46 GP ¼ AP 9.322, 6.13). Apparently
epigrams were considered particularly suitable for use in school: they were short
and easy to memorize, usually not too difficult to understand (the epigram SH 978
on Cr 379 with its technical vocabulary is an exception), frequently about everyday
life, and oftentimes funny and entertaining. Strangely, they disappear almost entirely
from school papyri after the Hellenistic period. One possible reason is that as the fifth
and fourth centuries were increasingly regarded as the ‘‘glory days’’ of Greek culture,
the school canon narrowed. Genres and authors without ‘‘classical’’ status, regardless
of their pedagogical expedience, disappeared from the curriculum (Wissmann 2002:
228–9).
Much of what makes epigrams suitable for educational purposes also holds for
comic passages, especially those taken from New Comedy. It is difficult to identify
such passages – many of which are adespota – as Hellenistic or sometimes even as
comic. Still, some observations can be made. About half of the comic fragments used
in school are found in texts from the Hellenistic period; the other half, in texts from
the Roman period. In mere numbers, there is no indication that the interest in comic
poets decreased. But what has changed in the Roman period is the mode of reading.
If one looks more carefully at the reception of the most popular Hellenistic comic
poet, Menander, in the Roman school texts, it turns out that he was mainly used as a
quarry for moralizing statements (Cribiore 2001a: 199–201). One always has to take
into account the possibility that texts were used in school that do not show the typical
characteristics of school texts, especially at a higher level of education (Cribiore
2001a: 138), and so entire plays of Menander may very well have been studied.
The fact that the prologue of the Misoumenos appears in one school text of the Roman
era suggests this possibility (Cr 290 ¼ CGFP 147). Nonetheless, whereas Hellenistic
school texts include passages of various lengths from a range of comic authors, the
vast majority of comic extracts in later school texts are maxims taken from
Menander’s plays or attributed to him, the so-called Monostichoi. This kind of
‘‘instructional reading’’ also included misogynist statements, as on the two ostraca
Cr 267–8 (PCG 8 F 1047–8).
In the case of three pieces of Hellenistic literature their use in school at first sight
seems puzzling. Yet it is possible to identify selection criteria similar to those estab-
lished above, for example an interest in ‘‘difficult’’ words. A glossary, written on an
ostracon by a teacher or advanced student in the third century BCE , quotes a passage
from Antimachus’ Lyde for its use of the noun souson (Cr 237 ¼ fr. 68 Matthews
1996), as it happens mistakenly (the word which Antimachus actually wrote, and
knew from Od. 21.390, must have been ouson). Several passages from Callimachus’
Hecale appear on a writing tablet from the fourth to fifth century CE (Cr 303 ¼ SH
288 ¼ frs. 69, 70, 73, 74.14–28 Hollis 2009). These fragments describe the great
moment when Theseus has finally subdued the bull and also include the tale of the
crow that is part of the Cecrops myth and the story about Apollo’s raven. The
copying of these lines is probably to be explained from a strong ‘‘historical’’ interest
in the heroes of the Athenian past, observable also throughout ancient rhetorical
instruction (Cribiore 2001a: 231–8). A similar interest in history may explain why a
 Education 71

student in the first century CE transcribed an elegy, possibly of Posidippus (118 AB ¼

Cr 381 ¼ SH 705 ¼ GLP 114). The perspective of an old man taken in this poem is
not exactly tailored to the interests of young students, but perhaps this was seen as
less important than the fact that both (Egyptian) Thebes and Pella in Macedonia are
mentioned. Even more importantly, if this poem was indeed a sphragis or ‘‘poetic
seal’’ (Lloyd-Jones 1963), its prominent position within a collection may have been
the reason for using it in school.

Education as Reflected in Hellenistic Poetry

The Hellenistic period not only provides substantial evidence of actual school texts;
education also became a pervasive topic in literature. Philosophers (Plato, Aristotle,
not to mention the sophists) had long theorized about education, and they continued
to do so. We know of numerous works by Hellenistic philosophers about education,
for example from the lists of works in the Lives of Diogenes Laertius, but only small
fragments survive. The Stoics had a special interest in the subject (Inwood and
Donini 1999: 705–14), as, in his own way, had Epicurus, who seems to have rejected
the standard approach to education (the enkyklios paideia; Asmis 2001). In
Hellenistic poetry, however, very many aspects of education are represented, provid-
ing almost enough material to sketch instruction from early childhood to higher
education. Often, especially in the case of Herodas, the descriptions are exaggerated
and humorous. Consequently, this material is to be used with caution, that is, not as
‘‘hard evidence.’’ The discussion of references to education in poetry and in
Theophrastus’ Characters in the next few pages is not intended as a substitute for a
comprehensive account of education in the Hellenistic period, but rather to show
how important a position education had in Hellenistic poetry and culture.

Educators
If we are to believe the epigrammatists, ‘‘children are trouble; but a childless life is
a crippled one’’ (Posidippus *133 AB ¼ 22 GP ¼ AP 9.359; cf. Metrodorus AP
9.360 ¼ FGE 1). If a child died young, both the toil and the pleasure vanished with
the deceased (Antipat. Sid. 54 GP ¼ AP 7.467). Not just the parents, the nurse too
played a major, and lasting, role in a child’s life: Callimachus has a grateful Mikkos not
only look after his old Phrygian nurse her entire life but also set up a tombstone for
her after her death (ep. 50 Pf. ¼ 49 GP ¼ AP 7.458; cf. Theoc. ep. 20 Gow 1952b ¼
11 GP ¼ AP 7.663). A paidagōgos frequently accompanies the young man, some-
times even into battle, as in Menander’s Aspis (14). The central control, however,
remained with the parents, who also had expectations of their children – different
ones for boys and girls. To his young daughter, a dying father gives the useful advice
to stick to the spindle and emulate her mother’s virtue so that she might be of value
to her future husband (Antipat. Thess. AP 9.96). A mother would expect support
72 Jessica Wissmann

from her son in old age, as Metrotime does from her son Kottalos in Herodas’
Schoolmaster, although there is little hope this young good-for-nothing will ever
fulfill her expectations (Mimi. 3.29; on education as an ‘‘investment,’’ see Cribiore
2001a: 107–8).
Unable to cope with Kottalos, Metrotime seeks the help of the teacher. The young
lad’s father is apparently too old to hold him in check (32), so that the neighbors have
started complaining about his acts of vandalism (47–8). At the mother’s request, the
teacher must now wield the whip of authority. Corporal punishment was not unusual
(Cribiore 2001a: 65–73), and Herodas’ teacher does not hesitate to administer it.
The instruments typically used for this – a stick and a shoe – are among the tools of his
trade that a retired teacher dedicates to Hermes in an epigram by Phanias (2 GP ¼ AP
6.294). According to the Cynic philosopher Teles, a young individual is continuously
vexed by his educators, namely his paidagōgos, his teachers of physical and musical
education, of grammar and painting, of mathematics, of geometry, and of horseback
riding; and when he is older, he is beaten and controlled by his instructors in physical
education and fighting with weapons, even by the official who is in charge of the
gymnasium (Teles fr. 5, pp. 49–50 Hense).
Teachers were not necessarily regarded with respect. Elementary teachers in par-
ticular had a low social standing. In literature they are regularly pitied for their
profession, and it was an insult to call someone a ‘‘teacher of letters’’ (grammato-
didaskalos; Cribiore 2001a: 59–65). Aratus laments the fate of the poet Diotimus,
who has to teach the children of the Gargarians ‘‘the alpha and beta’’ (2 GP ¼ AP
11.437). In Iamb 5, Callimachus mocks a school teacher, likewise teaching ‘‘alpha
beta’’ (3), pointing out that his pederastic inclinations may get him into trouble some
day. Parents, on the other hand, would express their lack of respect most effectively by
not paying the teacher: in Herodas, Kottalos’ mother complains about the fee (3.9–
10); Theophrastus tells us that a greedy man typically would deduct a percentage
from the teacher’s fees if his sons missed classes due to illness, and not even send his
children to school in months with many holidays (Char. 30.14). Lampriskos, the
teacher in Herodas’ mime, at first appears to be a figure of authority, for, after all, the
exasperated mother turns to him for help in disciplining her son; but in the end, she is
convinced that he has been too lenient with Kottalos, so much so that her old and
largely incapacitated husband could deal with their son more successfully than the
teacher (3.94–7).

Learning the Basics

Bad behavior is only one of Kottalos’ problems; to the despair of his mother, he also
neglects his studies. He habitually ditches classes and hardly ever uses the tablet his
mother once a month laboriously coats with wax; instead, he plays dice all the time
(3.8–22). As a result, he does not even know the most elementary things: like some
nitwits in Callimachus’ Iamb 1 (88), who had ‘‘learned not even the alpha,’’ Kottalos
‘‘cannot even recognize an alpha syllable’’ (3.22–3). Kottalos is very far behind
indeed. Syllabaries were among the very first reading-exercises students encountered
 Education 73

(Cribiore 2001a: 172–5). How far behind Kottalos is becomes clear if one considers
that syllabaries were among the very first reading-exercises (Cribiore 2001a: 172–5),
and that in an epigram Asclepiades characterizes Eros as an infant by having him
mispronounce written love-charms sitting beside his mother (23 GP ¼ AP 12.162).
Kottalos’ attempts at spelling names reflect another common teaching practice:
lists of names figure in many of our school texts. When asked to spell the name
‘‘Maron’’ – a name that typically occurs in lists of names used in school (Rusten
1985) – Kottalos fails miserably, spelling ‘‘Simon’’ instead, the name of a throw of the
dice.
An advanced level of writing skills occurs in an epigram of Asclepiades, the inscrip-
tion for a comic mask which a boy has dedicated to the Muses as thanks for ‘‘winning
the boys’ contest’’ in calligraphy (‘‘because he wrote beautiful letters’’), carrying off a
prize of 80 knucklebones, popular toys (27 GP ¼ AP 6.308). A related epigram by
Callimachus is spoken by a tragic mask of Dionysus that has been dedicated to the
Muses by Simos, son of Mikkos, with a request for ‘‘easy learning’’ (48 Pf. ¼ 26 GP ¼
AP 6.310; quoted by Bruss in this volume). The mask’s mouth ‘‘yawns twice as wide as
the Dionysus of Samos.’’ This playful allusion to the cult of Dionysus Kechēnōs (‘‘with
the open mouth’’) shows how tedious the study of poetry in classrooms often was: the
mask has to listen to the boys incessantly reciting ‘‘my lock is holy,’’ a line spoken by
Dionysus in ‘‘his’’ tragedy, Euripides’ Bacchae (494), which, as has been mentioned
above, was a popular school text.
The dedication to the Muses also indicates how difficult memorizing poetry was
felt to be; Herodas’ Kottalos would certainly agree. His mother complains bitterly
that when she or her husband ask him to recite a (dramatic) speech (rhēsis), as one
would expect from a young man, all that trickles out are disjointed words – a feat even
his grandmother could perform (‘‘and she does not even know letters’’) or indeed
‘‘any passing Phrygian’’ (3.30–6). Kottalos is a hard, if probably not uncommon, case
of a youngster’s indolence. It is more astonishing to read of a grown-up, who has
undergone the cumbersome process of memorizing poetry, refusing to display his
paideia, as Theophrastus’ ‘‘Antisocial Man,’’ who ‘‘won’t sing or recite a speech or
dance’’ (Char. 15.10). Quite the opposite is another of Theophrastus’ characters, the
‘‘Late Learner.’’ He performs enthusiastically what is normally expected of a young-
ster, even if, at the age of sixty, he is no longer able to recall the passages he has
so laboriously memorized when he tries to recite them at a drinking party (Char.
27.1–2).

Grammar and Higher Education

Although probably not as formalized as in later centuries, grammar was part of
secondary education (when longer passages of poetry were read) already in the
Hellenistic period (Cribiore 2001a: 210–15). But apparently not all agreed with this
practice. According to Timon (SH 835), grammar is ‘‘no concern at all for someone
who is being taught the Phoenician signs of Cadmus,’’ i.e., writing and reading.
Perhaps, as Sextus Empiricus, to whom we owe this quotation, understood it
74 Jessica Wissmann

(Math. 1.53), Timon considered the art of grammar totally useless. Alternatively, it
could be a warning not to start with grammar too early.
Only a few disciplines of higher learning appear in Hellenistic poetry. We hear of
professions such as a physiognomist or teacher of dancing (Theoc. ep. 11 Gow ¼
10 GP ¼ AP 7.661; FGE anon. 171); perhaps poetic references to various disciplines
reflect the higher learning practiced at the Alexandrian Museum (Weber 1993: 322).
In addition to these, philosophers or philosophical schools are mentioned, typically to
be ridiculed on grounds of their ostentatious appearance (e.g., FGE anon. 155).
More importantly, Hellenistic poetry reflects the intellectual climate of its time.
What made Egypt an interesting place were, among other things, palaistrai, philo-
sophers, and the Museum (Herod. 1.28–32; quoted in full by Stephens in this
volume). Theocritus praises Ptolemy Philadelphus as a benefactor of poets (Id.
17.112–20) and as ‘‘friend of the Muses’’ (philomousos, Id. 14.61). Perhaps this is
an allusion to the Museum, the most famous expression of the Ptolemies’ interest in
intellectual culture (Strootman and Stephens in this volume). Homer was given
special attention, as the epigram in SH 979 attests; it is unclear, though, whether
the Homereion that this epigram dedicates was a place of worship or included an
institution of learning (as the remnants of a word beginning with did- in the text may
indicate). The poem praises Ptolemy (probably Philopator) enthusiastically as ‘‘the
best leader in both war and culture.’’ Homeric scholarship, for which Alexandria was
made famous by scholars such as Zenodotus and Aristarchus (Pfeiffer 1968: 87–279),
is not only echoed by, for instance, a poem about a statue of the poet and scholar
Philitas, set up at the order of the king in order to honor this ‘‘perfectionist’’
(Posidippus 63 AB). It even inspired a harsh and satirical tone. In an invective against
the school of Aristarchus, Herodicus (FGE 1), perhaps a follower of the school of
Crates at Pergamum, ridicules the Aristarcheans for focusing on linguistic matters.
More explicit is an epigram ascribed to Crates (whether the scholar or another person
by that name is unclear): using terminology and names that, understood at face value,
are associated with Homeric scholarship, he in fact attacks the sexual practices of the
librarian and poet Euphorion (Crates 1 GP ¼ AP 11. 281).

The Gymnasium
It was not only the great centers of scholarship that stood for Greek culture and
education. By the Hellenistic period, gymnasia, which had always been locations for
the physical training of young male citizens, were a key feature of cities, old or newly
(re)founded, throughout the Hellenic oikoumenē (Hesberg 1995: 14; Gauthier 1995).
It is indicative of the increased status of gymnasia that it became a matter of great
prestige to be a gymnasiarch or a benefactor to a gymnasium (Ameling 2004; Schuler
2004). The gymnasium served as a location for competitive athletics and cultural
entertainment, but also as the central place for the intellectual and physical education
of the ephebes (Delorme 1960; Scholz 2004a). Needless to say, such a public space
provided much material for literary productions, oftentimes with a penchant for
eccentric behavior. Theophrastus’ portrait of the ‘‘Late Learner’’ – ludicrously
 Education 75

competing with the paidagōgos of his sons in disciplines such as throwing the javelin
and archery – also illustrates the typical elements of the ephebes’ physical training in the
gymnasium (Char. 27.3–4, 6, 13–14). These included athletic disciplines such as
running and wrestling as well as military training, although this aspect apparently
became less and less important (Burckhardt 2004). Success in athletic competitions
not only brought about respectable insignia, such as a statue awarded to a victor in the
boys’ wrestling competition (‘‘Simonides’’ FGE 30). It also paid off in terms of a man’s
sex-appeal, at least according to Herodas’ Gyllis, who tries to persuade Metriche to
begin an extra-marital affair with such a man (Mimi. 1.51–3). Even though athletics
were practiced under the supervision of a paidotribēs, parents had some influence on
the extent of the physical training: Theophrastus’ ‘‘Absent-minded Man’’ forces his
children to practice wrestling and running to utter exhaustion (Char. 14.10). For
grown-ups, the gymnasium was a place to hang out and watch the ephebes exercising;
an enthusiast might even have his own training arena (Char. 5.7, 9–10). Sometimes the
motivation was to pass the time by talking endlessly to the instructors in the arena and
to the teachers in schools, thus keeping the young from exercising or learning (Char.
7.4). The gymnasium was also the place for the sort of pederastic desires expressed in
the Pseudo-Theocritean Idyll 23; how real a concern this was becomes clear, for
example, from a Gymnasiarchal Law from Verroia in Macedonia that bans homosexuals
from disrobing in the gymnasium (SEG 27.261 ¼ Miller 2004: no. 185).
Closely connected with the ephebes’ age of transition from boyhood to adulthood
was Hermes, to whom a boy would dedicate the toys he no longer played with (Leon.
Tar. 45 GP ¼ AP 6.309). The god had his place in the gymnasium (see, e.g., the
inventory of the gymnasium in Delos, ID 1417AI.118–54 ¼ Miller 2004: no. 180),
where he was worshipped either in a shrine or simply as a statue that, as in an epigram
by Nicias, was crowned with flowers by the boys (7 GP ¼ AP 16.188; cf. Xenocritus
of Rhodes FGE 2). The worship of Hermes was often combined with that of
Heracles, who represented physical training (Aneziri and Damaskos 2004: 248–51)
but was also closely associated with moral and intellectual education.

Famous Students and Teachers

The education of famous individuals became a matter of great interest in the
Hellenistic period. The historian Duris, for example, identified the flute teacher of
Alcibiades. He also reported that Eumenes of Cardia received a traditional education
and impressed King Philip with his skills in wrestling, and that the artist Lysippus of
Sicyon, originally a coppersmith, did not learn his craft from a master but was self-
taught (FGrH 76 F 29, 23, 53, 32). In the footsteps of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia,
entire treatises, now lost, were written on the education of kings: Onesicritus and
Marsyas of Pella, for example, wrote on the education of Alexander, Lysimachus on
that of Attalus I. But the notion of education was also used to ridicule famous
individuals. Timon of Phlius makes fun of Plato by accusing him of plagiarism,
alleging that the philosopher purchased a book (on Pythagorean doctrine), ‘‘for the
desire of learning seized him,’’ and from it ‘‘he was taught’’ to write the Timaeus
76 Jessica Wissmann

(SH 828). Even worse, Timon lampoons Epicurus’ opposition to traditional educa-
tion by pointing out that even though he was the son of a schoolmaster, he was the
most uneducated individual (SH 825).
The interest in the education of prominent individuals was not restricted to humans:
even Zeus was ‘‘educated’’ at some point (Dion. Scyt. FGrH 32 F 8). The most famous
student, however, was Heracles, the hero who became a god and as such presented an
exemplary model for Hellenistic kings (Huttner 1997). The two sides of this hero,
violent brute and civilizing force, are mirrored in accounts of his youth and his
education (Ambühl 2005: 54–8 and in this volume). Already Prodicus’ Choice of
Heracles, in which the hero is faced with the decision whether to take the path of
laborious Virtue or that of pleasurable Vice, is an expression of these two sides of his
nature (Xen. Mem. 2.1.26–34). An actual clash of these two sides is represented in fifth-
century vase-paintings which show Heracles in the act of killing his music teacher,
Linus (Beck 1975: pls. 4–6; Arnott 1996b: 404–6). The civilizing side is also unable to
prevail, albeit with less violence involved, in Alexis’ comedy Linus. Here, Linus asks his
pupil to choose a book from his library to read. Heracles’ character is revealed when he
chooses, to the dismay of his teacher, not Orpheus, Hesiod, Choerilus, Homer,
Epicharmus, or a tragedy, but a cookbook (PCG 2 F 140). Linus’ sarcastic remark that
Heracles is a ‘‘real philosopher’’ and Heracles’ absolute concentration on his stomach
underline the contrast between civilization and nature: the attempt to educate and thus
civilize Heracles is thwarted by the young hero’s gluttony.
As a child of exceptional strength, Heracles does not seem predestined to be a
representative of refined intellectual education. Theocritus’ Idyll 24, however, por-
trays both his family and the young hero himself as ordinary human beings (Ambühl
in this volume). The poem includes a long catalogue of Heracles’ teachers and their
subjects, which creates the suggestion that the young man is to a large extent like any
other ephebe training in a gymnasium, going through the typical exercises in archery,
wrestling, boxing, pancration, and the use of weapons as well as some less typical
ones, such as chariot-driving and commanding an army (103–33). Other subjects are
lyre-playing and letters, the latter taught by Linus, as in Alexis. The results of this
education are unclear, if only because the poem breaks off shortly after. What is clear
is that Theocritus uses education in order to emphasize the ‘‘domestic’’ side of
Heracles. Even more intriguing is the anachronism of a mythological hero learning
letters. In this, Theocritus’ depiction resembles that of Alexis, who gives the
anachronism yet another twist in that Heracles himself would appear as a character
in some of the poetry Linus recommends to him. On a somewhat less humorous
note, in Idyll 13, Theocritus gives a more domesticated version of Heracles in
portraying him not just as a ‘‘tame’’ educatee but also an educator himself:
Heracles teaches his beloved, Hylas, ‘‘as a father teaches his son, everything he needs
to learn to become as noble and renowned as himself’’ (8–9). This Heracles, an
educator par excellence, corresponds to the Heracles worshiped in gymnasia all over
the Hellenistic world. Another mention of his educating Hylas, in Apollonius’
Argonautica, apparently makes fun of this notion. Apollonius’ Hylas is sent out to
fetch water in preparation for dinner, and we learn that ‘‘these were the habits in
which Heracles had trained him’’ when he was a little boy (1.1211). This appears to
be a very ‘‘domestic’’ education, but it is important that it is within the context of
 Education 77

food: what Hylas has been taught is how to cater to his educator’s appetite. Also, the
word Apollonius uses for ‘‘training,’’ pherbō, usually means ‘‘feed’’ or ‘‘nourish’’: in
the otherwise civilized dinner scene the gluttonous side of Heracles shines through.

***
It is highly unlikely that anyone actually believed that a mythological character such as
Heracles had a formal education that resembled the contemporary one in so many
respects. Yet giving heroes and gods an education was more than just one part of
humanizing them by giving them a ‘‘biography’’; it also shows how important a part
education played in an individual’s life in the Hellenistic period. If education had not
been widely spread, it would not have contributed to making a hero more human.
In spite of its oftentimes humorous slant, the representation of education in
Hellenistic poetry fills a significant gap left by the evidence of the school texts: that
of the atmosphere in the classroom. School exercises suggest that much of what was
done in class was rather repetitive and tedious; but nothing could illustrate better to
what degree of boredom even such highly emotive texts as Euripides’ Bacchae were
reduced than Callimachus’ yawning mask of Dionysus. Herodas’ Schoolmaster gives a
good impression of the violence that teachers might exert, of the parents’ helpless-
ness, of a young boy’s recalcitrance. But even so, there are many things we will never
fully know, above all, how teachers talked about the texts they used in class.

FURTHER READING

Pfeiffer 1968 still provides the most extensive collection and discussion of sources on the
intellectual culture in the Hellenistic period. Regarding Hellenistic gymnasia, Nilsson 1955 is
still illuminating and Delorme 1960 presents an impressive range of literary, epigraphical, and
archaeological sources. The articles in Kah and Scholz 2004 address the topic from a variety of
angles. Schaaf 1992: 62–83 focuses on the gymnasium foundations in Athens and Miletus and
the motivations behind them.
On ancient education in general, Cribiore 1996, 2001a, Morgan 1998a, and the papers in
Too 2001 replace Marrou 1982 (1948), presenting an up-to-date picture and systematic
analysis of the evidence and thought-provoking ideas about the operation and role of education
in ancient society.
Rhetorical training has deliberately been excluded from this chapter. On this topic see
Cuypers in this volume.
PART TWO

Poetry
 CHAPTER SIX

The Prefigured Muse: Rethinking

a Few Assumptions
on Hellenistic Poetics
Benjamin Acosta-Hughes

ϰαὶ τὰ μὲν: ἂ½ν Μοίсαι: сεсοϕ:ι½сμέναι

:
ευ Ἑλιϰωνίδ : : ε½с ἐμβαίεν yλόγω½ι
θνατὸс : δ ο: ὔ: ϰ½εν: ἀνὴρ
διερ:½. . . . . .: y τὰ ἕϰαсτα εἴποι.
On these themes the learned Heliconian Muses might embark (in story?), but no mortal
man could tell each detail (clearly?).

The theme in these lines seems a variation of a traditional statement of a poet’s aporia
faced with the magnitude of his subject (compare Il. 2.489 ‘‘not even if I had ten
tongues and ten mouths were mine’’), and the imagery of Heliconian Muses con-
trasted with mortal man appears conventional. Yet Muses termed сεсοϕιсμέναι,
‘‘learned’’ or ‘‘skilled,’’ cannot but startle a modern reader. The standard parallel given
by the commentaries on these lines, that of Theognis 19–20, Κύρνε; сοϕιζομένῳ
μὲν ἐμοὶ сϕρηγὶс ἐπιϰείсθω = τοιÐ сδ ἔπεсιν (‘‘Cyrnus, may these words be the proven
token of my skill’’), does not assuage the reader’s disquiet, for the skill or learnedness
here is the poet’s, not of his divine source of inspiration. Nor does the Hesiodic parallel
at Works and Days 648–62, where it is again the poet himself who is ‘‘not сεсοϕιсμένοс
of sailing and ships’’ (649), elucidate the seeming paradox of our educated Muses. As
to song, it is the Muses who taught Hesiod ‘‘to sing an unimaginable hymn’’
(ΜουÐ сαι γάρ μ ἐδίδαξαν ἀθέсϕατον ὕμνον ἀείδειν, 662). They trained him. The lines
cited above have a very different characterization. That the Muses here have their
learning at second degree, a learning not inherent but acquired, might be understand-
ably assumed at first glance to be a typically ‘‘Hellenistic’’ gesture, as in Hellenistic
poetry the relationship between Muses and poet comes to be more varied, and is
sometimes even inverted (Paduano Faedo 1970; Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004, esp. 1,
6–7, 52–4, 58–9). But these lines are not taken from a poem of the Hellenistic period.
82 Benjamin Acosta-Hughes

Rather they are part of an encomium of Polycrates that is widely attributed to the sixth-
century poet Ibycus of Rhegium (PMGF S151 ¼ P.Oxy. 1790 fr. 1; text after
Hutchinson 2001: 41). Ibycus, though from the western Greek world, sang at the
court of Polycrates of Samos and, after Polycrates’ death, under the patronage of the
Pisistratid tyrants, at Athens. The court of Polycrates attracted poets from different
parts of the Greek world. Set geographically across from the kingdom of Lydia,
subsequently a western satrapy of the Persian empire, Samos came face to face with
another people and its ancient culture. The parallels with Ptolemaic Alexandria are
many, and indeed this may help explain Ibycus’ later popularity with Hellenistic poets.
Nonetheless, Ibycus’ encomium, for all of its apparent novelty and experimentation, is
a late sixth century poem. It might be added that scholars of Ibycus generally do not
like this poem any more than those of Theocritus like his encomium of Ptolemy
Philadelphus (Id. 17). And for many of the same reasons.
These lines are in fact emblematic of a larger problem in approaching the poetry of
the Hellenistic period. The term ‘‘Hellenistic’’ has its origins in the study of history
(it was coined by Droysen, 1833–43), and as a historical term it has a clear definition:
it defines the period from the death of Alexander the Great to the death of Cleopatra
VII (323–30 BCE ). As a discursive term for literature, ‘‘Hellenistic’’ is much more
problematic. For example, if one defines ‘‘Hellenistic literature’’ as the literature of
the Hellenic diaspora instantiated by Alexander’s conquests, a valid argument can be
made that Hellenistic literature only ended, at least in the Mediterranean, with the
violent nationalism of the twentieth century, when the Greek populations largely
vanished from Asia Minor and Egypt. And that still leaves in question the present-day
Greek populations of the Americas, Africa, and Australia, who live, as did many of
their post-Alexander forebears, among other peoples and cultures, with the Athenian
Acropolis and the temples at Delphi (though now in ruins) as their imagined hetero-
topia, the marker of their Hellenicity (Leontis 1995: 43). A valid argument can be
made, too, that the early twentieth century poet Constantine Cavafy was the ultimate
‘‘Hellenistic’’ poet (Scodel 2003); in his allusivity, his engagement with a distant and
largely mythical past, his oblique perception of figures, his emphasis on the refined
and intricate, Cavafy epitomizes many of the qualities Classicists associate with
‘‘Hellenistic poetry.’’
If ‘‘Hellenistic’’ is to be defined through characteristics rather than date, there is also
no clear beginning. Ibycus’ encomium of Polycrates is but one of many compositional
movements in Archaic and Classical literature that not only prefigures a poetics often
termed ‘‘Hellenistic,’’ but might indeed be cited as an example of this poetics. The 48
surviving lines – the papyrus begins with an antistrophe – effect a catalogue of heroes of
the Trojan War whose excellence the singer will not tell, thus at once evoking the Muse
invocation opening the Catalogue of Ships in Iliad 2 and clarifying our singer’s act of
variation. The rhetorical form is a praeteritio, reminiscent of Sappho’s priamel fr. 16
LP; like that poem, Ibycus’ composition prefers the erotic to the military, and segues to
the celebration of beauty (that of Polycrates).
Ibycus launches into his praeteritio with the words ‘‘now mine is not to hymn the
desirous deceiver of his host, Paris, nor Cassandra of the slim ankles’’ ðνυÐ ν δέ μοι
οὔτε ξειναπά τ½αν Π½άριν = ½:: ἐπιθύμιον οὔτε τανί½сϕυρ½ον = ὑμνηÐ ν Καссάνδραν,
10–12). The adversative νυÐ ν δέ μοι both juxtaposes singer and Muses and heroic and
 The Prefigured Muse 83

contemporary time and further sets this poem against the Homeric ones. Contrast of a
heroic past and the present, as here, is a hallmark of Alexandrian poetry, and the
avoidance of the Trojan War and its associated themes is a central feature of Hellenistic
poetics (Sistakou 2008). There are many features of these lines that might lead a modern
reader to assume this is a Hellenistic work. And this reader would be wrong.
In a recent monograph on the narrative voice in Hellenistic poetry, Andrew
Morrison has made a strong case for a reading of Greek poetry that prefers the
integral continuity of its poetics over a historical period division with an implicit
teleological prejudice (Morrison 2007). This chapter, while far more modest in scope,
is related in its focus. In the following pages I consider a small selection of moments
in Archaic and Classical poetry that not merely prefigure some of the most cited
compositional gestures of Hellenistic poetics but are essentially the same gestures,
and suggest the need for a nuanced re-evaluation of the literary critical term
‘‘Hellenistic poetics.’’ For convenience this study is composed of three sections.
The first two survey passages in several lyric, elegiac, and epic poets (Anacreon,
Simonides, Timotheus, and Choerilus) that concern poetic program and artistic
innovation; the third looks at the portrayal of Aeschylus and Euripides as rivals in
art in the agon of Aristophanes’ Frogs.

Two Programmatic Passages

οὐ ϕιλέω; ὃс ϰρητηÐ ρι παρὰ πλέωι οἰνοποτάζων
νείϰεα ϰαὶ πόλεμον δαϰρυόεντα λέγει,
ἀλλ ὅсτιс Μουсέων τε ϰαὶ ἀγλαὰ δωÐ ρ Ἀϕροδίτηс
сυμμίсγων ἐρατηÐ с μνήсϰεται εὐϕροсύνηс.
I don’t like the man who when drinking wine by a full mixing-bowl talks of strife and
tearful war. Rather I like the one who, mingling the splendid gifts of the Muses and
Aphrodite, makes mention of lovely festivity.

ἄγε δηυ τε μηϰέτ οὕτω

πατάγωι τε ϰἀλαλητωÐ ι
Σϰυθιϰὴν πόсιν παρ οἴνωι
μελετωÐ μεν; ἀλλὰ ϰαλοιÐ с
ὑποπίνοντεс ἐν ὕμνοιс.
Come again, let us no longer so practice drinking in the Scythian manner, with clatter
and shouting, but drink moderately with beautiful songs of praise.

These two fragments of poems attributed to Anacreon, one in elegiac couplets (IEG 2),
the other in anacreontics (PMG 356b), both outline a ‘‘poetics’’ of the symposium in a
series of contrasts: other/ours, war/love, gross/discrete, hateful/joyful. The singer
of the first passage associates himself (through the gesture οὐ ϕιλέω . . . ἀλλά) with
the singer of the Muses and Aphrodite, the singer of the second with a preference for
the orderly over the noisy and foreign (‘‘drinking in the Scythian manner’’). That the
elegiac fragment is so little cited, even in studies of elegy, may well be due to the
84 Benjamin Acosta-Hughes

unfortunate fact that standard selections of lyric poetry omit poetry in non-lyric meters
by the poets they showcase.
Comparison with two lines from Callimachus, now generally thought to have come
at the beginning of Aetia 2 (D’Alessio 2007: 555 n.14; Zetzel 1981), reveals a similar
use of symposiastic decorum (fr. 178.11–12 Pf.):

ϰαὶ γὰρ ὁ Θρηι ϰ̈ ίην μὲν ἀπέсτυγε χανδὸν ἄμυсτιν

ζωροποτειÐ ν; ὀλίγωι δ ἥδετο ϰιссυβίωι.
For he too despised drinking unmixed wine without pause, mouth open, in the Thracian
manner and rather took pleasure in the small drinking-bowl.

The Callimachean elegiac lines parallel several Anacreontic images. Thracians substi-
tute for Scythians as disorderly foreigners. The fragment of Callimachus has been
much studied for its programmatic significance, especially as echoed in Roman elegy,
but the Anacreon parallels suggest that a nuanced reconsideration, and an important
one, is in order. Is not already Anacreon defining a type of elegy, here that of the
symposium, as the appropriate setting for certain themes and an inappropriate one for
others? The disinclination for military themes at the symposium in fact has a long
tradition in elegy (e.g., Xenophanes fr. 1.13–24 Gentili and Prato 2002; Thgn. 757–
64). So, is not Callimachus here, as elsewhere in the Aetia, underlining his adherence
to an earlier elegiac poetics?
A new fragment of the fifth-century poet Simonides of Ceos offers a similar
paradigm for Hellenistic poetics. This is fr. 11 (IEG) of the so-called ‘‘Plataea elegy,’’
a poem for those who fell against the Persians at Plataea that appears to have been
much imitated by later poets (Hunter 1996: 97–109; Barchiesi 2001b). The struc-
ture of the poem is commonly agreed to be at least tripartite (Rutherford 2001b: 38;
Obbink 2001: 65–6, 69–73). It begins with a hymnic proem celebrating Achilles and
the East–West conflict of the heroic past, but then transitions to Simonides’ own time
and contemporary subject matter (text after Sider 2001: 18):

ἁγέμαχοι Δαναοί½
οιffl сιν ἐπ ἀθάνατον
: ϰέχυται ϰλέοс :
ἀν½δρὸс ἕϰητι 15
ὅс παρ ἰοπλοϰάμων δέξατο Πιερίδ½ων
—r :
— —]θείην ϰαὶ ἐπώνυμον ὁπ½λοτέροιсιν
—r — ἡμ:ιθέων ὠϰυμόρον γενεή½ν. :
ἀλλὰ сὺ μὲν νυÐ ν χαιÐ ρε; θεαÐ с ἐριϰυ½δέοс υἱέ
ϰούρηс εἰναλίου Νηρέοс αὐτὰρ ἐγώ :½ 20
ϰιϰλήсϰω с ἐπίϰουρον ἐμοί; π½. . . . . .ε ΜουÐ сα,
εἴ πέρ γ ἀνθρώπων: εὐχομένω½ν μέλεαι
ἔντυνον: ϰαὶ τόνδ½ε μελ:ίϕρονα ϰ½όсμον ἀοιδηÐ с
: ἵνα τι :с ½μνή :с:ε:τ:α:ι ὑ½:
ἡμετ έρηс;
. . . the Greek generals [upon whom imm]ortal fame was poured because of that man
[who] received from the [violet]-tressed Pierian Muses [all truth] and made famous for
later men the short lived race of demi-gods. [But you] farewell, famed son of the divine
[daughter] of Nereus of the sea. But I [call upon] you as my ally. . . Muse, [if you have a
care for] men’s prayers [make] this delightful adornment of [my] song so that someone
[will remember] . . .
 The Prefigured Muse 85

The lines develop an equation of present poet (Simonides) with past poet (Homer),
present East–West conflict (the war against the Persians) with past East–West conflict
(the Trojan War), and so confer on the present subjects of song the fame (ϰλέοс, 15)
of the earlier heroes. This evaluation of present conflict and present fighters in terms
of the heroic past is key to understanding the cultural significance of Simonides’
poem, and later imitations of it, especially by Theocritus in his encomium of Ptolemy
Philadelphus (Id. 17; Hunter 2003a: 185–6, 195–9). An important effect of this
transition is the portrayal of the warriors of Plataea not just in heroic terms but
specifically in Homeric ones. By, for example, importing the figures of Menelaus and,
probably, the Tyndarids into his poetic narrative of the Battle of Plataea (31),
Simonides maintains the figure of Homer before his audience as one of both his
own poetic identity in a tradition of singers of battle, and at the same time of
disassociation, for these are his warriors and his ‘‘epic’’ battle. His is at once a poem
of emulation and one of artistic self-definition. And, yes, this is a compositional
gesture we often term ‘‘Hellenistic.’’

Artistic Novelty and its Problems

A later fifth-century poem on the Persian Wars, Timotheus’ Persians, makes a different
compositional gesture that became a Hellenistic theme, the defense against critical
reception of artistic novelty. Timotheus is representative, along with, for example,
Philoxenus and Cinesias, of an artistic movement that flourished toward the end of
the fifth century, known as the New Music (the term is something of a misnomer), one
that found distinct disfavor with Plato (Csapo 2004: 236 for citations, 207–8 on the
term). Timotheus’ Persians is a ‘‘citharodic nome,’’ a poem sung to the lyre in ‘‘lyric’’
meters. It is astrophic (typical also of Hellenistic lyric poetry: Fantuzzi in this volume),
polymetric, and marked by an often strikingly innovative vocabulary (particularly in
compounds and metaphors). Timotheus’ own commentary on his poetry’s reception
at Sparta is very revealing (text after Hordern 2002a):

ἀλλ ω χρυсεοϰίθαριν ἀέ-

ξων ΜουÐ сαν νεοτευχηÐ ,
ἐμοιÐ с ἔλθ ἐπίϰουροс ὕ-
μνοιс ἰήϊε Παιάν 205
ὁ γάρ μ εὐγενέταс μαϰραί-
ων Σπάρταс μέγαс ἁγεμὼν
βρύων ἄνθεсιν ἥβαс
δονειÐ λαὸс ἐπιϕλέγων
ἐλαÐ ι τ αἴθοπι μώμωι, 210
ὅτι παλαιοτέραν νέοιс
ὕμνοιс ΜουÐ сαν ἀτιμωÐ 
ἐγὼ δ οὔτε νέον τιν οὔ-
τε γεραὸν οὔτ ἰсήβαν
εἴργω τωÐ νδ ἑϰὰс ὕμνων 215
τοὺс δὲ μουсοπαλαιολύ-
86 Benjamin Acosta-Hughes

μαс; τούτουс δ ἀπερύϰω,

λωβητηÐ ραс ἀοιδωÐ ν,
ϰηρύϰων λιγυμαϰροϕώ-
νων τείνονταс ἰυγάс. 220
But you who boost the new-fashioned Muse of the golden lyre, come as ally to my hymns,
iēie Paian. The well-born and long-lived Spartan great leader, the people teeming with the
flowers of youth, harass me with fire and chase me with burning blame, alleging that I, with
my new hymns, dishonor the more traditional Muse. But I keep nothing new, nor old, nor
contemporary at a distance from these hymns. Rather the ancient-Muse-soilers, these
I keep off, destroyers of singers, straining cries of far-heard-shrill-voiced heralds.

The poem is from a late fifth century poet but the terms are very like those we
associate with Callimachus: tradition versus novelty, dishonoring the Muse, Pindaric
μωÐ μοс (‘‘criticism’’) in an aesthetically critical setting, physical violence (real or
metaphorical) directed against the innovative singer. The singer’s stance, like that of
Callimachus in his thirteenth Iamb (fr. 203 Pf.), is at once defensive and offensively
programmatic: he seeks to ally himself with the best of an earlier tradition while
distancing himself from those who have corrupted the Muse. The detractors of these
poets of the late fifth century, Plato among them, fault this innovative music for its
πολυειδεία and ποιϰιλία, its constant shifts in mode and mood and ‘‘baroque’’
elaboration – some of the very features that come to mind in essaying a simple
classroom definition of the term ‘‘Hellenistic.’’
A passage from the proem of another late fifth century poem on the Persian Wars,
Choerilus of Samos’ epic Persica (SH 317 ¼ PEG fr. 2), frames the poet’s engagement
with his poetic predecessors as one of artistic belatedness:

α μάϰαρ; ὅсτιс ἔην ϰειÐ νον χρόνον ἴδριс ἀοιδηÐ с,

Μουсάων θεράπων; ὅτ ἀϰήρατοс η ν ἔτι λειμών
νυÐ ν δ ὅτε πάντα δέδαсται; ἔχουсι δὲ πείρατα τέχναι,
ὕсτατοι ὥсτε δρόμου ϰαταλειπόμεθ ; οὐδέ πηι ἔсτι
πάντηι παπταίνοντα νεοζυγὲс ἅρμα πελάссαι.
Blessed was he who was skilled in song in that time, a servant of the Muses, when the field
was yet undefiled. Now when everything has been allotted, and the arts have limits, we are
left behind in the race, and for someone looking there is nowhere to drive a newly yoked
chariot.

Choerilus’ lines not only lament the lack of novel directions in which the contem-
porary poet might go, they do so in a series of images taken from earlier poets and
poetry, a gesture also to be performed by much Hellenistic poetry. The overtones of
Archilochus, Pindar, and Homer discernible in Choerilus’ proem themselves illustrate
the singer’s aporia – he phrases his lack of novel direction in others’ voices. It is not
surprising that Callimachus in turn, when he eschews composition on the Persian
Wars (Aetia fr. 1.15–16 Pf.), does so in a setting that markedly recalls Choerilus’
mosaic of earlier poets (Acosta-Hughes and Stephens 2002). Yet if ‘‘Hellenistic’’
poetry defines itself in terms of earlier poetry that makes the same compositional
gesture, the lines of demarcation between them become blurred. Choerilus already
finds himself overwhelmed by the poetic past, and at the same time his poetry is an
 The Prefigured Muse 87

amalgam of intertexts. A traditional definition of ‘‘Hellenistic poetics’’ might single

out precisely these two characteristics as symptomatic of the artistic period; but
temporally we are not even close.

Antitechnai – Rivals in Art

Hitherto I have discussed brief passages of poems that prefigure, whether in lan-
guage, imagery, or tone, concepts we tend to regard as ‘‘Hellenistic.’’ There is,
however, an extant work that encompasses many of the signal elements of
‘‘Hellenistic poetics’’ at some length – this is Aristophanes’ Frogs. First performed
at the Lenaia of 405, Frogs is, among other things, Aristophanes’ comic treatment of
Athens’ poetic past. The play’s very conceit, Dionysus’ journey to Hades in search of
Euripides, marks the play as retrospective; it is a reaction to, or perhaps better result
of, earlier poetry. The long agon or ‘‘formal contest’’ in the second part of the drama
between Aeschylus and Euripides, an artistic duel between two ἀντιτέχναι or ‘‘oppon-
ents in art’’ (Frogs 816), pitches a newer, lighter, cleverer poetics against an older,
heavier, more bombastic one, as each is contending for the underworld ‘‘chair of
tragedy’’ (769) on grounds of artistic excellence, which in the value system explored
by the play is intrinsically connected to moral excellence and educational value (esp.
1007–13).
The echoes of this confrontation in later poetry are many, and I touch only on a few
here that are entwined in the opening of Callimachus’ Aetia. In the weighing of
verses, Aeschylean ‘‘heavy’’ topics, such as ‘‘death,’’ outweigh Euripidean ‘‘airy’’
ones, such as ‘‘persuasion’’ (1364–1410). Aetia fr. 1.9–10 picks up the general
concept of weighing and measuring poetry, but with an artful reversal of
Aristophanes’ outcome: in Callimachus it is apparently the lighter poem that prevails,
paradoxically ‘‘outweighing’’ (ϰαθέλϰει at fr. 1.9 recalls ϰαθέλξει at Frogs 1398) the
longer and therefore ‘‘heavier’’ one (Acosta-Hughes and Stephens 2002; Harder in
this volume). The chorus at Frogs 814 gives Aeschylus Zeus’ Homeric epithet
‘‘thunderer’’ (ἐπιβρεμέταс); at Aetia fr. 1.20 Callimachus declares: ‘‘to thunder is
not for me, but for Zeus’’ (βρονταÐ ν οὐϰ ἐμόν; ἀλλὰ Διόс). And if we remember that
the conceit of the agon in the Frogs is to judge which of the two poets is
τὴν τέχνην сοϕώτεροс (780), Callimachus’ injunction to judge сοϕία by τέχνη (fr.
1.17–18) becomes the more intriguing.
In the introduction to his edition of the Frogs, Dover details the rapport of literary
criticism and popular culture in the late fifth century (1993: 24–37). The play’s
discourse, as Dover convincingly shows, is not above the heads of Aristophanes’
audience, nor, we should note, is that of the opening of Callimachus’ Aetia above
the heads of his readers. These are metaphors accessible to anyone. The ‘‘advice’’ of the
Aetia’s prologue consists largely of the reworking of fairly well tried literary tropes,
although in terms of intertextuality it is a complex work (Asper 1997; Acosta-Hughes
and Stephens 2002), This not to deny the originality of Callimachus’ composition, nor
to re-awaken the tired claim that Hellenistic poetry is a derivative form of art, but rather
to call attention to its place in a continuum of artistic production. The critical discourse
88 Benjamin Acosta-Hughes

on poetic style and content not only existed already at the time of the performance of
Frogs in 404, it was familiar enough to a general audience to be viable material for
comedy.
Among the thematic charges laid against Euripides in the Frogs (and also elsewhere
in Aristophanes, notably in the Thesmophoriazusae and Acharnians), is his treatment
of heroic characters. In particular Euripides is criticized for representing male heroes
in ‘‘unheroic’’ situations (for example, Telephus and Menelaus as exiles in rags) and
female heroines overcome by illicit passion (Phaedra, Stheneboea). Euripides’
‘‘unheroic’’ heroes are indeed an innovative creative feature, and they in many ways
prefigure the downscaling that is one of the signal features of Hellenistic poetry,
heroes likewise tend to appear in less than heroic settings: in Callimachus’ Aetia,
Heracles visits the poor farmer Molorcus (Harder in this volume); in Theocritus’ Idyll
24, he appears as a baby in homely surroundings; and in the post-Theocritean Idyll
25, he joins his host Augeas for a cattle inspection (Ambühl 2004; Ambühl and
Harder in this volume). Another signal Hellenistic feature is the creation of heroes
whose heroism is more psychologically complicated, such as Apollonius’ Jason and
the Heracles of Theocritus’ Idyll 13. Heroines overwhelmed by erotic impulse are
another recurring feature of Hellenistic poetry (the narratives preserved in Parthenius’
Love Stories are indicative here: Lightfoot 1999), and indeed the in-depth reading of
psychological trauma was at one time seen as the period’s contribution to Greek erotic
poetry. Yet the Phaedra of Euripides’ Hippolytus is a telling example of earlier detailed
treatment of passion outside of lyric. Among the lost plays of Euripides that might
have been even more revealing here is the original Hippolytus (TrGF 5 F 34), where the
scene that allegedly drew the opprobrium of contemporary viewers, the face-to-face
confrontation of Phaedra and Hippolytus, would be of great interest as a comparan-
dum, notably for the confrontation between Medea and Jason in Apollonius’
Argonautica.
Two other, related charges laid against Euripides in the Frogs deserve brief consid-
eration here. These are a preoccupation with the domestic and with humble charac-
ters (948–1003). Dionysus’ list of mislaid household items at 980–90 is of course
ridiculous, but Aristophanes’ basic point is again accurate. An interest in domestic
detail is also a feature of much extant Hellenistic poetry. Callimachus’ Hecale is the
outstanding example, and some of the similes in Apollonius’ Argonautica (e.g.,
3.291–95, 755–70), while these have Homeric models, are at the same time remark-
able for their homely subject matter. Euripides in the Frogs prides himself on the wide
social range of his speaking characters: ‘‘then from the first works I wouldn’t leave
anyone idle, but the wife in my play would speak, and the slave no less, the master, the
young girl and the old woman too’’ (948–50). This play on Euripides’ ‘‘democratic’’
(952) composition is again parodic, but it does take into account the large speaking
presence of characters like the farmer of the Electra and Phaedra’s nurse in the
Hippolytus. Figures like Callimachus’ Molorcus, Theocritus’ Simaetha, and the cast
of Herodas’ Mimiambs owe something to the larger role given to humbler characters
in Euripidean tragedy as well as comedy. Both domestic detail and humble character
return as topics in Aeschylus’ extended parody of Euripidean choral song and mon-
ody further on in Frogs, in a passage that is startlingly like a miscellany of different
Hellenistic authors (1298–1363).
 The Prefigured Muse 89

Monody itself is a late development on the tragic stage, preserved for us in

Euripides and in Aristophanes’ parodies of his style (Battezzato 1995). Tragic mon-
odies and long soliloquies are a clear antecedent of the solo ‘‘arias’’ of later elegiac
and hexameter poetry, as varied as Acontius’ in Callimachus’ Aetia (preserved largely
in later imitations and in Aristaenetus’ prose rendition: Rosenmeyer 1996),
Simaetha’s in Theocritus’ Idyll 2, and Ariadne’s in Catullus 64; the Fragmentum
Grenfellianum is another obvious example (Esposito 2005: 62–5 and in this volume).
In particular, monody allows for expanded psychological characterization. Medea’s
soliloquy of tormented indecision at Argonautica 3.771–801, for example, owes a
great deal to the conventions of tragic monologue in general and to Medea’s speeches
in Euripides’ Medea in particular, especially to her soliloquy of tormented indecision
at 1022–55 (Fusillo 2001); the focus in both passages on parents, children, and fear
of humiliation is very telling.
As Euripides and Aeschylus prepare to engage, the chorus frames their artistic duel
as one of operatic grandeur or сεμνότηс against intellectual cleverness or λεπτότηс
(814–17):

η που δεινὸν ἐπιβρεμέταс χόλον ἔνδοθεν ἕξει,

ἡνίϰ ἂν ὀξύλαλόν περ ἴδηι θήγοντοс ὀδόντα
ἀντιτέχνου τότε δὴ μανίαс ὑπὸ δεινηÐ с
ὄμματα сτροβήсεται.
And, I think, thundering mightily, he (Aeschylus) will have a fearsome rage in his heart,
when he sees his rival in art whetting his sharp-talking tooth. Then will he roll his eyes in
fearsome frenzy.

Thundering characters, rolling eyes, and inspired frenzy convey epic grandeur, but in
the eyes of Euripides they lack subtlety and sophistication, are empty bombast; sharp-
talking teeth suggest mental acumen and verbal skill, but also, in Aeschylus’ diagno-
sis, wordiness and sophistry, speech without substance. Thus the chorus captures the
essence of both antagonists’ styles and artistic programs in terms that speak as
succinctly and effectively as the images of Callimachus’ Aetia prologue.
The term ἀντιτέχνηс in this passage suggests a way of looking at poetry both as a
τέχνη and as competitive. Opposition in any agonistic setting is quintessentially
Greek, and the idea of rivalry between two artists has a longer history, both in earlier
and later Greek poetry (Duchemin 1968; Collins 2004). Such pairs of rivals include
Homer and Hesiod (in the tradition of the Contest of Homer and Hesiod), Pindar and
Simonides (where too the antagonism has a distinctly ethical dimension), Plato and
Isocrates (in a different discursive realm), and, of course, Callimachus and Apollonius.
Scholarship on Hellenistic poetry has often framed the perceived ‘‘quarrel’’ of
Callimachus and Apollonius in terms of the cultural setting of the Alexandrian
Museum. Here the oft-cited text is a fragment of Timon of Philius (SH 786 ¼ Ath.
1.22d ¼ fr. 12 Di Marco 1989):

πολλοὶ μὲν βόсϰονται ἐν Αἰγύπτωι πολυϕύλωι

βιβλιαϰοὶ χαραϰιÐ ται ἀπείρατα δηριόωντεс
Μουсέων ἐν ταλάρωι.
90 Benjamin Acosta-Hughes

In Egypt of many peoples many papyrus nestlings, quarreling incessantly, are fed in the
Muses’ basket.

It is likely enough that the Museum was the center of intense literary polemic (Lelli
2004; Strootman in this volume). Yet we should perhaps also view the references of
the biographical tradition to rivalry between Apollonius and Callimachus, two artists
who are in so many ways remarkably alike and whose work contains unmistakable
cross-references, as part of a Greek cultural tradition that sets ‘‘masters of truth’’ in
opposition to one another (what Detienne has called the ‘‘whole current of dicho-
tomic thought . . . a way of thinking in terms of alternatives,’’ 1996: 126). There is,
further, a distinct parallelism observable in the pairs of rivals: one figure is framed as
‘‘traditional’’ (Aeschylus, Pindar, Apollonius), the other as ‘‘innovative’’ (Euripides,
Simonides, Callimachus – though it is interesting that Apollonius, the one represen-
tative of the ‘‘older’’ art form, is given in his biographical tradition as the ‘‘pupil,’’
μαθητήс, of Callimachus). At issue in all three cases are questions of language, genre,
the purpose of poetry, and ultimately ethics.
We need to distinguish here between the cultural tradition that establishes this
antithesis between poets and the poets themselves. Just as the contest in the Frogs
need not reflect what Aeschylus and Euripides in fact thought of one another, so too
we should perhaps not make too much of the comment preserved in a scholion to
the concluding lines on Envy and Apollo of Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo: ‘‘he
reproaches with these words those who make fun of him for not being able
to compose a large poem, hence he was forced to compose the Hecale’’ (schol.
h. 2.106).
The epigram ascribed to Apollonius at AP 11.275 is another case in point:

Καλλίμαχοс τὸ ϰάθαρμα; τὸ παίγνιον; ὁ ξύλινοс νουÐ с,

αἴτιοс; ὁ γράψαс Αἴτια Καλλιμάχου:
Callimachus the rubbish, the toy, the wooden head, is the cause, the one who wrote
Callimachus’ Causes.

Do these lines reflect the opinions of the poet Apollonius, or are we dealing with a
constructed poetic rivalry? There is no way to be sure.
Popular reception of Greek cultural figures often seeks, in an almost carnivalesque
fashion, to downplay their socio-cultural importance. Low birth, unseemly deaths,
accusations of rape, theft, and other crimes pervade their biographical traditions.
Aeschylus’ repeated quips in the Frogs about Euripides’ alleged less-than-noble
parentage (‘‘son of the vegetable goddess,’’ 840; cf. 947) and less-than-happy mar-
riage (1045–8) are part and parcel of artistic slugfests. Both Callimachus in his fourth
Iamb (and Ovid in Amores 3.1) may be playing on this tradition (in fact, Callimachus’
reference in the opening lines of the fourth Iamb to a popular fable may be a tongue
in cheek reference to just such popular reception of art). But this need not mean that
such battles actually occurred. Reception is not necessarily reality, and this is especially
true of laughing at high art.
 The Prefigured Muse 91

***
To a certain extent Hellenistic poetry’s interstitial position in Classical Studies is
responsible for the way the traditional perception of ‘‘Hellenistic poetics’’ has
evolved. Latinists who look to Hellenistic poets for models for Roman authors do
not necessarily read extensively in earlier Greek literature; conversely scholars of
Archaic and Classical Greek do not necessarily read post-fifth-century poetry, and
hence do not draw the connections that the later evolution of Greek poetry provides.
The discourse in which scholarly discussion of Hellenistic poetry is framed is also at
fault here; the qualities of ‘‘belatedness’’ and ‘‘cultural anxiety’’ are a given rather
than even points of discussion. Even the vocabulary in which this discourse is con-
ducted is not unproblematic: the ‘‘re’’ of ‘‘refashioning,’’ ‘‘recalling,’’ ‘‘reconsider-
ing’’ already suggests something at a second remove.
There are however signs of change. A relatively recent development in the schol-
arship on Hellenistic poetry is one that not so much emphasizes its relationship to the
Greek poetic past, though this remains integral to this literature, as highlights its place
as origin of the literary present, of our literary present, to see in Hellenistic poetry, as
indeed in other aspects of the post-Alexander Mediterranean world, the origin of
modernity. This scholarship foregrounds more the inventive than the reactive in
Hellenistic poetics, and, together with recent work on Hellenistic as post-Platonic
poetry and on Hellenistic literary criticism, may well further change the way we
discuss Hellenistic poetry – less as an art burdened by a Golden Age past but rather
one that enhances the principles it inherits from earlier artists and develops further,
and then further.

FURTHER READING

Recent work on Hellenistic poetry and its use of poetic models includes Cusset 1999, Asper
1997, Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004, Morrison 2007, and Acosta-Hughes 2009. Cameron 1995a,
though not uncontentious, is a signal re-evaluation not only of Callimachus himself but also of
the history of scholarly evaluation of him. Green 1993 in his chapters on Callimachus and
Apollonius takes a more traditional approach to their ‘‘quarrel.’’ Among recent studies that
highlight the ‘‘modern’’ character of Hellenistic poetry, including its use of the poetic past, are
Selden 1998, Payne 2007, and Radke 2007. Csapo 2004 provides a very helpful discussion of the
significance of the New Music in later fifth-century Athens; see also Prauscello 2009 on the New
Music and Callimachus. On Plato’s role in re-figuring the discourse on poetry and its value for
later poets see Weineck 1992, for Plato and Callimachus, Acosta-Hughes and Stephens 2007,
and on Hellenistic literary criticism Gutzwiller in this volume.
 CHAPTER SEVEN

Callimachus’ Aetia
Annette Harder

The elegiac Aetia was Callimachus’ main work, probably written in several stages in
the course of his career as a poet at Alexandria in the first half of the third century BCE .
Thanks to a considerable number of papyrus finds we are now able to form a
reasonable picture of this typically Hellenistic poem, which has inspired so many
subsequent poets.
In its overall structure the Aetia was a catalogue poem, which contained a collec-
tion of aetiological stories. It explained, for instance, the origins of unusual rituals,
such as that for Heracles at Lindos, where the priests scolded the hero during
sacrifices, or of surprising statues, like that of Artemis at Leucas, which carried a
mortar on its head. Other stories, such as the love story of Acontius and Cydippe,
which explained the origin of a ruling family at Ceos, were not related to ritual, but
were aetiological in a broad sense. Many contained secondary aitia as well, like the
story of the Argonauts at Anaphe, where, apart from the origin of a ritual for Apollo
Aegletes, we also find a number of foundation stories.
The Aetia consisted of four books and fell into two clearly distinguished parts. In
Books 1 and 2 the stories were told within the framework of a dialogue with the
Muses, who answered the questions of ‘‘Callimachus’’ in a dream that carried him as a
young man to Mount Helicon. In Books 3 and 4 the stories were juxtaposed without
this kind of framework and there is no evidence that Callimachus created any kind of
transition from one story to the next. The work opened with a prologue (fr. 1
Pfeiffer) in which ‘‘Callimachus’’ defends himself against the criticisms of the so-
called Telchines, who reproach him for not writing a continuous work in many
thousands of lines about kings and heroes. ‘‘Callimachus’’ then claims to follow
Apollo’s instructions to cultivate a ‘‘slender Muse’’ and go along ‘‘untrodden paths’’
when writing poetry (1.23–8). The views on poetic style expressed in the prologue
are underlined by a large number of allusions to other authors and seem to have been
put into practice in the rest of the Aetia.
 Callimachus’ Aetia 93

The appearance of the work as we know it may reflect the stages in which
Callimachus wrote it. The view which is almost generally accepted nowadays is that
of Parsons, proposed upon the discovery of the papyri of the Victory of Berenice in
1976. Parsons suggested that Callimachus wrote Aetia 1–2 as a young man, and that
he continued writing aetiological poems which later in life he collected in Aetia 3–4,
framed by two poems for Berenice II, the Victory of Berenice at the beginning of
Book 3 and the Lock of Berenice at the end of Book 4, resulting in ‘‘a bipartite Aetia,
to which a new prologue (fr. 1) and a new epilogue (fr. 112) gave external unity’’
(Parsons 1977: 50). With this proposal he refined an earlier idea of Pfeiffer (1953:
xxxvi–vii), who had suggested that the Aetia was an early work, written before 270
BCE , and that the old Callimachus had made a second edition of it, framing it with a
prologue (fr. 1) and epilogue (fr. 112) and including the Lock of Berenice (fr. 110)
some time after the beginning of 246, when Ptolemy III Euergetes married Berenice
II. The references to old age in the prologue seem to support the reconstruction of
Pfeiffer and Parsons, even though one cannot be sure how much of the emphasis on
old age is poetic fiction. Recently their ideas have been challenged by Cameron
(1995a), who argues that Aetia 1–2, including the prologue and epilogue, were
written around 270 BCE , and that Aetia 3–4 were added in 245/240. His arguments,
however, are far from cogent (Harder 2002b: 600–3).
The Aetia was an influential poem. It was admired and imitated by many later Greek
and Latin poets, commented on by such scholars as Theon and Epaphroditus, and
circulated widely, to judge from the number of surviving papyri, the latest of which
dates from the seventh century CE and contains many learned marginal comments.
Somewhere in the thirteenth century the work seems to have been lost, to be gradually
rediscovered only in the twentieth century thanks to papyrus finds. To mention some
highlights, the story of Acontius and Cydippe was first published in 1910, the prologue
in 1927, the Diegeseis, which gave us summaries of most of Books 3 and 4, in 1934, and
the Victory of Berenice in 1976. In addition to these, there were many smaller finds,
which all helped to form a clearer picture of what the Aetia had been like.
The reactions to the papyrus finds were not immediately favorable, and among
scholars in the first half of the twentieth century one can often hear some disappoint-
ment about newly rediscovered parts of the Aetia. Scholars judged that the story of
Acontius and Cydippe, although it was very learned, did not show a great deal of
‘‘art’’ and emotion, and therefore was of limited literary quality. In a similar vein, they
found the Lock of Berenice stiff and artificial. Although in the course of the first half of
the twentieth century there was a growing interest in Hellenistic poetry, for a long
time it seemed unlikely that the Aetia would ever attract many admirers who would
work on it and advance its interpretation.
Still, the situation gradually improved. In the development of interest in and
appreciation of the Aetia, Pfeiffer’s edition of 1949 must be regarded as a milestone.
Here for the first time all the fragments were assembled and placed in the order which
to a large extent is still accepted today, and Pfeiffer’s notes helped to form a better
idea of the work’s character and incited further study. In the second half of the
twentieth century Classical scholarship increasingly moved away from ‘‘romantic’’
aesthetics and came to appreciate Hellenistic poetry on its own terms. There was a
growing interest in and understanding of the workings and importance of
94 Annette Harder

intertextuality and of the new social context in which poetry was produced and
received. These new approaches have also affected and fostered research on the
Aetia. Especially during the last three or four decades, there has been a general
reappraisal of Callimachus’ work and an increasing awareness of the particular qual-
ities of his poetry. The playful and experimental character of the Aetia and the
intertextual subtleties of its literary technique, as well as its function as Alexandrian
court poetry, are objects of ongoing research.

Callimachus and his Audience

Although from the literary point of view Callimachus’ work has received a great deal
of attention and scholars have made much progress with its interpretation, we still
find rather extreme views on the place of Callimachus’ work, and particularly that of
the Aetia, within the context in which it was produced and received, i.e., the
Ptolemaic court of the third century BCE (a subject further discussed in this volume
by Strootman and Stephens). On the one hand, until recently scholars generally held
the view that Hellenistic poetry should be regarded as ‘‘art for art’s sake’’ (l’art pour
l’art). Thus, for example, Schwinge (1986) has forcefully argued that one should read
Callimachus’ poetry as guided by purely aesthetic criteria and unrelated to contem-
porary society, and explains the particular character of Hellenistic poetry in general
from the loss of the social function which poetry had in Archaic and Classical Greece
and from the new context of philological research in which the poets operated at
Alexandria and other Hellenistic courts. On the other hand, Cameron (1995a) has
claimed that there was no ‘‘ivory tower’’ at all. According to him, we should reckon
with a lively tradition of public performances of Hellenistic poetry, because the
Ptolemies organized many festivals at which poetry was performed and traveling
artists gave all sorts of recitals throughout the Hellenized world. In this picture,
Hellenistic poetry is much more part of public life, and Callimachus appears as one
within a generation of poets who traveled widely and whose poetry was not confined
to a select audience.
The view of Callimachus’ poetry as art for art’s sake seems hard to maintain, if only
because it does not explain why Callimachus wrote so many poems celebrating the
Ptolemies, such as the Victory of Berenice, the Lock of Berenice, and the hymns to Zeus,
Apollo, and Delos (h. 1, 2, 4). Cameron is thus surely right in challenging this view.
Yet his own conclusions are not entirely convincing either. Instead of proving that all
Hellenistic literature was produced for a broad audience, his evidence rather suggests
that there were different kinds of literature then as there are today, and that texts
written to be performed for larger audiences co-existed with more sophisticated texts
intended for more exclusive audiences and/or individual readers. A first key argu-
ment for this view is that evidence for performances for larger audiences is not
available for major Hellenistic poets such as Callimachus, Theocritus, or Apollonius
Rhodius – as Cameron himself also admits, but without investigating possible explana-
tions for this fact, like the rather obvious explanation that some works were too
difficult for a general audience. Secondly, poets’ efforts to create intertextual and
 Callimachus’ Aetia 95

structural subtleties in works like the Aetia would be hard to account for if their
works were meant only or primarily for performance: full appreciation of such texts
depends on their being read to or by a select audience of peers, and this suggests that
their reception context was primarily the Alexandrian Museum, and secondarily a
select audience of highly educated readers beyond the Ptolemaic court.
The diametrically opposed approaches of Schwinge and Cameron have been useful
in focusing the discussion and provoking new thoughts about the context of
Callimachus’ work, and particularly the Aetia. In recent research we see attempts to
refine and reconcile their views, with scholars arguing that Callimachus’ poetry is
much more engaged with contemporary issues than Schwinge allows, but yet not
likely to have been part of public culture in the way Cameron thinks. Such evaluations
tend to be based on a fuller examination of the evidence – for it is revealing that in
Schwinge’s book we find discussions of the prologue and the two poems for Berenice,
but none at all of the other fragments of the Aetia, while Cameron pays very little
attention to the highly allusive character of the prologue, on which much of his
argument depends. A good example is the article by Asper (2001), who, focusing on
the Aetia’s aetiological contents and its use of intertextuality, argues that the work
served to establish a sense of common identity among the Greeks in Egypt, and in this
respect fits in with the cultural politics of the Ptolemies, exemplified notably by the
foundation of the Museum and the Library (Stephens and Strootman in this volume;
for a political interpretation of Callimachus’ use of aetiology, see also Selden 1998).
In this chapter I shall give some further examples of the insights generated by the
new approach described above, focusing on the Aetia’s content, intertextuality,
genre, and structure – aspects which are closely related and therefore will partly
overlap in the discussion – concentrating on the text of the preserved fragments, as
this is where we can learn most about the work. By analyzing these aspects we may
gain a better picture of the Aetia as a typically Hellenistic work of art and get a sense
of the purpose it may have served within the cultural politics of Ptolemaic Alexandria.

Content and Structure

Although much of the Aetia is lost, we have enough evidence to allow us to analyze
the content of the poem as a whole. Surprisingly, such explorations have only been
undertaken in a systematic manner in recent years. As we have seen, Asper (2001) has
drawn attention to the fact that the antiquarian and aetiological stories of the Aetia
‘‘unite’’ the Egyptian Greeks, hailing from different areas in Greece proper and its
colonies to the East and West, and that in this way the poem helps to create a sense of
shared identity through a shared past, fitting in with Ptolemaic cultural politics. These
observations are supported by an attractive suggestion of Fantuzzi and Hunter
(2004: 54), who propose that we regard the Aetia as a continuation of Hesiod’s
Theogony, since it begins where the Theogony ends, with the myths of Minos, Heracles,
and the Argonauts. In this reading, the Aetia continues the genesis of the Greek
pantheon on the human level and shows the history of the Greek world as a
continuum incorporating both gods and mortals. Starting from the earliest stages
96 Annette Harder

of human history, the poem moves through various phases of Greek history in all
parts of the Greek world (Harder 2003b).
The period before the Trojan War is represented by the very characters mentioned
at the end of the Theogony. We find evidence of Minos’ imperial rule over the Cyclades
in the first story of Aetia 1, which deals with the cult of the Graces at Paros (frs. 3–7).
This story is followed by an episode from the expedition of the Argonauts (frs. 7–21)
and stories about Heracles (frs. 22–5). Apart from this opening cluster, stories from
the earliest period of human history also recur elsewhere in the Aetia. Heracles is the
main character in the Victory of Berenice at the start of Aetia 3 (SH 254–68C), while
Minos’ son Androgeos appears in fr. 103 and the Argonauts are found again in
fr. 108, both towards the end of the Aetia. Thus we see an emphasis on this early
period at the beginning of the Aetia, where it belongs chronologically if we regard
the Aetia as a kind of sequel to the Theogony. However, we find the same characters in
structurally significant positions later in the Aetia, at the start and towards the end of
the ‘‘added’’ second half of the work, shortly before we read about events in
contemporary Alexandria in the Lock of Berenice (fr. 110). The effect seems to be
that of a deliberate ‘‘disturbance’’ of chronology.
The Trojan War is largely absent from the Aetia. We find only a few stories about
the return journeys of the Greek heroes and related events, such as Ajax’s death at the
Gyrades (fr. 35), Peleus’ miserable death at the small island of Icus (fr. 178), and the
defeat of the so-called Hero of Temesa, one of Odysseus’ companions, whose ghost
terrorized Temesa and was put to rest by Euthymus of Locri in the fifth century BCE
(frs. 98–9).
Historical events from the Archaic period have left their traces in several parts of the
Aetia. Events in Asia Minor reflecting the early period of colonization of the area in
the tenth and ninth centuries BCE are prominent in Aetia 3–4. These stories include
the love story of Phrygius and Pieria, which leads to peace between the towns of
Miletus and Myus (frs. 80–3) and the treacherous murder of Pasicles of Ephesus
(fr. 102). Seventh-century conflicts in the Aegean, also known from the poetry of
Archilochus, are represented by the story of the Thracian Oesydres and the wars of
the people of Paros with the Thasians and their Thracian allies (fr. 104). Another
group of stories focuses on the western world, particularly the settlement of Sicily in
late eighth century during the second wave of Greek colonization. These include a
catalogue of Sicilian foundation stories and an explanation of the founder cult of
Zancle (fr. 43), a story about Phalaris, the evil tyrant of Acragas who roasted strangers
in a bronze bull (frs. 44–7), and a story about a war between Lipara and the
Tyrrhenians that led to human sacrifice (fr. 93).
Finally, we also find references to later events, though somewhat more rarely. Some
of the western stories bring us to the early Classical period, like those about the
Panhellenic victors Euthycles and Euthymus of Locri (frs. 84–5 and 98–9) and about
the tomb of Simonides, destroyed and built into the walls of Acragas, where he died
in the early 460s BCE (fr. 64). Callimachus touches on the beginnings of Rome in the
story of Gaius, a young Roman wounded during a siege of the city (frs. 106–7). And
at the end of the Aetia we even reach third-century Alexandria where, after Berenice
II sacrifices a lock of hair, a new constellation is discovered and a ritual established
(fr. 110).
 Callimachus’ Aetia 97

Of course all of this looks much neater than it would have appeared in a linear
reading of the Aetia: one needs to reshuffle the episodes to make this chronological
line visible. It appears as if Callimachus has deliberately made his ‘‘aetiological world-
history’’ as discontinuous as possible (as one would also expect after reading the
poem’s prologue), but within an overarching framework that is chronological, start-
ing with Minos, at the point where Hesiod stopped, and ending with Berenice in his
own time. If Callimachus indeed shaped the Aetia in two stages, he seems to have
provided a new perspective to his own work by including the catasterism of the lock of
Berenice at the end of the new second half of the poem and so taking the poem to the
present as ‘‘past of the future.’’
Within this general framework of an unobtrusive but purposeful chronology, the
selection of stories also invites observations. On the one hand, one may detect
topical elements. Callimachus’ attention for islands like Sicily and Ceos fits in with
their contemporary political importance for the Ptolemies, who had important
contacts with Sicily and a fleet base on Ceos. The attention given to Argos and
Heracles recalls the Ptolemaic claim of Argive descent through Heracles as well as
the notion that Argos was refounded from Egypt by Danaus and his daughters,
descendants of Epaphus, the son of Io, daughter of the Argive Inachus (Stephens in
this volume). Thus the poem implicitly credits the Ptolemies with an intricate
mixture of Greek and Egyptian origins and legitimates the presence of Greeks in
Egypt. It also contains notions of progress and increasing civilization (Clauss 2000),
exemplified by Heracles’ killing of monsters and punishment of villains, and of cul-
tural and political expansion, as shown by the stories about Minos, the Argonauts,
and the Greek colonization of the Archaic period. Some aitia in fact present the
idea of progress in a nutshell, like the one about the increasing sophistication of
statues, which in the distant past were simple pieces of wood and gradually devel-
oped into works of art (fr. 100), and that of the various temples of Apollo at Delphi
(fr. 118).
On the level of poetics, the absence of the Trojan War make perfect sense from
the poet’s expressed intention to move along untrodden paths (fr. 1.25–8), as there
is no overlap in content between the Aetia and the Homeric poems. The absence of
Trojan subjects is, however, counterbalanced by the prominence of allusions to the
Iliad and Odyssey, which illustrates the complexity of Callimachus’ engagement with
the literary tradition: even this explicitly un-Homeric elegiac poem owes a great debt
to, and constantly pays homage to, Homer. This is obvious, for instance, in the
story of Peleus’ death on Icus, set within the narrative framework of a symposium
where ‘‘Callimachus’’ hears the story from Theogenes, a fellow guest from Icus
(fr. 178). The framework recalls Odysseus’ stories to the Phaeacians, and the
narrator, Theogenes, is related to Odysseus by means of a number of allusions.
Thus the reader is invited to view the un-Homeric story against a Homeric back-
ground and to appreciate the subtlety of Callimachus’ innovative and experimental
poetry.
The Aetia, we may conclude, is not a random collection of stories driven only by
antiquarian interest and aesthetic criteria. A careful consideration of the stories’
contents indicates that there is more at stake: they seem to have been selected and
developed to create a sense of Greek identity and a notion of progress from the
98 Annette Harder

beginning of human civilization to third-century Alexandria. The fact that the

arrangement of the stories looks rather random compared to Ovid’s similar project
in the Metamorphoses, where the chronological line is evident, may partly be due to
the state of the transmission but it is also in line with Callimachus’ explicit refusal, in
the prologue, to write ‘‘one continuous song’’ (ἓν ἄειсμα διηνεϰέс, fr. 1.3). It is the
reader’s responsibility to identify the larger issues and worldview which emerge from
the collection. These issues cannot have been immediately clear to a large listening
audience, particularly because a performance could not easily encompass the whole of
the Aetia. Clearly the views of Schwinge and Cameron are both hard to reconcile
with the Aetia’s contents.
At first sight the stories in the Aetia seem to have been woven together more or less
at random. In the prologue Callimachus himself admits to having written ‘‘not one
continuous song’’ (fr. 1.3) and the remains of the Aetia (together with the scholia
and diegeseis) seem to confirm the idea of discontinuity. As we have seen, there is no
clear chronological order. Nor is there any obvious thematic organization: there are a
few groups of related aitia, like those about scurrilous rituals, statues with strange
features, scapegoats, and love, but one searches in vain for broader themes. Even so it
is clear that certain programmatic and topical considerations underlie the structure of
the poem (Harder 1993; Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 44–9). After the introduction
of the dialogue with the Muses (fr. 2), the first aition is devoted to the Graces, as we
have seen (frs. 3–7), the second to Apollo, the god of poetry (frs. 7–21), and the third
and fourth are devoted to Heracles, ancestor of the Ptolemies (frs. 22–3 and 24–5).
The second half of the poem is framed by poems about Berenice, with the Victory of
Berenice opening Aetia 3 and the Lock of Berenice closing Aetia 4. Moreover, the
Victory of Berenice focuses on Heracles, so that in this respect the start of Aetia 3–4
echoes that of Aetia 1–2.
A dialogue with Apollonius may also account for some aspects of the poem’s
structure. The Argonautic stories in the Aetia appear at the beginning of Book 1
(frs. 7–21 about Anaphe) and towards the end of Book 4 (fr. 108 about the anchor at
Cyzicus), the opposite of their order in the Argonautica, where the former appears
just before the end of Book 4 (1689–1730) and the latter in Book 1 (955–60). In
other words, just as the Aetia starts where the Theogony ends, it also starts where the
Argonautica ends, but while the poem moves forward in time from the end of the
Theogony, it moves backwards in the story of the Argonauts, ending with one of their
early adventures. Moreover, Aetia 3 contains two love stories, the story of Acontius
and Cydippe (frs. 67–75) and the story of Phrygius and Pieria (frs. 80–3), and one
may speculate whether this placement does not reflect the contents of the third book
of Apollonius’ Argonautica, with its focus on the love of Medea. It is also possible to
read the end of the Aetia, the Lock of Berenice (fr. 110) with its emphasis on the love
between king and queen (a prominent motif in Ptolemaic ideology throughout), as a
counterpoint to the less-than-perfect relationship of Jason and Medea at the end of
the Argonautica.
Within the individual stories that make up the Aetia the presentation can appear
similarly random, but here too there is surely always a rationale to be identified by the
attentive and well-informed reader. Callimachus’ version of the Argonauts’ adven-
tures at Anaphe (frs. 7–21) presents a good example of his mode of operation at this
 Callimachus’ Aetia 99

level, and it also illustrates his engagement with Apollonius’ Argonautica in detail. In
this story the Argonauts are suddenly struck with utter darkness. After a prayer by
Jason, Apollo sheds light, enabling the Argonauts to discover and land on the small
island of Anaphe, where they honor Apollo as Aegletes (‘‘the Radiant One’’). The
celebrations end in jesting between the Argonauts and Medea’s Phaeacian servants,
which explains the peculiar nature of the ritual for Apollo Aegletes that is still
performed on Anaphe ‘‘today.’’ As we saw, this is one of the last stories in the
Argonautica but one of the first in the Aetia. This inversion is flagged with an
allusion to the Argonautica at the start of the story, where Calliope instructs
‘‘Callimachus’’ as follows (fr. 7.23–6):

Αἰγλήτην Ἀνάϕην τε; Λαϰωνίδι γείτονα Θήρηι,

πρ :ωÐ :τ½ον ἐνὶ μνήμηι ϰάτθεο ϰαὶ Μινύαс,
ἄρχμενοс ὡс ἥρωεс ἀπ Αἰήταο Κυταίου
αυ τιс ἐс ἀρχαίην ἔπλεον Αἱμονίην.
First commit to memory Aegletes and Anaphe, the neighbor of Laconian Thera, and the
Minyans (i.e., the Argonauts), beginning with how the heroes sailed back from Cytaean
Aeetes to old Haemonia.

The words with which the Muse encourages the poet to start at the Argonauts’ return
journey recall not only the end of Apollonius’ Anaphe story (4.1730 Αἰγλή-
την Ἀνάϕηс τιμήορον, ‘‘Aegletes, the tutelary god of Anaphe’’) but also the very
beginning of the Argonautica, and with it the ‘‘orthodox’’ starting point of the story
(1.1–4):

ἀρχόμενοс сέο; ΦοιÐ βε; παλαιγενέων ϰλέα ϕωτωÐ ν

μνήсομαι; οἳ Πόντοιο ϰατὰ сτόμα ϰαὶ διὰ πέτραс
Κυανέαс βαсιληÐ οс ἐϕημοсύνηι Πελίαο
χρύсειον μετὰ ϰωÐ αс ἐύζυγον ἤλαсαν Ἀργώ.
Beginning with you, Phoebus, I shall tell of the fame of the ancient men who drove the
well-banked Argo through the entrance of the Pontus and the Cyanean rocks, following
the command of king Pelias, in search of the Golden Fleece.

In the Anaphe story Callimachus incorporates events from various parts of the
Argonautica, so that it looks as if the whole of the Argonautica has been squeezed
into a single episode of the Aetia. The fragments contain references to the Argonauts’
departure from Greece (A.R. 1.358–62 and 402–4), prayers of Jason that recall
prayers at different stages in the Argonautica (1.411–24, 4.588–94, 4.1701–5),
the anger of Aeetes when the Argonauts have left with the Fleece (4.210–40), the
activities of the helmsman Tiphys (who died on the outward journey in the
Argonautica, 2.851–63, but not in the Aetia), the various colonies founded by the
pursuing Colchians (4.507–21), the Argonauts’ stay with the Phaeacians (4.982–
1169), and of course the events at Anaphe (4.1694–1730). Callimachus appears to
have dealt with all this within the compass of 150 elegiac lines, against the close to
6,000 hexameters of Apollonius. Even from the little that survives it is clear that
verbal similarities were frequent. Typical is Jason’s prayer in fr. 18.5–11:
100 Annette Harder

ἀλλ ὅγ ἀνιάζων ὃν ϰέαρ Αἰсονίδηс

сοὶ χέραс ἠέρταζεν; Ἱήιε; πολλὰ δ ἀπείλει
ἐс Πυθὼ πέμψειν; πολλὰ δ ἐс Ὀρτυγίην,
εἴ ϰεν ἀμιχ˩θαλόεссαν ἀπ ἠέρα νηὸс ἐλάссηιс
]. ὅτι сήν; ΦοιÐ βε; ϰατ αἰсιμίην
πείсματ  ἔλυсαν ἐϰ½λ :η :ρώсαντό τ ἐρετμά
]πιϰρὸν ἔϰοψαν ὕδωρ.
But the son of Aeson, grieved in his heart, raised his hands to you, Ieius, and promised to
send many (gifts) to Pytho and many to Ortygia, if you would drive the dark mist from the
ship . . . , because according to your oracle, Phoebus, they had loosened the ropes and
allotted the oars . . . and beaten the bitter water.

These lines recall the Argonauts’ allotment of the benches in Arg. 1.395–400 and
Jason’s following prayer at their departure (ἄλλα δὲ ΠυθοιÐ ; = ἄλλα δ ἐс Ὀρτυ-
γίην ἀπερείсια δωÐ ρα ϰομίссω, ‘‘but I shall brings endless gifts to Pytho and others to
Ortygia,’’ 1.418–19) as well as his prayer at Anaphe, towards the end of their
travels, where it is given in indirect discourse as in the Aetia (πολλὰ δὲ ΠυθοιÐ
ὑπέсχετο; πολλὰ δ Ἀμύϰλαιс; = πολλὰ δ ἐс Ὀρτυγίην ἀπερείсια δωÐ ρα ϰομίссειν, ‘‘he
promised to bring many gifts to Pytho, many to Amyclae, many to Ortygia,’’ 4.1704–5).
In addition, Callimachus’ prolepsis in fr. 12.6 regarding the future movements of the
Colchian settlers (ϰαὶ τὰ μὲν ὣс ἤμελλε μετὰ χρόνον ἐϰτελέεсθαι, ‘‘and these things
were thus to be fulfilled in later times’’) is verbally identical to Apollonius’ prolepsis about
the death of the Boreads in Arg. 1.1309, whereas the same notion is also conveyed in
different words in the context of the Colchian settlements in Arg. 4.1216
(ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν сτείχοντοс ἄδην αἰωÐ νοс ἐτύχθη, ‘‘but these things were fulfilled when a
great deal of time had passed’’) – yet another allusion which evokes the first and last book
of the Argonautica in conjunction.
Clearly the way in which Callimachus has shaped his Anaphe episode invites
comparison with Apollonius, since there is a clear connection between these two
texts. One may ask what this means. I have suggested in this section that Callimachus
reacts to Apollonius and shows how one could treat a large-scale epic theme in one
brief episode in an elegiac poem and, as it were, squeeze the whole of the Argonautica
into a single episode of the Aetia. Others (e.g., Köhnken 2001) suggest the opposite
order, which would imply that Callimachus’ concise elegiac version was stretched out
in a full-scale epic by Apollonius. Simultaneous interaction, with the poets composing
their works at the same time and showcasing their different approaches, would be yet
another option. Certainty is impossible to reach, but on the whole I think that it is
most plausible that at least when Callimachus gave the Aetia the final form in which
we know it, the complete Argonautica was available to him.

Intertextuality and Genre

Although scholars have long recognized that allusion is an important part of
Callimachus’ literary technique, they tended to regard it largely as a display of
erudition, and only gradually embraced the idea that allusion has a crucial function
 Callimachus’ Aetia 101

in creating poetic and topical meaning (see, e.g., Reinsch-Werner 1976 on

Callimachus and Hesiod; Fuhrer 1992 on Callimachus and Pindar; Harder 2002a).
It is now more or less generally accepted that allusion creates a subtext to be read
along with the main text, which comments on it and adds another level of meaning.
Scholars have also become increasingly aware that allusion is rhetorically important,
because it invites an active participation of readers and engages their goodwill and
interest (Schmitz 1999; Harder 2002a). Another, more general function of allusion
is, as we have seen, that it relates texts to the literary tradition of which they form part
and thus makes readers aware of their cultural legacy and identity (Asper 2001). A few
examples may illustrate these points, as they show how allusions help to embed the
Aetia in the literary tradition as well as in its social context, and how Callimachus
takes part in the cultural and political discourse of his age.
(1) We are told in the prologue that ‘‘the bountiful Demeter outweighs by far the
tall (oak?)’’ (ϰαθέλϰει / . . . .] πολὺ τὴν μαϰρὴν ὄμπνια Θεсμοϕόρο½с, fr. 1.9–10).
‘‘Demeter’’ here most probably refers to the title of a work by Philitas, which is to
be compared favorably with another, longer poem (by Philitas or another poet; see
Murray in this volume). Also present, however, are allusions to two other texts, which
add further interpretive dimensions.
In the first place the lines recall the poetry weighing contest in Aristophanes’ Frogs,
where Aeschylus with ‘‘heavy’’ and martial lines trumps Euripides, who keeps throw-
ing ‘‘light’’ and airy lines into the scales (see also Acosta-Hughes in this volume), and
especially Dionysus’ encouragement of Euripides in lines 1397–8: ‘‘now try to find
some other item, in the heavyweight category, which will make the scales go down
(ϰαθέλξει) for you, a mighty and big one.’’ Here the same verb as in fr. 1.9, ϰαθέλϰω,
has as its subject the heavier item, which wins because it makes the scale go down,
whereas in Callimachus its subject is the lighter item, which, although it goes up, wins
by ‘‘outweighing’’ the heavier item in a metaphorical sense: the modern, lighter
Euripides, who was the loser in Frogs, is here associated with the modern, lighter
poetry that now wins. Thus the statement invites the reader to consider the issue of
weight in the light of the literary tradition and of changing literary taste and values.
In the second place we are reminded of Il. 8.68–74 and 22.208–12. In these two
passages the notion of weight appears in a context where Zeus is weighing the fates of
mortals and the fates of those who are destined to die go down, i.e., those who go down
are the losers as in Callimachus. Thus the reader is invited to interpret the passage of the
Aetia against the background of epic as well and to pick up the notion that going down
implies the death of heroes as well as the failure of the wrong kind of poetry.
(2) Somewhat further on in the series of metapoetic images of Callimachus’
prologue, we find the statement: ‘‘let the crane who enjoys the blood of the
Pygmies, fly away over a long distance to the Thracians’’ (μαϰρ :ὸν ἐπὶ Θρήι ϰ ̈ αс
ἀπ Αἰγύπτοιο ½πέτοιτο = αἵματι Πυγμαίων ἡδομένη ½γέρα½νοс, fr. 1.13–14). These
words allude to Iliad 3.2–7:

The Trojans went with noise and shouts, like birds, as the sound of the cranes is in the
sky, who, when they flee from winter and immeasurable rain, fly noisily over the streams
of Oceanus, bringing the fate of death to the Pygmy men, and in the air they carry evil
strife.
102 Annette Harder

Again the allusion is more than a show of erudition. The movement away from Egypt
in Callimachus is opposed to that in the Iliad, where the cranes are moving towards
the Pygmies, and this change of direction has been thought to suggest that all long,
i.e., wrong, poems should leave Egypt. The sound of cranes was considered particularly
unpleasant, and this characteristic is also invoked by the allusion, because sound is the
simile’s tertium comparationis. Thus the image combines long distance and unpleasant
sound, i.e., the wrong length and the wrong style of poetry, which continues the ideas
of lines 9–12, where brief was sweet. Both notions are further developed in the images
that follow – see, for example, the emphasis on length in the reference to the ‘‘Persian
land-measure’’ (18) and on sound in those to the cicada and ass (29–36).
(3) An allusion with topical implications occurs at the start of the story of Heracles
and Thiodamas (fr. 24). In the tale which immediately precedes (frs. 22–3), Heracles
brutally slaughtered and ate the ox of a Lindian farmer, a rather surprising portrayal
of the hero from which the poets’ patrons claimed to descend. Subsequently
Callimachus seems to create the impression that this has been a false start, because
in the next story Heracles is, as it were, rehabilitated: he saves his starving son Hyllus
by confiscating an ox from the rude farmer Thiodamas, and civilizes Thiodamas’
people, the unruly Dryopians. When in fr. 24.1–3 the starving Hyllus pulls out the
hair from Heracles’ chest, the narrator comments: ‘‘and for you, lord, laughter was
mixed with pain’’ (τὶν δ ; ω να; γέλωс ἀνεμίсγετο λύπηι, 3). This surprisingly recalls
Andromache’s emotions when, in Iliad 6, she receives Astyanax from her husband
Hector after he has expressed the hope that his son may become ‘‘much better than
his father’’ (479): ‘‘and she took him to her fragrant breast, crying and laughing at
the same time’’ (ἡ δ ἄρα μιν ϰηώδει ̈ δέξατο ϰόλπωι = δαϰρυόεν γελάсαсα, 483–4).
By associating Hyllus with Astyanax, who died while still a child and was not able
to continue the Trojan dynasty, Callimachus suggests what is at stake in this story: by
saving Hyllus, Heracles is saving the Ptolemaic dynasty.
Generically the Aetia is a complex and highly experimental poem (Fuhrer 1992;
Harder 1998). In the first place, its overall framework recalls the didactic poetry of
Hesiod. As was argued above, there are good reasons for regarding the Aetia as a
continuation of the Theogony because it starts where Hesiod stops. The dream which
opened and framed Aetia 1–2 (fr. 2) and the epilogue which capped the poem as a
whole (fr. 112) both also evoke the Theogony, referring as they do to Hesiod’s
opening description of Chaos and his meeting with the Muses while tending his
flocks on Mount Helicon. The Aetia also shares with the Theogony its movement from
chaos to order and the notions of gradual progress and increasing civilization, and
one might say that its climax in the Alexandrian present in the Lock of Berenice
(fr. 110) mirrors the establishment of the power of Zeus at the end of the Theogony,
suggesting a close association between the rulers of Egypt and the Ruler of Gods and
Men as guarantors of order and stability, an idea also prominent in Callimachus’
Hymn to Zeus.
The influence of Works and Days is harder to fathom from what survives of the
Aetia, but that this Hesiodic poem was also of structural importance is suggested by
the almost verbal quotation of one of its central lessons at the start of Aetia 1: fr. 2.5,
‘‘for whoever devises an evil thing against another devises an evil thing against his
own heart’’ (τεύχων ὡс ἑτέρωι τιс ἑωÐ ι ϰαϰὸν ἥπατι τεύχει) restates WD 265, ‘‘who
 Callimachus’ Aetia 103

devises evil things against another devises evil things against himself’’ (οιffl αὐτωÐ ι
ϰαϰὰ τεύχει ἀνὴρ ἄλλωι ϰαϰὰ τεύχων). Several stories in the Aetia illustrate this
truth, for instance that of Phalaris, who fails to heed it when he starts roasting
strangers in a bronze bull, but successfully teaches it to the bull’s inventor, whom
he throws in first of all (frs. 44–7). The flip side of the coin is, of course, that whoever
does good will experience good. This is illustrated for instance in the Victory of
Berenice, where Molorcus gives a friendly reception to Heracles and is rewarded with
a mule and perhaps also a ritual.
In contrast with Hesiod, Callimachus composed the Aetia in elegiac distichs rather
than hexameters. Reasons for his choice of meter may be that, on the one hand, it
seems to allow more room for extensive, and sometimes playful, personal interven-
tions of the narrator and on the other hand, particularly in contrast with the limited
number of applications of hexameter poetry before the Hellenistic period, more
freedom to choose a variety of subjects ranging from epic adventures (like those of
the Argonauts, frs. 7–21) to grim and sordid stories (like the death of the adulterous
Leimonis and her lover at Athens, frs. 94–5) to romance (as in the love story of
Acontius and Cydippe, frs. 67–75). The moralizing character of the Aetia also recalls
early elegiac wisdom poetry such as that of Solon and Theognis. Callimachus’ choice
of ‘‘elegiac didactic,’’ as it were, enables him to pick up the moral issues of Hesiod,
but apply them to more divergent aspects of human life.
On lower compositional levels numerous other genres are evoked. We find extended
passages and even whole sections in the shape of a hymn (fr. 7), epic catalogue (fr. 43),
funeral epigram (fr. 64), dedicatory epigram (fr. 110) or Pindaric epinician (the Victory
of Berenice). Within these passages Callimachus exploits generic conventions to create
extra layers of meaning. Two examples may help to illustrate this and to show how it
affects the interpretation of the Aetia in its literary and social context.
Programmatic issues are prominent in fr. 7.13–14, where the story of the Graces
(Charites) on Paros is given a hymnal closure when Callimachus prays to the them to
give his poem lasting fame:

ἔλλατε νυÐ ν; ἐλέγοιсι δ ἐνιψήсαсθε λιπώсαс

χειÐ ραс ἐμοιÐ с; ἵνα μοι πουλὺ μένωсιν ἔτοс.
Be gracious now and wipe your shining hands on my elegies, in order that they may live
for many years.

Although the story of the Graces is the first aition of the Aetia, i.e., the first part of
the poem’s ‘‘body,’’ this hymnal ending gives it the status of a hymnal proem like the
hymn to the Muses which begins Hesiod’s Theogony and like the Homeric Hymns,
which were intended as introductions to a performance of epic. Thus Callimachus
alludes to epic practice and to the Theogony, but he diverges by asking the favor, not of
the Muses, but of the Graces, who are not so much associated with Hesiod as with
Pindar, who refers to them frequently. Even so we should not forget that the story of
the Graces is told by the Muse Clio within the framework of a dialogue between
‘‘Callimachus’’ and the Muses, which results in a double claim: the Aetia will be
authoritative because its information comes from the Muses, and graceful because it is
backed by the Graces.
104 Annette Harder

Programmatic issues may also be observed in Callimachus’ genre-play in the

Victory of Berenice. This poem has the form of a Pindaric epinician (Fuhrer 1992),
but it is by no means a slavish imitation. The mere fact that it is elegiac rather
than lyric already implies a different mood and register, and Callimachus’ choice of
the myth is un-Pindaric as well. The poem’s central story of Heracles’ stay at the
cottage of Molorcus on his way to Nemea features a rural setting, a poor farmer,
trouble with mice, and the construction of mousetraps. Molorcus’ struggle against
the mice that have infested his home in fact replaces the heroic story of Heracles
killing the Nemean lion (which was probably left out altogether, as we may infer
from fr. 57; see also Ambühl in this volume). Moreover, the Victory of Berenice
celebrates Berenice not in a traditional choral performance, as was the case with the
Pindaric epinicians, but by its conspicuous position at the beginning of Book 3 of
the Aetia, framing Aetia 3–4 together with the Lock of Berenice. In this, and more
generally in the virtuosity of the text, which only a – very perceptive – reader would
have been able to fully appreciate, Callimachus ‘‘epinician’’ is clearly the product of
a more literate society.
The Victory must be read against the background not only of epinician, but also of
epic. Homer is evoked, for example, in SH 257.15–20, where even the scanty remains
allow us to see that Molorcus’ reception of Heracles is modeled after Eumaeus’
reception of Odysseus in Odyssey 14. In SH 259 an epic style time-indication and a
simile likewise give the story an epic flavor and draw the reader’s attention to
Callimachus’ manipulation of the epic conventions. The former, ‘‘when the evening
star was about to loosen the yoke from the oxen’’ (ἀсτὴρ δ ευ τ  ἄρ ἔμελλε
βοωÐ ν ἄπο μέссαβα ½λύсειν = αὔλιοс, 5–6), indicates the onset of evening in an image
taken from the Iliad, where the farmer’s well-deserved rest from labor is typically
contrasted with the exertions of the heroes, who throw themselves into battle
at that very moment (e.g., 11.86–91, 16.779–80). We see the same thing occur
in Callimachus, but ironically on a domestic level: the approach of evening
signals the mice’s invasion into Molorcus’ cottage and the beginning of his
‘‘epic’’ battle against them. Callimachus achieves a similar effect with the simile
(SH 259.9–11):

ὁ δ ὅτ ἔϰλυεν ἠχ½ήν,

ὡс ὁπότ ὀϰν :η :ρηÐ с ἴαχ ἐπ ου с ἐλάϕου
сϰ :ύμνο :с; ½μέ :λ :λ½ε μὲν ὅссον ἀϰουέμεν; η ϰα δ ἔ :λ½εξεν . . .
And when he heard the noise (at the door), as when a lion cub roars at the ear of a
frightened deer, he paused briefly to listen and then spoke softly: . . .

On seeing Molorcus compared to a deer, an animal which in Homer always is the

frightened victim of stronger beasts, the reader may expect him to give up in despair;
instead, however, he stands his ground against the mice and puts up a fight. The
allusion underlines the character of Callimachus’ narrative, opposed as well as
indebted to epic, and illustrates how the intertextual and generic subtext which
Callimachus creates in the Aetia is crucial to the poem’s interpretation and enhances
its ‘‘messages’’ at various levels.
 Callimachus’ Aetia 105

***

Recent scholarship on the Aetia has done a great deal for the appreciation and
understanding of this intriguing and influential Hellenistic poem. It continues to
move away from an interpretation of the poem as art for art’s sake and at the same
time keeps illustrating the level of sophistication it expects of its audience. The Aetia
deals with obscure facts and stories and presents them in a learned and apparently
random way, so that at first sight it gives the impression of an antiquarian at play. Yet
on closer inspection the poet proves to be thoroughly engaged in the literary and
political discourse of his time as well as the entire Greek literary and cultural tradition,
and behind the chaos of his poem there proves to be an intricate order. In its
discontinuity and protean versatility, the Aetia perhaps demands more than any other
Hellenistic poem of its readers in terms of the preparation, commitment, and ingenu-
ity required to decode its complex messages and formulate answers to such questions
as why these specific stories have been selected, why they have been arranged and
framed in this manner, and why they are told in this specific form, voice, and
language. At the time when it was composed, the Aetia must have been not only
boldly innovative but also deviously challenging, and it is not surprising that it soon
became an emblem of third-century Alexandrian poetry and a major source of
inspiration for other poets, Greek and Roman.

FURTHER READING

Recent introductions to the Aetia include Hutchinson 2003, Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004:
44–88, and Asper 2004: 23–31. On the important prologue (fr. 1) one may also consult
Acosta-Hughes and Stephens 2002, and on the Victory of Berenice Parsons 1977. The standard
edition of the Greek text is still Pfeiffer 1949, with additions in Lloyd-Jones and Parsons 1983
(SH) and Lloyd-Jones 2005 (SSH).
Recently the poem has been explored in partial commentaries such as Massimilla 1996 (Aetia
1–2), Fabian 1992 (Aetia 2), Marinone 1997 (fr. 110), Torraca 1973 (fr. 1), and Hopkinson
1988 (frs. 1 and 67–75 Pf.). For the whole of the Aetia useful tools are the text, Italian
translation and brief but very helpful commentary of D’Alessio 2007; the English translation by
Nisetich 2001, which offers very helpful transitional passages between the fragments; and the
text with German translation and brief notes by Asper 2004. My own commented edition of
the whole of the Aetia will appear in 2010.
 CHAPTER EIGHT

Hellenistic Elegy: Out from Under

the Shadow of Callimachus
Jackie Murray

Tunc et elegiam uacabit in manus sumere, cuius princeps habetur Callimachus, secundas
confessione plurimorum Philetas occupauit.
Quint. Inst. 10.1.58.6–7

Then he will also be free to take up elegy, of which Callimachus is held to be the prince,
and Philitas occupies second place in the opinion of most.

Precious little Greek elegy survives and most of what does survive predates the
Hellenistic period. Unsurprisingly, scholars trying to determine the distinctiveness
of Hellenistic elegy have for a long time approached Hellenistic elegy largely through
its reception in Roman poetry. Here we not only have a larger body of evidence with
which to work, but Roman elegists also explicitly present themselves as continuators
of a specific Hellenistic stream of the genre, often identifying their own poetics as
‘‘Philitan-Callimachean’’ or simply ‘‘Callimachean’’ (Prop. 2.34.31–2, 3.1.1–4,
3.52; Ov. Ars 3.329, Rem. Am. 759–60). Yet this well-trodden route is strewn with
pitfalls, and there is a growing consensus among scholars that, since Roman poets had
their own culturally and ideologically specific poetic agenda, we should be very
cautious in using Roman poetry as a guide to Hellenistic poetry (Ziegler 1966;
Cameron 1995a; Hinds 1998; Hunter 2006a; Ambühl and Acosta-Hughes in this
volume). The problem of periodicity presents another potential obstacle to under-
standing ‘‘Hellenistic elegy.’’ As Benjamin Acosta-Hughes demonstrates in his chap-
ter in this volume, many of the gestures that we have long identified as hallmarks of
‘‘Hellenistic’’ poetics are in fact already present in the works of poets from earlier
historical periods, raising the question of whether it is at all valid to apply modern
historiographical boundaries to literature. Yet, there does seem to be something quite
different about this literature, as is also suggested by the fact that so many Roman
poets exploit for their own poetic and political ends a contrast between the earlier
Greek poets and those who flourished in the historical Hellenistic period (Hunter
 Elegy 107

2006a: 42–80). But the questions of precisely what this difference is and how its
demarcations can be recognized need more attention. Only through a careful study of
‘‘Hellenistic’’ poetics both in relation to more general notions of Greek poetics and in
relation to Roman poetics can this distinctiveness be accurately described. In the small
compass of this chapter, I will entirely forego the backward glance from Roman
poetry and instead broach this issue, the distinctiveness of Hellenistic elegy, by
looking forward from earlier manifestations of the genre. In particular, I will consider
the tangible influence of changes to poetic production in the late fifth and fourth
centuries BCE on the development and demarcation not only of elegy but also the
adjacent genres of epigram and epic, in the third century and beyond.

Toward a Definition of Hellenistic Elegy

Elegy is one of oldest Greek poetic genres. It is at least as ancient as hexameter poetry
and inscriptional epigram, and is closely related to both in meter and language
(Friedländer and Hoffleit 1948: 65–70; West 1982: 35–46; Gentili 1968: 39–81;
Aloni 1981: 80–103; Bowie 1986: 13–14; Powell 1991: 142–80). Yet from its
earliest manifestations onward elegy is far more difficult to define as a genre. This is
not so much a consequence of the paucity of the specimens that have come down to
us as of their abundant variety. This variety is so puzzling that scholars have yet to
reach a satisfactory description of early Greek elegy that says more than simply ‘‘a
poem composed in elegiac couplets’’ (Gerber 1997: 91; M. L. West 1974: 2–21).
Philosophical, military, sympotic, and personal erotic themes are well attested in the
poems that survive, but there is also sufficient evidence to confirm later reports about
the existence of elegies resembling long hexameter poems on mythical and ‘‘histor-
ical’’ themes, for example, in the fragments of Mimnermus’ Smyrneis, Tyrtaeus’
Politeia or Eunomia, Panyassis’ Ionika (Bowie 1986: 27–34), and last but not least
Simonides’ so-called Plataea Elegy (first published in West 1992, frs. 10–18; cf.
Boedeker and Sider 2001). Elements in this last poem additionally point to the
existence of early hymns composed in elegiac couplets (Rutherford 2001b: 38). In
fact, no theme seems to have been out of bounds for the elegist. It has been suggested
that early elegy did not extend to the ‘‘scurrilous or obscene’’ (Bowie 1986: 14; cf.
Gerber 1997: 91), but the absence of examples of such elegies may be simply an
accident of preservation.
There is a tendency among modern scholars of early elegy to privilege the poetic
forms of the Archaic period as stable and fixed prototypes devoid of any self-
consciousness, and to regard any subsequent variation as an illegitimate degeneration.
Ironically, this also applies to the subject matter which in modern literature, through
Roman poetry, has become inextricably linked with the label ‘‘elegy’’: mourning.
Some have argued that funerary or threnodic elegies (dirges) are no ‘‘real’’ forms of
the genre but an artificial development of the fifth century inspired by sophistic and
philosophical debates about the origins of the genre (Bowie 1986: 21–7; Gerber
1997: 91; differently Page 1936: 206–30; Aloni 2001). According to this view,
Archilochus IEG 13 (seventh century BCE ), which has references to grieving the dead
108 Jackie Murray

(ϰήδεα μὲν сτονόεντα, 1) and the elegiac threnody in Euripides’ tragedy Andromache
(420s BCE ) are to be dismissed as evidence for a subgenre of threnodic elegy, the
former because of its sympotic performance context and the latter as a self-conscious
product of contemporary musical theory that postulated a derivation of the term
elegos from ἒ ἒ λέγειν, ‘‘say e e’’ (Bowie 1986: 22–3; cf. Pfeiffer 1968: 53–62). Yet we
have so few examples of elegy from the Archaic period that we are not in a position to
say categorically that there were no threnodic elegies composed before the fifth
century BCE . Moreover, it is possible to read the Archilochus fragment as exploiting
a tension between threnodic and sympotic elegy. Certainly, the poem’s exhortation to
‘‘bear it and quit womanly lament’’ (τληÐ τε; γυναιϰειÐ ον πένθοс ἀπωсάμενοι, 10) dif-
ferentiates what men should sing in symposia from what women sing at funerals, and
something like the elegiac lament in Euripides’ Andromache may well lie behind the
opposition. Finally, the fragments of Simonides’ Plataea Elegy, composed shortly
after the 479 BCE battle that it commemorates, provide an early example of mourning
in elegiac couplets (Allan 2000: 55–7; Aloni 2001: 90–1; Yatromanolakis 2001: 211–
12, 219–20; differently Mace 2001). So, there is no good reason to doubt that at
least some elegiac poems from the Archaic period did conform in their content to the
later common understanding of elegy, even if they may not have been explicitly
labeled as ‘‘threnodic elegy’’ (Aloni 2001: 105). This example strongly cautions
against treating the limited number of extant examples as if they represented clearly
defined and fixed prototypes of the genre. In fact this notion of the genre being fixed
in the early period is blatantly inaccurate since the early elegists can be shown to be
self-consciously negotiating the boundaries of the genre in their poetry in gestures
that we have come to associate only with Hellenistic poets (see Acosta-Hughes in this
volume).

Elegy Versus Epigram

The variety of early elegy means that it cannot be distinguished sharply from other
genres on the basis of theme or subject matter. Occasion and mode of performance
do not set it apart either. Longer elegies on subjects that were of interest to the
community were performed publicly, but so were epics on similar themes. Similarly,
as Bowie observes (1986) shorter elegies were performed in symposia, but by the fifth
century symposiasts were in the habit of performing (singing and reciting) various
kinds of poetry and even prose as part of the festivities. Even meter, ostensibly the
genre’s only distinctive characteristic, is not entirely unproblematic, since hymns and
epigrams were also composed in elegiac couplets.
Elegy and epigram are completely separable only in the Archaic and early Classical
periods when, as Kathryn Gutzwiller (1998) observes, they occupied different
spheres of experience. The communicative context that defined the aesthetics of
Archaic and Classical poetry, including elegy, was performance; the writing down of
poems had only a mnemonic function (Immerwahr 1964: 17–48; Herington 1985:
45–7, 201–6). Poetry existed on the lips of the performer, not independently as
words on a tablet or book roll. This put epigram in a different category: the
 Elegy 109

physicality of the text and the surface upon which it was inscribed were integral
aspects of epigram’s aesthetic value. Location was also important, since most epi-
grams were anonymously composed and read by random passersby. Indeed, early
epigram’s meaning often depended more upon the monument that bore it and its
context than upon the words per se (Raubitschek 1968: 3; Häusle 1979: 88–105).
Moreover, prior to the Persian Wars epigrams rarely exceeded two couplets; there-
after, epigrams between two and four couplets seem to be standard (West 1974: 2).
By the same token, the exigencies of performance seem to dictate that Archaic and
Classical elegies be no shorter than five couplets (Faraone 2005a, 2008: 71–92). Two
exceptions are worth noting: a five-couplet inscription of the mid-sixth century found
on a polyandrion in Ambracia (Bousquet 1992; D’Alessio 1995) and a five-couplet
Megarian inscription attributed to Simonides (FGE 16 ¼ IG VI.53). In both cases,
we seem to have a threnodic elegy that was performed and then transcribed onto to a
monument to commemorate the dead (Faraone 2005b, 2008: 31–42, 134–5).
Although these poems in their final form do blur the distinction between elegy and
epigram, the manner of this blurring is hardly self-conscious; it is simply the result of
inscribing the elegy (compare Fantuzzi in this volume on inscribed paeans). So,
despite similarities in meter, language, function, and even content, elegy and epigram
in the Archaic and Classical period were notionally different animals (Gutzwiller
1998: 2).
That situation changes radically in the third century. In Hellenistic manifestations
of elegy and epigram the borders between these genres have become permeable.
These borders only remained solid so long as written versions of elegies remained
mere mnemonic devices for performance and these texts never acquired an aesthetic
status equivalent to the performance, and epigrams remained inscribed on their
monuments and were never performed or recorded in book rolls. This distinction
began to break down as early as the end of fifth century with the development of
symposia where the recitation of speeches (rhe ¯seis), notably from drama, became
prevalent alongside singing elegies and other types of sympotic song (Murray 1990;
Cameron 1995a: 72–3; Bowie, 1994, 2007: 95–6; Wissmann in this volume). In this
same period written texts began to be used more widely and certain compositions
took on the aesthetic status of literature as opposed to functional documents
(Thomas 1989: 45–94; Gutzwiller 1998: 47). A consequence of these changes was
generic seepage between elegy and epigram. By the mid-fourth century, inscriptional
and mock inscriptional epigrams were being recited at symposia (Pl. Phdr. 264d;
Gutzwiller 1998: 116), and by the early Hellenistic period collections of ‘‘elegiac
poems’’ consisting of elegies and epigrams began to circulate for use in symposia; the
examples that survive are the Theognidea and the collection of Simonides’ epigrams
(West 1974: 57; Page 1981: 123; Molyneux 1992: 13–15; Sider 2007). With the
creation of the Theognidea, the textual ‘‘transcript’’ was transformed from an aide-
mémoire into a ‘‘script’’ for recitation, which expanded the performance possibilities
of the elegies it contained beyond those dreamt of by their composers. Elegies could
now be performed both from memory and by someone reading directly from the text
(Immerwahr 1964: 17–48; Herington 1985: 45–7, 201–6). The activities of copying
and collecting had an even more interesting effect on the relationship between elegy
and epigrams. The epigrams of Simonides were composed to be meaningful in
110 Jackie Murray

conjunction with the monument on which they were inscribed. However, once these
inscribed epigrams were replicated in a collection, they existed in a medium that
allowed them to be performed.
In other words, the advent of the book roll transformed elegy and epigram into a
new kind of homogeneous elegiac book poetry (Gutzwiller 1998: 3–8). By the third
century, poets were writing elegies and epigrams to be appreciated ultimately as book
poetry, regardless of whether they were also performed or inscribed (Gutzwiller 1998:
115–82). Thematically, elegy and epigram also merged as poets started composing
erotic epigrams suitable for a sympotic performance context (real or imagined). Thus
in the book rolls shorter elegies became ‘‘virtually indistinguishable’’ from longer
epigrams (Gutzwiller 1998: 5, cf. 115–20). Whereas in Archaic and Classical poetry
we can securely separate shorter elegies from longer epigrams by looking at the
poems’ implied medium of communication, performance versus inscription, in the
case of Hellenistic poems in elegiac couplets we seem to be forced to rely on generic
labels applied by scribes, grammarians, and scholiasts (Gutzwiller 1998: 47–53).
What is interesting is that the ancient scholars and poets applied the generic label
epigrammata to many of these third-century collections of elegiac poems. Thus a new
type of ‘‘epigram’’ emerged in the third century: the sympotic epigram (Gutzwiller
1998: 115–82; Bowie 2007; Bruss in this volume). In other words, third-century
epigrams covered the same thematic ground as Archaic and Classical elegy. The
implication seems to be that epigram became the favored genre and that shorter
elegy became assimilated to it. Effectively, shorter elegies came to be considered
epigrams.

Elegy Versus Epic

The scholarly consensus follows Ewen Bowie’s important study which argues that in
the Archaic and Classical periods shorter elegies were performed at symposia, whereas
longer narrative elegies – some reaching hundreds or thousands of lines – were
composed for public performance (Bowie 1986; cf. Dougherty 1994). These longer
poems seem to have functioned as a less prestigious alternative to hexameter poetry
on civic occasions (Aloni 2001: 90). The scant evidence we have suggests there may
have been a basic thematic difference between the two forms: narrative in hexameters
appears to have been restricted to mythological events set no later than the Heroic
Age, whereas narrative in elegiac couplets could extend into the Iron Age and even
into the recent past. Mimnermus’ elegiac Smyrneis celebrated the war between
Smyrna and Gyges and the Lydians, Tyrtaeus’ Politeia (or Eunomia), Spartan prow-
ess in the Messenian Wars. Semonides composed an elegiac Archaeology of the
Samians, Panyassis a History of Ionia (Ionika), Simonides elegies on the Battle of
Artemisium (IEG 1–4) as well as the Battle of Plataea. The meter of Ion of Chios’
Foundation of Chios is uncertain, but this poem too was most likely in elegiacs (Bowie
1986; Aloni 2001). Mimnermus, according to Pausanias (9.29.4 ¼ Mimn. IEG 13),
referred to two sets of Muses in his proem to the Smyrneis: the more ancient Muses,
daughters of Ouranos, and the more recent Muses, daughters of Zeus. There are
 Elegy 111

various ways to interpret this distinction, but one obvious way is to see the reference
as demarcating the different time periods covered by the narrative: events set in the
Heroic Age are governed by the older Muses and events set in the Iron Age, by the
younger Muses (Bowie 1986: 29). Similarly, as Eva Stehle (2001) argues convin-
cingly, Simonides in his Plataea Elegy constructs a poetic voice for himself as a bard of
the Iron Age in opposition to Homer, the bard of the Heroic Age, by beginning his
Plataea Elegy with a hymn to Achilles. She argues that by staging the Muses not as the
source of his song, as they are in Homeric epic, but as his ‘‘allies’’ (epikouroi)
Simonides opposes his poetic enterprise – the glorification of the heroes of Plataea –
to that of Homer – the glorification of the heroes of the Trojan War.
The thematic distinction between hexameter and elegiac public poetry seems to
have crystallized when the Persian Wars created a strong demand for public perform-
ances celebrating its themes and heroes. We can discern a tendency among poets and
historians alike to claim for more recent events equal, if not greater status, than events
of the mythical past (e.g., Hdt. 1.1, Thuc. 1.1–21). The popularity of the Persian
Wars as a theme in public poetry of the Classical period is clear. Aeschylus not only
staged his Persians, he is also said to have rivaled Simonides with an elegiac poem on
the Battle of Marathon (Vita Aeschyli 2.28–30 ¼ TGrF 3.33–4). Simonides in
addition to elegies on Artemisium and Plataea composed a lyric poem on the Battle
of Salamis (PMG 536). Timotheus composed a lyric Persika and Phrynichus a tragic
Phoenissae. Yet despite its popularity as a theme, the Persian Wars did not become
established as a subject of hexameter epic until the end of the fifth century, when
Choerilus of Samos composed his Persika (SH 316–23, PEG 1–25b; 425–395 BCE ?
see MacFarlane 2009). There is some evidence suggesting that Empedocles may have
composed a hexameter Persika earlier (Sider 1982; Kingsley 1996), but what distin-
guishes Choerilus’ achievement is its recognition and influence: Choerilus was
granted the extraordinary privilege of re-performing his work alongside the
Homeric poems at the Panathenaic Festival in Athens (SH 315 ¼ PEG test. 1).
Moreover, in what survives of his proem, Choerilus implies by his complaint that
there is no place for his poetic chariot in the race of the Muses that he is striking out in
a new poetic direction (SH 317, quoted by Acosta-Hughes in this volume). In fact,
Choerilus seems to be making the claim that he is refashioning the genre (MacFarlane
2009). Obviously, composing a poem on the Persian Wars was not in itself innovative;
but composing an epic on this theme was. Choerilus’ ‘‘invention’’ of historical epic
probably had important ramifications for the long public elegy. Since epic always
enjoyed the status of top genre, by breaking down the thematic boundary between
these two adjacent genres Choerilus effectively paved the way for the retroactive
elevation of long elegies on historical themes, notably the Persian Wars, to the status
of epic. Indeed, this would have been facilitated by the fact that the term epos could
refer to elegiacs as well as hexameter poetry. In other words, it is highly likely that by
the fourth century ‘‘epic’’ as a generic concept became less of an indicator of meter
and more of an indicator of theme (Boedeker 1995: 226–9, 2001).
The Classical elegies celebrating the Persian Wars were read in Ptolemaic Egypt and
probably in most of the Greek-speaking world (Barbantani 2002/3: 32). Their
influence on the development of ‘‘historical’’ or ‘‘encomiastic’’ poetry in the
Hellenistic period seems to have been substantial. For example, there are allusions
112 Jackie Murray

to Simonides’ Plataea Elegy in Theocritus’ encomia for Hiero II and Ptolemy II

Philadelphus (Id. 16 and 17; Hunter 1996: 9–109; Fantuzzi 2001; Bulloch in this
volume). Indeed, the only obvious examples of historical elegy from the Hellenistic
period, SH 958 and 969 (which may be sections from the same poem), are consistent
with the language and style of the remains of earlier historical elegies (Barbantani
2001). The importance of the Persian Wars as a theme to the genre as a whole is
evident in SH 958, where in an exchange between a messenger and a king, the
Galatians are compared with the Persians (SH 958.7–16, text after Barbantani 2001):

χὠ μὲν ἐπεὶ μάλα πάντα δι οὔατοс ἔϰλ½υε μυÐ θον

ὠργίсθη; βριαρὸν δ αὐτίϰ ἄνεсχε λόγ½ον.
‘‘ἁνέρεс ὑβριсταί τε ϰαὶ ἄϕρονεс; ἀλλὰ μ½άλ: ω ϰα
½τίсουсιν ταύτηс μιсθὸν ἀταсθαλίηс,
γνώсονται δὲ μαθόντεс; ἐπεὶ ϰαὶ ἀρεί½οναс ἄλλουс
τούτων εἰс ϰρατερὴν δουλοсύνην ἔθεμ½εν.
ου δ ἔμπηс Μήδοιсι βαθυϰτεάνοιсιν ὁμ½οίωс
οι δε βιώсαсθαι θουÐ ροс ἀνὴρ Γαλάτηс.
οὐ γὰρ πορϕυρέοιсιν ἐν εἵμαсιν οὐδὲ μύροιс½ιν
ϰοιμαÐ ται μαλαϰὸν χρωÐ τα λιπαινόμενο½с
ἀλλὰ χαμευνάδιόс τε ϰαὶ αἰθρι½άα < ι > ἐνι½αυτόν.’’
When the whole report came to his ears, he flared up with rage and immediately raised a
threatening speech: ‘‘These arrogant and foolish men! Well, they will soon pay the price for
this outrage and learn the hard way, because we have put into harsh slavery men better than
them. And yet the bold Galatian man does not at all live like the Medes, deep in wealth. For
he does not fall asleep in crimson garments after anointing his soft skin with sweet perfume,
no, he lies down on the ground and in the open all year round.’’

There is some debate among scholars about which events are being alluded to in this
passage and whether the ‘‘Medes deep in wealth’’ refers to the forces of Xerxes,
Darius III, or even the Seleucids (Barbantani 2001: 188–223, 2002/3: 36–45). It
seems reasonable to rule out Xerxes, since by the Hellenistic period the Persian Wars
theme would have been focused more squarely on Alexander’s conquest of the
Persian Empire and less on the Athenian and Spartan forces thwarting the invasion
of Greece, which by now must have paled by comparison. But in any case, the
reference to the Persians evokes the Classical elegiac and hexameter poems celebrat-
ing military victories over the Barbarian. Thus, it can be read as an attempt to bolster
the value of this elegy by placing it in the older tradition of ‘‘epic’’ Persika, which by
the third century would have notionally included (without metrical distinction)
elegiac poems such as those composed by Simonides and Aeschylus, and hexameter
poems like those composed by Choerilus and possibly Empedocles.
The dawning book culture not only caused short elegy to be swallowed up by
‘‘epigram,’’ it also contributed to the most important innovation in long elegy.
Around 400 BCE , Antimachus of Colophon, a younger contemporary of Choerilus,
composed the Lyde, which seems to have been the most remarkable elegiac poem prior
to Callimachus’ Aetia. The Lyde had its roots in public catalogue poetry, the most
important Archaic representative of which was the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women
(Hunter 2005b). As far as the scanty fragments (in Matthews 1996) allow us to discern,
 Elegy 113

the Lyde was a catalogue of mythological stories in at least two books, organized
around the common themes of misfortune and grief. What made the poem different
was its personal narrative frame: Antimachus presented the mythological stories in the
context of consoling himself after the death of the woman he loved, Lyde. The Lyde’s
personal frame would have made it unsuitable for a festival or public performance,
whereas its length probably precluded presentation of the poem in its entirety at a
symposium. Clearly Antimachus reckoned with readers as well as listeners.
In terms of content, the Lyde is often mistakenly described as featuring the sad love
affairs of heroes (Del Corno 1962: 77–8). In fact, the pseudo-Plutarchan Consolation
to Apollonius, one of our primary sources for the poem’s general theme, describes it as
follows (Mor. 106b–c ¼ Antim. test. 12 Matthews 1996):

ἀποθανούсηс γὰρ τηÐ с γυναιϰὸс αὐτωÐ ι Λύδηс; πρὸс ἣν ϕιλοсτόργωс ει χε; παραμύθιον
τηÐ с λύπηс αὑτωÐ ι ἐποίηсε τὴν ἐλεγείαν τὴν ϰαλουμένην Λύδην; ἐξαριθμηсάμενοс τὰс
ἡρωιϰὰс сυμϕοράс; τοιÐ с ἀλλοτρίοιс ϰαϰοιÐ с ἐλάττω τὴν ἑαυτουÐ ποιωÐ ν λύπην.
After his wife Lyde died, toward whom he was very affectionate, [Antimachus]
composed the elegy called the Lyde to soothe his pain by cataloguing the misfortunes
of heroes, to lessen his own pain with the troubles of other people.

It would be wrong to follow Hecker in changing the text to read ‘‘erotic misfortunes’’
(ἐρωτιϰὰс сυμϕοράс). ‘‘Misfortunes of heroes’’ (ἡρωιϰὰс сυμϕοράс) is consistent with
the Homeric description of the theme of Phemius’ epic song to the suitors in Odyssey 1
and Demodocus’ epic song to Odysseus and the Phaeacians in Odyssey 8 (1.326–7 ‘‘he
sang the disastrous return [νόсτον λυγρόν] of the Greeks,’’ 350 ‘‘the miserable doom
[ϰαϰὸν οι τον] of the Greeks’’; 8.498, 578 ‘‘the doom [οι τον] of the Greeks’’).
Antimachus apparently used heroic, i.e., epic stories, to assuage his grief at the loss of
his beloved – more probably his mistress than his ‘‘wife,’’ as the moralizing Consolation
to Apollonius claims (Matthews 1996: 27). There is indeed hardly any evidence from the
fragments of the Lyde to suggest that the myths narrated were especially erotic in nature
(Matthews 1996: 32). Ovid in Tristia 1.6.1, which invokes the Lyde as a model, uses
very much the same strategy (Cairns 1979: 219–20). The fragments also suggest
that the language or style of the Lyde was not significantly different from Antimachus’
great epic poem, the Thebaid. In fact, it seems that it is exactly the ‘‘epicness’’ of
the elegiac Lyde which Callimachus criticized with the notorious words Λύδη ϰαὶ
παχὺ γράμμα ϰαὶ οὐ τόρον, ‘‘the Lyde, a fat piece of writing and not sharp’’ (fr. 398
Pf. ¼ Antim. test. 15 with Matthews 1996: 27–39; Cameron 1992: 309).
The Lyde seems to have shown the way for poets in the fourth and third centuries to
compose similar thematically arranged subjective catalogue elegies of considerable
length on themes suitable for the symposium and/or private reading but not for public
performance (Hunter 2005a: 259–64). From the frequent coupling of Antimachus
and his Lyde with Philitas and his ‘‘Bittis,’’ it seems reasonable to assume that Philitas
also composed a substantial catalogue poem dedicated to his girlfriend which may or
may not have been named after her (Cameron 1995a: 381; Spanoudakis 2002). Loves
or Beautiful Boys of Phanocles was a substantial catalogue poem on pederastic love
affairs (CA pp. 106–9; Hopkinson 1988: 177–81). The Leontion of Hermesianax of
Colophon comprised a three-book-long catalogue of love affairs which included poet
114 Jackie Murray

lovers in the third book (CA pp. 96–106). Alexander Aetolus, a contemporary of
Aratus (Fraser 1972: 1.555; Magnelli 1999), composed an Apollo which was a cata-
logue of famous clients of Apollo’s oracle at Didyma (CA pp. 122–3). It is also possible
that his other elegy, the Muses, may have been a catalogue of poets and/or their
corresponding literary genres (Cameron 1995a: 382; CA pp. 124–6). The strangest
example is the so-called Tattoo Elegy (SH and SSH 970), an elegiac catalogue of
cautionary mythological scenes that the speaker threatens to tattoo upon the body of
his enemy (probably his erotic rival). The extant lines describe a fight between Heracles
and the Centaur Eurytion, the punishment of Tantalus, and the Calydonian boar hunt
(Huys 1991; Slings 1993; Lloyd-Jones 1994; Rawles 2006; Bernsdorff 2008).
Outside of Callimachus’ oeuvre, the longest specimen of Hellenistic elegy to survive
is Hermesianax’s Leontion (CA pp. 96–106), originally three books in length, of which
98 lines are quoted in Athenaeus’ Learned Banqueters (Ath. 13.597b ¼ CA 7; Asquith
2005; Hunter 2005a; Caspers 2006). This passage is a catalogue of poets both
mythical and historical in which Hermesianax assigns to each poet a beloved whose
name seems to be drawn from his poetry. For example, in addition to Antimachus and
Lyde and Philitas and Bittis, he includes Hesiod and Ehoie (alluding to the Catalogue
of Women), Mimnermus and Nanno (alluding to the title of Mimnermus’ collected
erotic poems) and Homer and Penelope (alluding to the Odyssey). His own poem
apparently inserted itself into this series of poetic love affairs: it was named after his own
mistress Leontion.
All of these elegiac catalogues are often treated as successors to the Hesiodic
Catalogue of Women, but they should also be considered direct descendants of the
Lyde, with which they all seem to share a subjective narrative frame (Asquith 2005:
279–86). And as Krevans (1993) and Cameron (1995a: 382) both point out, even
Callimachus’ Aetia, though it draws heavily on Hesiod’s hexametric Theogony (Fantuzzi
and Hunter 2004: 51–60), nevertheless owes much to Antimachus’ elegy. The Aetia’s
catalogue of stories, however, seem to embrace all the generic diversity of Archaic
poetry in elegiacs (Harder 1998), including epigram (e.g., in the story of the inscribed
apple in Acontius and Cydippe, frs. 67–75 Pf.), sympotic elegy (e.g., the banquet of
Pollis, fr. 178 Pf.), and encomiastic elegy (e.g., in the Victory of Berenice, SH 254–68).
So, in a sense, Callimachus’ Aetia is a subjective catalogue of different types of elegy.

Callimachus’ Big Lady

There is very little we can say for certain about the nature of Hellenistic elegy on the
basis of the fragments that survive. Yet, as we have seen, it is possible to show without
recourse to Latin elegy that Greek elegiac poetry of the third century BCE was
significantly different from its Archaic and Classical predecessors. What has emerged
is an interesting picture. In the case of shorter sympotic or private elegy, the evolution
of the literary epigram resulted in a merger of the two forms. It seems fair to say that
once the literary epigram became popular, shorter elegy was assimilated to it and
effectively disappeared. A similar process of assimilation is likely to have taken place
between long public elegy and hexameter epic. After it became acceptable to treat
 Elegy 115

‘‘historical’’ themes in hexameter poetry, the border between the two forms col-
lapsed. Accordingly, a long poem on heroes and kings would have been considered
epic, regardless of whether it was composed in hexameters or elegiac couplets. Thus
by the third century, elegy had lost most of its variety. Following Antimachus’ Lyde,
the main form of elegy became the long subjective catalogue poem, culminating in
Callimachus’ long catalogue of ‘‘origins,’’ the four-book Aetia.
There is, nevertheless, no escaping recourse to the prologue of the Aetia in any
exploration of Hellenistic elegy. Callimachus began his poem as follows (fr. 1.1–12
Pf.; on the supplements see Luppe 1997; Müller 1998; Acosta-Hughes and Stephens
2002):

πολλάϰι μοι ΤελχιÐ νεс ἐπιτρύζουсιν ἀ οιδῃÐ ,

̚
νήιδε с οἳ Μούсηс οὐϰ ἐγένοντο ϕίλοι,
̚

εἵνεϰε ν οὐχ ἓν ἄειсμα διηνεϰὲс ἢ βαсιλ½η

̚

. . . . . .αс ἐν πολλαιÐ с ἤνυсα χιλιάсιν

ἢ . . . :::ουс ἥρωαс; ἔποс δ ἐπὶ τυτθὸν ἔλ½εξα
παιÐ с ἅτ ε; τωÐ ν δ ἐτέων ἡ δεϰὰ с οὐϰ ὀλίγη.
̚
̚

. . . . . . ].[.]ϰαι Τε½λχιÐ сιν ἐγὼ τόδε    ϕυÐ λον α[

. . . . . . .] τήϰ½ειν ηffl παρ ἐπιсτάμενον,
Κώιοс οὐ γ:ὰ: ρ: ἔην: ½ὀλιγόсτιχοс ἀλλὰ ϰαθέλ ϰει
̚
δρυÐ ν πο λὺ τὴν μαϰρὴν ὄμπνια Θεсμοϕόρο½с
̚

τοιÐ ν δὲ δ:υοι : Ð ν Μίμνερμοс ὅτι γλυϰύс; α½ἵ : γ ἁπαλαὶ μὲν

νήνιες;  ἡ μεγάλη δ οὐϰ ἐδίδαξε γυνή.
Often the Telchines grumble at my song –
fools who are not friends of the Muse! –
because I haven’t written a single, continuous song
in thousands of verses on kings
[or . . . ] heroes, but I [tell my stories] little by little
just like a child, though the decades of my years are not few.
. . . to the Telchines I reply this: ‘‘You race [of . . . ],
knowing only how to devour the liver,
[the Coan poet to be sure was not] a man of few verses,
but his bountiful Thesmophoros drags down by far his tall [oak],
[and] of [the] two it is Mimnermus’ [delicate girls] that teach
how sweet he is, not his big lady.

For the longest while, scholars have understood this passage as implying that
Callimachus was taking a stand against epic poetry. Recently, Cameron (1995a:
307–38) cast doubt on this reading by arguing that the object of Callimachus’ scorn
was not epic, but long catalogue elegy in general and Antimachus’ Lyde in particular.
As I have argued, after Choerilus the distinction between epic and elegy disappeared
in respect to long public poems. So, when Callimachus rejects long poems about
heroes and kings, it is likely that he means both elegiac and hexameter ‘‘epic.’’ In fact,
I would submit that Callimachus is engaged here in a typically elegiac strategy, already
deployed by the Archaic elegists, namely establishing the thematic boundaries of
elegy vis-à-vis other types of elegy as well as adjacent genres (compare, for example,
Xenophanes fr. 1.13–24 Gentili and Prato 2002, Thgn. 757–64; see Acosta-Hughes
116 Jackie Murray

in this volume). In lines 9 to 12, Callimachus allusively points out to his critics that
the long poems of Philitas of Cos and Mimnermus are aesthetically inferior to their
shorter works. In the case of Philitas, ‘‘Thesmophoros’’ points to his influential elegy,
Demeter. This analogy alludes to Demeter’s introduction of agriculture which caused
grain (‘‘Thesmophoros’’) to replace acorns (‘‘tall oak’’) as the main source of human
sustenance (Müller 1998). Callimachus thus asserts the superiority of this compara-
tively short poem to a longer Philitan poem. Since oak trees symbolized Homeric
epic, I suggest that the other poem was in hexameters, most likely Philitas’ Hermes,
since it reworked Homer’s account of Odysseus’ visit with Aeolus, the king of the
winds. Mimnermus’‘‘big lady’’ seems to refer to his long historical elegy, Smyrneis;
this poem Callimachus compares unfavorably to the collection of Mimnermus’ short
sympotic elegies that circulated under the title Nanno (‘‘delicate girls’’; West 1974:
72–6; Bowie 1986: 13–35; Allen 1993: 20; Asquith 2005: 281–2; Hunter 2005a:
260–1). Thus the prologue to the Aetia seems to equate the long poems of Philitas
and Mimnermus, whether composed in hexameters or elegiacs, thematically, formally,
and/or aesthetically and stylistically with long poems about kings or heroes (3–5), i.
e., ‘‘epic.’’ As a result, the long subjective catalogue elegy which it introduces, the
Aetia, is set up as the new measure for long elegy, supplanting any pre-existing
standard, notably the Lyde. Any elegy that does not fit the Aetia’s definition of the
genre is rated inferior. The success of the Aetia in revising the history of elegy and
establishing itself as the aition of Hellenistic elegy is evident in Quintilian’s canon of
Greek elegists, quoted at the beginning of this chapter. For, despite the fact that it was
Antimachus who started the trend of subjective catalogue elegy, Quintilian only
prescribes Callimachus and Philitas to the aspiring orator.

FURTHER READING

The most recent discussion of the complex relationship between Hellenistic and Latin elegy is
Hunter 2006a. Cameron 1995a is a controversial but important treatment of Callimachus’ role
in shaping taste in Hellenistic elegy. Gutzwiller 1998 has much that is relevant to the distinc-
tion between epigram and elegy. The papers in Boedeker and Sider 2001 on Simonides’ Plataea
Elegy contextualize the proliferation of historical elegy in the Hellenistic period. MacFarlane
2002, 2006, and 2009 are similarly important for Choerilus’ innovation in epic. The extant
fragments of Hellenistic historical elegy are discussed by Barbantani 2001 and 2002/3. On the
influence of Antimachus, see Matthews 1996 and Krevans 1993; on that of the Hesiodic
Catalogue of Women, Hunter 2005a and Asquith 2005.
Fragmentarily preserved Hellenistic elegies are collected in Powell 1925 (CA) and Lloyd-
Jones and Parsons 1983 (SH ), with additions in Lloyd-Jones 2005 (SSH ). For individual
authors see also: Antimachus: Matthews 1996 and Cameron 1995a: 303–38; Philitas:
Spanoudakis 2002; Eratosthenes: Rosokoki 1995; Alexander Aetolus: Magnelli 1999;
Euphorion: Van Groningen 1977 and Magnelli 2002; Hermesianax: Hunter 2005a, Asquith
2005, and Caspers 2006; Phanocles: Hopkinson 1988: 45–6, 177–81; Parthenius: Lightfoot
1999; the Tattoo Elegy: Huys 1991, Rawles 2006, and Bernsdorff 2008.
 CHAPTER NINE

Epigram
Jon S. Bruss

At Arlington
Two dates carved in stone above his grave
tell us he was seventeen, not how
this soldier died, nor whether he was brave
or terrified, or both. No matter now:
the only life he had to give, he gave.

This short poem by Wiley Clements (2004: 145) uses the five-beat meter standard for
poetic epitaphs in English. Yet it is not an epitaph but a reflection on an epitaph: a
wanderer through Arlington National Cemetery interprets the inscription on one of
the thousands of gravestones that, in neat, criss-crossing lines populate the undulat-
ing hills. This much we can gather if we combine the information the poem supplies
with our knowledge of the location specified by its title. The curtness of the soldier’s
epitaph – no more than two dates and, presumably, a name – makes the poet speculate
about the implications of the information the stone provides (this soldier was seven-
teen years old when he died) and about what it does not and even cannot tell him
(‘‘not how this soldier died, nor whether he was brave or terrified, or both’’). The
curtness of Clements’ poem in turn begs us to inquire further. Who is the young man
who lies under the stone, and where was he from? He must be an American, or
he would not be buried at Arlington. His young age suggests that he died in battle, so
to which war did he give his life? The age supplies a clue: it must have been an early
war, when seventeen-year-olds could enlist. While we formulate such hypotheses, we
are, as sophisticated readers, aware that it is the poet who has made us experience the
soldier’s grave in this way. Our experience of the tombstone comes from words on a
page. We have no way of telling whether the stone is even real, nor can we, in the end,
be completely confident about the ‘‘reading’’ which we have put on it and on the
poet’s reflection about it (Does it matter that this poem was published during the war
118 Jon S. Bruss

in Iraq? What do we know about the author? What about the journal in which it was
published?). The best among Hellenistic epigrams present many of the same chal-
lenges and rewards. They too invite the reader to read closely the little that is there so
that they may be able to supplement what the poem does not say but the reader must
realize in order to truly appreciate the poet’s creation (Ergänzungsspiel: Bing 1995).
What is more they similarly often resist a final interpretation.
Two Byzantine collections, the Palatine Anthology and Planudean Anthology
(abbreviated AP and APl.), preserve for us many thousands of lines of short poetry
composed in elegiac distichs, testifying to the continuing popularity of the genre of
literary epigram until late antiquity. In addition, a substantial number of epigrams has
survived in other ways, such as quotations in Athenaeus’ Learned Banqueters. From
this body of material Gow and Page (1965) identified roughly a thousand poems as
deriving ultimately from Meleager’s Garland (Stephanos), the earliest attested antho-
logy of epigrams (c.100 BCE ; Cameron 1993), running to 4,700 lines and composed
by over 60 poets, some represented with a large number of poems (e.g., Leonidas of
Tarentum with 103, Meleager himself with 132). To give this figure some sense of
scale, it is the equivalent of roughly three tragedies or a third of the Iliad. Thousands
of further lines can be ascribed to another early anthology, composed around 40 CE
by Philip of Thessalonica, whose Garland included epigrammatists who wrote
between Meleager and his own time (Gow and Page 1968).
Since Gow and Page published their editions of the Garlands of Meleager and
Philip, the process of collection and arrangement of epigrams in ‘‘poetry books’’ and
anthologies has received a fair amount of scholarly attention (Cameron 1993;
Gutzwiller 1998; Sider 2007; Krevans 2007; Argentieri 2007). This debate has been
fueled recently by the appearance of the ‘‘New Posidippus,’’ a papyrus from the third
century BCE (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309) preserving the (in some cases scanty) remains of
112 epigrams. Of these epigrams 110 are new to us, but two are attested elsewhere
under the name of Posidippus (15, 65 AB ¼ 20, 18 GP), which has led many scholars
to conclude that all 112 poems are from the hand of that poet. Whether that is so or
not, the papyrus underscores how much of the epigram production of the Hellenistic
period is lost. It also provides us with an insight into the organization of an epigram
collection that predates the Garland of Meleager by more than a century, confirming,
for example, the arrangement of epigrams by subgenre and preserving the title of
eight such entries.
Whatever the status of this specific collection, it is likely enough that anthologies of
epigram existed well before Meleager. I have argued elsewhere that the 22 epigrams
which constitute the preserved oeuvre of Alcaeus of Messene (fl. 200 BCE ) may have
appeared within a multi-poet collection drawn together by Alcaeus himself (Bruss
2002/3). What has come down to us from Alcaeus includes an uncharacteristically
large percentage of political-satiric epigrams, a type meagerly represented in
Meleager’s Garland, and then under other headings. As in the case of the ‘‘New
Posidippus,’’ which contains various types of epigram meagerly or not at all repre-
sented in the Garland, one wonders what we have lost because it did not fit
Meleager’s selection criteria.
 Epigram 119

‘‘Inscribed’’ Epigrams
Many types of literary epigram from the Hellenistic period pose as epigrams inscribed
in stone, such as those commonly found on tombstones and dedicated objects (Day
2007; A. Petrovic 2007; Bettenworth 2007). In what follows I will attempt to give an
impression of how such poems play with the conventions, and explore the possibilities
of, their inscribed ‘‘ancestors.’’ As my starting point I will use a literary funerary
epigram by the poet Dioscorides in which many of the influences and currents
in Hellenistic epigram come together. As for most Hellenistic epigrammatists,
Dioscorides’ dates are uncertain, but he was in any case active after the death of the
comic poet Macho (in the second half of the third century BCE ), for whose Alexandrian
tomb he composed an epitaph (24 GP ¼AP 7.708). The following epitaph, too, is for a
writer of sorts: the name of Philaenis, apparently a famous courtesan, is attached to
what seems to have been a notorious manual on courtship and sex, fragmentarily
preserved for us in P.Oxy. 2891, from which we can gather that it opened with sections
on making passes, flattery, and kissing (what followed is easy to guess). But the
attribution, Philaenis insists, is incorrect and her notoriety undeserved (26 GP ¼ AP
7.450):

τηÐ с Σαμίηс τὸ μνηÐ μα Φιλαινίδοс: ἀλλὰ προсειπειÐ ν

τληÐ θί με; ϰαὶ сτήληс πληсίον; ω νερ; ἴθι.
οὐϰ εἴμ ἡ τὰ γυναιξὶν ἀναγράψαсα προсάντη
ἔργα ϰαὶ Αἰсχύνην οὐ νομίсαсα θεόν,
ἀλλὰ ϕιλαιδήμων; ναὶ ἐμὸν τάϕον: εἰ δέ τιс ἡμέαс
αἰсχύνων λαμυρὴν ἔπλαсεν ἱсτορίην,
τουÐ μὲν ἀναπτύξαι χρόνοс οὔνομα; τἀμὰ δὲ λυγρήν
ὀсτέα τερϕθείη ϰληδόν ἀπωсαμένηс.
The tomb of Samian Philaenis. Talk to me,
if you dare, and come up close to the pillar, sir.
I’m not the one who wrote up for women these
repugnant tricks and who didn’t think Modesty was a god.
No, I was a lover of modesty – on my grave, I was! And if anyone
has written a scurrilous treatise, putting me to shame,
may time spew out his name; and may my bones
rejoice when I’ve shaken off my sorry reputation.

The inscriptional derivation of this poem is obvious. Its opening combines two
distinct modes of self-presentation familiar from Greek funerary epigram: that by
the monument (‘‘[this is] the tomb of Samian Philaenis’’) and that by the deceased
(‘‘talk to me’’). The first mode is attested from a very early date in Greek funerary
inscriptions and is the main mode in Archaic one-line inscriptions. On a sixth-century
Attic grave column, for example, we find the hexameter ‘‘[Thi]s is the tomb of
[name missing], a good and [prude]nt man’’ ( . . . τόδε сηÐ μ ἀγαθουÐ ½ϰαὶ сώϕρονοс
ἀνδρόс, CEG 36.ii; the spelling has been normalized, as in the following examples).
But the same conflation of forms as in Dioscorides’ epigram already appears in the
inscription on the ‘‘Phrasicleia korē,’’ a funerary statue of an unmarried girl which is
120 Jon S. Bruss

contemporary with the grave column of the ‘‘good and prudent man’’ and may been
sculpted by the same artist (CEG 24.i; Svenbro 1993):

сηÐ μα Φραсιϰλείαс: ϰούρη ϰεϰλήсομαι αἰεί,

ἀντὶ γάμου παρὰ θεωÐ ν τουÐ το λαχουÐ с ὄνομα.
The sēma of Phrasicleia. I shall be called a girl forever,
having received from the gods this name as my share instead of a marriage.

The first half of the first line identifies the monument as a grave marker for
Phrasicleia. Then, as in Dioscorides’ poem, the voice breaks, becoming first-person:
the dead girl, represented by the statue, now presents herself, relating her circum-
stances in death – unmarried – which itself serves as an aetiology for her monumental
presentation as a korē. Phrasicleia’s korē is one of only a handful of Archaic funerary
monuments with epigrams for females, almost all of which are for unmarried girls. If
the surviving evidence is in any way representative, this puts the epitaph of Philaenis,
whose highest goal in life was certainly not marriage and who supposedly lived her life
to the full, in an ironic light.
Dioscorides’ poem also plays on another trope common to funerary epigram:
seeking to attract the passerby’s attention. Witness, for example, this c.510 BCE
epigram inscribed on the base of a funerary stele (CEG 51):

οἴϰτιρον προсορωÐ ½ν παιδὸс τόδε сηÐ μα θανόντοс,

Σμιϰύθ½ου; ὅс τε ϕίλων ὤλεсεν ἔλπ (sic) ἀγαθήν.
Mourn as you take in this sēma of a dead child,
Smicythus, whose death has destroyed the great expectations of his loved ones.

The address envisions an individual reader and demands grief as a response

(οἴϰτιρον), a move which, as Day 1989 has convincingly shown, seeks to ‘‘reacti-
vate’’ the mourning ritual. Smicythus’ death at a young age has bereft his loved ones,
likely his parents, of what in the Greek world was a fervent hope, support in their old
age. The reader is asked to place himself in the position of the decedent’s parents as
an incentive to mourn. In Dioscorides 26 GP, the address to the passerby is
comprised entirely of Philaenis’ speech. But instead of invoking a ‘‘you,’’ or a
generic ‘‘wayfarer’’ (ὁδίτηс; παροδίτηс) or ‘‘stranger’’ (ξειÐ νοс), Philaenis, in keeping
with the very trade from which she tries to disassociate herself, specifically beckons a
man (ω νερ, 2). Her opening words, ‘‘talk to me, if you dare, and come up close to
the pillar, sir,’’ figure the addressee as morally superior, a decent man less than eager
to be involved in conversation by a woman like Philaenis, whether she be dead or
alive.
In literary funerary epigram (collected largely in Book 7 of the Palatine Anthology),
such games with the addressee – a passerby who now travels through a scroll rather
than by road – are nearly ubiquitous. For example, in an epigram by Asclepiades
(third century BCE ), the ‘‘owner’’ of a cenotaph provides the passerby with the
following instruction: ‘‘tell my father Melesagoras, whenever you arrive in Chios,
how an evil Eurus destroyed me and my ship and my business and that the name of
Euippus is the only thing left’’ (31 GP ¼ AP 7.500). The poem exploits the tension
 Epigram 121

between the fixedness of Euippus’ tomb and the mobility of the wayfarer, who is not
merely expected to stop, read, and mourn (expectations so standard that they need
not be expressed), but also to memorize or write down the epigram’s message, carry
it with him, and report it to Euippus’ father in Chios. In another Asclepiadean
epigram, similarly for the victim of a shipwreck (30 GP ¼ AP 7.284), the address
to the passerby is humorously inverted into an address to the sea, whom the drowned
man urges to ‘‘stay eight cubits away’’ and not destroy his grave on the seashore. Such
addresses are a mimetic device that assists in the realization of the fiction it perpe-
trates; within the confines of a collection of poems, such inversions also maintain a
reader’s attention by arresting it.
Hellenistic literary epigram also plays with the inscriptional genre of the dedicatory
epigram. Greek temples were full of objects dedicated by worshippers who came to
petition or thank the gods for success or salvation, and many of them bore metrical
inscriptions such as the following epigram from Rhamnus in Attica, accompanying a
marble statue of a youth (CEG 320, c.420 BCE ):

Λυсιϰλείδηс ἀνέθηϰεν  Επανδρίδου υἱὸс ἀπαρχὴν

τόνδε θεαÐ ι τηÐ ιδε; ἣ τόδ ἔχει τέμενοс.
Lysicleides, son of Epandrides, dedicated this as a first-fruits offering
to this goddess who holds this sacred precinct.

The physical context of this epigram obviates the need to specify a number of basic
details. The reader who encounters this text in situ can see that the dedicated object
(‘‘this’’) is a statue of a youth, and knows he is in the sanctuary of Themis (‘‘this
goddess who holds this sacred precinct,’’ with overuse of the near-field deictic ὅδε).
Specified are only the dedicator’s name – Lysicleides son of Epandrides – and the
reason for the dedication – a first-fruits offering.
Most literary dedicatory epigrams appear in Book 6 of the Palatine Anthology, a
grouping that seems to derive ultimately from Meleager’s Garland. Six dedicatory
epigrams also make up a section in the ‘‘New Posidippus’’ under the heading
Anathēmatika (36–41 AB). Some of these epigrams may once have been inscribed
on actual objects, others are likely to be entirely fictional; all have in common that
they can be appreciated in isolation, in a context where the object(s) and locations to
which they refer must be imagined on the basis of the information the epigram
provides. Contrast Lysicleides’ dedication with the following poem by Perses, one
of the earliest Hellenistic epigrammatists, active at the end of fourth century BCE (1
GP ¼ AP 6.112):

τρειÐ с ἄϕατοι ϰεράεссιν ὑπ αἰθούсαιс τοι; Ἄπολλον,

ἄγϰεινται ϰεϕαλαὶ Μαιναλίων ἐλάϕων,
ἃс ἕλον ἐξ ἵππων yγυγερωÐ ι χέρεy Δαΐλοχόс τε
ϰαὶ Προμένηс; ἀγαθουÐ τέϰνα Λεοντιάδου.
Three heads with antlers that leave one speechless
are dedicated in your porch, Apollo, from Maenalian stags,
which Dailochus y . . . y took on horse,
and Promenes, sons of noble Leontiadas.
122 Jon S. Bruss

Promenes and Dailochus, sons of a notable Theban family, appropriately dedicate

trophies of their (bow-?) hunt to the far-shooting god, Apollo. The fact that the
family is known gives the poem an air of realism; but deictics are absent. All the reader
is to ‘‘see’’ is provided by the text – up to a point: the poem has no real ‘‘here,’’
except wherever one might imagine the sanctuary where the stags’ heads are dedi-
cated to stand. It also remains unclear why these Theban aristocrats should have gone
all the way to Arcadia to hunt stags on a mountain associated with Apollo’s stag-
hunting sister Artemis (e.g., Call. h. 3.89, 224). Such breaches in realism may also be
observed in other epigrams by Perses that seem to refer to actual people and events
(e.g., 4 GP ¼ AP 7.501). They suggest that this poem, too, is not a real dedication
but about the sort of dedication people like the sons of Leontiadas might make after
doing the sort of thing one imagines such people do.
A distinct subgenre of literary dedicatory epigram is formed by poems about
professionals dedicating objects associated with their trade (Rossi 2001: 131–4).
Such dedications have a basis in reality – Greek temples must have been full of
appropriate objects dedicated to ask or thank for professional success – but as in the
case of epitaphs Hellenistic poets exploited the potentials of the basic setup and
conventions in imaginative and often humorous ways, producing epigrams one would
be very surprised to find inscribed on an actual object. This applies, for example, to a
pair of dedicatory epigrams incorporated not in Book 6 but in Book 5 of the Palatine
Anthology, which contains ‘‘erotic’’ epigrams (erōtika) – illustrative of the problems of
categorization faced by ancient anthologists and modern scholars alike. These epi-
grams, one by Asclepiades (6 GP ¼ AP 5.203), the other possibly by Posidippus (127
AB ¼ AP 5.202) rather than Asclepiades (35 GP), commemorate the dedication of
spurs, whips, and reins by two rather extraordinary jockeys; and in the latter we
encounter a familiar name (127 AB for text and translation):

πορϕυρέην μάсτιγα ϰαὶ ἡνία сιγαλόεντα

Πλάγγων εὐίππων θηÐ ϰεν ἐπὶ προθύρων,
νιϰήсαсα ϰέλητι Φιλαινίδα τὴν πολύχαρμον
ἑсπερινωÐ ν πώλων ἄρτι ϕρυαссομένων.
Κύπρι ϕίλη; сὺ δὲ τηÐ ιδε πόροιс νημερτέα νίϰηс
δόξαν; ἀείμνηсτον τήνδε τιθειÐ сα χάριν.
Her purple whip and glittering reins
Plango dedicated on the portico of fine horses,
having defeated as a jockey Philaenis, the hardened campaigner,
when evening colts had just begun to neigh.
Dear Cypris, grant her the true glory of her victory,
by having this favor remembered forever.

Plango, doubtless a practitioner of the world’s oldest profession, can boast of

‘‘riding’’ skills to beat those of epigram’s most famous prostitute, Philaenis. The
poem borrows tropes from several genres of epigram. The recall of Philaenis’ defeat
at her hand and the speaker’s plea for ‘‘the true glory of her victory’’ explicitly link
the poem to victory epigram (Köhnken 2007). The placement of the tools used
 Epigram 123

to accomplish her victory at Cypris’ temple, along with the very language of
dedication, borrows from dedicatory epigram. And the ‘‘event’’ in which Plango
defeated Philaenis evokes the world of erotic epigram. The ingenuity of the poem
lies in its conflation of these tropes within what was probably a common metaphor
(worked out in great graphic detail in Asclepiades 6 GP, which Posidippus may have
intended to cap) in a surprising direction: if prostitutes ‘‘riding’’ customers are like
jockeys, they can be imagined as competing in races with other prostitutes and, after
winning such a race, dedicating the sort of objects jockeys dedicate and praying for
the eternal fame that equestrian victories bring (if they are commemorated in
poetry).
In addition to the large corpus of dedicatory epigrams in elegiacs, there also survive
some Hellenistic dedicatory poems of a somewhat different nature, the so-called
figure poems (technopaignia), included in Book 15 of the Palatine Anthology. The
genre is associated especially with the early third-century poet Simias of Rhodes, for
whom three such poems are attested. Other figure poems, equally replete with riddles
and glosses, are ascribed (not in all cases convincingly) to Dosiadas, Besantinus, and
Theocritus. It is still a matter of debate where these poems first debuted: on papyrus
(Bing 1988: 15 and 1990: 281–2) or as inscriptions on actual objects (Cameron
1995a: 33–7)? What is clear is that in these poems the poet manipulates the length of
the lines so that the shape of the poem mimics the dedicated object, real or imaginary,
to which it refers. For example, the first line of Simias’ Wings (AP 15.24) runs to 23
syllables, but each of the next lines becomes shorter by one choriambic foot (— r—)
until in line 6 only the three-syllable clausula is left (w–a). This pattern is reversed in
the second half of the poem, where the lines increase from one foot in line 7 to six in
line 12, forming the second wing of ‘‘swift-flying’’ (9) Eros. We might imagine the
poem inscribed on the wings of a statue of Eros, but the practicalities of its arrange-
ment pose problems. The same applies to Simias’ Egg (AP 15.27). As this poem has
come down to us in the Palatine Anthology, its lines ascend in length from the first to
the tenth, and descend in length from the eleventh to the twentieth, but they must be
read in the order first, last, second, second-last, third, third-last, etc. (in line with the
poem’s own riddling ‘‘reading instruction’’). Wilamowitz (1906: 245), followed by
Gow (1952b: 179) and Cameron (1995a: 35), suggested that the only way the poem
makes sense is as an inscription on the top half of a bronze or stone egg, such that
what are now lines 1 and 20, which must be read sequentially, wrapped around the
top of the egg (inscribed on opposite sides), lines 2 and 19 below that, and so on to
lines 10 and 11, which would have been circumscribed around the egg’s girth.
A mirror image of Egg (but in the meter of Wings) is Simias’ Axe (AP 15.22), a
dedication by Epeus of the axe he used to build the Wooden Horse, which has been
nonsensically arranged in the Anthology to form a two-headed axe. Printed in the
proper order, the lines of the poem form an up-ended triangle in which every third
line becomes one choriamb shorter, in such a way that one can imagine it being
inscribed on opposite sides of a (single-headed) axe. The question of whether Axe was
originally inscribed is ultimately unanswerable. What can be said is that, just like
Hellenistic ‘‘inscriptional’’ epigrams in elegiacs, these poems do not require any other
context than the papyrus scroll to work.
124 Jon S. Bruss

Epigram and Symposium

The world of the symposium provides another originary locus for epigram (Bowie
2007). In fact, Richard Reitzenstein (1893) suggested that the very conduit through
which inscribed epigram became literary was the Classical-era symposium, which in
his eyes formed an ideal habitat for the (competitive) exchange of short, witty poems
and which was in any case the context for much of the elegiac poetry of the Archaic
period. The theory was for a long time roundly rejected, but has been recently revived
by Alan Cameron (1995a), who posited a lively Hellenistic culture of poetry com-
position and performance for and at symposia – and incurred many of the same
criticisms that Reitzenstein did from scholars who emphasize the bookishness of
Hellenistic epigram. The truth in this issue (which is bound up with a broader
discussion about orality and literacy in Greek culture) probably lies somewhere in
between the two poles; though closer to which remains to be seen. What we may
safely assume, however, is that the symposium also in Hellenistic times remained a key
locus for social interaction between adult males, featuring drinking, musical enter-
tainment, games, sexual excitement, and the exchange of speeches and poetry
(Murray 1990; Strootman in this volume). Illustrative of the continuing importance
of poetic exchange at Hellenistic symposia is the grisly story, told by Plutarch (Alex.
51.1–6) and Arrian (4.8.7–9), of how a poetic barb at a royal symposium led
Alexander the Great to drive a spear through his general Cleitus. Alexander’s reaction
to Cleitus’ attempt to send a message through what is in itself normal sympotic
behavior – citing poetry – implies he assumed the other symposiasts would also grasp
that the aim of Cleitus’ first thrust, ‘‘alas, what an evil regime in Hellas’’ was to evoke
the next lines from Euripides’ Andromache, about a tyrannical general who alone
claims credit for the work of a whole army.
Hellenistic epigram, if not a product of the symposium in the first place then at
least a product of a world in which the symposium mattered, often addresses sympotic
themes. For example, Dioscorides’ epitaph of Philaenis, discussed above (26 GP),
through its very protagonist evokes this setting, the courtesan’s natural playground; it
also takes the moralizing that is typical of Archaic sympotic poetry in elegiacs in a
rather cheeky direction. From the sympotic setting, real or imagined, whole sub-
genera of Hellenistic epigram arise. So-called sympotic epigrams directly evoke the
symposium by explicit reference to drinking. Erotic epigram is also closely connected
with it, directly as well as indirectly through the influence of Archaic erotic lyric
arising from the sympotic setting (Giangrande 1968; on erotic epigram in general, see
Garrison 1978; Gutzwiller 2007b).
No other epigrammatist’s extant oeuvre is as steeped in the world of the sympo-
sium as that of Hedylus of Samos. All 12 poems attributed to him (two perhaps
falsely) have sympotic themes, and it is probably not coincidental that in Meleager’s
introduction to the Garland (1 GP ¼ AP 4.1) he is mentioned in one breath with
Asclepiades, his elder compatriot (and source of inspiration?), and with Posidippus
(45–6), both also prominent contributors to Meleager’s selection of sympotic-erotic
verse. Two poems in particular by Hedylus, both quoted by Athenaeus (11.473a),
preserve a lively understanding of the symposium as a source for subject material for
 Epigram 125

epigram – if not also as a performance setting and locus of epigrammatic invention

(5 and 6 GP):

πίνωμεν; ϰαὶ γάρ τι νέον; ϰαὶ γάρ τι παρ οι νον

εὕροιμ ἂν λεπτὸν ϰαί τι μελιχρὸν ἔποс.
ἀλλὰ ϰάδοιс Χίου με ϰατάβρεχε ϰαὶ λέγε; παιÐ ζε
Ἡδύλε  μιсωÐ ζηÐ ν ἐс ϰενὸν οὐ μεθύων.
Let’s drink, and maybe, maybe in my cups
I’ll be able to find something new and slick, some sweet epigram.
Come, drown me in jars of Chian wine and say: ‘‘Play,
Hedylus.’’ I hate living in vain – not being drunk, that is.

ἐξ ἠουÐ с εἰс νύϰτα ϰαὶ ἐϰ νυϰτὸс πάλι ΣωϰληÐ с

εἰс ἠουÐ ν πίνει τετραχόοιсι ϰάδοιс,
ει τ ἐξαίϕνηс που τυχὸν οἴχεται ἀλλὰ παρ οι νον
Σιϰελίδεω παίζει πουλὺ μελιχρότερον,
ἐсτι δὲ yδὴ πολὺy сτιβαρώτεροс ὣс δ ἐπιλάμπει
ἡ χάριс ὥсτε; ϕίλοс; ϰαὶ γράϕε ϰαὶ μέθυε.
From dawn to dusk and again from dusk to dawn
Socles has been drinking from gallon-sized jugs.
And then – snap – he’s off on a whim. Still, even drunk
he tosses off a funny one much sweeter than Sicelides (i.e., Asclepiades);
but, you know, that’s his constitution. So brilliant
is his charm, that, friend, well . . . write – and drink up, too!

Here, drinking orders are given in epigrammatic form. In 5 GP, drinking inspires the
creation of epigram, and Socles in 6 GP can toss off epigrams in a state of utter
inebriation. Latent in the comparison of Socles with Asclepiades is not only Socles’
supposedly superior poetry, but perhaps also his ability, unlike Asclepiades, to com-
pose a good epigram off the cuff. At the end of the poem, although Socles has
departed the symposium, Hedylus instructs his addressee to bask in the residual
charm left behind. A lesser poet than Socles (one more like Asclepiades?), the
addressee is to set to epigram-writing with stylus and wax tablet in hand while seeking
Socles-like inspiration in his wine. Here, epigrams are created and communicated
during a symposium through both writing and oral expression, and the dynamics of
this process are preserved in poems which have come to us only because they made
their way onto papyrus. The extent to which these poems mirror reality is, as was
indicated above, a matter of long-standing debate among scholars, and remains in
need of further exploration.
While these poems of Hedylus zero in on drinking and intellectual exchange in the
symposium, notable others by slightly older contemporaries such as Asclepiades,
Posidippus, and Callimachus move sympotic epigram in the direction of eros. In
the Palatine Anthology, erotic epigram is subdivided into heteroerotic and homo-
erotic verse: Book 5 contains most of the heteroerotic poems, Book 12, the homo-
erotic. Book 12 seems to be in origin the collection The Boy-Muse (Mousa paidikē) of
the second century CE poet Strato of Sardis, into which a Byzantine editor, led by
moral concerns, later shuffled off the homoerotic poems from a unified book of erotic
126 Jon S. Bruss

epigrams within Meleager’s Garland. Yet some homoerotic epigrams remain in Book
5, many epigrams that are not obviously homoerotic appear in Book 12, and on the
whole the classification has been executed with a remarkable lack of care (Gow and
Page 1965: 1.XIX ). For example, in two poems by Meleager (66–7 GP) the editor
evidently took the female name Phanion (which appears also in a Meleagrian epigram
in the funerary section, AP 7.207 ¼ 65 GP) as an inflected form of the male name
Phanio(s), and so they landed in Book 12 (53 and 82). Another poet who has
suffered much under the hands of the editor is Asclepiades (Gow and Page 1965:
2.117–18). Of his 26 erotic-sympotic epigrams, 16 appear in Book 5 and 10 in Book
12. However, two epigrams in Book 5 are homoerotic, and two in Book 12, hetero-
erotic (12, 14; 19–20 GP); two epigrams in Book 5 and four in Book 12, concerned
with eros but not gender-specific (1, 11; 15–18 GP); and two in Book 5 (25–6 GP;
Bettenworth 2002), concerned with symposium preparation but not directly erotic
(beyond the invitation of a prostitute in 26.6). The arrangement of these epigrams in
the Anthology (and Gow and Page 1965) to some extent obscures the thematic
relationships between these poems; many topoi recur throughout the set.
One of Asclepiades’ non-gender-specific epigrams gives us an internal monologue
of the poet, his audible thought (Walsh 1990). At a symposium, Asclepiades drowns
his sadness in wine, and attempts, apparently, to console his unfulfilled love (16 GP ¼
AP 12.50):

ΠιÐ ν;  Αсϰληπιάδη τί τὰ δάϰρυα ταυÐ τα; τί πάсχειс;

οὐ сὲ μόνον χαλεπὴ Κύπριс ἐληΐсατο,
οὐδ ἐπὶ сοὶ μούνωι ϰατεθήξατο τόξα ϰαὶ ἰούс
πιϰρὸс Ἔρωс  τί ζωÐ ν ἐν сποδίηι τίθεсαι;
πίνωμεν Βάϰχου ζωρὸν πωÐ μα δάϰτυλοс ἀώс
η πάλι ϰοιμιсτὰν λύχνον ἰδειÐ ν μένομεν;
yπίνομεν; οὐ γὰρ ἔρωс μετά τοι χρόνον οὐϰέτι πουλύν,
сχέτλιε; τὴν μαϰρὰν νύϰτ ἀναπαυсόμεθα.
Drink up, Asclepiades. Why these tears? Why are you suffering?
It’s not you alone that harsh Cypris has taken as her booty,
nor is it at you alone that sharp Eros has shot his bows
and arrows. Why do you bestrew yourself with ashes when you’re still alive?
Let’s drink up Bacchus’ neat drink; dawn is but a finger away;
Do we expect to see the bed-time lamp again?
yWe drink, for there will not be eros. After not much more time,
poor chap, we shall be at rest for one long night.

Asclepiades’ consolatory gestures are typical, paralleled in many other love poems
within and outside epigram: he is not the only one to have been seized by love; the
love wound inflicted by Cupid’s arrows has not robbed him of his life; dawn will come
and go, and there will be a next day – and importantly, a next evening. But the
drunken, love-sick poet’s words catch up to him: the consolation of the prospect of
another evening is evoked by the lamp that topically stands guard over lovers’ trysts
(6). In the oeuvre of Asclepiades, that lamp is nothing if not a symbol of futile hope.
It appears, for example, in 9 and 10 GP (AP 5.7 and 150), where instead of silently
watching Asclepiades tossing on the sheets with a girl, it mocks the gullibility that has
 Epigram 127

kept him waiting for her – not to arrive. And Asclepiades’ lack of control over his own
feelings and vocabulary – he tellingly calls the lamp ‘‘bed-time lamp’’ – trips another,
disconsolate thought that drives him back to drinking. The bed-time lamp evokes
night-time rest, and with that the long night of death, when eros ceases forever.
A similar incarnation of the carpe diem motif appears in one of Asclepiades’ explicitly
heteroerotic poems (2 GP ¼ AP 5.85), where a girl is urged not to be stingy with her
virginity because ‘‘it is among the living that the entertainments of Cypris lie’’ (3).
In another Asclepiadean sympotic-erotic epigram, wine appears not as a source of
comfort but as a betrayer of a fellow symposiast’s love (18 GP ¼ AP 12.135):

οι νοс ἔρωτοс ἔλεγχοс ἐραÐ ν ἀρνεύμενον ἡμιÐ ν

ἤταсαν αἱ πολλαὶ Νιϰαγόρην προπόсειс
ϰαὶ γὰρ ἐδάϰρυсεν ϰαὶ ἐνύсταсε ϰαί τι ϰατηϕέс
ἔβλεπε; χὠ сϕιγχθεὶс οὐϰ ἔμενε сτέϕανοс.
Wine is love’s reproof. That he’s in love, though he denies it, was demonstrated to us
by the state Nicagoras’ many first-round drinks put him in.
Indeed, he even shed a tear and drooped his head and looked
somewhat downcast – and his garland didn’t even stay fixed.

The speaker, we might imagine, observes to a fellow symposiast the state their friend
Nicagoras is in; like the self-consolatory Asclepiades, Nicagoras has overdone it on the
neat wine – the first few rounds at a symposium were libations of neat wine to the
gods, above all Dionysus. Perhaps drawing on his experience in 16 GP (‘‘let’s drink
Bacchus’ neat beverage,’’ 16.5), the speaker recognizes in Nicagoras’ heavy drinking,
bodily carriage, and lack of concern for decorum the funk of love.
A slightly less depressed sympotic vignette is given by an explicitly homoerotic
epigram by Callimachus, whose thematic connection with Asclepiades 16 GP is clear.
If the block AP 12.49–51 has been taken from the Garland, this connection was
noted also by Meleager (Callimachus 5 GP ¼ AP 12.51):

ἔγχει ϰαὶ πάλιν εἰπὲ  Διοϰλέοс   οὐδ  ΑχελωÐ ιοс

ϰείνου τωÐ ν ἱερωÐ ν αἰсθάνεται ϰυάθων.
ϰαλὸс ὁ παιÐ с;  ΑχελωÐ ιε; λίην ϰαλόс; εἰ δέ τιс οὐχί
ϕηсίν; ἐπιсταίμην μουÐ νοс ἐγὼ τὰ ϰαλά.
Pour and say it again: ‘‘Diocles!’’ Not even Achelous
gets to touch that wine’s holy ladles.
The boy is pretty, Achelous, pretty in the extreme, and if anyone
denies it, then I might just be the sole arbiter of beauty.

Like the neat drinkers in Asclepiades, in his exuberance over the beauty of the boy
Callimachus’ speaker hyperbolically denies his wine all water, even from the sacred
river Achelous, as he toasts to Diocles. At that, the insularity of love is not absent from
this epigram. The speaker’s asseverations of Diocles’ beauty are figured as having
gotten no traction. The appeal is made now to the river-god Achelous; and if
Achelous does not agree either, it changes nothing. It just means that the speaker
alone knows true beauty. In another epigram, Callimachus also follows in the implicit
steps of the Asclepiadean progression from 16 to 18 GP, offering a ‘‘me too’’ stance
128 Jon S. Bruss

that conjures up Asclepiades’ evaluation of Nicagoras’ behavior (Callimachus 13

GP ¼ AP 12.134; since Asclepiades 18 GP ¼ AP 12.135, Meleager may again have
noted the connection):

ἕλϰοс ἔχων ὁ ξειÐ νοс ἐλάνθανεν ὡс ἀνιηρόν

πνευÐ μα διὰ сτηθέων  ει δεс;  ἀνηγάγετο,
τὸ τρίτον ἡνίϰ ἔπινε; τὰ δὲ ρ όδα ϕυλλοβολευÐ ντα
τὠνδρὸс ἀπὸ сτεϕάνων πάντ ἐγένοντο χαμαί.
ὤπτηται μέγα δή τι: μὰ δαίμονοс; οὐϰ ἀπὸ ρ υсμουÐ
εἰϰάζω; ϕωρὸс δ ἴχνια ϕὼρ ἔμαθον.
The stranger was trying to keep his wound a secret. How painfully
– did you see it? – he drew his breath through his chest
when he took his third drink and the roses, losing their petals,
all fell to the ground from the man’s garlands.
Wow, he’s really cooked! By god, my guess isn’t out of
tune – as a thief, I’ve learned the tracks of a thief.

This speaker too can be imagined as leaning over and speaking to a fellow symposiast,
describing and diagnosing the stranger’s symptoms on the basis of his own experience
of eros, explicitly mentioned in the final line of the epigram, but also inferable from
the Diocles poem. The pathos is drawn with a heavier hand than in Asclepiades:
Nicagoras’ garland was askew, the flowers of Callimachus’ stranger’s have fallen to the
floor. Callimachus also emphasizes his powers of observation – he notes the heavy,
pained breath of the stranger, a not-so obvious clue (‘‘did you see?’’) – and makes his
credentials as an interpreter explicit in the final line. The thief recognizing the tracks
of a thief underscores the surreptitiousness of both observed and observer and returns
to the poem’s first assertion that the stranger was trying to keep his love-sickness
hidden. The distant surreptitiousness of the lover in hunt in fact pervades
Callimachus’ homoerotic epigrams. One features the figure of the hunting lover
(1 GP ¼ AP 12.102), another, a vagabond soul ‘‘boring holes in house walls’’ (4
GP ¼ AP 12.73), yet another, a dialogue in which a would-be lover is told to flee lest
he be caught (10 GP ¼ AP 12.149). These themes climax in a poem in which the
pursued expresses alarm at the closing distance between himself and Menexenus, his
sly pursuer (9 GP ¼ AP 12.139; text after Bruss 2002):

ἔсτι τι; ναὶ τὸν ΠαÐ να; ϰεϰρυμμένον; ἔсτι τι ταύτηι,

ναὶ μὰ Διώνυсον; πυÐ ρ ὑπὸ τηÐ ι сποδιηÐ ι.
οὐ θαρсέω μὴ δή με περίπλεϰε πολλάϰι λήθει
τοιÐ χον ὑποτρώγων ἡсύχιοс ποταμόс.
τωÐ ι ϰαὶ νυÐ ν δείδοιϰα; Μενέξενε; μή με παρειсδύс
ουffl τοс --- ὃс ει γ ἀρνηÐ ι с --- εἰс τὸν ἔρωτα βάληι.
There’s something, by Pan, yes; there’s something hidden there,
by Dionysus – fire under the ashes!
I’m not up to it; don’t embrace me; often a quiet river,
unbeknownst, will undercut a wall.
And so even now I fear, Menexenus, that by penetrating me
that one (so I’ll say, for you deny who you are!) might cast me into love.
 Epigram 129

Hiddenness pervades the poem: fire under ashes, a quiet river, surreptitious penetra-
tion (that evokes the borer of Callimachus 4 GP), and denial of intentions. This is
compounded by an ambiguity – do the metaphors speak of what the speaker is
becoming aware of in himself or in Menexenus, or is it both? The cool distance of a
diagnostician is observable here, too. Yet, up against a strange or extraneous power
(the name Menexenos evokes the xe[i]nos, ‘‘stranger,’’ of 13 GP) applied with an
indefensible surreptitiousness, the coolness of the unattached observer is warmed by
his realization that he has succumbed to the very danger he sees.

Influences and Uses

Epigram, like almost all Hellenistic poetry, seems infinitely capacious of ideas, motifs,
and forms from other types of literature and intellectual discourse. Funerary epigram,
for example, not rarely reflects philosophical ideas about body and soul (Clayman
2007). This phenomenon already has precedents in inscribed epigram, such as a
fourth-century epitaph (CEG 535, before c.350?) which states that ‘‘the mighty
moist aether holds Eurymachus’ soul (psychē) and intellectual capacities (dianoiai);
this tomb, his body (sōma).’’ The conceptualization – location of the soul in the
aether, moisture, separate mention of dianoia(i) – suggests influence of the myth of
Plato’s Phaedrus. Epitaphs of philosophers, a thriving subgenre of literary epigram,
naturally reflect these philosophers’ doctrines. Thus an epitaph of Plato (attributed to
Speusippus) explains that ‘‘This body of Plato’s earth holds in her bosom; but his
divine soul has taken its places in the array of the blessed’’ (AP 14.31.2), in accord-
ance with the Myth of Er of Republic 10. Many poems on philosophers lob bombs at
their subject, such as an epigram in the ‘‘New Posidippus’’ for the cenotaph of
Lysicles, a contemporary head of the Academy who was lost at sea (89 AB, the first
of the Nauagika or ‘‘shipwreck poems’’ that extend to 94 AB; Bruss 2005: 113–16).
The poem seems neither very philosophical nor very amusing until one reads it
through the tradition of Platonic-Academic epitaphs and its many variations on the
theme ‘‘his body lies here, but his soul is elsewhere.’’ What then if there is no body?
Other notable influences on epigram are iambic invective and comedy. Dioscorides’
epigram on Philaenis (26 GP ¼ AP 7.450) seems to have been directly inspired by a
poem of a certain Aeschrion (c.300 BCE ?) that is generically an epigram but is
composed in choliambs, ‘‘limping iambs.’’ This meter, primarily associated with the
Archaic invective poet Hipponax, enjoyed a revival in the Hellenistic period, with
Callimachus and Herodas as prominent practitioners (Scodel and Esposito in this
volume). Aeschrion’s poem, like that of Dioscorides, poses as the inscription on
Philaenis’ tomb, which is here imagined as standing on a headland, visible to passing
ships (1 GP ¼ AP 7.345):

ἐγὼ Φιλαινίс; ἡ  πίβωτοс ἀνθρώποιс,

ἐνταυÐ θα γήραι τωÐ ι μαϰρωÐ ι ϰεϰοίμημαι.
μή μ ; ω μάταιε ναυÐ τα; τὴν ἄϰραν ϰάμπτων
χλεύην τε ποιευÐ ϰαὶ γέλωτα ϰαὶ λάсθην,
130 Jon S. Bruss

οὐ γάρ; μὰ τὸν ΖηÐ ν ; οὐ μὰ τοὺс ϰάτω ϰούρουс,

οὐϰ η ν ἐс ἄνδραс μάχλοс οὐδὲ δημώδηс.
Πολυϰράτηс δὲ τὴν γονὴν ἈθηναιÐ οс,
λόγων τι παιπάλημα ϰαὶ ϰαϰὴ γλωÐ ссα,
ἔγραψεν οιffl  ἔγραψ  ἐγὼ γὰρ οὐϰ οι δα.
I Philaenis, slandered by men,
have been laid to rest here by long old age.
Do not, flippant sailor, when rounding this headland,
make jest or joke or insult.
For, by Zeus, no – no, by the Kouroi below! –
I was not lewd toward men, nor a prostitute.
Rather, Polycrates, an Athenian by birth,
himself the very subtlety of verbiage and an evil tongue,
he wrote whatever it was he wrote. See, I don’t know!

Ironically, such self-defenses quickly turn against the speaker(s) to become self-
pillorying, which is, of course, exactly the intention. In a sense, the permanence of
the ill repute of Philaenis is guaranteed by these very epitaphs. Her self-defense in
Aeschrion’s poem is self-incriminating first and foremost because it contains a
number of words which recall the sort of sexual puns familiar from Old Comedy.
On a ‘‘flat’’ reading, ϰεϰοίμημαι in line 2 is the equivalent of epitaph’s ubiquitous
ϰειÐ μαι, ‘‘I lie,’’ meaning ‘‘I have been laid to rest.’’ But in the mouth of this speaker
it also begs to be taken as ‘‘I have been laid’’ (Ar. Eccl. 723–4). And the adjective
ἐπίβωτοс in the first line, which has a basic sense of ‘‘shouted at,’’ can be interpreted
as referring to notoriety (‘‘cried out against’’), or fame (‘‘acclaimed’’), or sex appeal
(‘‘called to’’), depending on one’s predisposition. Read in this light, some elements
in what follows also invite a sexual interpretation. Sailing is a common metaphor for
sexual intercourse (Henderson 1991: 163–6), which explains why Philaenis has been
made to address a sailor rather than a generic passerby, and suggests that
τὴν ἄϰραν ϰάμπτων (3) means more than just ‘‘rounding this headland.’’ Perhaps
we are to think of the use of ϰάμπτω as ‘‘bending someone over’’ to be penetrated
from behind (Pherecrates fr. 145.15 KA; Henderson 1991: 175, 179–80), a position
(‘‘the lioness’’) which literature and vase painting associate with prostitutes.
Alternatively, the expression may refer to sexual climax. Likewise, the reference to
Polycrates as a ‘‘bad tongue’’ (8) may suggest not only speaking ill but also (badly
performed?) sexual acts (Henderson 1991: 183–6) that would befit someone who is
μάχλοс and δημώδηс (7), adjectives which conveniently do not distinguish between
masculine and feminine endings (and printing a period at the end of 7 is an
interpretive decision). In addition, the poem’s last line seems to contain two ambi-
guities of a slightly different nature. The elided ἔγραψ is prima facie a third-person
form (ἔγραψε, ‘‘he wrote’’) but it can also be taken as a first person (ἔγραψα, ‘‘I
wrote’’), producing an admission of guilt; and what follows can be read as ‘‘see,
I don’t know [how to write]’’ (rather than ‘‘know [such things]’’), producing a lie –
because, within the fiction set up by this poem, she in any case composed the
epigram we are reading, written on her gravestone. These double entendres are bound
to elicit the very chuckle Philaenis fears (3–4). A translation which more fully
exploits them might run as follows:
 Epigram 131

I Philaenis, called to by men –

here in my long old age, I’ve been laid.
Silly sailor boy, when you wriggle round my headland (if you know what I mean),
don’t jest or joke or insult.
For, by Zeus, no – no, by the boys below! –
I was not lewd toward men or loose –
but Polycrates, an Athenian by birth, was!
A subtle chap with words who gave bad tongue –
He wrote whatever I – or he – wrote. See? I don’t know!

In Dioscorides’ Philaenis epigram, as we saw, Philaenis’ opening move already con-

stitutes proof of guilt: she disavows her lewdness while beckoning the passerby like a
hooker (26.1–2 GP). Equally incriminating, if in a different way, is the sequence οὐϰ
εἴμ ἡ . . . Αἰсχύνην οὐ νομίсαсα θεόν; = ἀλλὰ ϕιλαιδήμων (3–4), translated above
as ‘‘I’m not the one who . . . didn’t think Modesty (Aischunē) was a god. No,
I was a lover of modesty (philaidēmōn).’’ This is surely what Philaenis wants us to
understand, but it seems as if she herself realizes that by making Aischunē rather than
the more usual Aidōs into a goddess she might be creating the wrong impression:
aischunē can be used positively as ‘‘sense of shame, modesty,’’ like aidōs, but is more
frequently used negatively as ‘‘shame.’’ Therefore Philaenis could also be saying
that she was devoted to doing shameful things – a Freudian slip? In her attempt
to disambiguate this move with philaidēmōn, ‘‘lover of aidōs,’’ she unfortunately
undercuts her credibility even more. This word is attested only here and has surely
been coined for the occasion. It plays with the speaker’s own name (Philainis,
philaidēmōn) but also hides another, less harmless pun. Although aidēmōn is a
current adjective, it is not the obvious form to use in a compound adjective derived
from aidōs. The word which Philaenis should have formed is phil-aidoios, and this
indeed seems to be what she is in the process of forming until she realizes that she
is hanging herself yet again: because ta aidoia is a well-established euphemism
for private parts (‘‘the shameful things’’), the words phil-aidoios, coming from
the mouth of Philaenis, would almost inevitably be interpreted as ‘‘lover of dicks.’’
To make matters worse, the word which Philaenis forms to avoid saying philaidoios,
philaidēmōn, itself introduces a verbal echo of the qualification dēmōdēs, ‘‘public,’’
i.e., ‘‘a prostitute,’’ in Dioscorides’ model, Aeschrion 1.6 GP. When Philaenis then
also, by saying aischunōn, ‘‘putting to shame’’ (6), unstrategically restages the
concept of aischunē in the very sense she is trying to dispel, she has gotten com-
pletely tangled up in her web of ‘‘shame’’ words and her credibility is irrevocably
lost.
Dioscorides’ Philaenis poem varies that of Aeschrion, addressing the same theme in
a somewhat different manner, and for optimal effect should be read against it. In
another epigram, Dioscorides applied the same trope to a situation taken from
Archaic invective, Aeschrion’s source of inspiration: in the epitaph 17 GP (AP
7.351) the daughters of Lycambes defend their reputation after having been so
maligned by the iambic poet Archilochus that they were driven to suicide (on
Archilochus’ row with Lycambes, see Gerber 1997: 50–1). That poem in turn
spawned a companion piece on the exact same theme, perhaps composed by
Meleager (132 GP ¼ AP 7.352).
132 Jon S. Bruss

In Hellenistic literary epigram we in fact often see motifs or themes being devel-
oped from multiple perspectives in a series of poems (‘‘the art of variation’’: Tarán
1979; Ludwig 1968), a practice that flows almost naturally from inscribed epigram.
Funerary epigram, for example, had already for centuries generated, within its formal
and generic strictures, variations on circumstances of death, the sadness of the bereft,
consolation, and the address to the passerby (the organization in Peek 1955 provides
a helpful guide). From here it is a small step to the conscious ‘‘capping’’ of other
poets’ work that is prominent in, for example, the erotic poetry of Callimachus and
Asclepiades. We also see poets creating their own mini-cycles by writing a number of
poems on the same or similar themes. Dioscorides’ Philaenis epigram is part of a
putative series of (funerary) epigrams on authors that can be culled from Book 7 of
the Anthology (where their arrangement largely reflects the anthologist’s rather
than what seems to have been the poet’s agenda: 18–26 GP ¼ AP 7.407, 31, 410–
11, 37, 707–8, 485, 450).
Such epigrams on authors are a subgenre in themselves. They may sing the praise of
the Archaic and Classical masters, such as Dioscorides’ poems on Sappho, and
Sophocles (18, 22 GP) and the numerous epitaphs for Homer, but also contempor-
aries, such as Dioscorides’ epitaph for Macho (24 GP) and Callimachus’ famous
praise of Aratus (56 GP ¼ 27 Pf. ¼ AP 9.507; Volk in this volume). Such poems
(collected in Gabathuler 1937) have long been considered ‘‘book-tag epigrams,’’
epigrams for an edition of an author’s work(s), to be written as a sort of blurb either
before the author’s text or on the tag by which scrolls on shelves were identified. It is
indeed not hard to see how Dioscorides’ epigram on Philaenis might have accom-
panied an edition of the erotic manual ascribed to her, and it is interesting that
epigramma initially seems to have referred to identifying tags on papyrus scrolls – it
is not found as a technical term for the range of poetry we now call ‘‘epigram’’ until
the second century CE (Puelma 1996). While some details of Gabathuler’s view are
now regarded as outdated, it remains the case that epigrams modeled on the ‘‘book-
tag’’ pattern served both to introduce and conclude collections of, at least, epigrams.
Such poems are now for the most part collected in Book 4 of the Anthology (Van
Sickle 1981; Gutzwiller 1998: 279–80; Meyer 2007: 189).

Aesthetic Interests
Perhaps the most striking discordance between Hellenistic literary epigram and its
inscribed forebears is the widely divergent aesthetic that drives it. Archaic and
Classical epigram essentially commented on key moments in the life of the elite,
reflecting the interests and ideology of a part of the population wealthy enough to
commission poems and the monuments to inscribe them on. As taken over by
Hellenistic poets, the genre, although not always self-deflating, was deeply influenced
by the contemporary aesthetic interest in everyday life and the lower strata of society
that is also apparent in other types of literature and art (Ambühl in this volume).
Typically Hellenistic is also literary epigram’s often unconventional, if not hostile,
engagement with the heroes of the past, whether mythological such as Heracles,
 Epigram 133

historical such as Leonidas, or literary such as Homer. In Callimachus’ epigrams that

deal with earlier poetry, the genuine praise of the poem on Aratus’ Phaenomena
alternates with tongue-in-cheek humor in poems such as the following, where the
great tragedian Euripides is made to reside in the Hellenistic world and so cut down
to size (26 GP ¼ 48 Pf. ¼ AP 6.310; see also Wissmann in this volume):

εὐμαθίην ἠιτειÐ το διδοὺс ἐμὲ ΣιÐ μοс ὁ Μίϰϰου

ταιÐ с Μούсαιс; αἱ δὲ ΓλαυÐ ϰοс ὅϰωс ἔδοсαν
ἀντ ὀλίγου μέγα δωÐ ρον: ἐγὼ δ ἀνὰ τηÐ ιδε ϰεχηνὼс
ϰειÐ μαι τουÐ Σαμίου διπλόον; ὁ τραγιϰὸс
παιδαρίων Διόνυсυс ἐπήϰοοс οἱ δὲ λέγουсιν
  ἱερὸс ὁ πλόϰαμοс;   τοὐμὸν ὄνειαρ ἐμοί.
Simus the son of Miccus, when he gave me to the Muses, asked
for good progress in his studies, and they, like Glaucus, gave it –
a large gift for a small one. Now, up here I sit, with a yawning gape
twice as wide as the Samian Dionysus’, I the ‘‘tragic’’
Dionysus who has to listen in on the boys. They keep on saying
‘‘Holy is the lock!’’ and all they’re doing is telling me my own dream.

Instead of, say, poetic inspiration, Simus (‘‘Snub’’) the son of Miccus (‘‘Tiny’’) has
asked for something down to earth: good progress in school, grammar school. The
god Dionysus, represented by the mask Simus has dedicated, is unimpressed not only
with the nature of the request but also with the gift and with Simus’ aptitude for
learning (‘‘a large gift for a small one’’). Dionysus is also unimpressed with what
Simus is learning: hanging on the classroom wall, he is forced to listen to the boys’
lispings as they recite but a snippet of one of antiquity’s greatest tragedies, in honor of
the god himself, the Bacchae (line 494). His gaping mouth is not that of the Dionysus
Kechēnōs (‘‘with open mouth’’) worshipped at Samos but that of boredom: they tell
him nothing new (‘‘my own dream’’), an ad nauseam repetition of his line in his
tragedy.
The dedicator in Callimachus’ poem is illustrative of Hellenistic epigram’s inclu-
sion of humble, even low-life, figures as its subject matter (on the general aesthetic,
see Fowler 1989: 66–78). Leonidas of Tarentum, one of the first-generation
Hellenistic epigrammatists, seems to have specialized in this, a tack that Gutzwiller
(1998: 88–114), among others, credits to the palpably Cynic nature of Leonidas’
poetic persona, which elevates the humility of his subjects by the brilliance of his
language, as in his poem on the carpenter Theris (7 GP ¼ AP 6.204). Upon his
retirement the craftsman Theris dedicates to his patron goddess Athena the tools of
his trade: ‘‘an uncurved ruler, a straight saw with bent handle, his axe and bright
plane, and rotating borer’’ (Gutzwiller 1998: 92). The poem’s juxtaposition of
curved and uncurved items, of the meanness of Theris’ trade and the brilliant coinage
‘‘skillful-handed’’ (δαιδαλόχειρ), is a reflection of Leonidas’ ensconcing of the retire-
ment of a humble tradesman within verse traditionally associated with the lives of the
elite. Leonidas enhances this effect by the sophisticated precision in his description of
the tools of Theris’ mundane trade. Many of the Archaic and Classical dedicatory
epigrams are for statues or statuettes of the god, or for relatively generic items, such as
134 Jon S. Bruss

tripods. In these, the god takes center-stage and the personality of the dedicator fades
into the background; here, conversely, the personality of the human actor comes to
the fore: what Theris dedicates to the god represents himself, the pride he takes in his
humble trade. The tone is touching.
The genre also descends to less respectable levels of society, as we have seen in the
pair of Philaenis epigrams. A mini-series in the Anthology, within a longer Meleagrian
sequence, consists of epigrams by Callimachus, Leonidas of Tarentum, Dioscorides,
and Aristo on drunks (AP 7.454–7). Like the Philaenis epigrams, they owe a large
debt to iambos and comedy, which Leonidas’ poem advertises most openly: it is
composed in iambic trimeters (68 GP). This funerary epigram for Maronis, ‘‘the
wine-lover, the wine-jar-sponge,’’ describes her grave as being decorated with an
Attic kylix (wine goblet). The tone of these racing iambics is condescendingly humor-
ous. The inflated language of the first line, where Maronis is ‘‘Maronis the . . . ,’’ draws
from the laudatory ‘‘grammar’’ of funerary epigram and epinician poetry only to
present to the reader a picture of a drunk. The tomb’s peculiar decoration, a kylix, is
as representative of Maronis’ lifetime occupation as are Theris’ ruler, saw, axe, plane,
and borer. The punch in the poem for Maronis consists of an inversion of a typical
funerary topos wherein the deceased or the survivors mourn for their separation from
their loved ones; Maronis groans for a kylix. She remains in death what she was in life: a
‘‘wine-lover,’’ a drunk.
***
It is this complex interplay of interests and influences that gives life to Hellenistic
literary epigram. Our central example, Dioscorides’ Philaenis epigram (26 GP), is
remarkable for its complexity but by no means exceptional. It is in form a funerary
epigram and plays with the language and conventions of inscribed epitaphs. It is one
of a pair, capping a poem by Aeschrion on the same theme, and forms part of a wider
set of epigrammatic self-defenses by slandered women. It can also be serialized on the
basis of numerous other criteria: as an epigram on an author, an erotic epigram (and
as such a sympotic epigram?), an epigram on a low-life character, an epigram on a
prostitute, a satiric epigram, or a curse epigram. It draws for its language and themes
not only on various epigrammatic subgenres but also on iambos and comedy. In its
brevity and polymorphism, the poem demands an intensive interpretational effort
from the reader, and yet it ultimately remains elusive, impervious to finalizing
interpretations. In all these respects it is typical of the genre.

FURTHER READING

Collections of inscriptional epigram include Peek 1955 (funerary epigrams from the eighth
century BCE into the Byzantine era), Hansen 1983 and 1989 (CEG; funerary, dedicatory, and
miscellaneous epigrams from the eighth century BCE through the fourth), and Merkelbach and
Stauber 1998–2004 (funerary, dedicatory, and miscellaneous epigrams from the Greek East
into the Byzantine period). Gow and Page 1965 (GP) includes all epigrams known at that date
for poets who wrote before or concurrent with Meleager, who compiled his Garland around
 Epigram 135

100 BCE ; Gow and Page 1968 goes down to c.40 CE , the date of the Garland of Philip. Page
1981 and 1975 contain early epigrams not included in these two editions, such as many of the
so-called Simonidea. Paton’s five Loeb volumes, 1916–19, contain the text of the entire
Palatine Anthology with English translation. Sens forthcoming will provide a useful introduc-
tion to Hellenistic epigram for students. Recent single-author editions include Galán Vioque
2001 (Dioscorides), Guichard 2004 (Asclepiades), and Austin and Bastianini 2002
(Posidippus); various others are underway, e.g., of Meleager (Gutzwiller), Asclepiades (Sens),
and Alcaeus of Messene (Bruss). Bing and Bruss 2007 is a comprehensive collection of
contemporary approaches to Hellenistic epigram and contains a full bibliography.
 CHAPTER TEN

Apollonius’ Argonautica
Adolf Köhnken

The Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, an epic poem in four books (of 1362,
1285, 1407, and 1781 hexameters respectively), is addressed to Apollo and sets out
to tell the memorable voyage of the Argonauts of old to the Black Sea to fetch the
Golden Fleece (1.1–4). Although the poem everywhere recalls the language, style,
and subject matter of the Iliad and Odyssey, it is nevertheless quite un-Homeric, but
rather characteristically Hellenistic in its startling presentation of events and charac-
ters, human and divine, and markedly ‘‘Callimachean’’ in its allusive narrative tech-
nique and striking preference for pointed aetiological topics. Yet in contrast to
contemporary Alexandrian poetry such as Callimachus’ Aetia and Hymns, and
Theocritus’ Idylls, the Argonautica does not mention contemporaneous events or
Ptolemaic kings or queens and always remains within the mythical timeframe of the
story of the Argonauts. Apollonius’ poem, which not long ago was often brushed
aside for no compelling reason as a traditional epic running against the unconven-
tional spirit of contemporary Hellenistic poetry, has only recently come into its own
right and been shown to be a complex, innovative, and fascinating work of art. In
what follows I shall single out significant aspects that highlight these qualities.

Aetiology
The Argonautica may be termed an aetiological poem in the Callimachean manner as
far as the account of the Argo’s voyage to and from Colchis in Books 1, 2, and 4 is
concerned. These three books contain 77 of the 80 aitia in the epic (Valverde Sánchez
1989: 309–11), a characteristic element that is sometimes underrated (e.g., by
Hutchinson 1988: 93–5, who counts only ‘‘about forty’’ aitia, and Hunter 1993a:
105; contrast DeForest 1994: 8). There is, however, a difference in narrative perspec-
tive between Callimachus’ Aetia and Apollonius’ Argonautica. In Callimachus, as a
 Apollonius’ Argonautica 137

rule, strange cults and customs of the present are explained by looking back to a distant
mythical past; in Apollonius the Argonauts’ journey initiates future cults and customs
still existing. Callimachus’ aetiological stories begin by asking ‘‘how is it that . . .’’ (e.g.,
Aet. frs. 7.19–21, 43.84–7 Pf.), those of Apollonius finish by stating ‘‘thus it came
about that . . . ’’ (e.g., 1.1019–20, 4.1770–2; Gummert 1992: 91; Köhnken 2003:
207). Book 3 on the other hand, Apollonius’ intricate account of Medea’s falling in
love and Jason’s ἄεθλοс, the centerpiece of the narrative, has very few aitia (Valverde
Sanchez 1989 lists three) and is thus clearly set apart from the voyage books (DeForest
1994: 100).
Apollonius’ aitia generally highlight the significance of places and events connected
with the route of the Argo, such as the Altar of Apollo Actius Ecbasius (1.402–4), the
Place of Argo’s Embarkation (591), the Temple of Jasonian Athena (958–60), Jason’s
Way (988), Anchor’s Rock (1019–20), Jason’s Spring (1145–9), the river Acheron
later named Soonautes (2.746–8), a place called Lyre because Orpheus dedicated his
lyre there to Apollo Savior of Ships (927–9), Ram’s Bed and the Altar of Zeus Phyxius,
where Phrixus dedicated the golden ram (4.115–21), the Harbor of Argo (658, 1620),
and the Cave of Medea (1153–5). Of particular interest, however, are those aitia
which are not only fascinating in themselves but which are also clearly positioned in the
narrative to serve a structural function, thus underscoring the poem’s overall sense of
balance and cohesiveness. Spectacular examples are the epiphany of Apollo Heoios,
containing three aitia (the Island of Apollo Heoios, the origin of the invocation hiē hiē
paiēon, and the foundation of the Temple of Concord, 2.674–719), and the epiphany
of Apollo Aegletes, containing two (the Temenos of Apollo Aegletes and the name of
the island Anaphe, 4.1706–30). Both epiphanies are modeled on the same sequence
in Callimachus’ Aetia and by their evident intratextual relationship within the
Argonautica create a striking correspondence between Books 2 and 4 (Köhnken
2001, 2003; Harder 1993: 107–9; for the aitia in Book 2 also Fusillo 1985:
116–58; Paskiewicz 1988).

The Gods
Gods are very much in evidence in the Argonautica, but their activity is quite un-
Homeric and peculiar (Klein 1931). There is no council of gods as in the Iliad and
Odyssey, and although Zeus’ wife, Hera, ‘‘is as much part of the narrative as any
Argonaut,’’ Zeus himself ‘‘is not with her ever, nor once represented in the narrative’’
(Feeney 1991: 65). Although there are Olympic scenes in the Argonautica, the
Homeric assemblies of the gods, presided over by Zeus, are replaced by a meeting
of individual goddesses in private chambers (Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, 3.7–166),
with the narrator explicitly emphasizing that they meet ‘‘apart from Zeus himself and
the rest of the immortal gods’’ (3.8–10; cf. also the summoning of Thetis to Olympus
for a private interview with Hera in 4.780–841). Zeus is in evidence only as guarantor
of fate and divine order. Thus Glaucus refers to the labors of Heracles as decreed by
‘‘the plans of Zeus’’ (1.1315–50) and Hera, through the voice of the ship Argo,
transmits to the Argonauts Zeus’ ‘‘wrath’’ (cholos) about the treacherous murder of
138 Adolf Köhnken

Apsyrtus (4.576–92). On the other hand there is a noticeable emphasis on divine

interference in human affairs throughout, first and foremost that of Apollo, Hera, and
Athena. Apollo, who inaugurated the Argonautic expedition by his oracle to Pelias
(1.5–17), acts as a savior god for the Argonauts and their expedition in the voyage
books 1, 2, and 4, although he remains a somewhat aloof and distant divinity (the fact
that he is missing from Book 3 underlines the peculiar status of that book). Athena in
Books 1–2 and Hera in Books 3–4, on the other hand, watch over the wellbeing of
Jason and his fellow Argonauts much more closely and intimately. In addition, there
are also striking lesser divinities of some importance, like Glaucus in Book 1 and
mischievous Eros and sinister Hecate in Book 3 – Eros exemplifying the interest of
Alexandrian poets in the portrayal of extraordinary and prodigious divine children
(compare, for example, Heracles in Theoc. 24.26–59 and Artemis in Call. h. 3.4–43;
see also Ambühl and Wissmann in this volume), and Hecate the dark and uncanny
aspects of the poem’s plot. Finally, Thetis, the Libyan Heroines, the Hesperides, and
Triton/Eurypylus all play a role in Book 4 (see below).

Structure and Main Characters

The Argonautica was often, and sometimes still is, classified as an ‘‘episodic’’ epic
consisting of a string of loosely connected scenes (Herter 1955: 336–400, for
example, divides the poem into 32 separate units, without regard for the author’s
book divisions). More recently, this view has been considerably modified and scholars
have paid much more attention to cross references between the events narrated, to
the position of the scenes Apollonius chose to elaborate and their overall significance
within the narrative, and also to the impact upon his poem of genres other than epic
and predecessors other than Homer, above all Pindar’s fourth Pythian Ode and
Euripides’ Medea, but also Herodotus (Zanker 1987: 195–209; 1998: 229–31;
Clauss 1993: 5–10; Cuypers 2004a).
Analysis of the structure of the Argonautica shows that Apollonius has given his
poem a novel kind of cohesion by a network of cross references; for example:
(1) He has established meaningful links between events in the outward and return
journeys. Most conspicuous are the spectacular accounts of the Argonauts’ passage
through the Cyanean Rocks or (Sym)Plegades in 2.537–603 (prepared by Phineus’
directives in 2.317–45 and already highlighted in the proem, 1.2–3) and their journey
past the Planctae in 4.930–67 (prepared by the meeting of Hera and Thetis in 4.753–
841 and Thetis’ instructions to Peleus in 4.856–64). These scenes, evidently designed
as structural analogues, are both framed and marked off by the intervention of a helper
goddess, that of Athena pushing the Argo through the Cyanean Rocks (2.537–48 and
598–603) and the even more amusing one of Thetis and the Nereids playing ball with
the Argo high above the Planctae (4.930–8 and 966–7; cf. the simile in 4.948–55).
(2) He has introduced structural devices bridging the divisions between Books 1
and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4 (see below).
(3) He has made sudden deaths of prominent members of the crew correspond. As
Hunter observes (1993a: 44), ‘‘no Argonaut is killed in battle. The expedition does
 Apollonius’ Argonautica 139

lose eight members – four by death (Idmon, Tiphys, Mopsus and Canthus), two by
something more than death (Hylas, Boutes) and two who ‘miss the boat’ (Heracles
and Polyphemus). The four deaths occur in two groups of two.’’ The passages
describing the deaths of the seers Idmon (2.815–50) and Mopsus (4.1502–36) begin
with nearly identical statements, and in both cases the narrator notes that both
Argonauts, though seers, did not foresee their own fate; both deaths are, moreover,
accompanied by the deaths of other Argonauts, those of Tiphys and Canthus
(Manakidou 1995: 192, 196–7).
(4) He has given a prominent role to prophecies foreshadowing future develop-
ments within or beyond the timeframe of the poem. Here belong the intriguing
guidelines and veiled advice of the old blind seer Phineus (2.309–530), which prepare
the Argonauts for dangers and encounters in the rest of the outward journey and after
their arrival in Colchis (including hints at the importance of Eros). Of this advice the
Argonauts are reminded more than once afterwards. Noteworthy are also the corre-
sponding epiphanies and prophecies of the marine deities Glaucus and Triton at the
end of Books 1 (1310–28) and 4 (1551–1619, cf. 1732–54) respectively, both
referring to aitia of future cities in Mysia and Libya (founded by Polyphemus in
Book 1 and Euphemus in Book 4) and both explicitly confirmed by authorial com-
ments (1.1345–57 and 4.1755–64).
The Argonautica confronts the reader with three proems, instead of merely one at
the outset like the Iliad and Odyssey. The two additional ones, introducing Books 3
and 4, underscore the poem’s macro-structure by highlighting the importance of
Book 3 (the Argonauts’ confrontation with king Aeetes in Colchis, Medea’s love for
Jason, and Jason’s ‘‘contest’’ for the Golden Fleece) and Book 4 (the winning of the
Fleece and the return journey) as against Books 1 and 2 (the outward journey). They
have also been formally linked with each other and with the proem of Book 1: 3.2
ἐс Ἰωλϰὸν ἀνήγαγε ϰωÐ αс Ἰήсων looks back to 1.4 χρύсειον μετὰ ϰωÐ αс . . . ἤλαсαν
Ἀργώ. In addition, there is a structural correspondence between the appeal to Erato
at 3.1 and that to ‘‘the Muse’’ at 4.1–2, both followed by γάρ-clauses justifying the
appeals. Moreover, each of the three proems contains an element of surprise. The first
one, contrary to the reader’s expectation, does not embrace the poem as a whole but
exclusively refers to adventures of the Argonauts on their outward voyage (1.1–4 and
20–2); in other words, it is, in contrast to the proems introducing the Homeric
poems, only concerned with the narrative up to the end of Book 2 (pace Hunter
1993a: 119 and others). The special proem to Book 3, on the other hand, does not
restrict itself to the main issue of this book (Medea’s love for Jason) but already looks
forward to Jason’s successful return journey to Iolcus with the Golden Fleece (3.2–3);
i.e., it goes beyond Book 3 to include subject matter of Book 4. This, however, raises
the question of why we get a new proem at the beginning of Book 4. The answer is
that this third proem marks a radical change of focus, from the adventures of the
Argonauts on their way from Iolcus to Colchis (proem 1: Books 1 and 2) and Jason’s
contest for the Fleece won by Medea’s help (proem 2: Book 3) to Medea’s own
struggle (4.1–5):

αὐτὴ νυÐ ν ϰάματόν γε θεὰ ϰαὶ δήνεα ϰούρηс

Κόλχιδοс ἔννεπε ΜουÐ сα; Διὸс τέϰοс
η γὰρ ἔμοιγε
140 Adolf Köhnken

ἀμϕαсίηι νόοс ἔνδον ἑλίссεται; ὁρμαίνοντι

ἠέ μιν ἄτηс πηÐ μα δυсίμερον η τό γ ἐνίсπω
ϕύζαν ἀειϰελίην ηffl ι ϰάλλιπεν ἔθνεα Κόλχων.
Tell me now yourself, goddess, of the struggle and concerns of the Colchian maiden,
Muse, daughter of Zeus. For indeed my mind within me turns around in speechlessness
as I wonder whether I should call it the pain of ill-guided passion or rather shameful
desertion which made her abandon the tribes of the Colchians.

The first line of Book 4 (Medea’s ϰάματοс) refers back to and contrasts with the last
line of Book 3 (Jason’s ἄεθλοс). Jason and the Argonauts, of whom there is no word
in the proem of Book 4, have left center stage and Medea takes their place. This new
development is underlined by a sophisticated ring-composition bridging the book
division. Book 3 narrates the story of Jason’s contest engaging King Aeetes’ fire-
breathing bulls and the earthborn men (1223–1401), followed by a reference to the
chagrin of Aeetes and his men at the unexpected outcome (1402–6), and it closes
with an ambivalent sentence about the day and Jason’s contest having come to an end
(3.1407). Book 4 in turn starts off with the announcement of Medea’s imminent
struggle (1–5), then returns to the outrage of the furious and revengeful Aeetes and
his men (nocturnal council, 6–10), and proceeds with the actual account of Medea’s
struggle, her securing the Golden Fleece for Jason, and her flight from Colchis with
the Argonauts (11–240). The narrative clearly follows a pattern: the events of the final
part of Book 3 and the first part of Book 4 are presented in the order a–b–c: c–b–a
(Köhnken 2000: 59–62).
This device may be compared to a similar but simpler one linking Books 2 and 3.
Here the book division is bridged by a repeated reference to the Argonauts hiding in
the marshes of the Phasis river after their arrival in Colchis, first at 2.1283 and again at
3.6–7. In the latter place the reference is refocalized, as Hera and Athena are said to
be the only ones who notice the Argonauts in their hiding place (perspective of the
onlooker). They thereupon launch into action, setting the events of Book 3 into
motion. The repetition is designed to introduce divine interference as a new factor
and give the narrative a different turn.
A more complex linking device is found at the division between Books 1 and 2. At
the end of Book 1, Heracles and Polyphemus are inadvertently left behind in Mysia
while searching for Hylas, who has been kidnapped by a nymph. At the beginning of
Book 2, Apollonius narrates the boxing match of Amycus and Polydeuces. These two
elements of the Argonautic saga seem to have little in common, except that they are
both also found in Theocritus (Idylls 13 and 22) and are therefore primary evidence in
a still ongoing priority debate. But Apollonius has managed to establish a close
connection between them by means of the unexpected comment of an anonymous
Argonaut at the end of the episode in Book 2 (144–54):
ϰαὶ δή τιс ἔποс μετὰ τοιÐ сιν ἔειπε

  ϕράζεсθ ὅττι ϰεν ηffl ιсιν ἀναλϰείηιсιν ἔρεξαν,
εἴ πωс ἩραϰληÐ α θεὸс ϰαὶ δευÐ ρο ϰόμιссεν.
ἤτοι μὲν γὰρ ἐγὼ ϰείνου παρεόντοс ἔολπα
οὐδ ἂν πυγμαχίηι ϰρινθήμεναι
ἀλλ ὅτε θεсμοὺс
ἤλυθεν ἐξερέων; αὐτοιÐ с ἄϕαρ οιffl с ἀγόρευε
 Apollonius’ Argonautica 141

θεсμοιÐ сιν ρ οπάλωι μιν ἀγηνορίηс λελαθέсθαι.

ναὶ μὲν ἀϰήδεсτον γαίηι ἔνι τόνδε λιπόντεс
πόντον ἐπέπλωμεν
μάλα δ ἡμέων αὐτὸс ἕϰαсτοс
εἴсεται οὐλομένην ἄτην ἀπάνευθεν ἐόντοс: 
ὣс ἄρ ἔϕη
τὰ δὲ πάντα Διὸс βουληÐ ιсι τέτυϰτο.
And then someone among them said: ‘‘Imagine what they would have done in their
cowardice if by chance a god had brought Heracles also to this place. For if he had been
present, I for one believe the issue would not even have been decided by a boxing match,
but when he (Amycus) would have come to proclaim his laws, he would at once have been
made to forget his laws as well as his arrogance by means of the club. Indeed, thoughtlessly
we left this man (Heracles) behind on land and set out on the sea again. Certainly each one
of us will personally experience deadly ruin because he is far away.’’ Thus he spoke, but all
of this had come to pass by the plans of Zeus.

This gloomy, Homeric-style anonymous comment or ‘‘tis-speech,’’ highlighting the

feelings of the Argonauts, is surprising and hard to understand if taken by itself,
because it does not really seem justified by the course of events, intervening as it does
between the utter defeat of Amycus and his Bebrycians, and the Argonauts’ celebra-
tion of their victory and the outstanding achievement of their champion Polydeuces
(2.155–63). Why introduce a reminiscence of Heracles’ superior power at this place
where it seems least called for, and so soon after Heracles has been lost for good?
A clue is supplied by the narrator’s comment closing the tis-speech, ‘‘but all of this
had come to pass by the plans of Zeus’’ (154). This refers to the inadvertent
abandonment of Heracles in Mysia, explicitly recalled by the anonymous Argonaut
(151). The narrator’s closing tag specifically harks back to two interrelated phrases in
the final part of the Heracles–Hylas–Polyphemus narration at the end of Book 1,
namely the first words of the prophecy of the sea god Glaucus to the Argonauts, ‘‘why
do you wish to bring mighty Heracles to Colchis, against the will of Zeus?’’
(παρὲϰ μεγάλοιο Διὸс . . . βουλήν, 1315), and the beginning of the corresponding
final résumé by the narrator, which confirms that Heracles and Polyphemus had to
pursue an agenda of their own ‘‘by the will of Zeus’’ (Διὸс βουληÐ ιсιν, 1345). The
Homeric-epic expression Διὸс βουληÐ ιсιν is found only in these two passages in
the Argonautica, 1.1345 (varying 1315) and 2.154, both referring above all to the
destiny of Heracles. The tis-speech at 2.154 – ‘‘what would Heracles have done to
Amycus if he had still been with us?’’ – is the first in a line of reminders of Heracles,
who in spite of his absence remains present in the background of the narrative and is
brought back to the minds of the Argonauts and the readers at significant points
throughout the Argonautica – for example, in King Lycus’ story of an earlier visit of
Heracles (2.762–95), Amphidamas’ reference to a helpful Heraclean invention
(2.1046–68), the narrator’s comment that only Heracles would have been able to
withstand Aeetes’ spear (3.1231–4), and the Argonauts’ ordeal in the Libyan desert,
where they are saved by a spring created by Heracles (4.1396–1405, 1432–84).
Obviously, the first of these reminders, at the beginning of Book 2, is designed to
link the first event without Heracles (the encounter with Amycus) to the last one in
which he was actually present (the disappearance of Hylas). Thus the tis-speech
complaining about the loss of Heracles and worrying about the consequences, added
at the end of a successful exploit of the Argonauts in which Heracles played no part,
142 Adolf Köhnken

is a bridging device pointedly relating the beginning of Book 2 to the finale of

Book 1. At the same time this structural arrangement provides a chronological clue:
by making Heracles a common element of his Hylas and Amycus episodes Apollonius
connects the two stories which are treated separately and independently from each
other in the Hylas and Amycus poems of Theocritus, Idylls 13 and 22, of which the
latter has nothing to do with Heracles, suggesting strongly that Apollonius’ epic
postdates the Theocritean poems (pace, among others, Hunter 2004a: 87 and 90).
Finally, it is interesting to note (with Mooney 1912 on 2.146) that Valerius Flaccus
in his Argonautica transfers the Argonauts’ longing for Heracles to a position
immediately before the conflict with Amycus (redit Alcidae iam sera cupido, 4.247).
Apparently, Valerius thought it more plausible that the Argonauts should wish
Heracles back before rather than after Polydeuces’ dangerous fight against Amycus.
On the level of the action, this is certainly reasonable, but it confirms in retrospect
that Apollonius’ arrangement primarily serves a structural purpose. By reintroducing
Heracles at this unexpected place, he concludes the encounter with Amycus at the
beginning of Book 2 with a reminder, for the Argonauts and the reader, of the
outcome of the preceding Hylas story at the end of Book 1.
Taking our clues from the bridging and linking devices discussed, and from the
three proems and their intratextual relationship, we can form a clear idea of the
sophisticated design of Apollonius’ Argonautica and of the interplay of traditional
and striking new features concerning the structure of the plot and the presentation of
leading characters. The proem of Book 4 in particular directs the reader’s attention to
the ambiguous and dangerous position and suffering of Aeetes’ daughter Medea,
who gives up her parents and her country to join Jason and the Argonauts (fore-
shadowed by 3.1132–6). The expectation raised here, that Medea will from now on
be the focus of attention, is explicitly confirmed by the often-discussed address of the
narrator to Eros at 4.445–51 (e.g., Fränkel 1968: 493–6; Hunter 1993a: 166),
preparing the reader for the hideous murder of Medea’s brother Apsyrtus, and by
the overall course of events in Book 4, from Medea’s elimination of the dragon
guarding the Golden Fleece at the beginning, via her manipulation of the wavering
and treacherous Jason, her unscrupulous scheming to get rid of her brother, and her
winning the sympathy and support of Arete, and through her of Alcinous, against the
extradition demands of the pursuing Colchians, up to her defeat of the nearly
invincible giant Talos at the end. The striking emphasis Apollonius gives to
Medea’s role represents a major shift from the inherited layout of the Argonaut story.
This is found, above all, in one of Apollonius’ most important models, Pindar’s
fourth Pythian Ode (214–50, cf. 9–58), where Medea’s contribution, though impor-
tant, nowhere impinges on Jason’s standing as leader of the expedition.
The emphasis on Medea in Books 3 and 4, like that on Heracles in Book 1 and,
indirectly, in Books 2 through 4, should be seen together with Apollonius’ striking
redefinition of the role of Jason. Contrary to the mainstream of the tradition from
Homer through Theocritus, Apollonius’ Argonautica is no longer about Jason, his
men and his ship, but about the Argonauts as a group (contrast, e.g., Od. 12.69–72;
Hes. Th. 992–1002; Mimn. fr. 11 IEG; Pi. P. 4.188–9; Theoc. 22.31 with 13.16–18).
This refocusing already emerges clearly from the phrasing and structure of the three
proems. According to the first, addressed to Apollo and the Muses (1.1–4 and 18–22),
 Apollonius’ Argonautica 143

Apollonius will remind his readers of the famous exploits of the Argonauts
(παλαιγενέων ϰλέα ϕωτωÐ ν, 1), sailing for the Golden Fleece by order of King Pelias,
and this focus returns in the poem’s coda (4.1773–81, esp. 1773 ἱλατ ἀριс-
τηÐ εс; μαϰάρων γένοс, modeled on Medea’s address to the Argonauts in Pi. P. 4.13,
παιÐ δεс ὑπερθύμων τε ϕωτωÐ ν ϰαὶ θεωÐ ν). Already in the poem’s opening Jason is
reduced to an instrument of destiny, feared by Pelias (1.5–17). In the second proem,
addressed to Erato, the Muse of eros or ‘‘love’’ (3.1–5), Jason’s recovery of the Fleece is
attributed to Medea’s love, and Eros is emphatically identified as the crucial force
behind the events to come. Finally, from the third proem, addressed in Homeric style
to ‘‘the Muse’’ in general (4.1–5), Jason is dropped altogether in favor of Medea: her
ordeal is now the issue that is on the narrator’s mind (Hunter 1993a: 12; differently
Clauss 1997: 149–77; Zanker 1998: 229–30).
The clues provided by the proems are borne out by the narrative. In Book 1, Jason,
instead of being the principal hero of the Argonauts, plays second fiddle to mighty
Heracles and only becomes the Argonauts’ leader because Heracles does not accept
their unanimous nomination and forcefully authorizes Jason’s leadership instead
(1.341–50). At a later stage in the book, though, Heracles’ words and deeds clearly
indicate that Jason is not up to his job (see 861–78, where Heracles scolds the
Argonauts in general, and Jason in particular, for forgetting their mission while
making love to the Lemnians). In Book 2, the Argonauts more than once deplore
the loss of their natural leader Heracles and realize, or are reminded of, how slim their
chances have now become to fulfill their mission (see especially 144–54, discussed
above, and 772–5). In Book 3, Jason’s success in the contest imposed by King Aeetes
is wholly due to Medea’s magic and instructions (3.1246–62, cf. 1026–62, 1168–9,
1305, and 1363–4, as well as 1232–4, where the narrator notes that only Heracles
would have been up to Aeetes in straight combat). In Book 4, Jason is, on the one
hand, presented as passive and dependent on Medea (see, e.g., the narrator’s com-
ment at 149 and the simile at 4.165–73, discussed below), or waiting for the initiative
of fellow Argonauts (Argos, Peleus, Castor and Polydeuces, Orpheus, Euphemus, or
even the absent Heracles; characteristic is Jason’s stance at 4.1331–44), or relying on
divine help (Hera, Thetis, the Libyan heroines, the Hesperides, and Triton). On the
other hand, he can be unreliable and deceitful, especially towards Medea, as is already
apparent from his misleading and dishonestly selective presentation of the Ariadne
story in Book 3 by which he succeeds in winning her over. The reader knows the truth
Medea cannot know (3.975–1007, cf. Medea’s reaction in 1008–21; Bulloch 2006:
44–8, 67–8). In Book 4, he all but sacrifices her to Apsyrtus and the pursuing
Colchians in exchange for keeping the Golden Fleece (339–49). Medea counters
with a bitter and scathing reproach (355–90), eliciting from Jason a timid and
unconvincing answer (393–410), in a dialogue that foreshadows Euripides’ Medea
(Dyck 1989: 456–7, 459–62; Hunter 1987: 129–39; 1989: 18–19). From now on
Medea no longer believes in Jason’s love or unconditional support and loyalty. Telling
are 4.1011–12 and 1030–53, where she is again forced to appeal for help, but this
time implores each of Jason’s fellow Argonauts in turn, passing by Jason himself.
Jason’s assets in the Argonautica are his overwhelming beauty and a persuasive
charm by which he easily succeeds in winning support, above all that of women. A key
passage is the description of the radiant divine cloak, a present of Athena, which he
144 Adolf Köhnken

puts on to impress the Lemnian queen Hypsipyle at 1.721–68 (the Apollonian

equivalent of the Homeric description of the divine shield of Achilles, magisterially
analyzed by Bulloch 2006). Equally revealing is the star simile which follows
(1.774–81), illustrating the beauty and impact on the Lemnians of – as Goethe
put it – ‘‘Jason, attractive to women’’ (‘‘Jason Frauen angenehm,’’ Klassische
Walpurgisnacht 7374).
However, Jason also has a hidden dark and destructive side, as Apollonius makes
clear, for example, in what is perhaps the most splendid of his many intriguing similes,
inserted at the crucial moment when Medea is waiting for her first rendezvous with
Jason (3.956–63):

αὐτὰρ ὅ γ οὐ μετὰ δηρὸν ἐελδομένηι ἐϕαάνθη,

ὑψόс ἀναθρώιсϰων ἅ τε Σείριοс ὨϰεανοιÐ ο,
ὃс δ ἤτοι ϰαλὸс μὲν ἀρίζηλόс τ ἐсιδέсθαι
ἀντέλλει; μήλοιсι δ ἐν ἄсπετον ηffl ϰεν ὀιζύν

ὣс ἄρα τηÐ ι ϰαλὸс μὲν ἐπήλυθεν εἰсοράαсθαι
Αἰсονίδηс; ϰάματον δὲ δυсίμερον ω ρсε ϕαανθείс.
ἐϰ δ ἄρα οἱ ϰραδίη сτηθέων πέсεν; ὄμματα δ αὔτωс
ἤχλυсαν; θερμὸν δὲ παρηίδαс ειffl λεν ἔρευθοс.
But not long afterwards he appeared before her who was eagerly waiting for him, like Sirius
leaping up high from Ocean; and Sirius rises indeed beautiful and clear to look at, but to
flocks he brings immense suffering: just like that the son of Aeson came up to her, beautiful
to behold; but by his appearance he called forth the suffering of ill-guided passion. Her
heart dropped from her breast, her eyes became misty for no clear reason and a hot flush
covered her cheeks.

Scholars have drawn attention to the sinister connotations of this simile, which
foreshadows 4.1–4 ϰάματον . . . ϰούρηс Κολχίδοс . . . ἄτηс πηÐ μα δυсίμερον, i.e. the
next stage of Medea’s story (Hunter 1989 on 3.956–61; for the destructive power
of Sirius see also the aition of the Etesian winds at 2.516–24). The simile reworks
Iliad 22.25–36, where Achilles in his shining armor, looking for Hector, recalls in the
eyes of Priam, the first among the Trojans to become aware of his approach, the
brilliant but ill-boding dog-star. Apollonius has introduced a number of subtle and
significant changes:

(1) In the Iliad, Sirius is set firm in the center of the sky, shining brighter than a
multitude of other stars, just as Achilles is shining among the Greek warriors in
the plain as he races along; in the Argonautica, Sirius is rising: Jason appears
before Medea’s eyes leaping up as Sirius (leaps up) from the Ocean (956–7); he
comes into her view like a beautiful apparition (958 and 960–1). Apollonius
stresses the act of appearing, beautiful to watch, Homer the menacing brilliance.
(2) In the Iliad, Achilles’ ‘‘brilliance’’ is due to his shining armor (22.32); in the
Argonautica, Jason’s ‘‘brilliant beauty’’ is that of his person (beautiful Sirius –
beautiful Jason).
(3) In the Iliad, Priam dreads Achilles’ imminent clash with his son Hector, whom he
expects to be killed; in the Argonautica, Medea looks forward to Jason’s appear-
ance: the narrator prepares the stage for her infatuation (956, 960–1).
 Apollonius’ Argonautica 145

(4) In the Iliad, the simile illustrates a specific event, foreboding Hector’s death at the
hands of Achilles (22.30 λαμπρότατοс μὲν . . . ϰαϰὸν δέ τε сηÐ μα, of the dog-star;
32 ὣс τουÐ χαλϰὸс ἔλαμπε, of Achilles); in the Argonautica, its significance com-
prises the whole of Medea’s relationship with Jason, of which it marks the
beginning. Jason’s beauty is ravishing to look at but devastating in its effect
(960–1 in conjunction with 4.1–5).

In the Argonautica, similes are often used to disclose truths that are not immediately
apparent or hidden beneath a misleading surface. Another revealing simile concern-
ing Jason occurs at the end of Apollonius’ account of Medea’s and Jason’s recovery of
the Golden Fleece from the dragon guarding it: ‘‘like a young girl trying to catch the
gleam of the full moon in her dress – her heart delighted at the radiance – Jason full of
joy lifted the great Fleece with his arms, and its golden blush was reflected in his
beautiful cheeks’’ (4.167–73). This striking simile with its strange contrast of protasis
(167 παρθένοс, ‘‘young girl’’) and apodosis (170 ‘‘Jason’’) contains the essence of
the whole scene (4.109–82), which shows Medea consistently in charge – a fact Jason
himself partially admits (193) – and Jason following her ‘‘panic-stricken’’ (4.149;
Reitz 1996: 110–15; missed by Effe 2001: 152).
Jason’s role in this scene is even less consistent with that of a dominant leader in charge
of a mission than the part he plays in the Libyan desert, later in Book 4, where helpful
Libyan heroines find him utterly despondent and incapable of thinking without the
assistance of his fellow Argonauts. There, too, the reader is confronted with a curious
‘‘non-simile’’ (Hunter 1993a: 33, 133; but see also Reitz 1996: 136–41), in which the
decidedly unheroic apodosis runs against the expectations raised by the protasis, which,
in good Homeric style, compares Jason to a lion (4.1337–43), achieving ‘‘a destruction
of the epic hero with the means of an epic poet’’ (Reitz 1996: 136–7, cf. 140–1).

Other Members of the Crew

Of the 55 Argonauts mentioned in the Catalogue (1.23–232, including the intro-
duction of Jason), Jason and Heracles receive the largest amount of space in
Apollonius’ narrative, but among the remaining 53 there are a number of others
who receive special attention, such as the pairs of brothers Polydeuces and Castor,
Lynceus and Idas, Zetes and Calais, and Peleus and Telamon, or the seers Idmon and
Mopsus and the pilots Tiphys and Ancaeus. Most important among the ‘‘others,’’
however, are Orpheus, ‘‘said to be the son of Calliope,’’ the Muse of epic poetry
(1.23–34), and Euphemus, son of Poseidon (1.179–84).
Orpheus heads the catalogue, immediately after the invocation of the Muses in the
last line of the proem (1.22), and his prominence is also underlined by the number of
lines he receives – 12, more than any other single Argonaut in the catalogue. Both
Orpheus and Euphemus are also part of Pindar’s small catalogue of leading
Argonauts (P. 4.171–83), and their characterization and relevance in Pindar have
apparently influenced their role in the Argonautica. In both cases, however,
Apollonius has made significant modifications.
146 Adolf Köhnken

In Pindar, Orpheus joins the Argonauts ‘‘at the instigation of Apollo’’ and is
acclaimed, in the center of the catalogue, as ‘‘the phorminx-playing father of songs,
highly praised Orpheus’’ (ἐξ Ἀπόλλωνοс δὲ ϕορμιγϰτὰс ἀοιδαÐ ν πατὴρ ἔμολεν εὐαί-
νητοс Ὀρϕεύс, P. 4.176–7). In the context of an epinician ode praising the accom-
plishments of the Argonauts and their descendants, Orpheus is evidently to be seen as
the mythical ancestor of the encomiastic poet, and he may be regarded as a figure of
identification for Pindar himself. In the Argonautica, this function is certainly also
alluded to (as is suggested, for example, by the mention of Calliope as his mother and
his closeness to the Muses of the proem), but Apollonius has given his Orpheus a
much wider significance by introducing him as a key helper of Jason, putting his
magic art at Jason’s disposal to overcome the obstacles facing him (Ὀρϕέα
μὲν δὴ τοιÐ ον ἑωÐ ν ἐπαρωγὸν ἀέθλων Αἰсονίδηс . . . δέξατο, 1.32–4). The first aition
of the poem illustrates Orpheus’ effectiveness and importance: the oak trees which he
once moved down from Pieria to the Thracian coast by means of his enchanting
music are still standing there in rows bearing witness to the power of his art (26–31).
Thus there is a shift of focus: Orpheus’ art in the Argonautica is less concerned with
the author or with posterity or the lasting fame of the expedition than with its
successful completion.
Orpheus’ activity is restricted to the voyage, Books 1, 2 and 4.241–1785; he has no
part in Book 3 and the beginning of Book 4, where Medea takes over as Jason’s most
conspicuous helper. Orpheus’ functions are clearly defined. With his enchanting
songs, he secures or restores harmony among the Argonauts, which is often strained,
for example, ending a quarrel among Jason, Idas, and Idmon (1.460–515) and
inaugurating a temple of Concord after leading communal celebrations in honor of
Apollo Heoios (2.683–719). More than once he suggests cultic measures for the
safety of the Argonauts on their journey: he leads the Argonauts into the mysteries of
Samothrace (1.915–21), supervises the building of an altar and sacrifice for Apollo
Neossoos at the Tomb of Sthenelus (2.927–9), and dedicates a tripod to the divinities
of Libya (4.1547–55). His phorminx-playing rescues the Argonauts from danger, for
instance by defeating the Sirens (4.902–11) and placating the Hesperides (4.1409–
23). He creates a harmonious atmosphere in difficult circumstances, such as the
hastily improvised wedding of Jason and Medea (4.1155–60 and 1192–98).
All of these interventions serve a single purpose. They help to overcome internal
and external problems which threaten the security and concord of the entire crew due
to Jason’s lack of authority. Orpheus never acts on Jason’s orders or in his stead as has
been suggested (e.g., by Busch 1993: 322) but always spontaneously and independ-
ently for the sake of the crew as a whole. Thus he supports Jason’s mission and
contributes to the success of the Argonauts’ expedition in his own peculiar way. The
interventions of Orpheus are always successful and his advice is immediately followed,
but he never enters into the discussions and conflicts of his fellow Argonauts. His
roles are those of an arbitrator and mediator between men and gods. On the whole he
is designed as an integrating figure, whose voice and lyre have an enchanting and
soothing effect on the heterogeneous crew.
Euphemus, on the other hand, may be called the most Pindaric among Apollonius’
Argonauts. In Pindar’s fourth Pythian Ode, he is of paramount importance because
 Apollonius’ Argonautica 147

he is the Argonaut to whom Arcesilaus IV of Cyrene, Pindar’s addressee, traces the

origins of his family and the foundation of his city (Jackson 1987: 23–30). In the
Argonautica, Euphemus is a main character in two key sequences of the narrative,
the passage through the Cyanean Rocks (2.531–606) and the adventures in the
Libyan desert (4.1381–624). His role in the second event corresponds to the part
he plays in Pindar’s ode. In Apollonius as in Pindar, Euphemus receives as a gift of
hospitality from the local divinity Triton/Eurypylus, a son of Poseidon like himself, a
clod of Libyan soil which foreshadows the colonization of the country by his des-
cendants (4.1552–3, cf. 1734; Pi. P. 4.37, 42–3). Euphemus’ encounter with
Eurypylus as told in the Argonautica closely resembles that of Pindar and even
contains a number of verbal reminiscences. In both cases the Libyan clod is linked
to the island of Thera, from which Euphemus’ descendants will colonize Libya.
Apollonius’ narrative, however, takes a peculiar turn thanks to a few striking changes
vis-à-vis Pindar’s account and an innovative characterizing feature of Euphemus:
First, Apollonius has replaced Pindar’s accidental loss of the Libyan clod near the
island of Thera (P. 4.38–56, cf. 254–62) by an explicit instruction in a dream which
Euphemus remembers when the Argonauts leave a small island to which they have
given the name ‘‘Anaphe’’ (4.1732–46):

Euphemus remembered a dream which he had had in the night passed on Anaphe. For it
had seemed to him that the divine clod which he held in his hand close to his breast
became wet from white drops of milk, and the clod, though being small, turned into a
woman looking like a young girl. He made love to her overcome by an incontrollable
desire, and he lamented as if he had bedded his daughter whom he had himself nourished
with his own milk. But she cheered him up with gentle words: ‘‘Of Triton’s race I am,
dear friend, the nurse of your children, not your daughter, for Triton and Libya are my
parents. Come now, put me down beside the maiden daughters of Nereus to inhabit the
sea near Anaphe. Later on I shall go towards the rays of the sun, where I shall be ready for
your descendants.’’ This Euphemus remembered in his heart.

Euphemus’ dream is reported by the narrator as a fact remembered at the very moment
when the Argonauts leave Anaphe, the island near which the Libyan clod (represented
by the woman in the dream) wants to be dropped into the sea. And throwing it into the
sea is what Euphemus does (1755–7), having been told by Jason, himself informed by
prophecies of Apollo, that the gods will turn the clod into an island which the youngest
of Euphemus’ grandchildren will eventually settle (1749–54). This island, the emer-
gence of which is the finishing stroke of Apollonius’ colorful Libyan canvas, is
‘‘Kalliste, the sacred nurse of Euphemus’ children’’ (1758). It is ‘‘to the island
Kalliste’’ (1763) that in later times Theras, Euphemus’ descendant, brought Spartan
settlers, and ‘‘in honor of him it changed its name to Thera’’ (4.1761–4). The
elaborate aetiological sequence closes with a break-off statement: ‘‘but these
events occurred long after Euphemus’’ (ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν μετόπιν γένετ Εὐϕήμοιο, 1764)
– ‘‘words that echo Callimachus’’ with which ‘‘the narrator leaves the reader to finish
the story’’ (DeForest 1994: 141–2; Call. Aet. fr. 12.6 Pf.).
It has often been claimed that the ‘‘foundation myth of Cyrene’’ in the Argonautica
has to be understood in the context of contemporary Ptolemaic politics and that
148 Adolf Köhnken

Apollonius here ‘‘evokes an explicitly ‘political’ frame of reference for his epic’’
(Hunter 1993a: 153). One should note, however, that Apollonius, unlike Pindar,
curiously stops short of actually narrating or even referring to the colonization of
Libya. His story pointedly ends with Kalliste, the island designed for the descendants of
Euphemus to settle, through the chiastic repetition of 4.1757–8 νηÐ сοс . . . Καλλίсτη
in 1763 Καλλίсτην ἐπὶ νηÐ сον, and the repeated verbal linking of Kalliste with
Euphemus in the opening and closing lines (1758 Καλλίсτη . . . Εὐϕήμοιο and
1762–3 Καλλίсτην . . . Εὐϕήμοιο). Evidently, Apollonius is not so much interested in
the colonization of Libya itself (contrast Pi. P. 4.256–61, 19–25 and Hdt. 4.145–57) as
in its starting point, the clod which turns into the island Kalliste. What is the reason for
this exclusive and surprising emphasis on Kalliste, and what is the connection between
Kalliste and Anaphe, which does not appear in Pindar’s ode?
At this point, a closer look at the non-Pindaric credentials of Apollonius’
Euphemus, which have not received much attention in Apollonian scholarship, may
be helpful. In the catalogue, Euphemus is introduced as the ‘‘most swift-footed’’ of
the Argonauts (ποδωϰηέсτατοс ἄλλων, 1.180), a qualification explained as follows
(182–4):

ϰειÐ νοс ἀνὴρ ϰαὶ πόντου ἐπὶ γλαυϰοιÐ ο θέεсϰεν

οἴδματοс; οὐδὲ θοοὺс βάπτεν πόδαс; ἀλλ ὅсον ἄϰροιс
ἴχνεсι τεγγόμενοс διερηÐ ι πεϕόρητο ϰελεύθωι.
That man used to run even over the waves of the grey sea and did not moisten his swift
feet; but dipping in only the tips of his toes he passed along on his wet path.

Euphemus’ exceptional swiftness explains his remarkable importance in the most

crucial event of the outward journey, the passage through the Cyanean Rocks in
Book 2 (531–606), as well as his participation in the attempt to catch up with
Heracles and make him rejoin the Argonauts in the Libyan events of Book 4 (1461–
71, 1482–4). Traditionally, however, the title of honor ‘‘swiftest of men’’ belongs to
another Argonaut, Iphiclus (Hes. fr. 62 MW; Call. Aet. fr. 75.46–7 Pf.), who is also
listed in Apollonius’ catalogue but deprived of his swiftness (1.45–8). Apparently,
Apollonius has transferred this characteristic from Iphiclus to Euphemus to give
additional significance to this central figure of the Libyan foundation legend. For
this transfer he again seems to have been inspired by Pindar, who makes his Medea
prophesy to the Argonauts on the island of Thera, i.e. Kalliste, that the Libyan
descendants of Euphemus ‘‘will exchange dolphins for swift mares and instead of
oars handle the reins of wind-swift chariots’’ (P. 4.17–18). Thus the ‘‘swiftness’’
attributed by Pindar to the descendants of Euphemus is given to Euphemus himself
by Apollonius. Seen against the backdrop of Pindar’s Thera/Kalliste in Medea’s
prophecy, this change highlights the significance of the island of Kalliste in the
Argonautica.
The purpose of this focus on Kalliste at the end of Apollonius’ narrative finally
becomes clear when one considers the function of the aition of the name Anaphe,
taken over from Callimachus’ Aetia (frs. 7–21 Pf.). Near this ‘‘Island of Appearance,’’
made visible by Apollo (Aegletes) when the Argonauts are lost in darkness, Euphemus
 Apollonius’ Argonautica 149

is to throw into the sea the Libyan clod which turns into the island of Kalliste, the idea
apparently being that the etymologically ambivalent ‘‘Anaphe’’ will also make
‘‘Kalliste’’ visible. Within the framework of the Callimachean Aetia with which
Apollonius’ Argonautica draws to a close (the story of Euphemus and the Libyan
clod is preceded by the Apollo Aigletes aition and followed by the Hydrophoria
aition, the last aition of the narrative), the striking prominence of Kalliste, origin of
Cyrene in Libya, evoking the name of Kallimachos of Cyrene, seems to be designed
as a tribute by the poet of the Argonautica to the poet of the Aetia (Köhnken 2001:
78–9; 2003: 207–11; 2005).
***
This chapter has focused on four peculiar features that exemplify the unorthodox
quality of the Argonautica as compared to the tradition Apollonius inherited: (1) the
intriguing patterns and interplay of Apollonius’ three proems and the means used to
tie together the four books of the epic; (2) a novel selection and presentation of
divine helpers, on the one hand Apollo, ‘‘the far-darter,’’ who intervenes, effectively,
from a distance, on the other female gods, especially Hera and Athena, who provide
hands-on and intimate support; (3) striking modifications of epic devices such as
similes and ecphrases; (4) a strong interest in aetiological matters. Characteristic
attractions of Apollonius’ narrative art are its sophisticated play with intertexts with
which the reader is supposed to be familiar, purposefully selected, adapted, and
rearranged, as well as its pointed pregnancy and multi-layeredness, which challenges
the narratees to take hints and read between the lines. Apollonius is a master in subtle
and indirect storytelling.

FURTHER READING

Vian’s edition, 1974–96 (followed in this chapter), with introduction and concise notes as well
as a French translation by Delage, is exemplary; Fränkel 1961 (edition only) contains too many
arbitrary changes and transpositions. Commentaries: on Book 1, Ardizzoni 1967, Clauss 1993,
Vasilaros 2004; on Book 2, Matteo 2007, Cuypers 1997 (1–310); on Book 3, Gillies 1928,
Ardizzoni 1958, Vian 1961, Hunter 1989, Campbell 1994 (1–471); on Book 4, Livrea 1973.
In addition, Fränkel 1968 is worth consulting, and Mooney 1912, on all four books, is still
sometimes useful. Wendel 1935 provides access to the important scholia on the poem.
Recent English translations are Hunter 1993b, Green 1997, and Race 2008. Helpful for
orientation are Hutchinson 1988: 85–142, Nelis 2005, Hunter 1993a, and the essays in
Papanghelis and Rengakos 2008 (2001), Harder, Regtuit, and Wakker 2000.
On the characterization of Jason, see Carspecken 1952, Lawall 1966, Beye 1969, 1982, Vian
1978, Hunter 1988, 1993a: 8–45, Clauss 1993, Köhnken 2000; on Medea, Hunter 1987,
Dyck 1989, Clauss 1997 (the proems as ‘‘programmatic introductions’’), Bulloch 2006
(a brilliant analysis of the Ariadne paradigm). Discussions of narrative structure, techniques,
and ‘‘voice’’ include Hurst 1967, Fusillo 1985, Hunter 1993a: 101–51, 2001, Byre 2002,
Cuypers 2004a. On the Argonautica and Homer, see for example Fantuzzi 1988, Clauss 1993,
Knight 1995, Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 246–82. Erbse 1953 is a seminal article on
Apollonius as a scholarly poet; see further Rengakos 1993, 2001. For the Argonautica as an
150 Adolf Köhnken

aetiological poem, its relationship with Callimachus’ Aetia, and relative chronology, see
Valverde Sánchez 1989, DeForest 1994, Cameron 1995a, Köhnken 2001, 2003, 2005,
Harder in this volume; and on the Argonautica and contemporary culture, Hunter 1993a:
152–69, Stephens 2003. On Apollonius’ similes, see Carspecken 1952, Reitz 1996, Effe 2001;
on his gods, Klein 1931, Feeney 1991, Hunter 1993a: 75–100; and on his descriptions, Zanker
1987, 2004, and Williams 1991. For Apollonius’ influence on Vergil, see especially Nelis 2001.
 CHAPTER ELEVEN

Narrative Hexameter Poetry

Annemarie Ambühl

What is a typically Hellenistic epic? Is it a miniature epic (‘‘epyllion’’) in the style of

Callimachus’ Hecale or a multi-book epic in the manner of Rhianus? In modern
scholarship, this issue has provoked a long-standing and sometimes ideologically
charged debate. Konrat Ziegler has notoriously postulated hundreds of thousands
of lines of lost Hellenistic historical and mythological epic, whereas Alan Cameron has
questioned the very existence of full-scale epics celebrating Hellenistic kings, and
instead argued for a tradition of short hexameter encomia performed at festivals
(Ziegler 1966: 15–23; Cameron 1995a: 263–302; on historical/encomiastic elegies
such as SH 958, see Barbantani 2002/3). The scarcity of the evidence has favored
hypothesizing. Notably, the modern critical debate has led to the construction of
an analogous Alexandrian debate about epic as a genre. As signal witnesses of
this debate, scholars have regularly adduced the Prologue to the Aetia, where
Callimachus seems to reject long, continuous epics on kings and heroes in favor of
shorter, lighter compositions (fr. 1 Pf.; Acosta-Hughes and Harder in this volume), as
well as ancient testimonies for a quarrel between Callimachus and Apollonius, the
main contemporary epicist, which was construed as a clash between modern and old-
fashioned poetics (for an overview see Benedetto 1993: 27–91). Because there is now
wide agreement that Apollonius’ Argonautica is essentially a ‘‘Callimachean epic’’
(Köhnken in this volume), the phantom of a quarrel has been more or less laid to rest,
but Callimachus’ alleged ban on (long) epic poems still haunts modern discussions.
Only recently, the polemical stance of the Prologue has been identified as mainly a
literary strategy of its author, testifying to the lasting success of Callimachus’ self-
fashioning as an innovative poet rather than to an actually existing ancient contro-
versy (Cameron 1995a: 358, 452–3; Schmitz 1999; Acosta-Hughes and Stephens
2002). Even if one does not subscribe to Cameron’s thesis that the Prologue is not
about epic at all, but about different styles of elegy, it seems advisable to leave
Callimachean polemic aside and instead look at the texts from an unbiased
perspective.
152 Annemarie Ambühl

Moreover, the difference between epic and ‘‘epyllion’’ has been defined primarily
as a matter of length. But length is relative, as can be gauged from the fact that even
within the modern category of epyllion the scope varies widely, from an eidyllion of
fewer than a hundred lines such as Theocritus 13 up to a full-blown miniature epic
such as Callimachus’ Hecale, which employs complex structural devices and may have
run to well over a thousand lines (Hollis 2009: 337–40). Ultimately, the preoccupa-
tion with length as the sole criterion for judging the value of poetry once again
derives from Callimachus, who set up this absurdly extreme position in order to make
fun of his – real or fictitious – critics (fr. 1.17–18 Pf.). Therefore it seems preferable to
frame the discussion not only in quantitative but also in qualitative terms regarding
style and treatment. But does a Hellenistic ‘‘epyllion’’ then necessarily have to be
innovative and preferably anti-heroic, and heroic epics conventional and boring?
(Lloyd-Jones 1990: 236–7; Bing 1988: 50–6). How can we judge, if no full-scale
epics have survived apart from Apollonius’ Argonautica, which in its unconventional
character may or may not have been representative of the contemporary epic
production? Perhaps we should reckon with a diversity of markets and audiences
for different kinds of epic poems rather than with a sterile opposition between
Callimachean and un-Callimachean poetry.

The Evidence
Regrettably, with the exception of Apollonius’ Argonautica no specimen of extensive
narrative hexameter poetry from the Hellenistic period has survived intact. There
exist titles and fragments of historical-encomiastic epics (with the reservations of
Cameron 1995a regarding their scope mentioned above) and of regional-ethno-
graphic epics such as the Messeniaca, Achaica, Eliaca, and Thessalica by Rhianus
(CA 1–65 and SH 715–16) or the Ktiseis (foundation poems) by Apollonius (CA
4–12); the latter may however have been quite short compositions. A third group is
made up by mythological epics such as those on Heracles, discussed below.
Collections of metamorphoses like Nicander’s Heteroioumena (frs. 43, 50, 59, 62
GS and SH ?562; cf. Boeus’ Ornithogonia, Parthenius’ Metamorphoses [SH 636–7 ¼
24 Lightfoot 1999], and ultimately Ovid’s Metamorphoses) might be linked more
appropriately with didactic poetry. In most cases, the length and contents of these
poems can no longer be determined. Moreover, there are no strict boundaries
between the subgenres, since foundation poems, for instance, regularly include
mythological as well as historical material. An important precursor of this kind of
epic apparently was Antimachus’ Thebaid, in which he revived the Archaic mytho-
logical epics about Thebes by updating them with the help of his philological
research. Later critics regularly commented upon the poet’s verbosity, a criticism
which perhaps reflects in distorted form characteristics of his narrative: Antimachus
may have padded his narrative with devices such as ecphrasis rather than driving the
plot on (Matthews 1996: 20–6 and 64–76, on fr. 2).
 Narrative Hexameter Poetry 153

With respect to the relatively short narrative hexameter poems on mythological

subjects conventionally designated as epyllia (a label that will be explored below),
the situation looks more promising. In this category we might include Theocritus
13 (Hylas), 24 (Heracliscus), and 25 (Heracles the Lion-Slayer, probably not by
Theocritus himself), as well as Moschus’ Europa, the Megara (Ps.-Moschus 4) and
the fragmentary Epithalamius of Achilles and Deidamia ascribed to Bion. Significant
fragments exist from Callimachus’ Hecale, allowing a basic reconstruction of its
outline (Hollis 2009). Considerably fewer fragments are left of Philitas’ Hermes and
Eratosthenes’ Hermes. Despite their shared title, they had very different subject
matters. Eratosthenes’ poem was an Alexandrian reworking of the Homeric Hymn
to Hermes, treating the childhood adventures of the wily god and his invention of the
lyre, and culminating in a description of cosmic harmony by the god himself, a topic
which reflects the author’s astronomical interests (CA 1–16, SH 397–8, 922; Geus
2002: 110–28). In contrast, Philitas’ Hermes apparently did not have a divine
protagonist at all, but dealt with Odysseus’ stay on the island of Aeolus, enriching
this episode from Odyssey 10 with the pathetic story of the illegitimate love between
the hero and Aeolus’ daughter Polymele, the girl’s abandonment, and her subsequent
incestuous marriage to one of her brothers (CA 5  9 ¼ 1  5 Spanoudakis 2002;
reconstructions in Latacz 1999 and Spanoudakis 2002: 95–141; speculations in
Geus 2000).
Alexander Aetolus, Euphorion, and Parthenius also composed short mythological
poems in hexameters on such subjects as the metamorphosis of Glaucus (Alexander’s
Halieus, CA 1 ¼ 1 Magnelli 1999) or the unhappy love story of Byblis and her
brother Caunus (Parthenius SH 646 ¼ 33 Lightfoot 1999; cf. Nicaenetus’ Lyrcus,
CA 1). Euphorion had a reputation for especially obscure mythological poems which
made him fashionable with the Roman neoteric poets (Lightfoot 1999: 57–64). He
seems to have written epyllion-style compositions as well as catalogue poems on
curses and mythological punishments (Chiliades, Curses or the Cup-stealer, Thrax;
on the genre see Watson 1991), all of them in hexameters (CA 1–139, 142–77; 3–
195 Van Groningen 1977; SH 413–54).
Finally, there are several anonymous fragments classified as epyllia in Powell’s
Collectanea Alexandrina (Epica adespota 1–4, 8, and 9 col. viii, ix). Some of them
share traits with poems by Callimachus and Theocritus. The meeting of the son of
Iphis with the old Pheidon on Diomedes’ estate in fr. 2 recalls the bucolic setting of
Heracles’ meeting with the old ploughman on Augeas’ estate in Ps.-Theocritus 25,
and the speech of an impoverished old woman in fr. 4 recalls Hecale’s recollections of
her former wealth in Callimachus (fr. 41, Hollis 2009: 29–30, 179–80). Among the
anonymous hexameter fragments in the Supplementum Hellenisticum, there are
remains of Hellenistic poems on Hero and Leander (901A, 951), but as the editors
remark (on 951): ‘‘omnia incerta’’ – a cautionary label that might be applied to much
of the other material as well. Indeed, these collections contain many more hexameter
fragments consisting of only a few words or lines which frustratingly defy further
analysis. In cases where a single hexameter has been transmitted, it cannot even be
decided whether it derives from an epic or an elegiac work.
154 Annemarie Ambühl

Definitions and Questions

In line with general directions in Hellenistic scholarship, the study of Hellenistic
epic has recently profited from new approaches that combine close reading with
methods deriving from genre theory, narratology, and studies in intertextuality, and
take into consideration the social, political, and cultural contexts in which these texts
were produced. Nevertheless, taxonomically oriented debates about modern critical
terms and concepts, and their application to ancient literary texts, have tended to
become an end in themselves, as is exemplified by the case of the so-called epyllion.
Apart from the well-known fact that the term originates in nineteenth-century
criticism and is therefore strictly speaking anachronistic (Allen 1940; Most 1982),
modern reconstructions of the ‘‘genre’’ of Hellenistic and Roman miniature epic run
two risks.
The first trap is a teleologically oriented perspective, which applies a biological
model to the development of the genre from its ‘‘birth’’ to its ‘‘maturity’’ and
subsequent ‘‘death,’’ thus projecting a linear evolution onto the categorized works
(Toohey 1992: 100–20). It may be true that the development of a genre can be
reconstructed through the history of its reception, in the sense that individual poems
mark their affiliation with a certain genre through continuity with, as well as modi-
fication of, their predecessors (as is the case, for example, with bucolic: Nauta 1990;
Thomas 1996; Reed in this volume). Yet in the case of ‘‘epyllion,’’ in view of the lack
of a genuine ancient equivalent for the term, it is doubtful whether the texts we
categorize as such were perceived of as belonging to an identifiable subgenre of epic
at all.
Second, genre definitions easily become normative instead of descriptive. The
search for the ‘‘perfect epyllion’’ that matches all the criteria predetermines
the selection of examples and excludes texts that do not conform sufficiently to the
pattern. Expectations thus shape interpretation in a circular manner: if an epyllion by
definition has to be ironical or anti-heroic, it is likely to produce readings that in turn
confirm the definition (Effe 1978). This phenomenon can be observed in most
modern studies of the Hellenistic epyllion, whose selection of material is firmly linked
to the agendas of their respective authors. Thus Marjorie Crump (1931) identifies a
‘‘digression,’’ rather loosely defined as a second story contained within the first, as an
essential feature of the epyllion, and she accordingly defines long, direct speeches
such as the crow’s story of Erichthonius in Callimachus’ Hecale or ecphrases such as
Moschus’ description of the pictures of Io on the basket of Europa as digressions.
Kathryn Gutzwiller (1981) analyzes epyllia by Theocritus, Callimachus, Moschus,
and Bion in order to demonstrate the subversion of epic norms and values that in her
view characterizes these poems. The most recent monograph on the subject by Carol
Merriam (2001) focuses on female characters as a central feature of the epyllion and
accordingly highlights the heroines Alcmena in Theocritus 24, Moschus’ Europa,
Thetis and Ariadne in Catullus 64, and other women in Latin epyllia.
This is not to say that the term epyllion should be abandoned altogether, for it has
proven its merits as a term for grouping together poems with similar characteristics.
But at least any definition for the ‘‘genre’’ should be as open as possible, allowing for
 Narrative Hexameter Poetry 155

a variety of forms and taking into account the differences between individual texts as
well as their similarities. Such a definition could start from the shared characteristics
that distinguish these works from other epic subgenres such as hymns, encomia, and
didactic and bucolic poetry. They are predominantly narrative as opposed to mimetic
texts, although they may include a sizeable percentage of direct speech (the Megara
being the most striking example). Their subject matter is mainly mythological as
opposed to factual/scientific, fictional/pastoral or cultic/religious. As will be dis-
cussed below, the definition should perhaps even include thematically related com-
positions in elegiacs. Many of the texts covered by this definition can of course also be
discussed under other generic headings, according to different criteria regarding
form, content, function, and possible performance context (for example, the mytho-
logical narrative Theocritus 24 seems to have been concluded with a hymnic ending),
while texts which are generally discussed under other categories may also include
mythological narrative (for example, Callimachus’ Hymn to Demeter with its inset tale
of Erysichthon or Theocritus’ hymn to the Dioscuri, Id. 22).
The selection and combination of different generic traditions has thus to be taken
into account when we analyze the formal and thematic variety of Hellenistic ‘‘epyl-
lion.’’ Probably the main reason for this variety is the fact that from the fourth
century onwards dactylic hexameters and elegiacs increasingly replaced lyric meters,
with the result that contents formerly belonging to other (sub)genres were adapted
to hexametric and elegiac poetry (Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 17–37; Fantuzzi in this
volume). Given the prominence of elegiac verse in the oeuvres of third-century poets,
an especially intriguing issue is the relationship between short mythological poems in
hexameters and in elegiac distichs. For instance, besides their hexameter poems
mentioned above, Philitas composed a Demeter (CA 1–4, SH 673–5; 5a–21
Spanoudakis 2002) and Eratosthenes an Erigone (CA 22–7; Rosokoki 1995) in
elegiacs. Alexander Aetolus and later Parthenius, too, seem to have written narrative
poems in both meters (Magnelli 1999: 12–26; Lightfoot 1999: 17–49), and in his
preface to the Erotika Pathemata, the latter recommends his love stories to Gallus for
‘‘rendering into hexameters and elegiacs’’ (εἰс ἔπη ϰαὶ ἐλεγείαс ἀνάγειν).
Is this simply a matter of variation and personal taste, or are there significant
narratological and stylistic differences between epic and elegiac compositions? Alan
Cameron compares Callimachus’ parallel stories about Theseus’ meeting with Hecale
in the hexametric Hecale and Heracles’ meeting with Molorcus in the elegiac Victory
of Berenice in the Aetia on the lines of scholarship on Ovid (Heinze 1919; Hinds
1987), identifying the two narratives as a model epic and a model elegy respectively
(Cameron 1995a: 437–53). According to him, one of the main differences is the
greater prominence of the narrator in elegiac verse: ‘‘personal elegy as against imper-
sonal epic’’ (1995a: 439; similar conclusions in Harder 2004: 63–72; Morrison
2007: 190–2). But can such statements based on statistical data concerning the
frequency of authorial intrusions into the narrative really be trusted given the frag-
mentary nature of the corpus? Moreover, the narrator in the hexametric Argonautica
is, in his own way, no less prominent than the narrator in the Aetia (Cuypers 2004a,
2005). The differences in treatment of the two related myths in the hexametric
Hecale and the elegiac Victory of Berenice cannot be explained simply as deriving from
generic differences between epic and elegy. Additional generic debts, such as to
156 Annemarie Ambühl

tragedy, comedy, and satyr-play, and specific intertextual and metapoetic issues must
also be taken into account (Ambühl 2004; see also Harder 2002a: 217–23 on the
elegiac and epic treatments of the Anaphe episode in the Aetia and in Apollonius’
Argonautica respectively). In short, the issue of the similarities and differences
between hexametric and elegiac ‘‘epyllia’’ needs further investigation.
Finally, what does their reception in Roman poetry tell us about Hellenistic epic and
‘‘epyllion’’? Can Ennius’ Annals, for all its Hellenistic features, really be claimed as the
only existing example of a Hellenistic historical epic (Ziegler 1966: 23–37, 53–77)? If
Philitas, Callimachus, Euphorion, and Parthenius are remembered by Roman poets as
prime exponents of elegy (e.g., Prop. 3.1.1, Verg. Ecl. 10.50; cf. Quint. Inst. 10.1.58),
does this reflect the original balance between hexameter and elegiac works in their
oeuvres? Or is this rather a case of name-dropping in a ‘‘do-it-yourself literary tradi-
tion’’ manner (Hinds 1998: 123), in the sense that Roman poets are fond of making up
Greek predecessors for a certain genre or style? The complete lack of evidence that
Euphorion wrote any elegies at all (Jacoby 1905: 69; van Groningen 1977: 251–3)
would seem to plead for the latter. In general, the fact that so many Hellenistic works
have been lost has often been used as a license to project certain features of Roman
‘‘epyllia’’ back onto the Greek texts. Yet it has become increasingly clear that behind
the opposition between epic and elegy in Roman poetry there lies a specific Roman
cultural and political agenda that should not be superimposed onto Alexandria
(Cameron 1995a: 454–83; Hunter 2006a). It may therefore be advisable to study
the surviving Greek poems first on their own terms, taking into account their specific
literary and cultural context, before comparing them to their Roman successors.

The Metamorphoses of Heracles

In what follows, I will focus on a selection of texts that have been preserved (almost)
intact in order to examine their relationship to epic as well as to other generic
traditions, their adaptation of myth, and their narrative techniques: Theocritus 13
(Hylas) and 24 (Heracliscus), Ps.-Theocritus 25 (Heracles the Lion-Slayer), and Ps.-
Moschus’ Megara. All four feature the quintessential hero Heracles, who offers an
excellent test case to study these crucial aspects of Hellenistic hexameter poetry. The
poems put Heracles into different environments that range from the heroic to the
domestic, the bucolic, and the erotic. They present him at different times in his life –
from his childhood to his death and apotheosis – and have him interact with a variety of
persons: boys, women, and old men, relatives and strangers, characters known from the
literary tradition and otherwise unknown figures. The texts employ various narrative
techniques, combining authorial narrative with direct speech, exhibiting inset stories,
prophecies, and dreams, and evoking different genres such as epic, lyric, tragedy, and
hymn. Like the metamorphosing mythological figures the Hellenistic writers were so
fond of, Heracles adapts his shape to various textual environments and points of view.
In Hellenistic times, epics about Heracles continued to be written, among them
Rhianus’ Heracleia (CA 2–10, SH 715), Diotimus’ Heracleia (SH 393) and Heracles’
Labors (SH 394), and Phaedimus’ Heracleia (SH 669). Although not much of them
 Narrative Hexameter Poetry 157

remains, they will probably have described his deeds in chronological order in the
manner of the Archaic and Classical Heracles-epics by Pisander and Panyassis (on the
latter see Matthews 1974). For the type of poem that focuses on a single episode
there exist precedents as well: for example, the Sack of Oichalia by Creophylus (the
subject of an epigram by Callimachus, 6 Pf.), the pseudo-Hesiodic Shield with its
extensive ecphrasis of Heracles’ shield, or the anonymous Meropis, whose datings
range from the Archaic to the Hellenistic Age (SH and SSH 903A).
An especially popular topic in Hellenistic poetry seems to have been Heracles’ fight
against the Nemean lion. The fight may either be narrated directly or indirectly,
forming the background for another story, or evoked by way of allusion. In Ps.-
Theocritus 25, a full account is put into Heracles’ own mouth. In contrast, in
Callimachus’ Victory of Berenice (SH 254–68C), the introductory elegy of the third
book of the Aetia whose mythic centerpiece shares some traits with hexametric
epyllia, a direct narrative seems to have been avoided by means of a double narrative
ellipsis, as first the narrator and then Heracles himself explicitly refuse to tell the full
story (SH 264 with Ambühl 2004: 42; for a contrastive metapoetic reading of the two
texts, see Seiler 1997: 29–110). Nevertheless, Callimachus apparently did include
certain aspects of the fight, probably in the form of an aition of the lion-skin (SH
267–8C), and certainly indirectly by mirroring Heracles’ struggle against the lion in
miniature with Molorcus’ fight against a plague of mice (SH 259). In the Hecale, too,
Heracles’ lion-skin may have played a role as part of the story of Theseus’ childhood.
When Heracles visits Pittheus at Troezen, the boy Theseus bravely attacks what he
mistakes for a living lion, a childish feat that nevertheless points to his future prowess
(frs. 13 and 101 Hollis 2009: cf. Hollis 1994; Ambühl 2005: 54–5). Unfortunately,
not enough survives of an anonymous Hellenistic Heracles-poem (CA epica adespota
8) to tell in which manner the fight was treated there.
The killing of the Nemean lion is the first of Heracles’ 12 canonical labors,
accomplished when he was still a young man at the beginning of his heroic career.
This choice of subject can be linked with the Hellenistic interest in aetiology, as it
provides the aition of Heracles’ emblem, the lion-skin (Gutzwiller 1981: 38). On the
whole the shift of focus from the adult hero Heracles to his childhood and youth
implies not so much an ironical ‘‘destruction of tradition’’ (Effe 1978) or a penchant
for realism (Zanker 1987), but is rather to be identified as an aetiological strategy
which seeks to trace the character of the hero back to its origins and thus to re-invent
literary tradition (Hunter 1998; Ambühl 2005). In the four poems to be considered
next, references to the fight as well as to other elements of the Heracles myth are
employed in various narrative contexts to form creative re-writings of his story.

Theocritus 13 and 24: The Hero in Love

and the Hero to Be
At the beginning of Theocritus 13 (Hylas), the narrator identifies Heracles as the
‘‘bronze-hearted son of Amphitryon, the one who withstood the savage lion,’’ only to
add that he too succumbed to Eros and fell in love with a beautiful boy (ἀλλὰ ϰαὶ
158 Annemarie Ambühl

Ἀμϕιτρύωνος ὁ χαλϰεοϰάρδιος υἱός, / ὃς τὸν λιÐ ν ὑπέμεινε τὸν ἄγριον, ἤρατο παιδός,
5–6). As has often been pointed out, Heracles’ erotic passion for Hylas stands in an
uneasy relationship with his heroic character, here symbolized by his feat of killing
the Nemean lion (Effe 1978: 60–4; Gutzwiller 1981: 19–29; Van Erp Taalman Kip
1994; Hunter 1999: 261–89). This tension is reflected by competing models within
the text. Heracles himself understands his role as that of a father who teaches his son
how to become a ‘‘real man’’ (ϰαί νιν πάντ’ ἐδίδασϰε, πατὴρ ὡσεὶ ϕίλον υἱόν, 8;
ἀλαθινὸν ἄνδρ’, 15). In his view, he himself, the ἀγαθὸς and ἀοίδιμος hero (9), is
the ideal role model for Hylas. As in Iliad 6.358, where Helen prophesies that she
and Paris will become a theme of song for future generations, and in Callimachus’
Hymn to Athena (h. 5.121), where Athena promises Teiresias eternal fame, the
adjective ἀοίδιμος here has a self-referential quality, for it refers to Heracles’ fame in
poetry, presumably in heroic epic. Ironically, thanks to Theocritus’ poem (and
Apollonius’ Argonautica), Hylas will indeed become ἀοίδιμος and, like Heracles,
immortal (72), but not because of his heroic deeds, as Heracles intended. The term
thus also points to the ambiguous status of Theocritus’ ‘‘epyllion,’’ between heroic
epic and love poetry.
Sure enough, the handsome Hylas soon becomes the prey of nymphs, who also fall
in love with him (46–9). Heracles’ dubious ideal of an heroic education, which has
already been undermined by the chick simile where he is associated with a fussing
mother-hen (12–13), is now replaced by the similarly ambiguous image of
‘‘mothers’’ who comfort the crying boy on their knees with gentle words (ἀγα-
νοιÐ σι παρεψύχοντ’ ἐπέεσσιν, 53–4). Heracles’ reaction is in character. He rushes to
the rescue with bow and club (55–7), and three times shouts ‘‘Hylas’’ ‘‘as loud as his
deep throat could bellow’’ (τρὶς μὲν  Ύλαν ἄυσεν, ὅσον βαθὺς ἤρυγε λαιμός, 58),
while Hylas each time replies faintly from under the water (ἀραιὰ . . . ϕωνά, 59–
60). The cry is Heracles’ only utterance in the poem, and it is has an almost animal
quality. Indeed the lion imagery from the beginning now returns, as Heracles’
frenzied reaction to the loss of his beloved is described by means of an epic simile:
‘‘a ravening lion hears a fawn cry upon the mountains and hastens from his lair
in search of the ready prey’’ (νεβρουÐ ϕθεγξαμένας τις ἐν οὔρεσιν ὠμοϕάγος λὶς / ἐξ
εὐναÐ ς ἔσπευσεν ἑτοιμοτάταν ἐπὶ δαιÐ τα, 62–3). Heracles the lion-slayer is now associ-
ated with a lion himself. The animal simile that in a straightforward epic context
would underline Heracles’ heroism, here rather points to his loss of rational control
and to the problematic fusion of his heroic identity with erotic passion. Hylas, the
beloved boy he wants to protect, by way of the simile becomes his helpless prey.
Ultimately Heracles fails both as an epic hero and as a lover: on the level of the simile
as the lion who cannot reach his ready prey, and on the level of the narrative as the
passionate lover who cannot keep his beloved safe. In Theocritus 13, Heracles’ epic-
heroic past as a lion-slayer is thus evoked in incompatible circumstances, and his
present erotic endeavor is bound to result in failure, as he wanders aimlessly through
the wilderness (64–7, 70–1).
The opposite strategy is employed in Theocritus 24 (Heracliscus), for here Heracles
is a ten-month-old baby whose first heroic feat, the strangling of the snakes sent by
Hera, prefigures his future character as a hero and god. Although in prophesying the
amazing career of the extraordinary boy Tiresias does not specify the beasts to be
 Narrative Hexameter Poetry 159

subdued by Heracles later in life (81–3), the strangling of the snakes exhibits narrative
patterns associated in other texts with some of his canonical labors, such as the
strangling of the Nemean lion with his bare hands (26–33, 55; cf. Ps.-Theoc.
25.262–71) or the fear of onlookers as they are presented with the catch (54–9; cf.
Eurystheus’ fear at seeing the dead Nemean lion in Apollodorus 2.5.1 or Cerberus in
Euphorion CA 51 ¼ 57 Van Groningen 1977). Towards the end of the poem, there
is also a more direct hint at the Nemean lion, when Heracles uses as a bed ‘‘a lion-skin
that pleases him much’’ (εὐνὰ δ η с τωÐ ι παιδὶ τετυγμένα ἀγχόθι πατρὸс / δέρμα
λεόντειον μάλα οἱ ϰεχαριсμένον αὐτωÐ ι, 135–6).
Through such allusive references, Heracles’ future is already present in the text,
unknown to the boy himself and his family but recognizable to the reader familiar
with the mythological and literary tradition. At the same time, some of his well-
known features have been transformed into something new. This metamorphosis
becomes tangible in the passage describing the boy’s education (103–40). In pointed
reversal of the comic Heracles, this Heracles is no unmusical brute and glutton. On
the contrary, he receives an education worthy of a Hellenistic prince (Gow 1952b:
2.432), including grammar (105–6) and music (109–10). Moreover, his traditional
gluttony is restrained by a diet. For dinner he receives roast meat and a big loaf of
bread, ‘‘enough to satisfy a hard-digging gardener’’ (ἀсϕαλέωс ϰε ϕυτοсϰάϕον
ἄνδρα ϰορέссαι, 138), which alludes to his notorious appetite, but in compensation
he is allowed only a frugal cold lunch (αὐτὰρ ἐπ ἄματι τυννὸν ἄνευ πυρὸс αἴνυτο
δόρπον, 139). In a metapoetic reading, this refinement of Heracles’ character points
to a similar refinement of the literary tradition in Theocritus’ poem.
The domestic atmosphere within which the story is set does not necessarily detract
from Heracles’ heroism. Much has been written about the ‘‘bourgeois’’ character of
Amphitryon’s household and the prominent role of Alcmena, who with her resolute-
ness inevitably drives her slower husband into the background – after all, Tiresias
prophesies that her name will be sung by many greek women (75–8; Effe 1978: 53–9;
Gutzwiller 1981: 10–18; Zanker 1987: 88–9, 176–9; Merriam 2001: 25–49).
Certainly there are touches of irony – including intertextual irony directed, for
instance, at epic arming scenes or specific intertexts such as Pindar’s Nemean 1 –
but this is not all that is going on in the poem. There is a more serious level of
intertextuality that points to the divine character of the baby Heracles, for instance
allusions to the omens foreshadowing Odysseus’ victory over the suitors in the
Odyssey (Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 208). Other models include the Homeric
Hymns as well as their adaptation in Callimachus’ Hymns, where divine children such
as Hermes and Apollo reveal their divinity through their precocious deeds. The
hymnic features of the Heracles narrative in Theocritus 24 are underlined by the
original hymnic ending, of which some traces survive on a papyrus (141–72), and the
poem has convincingly been placed in the context of the Ptolemaic court and
interpreted as an encomium of the young Ptolemy II Philadelphus, perhaps per-
formed at the occasion of his birthday and accession as co-ruler in 285/4 BCE
(Koenen 1977: 79–86; Stephens 2003: 123–46; Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 201–4).
The variety of generic markers and intertexts which the poem employs to highlight
the complex literary character of its new Heracles manifests itself especially in the
numerous direct speeches interspersed through the narrative (Fantuzzi and Hunter
160 Annemarie Ambühl

2004: 201–10, 255–66): Alcmena’s lullaby (6–10) reworks Danae’s lyric lullaby in
Simonides (PMG 543), a song sung by another mother to another son of Zeus in the
face of danger (and of course Perseus is Heracles’ ancestor, as Theocritus reminds his
readers by having Tiresias address Alcmena as Περсήιον αιffl μα in 73). Tiresias’ prophecy
in 73–100 calls tragedy to mind, and the sequence of exclamations by master and
servant in 48–50, which is not interrupted by the narrator, imitates the manner of
comedy or mime. In contrast, Heracles never speaks himself in the poem. This feature
corresponds to his characterization as a (laconic?) hero in the making.

Ps.-Theocritus 25: The Anonymous Hero

In this poem, transmitted among Theocritus’ Idylls, Heracles’ identity is initially
unclear. The text starts in medias res, revealing information about its hero as it
proceeds. First an old ploughman explains to an inquiring stranger (ξειÐ νε, 3, 22)
the extent of Augeas’ estate (1–33), and asks him about the purpose of his visit,
remarking that he does not look like an ordinary fellow but like a son of immortals
(34–41). Then the narrator calls the stranger ‘‘the valiant son of Zeus’’ (Διὸс
ἄλϰιμοс υἱόс, 42). At this point the reader can surmise that the visitor is Heracles, if
he had not drawn this conclusion already at the mention of Augeas (7). In contrast,
the old man does not dare to ask the stranger who he is, although he wonders about
the lion-skin and the club (62–7). Immediately afterwards the narrator for the first
time explicitly identifies him as ‘‘Heracles, son of Amphitryon’’ (Ἀμϕιτρυωνιάδηι
Ἡραϰλέι, 71). Thus there exists a striking contrast between the readers, to whom
the narrator gradually reveals the stranger’s identity, and the old ploughman who,
being neither informed by his interlocutor nor able to read his tell-tale attributes,
remains completely in the dark. It is surely significant in this respect that the closing
action of the poem’s opening section, when Heracles is assaulted by dogs (68–84),
evokes Odysseus’ arrival at the hut of Eumaeus (Od. 14.29–47). The readers are
invited to compare and contrast the behavior of the two visitors, neither of whom
reveals his identity to his host: Odysseus because he deliberately hides it, Heracles
seemingly only because his host is too afraid to ask (but see below).
It is not until the third section of the poem (153–281) that Heracles’ identity
comes close to being revealed also to the internal audience. Here our stranger,
identified anew by the narrator as ‘‘mighty Heracles’’ (βίη Ἡραϰληείη, 154) and ‘‘the
son of Zeus All-high’’ (Διὸс γόνον ὑψίсτοιο, 159), is addressed by the son of Augeas,
Phyleus, who tells him that he is wondering about a mythos he has heard long ago. The
reader is made to expect a recognition scene but, as it turns out, Phyleus has only heard
about ‘‘a certain man from Argos’’ (167) who killed the Nemean lion. Moreover, his
information is second-hand, as he stresses repeatedly (162–88, trans. Sargent 1982):

‘‘ξειÐ νε, πάλαι τινὰ πάγχυ сέθεν πέρι μυÐ θον ἀϰούсαс,
εἰ περὶ сευÐ , сϕετέρηιсιν ἐνὶ ϕρεсὶ βάλλομαι ἄρτι.
ἤλυθε γὰρ сτείχων τιс ἀπ Ἄργεοс – η ν νέοс ἀϰμήν –
ἐνθάδ Ἀχαιὸс ἀνὴρ Ἑλίϰηс ἐξ ἀγχιάλοιο, 165
 Narrative Hexameter Poetry 161

ὃс δή τοι μυθειÐ το ϰαὶ ἐν πλεόνεссιν ἘπειωÐ ν

οὓνεϰεν Ἀργείων τιс ἕθεν παρέοντοс ὄλεссε
θηρίον, αἰνολέοντα, ϰαϰὸν τέραс ἀγροιώταιс,
ϰοίλην αυ λιν ἔχοντα Διὸс Νεμέοιο παρ ἄλсοс.
  οὐϰ οι δ ἀτρεϰέωс ἢ Ἄργεοс ἐξ ἱεροιÐ ο 170
αὐτόθεν ἢ Τίρυνθα νέμων πόλιν ἠὲ Μυϰήνην  
ὣс ϰειÐ νοс ἀγόρευε γένοс δέ μιν ει ναι ἔϕαсϰεν,
εἰ ἐτεόν περ ἐγὼ μιμνήсϰομαι, ἐϰ ΠερсηÐ οс.
ἔλπομαι οὐχ ἕτερον τόδε τλημέναι Αἰγιαλήων
ἠὲ сέ, δέρμα δὲ θηρὸс ἀριϕραδέωс ἀγορεύει 175
χειρωÐ ν ϰαρτερὸν ἔργον, ὅ τοι περὶ πλευρὰ ϰαλύπτει.
εἴπ ἄγε νυÐ ν μοι πρωÐ τον, ἵνα γνώω ϰατὰ θυμόν,
ἥρωс, εἴτ ἐτύμωс μαντεύομαι εἴτε ϰαὶ οὐϰί,
εἰ сύγ ἐϰειÐ νοс ὃν ηffl μιν ἀϰουόντεссιν ἔειπεν
οὑξ Ἑλίϰηθεν Ἀχαιόс, ἐγὼ δέ сε ϕράζομαι ὀρθωÐ с. 180
εἰπὲ δ ὅπωс ὀλοὸν τόδε θηρίον αὐτὸс ἔπεϕνεс,
ὅππωс τ εὔυδρον Νεμέηс εἰсήλυθε χωÐ ρον
οὐ μὲν γάρ ϰε τοсόνδε ϰατ Ἀπίδα ϰνώδαλον εὕροιс
ἱμείρων ἰδέειν, ἐπεὶ οὐ μάλα τηλίϰα βόсϰει,
ἀλλ ἄρϰτουс τε сύαс τε λύϰων τ ὀλοϕώιον ἔθνοс. 185
τωÐ ι ϰαὶ θαυμάζεсϰον ἀϰούοντεс τότε μυÐ θον,
οἳ δέ νυ ϰαὶ ψεύδεсθαι ὁδοιπόρον ἀνέρ ἔϕαντο
γλώссηс μαψιδίοιο χαριζόμενον παρεουÐ сιν.’’
‘‘Stranger, long ago I heard a tale about you – if it was about you – and just now it comes
back to my mind. For a man arrived from Argos – I was then still a boy – an Achaian from
Helike that lies by the sea, and he told a story – and to many other Epeians too – about
how in his presence some Argive had killed a wild beast, a terrible lion, a curse to the
countryfolk, who had a hollow lair by the grove of Nemean Zeus. ‘‘I don’t rightly know
whether he was from holy Argos itself or lived in the city of Tiryns or in Mycenae’’ – so
the man said. But he told us he was descended – if indeed I still remember correctly –
from Perseus. I am convinced that no other Achaian but you could have performed such
a deed, and the skin of the beast slung over your ribs clearly proclaims a great labor. Now,
hero, come tell me first, that I may know in my heart whether I have divined truly or
not, and if you are indeed that one of whom, as we listened, the Achaian from Helike
spoke, and I have gauged you aright. Tell me how you killed that dreadful beast single-
handed, and how it got to the well-watered countryside of Nemea. For in all Apia you
would not find such a monster, not if you longed to, for it does not support a beast of
that kind, but only bears and boars and the fierce tribe of wolves. Those who heard the
tale at the time were astonished, and some even claimed that the wayfaring stranger was
lying, endeavoring with idle chatter to entertain those around him.’’

Within Phyleus’ speech, there are several levels of narration. First, he mentions his
own doubts about the identification of his interlocutor with the Argive lion-slayer he
has heard about from a man from Argos (162–5). He goes on to summarize the
latter’s tale in indirect speech (166–9, 172–3) and even quotes two lines in direct
speech (170–1). Somewhat paradoxically, he cites the exact words of this alleged
eyewitness (167; but according to Heracles himself there was no one around: 218–
20), not in order to prove their truthfulness, but on the contrary to cast doubt on
the reliability of the information, for the witness himself was not sure about the
162 Annemarie Ambühl

provenance of the anonymous hero (in fact a reflection of the mythological variants
concerning Heracles’ hometown). Moreover, Phyleus even doubts his own memory
(173), which is underlined by his situation of the whole incident, surprisingly, in a
distant past (πάλαι πάγχυ, 162) when he was still a young man (164; Gow 1952b:
2.459–60). Finally, he reveals that the whole mythos told by the stranger was sus-
pected by the audience to be a lie (186–8). In contrast, the lion-skin ‘‘clearly
proclaims’’ (ἀριϕραδέωс ἀγορεύει, 175) the heroic deed of its bearer.
The stress on the process of information-gathering and truth-finding and on the
questionability of stories from hearsay prepares for Heracles’ own account of his deed
(193–281), for he should of course be the most reliable witness himself. But although
he complies willingly with Phyleus’ request, remarkably not even here does he reveal
his name, thus leaving open the questions that could not be answered by the man
from Argos. Instead, he acknowledges the limits of his own knowledge (like the other
Argives he cannot tell for sure where the lion came from, 197–200), while at the same
time establishing his credentials as a narrator of his own story, which he will tell in
detail (195–6).
Through the emphasis on the topics of identity, falsehood, and truth, the attention
of the external as well as the internal audience is directed to the chances and dangers
of transmission. This ultimately constitutes a reflection on the origins of literary
tradition and the workings of fiction. Therefore the question emerges whether or
not Heracles is really such a reliable narrator as he presents himself and Phyleus
expects him to be. As has been noted, Heracles’ long account of the killing of the
lion constitutes a major narrative ellipsis (in fact the poem’s title Heracles the Lion-
Slayer was only added by the editor Callierges in 1516), for the apparent main theme
of the poem – Heracles’ cleaning of Augeas’ stables – is never narrated nor even
mentioned explicitly (Gutzwiller 1981: 30–8; Zanker 1996; Hunter 1998). Heracles
himself explains the aim of his visit in very vague terms to the old man (43–50), and in
his conversations with Augeas and Phyleus he does not bring up the topic either. In
his account of his struggle with the Nemean lion, he mentions in passing that this was
the first labor imposed upon him by Eurystheus (204–5), but he does not specify the
others which were to follow.
How does this striking omission relate to the anonymity of the poem’s hero? The
poem has attractively been interpreted by Richard Hunter as reconstructing a world
‘‘before kleos,’’ where neither Heracles himself nor the other characters are conscious
of his future fame in the literary tradition (Hunter 1998; Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004:
210–15). Indeed, within the poem Heracles is not yet famous as Heracles, but figures
merely as the anonymous killer of the Nemean lion; for although his story has spread
(162), his name is known only to the external narrator, not to the characters. But
does Heracles himself really ‘‘not yet know, or at least understand, his own identity’’
(Hunter 1998: 122–3), or does he dissimulate his identity on purpose, using his
incognito as a camouflage? After all, his actual task of cleaning Augeas’ stables does
not constitute a truly heroic enterprise. In the end, the old man may not be far off the
mark when he fears to offend the stranger by asking him an inopportune question
about his identity (64–7).
Heracles’ lion-skin, which in this text does not function as an unmistakable token
of his identity, nevertheless plays a crucial part in the second section of the poem
 Narrative Hexameter Poetry 163

(85–152). While visiting the herds together with Augeas and his son Phyleus,
Heracles is attacked by the bull Phaethon as soon as the beast catches sight of his
lion-skin (142–4). Heracles then subdues him by pure strength, anticipating his fight
against the Cretan bull, which in the traditional order of the labors follows after the
present undertaking. The two major themes of the poem that unfold around the untold
tale of the cleaning of the stables, the narrator’s account of Heracles’ struggle with the
bull Phaethon and Heracles’ own ‘‘epic’’ account of his fight against the Nemean lion,
thus reflect his famous heroic deeds in an oblique way, compensating for the unheroic
setting. In this way, they are not digressions but essential components of the poem that
help to define the character of Heracles as he is seen by others and as he wants to see
himself.

Ps.-Moschus, Megara: The Absent Hero

In the last poem to be considered here, the Megara (Ps.-Moschus 4), Heracles does
not even appear in person. Nevertheless, he is the central figure on whom the story
hinges. In a way similar to Ps.-Theocritus 25, the plot is therefore based on a kind of
ellipsis. The text consists of an exchange of speeches between two women with no
authorial narrative apart from a short transition (56–61). First, Heracles’ wife Megara
speaks (1–55), then his mother Alcmena (62–125). Again the reader has to recon-
struct the situation from their words without guidance from the narrator, as Megara
is not named at all, Alcmena not until the middle of the poem (60), and Heracles, the
subject of their conversation, only toward the end (95). Megara acts on behalf of the
reader by asking Alcmena a series of questions that gradually lead to the main topic of
the poem, Heracles’ madness, his murder of his own children, and his subsequent
labors in the service of Eurystheus (1–16). Megara then gives an eyewitness account
of the murder of her children and laments her lonely fate far from her family (17–55).
She is comforted by Alcmena, who reassures her that she loves her daughter-in-law as
her own daughter, but fears for her son because of an ominous dream (62–125).
Despite Heracles’ terrible deed, both women long for his return (41–5, 88–90). They
do not blame him but the gods (8–16, 125), and they lament his unworthy servitude
(a topic also reflected in Alcmena’s dream, 94–8) ‘‘as of a lion under a fawn’’
(λέων ὡсεί θ ὑπὸ νεβρουÐ , 4–5), an indirect reference to his heroic status as a lion-
slayer comparable to the simile in Theocritus 13. Heracles is thus characterized
indirectly through the perception and words of the two women most affected by
his fate. In this poem Alcmena’s worst fears, as dispelled by Tiresias in Theocritus 24
(64–85), have come true.
The mainly dramatic form of the poem sets it at the margins of narrative poetry and
points to its intertextual affiliation with the genre of tragedy, an aspect not yet fully
taken into account in previous interpretations (Breitenstein 1966; Vaughn 1976).
One might identify specific verbal echoes and point out the differences from
Euripides’ Heracles with regard to the underlying mythological facts, but I think that
it is more profitable to look more generally for narrative patterns derived from
tragedy (as is briefly suggested by Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 195). The intimate
164 Annemarie Ambühl

dialogue between two women in distress may be seen as constituting an extract from a
tragedy, comparable perhaps to Cassandra’s dramatic monologue in Lycophron’s
Alexandra. However, in contrast to a tragic exchange of rhēseis, it does not lead to
any progress on the level of action. Nor does the section exactly correspond to the
prologue of a tragedy such as the exchange between Deianeira (Heracles’ other wife)
and the nurse in Sophocles’ Trachiniae or the dialogue between Amphitryon and
Megara in Euripides’ Heracles, for it does not function as an exposition of a play to
follow, and the reader is left to puzzle things out to a far greater extent than in those
dialogic prologues. As in the Trachiniae (1–982) and in the Heracles (1–522), the
dramatic ‘‘action’’ mainly consists in waiting for Heracles, but in contrast to these
tragedies he never actually appears on stage. The recollections and premonitions of
the two women result in a narrative standstill encompassing the whole of Heracles’
life from his birth (83–7) to his death, which is anticipated in Alcmena’s dream of a
fire threatening her son (91–125). This dream is indeed characteristic of a tragic
prologue – compare Hecuba’s dream announcing the death of her last two children in
Euripides’ Hecuba – but its fulfillment will take place outside the timeframe of the
poem.
The poem thus reworks elements from tragedy by placing them in a new setting.
Most of all, the extended lamentation of the two women corresponds to a tragic
thrēnos. This is reflected in a self-conscious way in Alcmena’s speech (63–7, text in 87
following the manuscript tradition; cf. Marcovich 1980):
πωÐ с ἄμμ ἐθέλειс ὀροθυνέμεν ἄμϕω
ϰήδε ἄλαсτα λέγουсα τά τ οὐ νυÐ ν πρωÐ τα ϰέϰλαυται;
η οὐχ ἅλιс, οιffl с ἐχόμεсθα τὸ δεύτατον, αἰὲν ἐπ η μαρ
γινομένοιс; μάλα μέν γε ϕιλοθρηνήс ϰέ τιс εἴη
ὅсτιс ἀριθμήсειεν ἐϕ ἡμετέροιс ἀχέεссι.
Why do you want to upset us both with talk of those unforgettable sorrows, which have
not been bewailed now for the first time? Are not those sorrows enough which have last
befallen us, as they keep coming upon us day by day? Very fond of wailing indeed would
be he who wanted to add up all our griefs!’’

By having Alcmena stress the repetitious nature of her laments, the poet comments
upon the place of his poem in the literary tradition. He tells of sufferings that have
indeed been lamented before (64), especially in tragedy. Thus he himself assumes the
role of the hypothetical person who is ‘‘fond of wailing’’ (ϕιλοθρηνήс, 66).

***
The four texts studied above have all been categorized as epyllia. While the sample
may be too small to allow a general conclusion about all related poems, it seems clear
that a definition of this category in narratological terms that leaves room for a
considerable variety within relatively wide generic parameters suits the evidence best.
We should therefore perhaps supplement the formal definition provided at the start of
this chapter with a more detailed description of some narrative characteristics. Poems
conventionally designated as epyllia cover a comparatively small section from a
mythological continuum through extensive narration, either focusing on select epi-
sodes or on specific points of view, such as those of Heracles’ wife and mother. The
 Narrative Hexameter Poetry 165

narrative techniques may range from predominantly authorial narrative to an almost

exclusively dramatic mode containing large portions of direct speech. Interestingly,
some of the texts are built around a narrative ellipsis, which does not just follow from
their small format but reflects a deliberate poetic choice. At the same time, the wider
context of the myth is incorporated by various narrative techniques, such as prolepses
or analepses, or by allusively appealing to the readers’ knowledge of earlier texts. In
this way, the poets work the literary history of the Heracles myth into the fabric of
their texts, not only by evoking previous treatments but also by self-conscious
reflection on the metamorphoses of the hero through different genres and texts
and ultimately on the character of literary tradition itself.

FURTHER READING

Fragmentarily preserved Hellenistic hexameter poems are collected in Powell 1925 (CA)
and Lloyd-Jones and Parsons 1983 (SH), with additions in Lloyd-Jones 2005 (SSH). Gow
1952a and Beckby 1975 provide the Greek text (the latter with German translation) of all
poems ascribed to Theocritus, Moschus, and Bion. For individual authors the following
editions and commentaries may be consulted: Antimachus: Matthews 1996; Philitas:
Spanoudakis 2002; Callimachus, Hecale: Hollis 2009; Theocritus: Gow 1952b, Hunter
1999: 261–89 (Id. 13); Moschus, Europa: Bühler 1960, Campbell 1991; Ps.-Moschus,
Megara: Vaughn 1976; Ps.-Bion, Epithalamius of Achilles and Deidamia: Reed 1997;
Nicander: Gow and Scholfield 1953; Alexander Aetolus: Magnelli 1999; Euphorion: Van
Groningen 1977, Magnelli 2002; Parthenius: Lightfoot 1999. Recent essays on some of the
poets discussed in this chapter can be found in Harder, Regtuit, and Wakker 2006.
On the ‘‘genre’’ of the epyllion see Crump 1931, Gutzwiller 1981, and Merriam 2001; on
the Latin epyllion, Perutelli 1979 and Bartels 2004 (a narratological analysis). Critical discus-
sions of the term and its application may also be found in Allen 1940, Hollis 2009: 23–6,
Cameron 1995a: 447–52, and Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 191–6. Important recent treat-
ments of Hellenistic hexameter poetry include Cameron 1995a (challenging the communis
opinio since Ziegler 1966) and Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 191–282.
On Heracles in the Greek literary tradition (and beyond) see Galinsky 1972, Effe 1980, and
Ambühl 2005: 58–97 (on Callimachus’ Victory of Berenice); on his importance in Hellenistic
royal ideology, see Huttner 1997.
 CHAPTER TWELVE

Hymns and Encomia

Anthony W. Bulloch

At some point between the sixth and the fourteenth centuries CE , someone whose
identity is not known to us, and who lived we know not where in the Greek-speaking
world, was motivated to put together a collection of hymns. Into one book he
assembled the hymns ascribed to Homer and Orpheus, and those of Callimachus and
Proclus. What his purpose was and who may have been the putative readership, we do
not know. What is clear, though, is that we owe the survival of the text of Callimachus’
hymns into the modern world to this one compiler. Without his efforts – and the
interest and efforts in later centuries of other readers and appreciators of pagan Greek
culture, who made, or commissioned, copies of that original collection – our know-
ledge of Callimachus’ hymns would be limited to a small number of quotations and a
few scraps of papyrus, and we would know even less about them than we know about
three other major works of this author, the Aetia, the Hecale, or the Iambi. This would
have been especially regrettable because the hymns are witnesses to, and expressions of,
many facets of the world of Alexandria in the first half of the third century BCE – the
realms not just of poetry, art and the artist, but also of society, the intelligentsia,
fashion, politics and power, and the intersection of all of these.

Callimachus’ Hymns
What did Callimachus write his hymns for? Who were his audience? And indeed, what
will the term ‘‘hymn’’ (hymnos) have meant to them and to the poet? That
Callimachus and his contemporaries will have called these poems ‘‘hymns’’ seems
certain. First, we possess extensive remains of a comprehensive set of narrative
summaries, or synopses, to many of Callimachus’ major poetic works, dating from
the first century BCE or CE and referred to as the Diegeseis. The Diegeseis seem to have
been based on a ‘‘collected edition’’ of Callimachus’ poetry, and although they date
 Hymns and Encomia 167

from a time two or three hundred years after the poet’s death, there are several
indications that the text and collection on which this work was based was made by
Callimachus himself, probably late in his career after Ptolemy III Euergetes had
ascended to the throne in Alexandria. Included in the Diegeseis are the hymns,
classified as a set of poems distinct from other works such as the Aetia, the Iambi,
and the Hecale. Second, earlier writers closer to the age of Callimachus refer to poems
written in celebration of gods as ‘‘hymns,’’ and, although later Greek theorists
delighted in hair-splitting and defined multiple sub-categories within the overall
genre of hymnos (e.g., Menander Rhetor, in his Division of Epideictic Speeches,
distinguishes between eight types of hymn: invocatory, valedictory, on gods’ nature,
‘‘mythic,’’ genealogical, fictional, precatory, and deprecatory: Furley 1993; Furley
and Bremer 2001: 1.295), the term seems to have been used for most poems whose
objective was celebration of a divinity. So the Athenian in Plato’s Laws 700b, describ-
ing the good old days in contrast to the decadent status quo of his own modern
society, remarks that music used to be divided into distinct basic categories, such as
hymns for prayers to the gods, contrasted with dirges (thrēnoi), paeans and dithy-
rambs. Or, again, the nurse in Euripides’ Medea, lamenting that no music has been
invented that can cure mankind’s sorrows, observes ‘‘(men of old) invented the hymn
for festivals, banquets and feasts to bring pleasurable sound to our lives’’ (192–4).
Hymnoi, then, are poetic celebrations of divinities, written to be performed, or
presented in some manner, presumably, at some sort of public occasion. And that is
indeed how the earliest poets who wrote hymns described their activity. Hesiod
recounts how he once traveled to Euboea to compete in the festival for
Amphidamas there and won a prize, a tripod, with his hymnos (WD 654–7). As
Martin West points out (1978: 321), the hymnos could as well have been the
Theogony, or something like it. Similarly, the singer of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo
describes his work as a hymn in that poem’s famous ‘‘autobiographical’’ passage
(146–78), and he describes the activity of the celebrants of Apollo as ‘‘hymn-singing’’
(hymnein). There is a famous story, preserved in the Contest of Homer and Hesiod
(315–21), that Homer went to the sacred island of Delos and there delivered his
Hymn to Apollo standing at the sacred altar made of horn, for which the Ionians
rewarded him with citizenship and the people of Delos had the poem inscribed on
tablets which they dedicated in the temple of Artemis.
Conventional wisdom amongst critics and readers of the Hellenistic poets is that
the Hellenistic era was the age of books – that this was the time when true literacy
came into its own, and that the poet was now an artist whose creations were no longer
composed out of social demand and for performance at specific community occa-
sions, as they had been in the Archaic and Classical periods. Book culture, not song
culture; private, not public; reading, not listening. There is clearly an amount of truth
in this, but we should be careful not to go too far. When we piece together the
evidence we have for the typical role and context of hymns and similar works in the
pre-Hellenistic period, the picture is quite rich: the poet was the artist who composed
the words and music, and often the choreography, for choruses of young men and/or
women, typically 30 to 50 in number, to perform, under the direction of a chorus-
master and accompanied by the lyre or flute, on significant festival and ritual occa-
sions, in procession, or at or around the altar, or perhaps at the door of the temple.
168 Anthony W. Bulloch

Although the Hellenistic hymnal poems which have survived would seem to be less
obviously a product of this kind of context (especially the ‘‘mimetic,’’ or mime-like,
hymns of Callimachus), we should not assume that they were mere words on a page,
divorced from the reality of cultic ritual, and we should certainly not assume that they
were, because of their ‘‘bookishness’’ and self-consciousness, any less religious in
either sentiment or perception. Recent scholarship has begun a healthy readjustment
of the ‘‘art for art’s sake’’ view of Hellenistic poetry and shown that when we take
proper account of their production and reception context, the works of Callimachus,
Theocritus, and others prove to be as deeply rooted in the religious and other public
concerns of their communities as any works by, say, Pindar and Bacchylides before
them (Cameron 1995a; see further Stephens, Strootman, Harder in this volume). It
would even be difficult, for example, to prove that Callimachus’ first hymn, the Hymn
to Zeus, was not sung by a large chorus of 50 young men dressed in white at the ritual
banquet on the eve of the great Basileia festival in Alexandria, in front of a very large
crowd which included Ptolemy Soter and/or Philadelphus himself. The essential
thing for modern readers to realize is that Callimachus’ hymns are indeed authentic
hymnal texts, regardless of their complexity and their refusal to fit into a tidy mold
(Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 364).
Callimachus’ set of hymns comprises six poems, all written in dactylic meter (five in
continuous hexameters, one in elegiac couplets). The gods they celebrate are, in
order, Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, again Apollo (now focusing on Delos, his birthplace),
Athena, and Demeter. Since the order in which they have come down to us most
probably goes back to Callimachus’ own publication of his collected works (Depew
2004: 117), it is reasonable to consider if there is any significance to their arrange-
ment. First, the whole set begins with a spirited hymn to Zeus. Poems praising the
Father of Men and Gods were entirely normal, and although it is notable that the
Homeric Hymns, which Callimachus certainly knew and draws on, contain no full-
scale work addressed to this god, his choice of a hymn to Zeus to open his collection
has other precedents. For example, as Pindar observes at the beginning of one of his
epinician poems associated with Nemea, one of Zeus’ main Panhellenic sites, ‘‘the
Homeric bards generally begin their rhapsodies with a prelude to Zeus’’ (N. 2.1–3),
and so indeed does Hesiod, one of Callimachus’ main sources of inspirations in the
first hymn (WD 1–10). The opening lines of Callimachus’ poem – ‘‘who better to sing
of at his libations than Zeus himself, forever great, forever lord’’ (Ζηνὸс ἔοι τί ϰεν
ἄλλο παρὰ сπονδηÐ ιсιν ἀείδειν/ λώι ο̈ ν ἢ θεὸν αὐτόν, ἀεὶ μέγαν, αἰὲν ἄναϰτα, 1–2) –
constitute both an expression of standard social ritual and a programmatic statement.
They mark the beginning of an evening of celebration, since a toast to Zeus was
traditional when a symposium turned from the meal to its aftermath of wine and song.
But while these first lines provide a nice preamble into the hymn itself, at the same time
they also present a whole collection with the highest and most kingly of all gods at its
head. A commanding opening. And an opening that closely resembles that which the
Alexandrian editors (possibly Callimachus himself) had given to the collected works of
Pindar, when they placed Olympian 1 at the head of his epinicians.
There are clearly many connections between the hymns – aesthetic, programmatic,
thematic, political, and structural. How one evaluates these connections, and the set
of six as a collection, eventually depends on what one sees as significant. For example,
 Hymns and Encomia 169

at the simplest organisational level, the gods of the first two hymns are male while the
gods of the last two are female, with the twins Artemis and (Delian) Apollo in the
middle. Another way of framing what many readers sense – that there does seem to be
a logic to the poems’ arrangement – without insisting that they must have profound
programmatic unity as conceived from the start for their position in a ‘‘poetry book,’’
is to view them as a group of five hymns introduced by a sort of rhapsodic preface, the
Hymn to Zeus. Of these five, the first and last, to Apollo (h. 2) and Demeter (h. 6),
focus on young males, Apollo and Erysichthon, the former redolent with vitality and
effectiveness, the latter equally vigorous but directing his energy toward an enterprise
which is impious and perverse; the Hymn to Apollo celebrates youthfulness as an ideal,
the Hymn to Demeter cautions against its misapplication. Bracketed inside this pair is
another pair, to Artemis (h. 3) and Athena (h. 5), the two virgin Olympian deities,
each accompanied by their band of nymphs. And at the center is the longest of
the hymns, the Hymn to Delos (h. 4), birthplace of Apollo; and this is also the hymn
which contains the most explicit reference to contemporary politics and the most
blatant acknowledgement of Ptolemy as a ruler with essentially a divine mission
(h. 4.160–95, a topic prepared for by the Hymn to Zeus): from Leto’s womb,
Apollo himself authoritatively ensures that his mother cedes place to the impending
birth of ‘‘another god’’ (θεὸс ἄλλοс, 165), King Ptolemy Philadelphus, by not giving
birth to her twins on Cos.
Another approach to the hymns should be addressed at this point. From time to
time modern critics, observing that Callimachus and other poets of the third century
BCE could be outspokenly contentious about what constituted ‘‘real’’ art, and truly
‘‘creative’’ poetry, are tempted to extend occasional vituperative snide remarks into a
full-time obsession, and think that almost every poem must have been ‘‘program-
matic’’ and conceived with an artistically political purpose in view. There is hardly a
single Hellenistic poem which has not, at some time or other in the last hundred
years, been read as an allegory, as a poem whose ‘‘real’’ topic is poetry itself. Indeed
Callimachus is at times explicitly programmatic – for example, he replaces the tradi-
tional concluding prayer at the close of his Hymn to Apollo with an explicit description
of the god’s hostility to turgid writing as he kicks out Phthonos (Envy), just as earlier
the hymn mentioned Pytho, the dragon that Apollo expelled when he took over
Delphi. Nonetheless, those who see allegory and metapoetic subtexts everywhere in
the hymns are mostly unconvincing. It is usually critics who want art to be self-
regarding: artists, however self-centered they may sometimes be as individuals, mostly
have more important things to obsess about than solipsistic self-predication.
Some of the most innovative work that has been done recently on third-century
Alexandrian poetry has come from scholars who are well acquainted with Egyptian
customs and beliefs. They have demonstrated that once we alert ourselves to some of
the basic features of life in the land of the Nile, whether geography, social organiza-
tion, economy, politics, culture, or religion, much that hitherto has appeared puz-
zling or dissonant in authors such as Callimachus, Theocritus or Apollonius Rhodius
becomes explicable (Selden 1998; Stephens 2002, 2003, and in this volume). Our
understanding of Callimachus’ hymns has progressed considerably, and not just in the
matter of some of the more abstruse details. If we regard the hymns within their
Greco-Egyptian context – a process which has been very aptly described as ‘‘seeing
170 Anthony W. Bulloch

double’’ (Stephens 2003) – our understanding of them shifts fundamentally: we can

now see them as not merely reworkings of a rich Greek legacy but highly original and
experimental creations of a complex bicultural experience.
Comparison of Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus with another Hellenistic hymnal text is
illuminating. Callimachus’ contemporary Aratus began his astronomical poem, the
Phaenomena, with a hymn to Zeus as a sort of immanent patriarch, source of
orderliness in the natural world (1–18; Volk and White in this volume). To a modern
reader Aratus’ poeticizing of astronomy and his laborious achievement of setting
science to verse seems esoteric, and in comparison Callimachus’ hymn can seem more
conventional and regular, even a bit stiff. But in actuality it is Aratus’ poem that is the
more uniform of the two, and his introductory hymn to Zeus helps us identify what is
so distinctive about Callimachus’ poem. Where Aratus describes Zeus as a cosmic
force in terms that are familiar and historically rather ordinary (however ‘‘Stoic’’ they
may also be), for Callimachus what comes immediately to the fore is the possibility of
dramatically wayward origins of the god, and his associations with the awesome,
venerable and strange regions of Arcadia and Crete, even if the hymn turns ultimately
to discoursing on the nature of political power both on Olympus and in the world of
Ptolemaic Egypt. While the association of Zeus with Arcadia was of long and
respectable standing, it was not poetically mainstream, and Callimachus’ extended
untraditional exploration of Zeus must have caught the attention of his Alexandrian
audience, and especially of his Macedonian-Greek ruler with aspirations to Pharaonic
divine authority. It would have been so easy for Callimachus to call up images of a
more orthodox supreme deity, in the manner of Aratus, and to allow his patron to
identify unthinkingly with the Olympian autocrat who defeated Titans and Giants
(the image that Eumenes II would draw on for his political statement a hundred or so
years later when he built the great ‘‘Altar of Zeus’’ in Pergamum). Instead, Ptolemy,
and his subjects at the Alexandrian court who will have been Callimachus’ audience,
are openly asked to reflect on the mortal ruler and his political power as being
validated by Zeus only after ruminating on the difficulties of childbirth, the aridity
of the Arcadian landscape, the wonders of being nurtured by a goat, and the trickiness
of obtaining, and holding onto, supreme power. And it deepens our understanding of
the Hymn to Zeus once we realize that many of these motifs were resonant with long-
standing Egyptian ways of thinking about royal power and its origins (Stephens 2003:
77–114).
To some extent the poem’s attitude and even politico-religious philosophy can be
viewed as Hesiodic – Callimachus was always interested in the quirky poet from Ascra,
and there is plenty of Hesiod in the Hymn to Zeus. But his engagement with Hesiod is
by no means straightforward, and as so often, it is the fifth-century lyric poet Pindar,
another maverick who was something of a soulmate for Callimachus, who helps us to
see how various themes configure. In Pythian 1, written to celebrate a victory at
Delphi, the sanctuary of Apollo, by Hiero I, king of Syracuse, Pindar shapes his
epinician into a declaration of the power of Apollo-inspired song combined with a
hymn celebrating Zeus as a dynast, wielding both military might and civic strength;
by extension the glory and power of the mortal Hiero are also magnified. In similar
fashion Callimachus’ poem narrating the birth of Zeus, and events associated with it,
emerges as a statement about power and the nature of the virtuous ruler, with an
 Hymns and Encomia 171

emphasis on dispensation of justice (h. 1.81–3, cf. P. 1.86) and the divine origin of
the authority of kings (h. 1.77–8 ‘‘it is by Zeus that kings are kings,’’ ἐϰ δὲ Διὸс
βαсιληÐ εс; P. 1.41–2 ‘‘it is by the gods that all human virtues are contrived,’’
ἐϰ θεωÐ ν γὰρ μαχαναὶ παÐ сαι βροτέαιс ἀρεταιÐ с). And like Pindar Callimachus insists
on veracity as a cardinal principle (h. 1.65, P. 1.86). Something which would merit
more investigation is the manner in which this formal hymn in praise of the divine
becomes an epinician of the ruler through deployment of contemporary and histor-
ical political theory. The comments in the hymn about rulership, power, policy and
effective implementation (h. 1.85–90) are similar to the description of the character
of fifth-century Athenians ascribed by Thucydides (1.70) to the Corinthians, and
similar ideas are implicit even as early as Homer, for example in the ‘‘Diomedeia’’
(Il. 5) or Nestor’s reflections on kingship (Il. 9.96–102), and they were certainly a
feature of Hellenistic treatises on the topic.
It is becoming increasingly apparent, in fact, that Callimachus’ hymns, like much of
his other poetry, were resonant with their contemporary political context, even if
many of the more subtle details are now lost to us. The Hymn to Apollo is explicit
about linking Apollo and Ptolemy (h. 2.26–7), and the Hymn to Delos both has
Apollo himself foretelling the rise to power of Ptolemy and his achievements against
the Celts who invaded Greece (h. 4.165–90), and is full of political ideology and
symbolism. Indeed, specific local events may well have prompted Callimachus to
write some of the hymns. It has been suggested quite convincingly that the Hymn
to Zeus was composed on the occasion of the Basileia festival in the reign of Ptolemy
Philadelphus (Clauss 1986; Stephens 2003: 77–9; Cuypers 2004b), that the Hymn to
Apollo was occasioned by the festival which is afforded a major section in the hymn
(2.65–96), the Carneia, in Callimachus’ home town, Cyrene, and that even the Hymn
to Demeter has a political dimension, since a comment in the scholia suggests that the
poem is to be linked to the introduction in Alexandria of the Athenian Thesmophoria
festival (Hopkinson 1984a: 32–43). Some have even suggested that as poems por-
traying male and female power, all of the hymns have symbolic political significance
and concern imperial identity, with Zeus and Apollo as ‘‘divine prototypes’’ of the
kings and Artemis, Athena, and Demeter of the queens of Egypt (although one-on-
one identification of regal and divine seems mostly too broad and vague to be helpful
in interpreting these texts).
The hymns of Callimachus have traditionally been divided into two groups by
modern critics: the mimetic (in the sense of mime-like) and the non-mimetic. Three
of the hymns (to Zeus, Artemis, and Delian Apollo) are addressed directly to the
divinities themselves and are in the familiar, one could say traditional, form of the
Homeric Hymns: they focus on topics like the god’s origin and familiar accomplish-
ments, and would be in place on any kind of occasion where the god was being
celebrated. Three (to Apollo, Athena, and Demeter) are addressed to celebrants, in
the voice of a festival official or group leader of some kind who is calling out instructions
as they all wait for the god to arrive at their celebration and for the next stage of the
ritual to begin. Thus the Hymn to Athena begins with a call from, probably, a priestess
to other women to assemble in readiness for the ceremony that is about to begin. The
opening lines of the poem provide enough information for the reader (or listener, in the
case of an oral presentation) to envision the scene right from the start (1–4):
172 Anthony W. Bulloch

ὅссαι λωτροχόοι ταÐ с Παλλάδοс ἔξιτε παÐ сαι,

ἔξιτε ταÐ ν ἵππων ἄρτι ϕρυαссομεναÐ ν
ταÐ ν ἱεραÐ ν ἐсάϰουсα, ϰαὶ ἁ θεὸс εὔτυϰοс ἕρπεν
сουÐ сθέ νυν, ω ξανθαὶ сουÐ сθε Πελαсγιάδεс.
All you bath-pourers of Pallas (Athena), come on out everyone!
Come out! The sacred horses were just whinnying –
I heard them. The goddess is ready to go.
Hurry, now! Hurry, fair daughters of Pelasgus.

We are in Argos, waiting for Athena (that is, her statue) to emerge on a horse-drawn
wagon. The atmosphere is one of eager anticipation, and the appearance of Athena,
coming out from the sanctuary on the way down to the river, where she will be
ritually bathed, is experienced as being almost like an epiphany of the goddess
herself. Callimachus skillfully sets a scene and draws us, his audience, in to partici-
pate, effortlessly and unselfconsciously since we identify so naturally with the cele-
brants being addressed. After a while the hymn, that is the priestess whose voice we
are listening to, turns from addressing the celebrants admonitorily to narrating a
story about a figure and an event set in the mythic past: it is the story of Tiresias,
who once encountered the goddess in person and found himself transformed
from an ordinary young male into an extraordinary blind prophet. Like so many
Greek mythoi this is a paradeigmatic narrative reflecting on the nature of god and
man, power and mortal vulnerability, sexuality and knowledge, innocence and
transformation.
The other mimetic hymns are equally enticing. The Hymn to Demeter, which needs
very little background knowledge to be appreciated by a modern audience, consists
primarily in a striking cautionary tale. As in the Hymn to Athena, the directly mimetic
part of the poem, the second-person address of the priestess instructing and encour-
aging her fellow celebrants, forms a frame, within which Callimachus’ audience,
identifying with the priestess’ audience, is told the satisfying tale of a rebellious youth,
Erysichthon, who tried crassly to ignore the orderly world of civilized values that
Demeter stands for, and was duly punished by being condemned to a world in which
everything is inside out. His father had introduced worship of the goddess of grain to
his community; the son deals with his need for food by perversely violating Demeter,
chopping down the trees in her grove as timber to build a grand banqueting hall. The
result is not just failure, or suspension of Demeter’s beneficence: her bounty becomes
an actual weapon, as Erysichthon is driven into a state of perpetual hunger which can
never be satisfied, until he ends up begging at the crossroads, having eaten everything
his family has. It is typical of Callimachus’ sharp, allusive style, for which ‘‘indirec-
tion’’ is a central mode, that (again, like Pindar before him), when he reaches the
narrative climax, he elides out the real ending of Erysichthon. Everyone in his
audience will have known well what Callimachus only hints at, in characteristic
mock-coyness: that the heretic continued eating to the end, reduced, finally and
inevitably, to autophagy.
The tone and manner of these texts are typically Hellenistic and, especially, typically
Callimachean: familiar but indirect, formal yet shifting and unpredictable, grand but
 Hymns and Encomia 173

quick. But both types of hymn, the non-mimetic and the mimetic, are grounded in a
long tradition of celebratory writing. The former are easy to place, in direct line from
the Homeric Hymns, and even though we have few other examples of dactylic hymns
written in the period between the Archaic (when we surmise the earliest Homeric
Hymns must have been composed) and the Hellenistic era, we know that hymns in
dactylic meter were normal throughout. The mimetic hymns owe a debt to a type of
choral poetry that is attested as early as the seventh century BCE , when the Spartan
poet Alcman wrote partheneia or ‘‘maiden songs,’’ poems which, just like
Callimachus’ mimetic hymns, adopt the voice of a chorus member addressing the
other chorus members. But whereas Alcman’s poems are melic, i.e., composed in lyric
verse form, as was common for poems written for performance by a chorus in honor
of a god (Fantuzzi in this volume), Callimachus’ mimetic hymns are written in
dactylic meter, continuous hexameters (Hymn to Apollo and Hymn to Demeter) or
elegiacs (Hymn to Athena). One might describe this as a good example of ‘‘mixing
the genres,’’ and see the use of a non-melic verse form which is more formally
‘‘narrative’’ as another indication that these hymns are purely literary in nature and
not cultic, but Callimachus was not just a chef adjusting the flavors of different
cuisines in a fashionable salon. The verse form which Callimachus chose for his
mimetic hymns, the dactylic, was, after all, the form appropriate for celebratory
narratives, declaratory works proclaiming the god’s main attributes and virtues, such
as the Homeric Hymns. In other words, it is misleading to regard these hymns as
Hellenistic versions of earlier melic works such as Alcman’s partheneia or Pindar’s
paeans. Rather, they are hymns with an added vividness achieved by casting them in
the voice of a celebrant explicitly addressing other celebrants (a mode which is to
some extent prefigured in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo: Nünlist 2004: 40–2; Harder
2004: 63–7).
At one time modern scholars seriously considered the possibility that Callimachus’
mimetic hymns were written for specific festivals, indeed were the result of commis-
sions from patrons who hired the poet to compose for their religious rituals. The Hymn
to Athena, for example, which concerns the cult of the goddess in the Peloponnesian
city of Argos, was thought to have been written by request from the city itself. This
approach is not really tenable: Callimachus’ mimetic hymns are so specific about such
momentary details as the neighing of the horses that are pulling the festival chariot in
the Hymn to Athena, that they cannot possibly have been written for an actual
ceremony, when the author could only hope that the real-life horses would behave
themselves and do what his text described on cue. What such ‘‘realistic’’ details show is
that Callimachus’ mimetic hymns, regardless of the function they may have fulfilled at
real-life occasions, in Egypt or elsewhere, were at one level fictive, written to re-create
the very occasion they describe. What marks them as distinctively Hellenistic is not so
much their ‘‘allusiveness,’’ or their supposedly cerebral qualities, but the close atten-
tion that they pay to artful illusion, the vivid creation of a sense of immediacy and
reality. This concern with illusion is a very Hellenistic trait which goes well beyond
the hymns of Callimachus. In fact it is of the essence of much third-century BCE
Alexandrian poetry that it explores reality through the creation of illusions, imaginary
situations played out in the moment, snapshots in time.
174 Anthony W. Bulloch

Theocritus
Although Theocritus is thought of today almost entirely as a writer, indeed as the
creator, of pastoral poetry, this is an accidental identity which has been created for
him by later history. Already by the time of the Roman poet Vergil it was the bucolic
poems of Theocritus that were considered typically Theocritean, and it is those poems
that lead off the first part of the ‘‘collected works’’ of Theocritus that have come
down to us in the medieval manuscripts. But unlike the poems of Callimachus,
Theocritus’ poems were not assembled into any kind of definitive collection until
several hundred years after the poet’s own lifetime. The pastoral mimes stand where
they do only because later critics and editors put them there, and it seems unlikely
that Theocritus thought of himself as primarily a writer of bucolic. The pastoral
mimes in fact comprise the lesser part of his extant corpus, which includes also urban
mime, love poetry, short works cast in the language and verse-form of traditional
Homeric epic on mythic themes (‘‘epyllia’’: Ambühl in this volume), and, most
important for the purposes of this chapter, a hymn and two encomia (although
‘‘political praise poems’’ might be a better term). The common thread that runs
through the corpus is that, regardless of genre, Theocritus’ poems are generally
situational studies, set in an illusory moment. Sometimes they are mimetic, scripts
that play out short scenes, and sometimes they are more detached third-person
narratives; but it is almost always the occasion, or the illusion of an occasion, that
his poems present and explore.
About Theocritus’ life – who he was, where he lived, when and in what circum-
stances he wrote those poems that have survived – we know almost nothing. We know
much less, even, than most modern scholars would have us believe. What is apparent,
though, is that his immediate social circumstances, for example the world of the royal
court at Alexandria, where he appears to have enjoyed patronage, form part of the
backdrop to his poetry, to be alluded to and woven into the fictional world of his
poetic characters. Thus the rustic Italian goatherd in Idyll 4 is thoroughly familiar
with the songs of a popular Alexandrian singer who was reputed to be a favorite, and
maybe mistress, of Ptolemy; and the urban mimes, Idylls 14 and 15, almost turn into
encomia of the Egyptian royal couple and their role as patrons. It is no surprise,
therefore, that Theocritus’ ‘‘epic’’-style poems include two that are concerned with
patronage and patrons (whether actual or potential), one being quasi-encomiastic and
the other encomiastic in form: Idyll 16, referring to Hiero II of Syracuse, and Idyll 17,
addressed directly to Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Idyll 16 (also discussed by Strootman in this volume) is often viewed as an appeal
by Theocritus to the tyrant of Syracuse for patronage, an appeal that was made in the
early years of Hiero’s long reign and was unsuccessful, with the result that Theocritus
moved to Egypt and transferred his affiliation to the more receptive Ptolemy
Philadelphus. Our evidence for the dating of the poem is slim, though, and based
mostly on a combination of ex silentio and circular arguments; furthermore, although
we have good grounds for regarding Theocritus as a native of Syracuse, we have no
external evidence at all that he had any relations with Hiero or Hiero’s court. Indeed,
if Idyll 16 is an appeal for patronage dressed up as a poem in praise of the ruler, it
 Hymns and Encomia 175

reads as a rather clumsy effort. The poem begins solidly enough, with an unexcep-
tional formal prologue (16.1–4):

αἰεὶ τουÐ το Διὸс ϰούραιс μέλει, αἰὲν ἀοιδοιÐ с,

ὑμνειÐ ν ἀθανάτουс, ὑμνειÐ ν ἀγαθωÐ ν ϰλέα ἀνδρωÐ ν.
ΜοιÐ сαι μὲν θεαὶ ἐντί, θεοὺс θεαὶ ἀείδοντι
ἄμμεс δὲ βροτοὶ οἵδε, βροτοὺс βροτοὶ ἀείδωμεν.
It is ever the job of Zeus’ daughters, ever that of the singer,
to hymn the immortals, to hymn the glorious deeds of great men.
The Muses are gods, so of gods as gods they sing:
we here are mortals, so of mortals as mortals we should sing.

The poet then goes straight into a long complaint – elegantly written, but a com-
plaint, nonetheless – about the miserliness of the wealthy and their lack of apprecia-
tion for poets and poetry (16.5–21), followed by a reminder that death levels all, and
only the patron who is wise enough to hire a poet leaves any record for others to
remember him by (16.22–67). As examples he cites first the famous fifth-century
rulers of Thessaly (who were patrons of the poet Simonides), then the rulers of Troy,
and finally the famous wanderer Odysseus, adding an outspoken rejection of material
wealth in favor of other men’s respect and friendship. All this seems quite implausible
as an appeal for patronage, even if at lines 68–9 Theocritus states ‘‘I seek a man
who will take delight in my presence with the Muses’’ (δίζημαι δ’ ὅτινι θνατωÐ ν
ϰεχαριсμένοс ἔλθω/сὺν Μοίсαιс), and despite his anticipation of great deeds worthy
of a poet’s song as the Syracusans defeat their enemies and establish peace, with the
help of Hiero. Most of this poem seems more like a trope, a loose set of reflections on
an established theme in an imagined realm which allows more freedom of thought
than would a begging letter delivered at Hiero’s court. We should not forget that
complaints by artists about their impoverished circumstances were common in Greek
poetry of all periods (Hunter 1996: 92–109), and tell us nothing about their real
lives. It seems just as likely that Idyll 16 is not a direct appeal to Hiero at all. Indeed, it
is even worth considering that the actual context of the poem’s composition (as
against its purported Syracusan context) may have been the court at Alexandria. The
pointed complaining and sermonizing will then have been nicely droll, not clumsy,
safely projected onto a world outside Ptolemy’s court and not unlike the expressions
of poverty by the rustic characters in Theocritus’ illusionistic pastoral poems.
Idyll 17 is more straightforward, addressed directly and clearly to a patron, and
manages to be both a hymn and an encomium (Hunter 2003a: 8–24; Strootman in
this volume). This is enabled by a significant development of the Hellenistic Age, the
ruler cult, as well as the fact that in Egypt the Ptolemies continued the Egyptian
practice of regarding the ruler as a son of god. Theocritus is careful at the beginning
of his poem to keep Zeus and Ptolemy separate, but he also uses language that is
ambiguous enough for the two rulers to merge in perception, and by line 16 the
poem has Ptolemy Soter established by Zeus himself on a throne in Zeus’ palace,
sitting alongside Alexander the Great and their common ancestor Heracles
(17.16–27). And although Theocritus uses vocabulary that maintains throughout
the distinction between mortal and immortal, the tone of the poem is that of a hymn
176 Anthony W. Bulloch

to a god, familiar from the Homeric Hymns as well as Theocritus’ contemporary

Callimachus. In addition two of the poem’s main components, accounts of the birth
of Ptolemy and then of the nature and extent of his power and efficacy as a ruler, are
typical of hymns to gods, which routinely recount the divinity’s origins and major
accomplishments. It is notable also that the poem begins with a standard hymnal
prefatory declaration (17.1–2):

ἐϰ Διὸс ἀρχώμεсθα ϰαὶ ἐс Δία λήγετε ΜοιÐ сαι,

ἀθανάτων τὸν ἄριсτον, ἐπὴνy ἀείδωμεν ἀοιδαιÐ с:
From Zeus let us begin, and at Zeus make your end, O Muses,
the best of the immortals, whenever we celebrate in song.

Yet it ends with the standard final invocation made not to Zeus but to Ptolemy, albeit
only as a demi-god (17.135–7):

χαιÐ ρε, ἄναξ ΠτολεμαιÐ ε сέθεν δ’ ἐγὼ ι сα ϰαὶ ἄλλων

μνάсομαι ἡμιθέων, δοϰέω δ’ ἔποс οὐϰ ἀπόβλητον
ϕθέγξομαι ἐссομένοιс ἀρετήν γε μὲν ἐϰ Διὸс αἰτευÐ .
Farewell, lord Ptolemy. You equal to other
demi-gods shall I remember. And I think the song I pronounce
posterity will not reject. As to virtue, ask it from Zeus.

In a neat maneuver Theocritus manages to have Ptolemy receive the concluding

prayer, even while Zeus retains the final focus (Hunter 2003a: 195–6).
The modern reader may find the encomium to Ptolemy difficult to engage with.
Our own post-Romantic notions of artistic freedom of expression limit our ability to
appreciate art in the open service of patronage with objectivity. It is true that the
encomium, both prose and verse, was a long-established genre in ancient Greece and
will have been regarded by Theocritus’ audience as normal and ordinary, and that
praise of a patron was a standard component of the system of patronage upon which
artists and art depended for their subsistence. But despite that, and even though Idyll
17 may stop short of being blatantly sycophantic and is of great interest to scholars, it
is a fact that it has aged less well than, say, Pindar, all of whose victory poems were
written in the service of a paying patron but lyrically transcend their historical context.
The poem also has nothing to match the penultimate section of Idyll 16, whose
description of the impact of peace on the countryside, once war is put away, for a
moment transcends that poem’s immediate concerns (16.82–100).
Idyll 22, addressed to the Dioscuri, is the only one of Theocritus’ extant poems
that is a straightforward hymn in praise of divinity. This is a work which has puzzled
modern readers, to say the least, and many regard it as a disjointed failure (Sens 1997:
13–23). The problem lies in its very nature as a hymn: to all outward appearances this
is a poem which declares itself, tonally and rhetorically, as a traditional celebratory
text, laudatory of the twin brothers Castor and Polydeuces. And yet, while the first
narrative section, on Polydeuces and his boxing victory over Amycus, seems morally
straightforward (Amycus, after all, is a bully of Cyclopean proportions), the second
narrative section deals with Castor’s defeat and slaughter of his cousin Lynceus. To a
 Hymns and Encomia 177

modern reader the latter episode seems morally much more dubious, since Lynceus
was only defending himself against aggression initiated by the Dioscuri, who were
abducting his and his brother’s brides. How can this be a ‘‘hymn’’? Many critics have
followed Wilamowitz in declaring the text to be badly damaged, diagnosing a lacuna
after line 170 in the Castor–Lynceus section, which will have contained some sort of
justification by Castor of the treatment meted out to his opponent. Yet recently
discovered fragments of a second-century CE papyrus text of Theocritus (P.Köln
212) seem to afford no room for a lacuna. Some scholars have attempted to ‘‘save
the phenomena’’ by seeing the narrative of Castor’s brutal victory as a kind of literary
game by Theocritus, who will have been pointing up the difference between himself
and Homer – the modernist wryly eschews the archaic – but this too seems an
awkward solution (Griffiths 1976; Sens 1992, 1997: 190–1). More likely, we should
acknowledge that what appears to a modern readership as unjustified brutalism will
have been viewed as a normal consequence when a mortal ignores the overwhelming
superiority of divinity: power is its own justification. This was a basic assumption
about reality in the Greek worldview, both at the divine and heroic level: the raw
might of Zeus and the physical superiority of his hero children, such as Heracles and
other semi-divine heroes like them, are often demonstrated in the world of Greek
myth, and without any apparent felt need that the defeat of opponents or rivals be
justified morally. And that will surely also have been a self-evident feature of the
monarchic circles upon whose patronage the Hellenistic writers depended.
But for all its possible socio-political undercurrents and possible hints at contem-
porary figures and events, Idyll 22 is still a work whose primary engagement is with
the literary tradition. First, the poem opens quite explicitly as a hymn in the tradi-
tional Homeric mold. Castor and Polydeuces are the subject of Homeric Hymn 33, a
work which is generally considered to be at least as old as the sixth century BCE . Idyll
22 has even been described as ‘‘a version in the Alexandrian style’’ of the Homeric
poem (Gow 1952b: 2.382). Once we proceed beyond the Archaic-Homeric form of
the opening, though, the hymn’s Alexandrian character emerges very clearly, and in
several intertwined ways. Within the oeuvre of Theocritus, Idyll 22 connects closely
to Idyll 13, a narrative non-hymnal poem which uses the theme of loss to reflect on
the nature of love and the impact of the unpredictable on even heroic emotional
attachment. In Idyll 13 Heracles’ lover Hylas steps into a lush, seductive landscape
(a locus amoenus) only to find himself drawn into it forever when he is pulled to the
bottom of a pool by nymphs; in Idyll 22 what begins as a hymn turns, in its first part
after the introduction, into an extended narrative in which Castor and Polydeuces
step into an equally lovely locus amoenus to find themselves confronted with a threat
of their own. Then, in terms of their larger narrative, both of these poems deal with
incidents experienced by members of Jason’s Argonautic expedition, as the Argo was
making its way out to Colchis. Then, in another layer of meaning, both also have an
important intertextual relationship outside themselves, with a work by another
Alexandrian writer, the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes. Theocritus’ two
poems are patently linked not just thematically but textually with Apollonius’ epic
poem; and even though the nature of the relationship between the two authors and
their poems is debated, along with different possible chronologies and intentions
(Sens 1997: 24–36; Hunter 1999: 264–5; Köhnken 1965, 2001, and in this volume),
178 Anthony W. Bulloch

that they are so linked is indisputable. Idyll 22 is hymnal, then, in form, and epic in
diction and mode, but its role and stance as an incidental narrative piece, emphasizing
mood and the episodic, and inviting comparison with other contemporary writing,
are more significant than its genre. We could say, in fact, that Idyll 22 is at heart not so
much a hymn as another situational study – another glimpse into the slightly disas-
sociated and disconcerting world of rural Greece, whose landscape is populated by
strange and intrusive Cyclops figures (Idyll 11) or mysterious goatherds that materi-
alize at the noonday hour out in the hills (Idyll 7). Castor, Polydeuces, Amycus,
Lynceus, Polyphemus, Hylas’ water-nymphs – all are characters whose solitariness
and power to disrupt are more highly charged than any specific literary ‘‘genre’’ to
which they may temporarily belong.

Other Hymns
A number of hymns have been preserved from other poets of this period. Quoted in
Diogenes Laertius (4.5.26) are seven hexameters on Eros by the poet Antagoras of
Rhodes, who was active at the court of Antigonus Gonatas in Macedon. Antagoras’
hymn (CA 1) opens with a conventional trope, a deliberation about how the god
should best be celebrated, and Diogenes reports that the Platonic philosopher
Crantor seemingly agreed with Antagoras that Eros was a god of split personality.
These lines are similar in rhetorical structure to line 5 of Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus,
and most scholars assume that Callimachus was explicitly alluding to his contempor-
ary here (Cuypers 2004b: 96–102).
Another writer from whom hymnal poetry has survived is the prominent Stoic
philosopher Cleanthes, who was an almost exact contemporary of Callimachus. The
anthologist Stobaeus (1.1.12) has preserved 39 hexameter lines by Cleanthes extol-
ling Zeus in the traditional verse-form and familiar language of epic, but promoting
him as the Stoic first principle, the prime mover and origin of the universe (see also
White in this volume). Although we know nothing about the context or occasion for
these lines, they do seem to have been quite literary and not performative in intent:
their main purpose seems to have been to promote Stoic philosophical ideas.
Cleanthes did use verse (hexameters and iambic trimeters) quite extensively to express
Stoic philosophy, probably with a view to making it more accessible to a general
audience, and his lines on Zeus seem similarly doctrinal in mode. Another hymn, or,
at least, hymnal address, to Zeus with a similarly philosophical view of the world to
promote was the hymn to Zeus with which Aratus opens his Phaenomena (mentioned
above).
Other hymns survive from the Hellenistic period not because they were written by
well-known authors and preserved as works of literature, but because they were
recorded epigraphically on stone in the sanctuaries with which they were associated
(CA pp. 132–73; Käppel 1992: 375–94; Fantuzzi in this volume). Several of these are
anonymous, but in some cases the inscription attests the name of the author. Thus
from the great healing sanctuary at Epidaurus we have six late-fourth-century BCE
inscriptions containing 84 lines by a local poet Isyllus, who wrote in trochaic
 Hymns and Encomia 179

tetrameters, dactylic hexameters, elegiacs, and ionics. These are partly declaratory
texts, aimed at establishing and enhancing the authority of Asclepius as an
Epidaurian, but they include a paean to Asclepius and Apollo which, with its opening
address to celebrants and concluding prayer to deity for increase and good health,
resembles the frame of the mimetic hymns of Callimachus and serves to remind us of
the latter’s verisimilitude. Another paean, from the sanctuary of Asclepius in Athens,
preserved in an inscription from the Roman era but thought by some scholars to date,
as a text, from the third century BCE , is attributed to Macedonicus (41 Käppel;
CA pp. 139–40). Written in dactylic lines of varying length, it addresses Apollo
and Asclepius jointly, and, just like Isyllus’ paean and the mimetic hymns of
Callimachus, begins and finishes with instructions to celebrants and with prayers for
divine benefaction.
An inscription found in 1904 near Palaikastro on Crete preserves a hymn in
trochaic meter to Zeus sung by the Curetes, the legendary warrior-guardians of the
king of the gods while he was a baby (CA pp. 160–2). In contrast to the hymns of
Callimachus, Aratus, Cleanthes, or even the paeans to Apollo and Asclepius just
mentioned, this text is simple and repetitive and does little more than implore the
divinity to come and join the ritual dance, which was clearly performed as part of a
regular, perhaps annual, celebration of the birth and rise to power of Zeus, along with
the special association of the local region with him; there is no attempt at narrative of
any kind, and the hymn serves as a reminder how straightforward the everyday cultic
prayers which form the context for Callimachus and other writers of highly ‘‘literary’’
hymns will most likely have been. The inscription which preserves the Hymn of the
Curetes dates from the second century CE , but, like the Asclepius paean from Athens,
the hymn itself was almost certainly a traditional text dating from many centuries
earlier.
Other hymns, or celebratory texts, include paeans to Apollo preserved in inscrip-
tions at Delphi, one anonymous, another by an Athenian called Limenius (45–6
Käppel; CA pp. 141–59). Both of these are accompanied, most unusually, by musical
notation. Also from Delphi are two fourth-century paeans, one to Apollo and another
to the hearth goddess Hestia, by Aristonous of Corinth, preserved on the Athenian
Treasury (CA pp. 162–5; 42 Käppel), as well as a long paean to Dionysus (who was
equally at home in Delphi as his half-brother Apollo) by one Philodamus (CA
pp. 165–71; 39 Käppel). From elsewhere in Greece, Eritrea, comes a fourth-century
anonymous hymn (headed ‘‘Hymn’’) to the Idaean Dactyls (CA pp. 171–3).
From the forecourt of a temple precinct of Isis at Medinet Madi in the Fayum in
Egypt come four Greek hymns, inscribed on two piers, probably in the first quarter of
the first century BCE (Vanderlip 1972; Dieleman and Moyer in this volume). Two are
in hexameters, two in elegiac couplets, and although the author, who calls himself
Isidorus, seems not to have been a native Greek speaker, he was clearly familiar with
Homer and Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns. These hymns are usually referred to as
aretalogies, since they describe the powers of Isis-Hermouthis as they affect every
aspect of mankind’s life, from climate and natural phenomena of all kinds (including
the inundation of the Nile) and the crops, to health, prosperity and general wellbeing.
Like the hymns of Callimachus and Theocritus some two hundred years earlier,
Isidorus’ are much concerned with the role of the monarch, his power, and his
180 Anthony W. Bulloch

relation to the divine, and these aretalogies come across as a fascinating mixture of
traditional Greek concepts and sentiments and quite otherworldly Egyptian beliefs.
They were clearly intended to form a bridge between the two cultures.
These epigraphic texts were recorded because of their importance as cult songs,
and in order to assure their preservation, along with continuity and regularity in
ritual. One of the things about them that is striking is that they were written in a
variety of lyric meters, and they remind us that in using almost exclusively dactylic
meter for their songs of praise, the literary authors were distancing themselves from
the mainstream of traditional religious practice.

FURTHER READING

Furley and Bremer 2001 offer a collection of Greek hymns from Archaic to Hellenistic times.
On Hellenistic praise poetry in particular, see Hunter and Fuhrer 2002, Stephens 2003,
Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 350–403.
The standard edition of Callimachus’ Hymns is Pfeiffer 1953; English translations in
Lombardo and Rayor 1988, Nisetich 2001. Recent studies on the hymns as a corpus include
Depew 2000, 2004, Harder 2003a, 2004, Vamvouri 2004, and Morrison 2007; see also
Haslam 1993, Henrichs 1993a. For specific poems see, on Zeus: McLennan 1977, Tandy
1979, Clauss 1986, Hopkinson 1988, Winder 1997, Cuypers 2004b; on Apollo, Williams
1978, Bing 1993; on Artemis: Bornmann 1968, Bing and Uhrmeister 1994, Plantinga 2004,
I. Petrovic 2007; on Delos: Mineur 1984, Ukleja 2005; on Pallas: Bulloch 1985, Hopkinson
1988, Hunter 1992, Morrison 2005, 2007: 160–70; on Demeter, Hopkinson 1984a, Müller
1987, Murray 2004.
On Theocritus’ encomia, Idylls 16 and 17, see notably Hunter 1996: 77–109 and 2003a;
further Griffiths 1979: 9–50, 71–82, Fantuzzi 2000, Goldhill 1991, Gutzwiller 1983, Gow
1952b; on the hymnal Idyll 22, see Sens 1997, Hunter 1996: 46–76, Köhnken 1965, Gow
1952b.
Thom 2005 and Hopkinson 1988 provide commented editions of Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus;
see also White in this volume. Further reading on Aratus is provided by Volk in this volume. For
the text of the cultic hymns and paeans mentioned in the last section of this chapter, see Powell
1925: 132–73 and Käppel 1992: 375–94; see further Pöhlmann and West 2001, and Fantuzzi
in this volume. For texts of the Isidorus aretalogies, see Vanderlip 1972; further references are
provided by Dieleman and Moyer in this volume.
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Sung Poetry: The Case

of Inscribed Paeans
Marco Fantuzzi

In answer to his father’s exhortation to follow the traditional custom of the

symposium and sing some lyric poetry (melē) of Simonides, Aristophanes’
Pheidippides protests that he would rather perform a tragic speech (rhēsis) by
Euripides because singing a song to the lyre at a symposium is terribly passé
(Clouds 1353–71). A movement away from song is also observable in Athenian
drama. In the fourth century BCE the most prominent lyric sections of tragedy and
comedy, the choral odes, became repertory pieces, more or less remote from the
dramatic action and only occasionally composed by the dramatists themselves. The
trend was never reversed. In the next century, Theocritus and Callimachus often
adopted the two recitative meters par excellence, the dactylic hexameter and the
elegiac couplet, for types of poetry that would formerly have commanded lyric
meters. As for these meters themselves, the increasing separation between music
and meter, which Plato laments especially in connection to the dithyramb (Laws
2.669d–e), may explain why we find Hellenistic poets using lyric meters, which the
Archaic poets had employed in responsive strophic structures, in stichic or epodic
poems, or composing free-flowing songs comparable to the monodies of the later
plays of Euripides and the Fragmentum Grenfellianum. And although Hellenistic
stichic poetry occasionally mimics the strophic structure of sung poetry (notably in
Theocritus; lastly Prauscello 2006: 185–213), no actual strophic lyric survives from
any of the major Hellenistic poets. In this light it comes as no surprise that there is
almost no evidence for singing competitions in Hellenistic Egypt, and although such
competitions are recorded elsewhere (for example in mainland Greece and Delos), it
is clear that reciting dactylic poetry was the dominant form of poetic performance
throughout the Hellenistic world (Hardie 1983: 206).
The Hellenistic poems that still employ lyric meters fall into a number of groups.
Callimachus’ four short Melē (frs. 226–9 Pf.), Theocritus’ short Idylls 28–31, and a
182 Marco Fantuzzi

small number of epigrams by Callimachus, Theocritus, Asclepiades, and others (listed

in Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 39 n.155) take up, if not in meter at least in language
and imagery, the tradition of short lyric poetry such as that composed by Sappho,
Alcaeus, and Anacreon. We also find stichic re-use of lyric meters in a small number of
‘‘popular,’’ mainly mime-like texts (CA pp. 180–96) of a kind similar to the
Fragmentum Grenfellianum (Esposito in this volume). Other poems are the work
of experimental virtuosos who are little more than names to us – indeed they are
mentioned by later writers only for their metrical ‘‘inventions.’’ Philicus, one of the
members of the Alexandrian Pleiad, who composed a Hymn to Demeter in choriambic
hexameters in the first half of the third century, explicitly offered his abstruse
invention as a ‘‘gift to the grammarians’’ (SH 677); and Boiscus of Cyzicus, who
dedicated his invention of the catalectic iambic octameter to Apollo, presented
himself as the proud ‘‘author of a new poem’’ (SH 233). Lyric-iambic meters feature
in the so-called technopaignia or ‘‘figure poems’’ ascribed to Theocritus, Simias of
Rhodes, Dosiadas, and Besantinus, which are perhaps the most playful and virtuosic
kind of poetry produced by the Hellenistic Age. They are replete with arcane glosses
and riddles, and the succession of verses of different length gives the poem itself the
shape of a particular object. The length of the lines is dictated by pictographic
necessity, without any regard for the traditional strophic organization of lyric cola:
here metrics has really become ‘‘the art of measuring,’’ a manipulation of length.
Lyric meters were also adopted for social satire. The poète maudit Sotades produced
lyric verses of a new kind that subsequently took their name from him, sotadeans. In
this meter he wrote hard-hitting attacks on the political powerhouse of the Ptolemies,
and he likewise expressed a subversive spirit towards the highest power of literary
tradition by re-writing the Iliad in sotadeans. Another satirical moralist, Cercidas
from Megalopolis, invented iambic-lyric meters (meliamboi) based on the kat’ eno-
plion epitrites of the lyric-choral tradition (Scodel in this volume).
A small number of lyric texts of the Hellenistic Age continued to be composed in
strophes. Most of them are paeans or religious hymns preserved on stone (metrical
analyses in Parker 2001: 32–5). Through indirect literary transmission we have
testimonia or fragments of a few other paeans and encomiastic hymns, celebrating
kings or military leaders, but in most cases too little to ascertain their precise
structure. Honorands of such compositions were Antigonus Monophthalmus and
Demetrius Poliorcetes (SH 492; for the latter is also CA pp. 173–4, in strophes of
iambic trimeters and ithyphallics), Craterus (SH 40), Seleucus (CA p. 140), and Titus
Quinctius Flamininus (CA p. 143). The context of all these texts is not Alexandrian
or even Egyptian (apart from the Erythraean Paean, a copy of whose text was also
found in Ptolemais, an exception which confirms the rule): they rather appear to be
linked to a conservative tradition of religious singing, which still flourished in the
sanctuaries of the Greek homeland, and to the practice of the epinician paean, which
was as old as Homer (Il. 22.391–4; Rutherford 2001a: §5d). The cultic paeans that
survive epigraphically are all either anonymous or by authors who are otherwise
unknown, and none of them, as far as we know, was ever recorded in any other
medium than stone. Set against Callimachus’ and Theocritus’ preference for recitative
meters and stichic composition, these poems would seem perfect examples of the
activity of ‘‘minor’’ or ‘‘popular’’ poets, writing for hire or for agonistic festivals
 Sung Poetry 183

(Cameron 1995a: 47–53) in a tradition that was more or less uninfluenced by

‘‘Callimachean’’ tastes. This impression, we will see, is only in part correct.

Isyllus
Not long after the Macedonian king Philip (perhaps Philip II, 338 BCE , but more
probably either Philip III, 317/16 BCE , or Philip V, 218 BCE ) ‘‘had led his army
against Sparta with the intention of dismantling the power of the kings’’ (lines 63–4),
the Epidaurian Isyllus, son of Socrates, dedicated ‘‘to Apollo Maleatas and Asclepius’’
(2) a long inscription of 84 lines in the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus, which
includes a short paean to both gods but notably to Asclepius (40.37–61 Käppel 1992;
CA pp. 132–6). Isyllus may have composed the entire text himself or had parts of it
composed by a hired versifier; in any case, hardly any parallel can be found for the
complex form and the artistic engagement and ambitions of this inscription, which,
together with the paean itself, includes a full narrative of the events leading to its
composition, instructions for its performance, and several expositions of Isyllus’
political views. It is structured in seven sections, some in prose, others in various
meters, each with its own topic and goal.
The first two lines, in prose, introduce the dedicator, Isyllus, and dedicatees, Apollo
and Asclepius. Surprisingly, there is no object here for ἀνέθηϰε, ‘‘dedicated,’’ a
technical term which usually introduces the offering, for example a statue, a trophy,
or professional tools, which the dedicatory inscription (supposedly) accompanies and
‘‘explains.’’ Here the verb remains self-referential and points not simply to the paean,
which might be expected to be the dedicated ‘‘object,’’ but to the whole inscription,
a point which the final line of the text restates more clearly (ταυÐ τά τοι . . . ἀνέ-
θηϰεν Ἴсυλλοс, 79).
The section that follows this heading starts with an undisguised political declar-
ation, which is at first sight surprising in a religious inscription. Lines 3–9 state, in
trochaic tetrameters, that the demos is stronger if it empowers aristocrats to be
‘‘directed’’ (ὀρθουÐ ται) by their ‘‘manly virtue’’ (ἀνδραγαθία, 4); but in case one of
the nobles is affected by ‘‘baseness’’ (πονηρία, 5), the demos must restrain him for the
sake of stability: ‘‘this is the opinion I had in the past; I expressed it then and express it
now. I vowed to inscribe this opinion if the law which I presented ratified it for us.
This has indeed happened, and not without the gods’ will’’ (7–9).
In Section 3, composed in dactylic hexameters (10–26), it becomes clear that
Isyllus’ sacred law ratified his political ideas because it involved or presupposed a
specific role for the nobles in the celebration of Phoebus and Asclepius. Cleverly
stressing his personal vow, which he presents as almost atemporal and thus less
arbitrarily partisan, Isyllus legitimates the inclusion in the inscription of his political
advice to the Epidaurians with the fact that the existence of a noble leading class is a
necessary requisite for the procession in honor of Asclepius that he proposes. At 14–
26 Isyllus prescribes that the demos of Epidaurus choose among themselves ‘‘those
who are the best’’ (οἵ τ’ ἀριсτεύωсι, 14), publicly proclaim their names, charge them
to march in a procession ‘‘in honor of Phoebus and of his son Asclepius’’ bearing
184 Marco Fantuzzi

wreaths of laurel for Apollo and olive branches for Asclepius (17–21), and pray that
‘‘good health for children’’ (τέϰνοιс ὑγίεια), ‘‘physical and ethical excellence’’
(ϰαλοϰαγαθία), ‘‘peace’’ (εἰράνα), ‘‘good order’’ (εὐνομία), and ‘‘irreproachable
wealth’’ (πλουÐ τοс ἀμεμϕήс) may last forever at Epidaurus (21–4). If the Epidaurians
respect this law in years to come, they may hope that Zeus will keep them from harm
(25–6). Isyllus’ faith in the Epidaurian aristocracy perhaps also intrudes upon his
religious language in the following paean. The name of the daughter of Malos quoted
at 45, Kleophema, recalls two key aristocratic values, ϰλέοс and ϕήμη, and later
Asclepius is called ω μέγ’ ἄριсτε θεωÐ ν (83) with an epithet, ἄριсτοс, that is very rare
for gods but a crucial term in aristocratic ideology (Sineux 1999: 165; Vamvouri
2004: 171).
The lines that express Isyllus’ political credo (3–9) also show what is in my opinion
a key goal in his self-presentation: they invite readers of the inscription to identify him
as a sort of new Solon, an intertextual connection which so far does not seem to have
received any scholarly attention. Isyllus’ idea that the demos has to accept to be
directed by a morally superior oligarchic class, but also has to monitor the nobles
constantly to ensure that they do not become ‘‘base’’ (πονηρίαс, 5) and their wealth is
‘‘irreproachable’’ (ἀμεμϕηÐ , 23) find precise parallels in Solon’s appreciation of only
wealth that is ‘‘rightful’’ (δίϰαιοс), his criticism of the excesses (ὓβριс) of the wealthy,
and his appeal to the demos to obey the leading class but also control it and restrain
its tendency toward excess. These thoughts are expressed, for example, in fr. 13.7–32
(IEG), on righteous wealth and Zeus’ punishment of unlawful people, and in fr. 4,
which warns the rich to avoid excess for the sake of political stability (εὐνομία),
claiming that ‘‘through the dispensation of Zeus’’ (ϰατὰ Διὸс αι сαν) the city of
Athens would never perish, but that the foolishness of the ‘‘leaders of the demos’’
(δήμου ἡγεμόνεс) might lead to its destruction (1–8). Similar points emerge in fr.
4c.1–3, 6.1–4, and 11.3–4.
Solon’s preference for an enlightened ‘‘pre-democratic’’ rule over the demos by
the traditional leading class and Isyllus’ encouragement of an enlightened oligarchy
might be deemed a casual and partial coincidence. For example, Isyllus’ oligarchic
ideas also to some extent match Tyrtaeus’ defense of the Spartan political system
(fr. 4; although the idea that the demos has to check the aristocracy seems to have no
parallel in Tyrtaeus). What is strikingly Solonian, however, is the way in which Isyllus
frames his political credo and accomplishments in order to fashion himself as a
successful authority figure. Isyllus’ claim that the opinion he expresses at this moment
is an opinion he has also defended and communicated in the past (τάνδε τὰν
γνώμαν τόϰ’ η χον ϰαὶ ἔλεγον ϰαὶ νυÐ ν λέγω, 7), and his statement at the end of the
introduction that what he undertook and vowed to do ‘‘has indeed happened, and
not without the gods’ will’’ (ἔγεντο δ’, οὐϰ ἄνευ θεωÐ ν, 9), voice the same feelings
Solon expresses about his own political project, most probably after accomplishing it,
in order to defend himself against criticism: ‘‘for what I said I would, I have
accomplished with the gods’ will’’ (ἃ μὲν γὰρ ει πα, сὺν θεοιÐ сιν ἤνυсα, fr. 34.6).
Moreover, while the poetry in which Solon explicates his moral and political ideas is
composed in elegiac distichs, the fragments of his ‘‘apology’’ for his reforms, in
which he emphasizes that his opinions are as they were before, significantly use the
more conversational iambic trimeter (36–7) and trochaic tetrameter (32–4; Noussia
 Sung Poetry 185

forthcoming). It will hardly be coincidental that it is precisely the trochaic tetrameter,

a meter seldom found in Hellenistic poetry outside Menander, which carries the
political program in lines 3–9 of Isyllus’ inscription. Apart from this specific connec-
tion, Isyllus may have also more broadly followed the paradigm of Solon in adopting
different meters for the different contents and tones of the sections of his inscription,
just as Solon varied between elegiacs, iambics, and tetrameters. And on a more
speculative note, one may wonder if there is not also a connection between Isyllus’
choice to present his sacred law (lines 10–26) in dactylic hexameters and the story
that Solon started composing his laws in hexameters but in the end abandoned this
form for prose, found by Plutarch in his sources for the Life of Solon (3.5) together
with the purported opening lines (Solon fr. 31). The lines and the story are surely
spurious, but it is a fact that, with the exception of sacred laws decreed by oracles, we
have no other evidence for inscribed regulations such as that of Isyllus composed in
metrical form until the early Empire, i.e., well after Isyllus’ time (Sokolowski 1962; A.
and I. Petrovic 2006). It is at least possible, therefore, that Isyllus’ choice for the
hexameter was directly inspired by the Solonian tradition.
It should come as no surprise that Isyllus, a supporter of an enlightened aristocracy,
adopted Solon as a validating figure. Already in fourth-century Greece ‘‘even critics of
popular rule could put up with democracy, if only it was ancestral’’ (Hansen 1989:
75), and the Athenian lawgiver had attained an almost mythical status. Although
there is a tendency in the orators to position Solon as the father of the radical
democracy of the fifth century, Aristotle interpreted Solon’s original constitution as
an indirect and representative democracy, where the role of the demos mainly con-
sisted in electing the magistrates. Similarly, Isocrates suggests a return to Solon’s
constitution as a remedy against the problems of radical democracy, and the oligarchic
Council of the Four Hundred, established in Athens in 411 BCE , also seems to have
used Solon’s constitution as its model (Hansen 1989: 88–9, 93–7; Ruschenbusch
1958: 407).
The two sections that follow Isyllus’ nomos on the ritual for Apollo and Asclepius
(Sections 4 and 5, lines 27–31 and 32–6) provide authoritative justifications for both
the ritual and the paean that follows. Section 4 starts with an elegiac distich com-
memorating how a certain Malos founded the cult of Apollo Maleatas by building an
altar and sacrificing to the god (the dedicatory character of the lines probably explains
the choice of meter). The three dactylic hexameters that follow state the vitality and
Panhellenic importance of these sacrifices: even in Asclepius’ sanctuary at Trikkala
nobody can enter the inner sanctum without first sacrificing to Apollo Maleatas.
Section 5, composed in prose, is parallel in structure and immediately juxtaposed to
Section 4, suggesting an analogy between Malos’ and Isyllus’ contributions to the
cult: it was Malos who built the first altar; it was Isyllus who composed a paean,
consulted the Delphic oracle, and was told to inscribe it ‘‘for the present and future
time’’ (36).
The text of the paean proper, in ionics, follows (37–56, Section 6). The introduc-
tion indicates who are to sing it: all the demos (ἀείсατε λαοί, / ζαθέαс ἐνναέτα[ι]
ταÐ сδ’ Ἐπιδαύρου, 37–8), and not only, for example, the aristocrats leading the pro-
cession or the city’s kouroi (as in the Erythraean Paean, discussed below). The body
of the song is almost completely devoted to legitimizing the joint cult of Apollo
186 Marco Fantuzzi

Maleatas and Asclepius at Epidaurus through an elaborate Epidaurian genealogy.

According to this genealogy, which is authoritatively presented as a ‘‘revelation’’
that ‘‘came to the ears of our ancestors’’ (ωffl δε γὰρ ϕάτιс ἐνέπουс’ ἤλυ/θ’ ἐс
ἀϰοὰс προγόνων ἀμετέρων, 39–40), Zeus married his daughter, the Muse Erato, to
Malos; then Phlegyas, who came from and lived at Epidaurus (43), married the
daughter of Erato and Malos, Kleophema; from them was born Aigla, also called
Koronis, who was raped by Apollo ‘‘in the house of Malos,’’ i.e., at Epidaurus; with
the help of the Moirai and Lachesis, Aigla gave birth to a child whom Apollo called
‘‘Asclepius’’ after the name of its mother. Most of these details are unique. The
marriage between Malos and Erato, the figure of Kleophema, and Aigla as the name
of Asclepius’ mother are not found elsewhere. In all other sources Phlegyas comes from
Thessaly, not Epidaurus, and Asclepius’ mother is simply called Koronis. The etymo-
logical connection of the god’s name to the otherwise unattested Aigla, as linguistically
far-fetched as it may seem, effectively caps a genealogy devised to appropriate Asclepius
as an Epidaurian god (cf. τὰν сὰν Ἐπίδαυρον ματρόπολιν, 59), which is licensed by its
presentation in a paean – and not just any paean but one which Apollo himself, through
the Delphic oracle, told the Epidaurians to inscribe and preserve for all time.
The beginning and end of the paean’s final section are marked by the cry ie Paian ie
Paian (58, 61), the formula which makes a paean a paean (Ford 2006: 287–8) but
which elsewhere in this song appears only in the very first line (ἰὲ ΠαιαÐ να, 37). It
seems significant that the first cry comes immediately after Asclepius has been
qualified as ‘‘healer of illnesses, giver of health’’ (νόсων παύ/[с]τορα, δωτηÐ ρ’
ὑγιείαс, 56–7) and the second caps the wish ‘‘may you bestow upon us manifest
health in mind and body’’ (ἐναργηÐ δ’ ὑγίειαν ἐπιπέμποιс ϕρεсὶ ϰαὶ сώ/μαсιν ἀμοιÐ с,
60–1). Paian (also called Paiēōn) was perhaps in origin an independent healing god,
but in literature and cult this name typically appears as an epithet or allonym of Apollo
as a healing or apotropaic god. Isyllus’ song is certainly not the first to address
Asclepius with the words ie Paian: the earliest version of the Erythraean Paean to
Asclepius dates from 380–360 BCE and already Sophocles may have composed paeans
to this god (PMG 737b). Yet it seems that Isyllus, by directly linking the cry ie Paian
to Asclepius’ healing powers, justifies its own existence as a paean to Asclepius by way
of a subtle aetiology, the implicit argument being that ie Paian addresses Apollo as a
healing god, and therefore it can be transferred to his son Asclepius, who is also a
healing god. That this connection is not self-evident is shown by the ‘‘miniature
paean’’ within Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo (97–104) and Orpheus’ song to Apollo
in Apollonius’ Argonautica (2.705–13), which provide a competing aition of [h]ie
Paian focusing on the first element ([h]ie), which they explain from the Delphians’
exhortations to Apollo to shoot (hie) his arrows at the dragon Pytho (cf. also Ephorus
FGrH 70 F 31).
The final section of Isyllus’ inscription, in dactylic hexameters (57–79), celebrates
Asclepius’ power by describing one of his achievements. These lines are in form an
aretalogy (ϰαὶ τόδε сηÐ с ἀρετηÐ с, 62), reminiscent in style and form of the Homeric
Hymns. Yet they are also a personal testimony of the greatness of the god, because the
event which Isyllus records does not derive from the realm of myth but from his own
experience. When ‘‘Philip’’ (on whose identification see above) led an army against
Sparta in order to abolish the power of the kings, Asclepius came to the Spartans’ aid
 Sung Poetry 187

from Epidaurus. At that moment ‘‘the boy’’ Isyllus (67 ὁ παιÐ с, 72 μοι, 77 ἐμέ)
returned from the Bosporus with an illness and prayed to Asclepius. The healer then
appeared to him in golden armor and said (73–82):

‘‘θάρсει ϰαιρωÐ ι γάρ сοι ἀϕίξομαι – ἀλλὰ μέν’ αὐτειÐ –

τοιÐ с Λαϰεδαιμονίοιс χαλεπὰс ἀπὸ ϰηÐ ραс ἐρύξαс,
οὕνεϰα τοὺс Φοίβου χρηсμοὺс сώζοντι διϰαίωс 75
οὓс μαντευсάμενοс παρέταξε πόληι ΛυϰουÐ ργοс.’’
ὣс ὃ μὲν ὤιχετο ἐπὶ Σπάρτην ἐμὲ δ’ ω ρсε νόημα
ἀγγειÐ λαι Λαϰεδαιμονίοιс ἐλθόντα τὸ θειÐ ον
πάντα μάλ’ ἑξείαс οἳ δ’ αὐδήсαντοс ἄϰουсαν
сώτειραν ϕήμαν, Ἀсϰλαπιέ, ϰαί сϕε сάωсαс. 80
οἳ δὴ ἐϰάρυξαν πάνταс ξενίαιс сε δέϰεсθαι
сωτηÐ ρα εὐρυχόρου Λαϰεδαίμονοс ἀγϰαλέοντεс.
‘‘Do not worry, I will come to you in due course – just wait here! – but first I must save
the Spartans from dire destruction. For they justly observe the decrees of Phoebus which
Lycurgus imposed upon the city after consulting the oracle.’’ After speaking these words
he was off to Sparta, and my mind urged me go and report the epiphany to the Spartans,
all of it, word for word. They listened to the prophecy of salvation I spoke, Asclepius, and
saving them you did; upon which they sent word that all should receive you hospitably,
addressing you as savior of Sparta with the broad dancing-places.

When immediately after these lines Isyllus closes his text with the formula ‘‘Isyllus
dedicated this’’ (ταυÐ τά τοι . . . ἀνέθηϰεν Ἴсυλλοс, 79), these words, like the opening
formula ‘‘Isyllus dedicated’’ ( Ἴсυλλοс . . . ἀνέθηϰε, 1), clearly do not point just to the
central sections of the inscription, the sacred law and the paean: all sections – Isyllus’
political advice, his ritual prescriptions, the text of the paean, and the account of his
encounter with Asclepius and embassy to the Spartans – form part of an encompassing
persuasive strategy to build up Isyllus’ political authority through divine validation.
Isyllus is the new Solon whose political views are confirmed by a sacred law approved not
just by the people of Epidaurus but by Apollo himself. His service to Apollo and
Asclepius is comparable to that of Malos, founder of the joint cult of Apollo Maleatas
and Asclepius and ancestor of the latter. Isyllus is on familiar terms with and dear to both
gods: Apollo, who in an oracle told him his paean was to be preserved for all time, as well
as Asclepius, who appeared to him when he was a child and whose message of salvation
he conveyed to the Spartans, to the benefit of the Spartans, Asclepius, and himself.
Isyllus’ strategy resembles that of Zaleukos of Locri, whose code of laws, if we are to
believe to Plutarch, ‘‘found favor with the Locrians not least because he asserted that
Athena had constantly appeared to him and had in each case guided and instructed him
in his legislation’’ (Plu. Mor. 542e–543a; cf. Arist. fr. 548 Rose 1886). Indeed,
Asclepius’ speech to the boy Isyllus in the final lines brings us back to the project of
the older Isyllus enshrined in this inscription. The reason, so Asclepius declares, why he
supports the Spartans against the Macedonians is that the Spartans had respected
Apollo’s oracle by adopting the laws of Lycurgus. The Epidaurians, then, would be
fools to disregard the law of Isyllus, the protégé of Apollo and Asclepius, who as an
eyewitness of Asclepius’ epiphany, a beneficiary of his healing power, and carrier of his
message of salvation, constituted living evidence of the god’s power and benevolence.
188 Marco Fantuzzi

Long and detailed inscriptions recording religious laws are not uncommon in the
Classical and Hellenistic periods. The Milesian nomos of the Molpoi, which was re-
inscribed at the end of the third century BCE but dates from 450/449 and probably
resumes even older ritual prescriptions, runs to 45 lines (Herda 2006); the prescrip-
tions about ritual purity preserved in a third century BCE inscription from Cos (LSCG
154) fill more than 90, and the 92 BCE rules of the mysteries from Andanie (LSCG
64) no fewer than 193 lines. The constituent parts of Isyllus’ inscription are also
partly unsurprising. Cults were often supported through oracles, which could be
proudly evoked in inscriptions recording their foundation or revival. A case in point is
the long text set up by a certain Mnesiepes for the cult of the poet Archilochus in
Paros, which records no fewer than three oracles of Apollo to Mnesiepes and one to
Archilochus’ father Telesicles (Archil. test. 3 Gerber 1999 ¼ SEG 15.517). Even so,
there do not seem to be any parallels for a religious song being cast in an explanatory
and legitimizing framework as elaborate as that of Isyllus’ inscription, where the
paean constitutes less than a third of the entire text.
In order to appreciate the boldness of Isyllus’ framing of his religious law and song
and the peculiarity of his paean, it helps to compare his text to an inscription from
Erythrae in Asia Minor which has already been mentioned several times above.
Datable to 380–360 BCE , this inscription is at least half a century older than Isyllus.
Recorded in 40 lines of prose on the recto of the stone is a sacred law detailing rituals
and sacrifices to be performed for Asclepius and Apollo, including the instruction to
sing a paean (παιωνίζειν), first to Apollo and then to Asclepius, after a successful
incubation in the temple or the fulfillment of a prayer. The verso contains the scanty
remains of a paean to Apollo and a much better preserved paean to Asclepius (36 and
37 Käppel). The Erythraean Paean to Asclepius became the standard paean to
Asclepius and may have been initially composed with this goal in mind. The person
who devised the inscription not only chose to completely separate the paean from the
sacred law that regulates its performance (inscribed in prose on the opposite side of
the stone, as was the most common epigraphic practice, rather than integrated with
the paean in a prosimetric text as in Isyllus’ inscription) but he also composed,
commissioned, or selected an entirely generic song.
The Erythraean Paean, structured in strophes with a mesymnion and ephymnion ie
Paian, faithfully reproduces the most marked formal features of the traditional paean
to Apollo (‘‘automatization of the form’’ in the terminology of Käppel 1992: 189–
206), while limiting the song’s content to a bare genealogy of the god, a list of his
children, and an appeal to Asclepius to ‘‘be gracious to my city of the broad dancing-
places’’ (ἵλαοс δ’ ἐπινίсεο/τὰν ἐμὰν πόλιν εὐρύχορον, 19–20) and allow ‘‘us’’ (ἡμαÐ с,
20) to enjoy a healthy life. This reduction is only partly explainable from the fact that
while there was a stock of paeanic stories for Apollo from which a poet could draw,
such a tradition did not really exist for his son Asclepius. In comparison with what
remains of the earlier literary paeans of authors such as Pindar and Bacchylides, we
find among the paeans inscribed during the Hellenistic era a noticeable fluctuation in
authorial individuality and narrative ambition. This applies first and foremost to the
Erythraean Paean, whose narrative section consists in – or rather is substituted by – a
meager list of Asclepius’ children, which seems to place it in a class of less ornate cult
poetry, without the literary aspirations of texts such as the paeans of Pindar or Isyllus
 Sung Poetry 189

(Schröder 1999: 62–96). Yet, as was recently argued by LeVen (2008: 262–7), even
this at first sight unambitious paean shows a certain degree of self-consciousness and
subtly justifies its status as a paean not to Apollo but to Asclepius. The sacred law on
the recto of the stone, listing the rituals to be performed by the worshippers praying
for Asclepius’ help, ends with a paean to Apollo, which runs on from the bottom of the
recto to the top of the verso. The paean to Asclepius on the verso opens immediately
after the end of the paean to Apollo, with the following words: ‘‘Sing of Paian,
famous for his skill . . . who fathered a great joy for mortals . . . , iē Paian, Asclepius,
most famous god, ie Paian’’ (ΠαιαÐ να ϰλυτόμητιν ἀείсατε / . . . ὃс μέγα χάρμα βρό-
τοιсιν ἐγείνατο . . . / ἰὴ Παιάν, Ἀсϰληπιὸν / δαίμονα ϰλεινότατον, ἰὲ Παιάν, 1–9):
the song seems to open as if it is going to be another paean to Apollo, but in reality
‘‘transfers’’ the appellation Paian to Asclepius. Significantly, Asclepius’ epithet
ϰλεινότατοс, ‘‘most famous,’’ in line 9 is a standard epithet for Apollo; here it picks
up Apollo’s epithet ϰλυτόμητιс, ‘‘famous for his skill,’’ in line 1, a word which
allegedly qualified not Apollo but Asclepius in Sophocles’ prototypical paean to this
god (PMG 737; but cf. Rutherford 2001a: 461–2).
As indicated, this ‘‘generic’’ or ‘‘essential’’ paean became a classic, which was still
sung more than five centuries after its first attestation. Copies of it, more or less
unchanged, were recorded at Ptolemais in Egypt (97 CE ), Athens (first or second
century CE ), and Dion in Macedon (late second century CE ). The absence of details
restricting this paean to a specific location or context meant that it could be used in
every circumstance and place. It could also be easily adapted as desired, as has
happened in the version from Ptolemais, which includes an additional fourth strophe
with the wish for regular floods of the Nile. In the same vein, a paean composed by a
certain Macedonicus (41 Käppel), found near the Athenian Asclepieum and datable
to the first century BCE , closely follows the structure of the time-honored Erythraean
model but adds some final verses asking for Asclepius’ protection specifically for
Athens. It may not be just a matter of chance that the Erythraean Paean remains
the only instance among the epigraphically attested paeans from the fourth to the first
centuries BCE whose author remains unknown to us. That is to say, it is quite possible
that the author of this song or his patrons purposely chose not to record his identity
exactly because anonymity was essential to its desired dissemination as a standard text.
However this may be, read against the Erythraean Paean, Isyllus’ provision of a
uniformly ‘‘literary’’ and authoritative form for every aspect of the political and
religious context of his message appears bold and original indeed.

Philodamus
As it turns out, Isyllus’ inscription is not a completely isolated phenomenon. Some
other paeans of the Hellenistic Age, though not as elaborately and artistically framed
and presented as that of Isyllus, likewise have a religious-political dimension and show
similar rhetorical strategies. Close in time to the earliest possible date for Isyllus is a
Delphic inscription which contains a long paean to Dionysus going under the name
of Philodamus of Skarpheia (39 Käppel). The paean itself, which is fragmentarily
190 Marco Fantuzzi

preserved, is followed by a prose subscription which not only specifies who wrote the
paean – Philodamus and his brothers Epigenes and Mantidas – but also authorizes the
preceding song. It states that, under the eponymous magistrate Etymondas (probably
340/339 BCE ), the Delphians granted Philodamus, his brothers, and their descen-
dants a number of privileges (including proxeny, preferential consultation of the
oracle, first-rank seats at ceremonies, and exemption from fees) to honor them for
the preceding paean to Dionysus, which the three brothers composed ‘‘according to
the oracular command of the god’’ (ϰατὰ τὰ]ν μαντείαν τουÐ ΘεουÐ ἐπαγγείλατ[ο]).
This official endorsement is particularly significant because the paean, like Isyllus’
paean to Asclepius, takes an innovative approach to its subject, pushing an identifi-
cation of Dionysus and Apollo which goes far beyond what we find in earlier sources.
Forms of association between (Delphic) Apollo and Dionysus may already have
been promoted by the Pisistratids (Ieranò 1992) and are not foreign to fifth-century
Athenian tragedy (Aesch. Eum. 24–6; Rutherford 2001a: 133). Delphic evidence
includes, for example, a fifth-century inscription of the Labydae detailing sacrifices for
Dionysus to be performed at Delphi in mid-summer (CID 1.9.43–5), and the much
later testimony of Plutarch, who reports that it was customary to celebrate Dionysus
at Delphi with dithyrambs in winter, when Apollo was supposed to be among the
Hyperboreans (Mor. 388e–f; cf. Bacch. 16.5–12). Our paean, however, pushes a far
more radical idea. It opens with an invitation to Dionysus to come to the Delphic
Theoxenia, the spring feast that celebrated Apollo’s return from the Hyperboreans
(3–4). This in itself already seems odd. One would expect Delphic Dionysus to be
celebrated with a dithyramb, while a paean, especially one for this occasion, would
naturally be addressed to Apollo; in antiquity these two genres were often seen as
opposed (Philochorus FGrH 328 F 172; Plu. Mor. 389a–b; Rutherford 2001a: §7g
and §12). Philodamus’ paean self-consciously draws attention to its crossing of genres
and syncretistic agenda right from its first line, where Dionysus is addressed as
Διθύραμβε, and it continues to blur the distinction between Apollo and Dionysus,
and between paean and dithyramb throughout. For instance, the epithet ϰαλλίπαιс
usually qualifies Apollo’s mother, Leto; here, and here alone, it is the mother of
Dionysus who is ‘‘with beautiful child’’ (7). Many other moves of this type, some
more, others less obvious, can be identified.
The text of the paean consists of twelve strophes, each including a mesymnion (5,
18, etc.) and ephymnion (11–13, 24–6, etc.) As we saw, strophes with such refrains
were perceived as a key formal feature of the traditional paean. Yet the phrasing of this
mesymnion is by no means traditional. Its formula εὐοιÐ ω ἰὸ Βάϰχ’ ω ἰὲ Παιάν pre-
fixes a Dionysiac address εὐοιÐ ω ἰὸ Βάϰχ’ to the traditional Apollinian invocation ω ἰὲ
Παιάν, achieving an equation of Dionysus to Paean and hence to Apollo – an
equation which automatically extends to the invocation of Paean in the song’s more
traditional ephymnion, ‘‘ie Paian, come as savior, be benevolent and protect this city
so that it may continue to prosper’’ (ἰὲ Παιάν, ἴθι сωτήρ, etc.).
The first five strophes describe a series of locations where Dionysus brought his
blessings, landmarks of his cult. After seeing the light in Thebes (strophe 1) and
establishing his rites there, Dionysus is presented as first visiting Delphi (strophe 2),
where ‘‘revealing his starry frame [he] stood among his Delphic maidens in the folds
of Parnassus’’ (21–3). He then went to Eleusis, where he came to be invoked in the
 Sung Poetry 191

Mysteries as ‘‘Iakchos’’ (strophe 3), and after the unreadable strophe 4 we find him in
Olympus and Pieria (58–61):

ΜουÐ сαι [δ’] αὐτίϰα παρθένοι

ϰ[ιссωÐ ι] сτε[ψ]άμενοι ϰύϰλωι сε παÐ сαι
μ[έλψαν] ἀθάνα[τον] ἐс ἀεὶ
ΠαιαÐ ν’ εὐϰλέα τ’ ὀ[πὶ ϰλέο]υ-
сαι, [ϰα]ταÐ ρξε δ’ Ἀπόλλων.
And immediately the maiden Muses, having crowned themselves with ivy, in a circle all
hymned you as forever immortal and famous Paian, and Apollo led their chorus.

Because strophes 6–8 are almost completely unreadable we cannot say for certain
whether Olympus was the last stop on Dionysus’ journey. However, the content of
strophe 5 and the preserved letters πυθοχρη[сτ?] in strophe 6 strongly suggest that in
that strophe the narration came full circle and Dionysus returned to Delphi, the
location where he had established his own chorus at the very start of his journey. This
is also where Philodamus and his brothers, in the present, honor him under the title
of ‘‘Paean,’’ as is licensed by the ‘‘owner’’ of this appellation, Apollo, through the
song of the Pierian Muses in strophe 5, and paralleled by Dionysus’ acquisition of the
sobriquet ‘‘Iakchos’’ at Eleusis in strophe 3.
Regardless of whether Philodamus’ song is really the first paean ever composed for
Dionysus, it certainly aetiologizes its own existence. In strophe 9 the main point of its
mythological tale – legitimizing the singing of paeans to Dionysus – is sanctioned
once again by Apollo, this time explicitly. Here the god is said to have ordered the
Amphictyons (the Delphic confederation), surely by means of an oracle (compare the
oracle given to Isyllus), first of all to ‘‘present this hymn for his brother (Dionysus) to
the family of the gods’’ (110–12) on the occasion of the Theoxenia; secondly, to
restore the old temple built by the Alcmeonids, which had been destroyed by a
landslide in 373; and finally, to set up a statue of Dionysus in a holy grotto and honor
the god with a sacrifice and a choral competition.
The reference to the new temple of Apollo, built between 370 and 320 BCE , might
be said to provide the key to Philodamus’ song, since its decorations parallel the
syncretistic program of the paean on significant points. Whereas the east pediment of
the new temple displayed the usual Apollo kitharōdos, accompanied by Artemis, Leto,
and the Muses, the decorations of the west pediment showed Helios, Thyades
(maenads), and a Dionysus who holds a kithara and lacks any trace of that ecstatic
mobility which is typical of this god and which the presence of the Thyades would
lead one to expect. Furthermore, this Dionysus is not clad in any of his usual
garments, but ‘‘wears the heavy, high-belted, full-length chiton and cloak of Apollo
kitharōdos’’ (Stewart 1982: 209). If we are here indeed dealing with a Dionysus
Musagetes (‘‘leader of the Muses’’), as seems likely, mirroring the Apollo Musagetes
of the east pediment, then the song of Philodamus and his brothers can plausibly
be read as an aition for this arrangement: the syncretistic paean supports the syn-
cretistic decorations and vice versa. Apollo’s approval, in the song, of Dionysian
paeans as well as his instructions regarding the new temple, involving the accommo-
dation of a cult of Dionysus within the precinct, provides an explanation for the
192 Marco Fantuzzi

iconographical syncretism of the temple decorations. The decorations meanwhile,

there for all to see and made to last, lend a tangible and lasting authority to the
divinely sanctioned song.
The ideological project supported by Philodamus’ song may also have had a
political dimension, because the push toward a closer association of Apollo and
Dionysus at Delphi probably came from one specific direction: from Athens. On a
very general level our paean, as a poem celebrating a god that provides an aition for
the building of a temple to Apollo, invites comparison with the indirect pro-
Athenian propaganda constituted by the ‘‘aetiological’’ references in the Homeric
Hymn to Apollo (56, 76, 80, 253–60, 285–93) to the temple of Apollo erected by
Pisistratus at Delos (Burkert 1979; Aloni 1989: 47–61). It is a fact that Athenian
artists, Praxias and Androsthenes, were in charge of the iconographic planning of
Apollo’s new temple at Delphi, and there is evidence to suggest that Praxias was also
involved in the decoration of the temple of Dionysus at Thasos; this temple featured
a Dionysus kitharōdos dressed in the garb of Apollo Musagetes and surrounded by
personifications of tragedy, comedy, and dithyramb, i.e., in the role of patron of the
performative arts which he held most prominently and iconically in Athens. It is not
implausible that at Delphi, too, the promotion of Dionysus in a role which hitherto
had been reserved for Apollo was essentially an Athenian project (Vamvouri 2004:
200–7).

Athenaeus, Limenius, Aristonous

Other Hellenistic paeans whose religious discourse is interwoven with politics are two
texts which were inscribed on the Athenian Treasury at Delphi, one by an Athenaeus
(45 Käppel; on the name, see Bélis 1988), the other by Limenius (46 Käppel). The
latter advertised itself as ‘‘the paean and prosodion to the god which the Athenian
Limenius, son of Thoinos, composed and performed to the lyre.’’ The prosodion or
‘‘processional song’’ is not physically marked off from the paean but unquestionably
starts in the middle of line 33. Both parts (so the introduction implies) were to be
sung to the lyre (D’Alessio 1997: 30) and interlinear musical annotation is provided
throughout to facilitate future performance. Next to Limenius’ song stood an
inscription in prose (Feuilles de Delphi 3.2.47.22) which functioned somewhat like
the framing elements of Isyllus’ integrated text: it includes Limenius in a list of
technitai Dionysou (‘‘artists of Dionysus’’) who in 128/127 BCE participated in the
Pythais, a ritual procession from Athens to Delphi organized by the Athenians. This
context suits the prosodion as well as the lines of the paean that present the technitai
singing the paean (19–21):

Παιήονα ϰιϰλήιсϰ[ομεν ἅπαс

λ]αὸс αὐ[το]χθόνων ἠδὲ Βάϰχου μέγαс θυρсοπλὴ[ξ
ἑсμὸс ἱ]ερὸс τεχνιτωÐ ν ἔνοιϰοс πόλει Κεϰροπίαι.
Paian we celebrate, we the entire nation of autochthonous people and the great sacred
thyrsus-banging throng of artists of Bacchus living in the city of Cecrops.
 Sung Poetry 193

These lines stand between a description of Apollo’s stay in Attica during his voyage
from his birthplace Delos (13–19) and the narration of the rest of his voyage to
Delphi (21–33), and thus also at the level of the inscription function as a trait d’union
between Athens and Delphi. The Athenian stop-over is otherwise only mentioned at
Eumenides 9–11, where the scholiast comments that Aeschylus included it to ‘‘flatter’’
Athens. The text of the paean also advertises Apollo’s connection with Athens in
other places. At 6–7, Leto holds a branch of olive, symbol of Athena and Athens,
against the pains of childbirth (contrast h.Ap. 117–18 and Call. h. 4.210, where Leto
holds a palm branch). At 15–17, the Athenians, and not the Delphians, seemingly
invent the address παιὰν ἰὲ παιάν to, as they welcome the god’s arrival in Attica with
kithara-songs that present an aition for the technitai’s performances in the Pythais.
And last but not least, the Athenians are presented as an autochthonous Greek race of
peaceful farmers (19–20, 13–14), the very opposite of the wandering Gauls, the
warlike barbarians (31–2) whom Apollo turned away from Delphi (in 278/277 BCE ).
The objectives of Athenaeus’ paean seem to have been less ambitious. This text too
includes musical annotation and it resembles Limenius’ paean in structure. Both
paeans start with a long invocation to the Muses, inviting them to come, and praise
Apollo (Limenius 1–5, Athenaeus 1–8), while the last part of Athenaeus’ paean that
survives (19–27; the stone is in a bad condition), just like the final section of
Limenius’ paean (23–33) associates Apollo’s killing of the dragon Pytho (the foun-
dation myth of Delphi) with the god’s defeat of the Gauls. The middle sections differ.
Athenaeus does not seem to have dealt with the journey of Apollo from Delos to
Delphi and his stop-over at Athens but to have included instead a lengthy self-
description of the technitai, who present the Athenians as worshipping and them-
selves as playing the kithara for Apollo at Delphi (9–18). The technitai’s song for
Apollo (16) parallels the songs sung for him by the Muses in the opening section (4),
and the architecture of the passage as a whole recalls Homeric Hymn to Apollo
146–76, where we find a description of a blissful gathering of Ionians at the festival
of Apollo at Delos next to a description of the chorus of Delian maidens and an
authorial self-reference (Lonsdale 1993: 68–70).
As we saw, the longer remains of Limenius’ inscription include at the end some
lines which its preface calls a prosodion. In these lines, the singer asks Apollo to assist
and protect Athens and support the military power of Rome (33–40). The setup of
the song as a whole (a paean closing with a prosodion) and the content of the
prosodion (a prayer for the wellbeing of the patron city) have a parallel in Pindar’s
Paean 6 (Snell and Maehler 1964 ¼ D6 Rutherford 2001a), a text composed for a
Delphic Theoxenia that has survived on papyrus. Here the lacunose final section
(123–83) is marked off by an asteriskos and identified as a prosodion in a scholion to
line 124. It is certainly concerned with Aegina and its local hero, Aeacus, and very
likely contained a prayer to the gods involved in the Theoxenia for Aegina’s wellbeing
(so D’Alessio and Ferrari 1988; D’Alessio 1997: 49–59).
The precise relationship between the poems of Limenius and Athenaeus cannot be
established with certainty. Were both performed on the same occasion or does
Athenaeus’ paean belong to another Pythais, for example the previous one of 138
BCE ? The inscription honoring the technitai participating in the Pythais of 128
includes, together with Limenius, an ‘‘Athenaeus son of Athenaeus,’’ whom it is
194 Marco Fantuzzi

tempting to identify with the author of the preserved paean. The main objection to
this identification is that Athenaeus’ paean is very similar in wording, topoi, and
music to Limenius’ paean: it would be odd if two so similar songs had been
performed at the same festival by the same technitai. A text for the Pythais of 97
BCE throws some light at least on the similarity of the compositions in referring to the
song performed by the technitai on that occasion as πάτριοс παιάν, ‘‘the traditional
paian.’’ The paeans of Athenaeus and Limenius indeed look like variations on an
established pattern (Furley and Bremer 2001: 130–1). Yet their variance in the
middle section (Athenaeus 9–18, Limenius 6–22) is substantial and significant.
Limenius’ paean emphasizes the connection between Athens and Apollo in the past,
focusing on the celebration of Apollo’s coming to Athens with the first paean. With
this it provides an aition for the Athenian technitai’s singing of paeans to Apollo in
Delphi, the focus of Athenaeus’ paean, which emphasizes the connection between
Athens and Apollo in the present. Regardless of whether the two paeans were
performed on the same occasion, it seems plausible that they were inscribed on the
Treasury together because they complement each other as propaganda for the city
and technitai of Athens. What is more, it cannot be ruled out that the particle δέ in
the preface to Limenius’ paean (Παιὰν δὲ ϰαὶ π[ροсό]διον, ϰτλ.) points to a place-
ment close to Athenaeus’ (earlier) text, inviting a complementary reading of the two
inscriptions.
A third paean to Apollo, composed by Aristonous of Corinth, was found close to
the Athenian Treasury (42 Käppel). Although its inscription, which dates to the
fourth or third century BCE , cannot be linked to the Treasury with certainty, the
discourse of this paean too seems to have an Athenian dimension. The prose preface
resembles that of the paean of Philodamus and his brothers, stating that the
Delphians endorsed Aristonous’ paean by awarding him many privileges (proxeny
for him and his offspring, preferential consultation of the oracle, etc.). The paean
itself emphasizes Apollo’s gratitude for favors he receives, using myth as a paradigm
for present worship. In its treatment of Apollo’s coming to Delphi, a standard theme
we already saw in Limenius, it focuses on the help provided to the god by Athena,
who advised him to go to Delphi and persuaded Gaia and Themis to let him take over
their oracle (19–24), and on the honors with which he thanked her for her assistance,
to wit a share in his Delphic cult as ‘‘Athena Pronaia’’ (25–32). After outlining
Apollo’s gratitude to Athena, Aristonous adds that in fact many immortals –
Poseidon, the Corycian Nymphs, Dionysus, Artemis – bestowed gifts on Apollo,
enhancing the prestige of his cult (33–40). The logical connection is not made
explicit, but it is clearly implied that these gods give gifts because Apollo is a grateful
god who knows how to reciprocate. This idea is applied to the present in the next
and final strophe (41–8), where the author presents himself and other singers of this
song also as givers of gifts, which he hopes will be reciprocated: ‘‘May you find favor
with our songs, o ie Paian, and always give us wealth obtained with decency and grace
me with your protection’’ (χαρεὶс ὕμνοιс ἡμετέροιс, / ὄλβον ἐξ ὁсίων διδοὺс / ἀεὶ ϰαὶ
сώιζων ἐϕέποιс / ἡμαÐ с, ὢ ἰὲ Παιάν, 44–8).
This commerce of favors between singer and god in a hymnic context (do ut des)
recalls the Homeric Hymns, but by selecting the cult of Athena Pronaia as his
key example of Apollo’s generosity, Aristonous has focused the topos in a very
 Sung Poetry 195

specific way. It is commonly assumed that this emphasis reflects a pro-Athenian

agenda, not in the last place because both the prominence of Athena Pronaia and
Aristonous’ list of other gods associated with Delphic Apollo recall the prayer of the
priestess of Delphic Apollo which opens Aeschylus’ Eumenides (1–33, cf. esp. 21–9).
But if this is true it is strange that Athens is never mentioned in the paean. It is
possible that Aristonous, a Corinthian, was simply inspired by the construction at
Delphi of a new porch to Athena Pronaia (Vamvouri 2004: 212–16).

Tentative Conclusions
For the Archaic and Classical periods we have no archaeological or testimonial evidence
for paeans inscribed on stone. Paeans such as those composed by Pindar and
Bacchylides were transmitted through performance, oral transmission, and probably
a manuscript tradition of some sort; there is no reason to believe they were ever
inscribed. Yet their commissioners were surely no less concerned with durability than
their fourth-century and Hellenistic counterparts. A plausible reason why these texts
were inscribed seems to me that their authors or patrons were less prepared than their
predecessors to rely on re-performance as a sole or primary means of preservation. This
might also explain the elaborate contextualization of the songs, which provides a key to
a propagandistic subtext which might not have been so obvious in later re-perfor-
mances. The texts of Isyllus, Philodamus, Athenaeus, Limenius, and Aristonous all
show more or less complex strategies of self-legitimation and contextualization. All in
one way or another establish their own authority. Some of them thematize and justify
hymning a god other than Apollo, the original addressee of paeans. Some reserve much
space for promoting the author or patron. Some include, either within the paean or in
an accompanying text, the rules of the ceremony in which they were or are supposed to
be performed. This last element may perhaps be compared to Callimachus’ presenta-
tion, in his hymns to Apollo, Athena, and Demeter, of the celebration of a god at a
festival through a ‘‘master of ceremony’’ (h. 2, 5, 6), or to his re-use of sacred nomoi
especially in the hymn to Apollo (on which see I. Petrovic forthcoming). But it may also
draw on the tendency in Pindar’s victory odes ‘‘to represent the poet as creating the
song as the audience hears it’’ and mimic ‘‘the performance as experience’’ in the text
of the song (Carey 1995: 100 and 101; see also Slater 1969; Pfeijffer 1999).
The odd one out among the songs discussed in this chapter is the Erythraean
Paean, the oldest of the epigraphic paeans. Although it too subtly justifies the singing
of paeans to Asclepius, it is by far the least contextualized and most generic paean of
the series, easily separable from (and in later versions indeed separated from) the
religious law that accompanies its earliest incarnation. I have suggested above that the
conformity to generic rules and sheer simplicity of this paean may be a stratagem
rather than a sign of literary poverty, as has often been assumed. It would be wrong to
conclude on the basis of this text that after the fifth century religious poetry became
less concerned with its function and occasion of performance, or more broadly its
social setting. While the conditions for the composition and performance of religious
poetry changed in the fourth and third centuries – as did the position of authors,
196 Marco Fantuzzi

patrons, and sanctuaries – context remains a vital concern in these poems and crucial
to the interpretation of their underlying messages. In this respect they are not far
removed from the topicality of the paeans of Pindar and Bacchylides or from the self-
propaganda which Pisistratus or Polycrates managed to include in the Homeric Hymn
to Apollo.
Perhaps more typically Hellenistic in these paeans is their tendency toward self-
conscious innovation, intertextuality, self-justification, and self-reflection. This is not
to say that we should imagine their poets as local Callimachuses, eager to construct a
new poetics and redefine the genre (Kolde 2002/3: 163). What we can see at work in
these poems is a general awareness of contemporary poetic trends and techniques
in conjunction with a pronounced concern with contextualization. Their ‘‘reality
effects’’ differ somewhat from those pursued in ‘‘high’’ poetry in hexameters and
elegiacs which represents the experience of taking part in a religious festival, such as
Theocritus’ Adoniazusae (Id. 15) and Callimachus’ hymns to Apollo, Athena, and
Demeter, poems whose ‘‘realism’’ is at least in part fictional (Bulloch in this volume).
Yet the concern with realism per se is shared, and these poems likewise brim with
encomiastic elements and politically charged discourse. We should therefore perhaps
not rule out the possibility that, in its concern with politics and contextualization, the
fictionalized festival poetry of authors such as Callimachus and Theocritus reflects
religious poetry such as the paeans discussed in this chapter, that is to say, poetry
composed for actual religious festivals.

FURTHER READING

The most comprehensive edition of the paeans and other religious lyric poems from the
Hellenistic Age is still Powell 1925. All the paeans have been re-edited in Käppel 1992, with
testimonia for the genre and extensive bibliography, and most of them also appear in Furley and
Bremer 2001, with English translations and commentary.
Good surveys of the genre, from the Archaic to the Hellenistic Age, are provided by Käppel
1992 and Rutherford 2001a. Käppel’s analyses of the Erythraean Paean and Philodamus’
paean should be read with the qualifications of Schröder 1999. See also Vollgraff 1924–27,
Reiner 1975, and Stewart 1982. For the political implications of the paeans of Limenius,
Athenaeus, Philodamus, and Aristonous, see especially Vamvouri 2004 (on Limenius, already
Vamvouri 1998); on Limenius and Athenaeus, see further Bélis 1988. For Isyllus’ inscription,
Kolde 2003 is fundamental; see also Kolde 2002/3, Sineux 1999, Stehle 1997: 132–7,
Wilamowitz 1886. For a survey of Greek sacred laws, see Lupu 2005: 3–112.
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Aratus
Katharina Volk

Students are often surprised to learn that Aratus of Soloi was one of the most
popular writers of antiquity. His Phaenomena was hailed by contemporaries, quickly
became a school text, gave rise to an extensive commentary tradition, and continued
to be widely studied into the Middle Ages. It also engaged the imagination of
Roman writers like no other Greek work, inspiring an unparalleled number of
Latin translations and imitations. To modern tastes this success is hard to under-
stand. How is it possible that readers from Callimachus to Cicero and beyond were
so fascinated by a poem on constellations and weather signs, a subject matter that, as
Quintilian observed, ‘‘is without liveliness, variety, emotions, characters, or a single
speech’’ (Inst. 10.1.55; not entirely correct: the character Dike delivers a short
speech in 123–6)? The fact that we are so well informed about the Phaenomena’s
reception makes it harder for us to look at the poem without prejudice; how can
we abstract from what we know about the reactions of, say, Hipparchus or Ovid?
As far as his modern readers are concerned, Aratus is a poet undone by his own
success.
If we try to understand not what became of Aratus but where he was coming from,
we also run into problems. The ancient biographical evidence (surveyed by Martin
1998: xi–xlviii) does not allow us to construct a coherent picture of the intellectual
and political context of Aratus’ work. It is reasonably well established that the poet
spent time in Athens consorting with early Stoics such as Zeno and Persaeus, and that
he accepted an invitation to the court of Antigonus Gonatas in the early 270s. Yet we
are unable to trace the influence of specific individuals or circumstances on Aratus’
poetry. As for the literary affiliations of the Phaenomena, the work’s apparent origin-
ality may to some extent be a mirage: it is possible that Aratus was the first to write a
scientific didactic poem based on prose sources, but we know next to nothing of the
didactic poetry of the fourth century, and what appears as innovation may well have
198 Katharina Volk

been part of an ongoing trend. Finally, the identity of Aratus’ sources themselves
remains controversial: Jean Martin has recently challenged the communis opinio (in
place since Hipparchus) that the astronomical part of the poem is based on Eudoxus’
Phaenomena and Enoptron, maintaining that the ‘‘Eudoxan’’ quotes in Hipparchus’
commentary come from a work that postdates Aratus (1998: lxxxvi–cxxv). Regarding
the section on weather signs, numerous theories have addressed its source and its
relationship to the pseudo-Theophrastan On Weather Signs; David Sider now sug-
gests that, like the first part of the poem, it is based on Eudoxus, who may have
treated both astronomy and meteorology in the same work (Sider and Brunschön
2007: 16–18 and 42).
Reading Aratus through his reception runs the risk of introducing anachronisms,
while viewing him in his historical and cultural context is made difficult by the dearth
of evidence. In this chapter I will therefore concentrate largely on the poem itself and
through a discussion of a (necessarily limited) number of its features attempt to arrive
at a general understanding of what the Phaenomena ‘‘is about,’’ before concluding
with a brief look at the work’s later fortune.
As has often been pointed out, there are fundamentally three ways of interpreting
the poem’s character and purpose. An obvious first approach is to view it as a manual
intended to teach astronomy and forecasting the weather. Within the text, the poet
explicitly instructs an anonymous student in these arts, which – as he points out
repeatedly – are especially useful to those engaged in agriculture and navigation.
While it is fairly obvious that this is a conceit and that Aratus was not writing for
actual farmers and sailors (compare Magnelli in this volume on Nicander), it is
perfectly possible to use his poem, especially the first part, as a genuine source of
information, and generations of Greek and Roman schoolchildren actually learned
their constellations from the Phaenomena. Still, the poem was clearly not intended as
a textbook, and while the history of its use as such is interesting (Why was a poem
used for teaching a scientific subject?), it must not distract us from trying to under-
stand the text itself.
If the Phaenomena is not serious about teaching astronomy, is it instead simply a
bravura piece of verbal art? This second interpretation, which casts Aratus as an
aesthete first and foremost interested in creating a charming and original poem, is
characteristic of the school of thought that considers Hellenistic poetry primarily
sophisticated play and art for art’s sake. Whether this is viewed as positive or negative
depends largely on the taste of the individual critic: Kroll (1925: 1847–50) delivers a
famous and amusing piece of Aratus-bashing, while Fakas (2001) puts a more positive
spin on the poet’s perceived aestheticism.
Most scholars agree, however, that rather than being straightforwardly didactic
or playfully formalist, the Phaenomena is expressive of larger themes that have to
do with the nature of the universe and the place of man in this world (Erren 1967;
Effe 1977a: 40–56; Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 224–45; Hunter 2008a: 1.153–
88). Individual readings of this third type differ considerably, but some kind of
‘‘philosophical’’ interpretation (in the widest sense) appears to be the most common
approach to the poem today. The following observations fall in the same
category.
 Aratus 199

The Song and Manner of Hesiod

One of the earliest critical responses to the Phaenomena, and by far the most famous,
is an epigram by Callimachus (27 Pf. ¼ 56 GP), whose first two-and-a-half lines run
as follows:

Ἡсιόδου τό τ’ ἄειсμα ϰαὶ ὁ τρόποс οὐ τὸν ἀοιδὸν

ἔсχατον ἀλλ’ ὀϰνέω μὴ τὸ μελιχρότατον
τωÐ ν ἐπέων ὁ Σολεὺс ἀπεμάξατο.
The song and the manner are Hesiod’s. The man from Soloi has not copied the singer to
his full extent but has without a doubt wiped off the honey-sweetest of his verse.

The poet’s typically opaque language and complex syntax have given rise to heated
scholarly discussions that are closely bound up with beliefs about Hellenistic aes-
thetic ideas and ‘‘Callimachean’’ poetics. Many critics have understood the phrase
τὸν ἀοιδὸν ἔсχατον (or, with Scaliger’s emendation, τὸν ἀοιδωÐ ν ἔсχατον) as ‘‘the
ultimate poet’’ and interpreted it as referring to Homer (Reitzenstein 1931: 42–6;
Reinsch-Werner 1976: 9–12). On this reading, the epigram is evidence for the
supposed preference of Hellenistic poets (especially Callimachus) for Hesiod over
Homer as a poetic model, on the grounds that no one could rival Homer anyway.
Aratus would thus be commended for his prudent choice of imitating the sweetest
poet while leaving alone the best. This interpretation is suspect on linguistic grounds
alone, however, and it is far preferable to understand τὸν ἀοιδὸν ἔсχατον as ‘‘the
poet to the very end,’’ i.e., to his full extent (Kaibel 1894: 120–3; Gow and Page
1965 ad loc.; Cameron 1995a: 374–9): Aratus did not follow Hesiod in everything,
but ‘‘skimmed off’’ (ἀπεμάξατο) only particularly attractive features of his poetry.
As we shall see, this makes excellent sense as a description of Aratus’ eclectic practice
of imitation and in no way implies that he – or, for that matter, Callimachus or
any other Hellenistic poet or critic – considered Hesiod an a priori more eligible
model, whether as opposed to Homer (who plays no role in the epigram) or
anybody else.
But what makes the Phaenomena a Hesiodic poem? Callimachus’ designation need
mean little more than that it is a didactic poem, a genre believed to have originated
with Hesiod. However, more detailed examination shows that Aratus consciously
endeavored to create his own version specifically of the Works and Days, at points
adhering closely to his Archaic model, at others deviating from it (Fakas 2001). On a
purely stylistic level, his metrical practice is remarkably similar to Hesiod’s (Porter
1946), even though his choice of vocabulary is very much indebted to Homer: Aratus
rejoices in employing rare Homeric words in new and surprising contexts (Ludwig
1963: 442–5; Kidd 1997: 24–5) and he even attempts to mimic the Homeric
Kunstsprache by inventing archaic-sounding morphological variants (Kroll 1925:
1849–50; Kidd 1997: 25–6). As we can still tell from the biographical sources,
ancient critics were therefore undecided whether Aratus might not be an emulator
of Homer rather than Hesiod (Vitae 2 and 4 in Martin 1974, pp. 12.7–18 and
21.7–8; Reitzenstein 1931: 43–4).
200 Katharina Volk

In terms of content, however, the parallels to the Works and Days are clear. Both
poems fall into two parts – Works followed by Days vis-à-vis Phaenomena followed by
Diosemeiai – while also employing a kind of agglutinative method of composition, by
which new topics are ‘‘tacked on’’ without readily apparent motivation (Fakas 2001:
66–84). Both Hesiod and Aratus address themselves, at least nominally, to farmers
and sailors, offering instructions to help them do their jobs more successfully. At the
same time, it is clear that the ultimate topic of their works is the human condition in
general: both the Archaic poet and his Hellenistic follower endeavor to explain why
life is the way it is and how human beings ought to deal with it. Both ascribe a central
role to Zeus as the power that has brought about and is in charge of the current state
of affairs.
Apart from these large-scale similarities, the nitty-gritty concerns of the Works and
Days and the Phaenomena are mostly different: Hesiod chides his brother, offers
advice to the kings, and gives instructions on farming, while Aratus describes in detail
the constellations and the various methods of foretelling the weather to an anonym-
ous addressee. Hesiod’s use of equinoxes and solstices and the rising and setting of
constellations to mark the seasons would appear to be an interesting parallel to
Aratus’ topics, but this particular practice is for the most part only implied in the
Phaenomena. There are but two passages in Aratus where the poet engages closely
with comparable sections of Hesiod. These are the proem with its hymn to Zeus
(1–18), which harks back to the beginning of the Works and Days (1–10), and
the myth of Dike (96–136), an amalgam of Hesiod’s account of the races of men
(WD 109–201) and his description of the ‘‘maiden Dike’’ as a guardian of justice
(WD 220–62). Both passages are central to the worldview of the Phaenomena and
have been much discussed (on the proem, see Erren 1967: 9–31; Fakas 2001: 5–66;
on Dike, Schiesaro 1996; Fakas 2001: 149–75; Bellandi, Berti, and Ciappi 2001).
They cannot be treated in detail here, but the general difference in outlook between
Hesiod and Aratus will become clear in what follows.

A World Full of Signs

Aratus famously begins his poem ‘‘from Zeus, whom men never leave unmentioned’’
and who is said to fill the roads, squares, sea, and harbors (1–4). He, whose progeny
we are (5), ‘‘kindly gives propitious signs to humans’’ (ὁ δ’ ἤπιοс ἀνθρώποιсι /
δεξιὰ сημαίνει, 5–6), with the intention of rousing them to work; in particular, he has
fixed the stars as signs (сήματα, 10) in the sky, so that they might signal (сημαίνοιεν, 12)
the appropriate times for agricultural activities (10–13). Because of all this Zeus is
worthy of worship, and the poet calls upon him (14–16) before turning to the Muses
and asking them for assistance with his song about the stars (16–18).
In addition to announcing the poem’s topic, this proem neatly states the
Phaenomena’s conception of the world as a cosmos full of benevolent signs from an
omnipresent god who has the welfare of human beings at heart. The contrast to
Hesiod could not be more pronounced: Zeus as described in the proem to the Works
and Days (3–7) is all-powerful, but his ability to raise and oppress human beings at
 Aratus 201

will is threatening rather than reassuring, and in hiding the livelihood of men (42, 47,
50), he acts in a manner diametrically opposed to that of Aratus’ Zeus, who by means
of his propitious signs ‘‘reminds people of their livelihood’’ (μιμνήсϰων βιότοιο, 7;
Hunter 2008a: 1.157–8).
Scholars have often characterized the worldview of the proem, and of the
Phaenomena as a whole, as fundamentally Stoic (Erren 1967; Gee 2000: 70–91;
White in this volume; differently Fakas 2001; Lewis 1992: 105–8; Bulloch in this
volume). After all, the Stoics identified Zeus with the fiery logos or pneuma that is
present throughout the cosmos, shaping and directing everything according to divine
pronoia. This belief is in evidence in Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus, which is contemporary
to the Phaenomena and shows a number of similarities to its proem (James 1972;
Bulloch and White in this volume). As we have seen, the biographical tradition, too,
associates Aratus with members of the Stoic school, and later readers of the
Phaenomena clearly interpreted the poem as a Stoic text (Lewis 1992: 105–8).
However, while there are certainly similarities to and affinities with Stoic ideas, the
philosophy of the poem can hardly be described as orthodox Stoicism (and note at
any rate that, as Hunter 2008a: 1.158–9 points out, Stoic dogma was probably still
being developed at the time Aratus was writing). Unlike Cleanthes, Aratus does not
use typical Stoic vocabulary (Lewis 1992: 107, with n.41), and his cosmology shows
crucial differences from the Stoic view. Stoic natural philosophy is characterized by
pantheism: the god (‘‘Zeus’’) is everywhere in the sense that he physically permeates
the universe, which is entirely material and forms an unbroken continuum. Despite
scholars’ repeated claims to the contrary (James 1972: 36; Kidd 1997: 10; Gee 2000:
72–3), this view is absent from the Phaenomena. When Aratus observes that all roads,
squares, and harbors as well as the sea are ‘‘full of Zeus’’ (μεсταὶ/ὴ Διόс, 2–3), he is
referring not to a physical presence but to the god’s interaction with human beings
(Erren 1967: 18–19; Martin 1998 ad loc.). The places enumerated are not features of
the natural world as much as areas of human activity. This is true even for the sea,
which was no doubt chosen qua locus of navigation and forms a pair with the harbors:
the sea leads to the harbors as the roads lead to the squares. Any human activity,
Aratus stipulates, depends on the support of Zeus: ‘‘at all times we are all in need of
Zeus’’ (πάντη δὲ Διὸс ϰεχρήμεθα πάντεс, 4); and this unending support consists in
the propitious signs given by the god (10–13). This is a far cry from Stoic physics:
instead of physical continuity, we have a continuity of communication.
The idea of the sign is central to the Phaenomena, as is apparent from the fact that
forms of the noun сηÐ μα (sēma, pl. sēmata) ‘‘sign’’ appear 47 times in the course of the
poem, those of the verb (ἐπι)сημαίνω ‘‘to signal’’ 11 times. The near-obsessive
repetition of these and similar keywords – another frequent one is (ἐπι)τεϰμαίρομαι
‘‘to conjecture on the base of a sign’’ (15 times) – drives home the message that
Aratus is not interested in natural phenomena (e.g., the constellations) as such, but
only in as much as they are part of the cosmic system of signs that has its origin in the
benevolence of Zeus. In Aratus’ universe, we are constantly confronted with signs
that speak to us and, if we but know how to listen, signal important information.
But what exactly is the signified of Aratus’ signs? It very much depends – and it is
not always entirely clear. In the proem, Zeus is said to have fixed the stars in the sky to
signpost agricultural activities, which would point to the use of the risings and
202 Katharina Volk

settings of individual constellations as seasonal markers, a time-honored practice that

we see reflected in Hesiod’s Works and Days and in the Greek and Roman farmer’s
almanac-type astrometeorological calendars known as parapēgmata (on this trad-
ition, see Lehoux 2007). However, when describing the constellations, Aratus makes
only occasional mention of this use of the stars or indeed of their seasonal risings and
settings (149–55, 158–9, 264–7, 285–310, 329–37); only later, and then very much
in passing, does he refer to the possibility of marking the seasons by means of the
stars, taking the morning rising of Arcturus as his example (741–51).
In the course of his description of the constellations (which has often been
compared to an ecphrasis of a work of art and which the poet may very well have
composed with an actual star globe in hand), Aratus often uses the word sēma to refer
to a star or star group in its capacity, not as a sign for something outside the sky (the
beginning of the plowing season, say), but as a pointer to something within the sky,
for example, another constellation (which in turn, of course, has the potential to be a
sign for something else). Consider, for example, the following description of the head
of Taurus (168–71):

τὰ δέ οἱ μάλ’ ἐοιϰότα сήματα ϰειÐ ται,

τοίη οἱ ϰεϕαλὴ διαϰέϰριται οὐδέ τιс ἄλλωι
сήματι τεϰμήραιτο ϰάρη βοόс, οιffl ά μιν αὐτοὶ
ἀсτέρεс ἀμϕοτέρωθεν ἑλιссόμενοι τυπόωсι.
The way the head is marked out, there are very clear signs for that. And one need not
conjecture the head of the Bull by any other sign, given how the revolving stars
themselves model it on both sides.

Usually, Aratus enables the reader to find a constellation by explaining its spatial
relationship to another one, which acts as its sign, as in the following (246–7):

Ἀνδρομέδηс δέ τοι ω μοс ἀριсτερὸс Ἰχθύοс ἔсτω

сηÐ μα βορειοτέρου μάλα γάρ νύ οἱ ἐγγύθεν ἐсτίν.
Let the left shoulder of Andromeda be your sign for the more northerly Fish, for it is very
close to it.

With the Bull, such an external sign is not needed, as the stars that make up the
constellation are sufficiently clear as signs on their own, defining the outline of the
head in such a way that it is obvious to any observer. However, in both cases we are
dealing with signs of signs: while the constellations themselves are, it is implied, signs of
(for instance) seasonal change, human beings are also in need of, as it were, secondary
signs in order to be able to identify the more important signs in the first place.
The idea of the secondary sign returns in the section on simultaneous risings and
settings (559–732). Aratus explains that one can tell time at night by observing the
risings of the signs of the zodiac (of which six rise in the course of every night). Since,
however, the zodiacal constellations may well be obscured at the moment they come
over the horizon, the poet recommends watching out also for stars that rise (or set) at
exactly the same time: these, he says, will be useful signs (565), for they point at the
signs of the zodiac, which in turn signal the time of night.
 Aratus 203

After a short transitional passage about the phases of the moon and the seasons of
the year, Aratus in line 758 turns to the topic of weather signs. In this discussion,
unlike in the preceding astronomical section, every sign is immediately correlated
with its significance: a slender and clear moon on the third day forecasts good weather
(783–4), cackling chickens predict rain (960–2), etc. Part of the poet’s treatment is
even arranged, not by sign, but by signified, that is, by type of weather (909–1043:
signs for wind, rain, fair weather, and storm). Generally speaking, then, in the course
of the Phaenomena Aratus’ signs become more and more concrete, just as they
become more lowly and commonplace. We start with the constellations, whose status
as signs is repeatedly asserted but rarely explained, while the poet dwells instead on
what I have called secondary signs. We then move to the observation of everyday
environments, objects, and especially animals, whose signification, if we believe
Aratus, is entirely straightforward. It has been argued that this movement from the
theoretical (‘‘there are signs everywhere’’) to the practical (‘‘here are a few dozen
specific signs’’) has a protreptic function: Aratus introduces the student into his world
full of signs and gradually accustoms him to observing and making use of these signs
himself (Erren 1967: 227–64). Fittingly, the poem ends with an exhortation to watch
out for signs at all times (1142–54). If we do so, we will ‘‘never make a conjecture in
vain’’ (οὐδέποτε сχεδίωс ϰεν . . . τεϰμήραιο, 1154); we will always be able to count
on the unceasing communication from Zeus.
The Phaenomena is all about signs: not about imparting a body of knowledge
about specific signs, but about the idea of signification itself. Aratus may give us a
fairly complete description of the constellations and an at least rather extensive
catalogue of weather signs (which he himself once interrupts with the rhetorical
question, ‘‘Why should I tell you all the signs there are for humans?’’ 1036–7).
However (and despite its later reception), the purpose of the poem is not to provide
a full course in astronomy or meteorology. As Richard Hunter puts it, ‘‘‘didactic
poetry’ does not have to be comprehensive to be ‘didactic’’’ (2008a: 1.174); by
selectively treating only part of a specific scientific field, Aratus makes the larger point
that nature is an infinite divine sign system.
But what, we may ask, are the theoretical underpinnings of Aratus’ semiotics?
This question is by no means anachronistic. Greek thinkers, especially in the
Hellenistic period, were deeply concerned with the nature of signification and with
the relationship between the sign and its signified, or, as they typically thought of
it, that which can be inferred from it (Manetti 1993; Allen 2001; Barnouw 2002).
A crucial question was whether sign and signified necessarily had to be in a causal
relationship or whether a sign was simply that which repeated observation had
shown to accompany or precede a given phenomenon. The topic is discussed in
Cicero’s dialogue On Divination, where the author’s interlocutor, his brother
Quintus, sticks to the empirical position while he himself upholds the necessity of
causal explanation (Hankinson 1988a; Lehoux 2006). In the course of his exposition,
Quintus quotes a number of passages from his brother’s own translation of the
weather signs section of the Astronomica, arguing that these signs are valid even
though it is quite unclear how, if at all, they physically relate to the outcomes they
predict (Div. 1.13–16). In Cicero’s view, Aratus’ signs are at the very heart of
the debate.
204 Katharina Volk

But what about the Phaenomena itself? On the whole, Aratus gives little indication
how the signs he describes relate to the phenomena they signify. As we have seen, he
does not even always indicate exactly what they signify, and in the grand scheme of
his poem, the fact that there is ubiquitous signification is more important than what
each of the single innumerable signs actually has to tell us. However, once we look
more closely, we find that signification is in fact presented in a wide variety of ways.
Most signs are simply signs, but some of them actually appear to be caused by the
very (meteorological) phenomena they predict. Thus, for example, when the sun’s
center is very bright, but its rays are dispersed to the south and north (829–30), this
may be because it ‘‘is passing through either rain or wind’’ (831). The bad weather
causes the sun to look the way it does, which is why in turn its appearance can serve
as a sign of bad weather (cf. also 787, 798, 834–5, 874–6, 1006–7). Conversely, a
sign may be the cause of its signified: the Kids and Capella, for example, are said to
‘‘put into motion’’ (ϰινηÐ сαι, 682) storms (cf. also 816–17, 838–9, 887–8, 1084–5).
On a few occasions, a sign appears to work by analogy. Thus, both hens (961–2)
and ravens (966–7) are said to imitate the sound of approaching rain with their
cries, while the fruit-bearing patterns of mastich and squill mirror those of the
harvest (1044–63) and the arrival of the crane coincides with the arrival of winter
(1075–81).
At some fundamental level, of course, all signs can be traced back to the agency
of Zeus, and Aratus comes back periodically to the god’s role as the ultimate giver of
signs (264–7, 741–3, 769–72, 963–6). But other figures are credited with giving
signs as well, including Dionysus (71–3), personified Night (408–12, 418–19), and
the gods in general (732), and on a number of occasions the signs themselves are
said to communicate with humans, for example, the moon, which ‘‘teaches’’ (734,
793) and ‘‘speaks to’’ (739, 773) its observers (cf. 775–6, 1048, 1071). Most
strikingly, at least some of the animate signs are readers of signs in their own right:
the calves, whose behavior serves as a weather sign for humans, themselves ‘‘conjec-
ture’’ (τεϰμαίρονται, 1121) the arrival of a storm, as does the dog, which behaves as it
does because it ‘‘expects’’ (δοϰεύων, 1136) a particular kind of weather.
In a properly Stoic universe, all these phenomena could be explained with refer-
ence to the world’s physical continuity, in which everything is connected to every-
thing else by the principle of sympatheia and everything happens according to an
unbroken chain of cause and effect. Aratus’ universe is compatible with the Stoic
universe, but it is not described in Stoic terms. Rather than offering a coherent
theory of the link between sign and signified, or between sign and signifying agent,
the poet concentrates instead on the fact of signification itself. His attitude may be
expressed in the line that concludes the discussion of weather signs (1141), where
mice are described as desiring rest at the approach of rain, ὅτ’ ὄμβρου сήματα ϕαίνει.
The reading ϕαίνει is not unanimously transmitted (though preferable to the variant
ϕαίνοι), and it is unclear how the verb is to be construed. But as there is no other
possible subject, it is probably best to take сήματα as a nominative and posit an
unparalleled impersonal use of the verb (Kidd 1997 and Martin 1998 ad loc.):
сήματα ϕαίνει thus simply means ‘‘signs show.’’ This, in a nutshell, is the message
of the Phaenomena.
 Aratus 205

Signs and the Poet

It is Aratus’ avowed purpose to ‘‘speak of the stars’’ (17) and to tell his students at
least some of the overwhelmingly many signs that exist for the benefit of human
beings (1036–7). Just as the world is a continuum of signification, the Phaenomena,
too, is full of signs that are made apparent (ϕαινόμενα) by the poet. The text is thus a
microcosm of the universe it describes (Gee 2000: 70–91; Hunter 2008a: 1.160–6),
and scholars have pointed in particular to one passage where Aratus appears to
comment self-consciously on the process of identifying and interpreting signs that
his work endeavors to teach. This is the famous acrostic in lines 783–7, first identified
by Jean-Marie Jacques in 1960 (see also Levitan 1979; Haslam 1992):

Lεπτὴ μὲν ϰαθαρή τε περὶ τρίτον η μαρ ἐουÐ сα

Eὔδιόс ϰ’ εἴη, λεπτὴ δὲ ϰαὶ ευ μάλ’ ἐρευθὴс
Pνευματίη, παχίων δὲ ϰαὶ ἀμβλείηιсι ϰεραίαιс
Tέτρατον ἐϰ τριτάτοιο ϕόωс ἀμενηνὸν ἔχουсα
H νότωι ἄμβλυνται ἢ ὕδατοс ἐγγὺс ἐόντοс.
When the moon is slender and clear around the third day, it should be a sign of fair
weather; if it is slender and very red, of wind; but if, thicker and with blunted horns,
moving from the third to the fourth day, it shows feeble light, then it is blurred by a
south wind or because rain is near.

The word λεπτή (leptē) ‘‘slender, thin, subtle’’ is there for us to detect just as we will
be able to detect – once instructed by Aratus – the various signs in the natural world.
That we are to take the acrostic as a comment on the nature of signs and sign reading
is made additionally likely by a shortly preceding passage, in which Aratus avows that
‘‘men do not yet know everything from Zeus, but many things are still hidden’’
(768–70). Even these, however, the god may reveal ‘‘if he wishes’’ (770–1), as he
generally ‘‘benefits the human race openly’’ (771) and ‘‘shows signs everywhere’’
(772). To the observant reader, λεπτή is such a hidden sign that is suddenly revealed.
Of a similar ‘‘meta-semiotic’’ nature is the much-remarked-on pun in the poem’s
second line, where the word ἄρρητον (‘‘unmentioned’’) cleverly alludes to the poet’s
own name (Levitan 1979: 68 n.18; Kidd 1981: 355; Hopkinson 1988: 139; Bing
1990). As has been shown, at least some of Aratus’ more sophisticated early readers
apparently caught on to both the pun and the acrostic (Bing 1990; Cameron 1995a:
321–8).
Modern scholars have been fascinated by the fact that the word formed by Aratus’
acrostic (which also shows up twice in the text of the five lines: 783, 784) should, of
all things, be λεπτή. While the poet is apparently alluding to an (accidental) acrostic in
Iliad 24.1–5, which spells out the similar word λευϰή (‘‘white’’), it is certainly
suggestive that he is using an adjective long associated with the poetic program of
Callimachus. What is more, Callimachus himself in epigram 27 hails the Phaenomena
as λεπταὶ / ρ ήсιεс, ‘‘subtle discourses’’ (3–4). Critics have been happy to jump to the
conclusion that Aratus was an adherent of the Callimachean aesthetic ideal of
206 Katharina Volk

λεπτότηс (‘‘slenderness, subtlety’’); that he cleverly signaled his allegiance not only in
the Phaenomena as a whole, but in his cunning acrostic, which was exactly the sort of
thing to be picked up by the sophisticated readers able to appreciate the kind of
poetry Callimachus and Aratus were trying to promote; and that Callimachus in turn
recognized Aratus as a soul mate and advertised his achievement in epigram 27
(Jacques 1960: 53–9; Reinsch-Werner 1976: 12–4; Bing 1990: 281–2).
This scenario is the current communis opinio. However, there are serious problems
with it (Cameron 1995a: 321–8). Leaving aside the vexed question of what
Callimachus’ poetic ideal actually was, and whether the Phaenomena would have
conformed to it, we should note that there is nothing in the acrostic and its context
to suggest that λεπτή has a metapoetic significance (Asper 1997: 182). Holders of the
majority view would respond that the adjective would easily have been recognizable as
a Callimachean buzzword – as indeed it is to students of Classics today. There is no
reason to believe that this is true, though. While Callimachus certainly likes to use
metaphors of size when talking about poetry (Asper 1997: 135–207), the word
λεπτόс is hardly ever found in the extant Callimachean corpus: besides the λεπ-
ταὶ ρ ήсιεс of epigram 27, there is only the famous ΜουÐ сα λεπταλέη (‘‘slender
Muse’’) of the Aetia prologue (fr. 1.24 Pf.), which employs a derivative of the
adjective. As for the ϰατὰ λεπτὸν ρ ήсιεс (‘‘discourses in the slender style’’) of
Mimnermus putatively mentioned earlier in that same prologue (11–12), not only
is ρ ήсιεс a conjecture by Augusto Rostagni (whose unlikelihood Cameron 1995a:
321–2 demonstrates), but as has recently been shown, ϰατὰ λεπτόν is not in fact a
possible reading of the London scholia (on which we rely for this part of the text).
The early editors appear to have been misled exactly by their desire to find an
additional form of λεπτόс in Callimachus (Bastianini 1996b; Luppe 1997).
Unless λεπτόс made a frequent appearance in those parts of Callimachus’ oeuvre
lost to us but known to Aratus, it seems unlikely that the author of the Phaenomena
would have been able to identify the adjective as a keyword of his contemporary’s
poetics and use it accordingly in his own work (that Callimachus and Aratus were
contemporaries is assured, but the relative chronology of their works is unclear, and
there is no reason to believe that they knew each other personally: Negri 2000). On
the contrary, it appears that λεπτόс was associated by Hellenistic poets not so much
with Callimachus as indeed with Aratus himself, whom Leonidas of Tarentum praises
for expounding the stars λεπτηÐ ι ϕροντίδι ‘‘with a subtle mind’’ (101 GP ¼ AP 9.25),
and a King Ptolemy calls λεπτολόγοс ‘‘of subtle speech’’ (SH 712.4). It is possible
that these authors, as well as Callimachus in epigram 27, are simply responding to the
λεπτή-acrostic. I would argue, however, that λεπτότηс is indeed a central concept of
the Phaenomena’s poetics, though in a sense that has very little to do with the
presumed aesthetics of Callimachus.
Forms of the word λεπτόс appear nine times in the Phaenomena, a not inconsid-
erable number. Two occur in the passage that forms the acrostic and refer to the
crescent moon (783, 784), one concerns light spider webs (1033), and another
describes the faint glow inside a burning piece of charcoal (1042). In all other cases,
Aratus uses λεπτόс to indicate stars or constellations of little brilliance: parts
of Ophiuchus (80), the Kids (166), Libra (607), and the Asses (894, 906).
Throughout the Phaenomena, the poet takes great care to distinguish between
 Aratus 207

greater and smaller, brighter and less visible stars, and λεπτόс is but one of his
expressions to designate constellations that are less easy to make out. Others include
ἐλαϕρόс ‘‘light’’ (81, 337, 519), νωθήс ‘‘dull’’ (228), ἀνάсτεροс ‘‘starless’’ (228,
349), ἀϕαυρόс ‘‘weak’’ (256, 277, 569), ἀϕεγγήс ‘‘lightless’’ (264), ἠερόειс and
ἠέριοс ‘‘murky’’ (276, 317, 349, 385), ϰυάνεοс ‘‘dark’’ (329, 398, 702), γλαυϰόс
‘‘gray’’ (369), χαροπόс ‘‘dull’’ (394, 594), and ἀναλδήс ‘‘feeble’’ (394).
Differentiation by stellar magnitude is, of course, a scientific procedure, but it seems
that Aratus is not aiming solely at astronomical exactitude. It would appear that he
has a special fondness for signs that are λεπτόс – small, subtle, and difficult to read – as
we can infer already from his famous juxtaposition of the two Bears (Hübner 2005:
142–9). While the Greeks navigate by Helice, the Great Bear, the Phoenicians rely on
the Little Bear, Cynosura (37–9). Helice is very bright and easy to make out (40–1),
but Cynosura – though ‘‘slight’’ (ὀλίγη, 42) – is the much better sign (42–4). In this,
his very first description of two constellations, Aratus is signaling to his readers that
when it comes to signs, smaller (or more λεπτόс) is often better.
The poet’s fascination with hard-to-perceive stars continues throughout the astro-
nomical section of the Phaenomena. He calls special attention to an unnamed star
cluster underneath Lepus that has little brilliance (ὀλίγηι . . . αἴγληι, 367) and no
name (νώνυμοι, 370). As these stars do not appear in a recognizable shape (370–3),
they were ignored by the name-giver of the constellations (373–85). However, they
are not ignored by Aratus, who by his negative aition (the story of the first astron-
omer does not explain anything about the non-constellation) draws disproportionally
great attention to them. Another cluster difficult to make out (ἐπιсϰέψαсθαι ἀϕαυραί,
256) are the Pleiades, which are so faint that only six of their supposed seven stars are
actually visible (258–61). Nevertheless, the poet stresses, the Pleiades are extremely
important, for their risings and settings signal (сημαίνειν, 267) the changing seasons
(264–7).
An extreme example of Aratus’ wish to find signs where (next to) none are percep-
tible is his description of the constellation Argo (342–52). As is apparent from the
name, Argo’s stars were believed to outline a ship – but only its rear half. Aratus
describes this phenomenon as follows (349–50):

ϰαὶ τὰ μὲν ἠερίη ϰαὶ ἀνάсτεροс ἄχρι παρ’ αὐτὸν

ἱсτὸν ἀπὸ πρώρηс ϕέρεται, τὰ δὲ παÐ сα ϕαεινή.
On the one side, from the prow all the way to the mast, it is carried along dim and
starless; on the other side, it is entirely bright.

This is a paradoxical way of talking about the constellation: after all, Argo does not
have a prow. It is as if the poet is able to make out signs where no one else can see
them and to conjecture the existence of the second half of the ship, which to his
discerning eye is there, even if on the surface of appearances, there are no stars to
indicate its outline.
Anybody can identify the Great Bear or, presumably, the bright stern of Argo.
Aratus’ poem teaches us to distinguish more subtle signs – and the subtler, the better.
One of the poet’s terms for the subtle nature of a sign is λεπτόс, and I suggest that
this is why he chose this word for his acrostic, which is itself a subtle sign and
208 Katharina Volk

encapsulates the poetics of the Phaenomena, a poem in which a poet with a subtle
mind (λεπτηÐ ι ϕροντίδι, Leonidas of Tarentum) expounds subtle signs and thus creates
a subtle discourse (λεπταὶ ρ ήсιεс, Callimachus; cf. λεπτολόγοс, King Ptolemy). In his
ambition to ‘‘speak of the stars’’ (ἀсτέραс εἰπειÐ ν, 17) ‘‘Aratus’’ ( Ἄρητοс) endeavors
not to leave anything ‘‘unspoken’’ (ἄρρητον, 2, 180; ἄϕραсτοι, 608), but to reveal, by
means of his poetry, even the most hidden of signs.
In a recent book (2009), Reviel Netz points to the predilection of both Hellenistic
mathematicians and Hellenistic poets for what he calls the minute and the asymptotic:
they delight in exploring ever smaller details or fractions, while at the same time
attempting to approach infinity. Both tendencies are present in Aratus, who rejoices
in identifying the small, faint, and hidden sign and who is aware of the infinite
multitude of signs (not to mention signs of signs), many of which have not yet been
revealed. In this context, we may consider an argument put forward by William
Levitan in 1979. Levitan descries two further acrostics in the Phaenomena, παÐ сα in
803–6 and сεμειη in 808–12 (see now also Haslam 1992 and Cusset 1995, as well as
Fakas 1999 for a possible telestich in 234–6). He fully acknowledges that the second
of these is either incomplete or misspelled, as we would expect сημειÐ α ‘‘signs,’’ which
would indeed be of great programmatic significance. Levitan goes on to argue,
however, that the imperfection may have been introduced on purpose to drive home
a central message of the poem, namely that the reading of signs is a dynamic, never-
ending process: ‘‘The signs may be hard to discern or their interpretation obscure,
but if the design appears unfinished, it is Aratus’ trust that it is complete nonetheless’’
(1979: 64). Levitan himself compares the ‘‘missing’’ star of the Pleiades (1979: 68
n.20); we may point additionally to the ‘‘invisible’’ prow of Argo. As Aratus exhorts
us again and again (Bing 1993: 109), we must continue to pay attention, look out,
discern, and interpret: in this world, there will always be more signs.

From Aratus to Aratea

Aratus took the astronomical and meteorological information he found in his prose
sources and shaped it into his own version of the ‘‘song and manner of Hesiod,’’ a
‘‘subtle discourse’’ on the human condition, which he saw as characterized by the
continuous exposure to signs and the necessity of deciphering them. Aratus’ readers
took the Phaenomena – and made it into whatever they pleased. The poem’s enor-
mous cultural significance in antiquity comes from the fact that it was not so much
read and studied in its own right as used over the centuries as a fertile source of
inspiration and material by many different people with many different agendas. This,
as mentioned above, accounts for some of the difficulties that modern readers face in
approaching the Phaenomena. It also makes for a fascinating narrative of intellectual
history (Lewis 1992).
As we have seen, Hellenistic poets such as Callimachus appreciated the Phaenomena
as a work of poetry, and the same appreciation must have persisted into the Roman
world (despite the disparaging remarks of Quintilian quoted above). Otherwise,
Latin poets such as Cicero, Varro of Atax, Ovid, Germanicus, and Avienius (on the
 Aratus 209

correct form of the latter’s name, see Cameron 1995b) would not have undertaken to
translate all or part of the Phaenomena, and Vergil, Manilius, and again Ovid (in the
Fasti) would not have adapted individual passages or aspects of it. To some extent, all
these efforts are part of the larger phenomenon of the Roman imitatio and aemulatio
of Greek poetic models, and one imitates only what one admires.
At the same time, Aratus would never have attained his high status were it not for
the fact that at least from the second century BCE onward, the first part of his poem
was used as a school text of astronomy (Weinhold 1912; Marrou 1956: 184–5; Lewis
1992: 113–18) and that in the imagination of the Greeks and Romans, he was thus
inextricably linked with his subject matter, the stars. In the words of the neoteric poet
Cinna, the Phaenomena is the source ‘‘by which we know the heavenly fires’’ (quis
ignes nouimus aerios, fr. 11.2 Bl.), and according to Ovid, ‘‘Aratus will always be with
the sun and the moon’’ (cum sole et luna semper Aratus erit, Am. 1.15.16), that is, his
poems will be read as long as there are heavenly bodies – and they will always be
associated with each other. Aratus’ status as an ‘‘astronomer’’ (he is depicted as such
in manuscript illuminations and other works of art: Maass 1898: 172–4; Marrou
1956: 408; Lewis 1992: 108) was certainly taken seriously by Hipparchus, the
famous second-century BCE astronomer, who wrote a commentary on the
Phaenomena in which he showed in detail where the poet (and already Eudoxus)
had been scientifically mistaken. The fact that this is the only work of Hipparchus to
have come down to us attests to the important role of Aratus in the cultural
imagination of antiquity.
For the Hellenistic Greeks and even more for the Romans, the stars (which for
Aratus had been just one set of signs observable in our surroundings) were a culturally
increasingly significant phenomenon that took on a variety of meanings and engen-
dered a number of different discourses, and as the Phaenomena was the repository of
knowledge about the stars, the poem came to be associated with these discourses as
well. One of these was myth: while Aratus himself had used stories of catasterism
sparingly, his constellations became closely associated with aetiological myths, many
of which were collected in the so-called Catasterisms of Ps.-Eratosthenes and made
their way into the Latin adaptations of the Phaenomena. Another was Stoicism:
Cicero, for example, used quotations from his own translation of Aratus in the De
natura deorum to support the Stoic ‘‘argument from design’’ (Gee 2001: 527–36),
and Manilius in his Astronomica refigured the Aratean cosmos in terms of Stoic
physics. As Manilius’ work shows, astrology was another worldview to become bound
up with the reception of the Phaenomena; this is apparent also in the translation of
Germanicus, who seems to have replaced Aratus’ weather signs with a section on
planetary astrometeorology (frs. 2–6 Le Boeuffle 1975; Montanari Caldini 1973).
As this all-too-brief survey shows, the reception of Aratus quickly turned into a
cultural phenomenon in its own right, one only tangentially related to the original
concerns of the Phaenomena. But if the poet perhaps had not expected his work to
become a science text for schoolboys or a source book for mythographers, the fact
that it did in a way proves Aratus’ own point. Humans are always in the process of
reading and interpreting signs, and the Phaenomena was one of the most widely read
and interpreted sign systems of the ancient world, capable of continually producing
new meaning.
210 Katharina Volk

FURTHER READING

Aratus can be studied in two excellent recent editions with translation and commentary, Kidd
1997 (English) and Martin 1998 (French). The ancient commentaries have been edited by
Maass 1898, the scholia by Martin 1974. For the commentary of Hipparchus, see Manitius
1894; for the fragments of Eudoxus, Lasserre 1966; and for the pseudo-Theophrastan On
Weather Signs, Sider and Brunschön 2007.
The best general introduction to the Phaenomena remains Erren 1967 (idiosyncratic but
inspiring), to be supplemented by Effe 1977a (the classic ‘‘philosophical’’ reading), Fakas 2001
(on the poet’s reworking of Hesiod), and especially the outstanding discussion of Hunter
2008a: 1.153–88 (also Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 224–45). For the poetic style and structure
of the Phaenomena, see Ludwig 1963 and Hutchinson 1988: 214–36; Pendergraft 1990 raises
important issues about the nature of Aratus’ constellations. On the whole, Aratus remains
remarkably understudied; especially welcome would be interdisciplinary work that examines
the links between his poem and contemporary science and philosophy.
Generally on the reception of the Phaenomena in antiquity, see Lewis 1992. The Latin
Aratea are most easily approached through the Budé editions of Soubiran 1972 (Cicero) and
1981 (Avienius) and Le Boeuffle 1975 (Germanicus; see also Gain 1976). A recent monograph
on Germanicus is Possanza 2004. For a comparative study of the Dike episode in Germanicus
and Avienius (with a nod to Cicero), see Bellandi, Berti, and Ciappi 2001. A general investi-
gation of Aratus’ reception as a cultural phenomenon remains a desideratum.
My thanks go to Daryn Lehoux, Reviel Netz, and David Sider for kindly making unpub-
lished material available to me.
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Nicander
Enrico Magnelli

Readers who chance upon Nicander’s poetic oeuvre of nearly 1,600 lines, devoted
almost entirely to snakes, spiders, and poisons and marked by an arcane style and
recondite vocabulary, typically do not fall in love with their discovery. Professional
classicists also sometimes run from Nicander as if from a venomous creature. Even
A. S. F. Gow, who in the mid-twentieth century made a key contribution to
Nicandrian studies, had mixed feelings about the texts he was editing, seeing in them
‘‘the combination of a repulsive style with considerable metrical accomplishment’’
(Gow and Scholfield 1953: 8; for other unfavorable judgments by modern scholars,
see Jacques 2002: LXVI –VII ). And yet in Nicander, as in other Hellenistic poetry,
content, style, and meter are intimately interconnected aspects of the same literary
program. Nicander’s diction more particularly reflects how linguistic trends notice-
able in early Hellenistic poetry developed during the mid-Hellenistic period, just as
his poetics offers an invaluable insight into the evolution of Greek didactic poetry
after Aratus. Both features of his work merit close consideration. But first we need to
confront the issue of Nicander’s chronology.

How Many Nicanders?

Ancient sources ascribe many works to a Colophonian poet named Nicander, and a
‘‘Nicander of Colophon’’ indeed explicitly claims to be the author of two extant
hexameter poems, the 958-line Theriaca, ‘‘On Venomous Animals,’’ and the 630-line
Alexipharmaca, ‘‘On Antidotes’’ (Th. 958, Al. 9–11). The evidence for Nicander’s life
is scanty and inconsistent. The Life of Nicander quotes from an unknown work a line in
which he advertised himself as ‘‘the son of the memorable Damaeus’’ (fr. 110 GS). The
same source preserves the five opening lines from a Hymn to Attalus (fr. 104 GS) that
links the poet with the Pergamene court – although it is unclear whether the addressee
212 Enrico Magnelli

was Attalus I (Cazzaniga 1972; Cameron 1995a: 200–2) or Attalus III (Pasquali 1913;
Touwaide 1991: 100–1; Jacques 2006: 24–6, 2007b: 104–5; Spatafora 2007: 11 and,
more cautiously, Massimilla 2000: 135–6). The ancient biographical tradition makes
Nicander live either in the age of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (283–246 BCE ; test. C i–ii
GS), or under Ptolemy V (204–181; test. C iv–v GS), or under Attalus III (138–133;
test. A–B GS). Apart from the biographical sketches preserved in our manuscripts, in
which it is very hard to sort truth from fiction, we also have a decree from Delphi that
confers proxeny on ‘‘Nicander, son of Anaxagoras, of Colophon, the epic poet’’ (SIG 3
452 ¼ test. D GS). Once dated around the mid-third century, this inscription now
appears in the light of recent research to have been produced shortly before 210 BCE .
Consequently, one Nicander of Colophon, son of Anaxagoras, was writing poetry
during the reign of Attalus I (241–197; Massimilla 2000: 132–5); but the name
Anaxagoras is hard to reconcile with the Damaeus of fr. 110. Although scholars have
tried to console the biographical sources, arguing that Damaeus was Nicander’s father
by adoption (for the relevant data, see Massimilla 2000: 130 n.14), we may well be
dealing with two poets named Nicander. If so, the Theriaca and Alexipharmaca may
have been written either by Nicander, the son of Anaxagoras, at the end of the third
century BCE , or by a younger poet, son of Damaeus, possibly in the second half of the
second century BCE . Attalus III had a strong interest in poisons and antidotes (Hansen
1971: 144–5), and his reign (138–133) would offer an appropriate context for the two
iological poems (Touwaide 1991: 100–1; Massimilla 2000: 135–6; Jacques 2006:
27–8). Furthermore, interesting arguments have recently been advanced for seeing
in Alexipharmaca 15 an allusion to the destruction of Heracleia Pontica by Prusias II
shortly before 154 BCE (Hautcourt 2001). However this may be, it seems unlikely that
the Theriaca and Alexipharmaca were written by a poet who was active under Ptolemy
II (pace Cameron 1995a: 194–207): the two poems not only show a remarkable
allegiance to Callimachean poetics but also numerous points of contact with actual
lines by Callimachus, Apollonius, Theocritus, and Euphorion. Regardless how one
analyzes individual instances (echo, imitation, allusion?) there can be little doubt that
Nicander is not engaged in a dialogue with contemporaries but looking back at
predecessors. The Theriaca and Alexipharmaca are not the work of a first-generation
literary pioneer (Magnelli 2006a).
Regarding the other works attributed to ‘‘Nicander’’ in antiquity, some 150 lines
remain of the Georgica (frs. 68–91 GS). Their style and diction are almost identical to
those of the two extant poems (Pasquali 1913: 95–7 ¼ 1986: 373–6). Works of
which much less survives – the Oitaica, Thebaica, Sikelia, Heteroioumena, and
possibly a Cynegetica (the existence of such a poem remains doubtful: Cazzaniga
1976: 320–4; Martı́nez 2000) – also have various features in common with the
Theriaca and Alexipharmaca, for example:

lists of zoological names: Oit. fr. 18, Heter. fr. 59;

typical Nicandrian vocabulary: Theb. fr. 19 ὑπὲρ Παμβωνίδαс ὄχθαс  Th. 214
ὑπὸ Σϰείρωνοс ὄρη Παμβώνιά τ’ αἴπη; Sik. fr. 22 ὄμβρωι τε ϰρυμωÐ ι τε, δέμαс
τότε δάμνατο μάλϰηι  Th. 381–2 ὅτ’ ἐν παλάμηιсιν ἀεργοί / μάλϰαι ἐπιπρο-
θέωсιν ὑπὸ ϰρυμοιÐ ο δαμέντων, 724 μάλϰη ἐνιсϰήπτουсα, Al. 540–1 ὑπὸ μάλϰηс /
δάμνανται;
 Nicander 213

Callimachean phrases: Heter. fr. 62.3–4 μορϕὴν / γρήϊον  Call. Hec. (?) fr. 173
(Hollis 2009) γρήϊον ει δοс ἔχουсα; Cyn. (?) fr. 98 ἑсμὸν ἄγει  Call. Aet. fr. 12.3
Pf. ἑсμὸν ἄγων;
Callimachean topics: Sik. fr. 21  Call. Aet. fr. 43.69–71 Pf.; Heter. fr. 50  Call.
Aet. fr. 67–75 Pf.

Some of these features were pointed out long ago by Giorgio Pasquali in his mag-
nificent and still fundamental study on ‘‘the two Nicanders’’ (1913). Pasquali
assigned the Theriaca, Alexipharmaca and most of the fragmentary works to a poet
living under Attalus III, leaving to an elder Nicander the Europia, Aitolika, and
possibly Ophiaka. Yet his distinction between this small group of fragments and the
rest seems unwarranted. The mere nine surviving lines of the Ophiaka (fr. 31–2 GS)
do not allow a meaningful stylistic comparison (and at any rate fr. 32 is hardly more
unsophisticated than, say, Theriaca 8–18); we do not even know whether the Aitolika
(test. A GS) was in poetry or prose (Cazzaniga 1973 and Grilli 1973, with references
to earlier discussions); and Pasquali’s evaluation of Europia fr. 26 (‘‘the giant Athos
hurling peaks from the promontory is much grander an image than those of the
Theriaca and Alexipharmaca,’’ 1913: 108 ¼ 1986: 384) seems arbitrary, all the more
since this passage imitates both Callimachus’ Hymn to Delos (h. 4.133–6) and
Apollonius’ description of the bronze giant Talos throwing rocks at the Argonauts
(Arg. 4.1638–40). All in all, there are no serious objections against assigning any of
the fragments to the author of the Theriaca and Alexipharmaca (Cameron 1995a:
204–5). If indeed there were two Nicanders, one of them remains an elusive figure.

In the Footsteps of the Alexandrians

The author of the Theriaca and Alexipharmaca appears to have been particularly fond
of third-century Alexandrian poetry. He not only borrows a good number of words
and phrases from Apollonius, Theocritus, and especially Callimachus, but in fact often
exploits their texts in quite sophisticated ways (Magnelli 2006a). A good example is
Alexipharmaca 232–4:

ἢ ἔτι ϰαὶ ϰλήροιсιν ἐπήβολα τοιÐ ά περ ωffl ραι

εἰαριναὶ ϕορέουсιν ἐνεψιήματα ϰούραιс,
ἄλλοτε δὲ сτρούθεια . . .
or even those belonging to the fields, the kind of girls’ playthings the spring seasons bear;
or again pear-quinces . . .

Here Nicander is reworking lines 80–3 of Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo (Jacques

1955: 19):

ἱὴ ἱὴ ΚαρνειÐ ε πολύλλιτε, сειÐ ο δὲ βωμοὶ

ἄνθεα μὲν ϕορέουсιν ἐν εἴαρι τόссα περ ffl Ωραι
ποιϰίλ’ ἀγινευÐ сι ζεϕύρου πνείοντοс ἐέρсην,
χείματι δὲ ϰρόϰον ἡδύν.
214 Enrico Magnelli

Hiē hiē Karneios, much-supplicated god. Your altars bear the manifold flowers gathered
by the Seasons in spring, when Zephyrus breathes dew, and in winter they bear sweet
saffron.

The subject is similar, but Nicander’s choice of words is far more complex and clearly
inspired by Homeric scholarship (Magnelli 2006a: 191). Thus Callimachus’ simple
ἄνθεα, ‘‘flowers,’’ become both the redundant ϰλήροιсιν ἐπήβολα, ‘‘(fruits) belong-
ing to the fields’’ and ἐνεψιήματα ϰούραιс, ‘‘girls’ playthings.’’ As it happens,
ἐπήβολοс was a Homeric hapax legomenon of disputed meaning, and the otherwise
unattested ἐνεψίημα may well reflect Callimachus’ and Apollonius’ interest in
Homeric ἑψιάομαι (Rengakos 1994a: 92). Nicander is apparently trying to be more
Alexandrian than the great Alexandrian. The same applies to Theriaca 266–8,

αὐτὰρ ὅγε сϰαιὸс μεсάτωι ἐπαλίνδεται ὁλϰωÐ ι

οι μον ὁδοιπλανέων сϰολιὴν τετρηχότι νώτωι,
τράμπιδοс ὁλϰαίηс ἀϰάτωι ἴсοс.
[the snake called cerastes] slithers on clumsily with movements of his middle, wandering
on a skewed path with his scaly back, like the dinghy of a merchant vessel.

Nicander’s dense text engages no fewer than three different lines from the fourth
book of Apollonius’ Argonautica: 1463 ἴχνια γὰρ νυχίοιсιν ἐπηλίνδητ’ ἀνέμοιсιν
(both ἐπαλίνδομαι and ἐπαλινδέομαι appear to be hapax legomena), 838 δολι-
χήν τε ϰαὶ ἄсπετον οιffl μον ὁδεύειν (which Nicander imitates changing ὁδεύω into
the rare ὁδοιπλανέω), and 1541 ὡс δὲ δράϰων сϰολιὴν εἱλιγμένοс ἔρχεται οιffl μον. In
the last passage a ship is slithering like a snake; Nicander wittily reverses the simile,
making the cerastes move like a ship (Magnelli 2006a: 194–5; cf. Livrea 1973: 429;
Jacques 2002: 22; Cusset 2006a: 82–4).
Another predecessor is targeted in Alexipharmaca 433 μήϰωνοс ϰεβληγόνου . . .
δάϰρυ, ‘‘the tears of the poppy, whose seeds are in a head,’’ including an adjective
which appears elsewhere only in Euphorion: ϰεβληγόνου Ἀτρυτώνηс, ‘‘of Athena
(Atrytone) born from the head’’ (CA 108). Nicander amusingly transfers the epithet
from the goddess to the humble flower (changing its meaning in the process:
Magnelli 2006a: 192) in a way that calls to mind a passage of the parodist Matro
(on whom see Scodel in this volume) where the Homeric Tityus, ‘‘the son of glorious
earth’’ (Od. 11.576–7) is turned into a cucumber (SH 537 ¼ fr. 4 Olson and Sens
1999).
Nicander’s relationship with the poets of the early Hellenistic age is never servile or
without point. It often takes the form of ironic reworkings, erudite allusions, oppositio
in imitando, and so on. In other words, he applies to his Alexandrian predecessors the
same literary approaches they had successfully applied to their Archaic and Classical
models, notably Homer. That these poets had become the new classics is unsurpris-
ing; they were already regarded as such by Euphorion, who flourished just a few
decades after Callimachus and Theocritus. Yet there is a crucial difference.
Euphorion’s engagement with Callimachus and his contemporaries is reverential:
his imitations of their poetry show none of the irony and subversiveness of his
imitations of Homer (Magnelli 2002: 54–6). In the second century, it seems, poets
 Nicander 215

felt free to play with Callimachus as well. Nicander, in any case, appears to treat the
Alexandrians with a lighter touch.
Nicander challenges even the most patient reader. His language is full of rare words,
new coinages, and morphological peculiarities, and his style is the opposite of clear and
concise. It is not by chance that he is often compared to Lycophron. Nonetheless his
poetics are tangibly different: whereas Lycophron intentionally fills his verses with
forbidding riddles, Nicander does not primarily aim at obscurity. Strange as his diction
may seem, if you are familiar with poetic language and are not shocked at such
irregularities as ϰαναχόс instead of ϰαναχήс or θέρω in the place of θεραπεύω, you
might remain uncertain about the exact meaning of an adjective here or there, but on
the whole you will understand what Nicander says (whether you will like the way he
says it, is a different matter). His vocabulary abounds more in morphological innov-
ations than in inscrutable dialectal glosses (Jacques 2002: XCIV –CIII ). Something
similar applies to Nicander’s mythical digressions and references, which for the most
part deal with well-known stories and characters. One does not have to be a scholar to
make sense of, for example, ‘‘the Nemean plant, evergreen celery’’ (Th. 649): every
ancient reader could be expected to know that a victory at the Nemean games was
rewarded with a crown of celery, and explanations of the origin (aition) of this custom
were provided by Callimachus (SH 265.5–9) and Euphorion (CA 84). In the case of
myths that are not well known, Nicander invariably provides sufficient detail for
comprehension, as in his digressions on Canobus (Th. 309–19; Jacques 2002: 115–
16), Alcibius (Th. 541–9, 666–75), and the nymphs of Samos (Al. 148–52).
The most-discussed passage in Nicander is certainly his aetiological digression on
why mankind does not live forever, inserted in a description of the snake called dipsas,
whose name is etymologized from ‘‘thirst’’ (Brelich 1958; Davies 1987: 71;
Hopkinson 1988: 143–6; Toohey 1996: 64–7; Reeve 1996/7; Jacques 2002: 28–
9, 120–1). These elegant lines, which contain the poet’s signature in an acrostic
(Lobel 1928; Jacques 2002: LXXX with n.179), provide a particularly clear impression
of Nicander’s style (Th. 343–56):

ὠγύγιοс δ’ ἄρα μυÐ θοс ἐν αἰζηοιÐ сι ϕορειÐ ται,

ὡс, ὁπότ’ οὐρανὸν ἔсχε Κρόνου πρεсβίсτατον αιffl μα,
Nειμάμενοс ϰαсίεссιν ἑϰὰс περιϰυδέαс ἀρχὰс
Iδμοсύνηι, νεότητα γέραс πόρεν ἡμερίοιсι
Kυδαίνων δὴ γάρ ρ α πυρὸс ληίсτορ’ ἔνιπτον.
Aϕρονεс οὐ μὲν τηÐ с γε ϰαϰοϕραδίηιс ἀπόνηντο.
NωθειÐ с γὰρ ϰάμνοντεс ἀμορβεύοντο λεπάργωι
DωÐ ρα πολύсϰαρθμοс δὲ ϰεϰαυμένοс αὐχένα δίψηι
Pώετο γωλειοιÐ сι δ’ ἰδὼν ὁλϰήρεα θηÐ ρα
Oὐλοὸν ἐλλιτάνευε ϰαϰηÐ ι ἐπαλαλϰέμεν ἄτηι
Sαίνων. αὐτὰρ ὁ βριÐ θοс, ὃ δή ρ ’ ἀνεδέξατο νώτοιс,
ἤιτεεν ἄϕρονα δωÐ ρον, ὁ δ’ οὐϰ ἀπανήνατο χρειώ.
ἐξότε γηραλέον μὲν ἀεὶ ϕλόον ἑρπετὰ βάλλει
ὁλϰήρη, θνητοὺс δὲ ϰαϰὸν περὶ γηÐ ραс ὀπάζει.
There is an ancient tale going around among men how, when the first-born blood of
Kronos acquired heaven, in his wisdom he allotted to each of his brothers their illustrious
realms, and to mortals he gave the gift of youth to honor them for telling on the
216 Enrico Magnelli

fire-thief [Prometheus]. The fools! Through their bad judgment they got nothing out of
it. For being lazy, they grew tired and entrusted the gift to an ass to carry; and the skittish
animal, its throat burning with thirst, ran off. Seeing in its hole the deadly, crawling
beast, it weedled and begged for help in its sore plight. The snake then asked the silly
animal for the very gift it had taken on its back, and the ass did not refuse the snake’s
request. Since then crawling reptiles always slough their old skin, but mortals are subject
to grievous old age.

This narrative passage is largely free of the technical vocabulary that characterizes the
zoological and pharmacological descriptions, but it is by no means straightforward.
A fair number of relevant conceits are expressed with uncommon poetic words and
kennings: ὠγύγιοс for ἀρχαιÐ οс, ϰάсιεс for ἀδελϕοί, αἰζηοί and ἡμερίοι for ἄνθρωποι
and/or θνητοί, λέπαργοс for ὄνοс (Jacques 2002: 28), θὴρ ὀλϰήρηс for διψάс,
Κρόνου πρεсβίсτατον αιffl μα for Ζεύс, πυρὸс ληίсτωρ for Προμηθεύс. Yet none of these
expressions is particularly opaque. As Jean-Marie Jacques has repeatedly stressed,
Nicander’s aim appears not to be to puzzle the reader, but rather to impress him
with the involved refinement of his diction (Jacques 2002: CI ; 2004: 117–18; 2006:
39–40).
Nicander’s metrical practice sheds further light on his overall artistic intentions.
It is well known that his smooth and elegant hexameters perfectly conform to the
standards set by the most refined Alexandrian poets, and recent research has stressed
his allegiance to Callimachean practice in particular (Brioso Sánchez 1974; Jacques
2002: CXXIII –IX ; Oikonomakos 2002b: 135–52; Magnelli 2002: 70–81 and 2006a:
198–201). Sometimes he goes even further. In Hellenistic hexameter poetry in
general, we may observe a tendency to place monosyllabic nouns at the end of the
line (West 1982: 156), but Nicander pushes this to the point where he only once uses
a monosyllabic noun in another position (Maas in Kroll 1936: 261). His linguistic
and stylistic habits seem to follow a similar rationale: he follows in the footsteps of his
illustrious forebears but takes their practices one step further. If third-century
Alexandrian poetry was a successful blend of erudition, superb technical skill, and
‘‘thinness’’ (λεπτότηс), i.e., subtle simplicity, in later poetry the first two seem to
overshadow the third: for some poets to be refined apparently meant to fill their lines
to the rim with glosses and new coinages. It is this tendency among the later
generations of Hellenistic writers that appears to elicit an ‘‘anti-Callimachean’’ reac-
tion from a number of Macedonian epigrammatists in the first century BCE , exempli-
fied by Antipater of Thessalonica’s famous harangue against the ‘‘tribe of thorn-
gathering poets’’ (AP 11.20 ¼ GPh 185–90). In fact, Callimachus might not have
approved of Nicander’s style. Nonetheless I sense it was precisely his devotion to
Callimachus which shaped that style.
In the light of all this evidence, it is quite surprising to find Nicander defining
himself at the end of the Theriaca as ‘‘Homeric’’ (Ὁμηρείοιο . . . Νιϰάνδροιο, 957). It
is well possible that this passage echoes the end of the ‘‘Delian’’ section of the
Homeric Hymn to Apollo (165–78; De Martino 1982; doubts: Fakas 2001: 54
n.157), but this echo in itself hardly explains ‘‘Homeric Nicander.’’ One possibility
is that Nicander alludes to the alleged Colophonian origin of Homer, and/or that he
belonged to a guild of poets associated with Colophon’s Homereion (Pasquali 1913:
 Nicander 217

89 ¼ 1986: 368). Others think that the epithet is ‘‘not inappropriate to a self-satisfied
poet writing hexameters with an archaic vocabulary’’ (Gow and Scholfield 1953:
189) or that it stages Homer as Nicander’s model of style (Jacques 2002: LXXI ,
2007b: 102). Others yet suggest that it is due to his use of epic glosses and his
knowledge and reworking of the Homeric text (so, approximately, Vian 1991: 5 ¼
2005: 469; Spatafora 2007: 202). No explanation is fully satisfactory. Whatever the
meaning of Homeric here, it cannot but evoke the image of a poet whose most
evident feature is his allegiance to Homer. This does not suit Nicander: his debts to
Homeric language are relevant (Jacques 2002: CVII -IX ), but those to the Alexandrian
poets are even greater, and as such he cannot be labeled as a traditionalist. I am
therefore inclined to think that the epithet was intended to sound paradoxical and
that Nicander, who elsewhere displays a detached, ironic attitude towards his own
poetry (as we will see), deliberately chose it in order to challenge the reader. Whatever
the solution may be, at least one ancient reader took Theriaca 957 at face value. The
anonymous epigram AP 9.213 (FGE 1246–9) runs as follows:

ϰαὶ Κολοϕὼν ἀρίδηλοс ἐνὶ πτολίεссι τέτυϰται

δοιοὺс θρεψαμένη παιÐ δαс ἀριсτονόουс,
πρωτότοϰον μὲν Ὅμηρον, ἀτὰρ Νίϰανδρον ἔπειτα,
ἀμϕοτέρουс Μούсαιс οὐρανίηιсι ϕίλουс.
Colophon too is famous among cities, having bred two sons excellent in wisdom: Homer
it bore first, then Nicander, both dear to the heavenly Muses.

Other first-rank poets were born in Colophon, such as Mimnermus, Xenophanes,

Antimachus, Hermesianax, and Phoenix. The author of this epigram selected
Nicander alone as Homer’s counterpart. Possibly he was very fond of toxicological
poetry, but it is perhaps more likely that he took the idea from Nicander himself. So,
in the company of Homer and thanks to the good will of an unknown versifier, the
author of the Theriaca finally meets those Muses he had carefully avoided to mention
in his own proem.

A Theriological Diptych
The Theriaca and Alexipharmaca are clearly conceived as a diptych. Both begin with
an appeal to the dedicatee and a statement of the poet’s skill and aims:

ρ ειÐ ά ϰέ τοι μορϕάс τε сίνη τ’ ὀλοϕώια θηρωÐ ν

ἀπροι δ̈ ηÐ τύψαντα λύсιν θ’ ἑτεραλϰέα ϰήδευс,
ϕίλ’ Ἑρμηсιάναξ, πολέων ϰυδίсτατε παωÐ ν,
ἔμπεδα ϕωνήсαιμι.
Th. 1–4
Easily, dear Hermesianax, most honored of my many kinsmen, will I expound the shapes
of deadly creatures, the wounds they inflict unforeseen, and the remedy that counters the
harm, all in due order.
218 Enrico Magnelli

εἰ ϰαὶ μὴ сύγϰληρα ϰατ’ Ἀсίδα τείχεα δηÐ μοι

τύρсεсιν ἐсτήсαντο τέων ἀνεδέγμεθα βλάсταс,
Πρωταγόρη, δολιχὸс δὲ διάπροθι χωÐ ροс ἐέργει,
ρ ειÐ ά ϰέ τοι ποсίεссιν ἀλέξια ϕαρμαϰοέссαιс
αὐδήсαιμ’ ἅ τε ϕωÐ ταс ἐνιχριμϕθέντα δαμάζει.
Al. 1–5
Even though the peoples from whom you and I, Protagoras, have derived our births did
not set up the walls of their strongholds side by side in Asia, and we are separated by a
long stretch of space, yet I can easily tell you the remedies for poisonous liquids which
strike men and bring them down.

Both also have a very similar two-line closure:

ϰαί ϰεν Ὁμηρείοιο ϰαὶ εἰсέτι Νιϰάνδροιο

μνηÐ сτιν ἔχοιс, τὸν ἔθρεψε Κλάρου νιϕόεссα πολίχνη.
Th. 957–8
And you will also in the future remember Homeric Nicander, whom the snowy town of
Clarus nurtured.

ϰαί ϰ’ ἔνθ’ ὑμνοπόλοιο ϰαὶ εἰсέτι Νιϰάνδροιο

μνηÐ сτιν ἔχοιс, θεсμὸν δὲ Διὸс ξενίοιο ϕυλάссοιс.
Al. 629–30
And now you will also in the future remember Nicander the singer, and heed the
command of Zeus, Protector of Friendships.

Both poems show the same organization and narrative techniques (Effe 1974b,
1977a: 56–65), and structural and stylistic differences between them (Crugnola
1961: 151–2; Schneider 1962: 36) are few and insignificant. Their cumulative length
of almost 1,600 lines would fill a single papyrus roll (compare the 1,781 hexameters
of the fourth book of Apollonius’ Argonautica or the 1,474 trimeters of Lycophron’s
Alexandra), and it is likely that Nicander wrote them with such an arrangement in
mind.
But there is more. At the start of the Theriaca, the poet quotes Hesiod as an
authority for the origin of spiders and reptiles: these creatures were born from the
blood of the Titans, ‘‘if indeed the man from Ascra spoke the truth, Hesiod, on the
steps of secluded Melissēeis by the waters of Permessus’’ (Th. 10–12). He then relates
the origin of the scorpion, created by Artemis as a weapon against the rapist Orion
(13–20), and this, as Effe (1974a) has convincingly demonstrated, alludes to Aratus’
Phaenomena (636–46). Whatever Nicander may have had in mind when referring to
Hesiod (perhaps a Titanomachy once intruded into the Hesiodic corpus, as was
proposed by Cazzaniga 1975; other possibilities are scrutinized by Jacques 2002:
77–8), it is clear that he is situating his own work within the tradition of didactic
poetry by staging his two most important antecedents: Hesiod and Aratus. No other
programmatic passage appears either at the end of Theriaca, whose brief coda
(quoted above) comes almost unexpected, immediately following the detailed recipe
for a panacea, or at the beginning of Alexipharmaca, where the address to Protagoras
(also quoted above) immediately proceeds to the entry for aconite. But the section on
 Nicander 219

myrtle in Alexipharmaca 616–28, just before the final two-line сϕραγίс, reveals
something interesting:

ϰαὶ τὰ μὲν ου ν Νίϰανδροс ἑηÐ ι ἐγϰάτθετο βίβλωι

μοχθήεντα μύϰητα παρ’ ἀνέρι ϕαρμαϰόοντα.
πρὸс δ’ ἔτι τοιÐ с Δίϰτυννα τεηÐ с ἐχθήρατο ϰλωÐ ναс
Ἥρη τ’ Ἰμβραсίη μούνη сτέϕοс οὐχ ὑπέδεϰτο,
ϰάλλεοс, οὓνεϰα Κύπριν, ὅτ’ εἰс ἔριν ἠέρθηсαν 620
ἀθάναται, ϰόсμηсεν ἐν Ἰδαίοιсιν ὄρεссι
τηÐ с сύ γ’ ἀπ’ εὐύδροιο νάπηс, εὐαλθὲс ὄνειαρ,
ϰαρπὸν πορϕυρόεντα сυναλδέα χειμερίηιсιν
ἠελίου θαλϕθέντα βολαιÐ с δοίδυϰι λεήναс,
χυλὸν ὑπὲρ λεπτηÐ с ὀθόνηс ἢ сχοινίδι ϰύρτηι 625
ἐϰθλίψαс πορέειν ϰυάθου ϰοτυληδόνα πλήρη
ἢ πλειÐ ον, πλειÐ ον γὰρ ὀνήιον – οὐ γὰρ ἀνιγρὸν
πωÐ μα βροτοιÐ с – τόδε γάρ τε ϰαὶ ἄρϰιον αἴ ϰε πίηιсθα.
Such medicines as a man may use against harmful fungi Nicander has already presented in
his book. In addition to these, there is the plant (i.e., the myrtle) whose branches
Dictynna hates and which Imbrasian Hera alone does not accept for a garland, because
when the immortal goddesses were up against each other in a beauty contest, it adorned
Cypris on mount Ida. From this pluck in a well-watered valley as a healing remedy the
scarlet berries that ripen in the warmth of the winter sun’s rays, crush them with a pestle,
strain the juice over fine linen or with a rush sieve and administer a full cyathus-sized cup
of it, or more – in fact, more is fine, because this potion is not harmful to men; but
drinking a cup of it should already be enough.

Fungi, already discussed in 521–36, seem out of place here: this, and the absence of
the whole passage in Eutecnius’ paraphrase, has led most scholars to delete it
(Schneider 1856: 156–8; Klauser 1898: 55 n.3; Gow and Scholfield 1953: 200;
Jacques 1955: 34–5; Effe 1974b: 65 n.21; Oikonomakos 2002b: 245–6; Spatafora
2007: 292; Jacques 2007a: 249). I have argued elsewhere that these lines are perfectly
Nicandrian in language, style and meter (Magnelli 2006b), featuring some prominent
Callimachean echoes: line 616 reworks Aetia fr. 75.54–5 Pf. ἀρχαίου Ξενομήδεοс,
ὅс ποτε παÐ сαν / νηÐ сον ἐνὶ μνήμηι ϰάτθετο μυθολόγωι and 66 γέρων ἐνεθήϰατο δέλ-
τ[οιс, both dealing with ‘‘books’’ rather than ‘‘songs’’; and 621 varies Hymn to
Zeus 51 Ἰδαίοιс ἐν ὄρεссι. Therefore, rather than rejecting the entire passage as an
interpolation, we should perhaps assume that ‘‘fungi’’ (μύϰητα) at 617 is corrupted
or some two half lines have been omitted after it (for details see Magnelli 2006b). It
is also worth noting that the two myths alluded to at 618–21 are markedly
Callimachean. For Dictynna and the myrtle, the only extant literary source that
predates Nicander is Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis (200–3); and while the Samian
cult of Hera and her link with the river Imbrasus are well known, for a proper
treatment of the story alluded to here one must turn to two episodes from the fourth
book of Callimachus’ Aetia (fr. 100–1 Pf. and possibly 599 Pf. ¼ 127 Massimilla). As
we already saw, allusive brevity with respect to stories told by Callimachus is very
typical of our poet. On the whole it is tempting to think that Nicander, who had
opened the Theriaca staging Hesiod and Aratus as his models in the genre of didactic
220 Enrico Magnelli

poetry, now ends the Alexipharmaca under the sign of Callimachus as his foremost
model of style and refinement, in a ring composition that underscores the symmetry
and complementarity of the two iological poems.

Pushing the Didactic Envelope

The openings of Nicander’s poems are also significant in other ways. The very first
word of the Theriaca is ρ ειÐ α, ‘‘easily,’’ which also appears at line 4 of the
Alexipharmaca. As Fakas (2001: 63 n.190) acutely pointed out, this is something
of a revolution within the tradition of didactic poetry. Hesiod’s Works and Days starts
with the typical Muse-invocation; Aratus opens his Stoicizing astronomical
Phaenomena by praising the cosmic power of his god (ἐϰ Διὸс ἀρχώμεсθα, ‘‘let us
begin with Zeus’’), while the Muses are entrusted with a secondary role at the end of
the proem (16–18; Volk and White in this volume). Nicander goes much further,
foregoing the mention of any divine being (Brioso Sánchez 1994: 268) and opening
instead with a triumphant ‘‘easily,’’ which asserts his self-confident attitude: to write
his poem he needs nothing but his own genius and erudition. In this ‘‘secularization’’
of didactic poetry we are surely dealing with a fair degree of self-irony. For what sort
of reader would seriously believe that composing refined hexameters on so unfriendly
a matter and in so abstruse a style might be an easy task?
Such irony and self-consciousness is widespread in Hellenistic poetry and may also
be observed elsewhere in the Theriaca and Alexipharmaca – Toohey rightly argued
that both poems feature ‘‘a strong strain of playfulness’’ (1996: 66; cf. 70–2). As we
saw, when Nicander mentions the myth of the Titans in the proem of the Theriaca, he
adds ‘‘if indeed Hesiod spoke the truth’’ (10–12). Such disclaimers are a literary
commonplace (Stinton 1976) and sometimes the disbelief that they express is more
apparent than real. Yet they are not what one would expect in the prologue to a
didactic poem, and especially not with reference to the very founder of that poetic
genre. Hesiod seems not to be much of an authority for the detached Nicander.
Nicander treats other stories in the same way: εἰ ἔτυμον, ‘‘if the tale is true,’’
prefaces the death of Canobus (Th. 309); ἐρέει ϕάτιс, ‘‘the tale states,’’ introduces a
digression on Demeter and Ascalabus (Th. 484); and λόγοс γε μέν, ‘‘the story goes,’’
frames Odysseus’ death by the sting-ray (Th. 835). On the other hand, he employs no
such phrase when he narrates the amusingly indecent aition of the appearance of the
lily (Al. 405–9, cf. also Georg. fr. 74.29–30 GS):

αἴνυсο δ’ αὐτὴν
ἴριδα λειριόεν τε ϰάρη τό τ’ ἀπέсτυγεν Ἀϕρώ,
οὕνεϰ’ ἐριδμαίνεсϰε χρόηс ὕπερ, ἐν δέ νυ θρίοιс
ἀργαλέην μεсάτοιсιν ὀνειδείην ἐπέλαссε
δεινὴν βρωμήεντοс ἐναλδήναсα ϰορύνην.
Take also the very iris and the head of the lily, which Aphrodite abhors, since it was her
rival for color; and so she put something terribly shameful in the middle of its petals,
making grow there the shocking shaft of an ass.
 Nicander 221

The ridiculous story is recounted as an unquestionable fact. Is the reader to assume

that in Nicander’s world the gods are more likely to quarrel with humble plants and
to take vengeance on them than to wage a cosmic war against the Titans?
Nicander’s self-confident attitude transfers from metapoetic passages to the con-
text itself. As Clauss (2006) has aptly shown, the two poems are framed by the idea
that knowledge makes life easier: ‘‘easily’’ will the poet expound his matter (ρ ειÐ α,
Th. 1) and ‘‘easily’’ (ρ ηϊδίωс, Th. 22) will his addressee dispel all deadly creatures with
what Nicander has taught him (cf. also Th. 117 ‘‘you may readily save yourself by our
precepts,’’ αι ψά ϰεν ἡμετέρηιсιν ἐρωήсειαс ἐϕετμαιÐ с). If our author indeed had in
mind the Hesiodic lines on Zeus who ‘‘easily makes strong and easily oppresses the
strong, easily diminishes the conspicuous one and magnifies the inconspicuous, and
easily makes the crooked straight and withers the proud’’ (ρ έα . . . ρ έα . . . ρ ειÐ α . . .
ρ ειÐ α, Hes. WD 5–7: Clauss 2006: 162–9), this seems to suggest that ‘‘Nicander’s
knowledge of poisonous creatures and how to deal with them gives him a status
comparable to that of a god,’’ thus wittily opposing the triumphant, Zeus-like poet to
the harmful brutes originating from the Titans (Clauss 2006: 164; on the ‘‘rhetoric
of ease’’ see also Hunter 2004b: 223–7). Therefore I would hesitate to subscribe to
Toohey’s interpretation of Nicander’s stance as ‘‘doleful pessimism’’ (1996: 72).
Dreadful as the beasts may be, the poet appears to say, you can easily deal with them
if you just read my poem.
But who will benefit from Nicander’s precepts? Aratus often speaks to his addressee
explicitly, who nonetheless remains anonymous and faceless throughout (Toohey
1996: 55). Instead, the names of Nicander’s addressees are declared at the very start
of each poem, but this does not make them any less elusive or the reason why they are
addressed any more obvious – contrast the named addressee of the Works and Days,
Hesiod’s brother Perses, who has taken more than his share of the inheritance and
is therefore in obvious need of a lesson in justice (δίϰη). About Protagoras, the
addressee of the Alexipharmaca, we learn nothing except that he is Nicander’s
guest-friend (ξένοс, 630) and hails from Cyzicus (1–11); why he might require
instruction on antidotes remains unclear. The address to Hermesianax, ‘‘most
honored’’ of Nicander’s ‘‘many kinsmen,’’ at the start of the Theriaca is framed in
the following way (4–7; on these lines, see Brioso Sánchez 1994: 268; Fakas 2001:
101; Jacques 2002: LXXXIV ):

сὲ δ’ ἂν πολύεργοс ἀροτρεὺс
βουϰαιÐ όс τ’ ἀλέγοι ϰαὶ ὀροιτύποс, ευ τε ϰαθ’ ὕλην
ἢ ϰαὶ ἀροτρεύοντι βάληι ἔπι λοιγὸν ὀδόντα,
τοιÐ α περιϕραсθέντοс ἀλεξητήρια νούсων.
And the hard-working plowman, the cowherd, or the woodcutter, whenever he is in the
forest or plowing and one of these creatures sinks its deadly teeth in, shall respect you for
being steeped in such means for averting illness.

Paying attention to humble workers is common in Hellenistic poetry, but here it is

not clear whether ‘‘they shall respect you’’ means ‘‘they will wish that they too had
read my poetry’’ (thus Hunter 2004b: 227) or ‘‘they will be grateful to you for
healing them.’’ In the latter case, Hermesianax should be a doctor (thus Jacques
222 Enrico Magnelli

2002: LXIX –LXX ); yet there is nothing to support this elsewhere in the poem. In some
passages, Nicander seems to be talking to a young country gentleman who occasion-
ally has to spend the night in the fields (Th. 25, 55–6, 78–9); other passages, however,
presuppose a farmer or the like (Th. 58 ἔργον ἀνύссαс, ‘‘when your work is done,’’
and 113–4 μεθ’ ἁλώια ἔργα / ζωсάμενοс θρίναξι, ‘‘when you gird yourself after work
at the threshing-floor’’), in fact more like the plowmen, herdsmen, and woodcutters
who according to the proem will respect Hermesianax for having taken to heart
Nicander’s teachings. This inconsistency is hardly an oversight on the part of the
poet. Nicander is simply uninterested in pinning down his addressee, which makes his
didactic fiction looser than those of Hesiod and Aratus (on which see Semanoff
2006). The poet depicts himself as a dispenser of knowledge, but seems less con-
cerned about constructing a realistic and coherent frame for the reception and his
addressees’ use of the information he provides. From this point of view, ‘‘the poet’s
solicitous professions of concern for his ‘patients’ should fool no one’’ (Hopkinson
1988: 143).
Nicander’s lack of commitment to the ‘‘rules’’ of didactic does not necessarily lead
to the conclusion that his subject held no intrinsic interest for him and that his
primary goal was to show that a skillful poet can make good poetry out of virtually
anything, as was once widely held. Schneider, for example (1856: 181–201), saw
Nicander as nothing but a metaphrast, the versifier of a prose model which he
identified with the now lost iological treatises of the third-century BCE scholar
Apollodorus of Alexandria. More recent research has shown that Apollodorus was
just one of many iological writers available to our poet (Touwaide 1991: 71–5;
Jacques 2002: XLIX –LII ), and that Nicander’s knowledge of medical, zoological, and
botanical literature is much more profound than earlier scholars imagined (Jacques
1979, 2002: LII –LX , 2004: 111–3, 2006: 28–31; Oikonomakos 1999; De Stefani
2006b: 57–65). Nicander, we can safely assume, was genuinely interested in snakes
and plants, poisons and antidotes; the problem is rather that he is not interested in
them in the way modern biologists and toxicologists are, and that his agenda differs
from that of other didactic poets. Nicander’s main interest in the Theriaka and
Alexipharmaca is in description, in carefully listing the ingredients of his recipes,
ailments, and animals, in which he sometimes shows a bent for the paradoxical (e.g.,
the reproduction of vipers, Th. 128–34) and the macabre (e.g., the crying head just
cut from the body at Al. 215–16; Toohey 1996: 66–7; Spatafora 2005: 257–62). He
does not provide details about the dosage of ingredients in antidotes nor seriously
pretend in any other way to offer practical precepts to his addressees and readers.
Nicander’s approach to toxicology is not practical but theoretical, a fact he does not
bother to hide – it is worth recalling the terse evaluation of Gow and Scholfield:
‘‘whereas the uninstructed reader may learn a good deal of astronomy from Aratus,
the victim of snake-bite or poison who turned to Nicander for first-aid would be in
sorry plight’’ (1953: 18). In other words, in Nicander the theoretical description one
associates with ancient science and medicine predominates over the practical instruc-
tion one might expect in didactic poetry. In this respect as in others, his poetry is
perfectly at home in the cultural climate of the Hellenistic Age, when the gap between
cutting-edge science and the educational curriculum of the upper class was growing
exponentially and waiting to be filled. Nicander was not a professional scientist, nor
 Nicander 223

did he aim at producing a handbook that could help save human lives. Guido
Gozzano’s unfinished Epistole entomologiche (‘‘Entomological Letters,’’ c.1909–11)
offers a modern parallel for his poems. Gozzano combined a profound interest in, and
admirable command of the style and form of eighteenth-century didactic poetry with
a passion for butterflies and moths. Surely, a love of ‘‘Callimachean’’ aesthetics and a
passion for poisons and snakes would not have been seen as incompatible by
Hellenistic Greeks – and least of all by scholar-poets such as Callimachus.

FURTHER READING

The standard editions of the Theriaca and Alexipharmaca are Jacques 2002 and 2007a,
including the Greek text with French translation, extensive introductions, and detailed exeget-
ical notes (for an assessment, see Spanoudakis 2005 and De Stefani 2006a). At present
Schneider 1856, the first modern edition, still offers the only complete collection of all
Nicandrian fragments (poetry and prose, 19–135, 203–7; additions in SH 562–563A; see also
FGrH 271); Schneider’s introduction and apparatus are also still worth consulting. Gow and
Scholfield 1953 offers the two extant poems, poetic fragments, and testimonia with English
translation and brief but helpful notes. Other editions include Oikonomakos 2002a–b
(Alexipharmaca with important prolegomena); Crugnola 1971 and Geymonat 1974 (scholia
on Theriaca and Alexipharmaca); and Gualandri 1968, Geymonat 1976, Papathomopoulos
1976 (Eutecnius’ late-antique paraphrases).
Kroll’s 1936 survey on Nicander is still useful. Pivotal studies of the structure of Theriaca
and Alexipharmaca and their place in the tradition of didactic poetry are Effe 1974a–b and
1977a. For the interaction between pharmacological knowledge and literary aims in Nicander’s
poetry, see Jacques 1979, 2006, and Touwaide 1991; on Nicander’s ideology in the Theriaca,
Clauss 2006. Schneider 1962, Toohey 1996: 62–77, Spatafora 2005, and Cusset 2006a: 75–
103 offer important insights on Nicander’s style and poetic technique; on Nicander’s language,
see further Klauser 1898, Gow 1951, Crugnola 1961, and Bartalucci 1963. Studies devoted to
Nicander’s reception in Latin poetry include Hollis 1998 on Lucretius; Cazzaniga 1960 and
Harrison 2004 on Vergil; and Vollgraff 1919, Herter 1941, Montanari 1974, and Griffin 1991
on Ovid.
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus

Mark Payne

The bucolic poems of Theocritus are generally understood to be those that feature a
herdsman of one kind or another and they take their name from this central character,
the boukolos: Idylls 1, 3–7, and 10–11. Some scholars have considered this an unwar-
ranted restriction of the term to poems that are easily assimilated to the later pastoral
tradition. They would include a larger selection of poems under the heading
‘‘bucolic,’’ and point to the critical engagement with the earlier literary tradition
that is missed when the Idylls are considered from the perspective of their future
imitators. However, insofar as these poems limit themselves to the portrayal of
herdsmen in a circumscribed rural setting, where their only activity is the production
of song, they are recognizably the origin of the Western pastoral tradition that has as
its primary model Vergil’s Eclogues (Bucolica as he himself called them) and are rightly
considered a new kind of literary fiction (Gutzwiller 1991: 3–19 and 2006; Alpers
1996: 145–7; Reed in this volume).
The fictionality of the bucolic world Theocritus created can hardly be exaggerated:
the herdsmen come and go as they please, without masters to answer to or flocks with
pressing needs. They spend their time singing and in love, and their surroundings are
a pleasure zone of trees, streams, springs, and breezes. Nothing obliges them to act
and the poems they inhabit are largely plotless as a result; the performance of song
takes the place of action as such. The herdsmen are manifestly fictional, yet the nature
of their fictionality is elusive: some look like ordinary mortals with invented names, or
no name at all, others have a history in earlier literature. Moreover, characters with
the same name look very different from one poem to the next, to the point where it is
virtually impossible to reconcile the differences (Kossaifi 2002: 355–6). While the
bucolic Idylls make use of elements from earlier Greek poetry, the fictional world that
results from their recombination is unprecedented and the poems are immediately
recognizable in these terms as a new genre. To understand their novelty better, it will
be helpful to briefly review the various understandings of literary representation that
were current at the time of their appearance.
 The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus 225

Fictionality in Greek Literary Theory

and Hellenistic Poetry
It is widely agreed that the concept of fictionality is first articulated in Aristotle’s
Poetics. While the distinction between truth and deceptive semblance has a long
history in the poetic and sophistic tradition, Aristotle, for the first time, formulates
an understanding of poetic narrative that endeavors to free it from judgments of truth
or falsehood (Ford 2002: 231; Halliwell 2002: 166–8). In the terms of contemporary
philosophy, poetic narrative is ‘‘verification-transcendent’’ insofar as it does not make
direct truth claims about the world but offers a representative image of human life.
Plot and direct speech by characters are the two aspects of fiction-making that
Aristotle values most, for the first reveals what particular types of people do when
placed in particular kinds of situations, while the second ensures that the story
advances with the minimum of intervention on the part of the poet (Poet. 9, 24).
Aristotle’s understanding of fiction’s value leaves little room for the otherworldly.
Fictional worlds peopled by beings who are not recognizably moral agents like
ourselves, or worlds where the rules of possibility and causality bear little resemblance
to those that obtain in our own, can have little value as models for understanding the
behavior of real people. Such worlds are incapable of being an object of analysis for
philosophically informed discussion, and literary criticism that abides by this
Aristotelian understanding of mimesis will struggle with the fantastic. So, for
example, a famous scholion on the Iliad tries to explain (and explain away) such
elements as Zeus and Hera’s lovemaking, or the monsters of the Odyssey, as the poet’s
intrusive fantasies, rather than integral parts of the poems’ fictional worlds
(Gutzwiller in this volume). New Comedy provides the scholiast’s normative literary
model; in Menander, human types such as misogynists, tricksters, and loudmouths
act within a fictional world that has minimal deviation from the real world, so that his
plays are easily understood as modeling real-life behaviors (Meijering 1987: 68–9;
Lape in this volume). In the famous words of Aristophanes of Byzantium,
‘‘O Menander and Life, which of you imitated the other?’’
In the Hellenistic period, the other genre that might seem to offer cognitive
possibilities similar to those of New Comedy is the urban mime. In these poems, as
represented by the Mimiambs of Herodas, and Idylls 2, 14, and 15 of Theocritus,
a small cast of characters engages in conversation in an intimate domestic setting. The
conversation is worldly, ranging over such topics as the possibilities for mercenary
service in Ptolemaic Alexandria, and the purchase of sex toys in this same metropolis.
The characters are housewives, soldiers, shopkeepers, and domestic slaves, but the
brief scope of the poems (fewer than 200 lines) gives little opportunity for character
to unfold in action; they are genre scenes rich in circumstantial detail rather than a
representative image of human life.
An interest in the lives of humble people is also apparent in the mythological
narrative poetry of the Hellenistic period. In Callimachus’ Hecale, Theseus stays with
a poor old woman before fighting the Bull of Marathon; in the Aetia, Heracles has to
hear about the invention of the mousetrap from the pauper Molorcus before
proceeding against more formidable foes; in Theocritus’ Idyll 24, Hera’s fearsome
226 Mark Payne

serpents find their way into a hero’s home, where a shield has been repurposed as a
crib. The effect is less to ironize or demystify these stories, and more a kind of
re-enchantment of myth that comes from placing the fantastic in a setting that is
immediately familiar. What would it really be like to have Heracles under your own
roof, these poems ask us to imagine; what would it be like to see an infant strangle
snakes? The emphasis is less upon the story itself, as a myth to be remembered, than
on the act of imagination necessary to envision its story world.
If the main attraction in Hellenistic mythological narrative is not the story but the
storytelling, poems in which mythical narratives have an encomiastic function might
seem to present the writer with a problem: how to compare a king with a hero if myth
itself lacks charismatic authority? Pindar could assimilate his athletic victors to their
heroic counterparts in all seriousness, but how was a Hellenistic poet to make
comparisons with beings that had lost their ontological prestige? The answer, it
seems, was allegory. If the plot had a clear enough ideological content (the defeat
of monsters by an Olympian god, or the emergence of order from chaos) its allegor-
ical quality would be readily apparent, and the audience would understand it was
really hearing about Ptolemy, not Heracles. When the relationship between history
and myth is an intellectually apprehended analogy, rather than full ontological
re-enactment, a certain amount of hilarity in the fictional construct is easily tolerated.
So, in Callimachus’ Hymn to Delos, for example, the unborn Apollo explains from his
mother’s womb that he is unwilling to be born on the island of Cos because Ptolemy
Philadelphus is going to be born there in the future, and goes on to praise the
successful campaigns against the Gauls the king has recently concluded (162–88).
As the poet jests with the myth, its real function, to present Apollo as an analogue of
his patron, becomes apparent. In this propagandistic use of the story world of myth,
its gods and heroes do not instantiate human universals, as in the Aristotelian account
of tragedy (a democratic fiction). Rather, the poet treats historical particulars (kings
and tyrants) as if they were instantiations of mythical archetypes (Henrichs 1999:
223–6; Stephens 2003: 251).
More work needs to be done in this area, as it is not easy to see how poems such
as Callimachus’ Hymn to Demeter (especially the grotesque punishment of
Erysichthon), or Theocritus’ Idyll 26 (on the dismemberment of Pentheus), which
share many of the lurid and fantastic features of the overtly encomiastic poems, would
fit within the ambit of court poetry. What is clear, however, is that Hellenistic poems
that include mythical narrative usually have formal features that draw attention to the
way in which myth is deployed within them. To give the best-known example,
Callimachus’ hymns alternate between poems that feature a speaker fixed in a fictional
time and space (the ‘‘mimetic’’ h. 2, 5, and 6) and poems that are spoken by an
uncharacterized and seemingly colorless narrator (h. 1, 3, and 4). In the former, the
speaker makes use of apparently omniscient sources to recount the sacred narrative
that is the centerpiece of the poem; in the latter, the speaker tends to interfere with
the story he is telling (Harder 1992: 384–94). In both cases, the mode of presenta-
tion invites attention to the relationship between teller and tale in mythical narrative,
even as particularly fabulous episodes from it are selected for retelling.
A similar caution is apparent in the didactic poetry of the Hellenistic period. Here
we can see a radical restriction of the sphere within which a poet can hope to make
 The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus 227

legitimate truth claims in his own voice. While Hesiod may claim knowledge about
the birth of the gods, or Pindar offer prescriptive maxims for moral behavior, the
Hellenistic poet offers a poetry of fact, presented with the elegance proper to
scientific knowledge, but manifestly non-fictional. The points of departure for
Aratus’ poetry on the movements of the stars, or Nicander’s on the bites of venomous
animals, are prose treatises by scientific authorities (Eudoxus, Apollodorus), with
which their poems could easily have been compared. While the poems may narrativize
their scientific material (Nicander in particular proceeding by imagined vignettes of
reptile and insect attack), neither poet offers special knowledge derived from his
vocation as poet. What makes a text poetic is the way it presents its material rather
than the material itself (Hunter 2008a; Gutzwiller in this volume).
To better appreciate the generic innovations of Hellenistic poetry, we must analyze
them with due regard for the kinds of world-making they enable – how formal
experiments are related to fictionality and the mimetic function. The formal struc-
tures of narrative genres are most productively considered in close relationship with
the fictional worlds they transmit, and fictional presence – how a story world is
brought close or kept at a distance by the way in which it is presented – should have
a central place in their study, as it does in the narrative theory of Plato and Aristotle
(Hardie 2002: 6). Likewise, manifest differences in content with regard to Archaic
and Classical predecessors should not automatically be regarded as signs of an
author’s antagonistic relationship to the literary tradition, but may be more usefully
thought of as additions to the fictional repertoire available to the poet (Fantuzzi and
Hunter 2004: 133–41).

The Fictionality of the Bucolic Poems

Aristotle’s conception of genre proposes a sustained correlation between objects and
modes of representation. Tragedy is the representation of people better than our-
selves in the dramatic mode, comedy of people worse than ourselves, and so on (Poet.
2–5). Aristotle does not address the interlopers who occasionally make their presence
felt – Thersites in the Iliad, or the slaves and messengers of tragedy – but it would
probably be correct to suppose that these characters would have had a focusing
function for him insofar as they draw our attention to the kind of people the genre
is really about.
The most common mode of presentation in the bucolic poems is dramatic; while
Theocritus experiments with a variety of framing devices, a dramatic scene is at the
heart of each, and this scene in turn contains some form of song. These songs range
from the merest scrap of a refrain in Idyll 4 to the dramatic re-enactment of ‘‘The
Sorrows of Daphnis’’ in Idyll 1, the competitive song contest of Idyll 5, the song
exchanges of Idylls 7 and 10, and the solo love songs for an absent beloved in Idylls 3
and 11. However, while the poems have the generic consistency that comes from the
combination of a particular kind of character with a particular mode of representa-
tion, this character is hard to place on the scale of human types – better, worse, or just
like ourselves – that Aristotle envisages.
228 Mark Payne

The poems in which the herdsmen appear are short, and virtually plotless, like the
urban mines, but they themselves are not rural counterparts of the slaves in those
poems. The herdsmen take part in musical competitions with Pan and the Muses,
they pretend to be Daphnis and Polyphemus in their songs, they elaborate on the
pleasure they have taken in contemplating works of art, and offer their thoughts on
Hellenistic literary theory. Not only does their speech belie what their occupation
suggests, the reality effects drawn from the world of rural labor that is the backdrop
to the songs only enhance the manifest fictionality of their characterization as
herdsmen.
Nor do they belong to myth. The nameless goatherd of Idyll 1 cannot, by his very
anonymity, be located in the mythical record. Anonymity is a marker of fiction where
it is found in earlier literature (Finkelberg 1998: 130), and the centrality of an
unnamed character in this poem seems to be programmatic: while fictional beings
elsewhere people the interstices of mythical narratives – the shield of Achilles in the
Iliad, whose invented cities are filled with anonymous inhabitants, or the messengers
and minor characters of tragedy – here one occupies center stage, identified by his
occupation alone. On the other hand, the herdsmen are highly conscious of their
predecessors – in Idyll 1, Thyrsis impersonates Daphnis, who is on speaking terms
with the Olympian gods; in Idyll 6, Daphnis and Damoetas impersonate Polyphemus
and a nameless companion; in Idyll 7, Lycidas imagines the lives of Daphnis and
Comatas; in Idyll 5, Comatas compares himself with Daphnis and Melantheus, the
evil goatherd of the Odyssey. Idyll 11 further problematizes the question of what
ontological category to assign the herdsmen to, for in this poem Polyphemus is
re-imagined as a lovesick shepherd like those of the other bucolic poems.
An imagined version of the bucolic world they themselves inhabit is thus a constant
obsession of the herdsmen, and forms the substance of their songs. Yet this bucolic
past is not anchored to any particular time; it is an image generated by longing and
mirrored inconsistently from one poem to the next. Lycidas, who is the superlative
singing herdsmen in Idyll 7, longs for the world of Daphnis and Comatas, yet
Daphnis, when we see him in person in Idyll 6, is imagining the world of
Polyphemus. So too Comatas, the embodiment of bucolic consolation in Lycidas’
song, is salacious and aggressive when he appears in person in Idyll 5. The irreduci-
bility of the bucolic world’s origins enhances its ontological mystique; what is sourced
from myth and actuality has undergone a thorough fictionalization in its transduction
to its new home, and the bucolic characters belong to no world that we can identify
outside the poems in which they appear.

Discovering the Fiction

Ancient commentators regarded Idyll 1 as the most delightful and best constructed of
Theocritus’ poems, which for these reasons was rightly placed at the beginning of the
collection as its ‘‘gleaming front’’ (Id. 1 arg. b at Wendel 1914: 23). It is a dialogue
between Thyrsis, a shepherd and singer, and an unnamed goatherd who is also a
syrinx player. An introductory conversation between the two (1–14) sets the scene of
 The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus 229

their encounter, and is followed by a long speech by the goatherd (15–63) in which
he describes a decorated bowl or kissubion (27–60) that he promises to give to Thyrsis
if the latter will sing ‘‘The Sorrows of Daphnis’’ for him. Thyrsis responds by per-
forming the song (64–145), and the goatherd greets his performance with enthusi-
astic admiration when it is over (146–52).
The opening speeches carefully identify human and natural music; as a pine tree by
springs sings its whispering song, so the goatherd sweetly pipes (1–3); likewise, the
goatherd replies, Thyrsis’ song falls more sweetly than water from a nearby rock (7–8).
Beginning with this elaborate and highly patterned praise, the herdsmen extend their
gaze to a landscape of trees and gentle hills as they seek out a spot in which to attend to
one another’s music. As they gesture to their customary haunts, they invite us to
picture their delightful surroundings for ourselves.
Thyrsis is reluctant to sing at first, and the goatherd has to draw him out with a
reward. He offers him a kissubion, or wooden bowl, decorated with an ivy pattern and
scenes with figures. Not having the bowl before him, he elaborates on its adornment;
in one scene (32–8), men with beautiful hair ‘‘contend with words’’ beside a woman,
though they do not touch her mind: as she ‘‘looks at one man smiling and then turns
her mind to the other,’’ they, ‘‘long since hollow-eyed with love, labor in vain.’’ In
the next (39–44), an old man strains with all his might to cast a net, so that ‘‘you
would say that he is fishing with all the strength of his limbs.’’ In the final scene (45–
54), a young boy is guarding a vineyard, poorly. He is intent on weaving a cricket cage
from some plants, with the result that scheming foxes are wrecking the vines and
about to devour his lunch.
In all three cases the ecphrasis of the recollected object contrasts the fixity of the
visual image with the interpretive additions the goatherd introduces to explain what
he sees, as he finds psychology and a back story in the first scene, identifies physio-
logically with the fisherman in the second, and imagines the mental states of boy and
fox in the third. The interpretive movement on the goatherd’s part recapitulates the
energies we bring to bear on the poem’s opening dialogue as we connect the details
the poem supplies in order to imagine a fictional world with extension and tempor-
ality. Now, in 23 verses, we enter and leave three fictional microcosms in succession,
with new settings, new characters, and new stories to imagine each time. The
ecphrasis offers the reader a concentrated experience of fictional involvement and a
paradigm of the way in which this involvement can further fictionalize fictional facts
by providing them with all kinds of imagined motivations and contexts. For the
goatherd’s account of the bowl leaves us in no doubt that what we are listening to
is in part invention. The ecphrasis is a fictional character’s imaginative engagement
with a work of visual fiction (Miles 1977: 147; Payne 2007: 38–40).
The goatherd’s description appears to work the same magic on Thyrsis as it does on
the reader, for he agrees to perform ‘‘The Sorrows of Daphnis’’ as requested. His
song is an elaborate, histrionic performance. It includes impersonation, of Daphnis
himself, and of the visitors who visit his deathbed, dramatic pauses as the dying
herdsmen refuses to answer his interlocutors, and a final theatrical outburst as he
reproaches Aphrodite for her cruelty in bringing about his death. Thyrsis incorporates
his audience into the performance with references within the song itself to the sexual
proclivities of goatherds and to the syrinx that the goatherd shares with Daphnis. The
230 Mark Payne

fiction of live performance in which the singer can respond directly to the living
presence of his audience confronts his listener with an imaginary world that maps
itself actively onto his own time and space (Pretagostini 1992: 71).
Thyrsis cannibalizes a variety of literary genres for effect (epic, hymn, tragedy,
comedy, funeral epigram). At the textual level, the poem deconstructs its own illusion
of primitive oral song even as it produces it. Likewise, the story of Daphnis is
impossible to reconstruct from the song, even in outline (Ogilvie 1962: 110). Yet,
at the level of the poem’s fiction, the goatherd sees none of this. He responds to it as
song, wishing that the ‘‘lovely mouth’’ of Thyrsis might be filled with honey since he
sings ‘‘better than a cicada’’ (146–8). The poem exploits the cognitive dissonance
between his experience of the song and our own – to understand his delight, we have
to imagine the material pleasure of Thyrsis’ voice, the very thing we cannot get from
the text, nor from any performance of it. The poem’s hexameters elide the difference
between speech and song so that the source of delight within the poem’s fictional
world cannot be produced by staging it (Wilamowitz 1906: 137). The poem playfully
dramatizes its own distance from orality and its impossibly melodious shepherd is the
invention of a poet who knows he can depend on the imagination of readers to bring
his world to life. The non-performativity of the text is another marker of its fiction-
ality. While face-to-face storytelling (as the poem portrays it) responds directly to its
audience’s desires, the text must seduce its readers with an imaginary experience they
cannot have outside it.
In other bucolic Idylls, narrative framing plays with the reader’s desire for the
poetic fiction, particularly insofar as this fiction is made present by the direct speech
of the herdsmen. The distinction between narration by the poet and the invented
speech of his characters is the basis of Plato’s analysis of literary effect in the Republic
(Book 3, 395c–d, 401b–c; Book 10, 605c–606b), and remains central to the under-
standing of genre in the Poetics, where the dramatic mode is virtually equated with
fictionality (24). Experimentation with the modes of literary representation remains
vital in Hellenistic poetic practice and in ancient commentary on the resulting works
(McLennan 1977: 147; Fantuzzi 1988: 65–81). The prolegomena to the Theocritus
scholia, for example, discuss the formal variety of the bucolic poems in these terms
(proleg. D and E at Wendel 1914: 4–5), and Idyll 11 is an experiment with story-
telling modes that can be approached rewardingly from this perspective.
Idyll 11 begins with a suggestion addressed to a named addressee (1–3): ‘‘There is
no other medicine for love, Nicias, either rubbed or sprinkled, than the Pierides.’’ As
an example of the successful application of the Muses to the wounds of love, the poet
proposes Polyphemus, who ‘‘fared better’’ (ρ άιсτα διαÐ γε, 7; cf. 81) with this treat-
ment. It has been suggested that the opening is a fictionalized version of the exchange
of maxims between friends in the performative contexts of Archaic lyric, iambic and
sympotic poetry (Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 170–1). In keeping with these models,
the poet sets out the salient points of his example: wounded by a dart from
Aphrodite, the adolescent Cyclops let his flocks wander while he sat on the sea shore
singing of his love for the sea nymph Galatea.
At this point, however, the poem takes a very surprising turn, as the poet drops
the narrative mode and lets the Cyclops speak (or rather sing) for himself (19–21):
‘‘O white Galatea, why do you spurn one who loves you, you who are whiter than
 The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus 231

cream cheese to look upon, softer than a lamb, friskier than a calf, sleeker than an
unripe grape.’’ As the poem morphs into dramatic fiction before our very eyes, the
difference between exemplum narration and fictional presence could hardly be more
apparent. Instead of a discursive object held at arm’s length for the sake of a point,
Polyphemus is suddenly present in his own words in all his irrepressible alterity. As a
fictional creation, Theocritus’ Polyphemus is manifestly different from those of
Homer and the comic tradition. As he tells it, his ugliness is now all on the outside;
no longer the cannibalistic negation of civilization as he is in Homer, nor an embodi-
ment of its laughable excesses as he is in Euripides, the Cyclops is now a ‘‘monster’’
merely by virtue of his snub nose and hairy brow. His heart is pure, his love as sincere
as that of any singing herdsman, his mind as full of visions. He cannot even, it seems,
distinguish memory from dream, and his waking life is devoted to recapturing the
images his sleeping mind produces unsummoned (22–33).
While the Cyclops is aware of his own unattractiveness, he also knows that he is well
endowed with pastoral riches, and contemplation of them seems to do him good as
he reviews them in his imagination: his cattle, the fine milk and cheese they produce,
his musical skills, the abundance of baby animals he can offer as playthings, his shady
cave, and its cool water from the snows of Mount Etna (34–48). He passes all these
before his mind as he sits upon the shore, and, in doing so, he turns the pastoral
world he has temporarily abandoned into an imaginary object, a secondary desire
that can take the nymph’s place. By being pictured in this way, as an imaginary
presence rather than a real one, his world is able to exert the same attraction over
him as the absent body of Galatea. ‘‘Come forth,’’ he says, one last time, ‘‘and having
come forth forget, as I do now, sitting here, to go home’’ (63–4). But no sooner is
the claim that he has forgotten his home out of his mouth (as if he had not spent most
of his song describing it), than he comes to his senses and pledges to return to it.
‘‘O Cyclops, Cyclops, where has your mind wandered’’ (72), he concludes, acknow-
ledging his imaginary journey as he turns back towards his lambs and his cheese.
Polyphemus achieves his return to reality by picturing in song an imagined double
of the bucolic world he himself inhabits as an alternative to erotic fantasy. In this he
resembles Theocritus’ other herdsmen. Lycidas, in Idyll 7, imagines an idealized
pastoral scene he might have shared with Comatas (86–9), Thyrsis, in Idyll 1,
imagines himself as Daphnis (100–36). Less happily, the goatherd in Idyll 3 invokes
a series of mythical doubles for his own experience (40–51), but cannot quite identify
with them successfully. The pastoral world he imagines remains rooted in myth, and
will not allow him to re-imagine his own world in its image. Polyphemus, however,
can stand outside himself for a while, and see himself as another; he desists from
re-inflicting his erotic wound by imagining himself as someone worthy of love by
virtue of the world that he inhabits. The effects are evidently therapeutic, but the
process is nothing like progress towards self-knowledge (Holtsmark 1966: 253–9;
Cozzoli 1994: 95–110). Rather, his song fulfills the healing function that is claimed
for it in the poem’s opening by replacing the imaginary object that has occupied the
Cyclops’ mind with another that can substitute for it.
There is, however, a second, and perhaps more important way in which his song
instantiates (rather than simply demonstrates) this claim. For Polyphemus has not just
himself as audience, but Nicias too. Many of the bucolic poems feature listening to
232 Mark Payne

bucolic song as their centerpiece. In particular, Thyrsis’ performance of ‘‘The

Sorrows of Daphnis’’ in Idyll 1, and the song that Lycidas imagines being performed
for him in Idyll 7, demonstrate the pleasures of imaginative absorption for the
listener. Just as the goatherd of Idyll 1 professes extreme pleasure in the performance
he hears (146–8), so Lycidas imagines the power of pastoral song to distract him from
his love for the boy Ageanax, and concludes by wishing that he might have been able
to hear the voice of Comatas himself (7.71–89). It is in hearing, rather than perform-
ing, pastoral song that its healing power resides for him (Walsh 1985: 13).
By allowing Nicias, then, in Idyll 11, to overhear the song of a famous pastoral
musician – Polyphemus ‘‘can pipe like no other Cyclops’’ (38–9), just as Lycidas is
‘‘the best of pipers among the herdsmen and reapers’’ (7.27–9) – the poem restages
the listening scenes that occur between fictional characters in other poems across the
boundary that separates fictional character from real world reader. Listening to
Polyphemus, we forget about the universe of discourse that surrounds him for the
duration of his song. We are absorbed by the Cyclops’ performance until we are
suddenly jarred out of it by the unexpected return of the poet’s voice at the end of the
poem: ‘‘So Polyphemus tended his desire with song, and did better than if he had
paid money’’ (80–1).
Making the reader aware of his absorption in the poem’s fictional world resembles
the ecphrastic technique of Idyll 1, where in quick succession we enter and leave
a series of miniature scenes on the surface of the goatherd’s decorated bowl. In
Idyll 11, the transition from one narrative level to another is combined with a change
in mode, as the poet’s voice suddenly replaces that of his character, and the self-
consciousness this induces is the most telling proof of the poem’s gnomic propos-
ition, that song is an effective treatment for desire. For as long as the Cyclops’ song
lasts, the reader forgets about his own preoccupations. The example does not just
work by demonstration, inviting Nicias to inspect Polyphemus’ state of mind at the
beginning and end of his performance, and so judge the therapeutic effect of the song
upon its singer. It works as imaginative experience, drawing the reader in, and thereby
demonstrating its power over us. The poem enacts the powerful form of mental
distraction exercised by fictional speech, a willing forgetfulness of the self in imaginary
experience that is all the more palpable because we return to reality so abruptly at the
end of it.

Mimetic Desire and Metafiction

Rather than lamenting a fall from performance culture to literacy, Idyll 1 and Idyll 11
exploit the conditions of textuality to present their fictional worlds in ways that
foreground the acts of imagination involved in conceiving them. The centrality of
the imagination to their literary project is further evidenced by the role it plays within
the poems. For a key element in the subjectivity of the bucolic characters is their
ability to imagine, project, and identify with singers who inhabit bucolic worlds that
are doubles of their own. Insofar, then, as being a bucolic character means having a
self that is consciously shaped by imitation of a self-elected literary model, it is proper
 The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus 233

to speak of the herdsmen as acting under the influence of what René Girard has called
‘‘mimetic desire’’ (1978: 3).
So the performance by which Thyrsis proves his exemplary status as bucolic singer
in Idyll 1 is a re-enactment of the herdsman Daphnis. So the goatherd of Idyll 3
introduces mythical paradigms that lead not so much to the persuasion of his
addressee Amaryllis, but to a partial identification with his legendary predecessors.
So Comatas in Idyll 5 contrasts his positive and negative models, Daphnis and
Melantheus. So Lycidas, the exemplary herdsman singer in Idyll 7, wishes he could
have heard the voice of the famous Comatas. To have heard bucolic song is to have
been inspired with a desire to emulate its leading characters, and dramatic imper-
sonation is one way in which this desire expresses itself. By imagining themselves as
others, the herdsmen try out roles from the bucolic repertory, and so stage their own
imaginative involvement with the bucolic world of which they are a part.
This aspect of bucolic song is staged at length in Idyll 6 (on which see also Reed in
this volume). The poem begins, like Idyll 11, with an address to a friend. However, in
this case, there is no indication of what point the ensuing dramatic scene is meant to
illustrate; Aratus, the addressee, is simply told that ‘‘Damoetas and Daphnis the
cowherd once drove their herd together into one place,’’ and that in the exchange
of songs that followed, ‘‘Daphnis began first, because he first proposed a contest’’
(1–5). More surprisingly still, when Daphnis begins, he appears to be talking to
someone other than Damoetas: ‘‘Galatea throws apples at your flock, Polyphemus,
and calls you a wretched lover and a goatherd. And you do not look at her, you
wretch, but sit sweetly playing your pipe’’ (6–9). The dramatic situation is hard to
construe, to put it mildly: why is Daphnis pretending to talk to Polyphemus, and why
is Theocritus telling Aratus about it?
If this were not puzzling enough, the way Daphnis presents the Cyclops to
Damoetas quite explicitly contradicts what we know about him from Idyll 11. Now
it is Galatea who is in love with him, and who has left the sea to solicit his affections,
while Polyphemus is either indifferent to her charms, or master of his own desire to
such a degree that he is able to feign indifference to her. So, too, when Damoetas
adopts the role of Cyclops in his response, the eye that was the source of his ugliness
in Idyll 11 is now the instrument of his power over the nymph, and, like his gleaming
teeth, an object of beauty when he views himself reflected in the ocean (35–8). Not
content with fictionalizing the Polyphemus of the tradition in Idyll 11, Theocritus
brackets the ontological claims of his own fiction by allowing his bucolic imper-
sonators to reinvent him in this poem.
The lability of the Cyclops matches that of his impersonator Daphnis. For Daphnis
is more palpable, more present, when he is projected by Thyrsis’ impersonation of
him in Idyll 1 than he is when he appears in his own person in Idyll 6. The bucolic
characters do not have a self that can be discovered by inspection, either by them-
selves or by the reader. Their subjectivity is rather a site for fictional projection and
identification – it is by pretending to be others that they are most truly who they are.
At the end of the poem the herdsmen exchange instruments and play on, their calves
dancing around them. Even the definition of character by musical accomplishment
that distinguishes the syrinx-playing goatherd from the singer Thyrsis in Idyll 1 is
abandoned: ‘‘One gives the other a syrinx, the other gives a lovely flute. Damoetas
234 Mark Payne

plays the flute, and Daphnis the cowherd plays the syrinx’’ (43–4). Now there is
nothing to choose between them, and the idea of contest is abandoned: ‘‘Neither
won, they were both undefeated’’ (46). The lability of the bucolic character is fully
manifest.
The theme of bucolic imitation is dramatized most strikingly in the poem that has
been by far the most discussed by modern scholars, Idyll 7, the ‘‘Thalysia,’’ or
‘‘Harvest Festival.’’ In this poem, a speaker named Simichidas recalls how he traveled
from the city of Cos to a harvest festival at the country estate of some friends (1–9).
On the way, he met a goatherd named Lycidas (10–20), and the two of them
exchanged songs before going their separate ways. Lycidas sings of his love for a
boy, but soon turns from erotic to bucolic themes. He imagines the songs that will be
sung for him at a rustic symposium he is to host, and recalls famous bucolic singers of
long ago (52–89). Simichidas’ song remains within the present, but is full of bucolic
touches as it cautions his friend Aratus against unrequited love (96–127). Lycidas
gives Simichidas a staff as a token of his esteem, and the two parties go their separate
ways (128–34). In the last part of the poem, Simichidas gives an account of his
surroundings at the festival that is both rapturous in tone and exceptionally rich in
descriptive detail. He concludes by comparing the wine he drank there with wine
drunk by Heracles and Polyphemus, and wishes that he might be allowed to experi-
ence the festival again in the future (135–57).
What sets the poem apart is its precise, real-world location, and the form of its
narration; while the other bucolic Idylls are enacted in a dramatic present (sometimes
framed by a discursive present in which the poet addresses a friend), Idyll 7 is a
retrospective first-person account of past experience that ends with an unprecedented
wish for the future (Puelma 1960: 144; Meillier 1993: 104). The poem reads like
autobiography and it was understood as such by its ancient commentators, who
identified Simichidas with Theocritus (Id. 7 arg. at Wendel 1914: 76–7). Lycidas,
on the other hand, is clearly a bucolic character – he looks like one and sings like one,
although the contrast between small-scale composition and emulation of Homer that
precedes his song touches on some topical issues in Hellenistic poetics (45–7).
Further complicating the picture is the fact that his sudden appearance has elements
of Homeric epiphany scenes (Williams 1971: 137–45), and that his gift of a staff to
Simichidas closely resembles Hesiod’s meeting with the Muses in the Theogony
(Puelma 1960: 155–6).
How, then, to put these elements together, and so make sense of the poem as a
whole? Like most interpreters, I think Lycidas is the key to understanding the poem.
Lycidas looks like a goatherd, and smells like one too (16), but his familiarity with
contemporary poetics belies the suggestion that he is a figure drawn from the
countryside from which he emerges so mysteriously. He invites Simichidas to ‘‘begin
the bucolic song’’ (36) in words that recall the refrain song of Thyrsis in Idyll 1. He
sings of desire, and of the freedom from desire that emerges in the contemplation of
bucolic predecessors, singing in landscapes of their own (Walsh 1985: 13). His song
nests a series of increasingly smaller stories within it, and the singers within his song
point back to Lycidas himself, the master singer enclosed in the narrative of Idyll 7.
Lycidas, then, would seem to be the instantiation within the world of the poem of
the singing herdsmen who exemplify the bucolic fiction as a whole (Kühn 1958:
 The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus 235

64–74; Meillier 1993: 115). What Simichidas appears to learn from him is the ability
to understand his own bucolic experience as a desire for identification with such
models. At the end of the poem he gives a point-by-point account of the beauty of his
surroundings at the festival and concludes with an imaginative question (148–57):

Νύμϕαι Καсταλίδεс Παρνάсιον αι ποс ἔχοιсαι,

α ρά γέ παι τοιόνδε Φόλω ϰατὰ λάϊνον ἄντρον
ϰρατηÐ ρ’ ἩραϰληÐ ι ̈ γέρων ἐсτάсατο Χίρων;
α ρά γέ παι τηÐ νον τὸν ποιμένα τὸν ποτ’ Ἀνάπωι,
τὸν ϰρατερὸν Πολύϕαμον, ὃс ὤρεсι ναÐ αс ἔβαλλε,
τοιÐ ον νέϰταρ ἔπειсε ϰατ’ αὔλια ποссὶ χορευÐ сαι,
οιffl ον δὴ τόϰα πωÐ μα διεϰρανάсατε, Νύμϕαι,
βωμωÐ ι πὰρ Δάματροс ἁλωΐδοс;
Castalian nymphs, who inhabit the slopes of Parnassus, did old Chiron set a cup such as
this before Heracles in the stony cave of Pholus? Did nectar such as this persuade that
shepherd by the Anapus, the mighty Polyphemus, who hit ships with mountains, to dance
about the sheepfolds with his feet, such a drink as you then mixed beside the altar of
Demeter of the Threshing Floor, Nymphs?

The contrast with the witty ironic song he sang earlier for Lycidas (the best in his
repertoire, he boasted) is clear. From the studied introduction of bucolic motifs in
that piece, he has progressed here to an understanding of what bucolic song can be in
the hands of a master such as Lycidas: the ability to imagine bucolic paradigms so
seductive that one’s identity as a bucolic singer merges with them. He has not yet
achieved the mastery of a Thyrsis or a Lycidas in this respect, for these characters are
able to instantiate for others the very archetypes they imagine for themselves.
Simichidas is more like the goatherd of Idyll 3; he is still trying out the relationship
between paradigm and personal experience, and he does so without a great deal of
confidence (Fantuzzi 1995: 28). He has, however, glimpsed what it would be like to
be bucolic in the way that they are.
Lycidas calls Simichidas ‘‘fashioned for the sake of truth’’ (ἐπ’ ἀλαθείαι πεπλαс-
μένον, 44), and, when we read a poem by Theocritus that is a poet’s autobiography,
and the defining moment in this autobiography is this poet’s encounter with a
bucolic singer, it is difficult to avoid the idea that the autobiography is that of
Theocritus himself, the inventor of bucolic fiction. Why, then, does the poem thwart
this identification even as it suggests it? Story time and moment of narration never
converge in Idyll 7, and its narrator does not tell us how the younger version of
himself whose meeting with Lycidas is recorded in the poem became the person who
writes of that meeting (Starobinski 1980: 78–9). More obviously, the name of this
narrator is Simichidas, not Theocritus, and this might seem to preclude the identifi-
cation of character with author in the first place (Lejeune 1989: 4–5). If Idyll 7 is
autobiography, why the detour through fiction?
The answer lies, I think, in the kind of autobiography that the poem is, namely,
an inspiration narrative. As Callimachus in the Aetia prologue, and Herodas in
Mimiamb 8, defer to dreams the encounter with the inspiring being that results in
their distinctive poetic creation – the encounter that for Hesiod and Archilochus
happens in the waking world (Theogony 22–34; Clay 2004: 14–16) – so Idyll 7 points
236 Mark Payne

to the mystery of inspiration by recounting this event as fiction. Significantly, the

transforming encounter is not with a god but with a goatherd. While Lycidas is
invested with divine characteristics, he is, most obviously, a figure from Theocritus’
own bucolic poetry. By employing the heteronym Simichidas, Theocritus allows a
version of himself to encounter his invention Lycidas in a fictional narrative in which
he is transformed by his own creation. By creating a poem in which the fictionalized
author emulates his own fictional character, Theocritus offers us a form of autobio-
graphy that remains faithful to the message of the bucolic Idylls, that we free ourselves
to change by identifying with the products of the literary imagination.

The Poet in the Poem

The presence of the author in a fictional world of his own invention, encountering
there what is recognizably one of his own fictional creations, is an innovation in
literary world-building that will be vitally significant to the future of bucolic poetry.
For if Simichidas is Theocritus, and Simichidas can meet Lycidas, the poet can be
discovered in his poems in all kinds of guises and disguises.
Traces of the interpretive questions this possibility raises can be found in the scholia
to the Idylls where commentators dispute whether the goatherd of Idyll 3 is rightly
identified as the poet (Id. 3 arg. 3.1a at Wendel 1914: 116–17; Gutzwiller 1991:
180–1). Theocritus’ poetic successors respond to the possibility creatively. The
Epitaph for Bion presents a scene in which the historical poet Bion was known to,
associated with, and continues to be lamented by, his own bucolic characters (58–63):
‘‘Galatea too weeps for your song, whom you used to delight as she sat beside you on
the shore . . . Now she sits upon the lonely sands, and tends your flocks till this
hour.’’ The poem does not merely call a historical poet a herdsman for the first time
(Van Sickle 1976: 27; Alpers 1996: 153). More ambitiously, it posits a bucolic world
in which beings from different ontological domains can mingle freely.
It is, however, Vergil’s Eclogues that utilize the possibility in a way that will prove
decisive for the future of bucolic poetry. Vergil’s Roman contemporaries occupy the
same fictional world as his bucolic characters, and the poet moves in and out of
alignment with the fictional singers that represent him (Patterson 1987: 19–59;
Martindale 1997a: 116–19; Hunter 2006a: 125–30). The visible presence of the author
and other historical figures within the poems makes the bucolic world legible as a
counter-image of their own historical reality, and the Renaissance revivalists of bucolic
fiction will cherish its ability to offer a utopian critique of their age (Iser 1989: 75).

FURTHER READING

The most convenient place to read the bucolic poems in Greek is in the edition with commen-
tary by Hunter, 1999; see also Gow 1952b and Dover 1971. The essays collected in Fantuzzi
and Papanghelis 2006 offer a broad range of perspectives upon the development of pastoral in
 The Bucolic Fiction of Theocritus 237

antiquity. The ideas in this chapter are developed at greater length in Payne 2007. The best
introductions to fictional-worlds theory and its emergence from the possible worlds theory of
Anglo-American philosophy are Pavel 1986 and Doležel 1998; Ronen 1994 is a clear account
of the ways in which the two theories differ. Edmunds 2001 contains a rewarding discussion of
the relationship between fictional worlds and genre in Latin poetry. Iser 1993 brings a unique
theoretical acumen to bear on the thematization of fictionality in Renaissance pastoral. Among
twentieth-century pastoralists, the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa most repays comparison
with the bucolic experiments of Theocritus and Vergil; I discuss his version of the encounter
between the bucolic poet and the bucolic master he invents for himself in Payne 2007: 141–4.
Pessoa 1998 and 2001 are representative selections of his poetry and prose. McHale 1987 is a
fascinating study of world-building in the postmodern novel.
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Idyll 6 and the Development

of Bucolic after Theocritus
J. D. Reed

The transition from the work of Theocritus to the poetic line it inspired – mime-like
poems involving herdsman-singers and other country people, labeled ‘‘pastoral’’ or
‘‘bucolic’’ – is one of the most tantalizing questions in ancient, and indeed in all
Western, literature. It has proved difficult to resist essentialist solutions, particularly
those that purport to recover a core plan of the author’s own, perpetuated by his
followers – even once we have abandoned the ancient ‘‘mimetic’’ conception of
bucolic that conflates its poets and their compositions with its characters, herds-
men-singers, and their own performances. Origins seem always to be privileged in
the question of this poetic category: who invented it? Theocritus, according to the
consensus; but the question remains: what did he invent? Surely not the ‘‘pastoral’’ as
modern critics know it. The moment of change, and its dynamics, then become our
object: is it to be found in early modern pastoral? Vergil’s Roman imitators? Vergil’s
own Eclogues? One of the Greek followers of Theocritus? It is perhaps preferable to
refocus and ask, instead, about the picture yielded by any provisionally adopted point
of origin; that is, about how any given text in this poetic line reads (or makes us read)
others – especially, from the historical standpoint, the texts that precede it.
Our focus here is on an early stage in the tradition. Of the three names preserved in
the ancient canon of bucolic poets – Theocritus of Syracuse, Moschus of Syracuse,
and Bion of Smyrna (Suda θ 166, schol. AP 9.440) – the first lived under Ptolemy
Philadelphus in the early to mid-third century, and the last two must have lived
roughly in the latter half of the second century BCE . The historical facts at our disposal
offer poor means to reconstruct the development of bucolic poetry from Theocritus
down to Moschus and Bion, let alone to the anonymous authors whose poems,
mistakenly ascribed to one or another of the canonical three, are transmitted in the
bucolic manuscripts with theirs. This chapter will examine the transition from
Theocritus that is attested in the anonymous Idylls 8 and 9 in the Theocritean corpus,
poems that have been seen as representing the earliest examples of post-Theocritean
bucolic. Rossi, for example, calls 8 our first example of ‘‘sentimental’’ pastoral poetry
 The Development of Bucolic after Theocritus 239

(1971b: 5; cf. Effe 1977b: 9–10). What we seem to observe in them is a building on,
a rereading of, the precedent set by Theocritus’ poetry (e.g., Effe 1977b: 25–6;
Nauta 1990: 125). We shall pay especial attention to their connections to Idyll 6,
which in many ways they closely resemble, and which critics have often seen as a
transitional step from the bucolic of Theocritus to that of his followers, especially as
concerns the crystallization of bucolic conventions and the development of an ideal-
ized pastoral world.
At 45 lines, Idyll 6 is the shortest of the mime-like hexameter poems that modern
scholarship ascribes to Theocritus (Idylls 1–7, 10, 14–15; Idyll 9 is shorter). After a
few introductory lines of narrative addressed to one Aratus, the poem proceeds to
a singing contest between two herdsmen, Daphnis and Damoetas, who act out a
version of the legendary love of the Cyclops Polyphemus for the sea nymph Galatea.
The contest concluded, they happily exchange musical instruments. The prologue,
mime-like dialogue, herdsmen characters, singing contest, romantic undertones, and
Cyclops myth all seem typical of Theocritean bucolic. The dialect is that of epic poetry
with a Doric admixture, as in his other mime-like poems; the meter, as usual, is the
hexameter. A recent critic says, ‘‘Idyll 6 . . . seems to me to encapsulate the bucolic
world in a more concise way than any of the other pastoral idylls . . . We not only meet
the mythical Daphnis, but we witness again the quintessential bucolic motifs: the
herdsmen and their herds, the meeting at noontime, the springs, the songs and
piping . . . In addition to all of these, the amoebean contest, the only bucolic element
missing in Idyll 1, is highly prominent in 6 . . . Idyll 6 is the application of bucolic
principles: it is, perhaps, the pastoral poem par excellence’’ (Lushkov 2003: 1–2). Yet
we should not let hindsight and the conventions of later pastoral lead us to expect a
constellation of features here that is really rather remarkable, and that points to a new
consolidation of motifs out of Theocritus’ typically Alexandrian experiments.
Idylls 8 and 9, although transmitted under the name of Theocritus, are now
generally agreed to be the work of one or two others, variously on linguistic, dialectal,
metrical, and stylistic grounds, as well as for perceived anomalies in portrayal and
characterization (Valckenaer 1779; cf. Brinker 1884; Kattein 1901; Arland 1937:
9–11; Gow 1952b; Bernsdorff 2006: 168–70 nn.9, 11). Their narrative form and use
of earlier literature suggest that if 8 and 9 imitate Theocritus, they took 6 as their
foremost model (Arland 1937: 20–2 on 8). All three poems are titled Boukoliastai,
‘‘Herdsmen-Singers,’’ a term doubtless adopted with its use at Idyll 5.68 especially in
mind; although the titles may not go back to the original authors, they mark all three
poems as being about Theocritean herdsman-singers. Like 6, 8 and 9 each frame a
singing-contest between two herdsmen with a few lines of introduction and conclu-
sion. The introductory passages of 6 and 8 are remarkably similar in both ideas and
wording (Kattein 1901: 42–3). Daphnis is one of the two named speakers in each of
the three, and he is a winsome, childlike Daphnis far removed from the legendary
Sicilian herdsman who defies the gods in Idyll 1.
Idylls 8 and 9 also recall 6 in their style. The latter poem’s proportion of Doric to epic
dialect is relatively light and its meter at the high end of the scale of Alexandrian
refinement (Di Benedetto 1956; Fabiano 1971). Its syntax and diction are relatively
plain and lucid, with very few recherché words; it is notable for its intensive use of the
epithet ϰαλόс (6.11, 14, 16, 33, 36 twice, 43; cf. 19). Idylls 8 and 9 are comparable
240 J. D. Reed

linguistically. Di Benedetto (1956: 58–9) finds that the metrics of 8 and 9 depart from
Theocritean norms, including those of 6 – but the relatively small number of lines in
these poems may prohibit firm conclusions on these grounds. The style of these three
poems may mark the beginning of a trend: late bucolic will employ a more superficially
Doric language and mostly eschews the erudite vocabulary and linguistic constructions
of the early Alexandrians. The stylistic lucidity of 8 and 9 is abetted by a paucity of
thematic particulars, especially in contrast to the pastorals of Theocritus, and here too
they coincide with 6. All three poems share an idealized, schematic rural setting in
Sicily, which is specified at 8.56 and 9.15 and may be presumptive – because of
Daphnis – in Idyll 6. The herdsmen in 6 meet ‘‘at some spring, at noon on a summer’s
day’’ (6.3–4; Ott 1969: 70–1); those of 8 only ‘‘in the high mountains’’ (8.2); 9 gives
no background details outside its characters’ songs. Contrast the richly detailed
setting, replete with offstage characters and intrigues, that emerges from the herds-
men’s conversation in the first few dozen lines of Idylls 4 and 5.
More particular background elements in 6 are limited to the narrator’s named
addressee at line 2 and the superstition at lines 39–40, taught to the Cyclops
(according to his impersonator Damoetas) by the old woman Cottytaris. The (very
literary) proverbial color and the gaming metaphor at lines 17–19 represent the only
approach to the usual bantering, almost racy colloquial effect of the language of
Theocritus’ herdsmen. Idylls 8 and 9 share this lack of texture (Arland 1937: 11–28;
Merkelbach 1956; Rossi 1971b: 6; Bernsdorff 2006: 183–4; already stressed by
Brinker 1884 and Kattein 1901). A few realistic details appear in 8: the strict parents
in lines 15–16, the painful finger in 23–4. At 9.10–11 the accidental death of sheep
results in soft sheepskins, one detail of a locus amoenus within Daphnis’ song. Like 6,
Idylls 8 and 9 leave in the furthest background any social or sociopolitical significance
attached to their characters and their worlds, unlike the rurally set Idylls 1, 3, 4, 5, 7,
and 10 (Stephens 2006).
In Idyll 6, then, we seem to have an important site of the codification of Theocritus’
innovations, their hardening into genre, and it is followed by 8 and 9. Theocritus’ body
of work shows a variety of forms, among which the poems with pastoral themes are not
easily segregated from the others; recent criticism has moved toward an unpacking of
the category ‘‘bucolic’’ (or ‘‘pastoral’’) and a disaggregation, particularly in the work
of Theocritus, of the themes, motifs, and modes of representation that from the
standpoint of the later tradition seem naturally to accompany literary herdsmen (Van
Sickle 1976; Effe 1977b; Halperin 1983; Nauta 1990; Thomas 1996; Reed 2006;
Stephens 2006). Late bucolic, comprising the mostly fragmentary work of Moschus
and Bion and many of the pseudonymous bucolic poems, will show a proliferation of
themes and narrative forms (Arland 1937; Trovati 2001; Reed 2006; Bernsdorff
2006). But it was Theocritus’ casting of pastoral themes in dramatic form that seems
to have been most influential in the long term. If the genre instigated by Theocritus is
considered historically, and pastoral dialogue is not considered its original essence,
then it becomes a matter of interest to clarify the route by which pastoral dialogue –
particularly in an idealized representation – became its signal form in the post-
Theocritean tradition down to Vergil and beyond.
Reasons of space forbid close readings of all the relevant passages and parallels
between our three poems and others, and a full appreciation of the formal and
 The Development of Bucolic after Theocritus 241

thematic complexities not only of Idyll 6 but of the two later poems; instead I will
refer frequently to more detailed discussions. Our investigation falls under four
general rubrics, mainly to organize the observations of critics of the last century
and especially the last two decades: the song competition, the formal narratological
structure of the poems, the character of Daphnis, and the theme of the Cyclops and
Galatea (which, although specific only to 6, can introduce thematic questions relevant
to 8 and 9). Our approach will thus be formalist, but also historicist. Without
prejudicing the issue by invoking the authors’ intentions, I would like to explore
the effect of Theocritus’ poems as seen against earlier literature, and those of his
followers as seen against his.

Competition
The exchange of songs in Idyll 6 is described as a contest (ἔριсδεν, 5). The only other
pastoral music competition in Theocritus is in Idyll 5; the musical exchanges in 7 and
10 also have affinities to competition (and note the ethos of bantering and verbal
exchange that we see in 4 and elsewhere). Idyll 6 shows a development of 5’s form
(Serrao 1977: 189–94). Yet in 6 there is none of the zero-sum competitiveness that
lends vigor and earthy humor to the contest in 5: at the end of 6 Damoetas kisses
Daphnis and they exchange pipes (Hutchinson 1988: 184–5). Even the amity
between the singers of Idylls 7 and 10 is more complicated, more edgy. Ott empha-
sizes the insistent assimilation of the two ‘‘competitors’’ (1969: 68–9). No discussion
of where to meet and what to sing is part of Idyll 6 as it is of 5 (Bernsdorff 1994: 41);
the characters seem spontaneously to enact the Cyclops story. Whereas in 5 each
response both caps the previous utterance and, setting a challenge, conditions the
next, in 6 each speaker has a single speech, that of Damoetas echoing that of Daphnis
point by point (Ott 1969: 76; Serrao 1977: 194; Köhnken 1996: 175). There is no
judge, no winner or loser: neither has won, yet both have won, proclaims the last line.
Thus this is not really a contest; the poetic economy is represented as something else
(Bernsdorff 1994: 43–4). Idyll 9 takes this development of Theocritean bucolic
competition even further. In 9 both competitors win; that is, both receive gifts from
the unnamed judge, the narrator. In both idylls the ‘‘contest’’ emerges as an assumed
convention, a function of the pastoral setting. One might schematically read both
6 and 9 as adopting the amicable relations that obtain between herdsmen in Idylls 1
and (to some degree) 7, and between the reapers who sing in 10, and putting them
into a bucolic contest similar to the one that 5 depicts.
Thus Idyll 6, apparently followed by 9, in a sense creatively misreads the realia of
bucolic exchange, particularly as they are represented in the other idylls, reducing
them to givens while playing up new elements – an impression often expressed of Idyll
8 too. That poem (in which, as in Idyll 5, the songs cap each other, corresponding
closely point by point until the lengthy final sets) is often thought to have been
modeled on 5, particularly as by an author ignorant of or uninterested in pastoral
reality: 8 adapts its herdsmen from Theocritus, not from life (Merkelbach 1956; Rossi
1971b; cf. Kattein 1901: 23–4, and 54 on 8.33–60). We need not mistake
242 J. D. Reed

Theocritus’ own characters for unmediated imitations of real herdsmen to find in his
follower’s depiction a secondary remove from the referent. Van Sickle (1976: 25),
describing the post-Theocritean tradition in terms of ‘‘bucolic mannerism,’’ whose
best-known characteristic is ‘‘its tendency to simplify Theocritean multiplicity into
generic commonplace,’’ finds that 8 reduces Theocritean poetic contests ‘‘to a highly
stylized convention.’’ In 8 Daphnis wins (motivating the etiological function of the
poem: see below), to the chagrin of his competitor, Menalcas, but even here the rivals
are extremely nice, calling blessings down on each other (for their herding, not for
their singing). As in 6 and 9, we are far from the scrappy one-upmanship of other
bucolic competitions. Each singer already has an identical pipe: the winner will get
what he already owns. Merkelbach notes that in 8.82–3 Daphnis wins because his
voice is sweet – not because Menalcas’ song runs out or proves unequal to his, as Idyll
5 posits the criterion of competitive song. There is no eris, in other words, as 5 knows
it. The competitions of all three of our poems represent creative reinterpretations of
those in other Theocritean poems.

Narrative Frame
In all three poems under discussion a narrative frame enfolds the herdsmen’s dialogue
(Kattein 1901: 25, 41). This form represents a creative development of what
Theocritus was doing with his literary tradition. Apart from Idyll 6, his pastoral
mime-like poems are straight dramas: monologues or dialogues without an external
narrating voice (1, 3, 4, 5), like his non-pastoral mime-like poems (2, 10, 14, 15).
Idyll 7, although pastoral in theme, is not like a mime in form, but is rather a
narrative, autobiographical monologue with an undefined addressee. The frames in
6, 8, and 9 recall the authorial addresses to Nicias in two of Theocritus’ mythological
poems, Idylls 11 and 13 – the former, which like 6 is on the Cyclops and Galatea, has
notable thematic affinities to the pastoral mimes by virtue of its topic. Our three
poems again combine motifs that in Theocritus originally had different uses.
The narrative modes of our three poems are complex. In 6 and 8 the frame is
narrative at both beginning and end, and intermittently between the sections of
dialogue, which (especially in 8) almost become part of the narrative, not dramatic
dialogue at all (6.1–5, 20, 42–6; 8.1–10, 28–32, 61–2, 71, 81–93). The storytelling
element is strong: note 6.2 ποϰα, a traditional opening like ‘‘once upon a time,’’ and
8.2 ὡс ϕαντί, ‘‘as they tell.’’ In 8 the introductory narrative includes direct speech; that
is, the dialogue begins as speech embedded in narrative before turning into dramatic
dialogue – which at the end slips back into narrative again. The narrators of these two
poems, anonymous and characterless, do not figure in the action. The structure of 9 is
even more complicated. The poem is either a drama, with a fellow-herdsman at the
scene directing the ‘‘contest’’ at beginning, middle, and end (where he himself delivers
a song), or a narrative, with a narrator issuing injunctions to his characters in an
extreme form of the ‘‘author’s metalepsis.’’ Insofar as the latter reading is valid, the
structure parallels those of 6 and 8: narrative frames the poem at beginning and end,
and between blocks of dramatic speech (9.1–6, 14, 28–36). But the narrator presents
 The Development of Bucolic after Theocritus 243

himself as a participant: ‘‘thus Daphnis sang to me’’ (9.14), ‘‘which I sang when I was
with those herdsmen’’ (29). Thus Bernsdorff suggests that ‘‘the first-person narrator
of Idyll 9 . . . seems to combine the two main characters of Idyll 7’’ (2006: 174–5); and
as in 7, the judge is also a singer (we might say that, in a sense, 9 distracts the two main
characters of 7 into three). Idyll 9 lets itself be read as a memoir of pastoral song, like 7,
though without the elaboration of a fictional persona that the narrator of 7 has. Van
Sickle, who also compares 9 to 7 (1976: 26; cf. Arland 1937: 24), characterizes the
poem as ‘‘a pastiche of conventions and Theocritean tags’’ that gives us a sharp sense of
what the author felt those conventions were – and how he innovated on them.
The narrator’s address to Aratus in Idyll 6 represents another re-interpretation of
Theocritus’ various forms, another recombination. Idylls 11 and 13 spell out the lesson
their contents hold for Nicias. What lesson does Idyll 6 hold for Aratus? No doubt
something about love, if anything, and particularly about the Cyclops’ strategy of
withdrawal from Galatea (Gow 1952b: 2.120; Hunter 1999: 243–4). Recent critics
have speculated on the intimations of love between the two speakers in Idyll 6 and its
covert bearing on the songs they sing (Gutzwiller 1991: 130; Stanzel 1995: 178–80;
Bowie 1996: 91–5; Payne 2007: 98–100). But the address to Aratus is quite perfunc-
tory, the characters’ relationship is drawn with the sketchiest of brushstrokes, and any
conclusions we draw in this regard must come from outside the text and be based on
speculation (Walker 1980: 61). In fact, Idyll 6 reduces the frame and its significance as
much as it reduces the pastoral dialogue: conjoined, both are subjected to new uses,
and are now barely interpretable on their own. The poem is more generous to attempts
at reading its alleged lesson intertextually. Critics have found a moral for Aratus in
parallels between the legend of Daphnis and that of Polyphemus, with implications for
the way Idyll 6 (re)interprets the Daphnis story of Idyll 1 as well as the Polyphemus
story of Idyll 11 (Gutzwiller 1991: 131–2; Bernsdorff 1994: 45–8; Hunter 1999:
247–8; Lushkov 2003: 11–12). A key passage here is 6.7, where the rebukes ‘‘back-
ward in love’’ (Hunter’s translation of δυсέρωс) and ‘‘goatherd,’’ which Daphnis’ song
attributes to Galatea, repeat Priapus’ words to Daphnis at 1.85–6 (they are also used of
Polyphemus in Posidippus 19.7–8 AB). Moreover, the addressee’s name, Aratus, picks
up the narrator Simichidas’ addressee Aratus, unhappily in love, in Idyll 7 (esp. Stanzel
1995: 179–80). What is significant in this intertext is that in 7 Aratus is fictional
(whether or not he is based on one of Theocritus’ real-life friends). That is to say, as
read against 7, 6 takes Aratus out of poetry and puts him in the world that frames
poetry – or reduces the frame to an implicit fiction, analogous to the ambiguities of the
narrative element of 9 and its relationship to Idyll 7.
The frames of Idylls 11 and 13, by proffering to Nicias authorial interpretations of
the stories they enclose, invite the suspicion of semantic complexity and even dupli-
city. Here is a seam, a joint, where dissonance in perspective may irrupt into the text.
To put it one way, the frames of 11 and 13 make Theocritus and Nicias characters in
the poems; poet and addressee are expressly subjected to the interpreting eye of the
reader, and an additional viewpoint is introduced, sometimes coinciding with, some-
times going against those in the narrative section. In 6, on the other hand, the
apostrophic frame serves only to set the scene, not to interpret the myth. Rather
than keep us aloof from the enclosed narrative and give us a wider perspective on the
story, the frame pulls us deeper into the fiction and reinforces its illusions (compare
244 J. D. Reed

Ott 1969: 67–84). In 8, where there is no addressee, only narrative stage-setting, we

are even further removed from 11 and 13.
In a later critical tradition, dialogue became a distinguishing feature of the bucolic (or
pastoral) genre that traced itself to Theocritus; but as Halperin, whose analysis of this
genre is foundational, warns us: ‘‘The originality of Theocritus takes on a different
meaning when it is viewed from the vantage point of the previous artistic tradition
instead of with the steady gaze of historical hindsight’’ (1983: 118). Analyzed without
regard to the later pastoral tradition that they gave rise to, Theocritus’ dramatic poems
(1–6, 10, 14–15), with their flavorful dialogue or monologue in ‘‘real time’’ between
heavily characterized common people, appear as innovative hexameter versions of
lighter, popular dramatic performance, in particular literary mime (Wendel 1914:
270.5, 305.7; Halperin 1983: 206–9; Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 133–4; Hordern
2004: 27–8; Reed 2006: 212–13). This typically early Hellenistic ‘‘mixture’’ or
‘‘hybridization of genres’’ (Kroll 1924: 203–4) yields, again typically, a potentially
piquant or even humorous incongruity, with humble or quotidian subject matter
foregrounded in an elevated form. Herodas’ Mimiambs, which set the matter and
dramatic form of mime in iambic meters, offer a close parallel. Theocritus’ original
touch may have been the inclusion of pastoral themes in this mixture, although Herodas
too has a mimiamb about shepherds (8; Effe 1977b: 15 rightly emphasizes the affinities
between Theocritus’ mime-like poems, both pastoral and non-pastoral). Seen from this
historical angle, the dialogue in Idyll 6, framed and interrupted (between the two songs)
by a narrator’s commentary that violates the dramatic illusion, does something with the
literary tradition that goes beyond the other dramatic idylls. We might (with due
caution) imagine the following transitional scenario: 6 mixes into the mime-like pas-
toral exchange the apostrophic frame from 11 (along with its basic subject matter
Polyphemus and Galatea), then 8 and 9 treat that combination as standard.
Moreover, the exchange between Daphnis and Damoetas in Idyll 6 does not exploit
the veristic character of mime or create a vivid or satirical sketch of personalities. The
two young herdsmen themselves remain decorative mouthpieces for their perform-
ance, with none of the quirks that make memorable (for example) the vivaciously
uncouth herdsmen of 4 and 5, the platitudinous reapers of 10, or the catty festival-
goers of 15. Idyll 6 does not perform the way the other pastoral dialogues and
monologues do: the rustic background does not set off incongruous urban or
high-culture motifs (as perhaps most noticeably in 1, 3, and 7). In much of
Theocritus, an idealized rusticity runs along underneath the construction of the
countryside as ‘‘other,’’ partly supporting it, partly undermining it. It is as if this
idealization were expanded in 6 to exclude the otherness of rustic life. Ironic distance
is reduced (Effe 1977b: 14–21, with special emphasis on the loss of this ironic
distance as a feature of the post-Theocritean tradition): the reduced scope of the
dialogue diminishes the characterizations of the herdsmen, and the frame offers the
reader no firm standpoint from which to view them. It is in the songs of the poem’s
two characters that we get the lively details: the sea nymph throwing apples, the
Cyclops’ dog running along the beach and barking at her, the sly strategy of
Polyphemus. Idyll 6 downplays the features that set its speakers apart from its readers,
and plays up their charm and the appeal of their leisurely life of song. Idylls 8 and 9 do
likewise.
 The Development of Bucolic after Theocritus 245

Idyll 9 is in some ways most interesting of the three for this kind of innovation on
Theocritean precedent. Very short, only 36 lines long, it is dominated by its frame.
The narrator closes it with his own song, prefaced by a prayer: ‘‘bucolic Muses
(βουϰολιϰαὶ ΜοιÐ сαι), be of good grace, and reveal the song that I once sang when I
was with those herdsmen (i.e., Daphnis and Menalcas)’’ (28–9). Now, in Theocritus
the word ‘‘bucolic,’’ βουϰολιϰόс, and its cognates only need to refer literally to things
(especially musical) having to do with herdsmen (not exclusively ‘‘cowherds’’: Dover
1971: lv), and their referents belong to the world the poem describes, not to that of
the poet (Nauta 1990: 126–9). So in Idyll 1 Thyrsis, as a shepherd, naturally calls
upon the ‘‘bucolic Muses’’ (1.20, etc.). In Idylls 5 and 7 the verb βουϰολιάсδειν refers
to herdsmen’s song quite remote from the form and character of the idylls themselves
(5.44, 60; 7.36, 49). In 9 too ‘‘bucolic Muses’’ literally means ‘‘Muses that preside
over the songs of herdsmen.’’ And yet the identity of the imprecator there with the
narrator of the poem, with all the complications discussed above, suggests more. The
figure of the herdsman ends up appropriating the narrative frame. If the frames of
Idyll 6 and 8 disrupt the dramatic illusion only to endorse the fiction into which the
reader enters, the frame of 9 ambiguously draws the narrating author into the world
of the dialogue. We are drawing close to the identification of the bucolic poet with his
subjects that is the central trope of the anonymous Epitaph for Bion, and to the genre-
marking, metapoetic use of βουϰολιϰαὶ ΜοιÐ сαι by the first-century BCE philologist
Artemidorus (Van Sickle 1976: 26).

Daphnis
Daphnis is a character in all three of our poems; in 6 he is joined by one Damoetas,
and in 8 and 9 by Menalcas. Neither of the latter two appears elsewhere in Greek
bucolic. The name Damoetas may derive from Archaic lyric (Bowie 1996: 93–4).
Menalcas is already a character in literature about herdsmen before Theocritus
(Clearchus in Ath. 14.619c–d); that he is connected with Daphnis – as musical
competitor or lover – in Theocritus’ contemporaries Sositheus (TrGF 1 F 1a–3)
and Hermesianax (CA 2) suggests that Idylls 8 and 9 are drawing on several early
Hellenistic sources. Those two poems give Daphnis a companion almost equal to him
in legendary and literary power.
For Daphnis is the legendary hero of the song Thyrsis sings in Idyll 1. His
treatment in our three poems offers another example of how they build on a motif
established in Theocritus. The story of the legendary Sicilian cowherd and his
doomed love was first introduced to literature by the fourth-century dithyrambist
Stesichorus (Ael. VH 10.18; West 1970: 206) and is found in various types of
Hellenistic literature (apart from Sositheus and Hermes, cf. Alex. Aet. CA 15,
Timaeus FGrH 566 F 83). The first audience of Idyll 1, insofar as they were able to
analyze the poem against its literary background, would have felt that they were
reading a pastoral mime that included an aria from dithyramb, with the whole thing
put into Doricized hexameters – the poem is of course more complicated than that,
but that is its basic schema as viewed historically. Theocritus performs similar generic
246 J. D. Reed

transformations in the hymn to Adonis included in Idyll 15 and the ritual epithala-
mium that constitutes 18, to take two non-pastoral examples, though the adaptation
is more piquant among the lowly characters of Idyll 1. There Daphnis is not a
character in the mime, but a legendary figure referred to with reverence and under
a cloud of antique mystery by herdsmen-singers who look back to him as a sort of
predecessor. He also appears within herdsmen’s songs in 5.20 and 80–1. In 7.73 he is
even further distanced: a character in a song within a song within the narrative. This is
why his role in 8, which alludes to the story known from 1 and elsewhere and in fact
etiologizes his preeminence as a herdsman-singer (92–3; cf. 85–6), should come as
such a surprise. He is re-imagined as a herdsman like Thyrsis (Arland 1937: 11–12).
Idylls 6 and 9 invite the same surprise, although neither elaborates on the identity
of its Daphnis as 8 does. In 6 he is ‘‘Daphnis the herdsman’’ (1 Δάϕνιс ὁ βουϰόλοс;
44 Δάϕνιс ὁ βούταс, cf. 7.73). The poem leaves barely open the possibility that
despite these determiners, Daphnis here is an ordinary herdsman named for his
legendary predecessor, as in Idyll 5 the herdsman-singer Comatas is nowhere said
to be identical with the legendary goatherd Comatas, of whom Lycidas sings in 7.78–
89 (so Fantuzzi 1998, with the further argument that the poet of 8 conflated
Theocritus’ two different Daphnises, the legendary one and the ordinary one). Yet
Comatas lacks the legendary status that Daphnis has (he is unknown outside of
Theocritus, though schol. 7.78–9 attributes his story to one Lycus of Rhegium:
Wendel 1914: 99–100). For the character Comatas himself, Daphnis is a legendary
figure, for it is Comatas who sings of Daphnis at 5.80–1. Discussing Idyll 6, Hunter
concludes, ‘‘although the goatherd Comatas of Idyll 5 is most naturally understood
to be a latter-day namesake of the legendary goatherd of Idyll 7, it is reasonable to
understand Δάϕνιс ὁ βουϰόλοс here as the legendary Daphnis of Idyll 1, as the poet of
Idyll 8 seems to have done’’ (1999: 245). All three of our poems project the
Theocritean pastoral world back onto its legendary past. All three are about
Daphnis’ boyhood – ‘‘prequels’’ to the story Thyrsis sings of, winning a playful
illusion of priority to Idyll 1 and other treatments of the myth? – imagining it in
terms taken from Theocritus’ herdsman-mimes (and re-imagining that mime form in
legendary terms). In all three, Daphnis has become a stepping-stone to a new
synthesis, his pre-Theocritean associations unresonating and his character melded
into a persona typical of Theocritus’ pastoral idylls.

Cyclops
The most conspicuous innovation of Idyll 6 is its variation on the story of the Cyclops
and Galatea as we know it from Idyll 11 and from the fragments of Theocritus’
model. This theme is not directly present in 8 and 9, but they show comparable
thematic innovations. Theocritus’ addressee in Idyll 11, Nicias, like the first readers of
Idyll 1, had the novel experience of reading a dithyrambic aria set in hexameters: this
story, like that of Daphnis, became literary in lyric performances of the century before
Theocritus, first in Philoxenus (PMG 822), then in works by Stesichorus and
Oeniades (Didymus on Dem. Phil. 11, col. 12.59–62). As with Daphnis,
 The Development of Bucolic after Theocritus 247

contemporaries of Theocritus treat the same myth in various literary forms (Hermes.
CA 1; Call. ep. 46 Pf. ¼ AP 12.150; cf. Posidip. 19.7–8 AB). In the extant treat-
ments, including Idyll 11, the Cyclops’ song provides the remedy (ϕάρμαϰον) for his
(fierce, unrequited) passion for Galatea. Idyll 6 drops this theme (late bucolic returns
to it: Reed 2006: 225–33). In 6.9 his sweet piping (ἁδέα сυρίсδων) is without its
classic significance. Polyphemus has not sublimated or cured his desire; he has
adopted a new strategy, that of pretending to ignore Galatea (6.32–3; Stanzel
1995: 186–90; Hutchinson 1988: 183–7). He has taken advantage of the lesson that
it is the absent one who provokes desire, the one who withdraws, the one who seems
unable to love (cf. Idyll 10.8). Idyll 9, in the reading of Bernsdorff (2006: 199),
further purges this Cyclops-related theme of erotic meaning: the narrator’s conclud-
ing song, in thanking the Muses for providing a remedy against Circe’s potions,
implicitly disregards the whole idea of a cure for one who is already in love.
As Polyphemus in 11.76 reassured himself that he would find another, more beau-
tiful Galatea, so Damoetas as Polyphemus in 6.26 says that he has ‘‘another woman’’
with whom to make Galatea jealous. The revision is notable. Scholars have long
regarded 6 as a kind of sequel to 11, not unreasonably: our poem takes off from and
pointedly revises the very words of the other one (Ott 1969: 72–84; Köhnken 1996:
171, 180–1). The general impression is that 6 builds on the story in 11, reads its
Polyphemus as not exactly cured of his love, but able to control it and try a new tactic.
In this regard 6 is taking advantage of an ambiguity in the way 11 conceives of the
ϕάρμαϰον of song (Spofford 1969: 34–5; Köhnken 1996: 181–2). The conclusion to
his song in 11 is the premise here and the pivot of the revision in 6. An allusion at 6.17
by Daphnis, speaking in the guise of an anonymous questioner (derived from dithy-
ramb?), to Galatea’s former unwillingness (‘‘she flees one who loves her and pursues
one who does not’’) takes the form of an answer to Polyphemus’ consolatory words to
himself in 11.75: ‘‘milk the cow that’s nearby’’ (that is, ‘‘love the one you’re with’’);
‘‘why are you chasing one who flees you?’’ Lover and beloved have switched places.
It is as if 6, in putting the theme of 11 into a herdsmen’s dialogue, assumed that the
Galatea myth has already been absorbed into bucolic poetry – that is to say, bracketed
together with Theocritus’ other poems. Idyll 11 makes no such assumption; its
emphasis on the rustic details of the Cyclops’ life can be explained as an
Alexandrian foregrounding of the quotidian matter of the Odyssey (following, for
example, Euripides’ Cyclops) rather than as a consequence of genre. So Idyll 6 again
seems to take for granted a combination of motifs that in the earlier idylls is dynamic
and tension-filled, and to build on it creatively. This is also true of the poem’s
engagement with Homer. At 6.22–4 Damoetas in the persona of the Cyclops swears
an oath ‘‘by my one sweet [eye], wherewith I pray that I may see to the end – but that
seer Telemus who spoke evil, may he bring evil back home to keep for his children.’’
The allusion is to Odyssey 9.509, where the Cyclops realizes the truth of the prophecy
of the seer Telemus, that he would lose his sight at the hands of Odysseus. The
passage has the effect of a proleptic allusion: the poet gains a kind of ironic priority to
Homer by treating a famous story from the Odyssey as in the future. At 11.50–3 the
Cyclops says to Galatea, ‘‘but if I myself appear too shaggy, yet I have logs of oak and
an imperishable fire under the ash; and I would submit to being burned by you, both
my soul and my eye, than which nothing is sweeter to me.’’ Gow (1952b) emphasizes
248 J. D. Reed

the metaphorical sense of burning: the fires of love seem almost real to the Cyclops,
who unwittingly tropes his own future blinding as the price of Galatea’s love. His
cherished fire, here an enticement for the sea nymph, will become the means of his
destruction, when Odysseus heats the sharpened olive beam ‘‘under the ash’’ in the
Cyclops’ cave (Od. 9.375–6). And further on, at 11.60–2, he promises to learn to
swim, to join Galatea in the sea, if some stranger arriving in a ship should teach him
how. Τιс ξένοс, ‘‘some stranger’’: but of course the most famous stranger to sail to
the land of the Cyclops will be, not τιс, but Οὔτιс, ‘‘Nobody.’’
These allusions achieve more than prolepsis; they engage the text of the Odyssey and
win from it new meaning for the young Polyphemus’ lament. The word ξένοс
introduces a remarkably broad program of confrontation. Odysseus in his wanderings
is the stranger par excellence, and the cave of the Cyclops is a theatre for his status as
ξένοс and its discontents: what it means to be a guest far from home, measuring
oneself against different models of behavior and hospitality, and so on. By intro-
ducing this notion, however obliquely and unwittingly, Theocritus’ Polyphemus
appropriates a whole thematic network of the Odyssey and re-orients it, putting himself
at its center. And the frame matters here too: Theocritus approaches Polyphemus not as
‘‘other’’ (as so paradigmatically in Homer), but empathetically (11.7 ὁ παρ’ ἁμιÐ ν, ‘‘my
fellow countryman’’ Polyphemus), and therefore slips ineluctably into a play of iden-
tities, egos and alter egos, that enrich the personae of this poem.
By contrast, ‘‘the Cyclops of Idyll 6 responds almost as though Odyssey 9 did not
exist’’ (Hunter 1999: 247). The ‘‘allusive art’’ in the reference to Telemus at 6.23 is
minimal. It enters through a mention of his eye (which is tied to the poem’s insistent
thematic of vision), and then is dropped, unlike the deeply involved allusions to the
Odyssey that recur in 11 and color Polyphemus’ whole outlook as we perceive it. The
story of the Cyclops and Galatea often seems to attract ironic distance, a knowing
viewpoint on the naive monster – perhaps a persisting reflex of the frame in Idyll 11.
One can trace this even in the four-line fragment of Bion’s treatment of the story (fr. 16
Reed 1997) and in Vergil’s transmutation of Polyphemus into Corydon in Eclogue 2.
This distance is less evident in Idyll 6. How can the role-playing by Damoetas acquire
complexity if Damoetas himself is so minimally differentiated from the Cyclops – and
from ourselves? A chance to accommodate multiple, competing viewpoints within a
single persona has been eschewed, along with the effects of such a play of identities on
levels both of narratology and literary history. A play of identities operates elsewhere
in 6; the intertext with the Odyssey is not the living, dynamic creator of meaning in the
poem that it is in 11. Idyll 6 blocks the analysis of the story against earlier literature that
11 invites, setting it instead against a new background. Theocritus’ generic experi-
mentation again provides the basis for a new, fully coherent restructuring of his
poetry’s formal and thematic elements.
In Idyll 8 as well, the intertextual dynamics of Theocritus’ mime-like poems are
turned to conventions that support quite different effects. The first section of
dialogue is in elegiac couplets (28 lines in the manuscripts, but a quatrain has
evidently been lost after line 52). This is a remarkable innovation, since it was the
uniformly hexametric cadence of Theocritus’ mime-like poems that transumed dra-
matic works like mime and dithyramb into a different sphere, setting up a contrast
between different sets of expectations. In order to set the first part of the singing
 The Development of Bucolic after Theocritus 249

contest into elegiacs, one has to be already familiar with hexameters in this type of
poem – even a little numb to their effect.
What does the new meter bring to the poem? Hubbard recalls that the elegist
Hermesianax wrote on Daphnis and Menalcas (CA 2–3): against that background,
8 will have been combining two early Hellenistic poets (1998: 35; Trovati 2001: 52
n.70). More generally, the elegiac exchanges invoke the traditions of Archaic elegy and
contemporary epigram, particularly erotic; Arland (1937: 20) notes the thematic
difference between the elegiac and hexametric sections of the contest. Menalcas’ words
at 8.53–6, for instance, transfigure a typically elegiac rejection of conventional stand-
ards of riches and power into particularly pastoral values: not the realm of Pelops, nor
the wealth of Croesus, nor swiftness beyond that of the winds, but music and love in the
countryside are this elegist’s desires. The quatrain transplants Archaic symposiastic
elegy (Gow 1952b) into a conventionalized pastoral landscape, a Theocritean synthesis
of motifs that can now be taken for granted. But the elegiacs in 8 recall elegy specifically
through its Alexandrian successor, epigram (Brinker 1884: 28; Kattein 1901: 55–7;
Merkelbach 1956: 122–4), which was a medium for symposiastic recitation and relaxed
competition under the early Ptolemies (Cameron 1995a: 71–103). The tradition of
variation in epigram, the effect of capping the epigram of another, can sometimes still
be felt in the Greek Anthology. In 8 this effect melds with the capping native to the
herdsman’s song that Theocritus had more studiously evoked. In the mouths of
Menalcas and Daphnis, this high-culture technique has a piquant effect, very much
in the manner of the Homericizing rustics and city-dwellers of Theocritus. One might
say that the Theocritean contrast between verse-form and subject matter has been
taken a step further, perhaps to preserve the contrastive effect despite the semantic
languor of the hexameters – although in 8 the rustic features of the persons and their
surroundings are so muted that there is little opportunity for any contrast along those
lines. As in 6, the play of contrasts in 8 operates elsewhere.

Idyll 6 and the Bucolic Tradition

For every basic difference between Idyll 6 and Theocritus’ other pastorals, there is a
basic similarity between it and Idylls 8 and 9. Idyll 6 uses earlier literature differently
from Theocritus’ other poems: their play with mime, with dithyramb, with Homer,
and so on becomes in 6 the foundation for a different emphasis, especially the
innovative treatment of the myth of Polyphemus and Galatea, which reworks Idyll
11 more than it does the myth per se. The intertextual dynamics of 6 are operating at
a stage beyond the other Theocritean poems: again and again, 6 stereotypes their
intertextual tropes and uses them as stepping-stones to a new poetics. We see this
poetics in 8 and 9 as well.
Idyll 6 is vividly intertextual with several of Theocritus’ poems, particularly 1, 3, 5,
and 11. Theocritus’ success with such poems as those might have inspired him, at a
later stage of his career, to combine and crystallize their motifs into the conventions
that other poets, like those of 8 and 9, then took up. An alternative explanation
also suggests itself. If Idylls 6, 8, and 9 all equally treat the innovations of Theocritus’
250 J. D. Reed

similar poems as conventions with which to work and thus represent a secondary stage
in the history of bucolic, and are closely similar in form, content, and intertextual
program (especially as seen against the other pastoral poems), then it may be wondered
whether Idyll 6, rather than being the Theocritean model for a new phase of bucolic
poetry, is part of that phase itself, composed by a later poet as were 8 and 9. To my
knowledge the Theocritean authorship of 6 has never been doubted. But that possi-
bility would not affect the present thesis: that we are looking, in all three poems, at the
crystallization of Theocritus’ artistic experiments and at how texts make us read other
texts. The new emphasis falls on, and the new tensions arise from, the narrative frame
and the way it distances us readers – or does not distance us – from the characters.
The particular poetic form that these three poems establish has no exact continua-
tion in Greek literature that we can observe, but some of its elements do re-appear or
even become standard in the later bucolic tradition. The anonymous Idyll 21, whose
dramatic dialogue between fishermen is introduced by a narrator’s moralizing apos-
trophe, approaches the synthesis of narrative forms we have been observing. In late
bucolic – the extant remains of Moschus, Bion, and certain anonymous poets found in
the bucolic manuscripts (datable roughly between the mid-second and mid-first
centuries BCE : Reed 2006: 209–10) – pastoral themes, including song and dialogue
between herdsmen, remain common; but here generic hybridization and the assimila-
tion of new themes, combined with the metrical and dialectal features of Theocritus’
mime-like poems and pointing back to them, constitute a new, different assumption of
Theocritus’ work as a norm, and a new building on it. Moschus’ Runaway Love, for
example, is a sustained epigrammatic exercise on the nature of Eros, and Bion’s Adonis
is a mythological vignette partly in the tradition of Callimachus’ mimetic hymns. The
anonymous Epithalamius of Achilles and Deidameia (Ps.-Bion 2) starkly incorporates
an amorous mythological narrative as a herdsman’s performance within dialogue. Still
typical of these poems is the diminished distance between reader and rustic character; it
is reflected also in such bucolic-inspired works in other genres as Longus’ novel
Daphnis and Chloe. The narratological play with boundaries between author, narrator,
and character will be renewed by the anonymous Epitaph for Bion and in Latin by
Vergil’s Eclogues. These richly aware texts look back both to the type of herdsmen’s
exchange codified in 6, 8, and 9 and directly to their Theocritean models, and press to a
new limit that poetry’s ambiguities of voice and potentially permeable boundaries
between narratological spheres.

FURTHER READING

Studies of post-Theocritean bucolic per se are few. Arland 1937 can still reward the reader; for
recent surveys see Bernsdorff 2006 and Reed 2006, whose references will lead back to other
recent and not-so-recent scholarship. New texts and commentaries on later bucolic are fortu-
nately increasing in number: for Bion see Fantuzzi 1985 and Reed 1997; for Ps.-Theocritus 20,
21, and 27 see Kirstein 2007 and Belloni 2004. The most complete commentaries on Idylls 8
and 9 remain those in Gow 1952b; for Idyll 6 see also Hunter 1999. For the historical study of
the development of the genre from the work of Theocritus particularly useful are Van Sickle
1976, Effe 1977b, Halperin 1983, and Nauta 1990.
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Iambos and Parody

Ruth Scodel

Poetry in ‘‘low’’ genres, defined by hostility to social or literary pretension, flourished

in the Hellenistic period. Phoenix of Colophon and Callimachus take Hipponax as a
model in reviving the Archaic iambos. Homeric parody had already become an
independent genre in the late fourth century; the Hellenistic period produced
mock-epics in which tiny animals act as if they were great heroes. There was also
satiric philosophical poetry: the hexameters of Crates of Thebes argue for Cynicism
through poetic parody, while Timon of Phlius composed hexameter satire of the
philosophical schools from a skeptical perspective, with Xenophanes as a character and
probably model. Macho, primarily a comic poet, composed the Chreiai (‘‘Useful
Sayings’’), vulgar anecdotes with punch lines. Cercidas wrote both choliambs and
meliambs, lyric iambos. Timon and Sotades wrote ‘‘cinaedic’’ poetry – abusive and
obscene. The new and newly adapted forms may be learned, allusive, and complex in
the Alexandrian style, like Callimachus’ Iambi, or straightforward and pedestrian, like
the Chreiai, but they share an attitude of distance from wealth, power, and the
literary forms associated with them. Most are relatively mild. Parody is now amusing,
not cruel; iambos is no longer vitriolic.
Popular philosophy is an important influence on this poetry. Some poets may have
been Cynics. Scholars have seen Cynicism in Phoenix (Gerhard 1909) and it is impor-
tant for Cercidas, though scholars disagree about whether it should be the center of
interpretation (Williams 2002; Livrea 1986; López Cruces 1995). Plato is clearly
important for Callimachus (White 1994). However, the poets are more broadly
steeped in the Socratic tradition, with its stress on a search for inner happiness that
depends on self-control, virtue, and wisdom, and its contempt for wealth and power
(Long 1996a). The Cynic habit of making fun of conventional beliefs became deeply
embedded in literary practice.
Philosophy helps explain the mildness of Hellenistic iambos and parody, because
its mocking, moralizing discourse was a filter through which Hellenistic readers
re-invented the personal attacks of Archaic iambos. The figures of Socrates and of
252 Ruth Scodel

the Cynic philosopher, with his voluntary poverty and witty raillery, influenced how
the iambographer pictured himself and his models. The Archaic iambographer pre-
sents himself as a drinker, brawler, and seducer. His poems often represent themselves
as revenge on people who have injured him, and his counter-attacks do not pull their
punches. However, when the Hellenistic poet-reader assimilates this character to the
philosopher or ‘‘wise man,’’ a socially marginal figure who criticizes common behav-
ior, he can imitate the iambographer while replacing personal hatred with general
moral advice. Dio Chrysostom says that Antisthenes compared Diogenes to a wasp
(Or. 8.3), while Hellenistic authors often refer to Archaic iambographers as wasps,
following Callimachus (fr. 380, with Pfeiffer 1949: 306; Gerhard 1909: 175).
Boundaries between philosophy and poetry, and between different schools of
philosophy, could be porous. Crates of Thebes, an important early Cynic, composed
extensively in verse: surviving fragments include elements of comedy, parody, direct
address, self-satire, and moralizing. The iambics of his Ephemeris (‘‘Account’’) are
typical (SH 362):

τίθει μαγείρωι μναÐ с δέϰ’, ἰατρωÐ ι δραχμήν,

ϰόλαϰι τάλαντα πέντε, сυμβούλωι ϰαπνόν,
πόρνηι τάλαντον, ϕιλοсόϕωι τριώβολον.
Pay ten minas to a cook, a drachma to a doctor, five talents to a flatterer, smoke to an
advisor, a talent to a whore, a half-drachma to a philosopher.

The cook is well paid, the doctor poorly; the flatterer gets a fortune, the advisor
nothing. The philosopher’s pittance stands against the whore’s fat fee. This complaint
about false values, although it originates in Plato’s Gorgias (464d–465) does not
belong to any particular philosophical school; it invites the reader to think about why
a philosopher is to a whore (rather than to a rhetorician, his more obvious opposite)
as a doctor is to a cook; and by suggesting that the philosopher might like to do
better, it undercuts itself.

The Iambic Revival (1): Phoenix

In the early third century BCE , both Callimachus and his older contemporary Phoenix
of Colophon claimed to revive the manner of the sixth-century iambographer
Hipponax. Both use Hipponax’s characteristic meter, the choliamb or ‘‘limping
iamb’’ (also employed by Herodas), along with his Ionic dialect and some of his
unusual vocabulary. Callimachus announces the relationship by having Hipponax
return from the dead to speak most of the first Iamb (fr. 191 Pf.). Yet something
peculiar happens on the way from Archaic Ephesus: Hipponax is afflicted with
niceness, and abandons vehement self-assertion. The surviving fragments of
Hipponax use his name at least five times. Although Callimachus’ Hipponax speaks
of himself in the third person, Callimachus does not name himself, and neither do
other Hellenistic iambographers. Hipponax is a vivid, dominant personality; Phoenix
and Callimachus employ masks or characterize themselves blandly. Hipponax
 Iambos and Parody 253

viciously attacks the same characters repeatedly, characters who seem real whether
they actually were so or not (Hellenistic readers believed they were); Callimachus
rebukes straw men.
The philosophical turn is partly responsible for this change, since the poets evi-
dently think iambos should be (somewhat) edifying. But there are other reasons, too.
Hipponax’s abuse belongs to particular situations; even though some Hellenistic
iambos is clearly occasional, it is aimed at a reading public and must transcend its
immediate occasion. The major authors prefer to avoid the extravagant obscenity of
the Archaic style, as a matter of taste. And in a world where poets often depended on
autocrats as patrons, iambic freedom was not what it was in the Classical polis. It was
neither safe nor profitable to attack anyone really worth attacking. Indeed, iambic
freedom expresses itself negatively: because iambos is not expected to address grand
themes, it does not need to praise kings and princes, at least not overtly.
Fierce invective is not entirely missing from Hellenistic poetry. Sotades’ famous line
on the marriage of Ptolemy II to his sister (CA 1) meets Hipponactean standards of
license: ‘‘you are driving your stick into an unholy hole’’ (εἰс οὐχ ὁсίην τρυμαλιὴν
τὸ ϰέντρον ὠθειÐ с). If the iambs of Alcaeus of Messene had survived, Hellenistic iambos
would probably look harsher, to judge from his epigrams against Philip V (2–5 GP).
Hipponactean obscenity and violence, though, are separated from Hipponax as styl-
istic model. Indeed, Callimachus’ first Iamb announces its kinder, gentler Hipponax,
who comes ‘‘bearing an iamb that does not sing the fight with Boupalus’’
(ϕέρων ἴαμβον οὐ μάχην ἀείδοντα / τὴν Βουπάλειον, 1.3–4).
The speaker of Phoenix’s ‘‘Crow-song’’ (CA 2 ¼ Ath. 8.359e) is a ritual beggar.
Carrying a model crow (sacred to Apollo), he goes from house to house, singing
blessings and requests (1–3):

ἐсθλοί, ϰορώνηι χειÐ ρα πρόсδοτε ϰριθέων,

τηÐ ι παιδὶ τἀπόλλωνοс, ἢ λέϰοс πυρωÐ ν
ἢ ἄρτον ἢ ἥμαιθον ἢ ὅτι τιс χρήιζει.
Good people, reach out a handful of barley-grains to the crow, the daughter of Apollo, or
a dish of wheat, or bread, or a penny, or what anyone wants to give.

Meter, language, and the poor-man’s persona evoke Hipponax. Nothing, however,
could be less Hipponactean than this poem’s impregnable good will. Hipponax is
aggressive, boastful, or whiny, but never affable. The Rhodian swallow-song, another
ritual begging-song from Athenaeus (8.360b ¼ PMG 848), warns the householder
that if he does not give, the singers will carry off his door, his lintel, or his wife (12–
16). Phoenix’s performer, however, makes no threats, showers flattery and blessings
on the entire family, and emphasizes how easily satisfied he is, concluding, ‘‘So ends
my song. Give something, and it will be enough.’’ Similarly, the Hipponax of
Callimachus’ first Iamb comes from Hades to lecture the disputatious intellectuals
of Alexandria on humility and intellectual generosity, telling the story of the cup of
Bathycles: inscribed as a prize for the wisest of men, it was given by each of the Seven
Sages to the next until it had made the rounds of them all.
What, then, is Phoenix’s poem doing? Scholars have interpreted it as a request
for patronage, comparing it with Theocritus’ Idyll 16 (Wills 1970; Furley 1994). Yet
254 Ruth Scodel

Theocritus’ poem emphatically mentions a particular individual, Hiero. It does not

call on the ordinary reader to be a patron, but to sympathize with the poet’s
difficulties. Phoenix’s poem is addressed to the householder before whose door he
stands – that is, metapoetically, the reader – and its requests are so modest that anyone
could afford them. It celebrates the happy and generous bourgeois family. The poem
thus seems less a request for patronage than a captatio benevolentiae aimed at all
readers, a self-presentation of the poet as Apollo’s very humble servant. The gap
between the stylistic reminiscences of Hipponax and the naive and harmless speaker,
and between the expertise of meter and dialect with the folkloric content, is precisely
the point, and typically Hellenistic (De Stefani 2002).
The other surviving choliambs of Phoenix direct hostility only at general targets.
They deserve some attention beyond the ongoing problem of priority between
Phoenix and Callimachus (Pfeiffer 1949 on fr. 191.1; Hutchinson 1988: 49;
Cameron 1995a: 173; Kerkhecker 1999: 29–30). Athenaeus cites a choliambic poem
on ‘‘Ninus,’’ a variant of Sardanapalus, a legendary king of Nineveh who devoted
himself completely to pleasure (CA 1). The army of Alexander had seen a tomb with a
statue making an apparently disdainful gesture, and a (cuneiform) inscription whose
(probably invented) translation, claiming that only the pleasures enjoyed in life
remained postmortem property, became a topic of variation in Hellenistic poetry.
There were hexameters by Choerilus (SH 335) and ripostes by Crates of Thebes (SH
355) and Chrysippus (SH 338). Phoenix makes no explicit reference to his being
a king, although the statement ‘‘he was not a judge; he did not study census-taking
and counting’’ (οὐ διϰαсπόλοс ϰειÐ νοс / οὐ λεωλογειÐ ν ἐμάνθαν’, οὐϰ ἀμιθρηÐ сαι, 7–8)
implies the political responsibilities that he ignored:

ἀνὴρ Νίνοс τιс ἐγένετ’, ὡс ἐγὼ  ϰούω,

Ἀссύριοс, ὅсτιс ει χε χρυсίου πόντον,
τάλαντα πολλωÐ ι πλευÐ να Καсπίηс ψάμμου.
There was a man, Ninus, as I hear, Assyrian, who had a sea of gold, more talents by far
than the sand of the Caspian.

Ninus is just like you and me, except that he had more money. He ‘‘was best at eating,
drinking, and lovemaking’’ (η ν ἄριсτοс ἐсθίειν τε ϰαὶ πίνειν / ϰἠραÐ ν, 9–10) and cared
for nothing else – although his epitaph includes song among his pleasures, too (18).
Athenaeus also cites CA 3 (10.421d):

Νίνου ϰάδοι μάχαιρα ϰαὶ ϰύλιξ αἰχμή,

ϰύμβη δὲ τόξα, δήϊοι δὲ ϰρητηÐ ρεс,
ἵπποι δ’ ἄϰρητοс, ϰἀλαλὴ ‘‘μύρον χειÐ τε.’’
Ninus’ sword is jars, his spear-point a cup, his bow a bowl, enemies mixing-bowls, horses
unmixed wine, his battle-cry ‘‘pour myrrh.’’

The speaker does not seem to disapprove of Ninus, and in a symposiastic context,
these substitutions are appropriate. Similarly, while the speaker of fr. 1 does not
endorse Ninus’ hedonism, he is not overtly hostile to it.
 Iambos and Parody 255

A choliamb addressed to an unidentifiable Posidippus is preserved in P.Heid. 310,

subscribed ‘‘Iamb of Phoenix’’ (CA 6). It is a complaint about rich men (unnamed)
who have no idea how to use their money (7–12):

τωÐ ι πλούτωι δὲ πρὸс τί δειÐ χρηÐ [сθ]αι,

τουÐ τ’ αὐτὸ πάντων πρωÐ τον οὐϰ ἐπίсτανται
ἀλλ’ οἰϰ[ία]с μὲν ἐϰ λίθου сμαραγδίτου,
εἴ πω[с] ἀνυсτόν ἐсτι τουÐ τ’ αὐτοιÐ с πρήссειν,
: .] ἐχούсαс ϰαὶ сτοὰс τετραсτύλουс
[. .]τ[.
[πολλωÐ ]ν ταλάντων ἀξίαс ϰαταϰτωÐ νται
But what money is supposed to be used for, this, first of all, they don’t know. But they
get houses made of emerald stone, if it is manageable for them to do this, with . . . and
porticoes with four pillars, worth many talents.

What is the best use for wealth, then? Line 13 seems to mention ‘‘the necessary soul’’
(τ]ὴν ἀναγϰαίην: ψ : υ:χήν),
: while a little below ‘‘made self-controlled by helpful
words . . . knows what is helpful and advantageous’’ seems to have the soul as subject
(λ]όγοιс χρηсτοιÐ сι сωϕρονιсθειÐ сα / [ . . . . . . ] τὰ χρηсτὰ ϰαὶ τὰ сυμϕέροντ’ εἰδηÐ ι, 16–
17). How would one use money to provide logoi that would give sophrosyne to the
soul? Perhaps by hiring a philosopher, or moralizing poet, to assist. This poem looks
less like a genuine satire of the rich than a comment on their failure to support poets
and philosophers, and perhaps the reader should turn this complaint against the
speaker, recognizing his resentment. The last line, ‘‘for they also think about stones’’
( . . . ]ν γὰρ ϰαὶ λίθων ϕροντίζουсιν, 23), is peculiarly tantalizing, since one of the
possible addressees, Posidippus the epigrammatist, composed an impressive number
of epigrams about precious stones. The poem would thus end with a wry allusion to
what a poor poet has to do to make a living: to flatter the rich and powerful by
praising their luxury possessions (Petrain 2005: 340–3).

The Iambic Revival (2): Callimachus

The Iambi of Callimachus are partially preserved in P.Oxy. 1011 (frs. 191–208a Pfeiffer
1949); the reconstruction of those in poor condition and thus of the book depends on
the Milan Diegesis. The first five follow in the tradition of Hipponax at least insofar as
they are moralizing and critical. In the first, Hipponax criticizes the learned men of
Alexandria, and tells them the story of the cup of Bathycles. The story was surely
familiar to Callimachus’ audience, and its simplicity stands in sharp contrast with the
poem’s allusive style. The poem compounds its ironies. The author is among the
presumed objects of its satire; it critiques an excessively critical attitude; its internal
audience is very learned but has evidently not taken the moral of a well-known tale.
In the second Iamb, an unnamed speaker tells the fable of how animals could once
talk, but Zeus, angered by their complaints, gave their voices (unjustly!) to people, as
if people didn’t talk too much already. A series of specific but obscure people are
associated with unpleasant animal sounds. The whole story turns out to be a
256 Ruth Scodel

quotation from Aesop. By inserting invective into the aetiology, the poem creates a
certain confusion: what animals lose (articulate speech) is not exactly what people get
(articulate voices that sound like the noises the animals still make). Furthermore, if
the fable, as the Diegesis claims, had Zeus act in part because the fox complained that
he ruled unjustly, Aesop ignores his own moral, since he calls Zeus unjust.
In the third poem the speaker appears to be the poet, complaining that the times
favor money over merit, as demonstrated by the bad treatment he has received from a
boy named Euthydemus. He thought he had found the Good, but now wishes he had
served Cybele or mourned Adonis instead of following Apollo and the Muses. Yet
complaints that money alone matters ‘‘now,’’ in contrast to some past pederastic
utopia, are themselves old (Pi. I. 2.1–12, Anac. PMG 384). The speaker may be less
pathetic than ridiculous.
The fourth poem starts with a rebuke to the son of Charitades (Simon, according
to the Diegesis), who is ‘‘not one of us,’’ and it continues with the fable of the laurel
and the olive. Each delivers a long speech in praise of itself. When a bramble urges
them not to quarrel, the laurel angrily responds that the bramble has no standing to
intervene (4.98–103):

‘‘οὐϰ ω τάλαιναι παυсόμεсθα, μὴ χ:α: ρ:ταὶ :

γενώμεθ’ ἐχθροιÐ с, μηδ’ ἐρουÐ μεν ἀλλήλαс
ἄνολβ’ ἀναιδέωс, ἀλλὰ ταυÐ τά γ’ : .β..
: μ.;’’
:
τὴν δ’ α ρ’ ὑποδρὰξ οιffl α ταυÐ ροс ἡ δάϕνη
ἔβλεψε ϰαὶ τάδ’ ει πεν ‘‘ω ϰαϰὴ λώβη
ὡс δὴ μί’ ἡμέων ϰαὶ сύ;’’
‘‘Shouldn’t we stop, losers, lest we become a joy to our enemies, and not shamelessly talk
trash to each other, but these things . . . ’’ But then the laurel, giving her an angry look,
like a bull, said: ‘‘You lousy disgrace, so you’re one of us?’’

Most interpreters interpret the allegory as a literary quarrel. The olive seems to be the
‘‘winner’’ and the representative of Callimachean poetics. If that is so, this poem
inverts the first. The bramble is an easy symbol for Hipponax, practitioner of a ‘‘low’’
genre (Alcaeus of Messene 13 GP puts one on his tomb), and again the symbol of
aggression and vulgarity preaches solidarity and good manners to his social/generic
betters – who openly reject him. ‘‘Callimachus’’ would seem to play three roles – he
rebukes the intruder in the frame, he is represented by the olive, and the bramble
stands for the iambic voice he has assumed.
In Iamb 5, which combines choliambs with iambic dimeters, the speaker rebukes
a schoolmaster for sexually molesting his pupils. The theme is worthy of the old
iambos, but the object is apparently unnamed, and the tone superficially friendly: it
begins ‘‘friend – for advice is a holy thing – listen to these heart-felt words’’ (ω ξειÐ νε –
сυμβουλὴ γ[ὰ]ρ: ἕν τι τωÐ ν ἱρωÐ ν – / ἄϰουε τἀπὸ ϰαρδ[ίηс).
: If the speaker is the same
as that of Iamb 3, he is hardly in a position to advise.
At this point the book abandons its already diluted attachment to the spirit
of Archaic iambos. The following six poems are in varying meters and elements of
non-Ionic dialect appear in them. These poems involve ecphrasis or aetiology or both.
When they are read together, their author is recognizably the Callimachus of the
 Iambos and Parody 257

Aetia and Hymns, but each by itself has an individual tone and voice, and each is
independent of any grand project. Iamb 6 describes Phidias’ Zeus at Olympia with
measurements of virtuosic precision. The seventh is an aetiological story of the statue
of Hermes Perpheraios at Ainos. The wooden statue, attributed to Epeus, builder of
the Wooden Horse, tells his own story of shipwreck and eventual safety. The eighth
celebrates a victory of Polycles of Aegina in a local race commemorating the
Argonauts’ search for water on Aegina. In the ninth, a lover of Philetades asks a
statue of Hermes whether his erection is owing to desire for Philetades; the statue
answers that his erection has a secret religious meaning (ϰατὰ μυсτιϰὸν λόγον), but
the inquirer’s passion is destined to end badly or indicates bad intentions (ἐπὶ ϰαϰωÐ ι).
The tenth explains why at Aspendos in Pamphylia they sacrifice pigs to Aphrodite,
and praises Artemis at Eretria, who accepts all animals. The eleventh concerns the
proverb ἁρπαγὰ τὰ Κοννίδα, ‘‘Konnidas’ property is up for grabs.’’
Several display an ironic attitude akin to that of the earlier poems. Hermes corrects
the obsessive lover. The simple statue of Perpheraios is indestructible. A pig-friendly
Aphrodite is more sensible than other Aphrodites. Both Konnidas and the people who
plunder his estate are contemptible. The race at Aegina commemorates the need even
of epic heroes for water, the most basic human requirement. Six seems to make fun of
the speaker’s fascination with the size and value of Phidias’ work. Still, these poems
apparently lack even the genial moralizing of those in choliambs. As individual poems,
they are clever, occasional trifles. Within the collection, they further redefine the genre
and the implied author, whose interests and personality become a theme in themselves.
This iambographer is unmistakably a scholar-poet, fascinated by odd stories and
aetiologies: he mentally wanders around the Greek world, exclaiming ‘‘This is inter-
esting!’’ These poems further mitigate the ‘‘iambic’’ qualities of those that preceded
them. The implied author knows that the world is full of a number of things, not all of
them nice, but not all nasty, either, many worth thinking about and remembering.
Iamb 12 returns to moralizing themes, honoring the infant daughter of a friend of
the poet by telling how the gods competed with gifts for the infant Hebe. Apollo
demonstrates that his gift of song is the best because it is neither perishable nor
morally dubious (as gold is). If Apollo’s song points to this very book, song includes
the book’s attitude of amused fascination with odd aetiologies and human folly. The
thirteenth returns to choliambs and defends the author’s poetic practices against
critics who complain that he has not visited Ephesus (Hipponax’s home), improperly
mixes dialects, and writes in too many genres – not, however, that he satirizes too
harshly or too weakly. The answer insists that the gods have not established generic
boundaries for each poet (31–3), and after a lacuna it adduces the examples of the
carpenter and of Ion of Chios in defense of polyeideia, ‘‘multiformity.’’ Finally, it
presents the horrors of a literary world consumed by envy, where poets insult each
other and the Muses fly past in fear for their own reputation (58–9). Finally the
speaker proudly turns his critic’s words against him (63–6):

ἀείδω
οὔτ’ Ἔϕεсον ἐλθὼν οὔτ’ Ἴωсι сυμμείξαс,
Ἔϕεсον, ὅθεν περ οἱ τὰ μέτρα μέλλοντεс
τὰ χωλὰ τίϰτειν μὴ ἀμαθωÐ с ἐναύονται.
258 Ruth Scodel

I sing without having gone to Ephesus or hung around with Ionians – Ephesus, where
those planning to give birth to the lame meters learnedly light their fires.

Like the first, the poem is invective against invective, but the critics’ objections
themselves mark how harmless this iambos is. They complain exclusively in literary
terms; nothing in the content has hurt anyone.
What is the point of iambos when it becomes so pacific and its topics so wide? The
moralizing of the new iambos demands an ironic attitude to social norms, to literary
traditions, and to the self, but this irony itself limits invective force, since to be really
nasty a speaker must take himself seriously. Its fun lies in deflating both self and
others. In Iamb 10, the claim that there is more than one Aphrodite evokes the
Platonic distinction between the heavenly and the common Aphrodite (Sym. 180c–
185c2), but the issue at hand is sacrificing pigs. In what other genre could a tree not
only talk but have the angry look of an epic hero (4.101–2, quoted above), or one’s
annoying colleagues be compared to flies around a goatherd, wasps pouring from the
ground, or Delphians at a sacrifice (1.26–7)? The first two similes have epic antece-
dents, but the echo is absurd. This fun, though, makes one significant implicit claim.
The opponents in Iamb 13 call the iambographer crazy (19–21):

οἱ ϕίλοι сε δήс[ουсι
ϰ[ἢ]ν νουÐ ν ἔχωсιν, ἐγχέουсι τὴν [ϰραÐ сιν,
: с: ὑ:γιείηс
ὡ : οὐδὲ τῴνυ: χι: ψαύε::ιс.
Your friends will tie you up, and if they are wise, they will pour your mixture [i.e., either a
medicine or much-watered wine], since you aren’t in contact with Health even with a
fingernail.

Behind the various personae of the poems, however, the implied author is very sane. He
is no Cynic trampler of norms, but he is detached from even his own participation in the
follies of life. So the genre is defined largely by what it seems to exclude: besides royal
flattery, passionate love (though not of course sex), really serious thinking, pathos.
A further problem complicates the generic status of the Iambi. The thirteen poems
in iambic meters are followed in the Diegesis, without any notation (though it marks the
end of the Aetia and the start of the Hecale), by another four poems (frs. 226–9 Pf.). It
also looks as if at least one ancient copy had these poems on a single roll with the Iambi.
Yet the ring-composition of 1 and 13 delimits the thirteen poems, and there are no
certain quotations of the Iambi that are not from the thirteen (recently favoring a book
of seventeen, D’Alessio 2007: 43–7; Cameron 1995a: 163–73; of thirteen, Kerkhecker
1999: 271–82). And while the first of these four, in phalaecians, warned young men to
avoid the fate of the Lemnians – a possibly iambic topic, in a possibly iambic meter – the
next concerns an all-night festival, and its opening implies the presence of a most un-
iambic chorus (ἔνεсτ’ Ἀπόλλων τωÐ ι χορωÐ ι, ‘‘Apollo is there in the chorus’’). The next
is on the apotheosis of Arsinoe, the last on Branchus, a shepherd loved by Apollo and
founder of his sanctuary at Didyma near Miletus. It is hard to imagine that any reader
would have read these through iambic conventions (one, at least, is clearly court
poetry). Yet if all these poems stood in one book, the variety of the author’s concerns
would be even more salient, the invective element even weaker.
 Iambos and Parody 259

Iambos in Song: Cercidas

Only one choliamb of Cercidas survives: ‘‘there was once a pair of girls with beautiful
asses in Syracuse’’ (η ν ϰαλλιπύγων ζευÐ γοс ἐν Συραϰούсαιс, CA 14), which sounds
like the beginning of an aetiology on the temple allegedly founded by sisters who
argued who had a more beautiful butt. However, we have rich fragments of the genre
he invented, meliamb. There is now general agreement that poet is the Megalopolitan
statesman and legislator of the latter half of the third century. This identification,
though, creates other complications. P.Oxy. 1082 (second century CE ) is subscribed
‘‘Meliambs of Cercidas the Dog,’’ and the ancient tradition identifies the poet
Cercidas as a Cynic, though a Cynic as public servant is hard to imagine. I will discuss
only the first two fragments, on wealth and sexual desire, which are extensive enough
to give a sense of how the arguments develop.
The Meliambs are literary Doric in dialect, vigorous in language, and metrically a
relative of dactylo-epitrite, ‘‘in the fourth and third centuries the normal meter for
what may be called educated bourgeois lyric’’ (West 1982: 139). They thereby claim a
peculiar territory that is both elevated and direct, a potentially high poetic voice
whose moral energy demands an expanded register. All are reflections on moral topics
(for example, fr. 3 Livrea 1986 [¼ 3 Lomiento 1993] is on old age, fr. 6 [¼ 6] on
pederasty). Explosions of stylistic energy serve arguments and exhortations that are
simultaneously straightforward and unpredictable, conveying more powerfully than
Phoenix or Callimachus the sense of hearing thoughts as they develop. Cercidas
quotes earlier authors by name and without circumlocutions (ϰαὶ τουÐ θ’ Ὅμηροс
ει πεν ἐν Ἰλιάδι, ‘‘Homer said this also in the Iliad,’’ fr. 1.19–20 ¼ 1.58 Lom.),
consonant with his combination of loftiness and plain speaking.
In fr. 1, whose theme of wealth in the wrong hands is reminiscent of Phoenix’s
poem to Posidippus, a string of comic compounds can barely express the speaker’s
indignation (1.5–11 ¼ 1.44–50 Lom.):

ϰα[ὶ] τί τὸ ϰωλύον η с, αἴ τίс ϕέρο[ι]το;

ρ ειÐ α γάρ ἐсτι θεωÐ ι παÐ ν ἐϰτελέс<с>αι
: ἴηι, ἢ τὸν ρ υποϰιβδοτόϰωνα
χρηÐ μ’, ἐπὶ νουÐ ν ὅϰ’
ϰα:ὶ τε:θνα
: ϰοχαλϰίδαν
: :
ἢ τ<ὸ>ν παλινεϰχυμενίταν,
τὸν ϰτεάνων ὄλεθρον, τουÐ τον ϰενωÐ сαι
ταÐ с сυοπλουτοсύναс, δόμεν δ’ ἐπιταδεοτρώϰται
ϰοινοϰρατηροсϰύϕωι τὰν ὀλλυμέναν δαπάνυλλαν;
And what was in the way, if someone were to carry it off? For isn’t it easy for a god to
accomplish anything to which his mind turns, the usurer-of-counterfeit-filth and dead-
penny-grasper, or the re-outpourer, the destruction of possessions, to empty him of his
pig-wealth, and give his damned bit of expense to the appropriate-muncher, the cup-
from-the-shared-mixing-bowl guy?

He continues with rhetorical questions about the gods. Justice has gone blind, Phaethon
(i.e., Helios) can’t see straight, Themis has gone dim; and ‘‘how can there still be gods,
when they have neither hearing nor sight?’’ (πωÐ с ἔτι δαίμονεс ου ν τοὶ μήτ’ ἀϰουὰν /
μήτ’ ὀπὰν πεπαμένοι; 15–16 ¼ 54–5 Lom.). Zeus is the climax (16–19 ¼ 55–7 Lom.):
260 Ruth Scodel

ϰαὶ μὰν τὸ τάλαντον ὁ сεμνὸс

ἀсτεροπαγερέταс μέссον τὸν Ὄλυμπον [ . . . . .]
ὀρθὸν [τιταίνει],
: νένευϰεν οὐδαμηÐ ι.
[ϰ]αὶ
And indeed the revered fixer of the stars, who sits at the center of Olympus, extends the
scale straight, and does not incline it anywhere.

Homeric epic offers a normative model for the god, which the speaker is not
following. Zeus is a paternal uncle to some, a father to others. But he then decides
to leave these matters to the ‘‘astronomy-fussers’’ (μετεωροϰόποιс), while we concern
ourselves with Paean, Nemesis, and Μετάδωс, ‘‘Share’’ – ‘‘for she is a god’’
(θεὸс γὰρ αὕτα). The poem ends with a warning to honor Nemesis, for if a storm-
wind comes and blows against one’s prosperity, ‘‘we will have to vomit these things
out from the bottom’’ (ταυÐ τ’ ἔ[ссεθ’ ἁμὶν] / νειόθεν ἐξεμέсαι, 37–8 ¼ 75 Lom.).
Livrea argues that the poem must refer to a specific crisis and program, probably
the dire situation in Megalopolis after the Battle of Sellasia in 222/221, while López
Cruces relates it more precisely to the issues described in Polybius 5.93 (Livrea
1986: 2–3; López Cruces 1995: 123–30). The citizens were divided over whether
they should reduce the city’s area and over a proposal that the rich contribute one-
third of their property for new citizens, while the law-code produced by Prytanis,
a Peripatetic, caused intense strife. Yet the poem is oddly unspecific. The abusive
epithets attack two categories of rich people, the cheap/usurious and the wasteful.
To be sure, the speaker clearly thinks he could use Xenon’s money for better
purposes, and the reference to Share describes what the rich should do. However,
this is not a poem about the plight of the poor. The proposed recipient of wealth
is ‘‘ourselves,’’ and is a man of moderation (ἐπιταδεοτρώϰταс). That he fills his
cup from a shared krater (ϰοινοϰρατηροсϰύϕοс) presumably means that he belongs
to a society that shares meals, but it suggests full participation in community life
rather than extreme poverty. The poem does not mention specific problems caused
by the selfishness of the rich. While the poem may have addressed the crisis at
Megalopolis, it is applicable to other situations; this generality is typical of
Hellenistic iambos.
The poem’s values are conventional: the target of the attack gained money wrong-
fully and/or uses it badly. More striking is the vehemence with which it rejects the
traditional gods, especially Zeus, because they do not do what the speaker’s under-
standing of the poetic tradition says they should. Most of the extant fragment is about
the gods. Zeus is not only ‘‘father of gods and men’’ but ‘‘the one who planted and
begot us all’’ (a more philosophical than mythological description of the god),
making his failure to intervene even worse. Yet Cercidas still warns of the Nemesis
typically associated with Zeus.
Fragment 2 Livrea looks more Cynical. The poem opens by reminding the
addressee, Damonomus, how ‘‘somebody’’ (τιс) said that there are two ways Eros
can blow upon us (nautical imagery dominates). He can be gentle and blow from the
right, but he can also blow from the left and cause storms and a rough voyage;
Euripides (now named) was right. But suddenly the argument shifts. We can control
 Iambos and Parody 261

what happens (11–14 ¼ 2.19–22 Lomiento, who transposes οὐϰουÐ ν δύ’ ὄντων and
ϰάρρον ἐсτίν):

οὐϰουÐ ν δύ’ ὄντων

ϰάρρον ἐсτὶν ἐϰλέγειν τὸν οὔριον αffl μιν ἀήταν,
ϰαὶ μετὰ Σωϕροсύναс οἴαϰι ΠειθουÐ с
χρώμενον εὐθυπλοειÐ ν.
So of the two it is better to select the breeze favorable for us, and to sail straight, using
Persuasion’s tiller in the company of Moderation.

After some poorly preserved lines (Icarus is mentioned), Cercidas warns of the
dangers of the wrong kind of sexual entanglement and recommends, instead, pros-
titutes (30  2 ¼ 26  30 Lom.):

: προϰοθηλυμαν[ὲс] ϕέρει ταναβλαψιτέλειαν

ϰαὶ :
ϰαὶ μ: εταμελλοδύναν
: ἁ δ’ ἐξ ἀγοραÐ с Ἀϕροδ:ίτα
ϰαὶ τὸ μη[δε]νὸс μέλειν, ὁπ[α]νίϰα ληÐ ιс, ὅϰα χρήιζηιс,
:
οὐ ϕόβοс, οὐ ταραχά τα[ύ]ταν ὀβολωÐ ϰαταϰλίναс
Τ[υν]δαρέοιο δόϰει γαμβρ:ὸс: τ[ό]ϰ’ η μεν
And deer-woman-madness [i.e., stag-like craziness for a female] brings extended-end-
damage and grief-of repentance. But the ‘‘Aphrodite from the marketplace,’’ the ‘‘worry
about nothing,’’ ‘‘each time you want, whenever you need,’’ ‘‘no fear, no disturbance’’:
bedding her for an obol think then you are the son-in-law of Tyndareus.

Exotic compounds describe the wrong kind of sex, while everyday clichés summarize
the advantages of readily available sex. To conclude, he quotes yet another proverb
(31  2 ¼ fr. 7 Lom.):

τὸ ταÐ с ρ ιϰναÐ с [ἐν

̚
̚

γαÐ ι χελώναс μναμόν ευ’ οι ϰοс: γ:ὰρ: ἄριсτοс ἀλαθέωс,

̚
̚

ϰαὶ ϕίλο с . [πά]ρ:εсτ’

:
̚
ἀεί.
̚

Remember the saying of the wrinkled tortoise in the ground: ‘‘Home is truly best, it’s
always there and dear.’’

This is probably praise of masturbation; Euripides’ distinction between kinds of love

has taken a surprising direction. Yet the benefit of using prostitutes is a commonplace
of popular philosophy, most familiar from Horace (Sat. 1.2.119), and the poem
remains within the traditional language of moderation.
We do not need to attribute everything in these poems to a fully coherent set of
beliefs. The Meliambs are fully iambic in imitating a spontaneous voice. The ten-
dency to rant in fr. 1 characterizes the speaker as much as Xenon, and it is funny as a
performance. The fun of fr. 2 lies in the very practical form that traditional wisdom
takes. If Cercidas sounds more excited than Phoenix or Callimachus, his basic
interest in general ethical questions places him just as far as they are from Archaic
iambos.
262 Ruth Scodel

Macho
The fragments of Macho’s Chreiai (all preserved by Athenaeus) are not stylistically
impressive. Filler is frequent, diction prosaic, and reading the fragments through is
stultifying. The poem, composed sometime around the middle of the third century
BCE , consists of a string of anecdotes without formal connection with each other –
names are repeated from anecdote to anecdote, and Stratonicus is called ‘‘the cithar-
ode’’ in 141 and 149 (there is an occasional δέ, but it does not mark real connection).
Readers would presumably hunt for bits they could use socially. Each anecdote has as
its point a (presumably) clever remark; the characters are hetaerae, musicians, and
parasites. Some stories include famous people, some not. A few take place in the fifth
century, many in the fourth, and some concern Macho’s contemporaries. Although
anonymous figures – a bad lyre-player, an unsuccessful boxer – figure in many, there is
always a named character. Many are obscene. Most have some Athenian connection,
in the setting or characters. The milieu is familiar from comedy and epigram (Lape,
Bruss in this volume), but the effect is quite different, since these characters are the
center, not the periphery, of this iambo-comic world.
The preoccupations are sex, food, poetry/music, and money, while the implicit
attitude is a worldly wise hedonism. Several jokes are at the expense of bad musicians –
who should be providing enjoyment but offer its opposite instead. Some concern
rates of exchange: one Morichos approaches the hetaera Phryne, who demands a
mina. He complains that she was with a foreigner two days before for two gold pieces.
She answers (454–5 Gow 1965):

περίμενε τοίνυν ϰαὶ сύ, ϕηс’, ἕωс ἂν ουffl

βινητιάсω ϰαὶ τοсουÐ τον λήψομαι.
You, too, wait until I want a fuck, and I’ll take that much.

One of the few jokes at a hetaera’s expense begins when Lamia rejects a variety of
perfumes Demetrius offers her; finally he puts a cheap scent on his fingers and fondles
his genitals. When she calls that the worst of all, he comments that it is ‘‘from a royal
acorn’’ (ἀπὸ βαλάνου . . . βαсιλιϰηÐ с, 187). Kings may make jokes or provide the
occasion for them, but they are not their targets (‘‘Ptolemy’’ appears in 1–5, 25–
45, 439–49). Only one story has an obvious moral: Stratonicus jokes after a king’s
wife farts and tries to hide it by noisily crushing almond shells; the king has him
drowned (156–62). The anecdotes do not respect the powerful, but they do not
challenge power, either.
One story about the death of the poet Philoxenus is strongly reminiscent of
Phoenix’s Ninus. Philoxenus bought a huge octopus, overate, and became sick.
A doctor warned him to settle his affairs. Philoxenus speaks of his poems as if they
were children who have done well and are provided for, and ends (81–6):

ἀλλ’ ἐπεὶ
ὁ Τιμοθέου Χάρων сχολάζειν οὐϰ ἐαÐ ι,
οὑϰ τηÐ с Νιόβηс, χωρειÐ ν δὲ πορθμὸν ἀναβοαÐ ι,
 Iambos and Parody 263

ϰαλειÐ δὲ μοιÐ ρα νύχιοс ηffl с ϰλύειν χρεών,

ἵν’ ἔχων ἀποτρέχω πάντα τἀμαυτουÐ ϰάτω
τουÐ πουλύποδόс μοι τὸ ϰατάλοιπον ἀπόδοτε.
But since the Charon of Timotheus allows no waste of time, the one from the Niobe,
and he yells that the ferry is leaving, and the ‘‘fate of night is calling’’ which you have to
listen to – so that I can go off below with everything I own, give me the rest of the
octopus.

Dying, he parodies a poetic rival, and then echoes Ninus’ assertion that all he really
owns is what he consumed and enjoyed. Deathbeds and famous last words were
common in moralizing literature (Cercidas describes the death of Diogenes by
holding his breath, apparently with sincere admiration, fr. 54 Livrea ¼ 60 Lom.).
Philoxenus’ heroic hedonism evokes this usually uplifting genre.
More generally, popular philosophy made heavy use of anecdotes. The Socratic
tradition in both Plato and Xenophon already relied on exemplary but entertaining
tales of Socrates, and stories about Diogenes constitute the basis of Cynicism. It may
be significant that Athenaeus preserves no anecdotes about philosophers, although
there were many philosopher-hetaera stories, and philosophers were standard comic
characters; perhaps Macho actually respected them. Yet most of the stories, while
dirty, are good-natured, and most of the targets were dead. Macho has no more bite
than Callimachus. His implicit morality urges adaptation to circumstances, sensibly
controlled hedonism, and self-knowledge that is not philosophical but social and
economic: wise moderation is knowing what you want, what the traffic will bear, and
what you can get away with.

Parody
Epic parody was already a tool of Greek humor in the Archaic period. In the late fifth
century, parody came to have its own formal competitions. Its first celebrated poet is
Hegemon, who presents himself as poor, old, and apparently among those who
‘‘badly perform bad epic’’ (ϰαϰωÐ с ϰαϰὰ ρ αψωιδουÐ сιν, fr. 1 Brandt 1888). This
implies that good epic and good performances are possible, even if the speaker has
not encountered any.
We know almost nothing about the four books of parodies by Euboeus of Paros in
the fourth century. Thanks to Athenaeus, though, we have considerable fragments of
Archestratus of Gela. He discusses where to find the best food in the Mediterranean,
combining snippets of Homeric phraseology with a clear didactic voice: his know-
ledge is the result of extensive travel (fr. 2.1–3 Olson and Sens 2000); he will treat the
topic systematically (ibid.); he frequently addresses two internal addressees; he admits
that judgments may differ (14.4); and he respects the gods (there may be divine
vengeance on someone who does not buy Ambracian boar if he can, no matter how
expensive it is, 15.1–4). The poem is at once funny and informative. Satire is directed
only at how seriously the speaker takes gourmandizing, not at those who have a
reasonable interest in food.
264 Ruth Scodel

At the end of the fourth century, Matro of Pitane narrates an immense banquet
given by the politician Xenocles in Athens (two characters, Stratocles and the parasite
Chaerephon, also appear in Macho). The narrator, who does not usually eat like this,
is willing to fight for an especially desirable item, but so are others; there is a mock-
heroic struggle both to grab the best goodies and to surpass natural capacity.
Xenocles and Stratocles were well-known supporters of the restored democracy and
Demetrius Poliorcetes; Olson and Sens (1999: 29–33) make a strong case that there
is a political subtext in the poem, warning of the hidden greed of apparent democrats.
Still, the political satire is not especially salient.
In these texts, epic reminiscences work against the mundane subject matter, but
epic itself is not mocked. However, parody can satirize primarily epic itself. SSH 1190
(P.Mich. 6946) is a fragmentary epic about a war between mice and a weasel. A fable is
the likely basis; ‘‘mouse and weasel’’ is the typical childish fable at Aristophanes Wasps
1181–4, and there is an Aesopian fable about a mouse–weasel war (Perry 1967:
no. 165; Hausrath and Hunger 1957–70: no. 174). The surviving fragments include
a messenger’s report; Hermes’ approach to a rack for drying figs; a decision-mono-
logue; a gathering, and an assembly-speech by a wise, elderly mouse. The language
points strenuously to Homer, including Homeric whole-line speech introductions.
When a mouse named Trixos dies in the front line, the narrator comments on the
pathos of his death outside his ancestral field, and his widow grieves. This probably
parodies the familiar story of Protesilaus and Laodamia (Schibli 1983: 2–3). The
target of the burlesque is conventional epic action. The Suda mentions battles of
spiders, starlings, and cranes (3.526.6, 527.8 Adler).
The ‘‘Battle of Frogs and Mice’’ (Batrachomyomachia) overtly satirizes not just the
conventions of epic, but heroic attitudes. Scholars now generally agree on a
Hellenistic date for the poem, which uses some Homeric expressions, often recom-
bining them, but makes no effort to be consistently Homeric (Kirk 1966: 161–3).
The narrative is based on the fable found in one of the Lives of Aesop (Perry 1967:
no. 133; Hausrath and Hunger 1957–70: no. 302) in which a frog’s attempt to bring
a mouse-friend to his house kills both of them. In the poem, a mouse named
Psicharpax (‘‘crumb-grabber’’) is drinking by a pond when he is accosted by the
frog-king Polyphemus (‘‘noisy’’ or ‘‘famous,’’ named for the Cyclops of the Odyssey),
who suggests that they could become friends, if the mouse’s genealogy is as impres-
sive as his warlike appearance. Psicharpax does not think friendship possible, defining
the difference in their environments by their different diets – he eats human leftovers,
while frogs eat vegetables (evidently, he knows nothing about frogs). Polyphemus
criticizes his boasting about food, but offers to give him a ride around his territory.
Psicharpax soon regrets accepting, finding himself terrified; when a snake appears,
Polyphemus dives underwater, and Psicharpax drowns, cursing Polyphemus. In the
mouse-assembly, Psicharpax’s father calls for war. Polyphemus lies outright to the
frogs (147–9):
οὐδὲ ϰατειÐ δον
ὀλλύμενον πάντωс δ’ ἐπνίγη παίζων παρὰ λίμνην,
νήξειс τὰс βατράχων μιμούμενοс.
And I didn’t see him perish. He must have drowned playing by the pond, imitating frogs’
swimming.
 Iambos and Parody 265

The frogs do not ask how he knows if he wasn’t there, since it is plausible to them that
a mouse would imitate them; they too arm for battle. So it is not just that tiny animals
think they are great warriors; Psicharpax is gullible and cowardly; Polyphemus vain,
thoughtless, and deceitful. Both sides are stupidly bellicose. When it appears that the
mice will overwhelm the frogs, Zeus sends a thunderbolt, but even that is inadequate,
and he sends an army of crabs, before whom the mice flee. The joke is on both epic
mannerisms and the epic view of human life. The Batrachomyomachia alludes to
Callimachus and Moschus as if to suggest that Hellenistic poetry’s new ‘‘realism’’
about the mythological past did not go far enough (examples in Wölke 1978).
So one type of mock epic treats food as worthy of heroic energy; the other
attributes heroic posturing to mice, those greedy little parasites. In both, we sense
how the attitudes of the high genre are out of touch with a hedonistic world. Yet the
reader is presumably at a certain distance from both epic pretension and excessive
hedonism. Moderation implicitly wins again, and as often in Hellenistic satire, the
reader is invited to share amusement instead of indignation.
Iambic and parodic poetry seem to be composed by and for tolerant people. They
are not about to convert to the philosophical life but enjoy being mocked, exhorted,
and entertained. It is an extraordinarily difficult task to make the voice of moderation
lively, and this is the achievement of the low Hellenistic genres. Parody combines the
period’s delight in the tiny and trivial with its devotion to Homer. The success of
Hellenistic iambos required a misreading of the Archaic genre so that it could be
adapted to the new conditions of Hellenistic literary production: refined taste,
reading rather than performance, patronage. The outcome is something quite new.
The clever reader will probably have recognized that while the Hellenistic iambo-
grapher filters his Archaic predecessors through the figure of the philosopher, this
essay filters Hellenistic iambos through its own future: historically, the greatest
success of Hellenistic iambos may have been its creation of a literary space for
Horace. While Horace does not share Callimachus’ delight in the antiquarian won-
ders to be found in an excellent library, and no Hellenistic iambographer seems to
share Horace’s unappealing interest in witches, the gently satiric, loosely philoso-
phical poetry created in the Hellenistic world became a long-enduring tradition.

FURTHER READING

Phoenix needs a new edition: still standard is Powell 1925 (CA); translation (into rhyming
couplets) in the Loeb, Knox 1929. There is a good translation and discussion in Furley 1994.
For Cercidas, the standard edition of P.Oxy. 1082 (commentary and translation into Italian) is
Livrea 1986; a new edition is in preparation by Livrea and F. Williams. Livrea heavily stresses
Cercidas’ Cynicism. Lomiento 1993 edits, translates, and comments on the testimonia and
fragments quoted in ancient authors as well as the papyrus; López Cruces 1995 is a study of the
biographical tradition and fragments that argues against overemphasizing Cynicism in
Cercidas. For Callimachus’ Iambi, the most recent edition is D’Alessio 2007 (with Italian
translation); English translation, Nisetich 2001. There are two recent complementary mono-
graphs: Kerkhecker 1999 almost replaces a commentary; Acosta-Hughes 2002 is thematic.
Cameron 1995a: 167–73, argues for Callimachus’ priority to Phoenix and for a book of 17
266 Ruth Scodel

Iambi. For Macho, Gow 1965 is an exemplary text and commentary. A new Loeb translation of
Athenaeus (sole source for the fragments of Macho) by S. Douglas Olson is in progress
(2007–). Studies of Macho are mostly devoted to the many problems of text and interpretation;
the only general recent study is Kurke 2002, which argues, interestingly but not convincingly,
that the poem is a protest against Macedonian domination in Athens. On Archestratus, see
Olson and Sens 2000; on Matro, Olson and Sens 1999. Wölke 1978 is the most important
work on the ‘‘Battle of Frogs and Mice.’’ Most 1993 suggests that the mice represent the Iliad,
the frogs the Odyssey.
 CHAPTER NINETEEN*

Herodas and the Mime

Elena Esposito

Like so many other genres, the mime, which is generally assumed to have begun its
life as a literary genre with Sophron of Syracuse in the fifth century BCE , came to
flourish once again during the Hellenistic Age (Mastromarco 1991: 171–2). This
rebirth can be explained at least partly from the principles that inspire Hellenistic
poetry as a whole, more specifically a widespread taste for attenuated poetry and
realistic representation. Mimes, short compositions that focused on character por-
trayal and features of everyday life, offered poets the opportunity to observe aspects
of the lower middle class, but filtered through the lens of a carefully defined and
refined, ‘‘aristocratic’’ art form. Mime-like features occur in two hymns of
Callimachus (5 and 6) and many of Theocritus’ Idylls (the ‘‘bucolic mimes’’ 1, 3,
4, 5, 10, and ‘‘urban mimes’’ 2, 14, 15), and it is likely that both were inspired by
Sophron and other writers in this tradition (although direct connections between
Sophron and Theocritus or Herodas are hard to establish, see Hordern 2004: 26–9).
Even a number of epigrams take the form of little sketches, including realistic
conversations with questions, exclamations, and responses, that in all respects show
the characteristics of genuine mime (for example, Asclep. 25–6 GP ¼ AP 5.181,
185; Posidip. 124 AB ¼ 10 GP ¼ AP 5.183; Call. 31 GP ¼ AP 7.524; Phalaecus
3 GP ¼ AP 13.5; see also Bruss in this volume). Yet only Herodas, by calling his
poems ‘‘mimiambs,’’ explicitly links his work with mime as a genre and as such he
can be considered the most representative exponent of literary mime of the
Hellenistic era.

*
Translated by James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers.
268 Elena Esposito

The Rediscovery of an Author

Except a few citations preserved at second hand, nothing remained of Herodas until
1891, the year of publication of a papyrus that contained eight largely complete
mimiambs and fragments of a ninth (P.Lond.Lit. 96 ¼ P.Egerton 1; cf. MP3 485).
This rediscovery has granted us access to Herodas’ work and the ability to date it,
even with some hesitation, to the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus on the basis of
internal features. Nonetheless his city of origin and the location where he engaged in
his literary projects remain to some extent uncertain and controversial (an issue
discussed below), and the same applies to the exact form of his name. Herodas, the
Doric form, is generally preferred by English-speaking and Italian scholars;
Herondas, the Boeotian form, by French and German scholars; and the Ionic-Attic
form Herodes was used by A. D. Knox in most of his work on the poet.
Although Herodas’ poetry now seems to have found a more favorable critical
response, it was at first negatively received and deemed of very little value on the
basis of what were mostly anachronistic aesthetic and moral norms. Typical reactions
are the reductive judgment of the first editor, F. G. Kenyon (‘‘it cannot be said to be
of high literary merit,’’ 1891: 1), and the condemnatory pronouncements recorded
in La Civilità Cattolica, a magazine published by the Jesuits in Italy, according to
which ‘‘Herodas sadly reflects the corruption of his times’’ and turns out to be a
‘‘true artist’’ only where ‘‘he avoids wallowing in the mud’’ (no. 43, 1892: 281).
Soon, however, the poet was embraced as a realist ante litteram: his poetry was
characterized, for the most part, as naive, steeped in bourgeois and popular culture,
an interpretation which reflects the ideals of realism and naturalism cultivated at the
time, and which continued to rule until the 1920s. During that decade, a number of
excellent scholarly works appeared which radically re-appraised Herodean poetry,
notably the editions and commentaries of Groeneboom (1922), Headlam and
Knox (1922), and the critical studies of the eighth mimiamb by Herzog (1924)
and Knox (1925). All of these contributions fostered, in a different though decisive
manner, the image of Herodas as a doctus poeta that had been anticipated by Blass
(1892: 230) and Wilamowitz (1896: 221; 1924: 1.211–12). Forty years later several
Soviet scholars attempted to revive the realistic/naturalistic Herodas of early schol-
arship, arguing that the mimiambs were composed as a sort of social indictment that
appealed to the masses and opposed the elitist literature of Alexandria, the ideological
mouthpiece of the ruling class (Smotrytsch 1962, 1966; Luria 1963); but they were
clearly fighting a rearguard action. Herodas did not write for the uneducated, nor did
he preach social reform. His interest in realistic representations of the daily life of
ordinary people is purely literary in nature.
A number of telling features associate Herodas’ poems with the docta poesis of the
time. Among the most obvious are the mimiambs’ meticulous detailing in form and
concept, facilitated by brevitas, and their renovation of traditional genres through a
painstaking recovery of archaic genres or other literary features that were no longer
current (Fantuzzi 1993; Rossi 2000) and thus at risk of disappearing, such as the
long-forgotten choliambic meter. What we observe in the mimiambs is a combination
of genres, notably, of course, the mimos and iambos (Kroll’s Kreuzung der Gattungen,
 Herodas and the Mime 269

1924: 202–24; Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 17–26). Characteristically Hellenistic are
also Herodas’ appeal to a literary authority of the past – Hipponax – in order to justify
a poetic project (Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 3–5) as well as his ‘‘realism’’ and
exploitation of marginal themes and humble or even déclassé characters which had
been excluded from ‘‘high’’ literature. The mimiambs also refer to literary polemics
and link poetry and philology; they are highly intertextual and show a notable
dependence on Homer; and as such they appeal to a select audience. Among these
various issues, the ones which seem to be most in need of further attention, and on
which I will therefore focus in this chapter, are, on the one hand, the relationship
between the mimiambs and epic and their reflection of (Homeric) philology, on the
other, Herodas’ place within the ‘‘literary scene’’ of the early third century BCE and
his connections with the Ptolemies.

Herodas, Doctus Poeta (1): Mimiamb 8

Richest in their poetic self-consciousness and in the ‘‘Alexandrian’’ features men-
tioned above are Herodas’ first and eighth mimiambs (together perhaps with the
fourth: see below). These poems reveal that Herodas’ rapport with the Homeric epics
is anything but mechanical or superficial. Their intertextuality far transcends the
borrowing of individual terms, motifs, and stylistic features, and suggests that
Herodas followed Hipponax, the founding father of the choliamb, in employing for
programmatic purposes entire Homeric scenes or theme clusters, reworked to sup-
port the poet’s specific goals (Degani 1995: 135; Esposito 2001a).
In the programmatic eighth mime, a farmer who is later revealed to be the poet
dreams he is dragging a goat. The goat is sacrificed and his hide prepared for the game
of askōliasmos, which involved staying upright on top of an inflated and greased skin
bag. The protagonist participates in the competition and, as far as we can tell from the
damaged text, triumphs over the other contestants, but his victory is compromised by
the appearance of an angry old man who threatens him with a stick and claims a share
of the prize. As a variation of a scene of poetic consecration (topical since Hesiod, Th.
22–35), the author, interpreting his nocturnal vision, foresees for himself on the one
hand literary polemics, but on the other, future glory as the successor of the famous
Hipponax.
The character of the poem, an elegant literary lusus sustained by a lively comedic/
parodic mood, becomes apparent immediately from the initial verses. It opens with
a domestic scene in which our farmer scolds his servants (8.1–15, text after Di
Gregorio 2004):

ἄсτηθι, δούλη Ψύλλα μέχρι τέο ϰείсηι

ρ έγχουсα; τὴν δὲ χοιÐ ρον αὐονὴ δρύπτει
ἢ προсμένειс сὺ μέχριс ευ ἥλιοс θάλψηι
τὸ]ν: ϰυ
: Ð сον ἐсδύс; ϰωÐ с δ’, ἄτρυτε, ϰοὐ ϰάμνειс
τὰ πλ]ευρὰ ϰνώссουс’; αἰ δὲ νύϰτεс ἐννέωροι. 5
: ϕημί, ϰαὶ ἅψον, εἰ θέλειс, λύχνον,
ἄсτη]θι,
ϰα]:ὶ [τ]ὴν ἄναυλον χοιÐ ρον ἐс νομὴν πέμψ[ο]ν. :
270 Elena Esposito

τ:ό:νθρυζε
: ϰαὶ ϰνωÐ , μέχριс ευ παραсτά[с сοι
τὸ] βρέγμα τωÐ ι сϰίπωνι μαλθαϰὸν θωÐ μα[ι.
δει]λὴ Μεγαλλί, ϰα[ὶ] : сὺ: Λάτμιον ϰνώссειс; 10
: ἀλλὰ μὴν сτέμμ[α
οὐ] τὰ ἔριά сε τρύχ[ο]υсιν
:
ἐπ’ ἰρὰ διζόμεс[θ] α βα : οὐχ ηffl μιν
ι:ὸс
ἐν τηÐ ι οἰϰίηι ἔτι μα[λ]λὸс εἰρίων. δειλή,
:  ]ν:αρ,
ἄсτηθι. сύ τε μοι τ[ου : εἰ θέλειс, ἈνναÐ ,
: с: ϕρέναс βόсϰειс.
ἄϰουсον οὐ γὰρ νη[πία] 15
Get up, Psylla, you slave. How long are you going to lie snoring? The sow is rent by
drought. Perhaps you’re waiting until the sun warms your bum, crawls into it? You
indefatigable thing, don’t you wear out your sides with all this sleeping? These nights last
for ages. Get up, I say, and light the lamp – please! – and send that unmelodious(?) sow
to the pasture. Sure, mutter and scratch yourself – until I get over to you and bash your
head in with my cane. Megallis, you wretch, also in a Latmian sleep? Can’t be the work
that’s making you tired. Should we ever seek a wreath for a sacrifice, there isn’t the tiniest
shred of wool left in the house. You wretch, get up! And you, want to know what I
dreamed, Annas? Listen then, because you don’t feed a silly mind.

Although the first debt is obviously to comedy, where masters frequently scold their
lazy slaves, this opening also evokes Homeric scenes where a character who is resting
or idle is called to action (Il. 3.250, 10.159, 16.126, 18.170; Od. 6.255, 15.46, 23.5;
imitated at Theoc. 24.35–6). The phrase μέχρι τέο ϰείсηι specifically recalls the ‘‘war
poet’’ Callinus rebuking young soldiers in IEG 1.1–2 (μέχριс τέο ϰατάϰειсθε . . . /
ω νέοι;) and uses Homericizing language redolent of epic verse (μέχρι τέο, cf. Il.
24.128–9 τέϰνον ἐμόν, τέο μέχριс . . . / сὴν ἔδεαι ϰραδίην;); but the decidedly non-
heroic ρ έγχουсα, ‘‘snoring,’’ added in enjambement undermines the epic tone and
produces a comic effect. Similarly, the second verse contains both the rare word for
‘‘drought,’’ αὐονή (earlier attested only in Archil. IEG 230, Semon. IEG 7.20 and
Aesch. Eum. 333, 345) and the high-sounding δρύπτω that belongs to the tradition
of female laments long associated with epic and tragedy. The overall result is clear:
much of the comic effect of Herodas’ poem derives from a clash between low and
high, banal and lofty, prosaic and poetic, straightforward and sophisticated.
The rest of the passage confirms this impression. The solemn adjective ἄτρυτοс in
line 4 (cf. Pi. P. 4.178, Aesch. Eum. 403) is here ironically attributed to a slave who is
‘‘indefatigable’’ in sleeping. The name Ψύλλα in line 1 can be taken both as an ethnic
name like Greek masters often used for their slaves – the Psylli being a (rather
obscure) African tribe – and as a significant name, ‘‘Flea,’’ suggestive of the parasitical
character of the servant or perhaps, antiphrastically and with a studied reversal of the
conventions of serious poetry, the agile rapidity of the movements of the insect that
are the opposite of the sluggish slave. Of solid epic pedigree is ϰνώссουс’ in line 5, a
verb which occurs only once in Homer, in the same form, when the industrious
Penelope is having a dream (Od. 4.809), just like the master of Herodas’ profoundly
unindustrious slave. At the end of the same line, ἐννέωροι is another Homeric rarity,
which would appear to take up and expand on the idea of deep sleep expressed by the
verb ϰνώссω immediately preceding. The literal sense of ἐννέωροс seems to be ‘‘of
nine years,’’ which in our context produces the sort of hyperbole that is also common
in Hipponax (Degani 1984: 33). Psylla’s long nights of sleep are mirrored by the
 Herodas and the Mime 271

‘‘Latmian sleep’’ of Megallis in line 10, a learned allusion to the eternal slumber of
Endymion, associated with Mount Latmus in Caria; and the second half of 5 also
echoes, in structure, rhythm, and sense, the Homeric clause αἵδε δὲ νύϰτεс ἀθέсϕατοι,
‘‘these nights are interminable,’’ spoken by the swineherd Eumaeus in Odyssey 15.392.
If the nights are endless for the ‘‘illustrious swineherd’’ ðδιÐ οс ὑϕορβόсÞ Eumaeus, they
are nine years long for his counterpart in Hellenistic mime, which has the effect of
dramatically reducing the level of discourse. In short, we are dealing with an odd but far
from random mix of Homeric intertexts, which produces a comic effect.
Up to this point, the mime comes across as ‘‘subversive’’ in its playful re-use of the
diction and metaphors of high poetry. After line 17 the text preserved on the papyrus
is badly damaged, but enough survives to suggest that here too Herodas’ relationship
with high poetry, and notably epic, remains complex and profound. In line 37, the
making of the skin bag for the game seems to have been explicitly associated with
‘‘Aeolus’ gift to Odysseus’’ (Ὀδ]υссέωс . . . Αἰόλ[ου] δωÐ ρον), evoking the episode of
the Odyssey in which Aeolus offers Odysseus the bag of winds (compare 10.19
δωÐ ϰε δέ μ’ ἐϰδείραс ἀсϰὸν βοὸс ἐννεώροιο, with the rare adjective Herodas employed
in line 5). The allusion may be programmatic and may evoke Hipponax, if indeed this
episode was included among the parodied Odyssean themes on the pottery of the
sanctuary of the Cabiri in Thebes, and this pottery drew its inspiration from
Hipponax’s Odyssey (fr. 74–8 Degani 1991; cf. Miralles and Pòrtulas 1988: 15–21;
Miralles 1992: 110). At the very least, the jealousy of Odysseus’ comrades about the
bag of winds prefigures that of the protagonist’s competitors in the game with the
inflated goatskin bag, i.e., Herodas’ literary rivals (69–72).
In the better-preserved lines 40–7 our dreamer describes the actual contest. The
participants’ efforts of maintaining balance with one foot on the greased goatskin are
compared to Dionysian dance (ὥсπερ τελευÐ μεν ἐν χοροιÐ с Διονύсου, 40), but their
falls are described in images and terms straight from Homer. Like warriors on the
Iliadic battlefield, they tumble on their faces and backs in the dust, resembling divers,
drawing a reaction from the bystanders (in this case, laughter).
When we pick up the dream again in 58 (lines 48–57 are almost completely lost),
an old man is making threats and generic evocation of epic has made way for a
sustained allusion to a specific Homeric episode that pulls together the various
associations provided earlier in the poem, solving, as it were, the riddle posed by
the author (58–60):

τὰ δεινὰ πνευÐ сαι λὰξ πατε[

ἔρρ’ ἐϰ προсώπου μή сε ϰαίπ: ερ ὢν πρέсβυс
̚
οὔληι ϰατ’ ἰθὺ τηÐ ι βατηρίηι ϰό[ψω.
to blow terribly trampl(ing?) with the heel get out of my sight, lest I, even though I am
old, strike you fully with the force of my stick.

The angry old man recalls without a doubt Hipponax (Esposito 2001a: 147–50), but
he evokes at the same time the ‘‘old beggar’’ Odysseus, who at the start of his clash
with Irus over the ‘‘begging rights’’ of the Ithacan palace warns his opponent: ‘‘Do
not provoke me excessively with your hands, lest you anger me, and lest, even though
I am an old man, I shall smear your chest and lips with blood’’ (Od. 18.20–2, esp.
272 Elena Esposito

21 μή сε γέρων περ ἐών). The fact that traces of the same Odyssean episode appear
throughout the poem (Esposito 2001a: 148, n.42) reminds us of the mode of
operation of Hipponax, who was clearly fascinated by the comic potential of certain
Homeric episodes and turned them into programmatic models. Odysseus’ clashes
with Thersites, Euryalus, and Irus were particularly suited for re-employment in
Hipponax’s poetry of blame (ψόγοс), and in the creation of some of the roles acted
out in his own person, he was inspired by none other than Odysseus himself. The
iambic poet found in Odysseus the ‘‘eternal underdog’’ (Rosen 1990: 11) whose
modest demeanor hid an awesome physical force and extraordinary intellectual
subtlety. The fact that Herodas stages Hipponax with the mask used by the iambic
poet himself, that of Odysseus, supports the identification of the angry old man with
the iambographer from Ephesus and signals Herodas’ intention to follow Hipponax
closely. The peculiar poetic initiation featured in the eighth mimiamb, which repre-
sents the poet’s model as furious with his disciple and successor and which, for this
reason, has generated not a little embarrassment for modern critics (Esposito 2001a:
149 n.44), can be justified with the fact that Herodas ‘‘in the name of not violating
his preferred model . . . could not but dress him in the clothes that suited him best’’
(Degani 1984: 53). On the other hand, the clash between the old and young poets
reveals symbolically the dynamic of imitation and emulation, the relationship of
conflict that the epigone, in search for his own identity and originality, feels with
the past, in sum, the necessary contrast that gives birth to and sanctifies a new literary
genre, within which – in this particular case – the mime and ‘‘sweetened’’ iamb
intermingle (as for Callimachus: Hughes 1996: 206–10). Conte expresses the con-
cept well: ‘‘every work in every part is the result of a conflict between originality and
convention, between the demand of the new and traditional structures, imposing
forms of the collective memory’’ (1985: 69; cf. Bing 1988: 50–90).

Herodas, Doctus Poeta (2): Mimiamb 1

A further example of the relationship that Herodas entertained with epic, and of his
affiliation with the docta poesis of the Hellenistic courts, is found in the first mimiamb.
Its protagonist is the elderly procuress Gyllis, the former nurse of Metriche (Di
Gregorio 1995: 686), whom she visits to convince her to accept the amorous
proposals of a suitor. It has now been ten months since Metriche’s previous lover
went off to Egypt and, Gyllis stipulates, it is unlikely that he will return. The sensible
Metriche, a faithful lover, rebukes the old woman and tells her to direct such
proposals elsewhere.
The opening verses of the poem reveal several traits that are clearly Homeric. Lines
8–12, in which Metriche expresses her surprise at the visit of her old nurse, and 13–14,
which contain Gyllis’ reply, recall the scene in Odyssey 4 where Penelope welcomes
Athena posing as her sister, Iphthime (795–837, esp. 810–14). Both contexts share the
surprise aroused by the unexpectedness of the visit, the reason given as distance, and
the visitor’s intention to console loneliness and grief, caused by the prolonged absence
of a loved one (in Herodas expressed esp. in lines 21–3 and 37–8).
 Herodas and the Mime 273

Among the reasons that Gyllis offers to excuse her long-term absence, she states:
ἐγὼ δὲ δραίνω μυιÐ ’ ὅсον, ‘‘I have the strength of a fly’’ (15). The verb δραίνω is a
Homeric hapax, used solely at Iliad 10.96, by Agamemnon with reference to Nestor.
We are invited, it seems, to compare the physical condition of Gyllis to that of the old
Homeric hero who, though old, ‘‘did not yield to grim old age’’ (Il. 10.79). The
verb, which in Homer alludes to the noble action of a hero, here designates the
debilitating weakness of an elderly crone. Gyllis may indeed present herself as weak as
a fly, but this weakness is clearly exaggerated and the emphasis she puts on it is part of
her persuasive strategy. So even if Gyllis seems dissimilar to Nestor, in the end the old
woman proves to be an interesting match: her power, like that of Nestor, consists in
her ability to persuade as a speaker, to negotiate. In fact throughout the Iliad it is
emphasized that Nestor no longer has his former strength, that physically his best
days are behind him, but that he compensates with his mental and social abilities and
his experience. These are also Gyllis’ strengths. Here again we encounter an inter-
textual comparison that elicits a smile and a lowering of the narrative register to such
an extent that we devolve from the heroic to the petty bourgeois. The exploits of a
warrior give way to the amatory machinations of a procuress. Besides activating the
Homeric context, Herodas also implicitly expresses a scholarly opinion about the
meaning of δραίνω (which he uses once more at 2.95) which goes beyond and against
the ad hoc explanations of the ancient ‘‘glossographers’’ but fits in very well with the
Homeric usage of ὀλιγοδρανέων (e.g., Il. 15.246) and other Hellenistic poets’ usage
of ἀδρανίη/έω (e.g., Arat. 471, A.R. 2.200), ‘‘weakness, to be weak’’ (on Herodas as
a Homeric critic, see Esposito 2001a: 151–5; further Bonanno 1990, 1995, 2004;
Rengakos 1992, 1993, 1994a–b, 2001; Rossi 1995; Tosi 1997).
The reason of Gyllis’ fly-like strength, so she claims, is that ‘‘old age drags [her]
down and the shadow of death stands by [her]’’ (τὸ γὰρ γηÐ ραс / ἡμέαс ϰαθέλ-
ϰει χἠ сϰιὴ παρέсτηϰεν, 15–16). The image of death approaching someone (rather
than the other way around) is common in Homer, but its verbal expression points to
one Iliadic subtext in particular, namely the gloomy words spoken by Patroclus to
Hector at 16.852–3, and once more by Thetis to her son, Hector’s killer, at 24.131–2:
ἀλλά τοι ἤδη / ἄγχι παρέсτηϰεν θάνατοс, ‘‘but death already stands close by you’’ –
featuring the only Homeric instance of the perfect of παρίсτημι. The context of
24.131–2 allusively spells out Gyllis’ message to Metriche, because Thetis’ opening
gambit, immediately preceding the quoted words, runs: ‘‘My child, until when will you
eat your heart out in sorrow and lamentation, remembering neither food nor bed? It is
a good thing to lie with a woman in love – for you will not live long!’’ (128–31). The
message that is implied, and that is hammered home by Gyllis as the poem proceeds
(15–16, 19–20, 36–46, 63, 90) is simple and clear. Life is short, before she knows it
Metriche will, like Gyllis and Achilles, be on the brink of death, and rather than crying
over spilled milk she should enjoy certain pleasures of life while she still can – by letting
Gyllis bring a new man into her life and fill her empty bed.
Additionally, as in the case of Herodas’ use of δραίνω, the allusion to Il. 24.128–32
can be read against the background of Homeric scholarship. As emerges from the
Homeric scholia, Il. 24.130–2 were criticized and even athetized by some ancient
scholars as ‘‘inappropriate’’ (ἀπρεπέс, ἀνοίϰειοι) and ‘‘inopportune’’ (ἀсυμϕορώ-
τατον, ἄϰαιρον) words for a goddess addressing a hero or a mother speaking to
274 Elena Esposito

her son. Regardless of whether we should read the allusion as a learned poet’s defense
of the transmitted lines, using his poetry as an ‘‘alternate vehicle’’ to philology (Rossi
1995: 19), if the discussion about the propriety of Thetis’ words in these Homeric
lines goes back to Herodas’ time, this would give an extra dimension to their echo in
the mouth of Gyllis.
In the lines that follow, the intertextual dialogue with Homer remains intense. For
example, Gyllis’ reference to Metriche’s ‘‘widowhood’’ and empty bed (21–2) parallels
in sense and alliterative structure Od. 16.33–5, where Telemachus asks Eumaeus
whether his mother Penelope still endures her loneliness ‘‘or some other man has
now married her and the bedroom of Odysseus lies abandoned, covered in cobwebs.’’
In line 38 the expression τέϕρη ϰάψει (‘‘ashes will devour’’) recalls in sound Il. 23.251
ϰάππεсε τέϕρη (‘‘ashes fell’’). And in 52 the image of the first beard as ‘‘bloom’’
(τοὺс ἴουλον ἀνθευÐ νταс) somewhat worryingly associates Metriche’s suitor, the boxer
Gryllus, with the Homeric description of the giants Otus and Ephialtes, killed by
Apollo for their hybris (Od. 11.319–20 ἰούλουс / ἀνθηÐ сαι; the metaphor is common,
but recurs in these precise terms only here and at Call. Hec. fr. 45.1 Hollis 2009). In
short, by the time readers reach the final section of the text, containing Metriche’s
reaction to Gyllis’ ‘‘indecent’’ proposal, they are well prepared to recognize the key
Homeric model underlying the poem (67–77, text after Di Gregorio 1997):

Γυλλί, τα λευϰὰ τωÐ ν τριχωÐ ν ἀπα[μ]βλύνει

τὸν νουÐ ν μὰ τὴν γὰρ Μάνδριοс ϰ: α[τ]άπλωсιν
:
ϰαὶ τὴν ϕίλην Δήμητρα, ταυÐ τ’ ἐγὼ [ἐ]ξ ἄλληс
γυναιϰὸс οὐϰ ἂν ἡδέωс ἐπήϰου : сα,: 70
χωλὴν δ’ ἀείδειν χώλ’ ἂν ἐξεπαίδευсα
ϰαὶ τηÐ с θύρηс τὸν οὐδὸν ἐχθρὸν ἡγειÐ сθαι.
сὺ δ’ αυ τιс ἔс με μηδὲ ἕν, ϕίλη,
: τοιÐ ον
ϕέρουсα χώρει μυÐ θον ὃν δὲ γρήιαιс<ι>:
πρέπει γυναιξὶ ταιÐ с νέαι:с: ἀπάγγελλε
: 75
τὴν Πυθέω δὲ Μετρίχην ἔα θάλπειν :
τὸν δίϕρον οὐ γὰρ ἐγγελαÐ ι τ::ιс εἰс Μάνδριν.
:
Gyllis, the whiteness of your hair dulls your mind. By Mandris’ return and Demeter dear
to me, I would not have endured hearing this from another woman, but would have
taught her to sing her lame song with a limp and to consider the threshold of my door
enemy territory. Don’t come to me, my dear, bringing any such story in the future. Tell
what is suited to old hags the young women. As for Metriche, the daughter of Pytheēs,
let her keep her seat warm. No one will laugh at Mandris.

The educated reader will not miss in Metriche’s tirade the echo of the verses in which
Penelope scolds the old nurse, Eurycleia, at Odyssey 23.11–24:

Dear Nurse, the gods have made you insane who are able to make foolish even one that is
very smart and even provide the dullard with good sense; they have struck you, you who
were once right-minded . . . But come now: go down and return to the hall. If one of the
other women who serve me had come to announce such things and awakened me from
sleep, I would have sent her back to the hall in sorry shape. Your old age, however, will
protect you.
 Herodas and the Mime 275

It is tempting to see Gyllis as a foil evolving almost naturally from the faithful
Eurycleia in the context of Hellenistic mime. Where Eurycleia hastens to Penelope
and urges her to welcome her spouse after a journey of 10 years, Herodas’ procuress
pushes Metriche, whose partner Mandris has been absent only 10 months, toward a
lover who, far from being princely and domineering like the Homeric suitors, is
inexperienced in matters of love, not in control of his emotions, and dependent on an
intermediary to help him attain the woman of his dreams. Through the same process
of ‘‘imborghesimento,’’ of lowering the social register turning the heroic and ideal
into the bourgeois and (highly mannered) ‘‘real,’’ the wise Penelope has become
Metriche, the bona meretrix or ‘‘noble courtesan’’ awaiting her Mandris-Odysseus
who set out by sea not for a perilous Troy out of necessity but for the enticing Egypt
to seek his fortune (26–35; Di Gregorio 1995; Esposito 2005: 54–5). Moreover, to
assert himself as a poet of mimes in ‘‘limping iambs’’ (χωλίαμβοι) and insert himself
rightfully in the iambic tradition, Herodas uses as a mouthpiece Penelope/Metriche,
who threatens Eurycleia/Gyllis with an exemplary punishment: ‘‘I would have taught
her to sing her lame song with a limp’’ (71–2). Similarly, to construct the comic
character of Gyllis, target of the iambic ‘‘blame’’ (ψόγοс) of this poem, he enlists the
archetype of the caring and wise nurse, which he transforms and enriches with
features derived from other genres that had developed her as a character (Di
Gregorio 1997: 47–8).
From a metapoetic perspective, another detail of the poem is also telling. In line 76,
Metriche refers to herself as ‘‘the daughter of Pytheēs.’’ According to our ancient
biographical sources, Pytheēs was the name of the father of Hipponax. Consequently,
behind Metriche there lies none other than the old master of the ‘‘lame song’’ himself,
whom Herodas, his aspiring successor, revives in a mime-like environment. The name
Pytheēs provides a hidden sphragis or ‘‘authorial seal’’ that secures the metapoetic
significance of the preceding reference to ‘‘lame song’’ (71) just as firmly as mention of
the actual name ‘‘Hipponax’’ dictates the interpretation of τ]ὰ ϰύλλ’ ἀείδειν, ‘‘sing the
crippled ones’’ at the end of the explicitly programmatic eighth mimiamb (78–9). And
it will be no coincidence that in both mimiambs Herodas uses an episode from the
Odyssey – Odysseus’ encounter with Irus in the eighth and Penelope’s conversation
with Eurycleia in the first – as a vehicle to express his debt to Hipponax who likewise, as
we saw, ‘‘brought down’’ the Odyssey to the register of iambic poetry.
Herodas’ inversion, subversion, and degrading of epic and other high poetry
substantially follows two routes. First, he juxtaposes and contaminates subject matter
and styles that are heterogeneous, his Hipponactic distortion (Degani 1982: 23 and
1984: 187–205) and general avoidance of slavish imitation of the Homeric epics
reflecting the sort of polemical approach toward traditional poetry that we also find in
Callimachus and other Hellenistic poets. Secondly, Herodas pillages the Homeric
epics for anti-heroic material, intrinsically comic and suitable for being included,
expanded, and revitalized within the newly created genre of the mimiamb. Notably,
he uses non-heroic characters – such as the swineherd Eumaeus, the beggar Irus, the
nurse Eurycleia – and the private sphere of the epics to assign literary status and a new
‘‘Hellenistic’’ identity to characters and themes marginalized in the heroic tradition.
In general, the continuous incursion of the mimiambs into the domain of epic, their
allusions, citations, arcane echoes, parodic verve, all elements that require a high level
276 Elena Esposito

of critical awareness and technical skill, confirm Herodas’ place as poet and scholar in
the tradition of Hipponax, one of the most refined poets of the Archaic era (Degani
1984: 163–225), and in the intellectual tradition of the third century BCE .

Herodas and the Ptolemies

Among the many questions regarding Herodas that are unanswered, there remains
the place where he practiced his trade. That said, it is a fact that the mimiambs contain
a series of references, often encomiastic, to the Ptolemies and to Cos, which pinpoint
Herodas’ location more precisely as at least within the Ptolemaic sphere of influence,
and which seem to bind the poet to this dynasty. Most prominent among these are
lines 26–35 of the first mimiamb (also discussed by Stephens in this volume), which
praise Egypt and its ‘‘good king’’ (ὁ βαсιλεὺс χρηсτόс), a ruler whom most scholars
identify as Philadelphus. Mimiamb 2 surely, 4 almost certainly, and perhaps also
mimiambs 1 and 3, are set on the island of Cos, which held a central position in
Ptolemaic politics (Fraser 1972: 1.307; Sherwin-White 1978). Cos is named directly
at 2.95 and 4.2, it is famous for its temple of Asclepius, featured at 2.97 and in the
fourth mimiamb (Solimano 1976; Di Gregorio 1997: 244–9), and some want to
see in the reference to Phoebe giving birth to Leto on Cos at 2.98 an allusion to
the sojourn of Berenice I on the island, where in 308 BCE she gave birth to Ptolemy
Philadelphus (Nairn 1904: 28). Potentially significant is also the setting of the
askōliasmos contest in the eighth mimiamb at a festival of Dionysus, a god whom
Ptolemy Philadelphus claimed as an ancestor and with whom he was associated
in ideology and cult (Hazzard 2000: 8–9, 107–8, 110, 154; Di Gregorio 2004:
358–9).
The recently published papyrus with epigrams of Posidippus (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309;
Bastianini and Gallazzi 2001; Austin and Bastianini 2002) adds further ammunition
to the case. A comparison between Posidippus’ Andriantopoiika or ‘‘epigrams about
statues’’ (62–70 AB) and the fourth mimiamb seems to confirm the link between
Herodas and the Ptolemies. In the fourth mimiamb, two women go to the temple of
Asclepius to perform a sacrifice and, while waiting to learn the outcome of their
offering, they admire the works of art in the sanctuary and, by talking about them to
each other, describe them to us. In lines 20–40 and 56–78 they praise various
sculptures, a painting, and finally some other paintings by Apelles.
These lines are at the center of a lively critical debate over the question of whether
or not Herodas expressed his personal artistic opinions through the statements of the
two commoners. In my opinion, this is altogether likely (Esposito 2004: 198–200).
The description and evaluation of a work of art, the process of evoking, and in a sense
reproducing in writing, the work itself, echoes to a certain extent the author’s tastes,
aesthetics, and literary creed. As such, it offers a privileged space for poetic reflection
and experimentation, and for this reason it does not surprise that in the Hellenistic
period poets start to show a particular interest in descriptions (ecphrases) of works of
art (Männlein-Robert 2007). In some cases, however, their artistic project has a
broader ideological significance.
 Herodas and the Mime 277

Through his Andriantopoiika, Posidippus constructs a sort of short history in verse

of bronze statuary (Gutzwiller 2002), honoring in particular the oeuvre of Lysippus,
the famous fourth-century sculptor from Sicyon, as the pinnacle in the development of
naturalism in Greek art. Lysippus opens and closes the Andriantopoiika and features
once more in the central part of the collection, forming its backbone and heart (62, 65,
70 AB). In his praise of Lysippus’ realism, technical virtuosity, and ability to express
character and psychology, as well as that of his precursors and followers, Posidippus
seems to invite his readers to admire the same qualities in his epigrams. But apart from
this metapoetic goal, according to Gutzwiller, the sculptural tastes of the poet of Pella
also belie a political agenda (2003; cf. Kosmetatou 2004). By celebrating Lysippus, the
sculptor whom Alexander the Great chose to shape the official iconography of his
monarchy, Posidippus indirectly flatters the Ptolemies, suggesting that they are the
true successors of Alexander also in having inherited his aesthetic tastes, i.e., by
promoting the artistic values of Lysippus – and poets such as Posidippus.
Herodas’ fourth mimiamb may be interpreted along the same lines. Through his
characters’ conversation, the poet shows himself to be in tune with the contemporary
aesthetic that privileged subject matter closer to everyday life, and creating the
illusion of reality, over representing traditional topics in an elevated and idealized
fashion, inviting a comparison between the described works of art and his own poetry.
And as in the case of Posidippus’ praise of Lysippus, Herodas’ celebration of Apelles
may not only express an artistic preference but also possesses a political dimension:
Apelles was the official painter of Alexander as well as the early Ptolemaic court. Since
the fourth mimiamb already has a Ptolemaic subtext through its setting – the Temple
of Asclepius on Ptolemaic Cos – it is attractive to conclude that, through its celebra-
tion of Apelles, this poem also promotes the Ptolemies as the true heirs of the
culture – and political power – of Alexander and Macedon (on this poem, see further
Männlein-Robert 2006 and 2007: 261–83; Zanker 2006).

Herodas’ Audience and Reception

In modern scholarship, Herodas’ audience is typically defined as ‘‘elite,’’ the sort of
audience implied for Hellenistic poetry in general and exemplified notably by the
Ptolemaic court of Alexandria, an environment in which, as Rossi puts it, ‘‘literature is
‘consumed’ by the same ones who produce it’’ (1971a: 80). Indeed it is true that only
a highly cultivated audience would be able to appreciate the constant allusions to the
literary tradition and sophisticated humor of the mimiambs fully. Yet nothing pre-
vents their being enjoyed by a public less educated and less capable of recognizing all
nuances: even on the level of pure sitcom, they are very entertaining.
The question of how the mimiambs were enjoyed remains unresolved. Were they
written to be acted out, to be recited by one person, or merely intended for private
reading? In the absence of external evidence that might allow us to answer this
question, we must have recourse to arguments from the poems themselves; and these
ultimately ‘‘depend upon subjective assessments of what is and is not possible in
performance’’ (Hunter 1993c: 39). Mastromarco has argued that, for example, the
278 Elena Esposito

absence of stage directions pleads for performance because a viewing audience does not
need them (1984: 21–3). Yet this same fact has also been employed in support of the
opposite conclusion, with the argument that ancient dramatic texts such as tragedies
and comedies typically abound in explicit references to entrances and exits of characters
and scenographic details such as locations and props (Parsons 1981; Puchner 1993:
12–14, 30–4). Comparison with various scenes of Menander and with the mime-like
Idylls of Theocritus, which appear ‘‘much less concerned than Herodas with the (real or
fictional) dramatisation and scenic quality of the poems’’ (Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004:
33), would also seem to suggest that ‘‘the mode of the mimiamboi is that of genuinely
‘performed’ texts’’ (Hunter 1993c: 42). Nevertheless from a similar comparison of
Herodas and Theocritus, Stanzel (1998) inclined toward the view that both the mimes
and the Idylls were read, arguing that the narrative element prevails in both. It has even
been proposed that Herodas, although intending the mimiambs for a reading public,
actually composed them as if they were supposed to be performed (Fantuzzi 1979:
723). This explanation has its attractions, but leaves some puzzling passages unex-
plained, such as certain demonstratives that point to items not identified in the text
(e.g., αἵδε, ‘‘these here,’’ to designate the Muses at 3.57).
Regardless of whether or not the mimiambs were composed originally for per-
formance, in a bookish age as the third century BCE there must have been a written
circulation of some sort. Just as the mimiambs may have been appreciated by diverse
audiences, so too they may have been ‘‘consumed’’ in several ways: from private
reading, above all by the more learned, to the recitation by a single performer who
modulated his voice to suit the various characters portrayed, to an actual staging by
actors at a symposium, at court, or at the homes of the well-to-do and cultured.
As we have seen, Herodas predicted fame for himself as the successor of Hipponax.
From a modern perspective this prediction can be said to have come true: thanks to
the papyrus finds, Herodas has become for us the main representative of the literary
mime. How his poems were received by his contemporaries we can only guess, but it
is probably safe to infer success from the fact that in Imperial times they were still in
circulation and enjoyed the status of classics.
P.Lond.Lit. 96, the papyrus that restored the mimiambs to us, dates to the first or
second century CE . It includes a series of corrections which suggest a second exemplar
has been collated. P.Oxy. 22.2326 is later by almost a century. It restores the right
margin of lines 67–75 of the eighth mime, and is interesting because within the
course of a few verses it presents two variants with respect to P.Lond.Lit. 96, indicat-
ing perhaps the degree of variation that may result from wide circulation.
What is more, the mimiambs were familiar to the intellectual circles of Rome in the
first century CE . In a letter addressed to Arrius Antoninus (4.3), Pliny the Younger
praises his friend’s epigrams and mimes by comparing them to those of Callimachus and
Herodas, whom he clearly considers the most illustrious exponents of the two literary
genres. We can deduce from this compliment that Herodas was a household name to
Pliny’s friends and the quality and status of his work a matter of agreement, even if we
cannot tell if and how much they actually read him. At least Arrius Antoninus and
Vergilius Romanus (mentioned by Pliny in Ep. 6.21 as the author of mimiambs)
probably used him as their model. Beyond Pliny’s circle, Cn. Matius (first century
BCE ) might also have been a follower of the Alexandrian poet (Kroll 1930), and we
 Herodas and the Mime 279

cannot exclude the possibility that the poems of Herodas also inspired Catullus, Vergil,
Ovid, Seneca, Persius (Tartari Chersoni 2003), and Petronius (Di Gregorio 1997: 49;
63–4).
When our author fell silent is difficult to determine. He is cited once in Athenaeus’
Learned Banqueters (c.200 CE ) and seven times in Stobaeus’ Anthology (early fifth
century CE ). These citations, which constitute nearly all that was available to modern
readers of Herodas until 1891, suggest that the mimiambs may have followed a
trajectory similar to Menander’s comedies: appreciated for their sententious and
proverbial content by those in search of γνωÐ μαι, but read less and less and eventually
lost until they re-emerged from the Egyptian sands. Herodas was still known in the
ninth century, as the one reference to him in Photius’ Library shows (115a; Esposito
2000: 226). Some time thereafter, during the Byzantine era, when hard choices were
made regarding what works were to survive, the poet and his works seems to have
been forgotten (Arnott 1971: 121).
Herodas’ rediscovery at the end of the nineteenth century and the crop of editions,
translations, commentaries, and studies which the publication of P.Lond.Lit. 96 generated
also soon led to creative responses. The first literary figure to take notice of the new author
was Konstantinos Kavafis (1863–1933) who composed a poem entitled The Mimiambs of
Herodas, written as early as 1892 but published only after his death. In this composition,
Kavafis comments on the rediscovery and evaluates some of the mimiambs, demonstrat-
ing a keen understanding and appreciation of his Hellenistic predecessor’s artistic refine-
ment (Kutzko 2003). The mimes of the erudite French intellectual Marcel Schwob
(1867–1905), dated to 1894 and published in 1903 as part of the collection La lampe
de Psyche´, state their debt to Herodas in the prologue: ‘‘The poet Herodas . . . sent my way a
subtle shade from the netherworld that he had once loved here . . . I immediately felt the
desire to write mimes.’’ The Italian author Giovanni Pascoli (1855–1912) seems to have
been influenced by a number of Herodean expressions in La civetta, one of the Poemi
conviviali, published in 1904 (Puccioni 1950). Somewhat later, another Italian poet,
Umberto Saba (1883–1957), wrote a lyric poem, first published in 1914, with the title
Co` ttalo, from the name of the young boy featured in the third mimiamb (Condello and
Esposito 2003). A final reminiscence of Herodas’ work occurs in the tragedy Lunga notte
di Medea (1949) of the Italian author Corrado Alvaro (1895–1956; Zumbo 2004: 138).
From then on, Herodas’ poems continued to generate numerous specialized studies, but,
to my knowledge, no more artistic recreations. The only exception seems to be a dramatic
rendition of The Cobbler in Italy, at Paestum, in 1932, which was favorably received by the
public – something which cannot be said of a first attempt to stage the mimiambs in 1902
(Pace 1932; Di Gregorio 1997: 105).

‘‘Popular’’ Mimes
If the mimiambs of Herodas, together with the mime-like Idylls of Theocritus,
represent the most refined version of the mime in the Hellenistic Age, a series of
papyrus texts and documents (such as hiring contracts, lists of professionals, perform-
ance information: Maxwell 1992; Tedeschi 2002) bear witness to the dissemination in
280 Elena Esposito

Greco-Roman Egypt of what is customarily called ‘‘popular’’ mime. These texts, all of
which have come down to us anonymously, are less sophisticated than the mimiambs
or the Idylls from a stylistic and structural point of view, suggesting that they served
an audience less exacting than the one targeted by the two docti poetae. In any event,
literary and ‘‘popular’’ mimes should not be viewed as separate spheres but as
interdependent and engaged in an intense and dynamic exchange, an example of
which is provided by the similarities between the fifth mimiamb and the Moicheutria
(see below).
The preserved fragments of ‘‘popular’’ mime date from different periods (some are
Hellenistic, most belong to the first centuries CE ) and appear heterogeneous both in
style and in formal arrangement. Some are in lyric meters, such as the Fragmentum
Grenfellianum (Mim. Pap. fr. 1 Cunningham 1987 ¼ Esposito 2005) which has been
tentatively ascribed to forms of entertainment such as the μαγωιδία, ἱλαρωιδία, or
λυсιωιδία mentioned by Athenaeus (14.620d–621d). Others are prosimetric, such as
the mime Charition (fr. 6 Cu.) or entirely in prose, such as the Moicheutria (fr. 7 Cu.),
at least in the parts that have come down to us.
The themes vary just as widely. Some texts derive their subject matter from myth,
for example, the mime preserved by P.Köln 6.245, which stages the exploits of
Odysseus when he secretly entered Troy dressed as a beggar (Parca 1991; Gianotti
2005), an episode handled previously also in tragedy (Soph. frs. 367–9 and Ion frs.
43a–49a TrGF). Other pieces likewise take up motifs and themes from well-known
literary works. The Charition, for example, portrays a young woman, a priestess of
Selene, taken prisoner by Indians but liberated by her brother and his Greek associ-
ates, who get her Indian captors drunk. The author clearly looked to texts such as the
Iphigenia in Tauris, Helen, and Cyclops of Euripides (Crusius 1904: 357, Santelia
1991: 12–37; Andreassi 2001a: 31–5). Many mime fragments recall everyday life, like
Herodas’ mimiambs, or popular motifs typical of comedy. In one a man laments the
loss of his fighting cock, which has apparently run off with a hen (fr. 4 Cu.); the
Moicheutria or ‘‘Adulteress’’ focuses on the erotic adventures of a married woman
and her attempt to poison her husband (fr. 7 Cu.); the Fragmentum Grenfellianum
reworks the motifs of the ‘‘lament of the abandoned woman’’ and of the paraklau-
sithyron; in yet another fragment a young girl seems to have been violated during the
night of a festival, a motif familiar from New Comedy (fr. 13 Cu.); and in P.Oxy.
53.3700 (fr. 3a Cunningham 2002) it is not certain whether the names Heracles and
Omphale represent a mythological allusion (Cunningham suggests that a man, at the
door of a woman’s house, compares himself to Heracles visiting Omphale) or refer to
the characters of the mime.
The common feature of these compositions is that, regardless of any circulation in
writing they may also have enjoyed, they all appear to have been originally conceived
for performance. Their scripted lines represented only one of many elements that
contributed to the success of the piece: music, mime, dance, and improvisation also
played a significant role. In the Fragmentum Grenfellianum, for example, the con-
spicuous presence of dochmiacs indicates that the passage was meant to be sung, even
if the person who transcribed it, the cavalry officer Dryton, probably intended it for
private reading (Esposito 2005: 41–50). The Charition contains instructions for
instrumental accompaniment (with drums and cymbals), and in fact the papyrus
 Herodas and the Mime 281

which preserves this text on the recto and the Moicheutria on the verso seems to be
the work of someone in the mime business – an actor? manager? scriptwriter? What
we have of the Moicheutria are mainly the non-continuous words of the principal
character, i.e., the part of the actor representing the ‘‘adulteress,’’ and regarding what
happened between her speeches we can only guess. At the very end of the text we get
what seem to be the lines of two male characters in the mime’s final scene. The recto,
meanwhile, provides an almost full text of the Charition, but a different version of
one of its scenes is written on the verso after the Moicheutria.
In general, a variety of elements – dance, musical accompaniment, dialogue, and
song – are in evidence and performance will have varied considerably from text to text
and occasion to occasion. We can imagine stagings that were sparse or essential,
perhaps above all in the case of solo performances, where the gestures of the actor
would have constituted the entire dramatic action. Other texts would require a fully
articulated mise-en-scène by a troop of actors, such as the Charition, whose plot
presumes not only the presence of different actors on stage at the same time but
even the availability of a ‘‘chorus’’ of Indian men and women (Andreassi 2001a: 22).

FURTHER READING

On the rediscovery of the Herodas papyrus, see Bastianini 1996a and Martin 2002. Esposito
2000 reviews the principal editions of Herodas, the most recent of which is Di Gregorio 1997,
2004 (with extensive Italian commentary); see also Cunningham 1971 (with English com-
mentary), 1987 (revised 2004; edition only), 2002 (with English translation), and Headlam
and Knox 1922. Among older works on Herodas, Will 1973 is still useful as an accessible
introduction in English. Classic works on the language of Herodas are Bo 1962 and Schmidt
1968; see further Redondo Moyano 1995 and Tzamali 2000.
Mastromarco 1984 remains the main study of the poet’s audience, even if his conclusions
regarding the editorial presentation of the text and the use of paragraphoi are open to
argument (see Fantuzzi 1979 and Parsons 1981); recent contributions to the discussion
include Bettenworth 2006, Kutzko 2006, and Fernández 2006.
On the literary mime, see in particular Mastromarco 1991 and Fryer 1993. Cunningham
2002 and Hordern 2004 offer a text and English translation of Sophron (the latter with
commentary). Simon 1991: 19–82 and Ypsilanti 2006 discuss the relationship between
Herodas and Theocritus; Degani 1984: 50–6 and 1995: 117–21, Esposito 2001a, and
Palumbo Stracca 2006 that between Herodas and Hipponax; and Hunter 1995 similarities
between Herodas and Plautus and their models, i.e., ‘‘popular’’ mime and farce.
Swiderek 1954 still offers many good points on the relationship between literary mime and
‘‘popular’’ mime, a topic also discussed by Fountoulakis 2002 and Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004:
33–4; on the connection between ‘‘popular’’ mime and ‘‘high’’ literature in general see
Andreassi 1997, 2001b, and 2002. The fragments of the ‘‘popular’’ mime are collected in
Cunningham 2002, with additions in Parca 1991 and Elliott 2003. Recent studies dedicated to
these texts include Santelia 1991, Gianotti 1996, Andreassi 2001a, and Esposito 2001b, 2005.
On productions of mimes and actors, see Leppin 1992, Maxwell 1992, Roueché 1993,
Fountoulakis 2000, and Tedeschi 2002.
 CHAPTER TWENTY

Menander’s Comedy
Susan Lape

New Comedy is the name conventionally given to the brand of comic drama that
flourished in Athens and throughout the Greek world during the beginning of the
Hellenistic Age, roughly from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 to the death of
Philemon, one of the genre’s leading figures, in 260 BCE . New Comedy differs from
its forebears, Old and Middle Comedy, in its content, form, and conditions of
production. Old Comedy, as known from the plays of Aristophanes, deals in a highly
topical way with political and intellectual issues specific to Athens’ democratic culture.
Its heroes or protagonists are mostly ordinary citizens and sometimes women who are
given fantastic scope to carry out their grand ideas, whether it means journeying to
the heavens or implementing a transnational sex strike. By contrast, poets of Middle
Comedy seem to retreat from direct engagement with contemporary politics, turning
instead to the mythic tradition to cull their characters and adapt their plots, at least as
far as we can discern from the fragments quoted by late authors and other evidence.
By the time we get to New Comedy, comedy has returned, at least notionally, to the
realities of life in the Athenian polis. But rather than treating the world of politics, war,
or pressing social issues, New Comedy portrays the struggles of young citizens in love
in a realistic, if heavily stylized, five-act marriage plot. This is striking both because it
is unprecedented in the Athenian dramatic tradition and because it occurs during a
time in which comedy was garnering an increasingly cosmopolitan appeal.
Although Athens had long been exporting its drama, particularly its tragedy, the
conquests and foundations of Alexander the Great and his successors in the late
fourth and early third centuries created an increased interest in drama throughout
the Mediterranean world. This demand arose from a variety of sources and interests.
On one level, the Hellenistic rulers’ support for comedy (and drama generally)
enabled them to assert their own cultural legitimacy while simultaneously spreading
Hellenic culture in their territories. But the demand for drama was hardly a top-down
phenomenon. Depending on the community, comedy allowed local elites to advertise
their Greekness, Athenian-ness, and/or to protest prevailing power structures and
 Menander’s Comedy 283

large-scale changes in the international landscape (Lape 2004a). In response to the

heightened international demand for drama, theatrical guilds, known as ‘‘artists of
Dionysus,’’ were created by the early third century BCE (Ghiron-Bistagne 1976;
Lightfoot 2002). The establishment of these guilds completed a process of profes-
sionalizing theater workers that had begun earlier in the fourth century and that
enabled non-Athenians to work as actors and in other theater jobs. Similarly,
although there are a few attested non-Athenian poets who competed in fifth-century
tragic competitions in Athens, it became much more common during the fourth
century for non-Athenian poets to compete in both tragic and comic competitions.
The impact of these changes on New Comedy is readily detected: many of its poets
are either non-Athenians or naturalized Athenians.
Thus, although Athens retained its status as the theatrical capital of the Hellenic
world, drama itself was increasingly produced and performed by a Panhellenic cast of
characters for audiences throughout the Greek-speaking oikoumenē. So far, the only
New Comic poet whose works have been certainly identified on Egyptian papyri is
Menander – a native Athenian. We have one complete play, the Dyskolos, one near
complete play, the Samia, substantial portions of five more, and fragments from many
others. Although Menander’s comedies do not represent New Comedy in its entire
breadth, they do form an important subtype of the genre (Henrichs 1993b).
Moreover, since Menander is the poet whose works crop up most frequently on
papyri after Homer and Euripides, we know that his comedy was extremely popular in
Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, and we can infer from archaeological finds that his plays
were famous in cities throughout the Hellenistic world (Arnott 1979: xxi; Bernabò
Brea 1981; Webster 1995).

Comedy’s Athenocentric Conventions

The evident appeal of Menander to Athenian and non-Athenian audiences alike raises
a number of questions, since many of his comedies articulate a narrowly
Athenocentric perspective. Athenian citizens not only take center stage in such plays,
but Athens’ highly specific laws and norms pertaining to citizenship and family
membership also underpin their generic conventions and plot structure
(Fredershausen 1912; Lape 2004a; Ogden 1996; Préaux 1960). The Athenian polis
strictly limited marriage to native Athenians, forbidding its male citizens to marry
freeborn women from other cities – no matter how exceptional they were in birth,
character, or wealth (Humphreys 1974; Patterson 1998; Wolff 1944). It also con-
trolled the borders of the conjugal family by excluding bastards from both civic and
family membership (Lape 2002/3). In essence, it established the conjugal family as
the Athenian or democratic family form.
These laws and norms are the unstated assumptions that lend coherence to the
standard twists and tropes of Menander’s romantic plots. First and foremost,
Athenian men always marry legitimate freeborn Athenian women. But this often
happens in a backhanded way, with Athenian citizen protagonists falling in love with
women who seem not to have the status to support marriage, because they appear to
284 Susan Lape

be foreign or otherwise not respectable. As the plot develops, however, these women
are discovered to be female citizens after all. By affirming the norms of Athenian
marriage as if by accident, Menander’s plays offer an ideologically potent endorse-
ment of the norms of Athenian marriage and citizenship (Konstan 1995).
If the first rule of Menander’s comedy is that Athenian citizens always marry
Athenian women, the second rule is that they always procreate according to the
state’s norms of family and polis membership. Although comedy’s young Athenian
protagonists have sexual affairs outside marriage, they never accidentally father bas-
tards. This conceit is most clear in plays that employ a rape plot (Lape 2001;
Omitowoju 2002; Pierce 1997; Rosivach 1998; Sommerstein 1998). In plays of this
type, an Athenian citizen rapes a woman usually in a festival context in which
Athenian and non-Athenian women are present. In every case, the rape proves fertile.
Yet, it never happens that the citizen fathers a genuine bastard: the woman he
impregnates is invariably discovered to have the status to support a legitimate
marriage and thus to make the child legitimate.
We can imagine that such representations would have been especially comforting in
Hellenistic Athens in times when Macedonian backed oligarchies instituted a wealth
requirement for citizenship, superseding the longstanding democratic correlation of
citizenship and legitimate native birth (Habicht 1997; Lape 2004a; Wiles 1984). But
why would such comedies have been so popular outside Athens, in cities whose
citizens appear in them as second class, if they appear at all? Why would plays that
consistently endorse Athenian biases against bastardy and interpolis marriage have
been popular in Greek cities that lacked or relaxed such exclusionary practices or in
new foundations in Egypt and Asia, where Hellenic men of various provenance freely
married and procreated with Hellenic women of various provenance as well as women
from the native population (Modrzejewski 2005; Pomeroy 1984; Vatin 1970)?
Finally, Menander’s comedies not only depict a highly Athenocentric vision of law
and the family; that vision is also decidedly masculinist. Although the marriage plot
pattern portrays what might be called be mating strategies, these strategies often elide
the female side of the equation entirely. In extreme cases, the ‘‘romantic’’ plot focuses
exclusively on the negotiations between men to establish the marriage of an unnamed
and unseen female character. Assuming that women were sometimes among the
audience members at performances of Hellenistic comedy, we might consider how
they identified with plots that not only ignore their perspective but also champion a
view of marriage that was fast becoming archaic (Modrzejewski 2005: 349).
Comedy, of course, offered ways for audience members to engage with its plots
that transcended local practices, ideologies, and even gender. It was possible to
identify with comic characters on the basis of their character traits, common human-
ity, and/or their situation in the plot. As Kathleen McCarthy (2000) has shown,
Roman citizens could identify with the clever slaves who are so prominent in Roman
versions of New Comedy because they lived in common conditions of status mobility
and anxiety. The question of how non-Athenian audiences identified with
Menander’s comedies is an issue simply because many of the comedies highlight
Athenian exclusivity so strongly, underscoring that only Athenian citizens get the
prizes of love, marriage, and reproduction. Since this emphasis would have inevitably
hindered at least some forms of identification, in this chapter I focus on comic themes
 Menander’s Comedy 285

and plot motifs that for non-Athenian audiences might have compensated for the
plays’ overall Athenian parochialism.
I examine three instances in which comedy undermines the salience of so-called
‘‘given identities’’ that were at the heart of Athenian civic ideology. Given identities
encompass what anthropologists call primordial ties and connections, basic group
identities consisting of ‘‘the ready-made set of endowments and identifications that
every individual shares with others from the moment of birth by the chance of the
family into which he is born at that given time and place’’ (Isaacs 1975: 38–9). Given
identities – unchosen identities that we are born into – include social identities such
as nationality, ethnicity, race, kinship, and legitimacy (the kinship of the conjugal
family). To describe these identities as given is not to claim that they have a special
ontological status (Stevens 1999: 104). Rather, the point is that to the bearers of
these identities they seem to be natural, to follow from birth, and hence to be in place
before one enters into any particular political or cultural environment. But this is
precisely what endows given identities with the appearance of being given – namely
the fact that they seem natural and inevitable despite the fact that they are ultimately
political creations.
The Athenian polis made particularly effective use of given identities: legitimacy
(being born from married parents), nativity (being born from two Athenian parents),
and free birth (being born from free parents) worked together to create connections
and attachments between citizens, and to differentiate citizens from non-citizens
(Lape 2002/3, 2003). Although Menander’s comedy is ultimately faithful to the
laws and conventions that produced and supported these key identities, the comedies
were also able to step outside them, to question not only their naturalness but also
their relevance as a basis on which to assign moral worth and/or social goods. As we
will see, Moschion in Menander’s Samia and a character from an unknown play
explicitly argue against using various Athenian birth norms as determinants of char-
acter. Both speakers effectively articulate an outsider’s perspective by insisting that
those lacking a culturally and politically sanctioned given identity might nevertheless
have moral worth. Questions of identity are also at the heart of Menander’s Aspis.
While this play too intimates that at least some outsiders might deserve the privileges
of belonging, it also critiques Athenian given identities from a different perspective by
showing that some insiders are conspicuously undeserving.

Bastards and Belonging

Most Greek cities defined children born outside the marriage context as bastards
(Ogden 1996: 224). The Athenians in particular attached severe disabilities to
bastardy, completely excluding bastards from familial, civic, and religious participa-
tion. Although Menander’s comedy strongly supports these exclusions by effectively
imposing a generic ban on bastardy, there are nevertheless near misses, cases in which
an Athenian citizen seems to have fathered a bastard. The plot of Menander’s Samia
hinges on two such incidents. Prior to the play’s opening, Moschion raped and
impregnated Plangon, the daughter of his next-door neighbor. The baby is born in
286 Susan Lape

the course of the play and is – temporarily – a bastard. Before the baby’s status is
normalized by the belated marriage of its parents, the play uses it to explore the social
significance of bastardy and, less explicitly, to dramatize the performativity of kinship.
By depicting legitimacy and bastardy as statuses dependent on the actions of the
baby’s parents, it queries the status of bastardy as a given identity.
In the crucial scene, Moschion tries to convince Demeas, his adoptive father, to
raise his own bastard child (temporarily) by pretending that the child belongs to
Demeas and Chrysis, his mistress who was once a hetaira (Arnott 2000b). When
Demeas determines to throw Chrysis out of his house for raising a bastard child
against his wishes, Moschion intercedes. Demeas is incredulous, objecting that to
raise a bastard would be wrong (136). At this juncture, Moschion asks (Sam. 137–8):

τίс δ’ ἐсτὶν ἡμωÐ ν γνήсιοс, πρὸс τωÐ ν θεωÐ ν,

ἢ τίс νόθοс, γενόμενοс ἄνθρωποс;
Who of us is legitimate, by the gods, or a bastard, being born a human being?

With this query, Moschion intimates that legitimacy and bastardy are not ‘‘natural’’
statuses, but rather artificial designations added by society – an interpretation
reinforced by the status of Moschion’s child. When Demeas assumes that his son is
joking, Moschion adds (Sam. 139–42):

μὰ τὸν Διόνυсον, <ἀλλ’> ἐсπούδαϰα

οὐθὲν γένοс γένουс γὰρ οι μαι διαϕέρειν,
ἀλλ’ εἰ διϰαίωс ἐξετάсαι τιс, γνήсιοс
ὁ χρηсτόс ἐсτιν, ὁ δὲ πονηρὸс ϰαὶ νόθοс.
No, by Dionysus, I’m serious. I don’t think there’s any distinction with regard to birth
(genos), but if you scrutinize rightly, the moral man is legitimate and the wicked man a
bastard.

Although the next few lines of dialogue are too fragmentary to interpret, it is clear that
Moschion convinced his father to allow Chrysis and their supposed bastard child to
remain in the house. But how significant is Moschion’s argument? Although Gomme
and Sandbach (1973: 559) find it more striking than any parallels that can be found,
Ogden (1996: 204) sees a basic continuity between Moschion’s moralizing rhetoric
and the sentiments expressed by tragic characters in Sophocles and Euripides.
Unfortunately, the pre-Menandrean parallels adduced by Ogden (Eur. fr. 141, 168
and Soph. fr. 84 TrGF) are bare fragments, virtual one-liners devoid of the context
needed to tease out their ideological meaning. We do, however, find critiques of
bastardy in Sophocles’ Ajax and Euripides’ Andromache that illuminate the status of
Moschion’s claims in the Samia. When taunted as a bastard and slavish by
Agamemnon, Teucer in the Ajax defends his innate nobility and aristocratic birth
(1299–1302, 1304). His behavior in the play bears out his positive self-image.
Similarly, in the Andromache, the aged Peleus warns Menelaus that his grandson will
one day take vengeance against him, even if he is three times a bastard (636). Although
Teucer and Peleus contest the idea that bastards are necessarily inferior to legitimate
sons, they do so in a way that retains the notion that the birth (nobility) determines
 Menander’s Comedy 287

identity and character. By contrast, Moschion redefines bastardy and legitimacy in

moral terms (chrēstos and ponēros), employing language that does not anchor identity in
the circumstances of one’s birth but rather in character, which in New Comedy arises
from one’s behavior. In so doing, he pushes against the idea that moral worth is a
matter of natural endowment limited to a privileged subset of human beings.
It is worth pointing out that Moschion’s ability to assail the state’s conjugal kinship
regime may be linked to his own status as an adopted rather than a natural son (Keuls
1973; Blume 1974: 140; Lape 2004a). Although adoption served a crucial function
in Athens, allowing men to secure an heir for their estates when they had no
legitimate sons of their own, there remained a bias against adopted children. In
Attic inheritance cases, juries often privilege the claims of blood relatives over those
of adopted children (and of nearer blood relatives over more distant relatives who had
been adopted; e.g., Is. 3.61). Sally Humphreys has argued that these cases reflect an
‘‘opposition in Athenian minds between natural affections and legal rules’’ (1983: 8).
The assumption seems to be that adopted kinsmen are incapable of mustering the
same affection and loyalty as blood or ‘‘natural’’ kin. In the Samia, however, both
Moschion and Demeas implicitly contest this notion. While Moschion himself
emphasizes his filial loyalty, Demeas insists that Moschion is a good son, even though
he happens to be adopted (343–7). Demeas’ defense is all the more pointed, of
course, because he makes it after coming to believe, mistakenly, that Moschion has
fathered a child with his own mistress.
Although Demeas may have ultimately decided to keep Chrysis and their bastard
child because it is what he really wanted to do anyway, the very fact that Moschion
could employ such an explicit argument against the state’s official kinship designa-
tions remains highly unusual. The apparent efficacy of this critique may suggest that it
taps into a pre-existing cultural awareness or suspicion that bastards were stigmatized
unfairly and/or arbitrarily. We have already seen that tragedy contests the view that
bastards are necessarily inferior to legitimate sons. Although such representations
were probably not intended to promote bastard rights, the tragic critique may have
nevertheless shaped the way contemporary Athenians thought about and perceived
bastards, paving the way for the revisionist definition we find in the Samia.
Accordingly, an awareness, no matter how dim, that there is something odd and
even unfair about the bias against bastards may underlie Demeas’ decision to rear a
bastard child. What lends his decision special point, however, is that the child qualifies
as a bastard on two counts: it is extramarital and, because Chrysis, the presumed
mother, is a Samian, the product of a mixed (interpolis) union (Mossé 1992: 274). By
restricting citizenship and hence marriage to native Athenians, the Periclean citizen-
ship law of 451/450 effectively expanded the definition of bastardy to include
children of unions between Athenians and non-Athenians (Ogden 1996). For this
reason, Moschion’s argument that no one is a bastard by birth undermines the norms
of both familial and polis membership. Demeas’ willingness to accept a child of
Samian extraction into his household pushes against these same nativity rules. It does
not matter whether or not he was planning to pass off the child as a citizen; the Attic
lawsuits well attest that a citizen could be accused of xenia (citizenship fraud perpe-
trated through marriage fraud) for having a courtesan and her child in his household
(Ps.-Dem. 59; Lape 2004a). At the same time, a citizen who lived with a courtesan
288 Susan Lape

placed the status of any children he had from a prior legitimate Athenian marriage in
jeopardy. It is precisely the awareness of the judicial peril in which his living arrange-
ments placed him – and Moschion – that accounts for Demeas’ excessive concern to
conceal the goings-on in his household from outsiders and enemies.
Although Moschion’s critique of bastardy challenges the given identities (legitim-
acy and pure Athenian-ness) usually privileged in comedy, thus opening the door for
various forms of outsider identification, its force might seem to be offset by the
broader circumstances in which he offers his revisionist definition. After all, the child
on whose behalf he makes his pleas is his own, and hence not a true bastard in the
Athenian sense of the term. Yet, these circumstances actually add weight to
Moschion’s argument. In Athenian culture, kinship status was supposed to be sig-
nificant: it not only identified a person as belonging a particular family and the larger
family of citizens, it also described that person in terms of certain qualities and
characteristics. At any rate, this is how speakers in the Attic lawsuits justify and defend
the kinship norms of Athenian citizenship. By having Moschion and Plangon marry
only after their child is born, the Samia depicts one and the same child transitioning
from bastardy to legitimacy in response to the behavior of its parents. In so doing, the
play undermines the moral salience of legitimacy by showing that it has nothing to do
with the character or behavior of its bearer.

From Birth to Character

A fragment from another Menandrian play, of unknown title, contains a stronger
critique of assigning social and political significance to identities ascribed at birth.
A speaker begs his mother (it is actually unclear whether it is a male or female
character) not to evaluate people (his or her friend, prospective spouse?) on the basis
of genos, ‘‘birth’’ or ‘‘family’’ and eugeneia, ‘‘good birth’’ (F 835 KA ¼ CAF 612):

ἀπολειÐ με τὸ γένοс. μὴ λέγ’, εἰ ϕιλειÐ с ἐμέ,

μηÐ τερ, ἐϕ’ ἑϰάсτωι τὸ γένοс. οιffl с ἂν τηÐ ι ϕύсει
ἀγαθὸν ὑπάρχει μηδὲν οἰϰειÐ ον προсόν,
ἐϰειÐ сε ϰαταϕεύγουсιν, εἰс τὰ μνήματα
ϰαὶ τὸ γένοс, ἀριθμουÐ сίν τε τοὺс πάππουс ὅсοι.
οὐδένα δ’ ἔχοιс ἰδειÐ ν ἂν οὐδ’ εἰπειÐ ν ὅτωι
οὐϰ εἰсὶ πάπποι πωÐ с γὰρ ἐγένοντ’ ἄν ποτε;
εἰ μὴ λέγειν δ’ ἔχουсι τούτουс διά τινα
τόπου μεταβολὴν ἢ ϕίλων ἐρημίαν,
τί τωÐ ν λεγόντων εἰсὶ δυсγενέсτεροι;
ὃс ἂν ευ γεγονὼс η ι τηÐ ι ϕύсει πρὸс τἀγαθά,
ϰἂν Αἰθίοψ η ι, μηÐ τερ, ἐсτὶν εὐγενήс.
Σϰύθηс τιс; ‘‘ὄλεθροс.’’ ὁ δ’ Ἀνάχαρсιс οὐ Σϰύθηс;
This ‘‘birth’’ is killing me. If you love me, mother, don’t keep bringing up birth all the
time. For only those who have nothing good in them, nothing their own, take refuge in
these things – tombs and genos and counting up all their grandfathers. But everybody has
grandfathers, how else could they have been born? If they can’t name them, because
 Menander’s Comedy 289

they’ve moved or have no friends, how are they less well born (dusgenesteroi) than those
who can? The person of good birth (eugenēs) is the one well endowed with a good
nature, mother, even if he’s Ethiopian. Someone is Scythian? ‘‘A wretch.’’ But wasn’t
Anacharsis Scythian?

Although the term genos can be translated as family in this passage, we should bear in
mind that it refers specifically to a descent group – a collection of individuals perceived
to be related by birth and blood (Jones 1996; Kamtekar 2002). In some contexts,
eugeneia refers specifically aristocratic birth – which was loosely defined in Greek
culture as belonging to a family with a supposed divine or heroic family founder
(Arist. Rhet. 1360b 34–5; Thomas 1989). Although the Athenian democracy came
into being largely by suppressing the political significance of good birth in this sense, it
never undermined the cultural and symbolic value of having such birth. Throughout
the democracy, citizens belonging to traditional aristocratic families leveraged their
lineage for gain of all sorts, including acquittals in the democratic courts (Ober 1989).
At the same time, however, the democracy itself appropriated the concept of eugeneia
to characterize the birth of its own citizens (Loraux 1986: 186–7; Ober 1989: 259–61;
Thomas 1989). Accordingly, in democratic civic discourse eugeneia was employed to
figure the birth nobility of all Athenian citizens, a nobility issuing from having two
native Athenian parents (Loraux 1993; Ober 1989; Thomas 1989).
The speaker is likely attacking the latter conception, and by extension, the nativity
norms of Athenian citizenship. For the claim that only those without good natures
take refuge in mentioning tombs and grandfathers recalls the terms in which
Athenian citizenship was established and contested. At the scrutiny for Athenian
magistracies, candidates had to verify their citizen standing by identifying their
mothers and fathers, and their maternal and paternal grandfathers (Ps.-Arist. Ath.
Pol. 55.3; Rhodes 1981: 617–19). Likewise, in lawsuits, identifying mothers and
grandparents was crucial to establishing and defending citizenship (Dem. 57), as was
having a family tomb (mnēmata) and being able to show its location (Is. 6.51; Dem.
57.28, 40). In one case, a litigant claims that furnishing a name is hardly sufficient to
prove a woman’s citizen status: ‘‘We must know where she is buried and in what sort
of tomb’’ (Is. 6.65). Accordingly, the speaker’s devaluation of grandfathers and
tombs as markers of identity appears to replace the nativity norms of Athenian
citizenship with a more universal notion of kinship.
After the speaker has made the point that a person’s ancestors and birth should not
be used as a basis for assigning moral or social worth, he/she extends the logic to
another given identity: ethnicity. By citing Anacharsis, a famous Scythian wise man,
the speaker refutes the notion that non-Greek (i.e., ‘‘barbarian’’) peoples are by
definition inferior or worthless (‘‘a wretch’’). In this way, the critique of genos is
made to cover descent groups of varying size: the individual family, the citizen family,
and nations and ethnic groups.
The speaker’s logic recalls an argument offered by Socrates in Plato’s Theaetetus to
weaken the aristocratic ideology of noble birth. According to Socrates, it is silly to
think that having one noble ancestor makes a person special because, in the fullness of
time, every person has had many ancestors, slave and free, Greek and barbarian
(174e). This passage is similar in that it discredits eugeneia by placing beliefs about
290 Susan Lape

the significance of a particular person’s ancestry/kinship in a more universal context,

i.e., the human condition. Our comic speaker, however, does not seek to jettison the
concept of eugeneia altogether but rather to revise it: nobility should be based on
character rather than birth. While character may be envisioned to follow from physis,
‘‘nature,’’ physis on this model is not the result of having a distinguished pedigree. It
need not even refer to innate disposition but rather to nature as it has been shaped by
nurture, designating ‘‘the way in which a person grows’’ based on environmental
influences (Dover 1974: 84). Accordingly, the argument is very much in the spirit of
what we saw in the Samia. Whereas Moschion critiqued bastardy as an arbitrary status
and redefined it in moral terms, the speaker in this fragment attacks and revises the
birth nobility specifically associated with democratic citizenship (bilateral Athenian
nativity). In both cases the critique of Athenian norms creates a conceptual space for
outsiders – non-Athenians – to identify with what might otherwise appear to be
ruthlessly Athenocentric comedy.
The claim that character rather than birth is what really matters in making one’s
associations seems to have been fairly common in New Comedy, and also works to
challenge the norms of Athenian exclusivity from within; that is, Athenian citizens
argue that one ought to judge other citizens on the basis of character rather than
birth. For instance, a speaker in a fragment from an unknown play attributed to
Menander specifically assails marriage strategies based on traditional considerations of
birth and wealth as follows (F 804.1–12 KA ¼ CAF 581.1–12):

ϰαὶ τουÐ τον ἡμαÐ с τὸν τρόπον γαμειÐ ν ἔδει

ἅπανταс, ω ΖευÐ сωÐ τερ, ὡс ὠνήμεθα
οὐϰ ἐξετάζειν μὲν τὰ μηθὲν χρήсιμα,
τίс η ν ὁ πάπποс ηffl с γαμειÐ , τήθη δὲ τίс,
τὸν δὲ τρόπον αὐτηÐ с τηÐ с γαμουμένηс, μεθ’ ηffl с
βιώсεται μήτ’ yἐξετάсαι μήτ’ ἰδειÐ ν
οὐδ’ ἐπὶ τράπεζαν μὲν ϕέρειν τὴν προιÐ χ’, ἵνα
εἰ τἀργύριον ϰαλόν ἐсτι δοϰιμαсτὴс ἴδῃ,
ὃ πέντε μηÐ ναс ἔνδον οὐ γενήсεται,
τηÐ с διὰ βίου δ’ ἔνδον ϰαθεδουμένηс ἀεὶ
μὴ δοϰιμάсαсθαι μηδέν, ἀλλ’ εἰϰῃÐ λαβειÐ ν
ἀγνώμον’, ὀργίλην, χαλεπήν, ἐὰν τύχῃ,
λάλον.
We should all – God, how we should! – go about marrying as we go about shopping, not
asking useless questions like ‘‘Who was the girl’s grandfather? Her grandmother?’’ while
never asking about or investigating the character (tropos) of the woman you’re going to
spend your life with. It’s senseless to bring the dowry to the bank (so that the manager
can assure you it’s not counterfeit), when it’s not going to stay in the house for five
months, but not to scrutinize the woman who’s going to settle down in your house for
the rest of her life, but rather to take a wife at random, one who’s silly perhaps, quick-
tempered, difficult, a chatterbox.

The speaker (a father as we know from later in the fragment) argues that what matters
in choosing a wife is neither her ancestry nor her dowry, but rather her character.
While his argument seems to work within the conventional Athenian norms, it
 Menander’s Comedy 291

contests the salience normally attributed to them. And although his critique of
marriage practices is animated by some conventional negative female stereotypes,
his advice is nevertheless based on the recognition that they can be avoided. Like
Moschion in the Samia, the speaker of the fragment discussed above, and many other
comic characters, he makes the point that people should not be evaluated or esteemed
on the basis of given identities but rather on the basis of who they really are, a
principle that, in at least some cases, extends to women as well as men.

The Play of Character

In the examples discussed so far (save the last one), we have seen characters defending
people who seem to be outsiders, bastards and/or foreigners against bias and exclu-
sion; although it is likely that in all of these instances the person in question turned out
to be a free citizen, the basic point is still made: one does not have to be a legitimate
Athenian citizen to be a good person (chrēstos), a person of moral virtue, and/or
deserving of life and the goods of society. In this way, comedy suggests that there is
no deep significance to being born a citizen; to put it another way, it shows that the
overlapping norms of family and civic membership pick out who the legitimate citizens
are, but do not identify who they really are, i.e., the kind of people they are. A stronger
way of making the same point, however, would be to demonstrate that legitimate
citizens are neither good nor morally upright simply because they have what counts as
the right birth. This is precisely what we find in Menander’s Aspis. The play depicts a
bearer of Athens’ privileged given identity, legitimate Athenian kinship (which, of
course, also means citizenship), not only behaving badly but also exploiting kinship
duties and obligations for his own financial gain. Although no character in the play
openly disparages kinship, the play dramatizes the failure of a key given identity to
shape or positively influence the character of its bearer. In other words, the Aspis allows
us to see that character rather than kinship is the source of behavior (the actions that
disclose character), even when those behaviors are mandated as kinship obligations.
The Aspis belongs to the subcategory of New Comic marriage plots involving an
epiklēros or heiress. A brotherless woman in Athens became an epiklēros when her
father died without adopting an heir (Karnezis 1977; Rubinstein 1993; Schaps 1979:
25–41; Sealey 1990: 29–30). The woman temporarily inherited her father’s estate. If
she was wealthy, her father’s closest male relative had the option of marrying her or
allowing another close relative to do so; significantly, a man could claim an heiress
even if he or the heiress were already married to other people. The situation was
slightly different when the heiress was poor, belonging to the thetic, i.e., lowest
wealth class. In this case, her father’s closest male relative had a more precise legal
obligation: he either had to marry the girl himself or provide a dowry for her
(Harrison 1968: 135–6; MacDowell 1978: 96). He could not, as in the case of the
wealthy heiress, pass her off to the next closest relative. While marrying a wealthy
heiress was regarded as a boon, there was a significant catch. The epiklēros was to
produce an heir for her father first – rather than her husband (Wolff 1944: 50). Upon
coming of age, this child was normally adopted into his maternal grandfather’s
292 Susan Lape

household. In practice, this meant that the heiress and her husband only had control
of the wealth temporarily, until their son came of age. This system worked to preserve
the number of households in the state and to prevent the accumulation of wealth in a
small number of families (Gernet 1921).
This legal situation forms the backdrop of Menander’s Aspis. In the play, Smikrines
attempts to manipulate the rule requiring the epiklēros to marry her father’s next of
kin, like other New Comic characters, in order to leverage a questionable marriage
(Scafuro 1997: 293–4). Prior to the play’s opening, Kleostratos had served as a
mercenary on a campaign to win booty to provide a dowry for his sister. Although
he succeeded in this, his loyal slave Daos mistakenly reports that Kleostratos was
killed in battle. His presumed death transforms his sister into an epiklēros (MacDowell
1982: 48). Kleostratos had left her in the care of their uncle, Chairestratos.
Kleostratos’ sister and Chairestratos’ daughter grew up together, like sisters (128).
Chairestratos treated his niece so much like a daughter that he also arranged a
marriage for her with his stepson, Chaireas, and provided a hefty dowry. The marriage
was to take place on the very day the news of Kleostratos’ presumed death arrived.
But when Smikrines, Chairestratos’ older brother, sees Kleostratos’ loot (600 gold
coins, foreign slaves, pack animals, and young girls), he determines to marry his niece
himself, thereby gaining control of the wealth.
The other characters, including Fortune, the divine prologue speaker, are outraged
at Smikrines’ conduct. They view him as greedy and as decidedly too old for the girl
(114, 258–9, 267). Although we do not know exactly how old Smikrines is, the
characters call him a gerōn, an old man over 40, while the girl is described as a pais, a
young girl probably between 14 and 18 years of age (Golden 1990: 122). The
Athenians were well aware that male fertility decreased with age. This is why speakers
in the Attic lawsuits express the view that a man could become so old that he ought
not to marry at all (Isager 1980/1). Although procreation was the stated purpose
behind Athenian marriage, in the case of marriage with an epiklēros there was extra
and explicit legal pressure to procreate. Solon reportedly passed a law requiring that
men who married epiklēroi have intercourse with them three times a month (Plu. Sol.
20.2–3). Presumably the purpose of the law was to ensure that the epiklēros produced
an heir and to prevent men from marrying epiklēroi simply for their money. By
harping on Smikrines’ advanced age, the characters may be intimating that he will
be unable to perform his legally prescribed procreative duties (310–11).
Although the other characters see Smikrines as too old for the marriage he desires,
Smikrines himself insists that his age gives him the right and indeed the obligation to
marry the heiress. For Smikrines and his brother Chairestratos have exactly the same
degree of affinity to the heiress, and in such situations the Athenians seem to have
decided the case on the basis of seniority (MacDowell 1982: 47; Karabelias 1970:
375–8). This play, however, is the main evidence for the practice. Scholars accept that
Smikrines is technically correct to claim that the law gave him the first option of
marrying the girl. But there is a complication here. MacDowell argues that, since
Smikrines has the law on his side, the play depicts a conflict between love and law in
order to critique the unfairness of inheritance practices that compel unwanted mar-
riages (MacDowell 1982: 51). In a subsequent study, however, Brown challenged this
interpretation, arguing that Smikrines misrepresents the compulsory force of the law,
 Menander’s Comedy 293

and that the play’s aim is therefore not to condemn the epiklerate itself but solely
Smikrines’ greed (Brown 1983; cf. Scafuro 1997). Although Brown is certainly right
to point out that Smikrines is a highly biased legal interpreter, it is worth mentioning
that Athenian law gave him ample scope to interpret the law generously, that is, in his
own interest. In the Athenian context, there were no legal professionals who would
test Smikrines’ claim against the wording of the law in question. Rather, the meaning
of laws (particularly those pertaining to inheritance) was determined by whether or
not a litigant could convince a jury that the law should be applied as he argued in the
particular case in question (Todd 1993; Yunis 2005). Since there were no legal
constraints on what a litigant could say in court, Smikrines would be free to misre-
present the compulsory force of the law if it suited his interest to do so.
Kleostratos’ presumed death makes his sister undeniably wealthy. Accordingly,
Smikrines was under no strict legal obligation to marry her, as Brown points out.
Yet, in overstating the law’s compulsory force, Smikrines is doing no more than what
actual Athenian litigants did; that is, they sometimes justified their behavior in, say,
killing someone by claiming that the law not just allowed them but in fact obliged
them to perform an execution (Lys. 1.25, 26, 29; Harris 1990). Such arguments
were not an aberration or abuse of Athenian law but rather an expected use of the
system. Athenian laws have been described as ‘‘open textured,’’ referring (in one
sense) to the fact that they name rather than define the offenses they regulate
(Osborne 1985; Carey 2004). This gave litigants an exceptionally wide scope to
argue that a given action fell within the law’s purview. Moreover, the people who
ultimately decided whether a legal argument or interpretation was valid were in most
cases ordinary citizen jurors rather than professionals. In such a system, justice and
equity depended on the character, actions, words, and interpretations of the citizens
themselves rather than on an abstract legal apparatus (Dem. 21.224–5).
Smikrines is not at all sure that the law obliges him to marry his niece. When he tells
Daos that he intends to marry the girl, as his friends have advised him to do, he
explains: ‘‘that’s pretty much what the law says, I think’’ (186–7). As his use of the
adverb pōs signals, Smikrines is not entirely certain what the law means, but like an
actual litigant, he does not hesitate to argue that the law is on his side. When an
Athenian died without leaving a direct heir, no one had an indisputable legal right to
the estate (Gomme and Sandbach 1973: 78). In order to marry his niece, Smikrines
would first have to convince a jury that he was actually her closest male relative
(Karabelias 1970: 381). Although this might seem straightforward, in practice it
was often complicated because the law allowed multiple disputants to make the same
claim (Todd 1993: 228–9). Athenian jurors seem to have enjoyed considerable
discretion in determining who should get an epiklēros. When Philocleon in
Aristophanes’ Wasps boasts that jurors award epiklēroi to whomever they wish
(583–6), this is surely a comic exaggeration, but it is clear from other evidence that
Athenian juries did not feel compelled to base their decisions solely on the biological
facts of kinship (Cohen 1995: 163; Christ 1998). They could and did decide close-
ness on the basis of who seemed to be the better kinsman. Accordingly, if
Chairestratos had disputed Smikrines’ claim in court, a jury might well have favored
him for the very fact that he was already playing the part of a good kinsman, serving
as his niece’s guardian, whereas Smikrines had formerly avoided responsibility.
294 Susan Lape

The circumstances of the play, however, pre-empt this possibility: since Chairestratos
was already married and had decided to allow his stepson to marry his niece, he would
not have been expected to come forward as a rival claimant for the heiress. In other
words, Smikrines probably could have convinced a jury that he was the heiress’ closest
male relative, and this gives him the power to compel the marriage.
Since all of the characters come to believe that Smikrines will be able to use the law
to leverage an iniquitous marriage, the play does launch an implicit critique, a critique
not of the law per se but rather of the criterion that the law privileged: it calls into
question the legal preference granted to Smikrines on the basis of bare biological
kinship. By privileging biological kinship, Athenian inheritance laws risk rewarding
someone like Smikrines who regards kinship as something to be exploited or ignored
depending on financial incentive. Throughout the play we are repeatedly reminded
that Smikrines fails to recognize or accept social kinship, the obligations, affective ties,
and scripts associated with biological kinship but not determined by it (Schneider
1984: 165–6; Faubion 2001a: 12; Stevens 1999; Lape 2004b). For example,
Fortune, the divine prologue speaker, introduces Smikrines like this (Asp. 114–20):

ὁ γέρων δ’ ὁ πάντ’ ἀναϰρίνων ἀρτίωс

γένει μὲν αὐτωÐ ι θειÐ όс ἐсτι πρὸс πατρόс,
πονηρίαι δὲ πάνταс ἀνθρώπουс ὅλωс
ὑπερπέπαιϰεν ουffl τοс οὔτε сυγγενηÐ
οὔτε ϕίλον οι δεν οὐδὲ τωÐ ν ἐν τωÐ ι βίωι
αἰсχρωÐ ν πεϕρόντιϰ’ οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ βούλεται
ἔχειν ἅπαντα.
This old man, the one who’s just been asking about everything, he’s his paternal uncle by
birth, but in baseness he exceeds all men. He knows neither kinship nor friendship, and
he doesn’t worry about shame, but wants to have everything.

Fortune identifies Smikrines twice: first by kinship and then by character. To leave us
in no doubt about the relative significance of Smikrines’ two identities, the goddess
adds that Smikrines does not actually recognize kinship as important. In so doing, she
implicitly acknowledges that given identities such as kinship do not actually guarantee
character; they do not ensure that kinsmen like Smikrines will uphold the social
scripts of kinship. This is further emphasized when Fortune compares him with his
brother, Chairestratos (Asp. 122–8):

ουffl δ’ εἰсελήλυθ’ ὁ θεράπων ἐν γειτόνων

ἁδελϕὸс οἰϰειÐ τουÐ δε τουÐ ϕιλαργύρου
νεώτεροс, ταὐτὸν προсήϰων ϰατὰ γένοс
τωÐ ι μειραϰίωι, χρηсτὸс δὲ τωÐ ι τρόπωι πάνυ
ϰαὶ πλούсιοс, γυναιÐ ϰ’ ἔχων ϰαὶ παρθένου
μιαÐ с πατὴρ ὤν ωffl ι ϰατέλιπεν ἐϰπλέων
ὁ μειραϰίсϰοс τὴν ἀδελϕήν
Where the slave’s gone in next door, lives the younger brother of this money lover. He
has exactly the same degree of affinity to the young man, but he has a very good
character as well as wealth, and he has a wife and he’s the father of one daughter; when
the young man sailed away he left his sister with him.
 Menander’s Comedy 295

Although Smikrines and Chairestratos stand in exactly the same kin relationship to
Kleostratos and his sister, they behave in diametrically opposed ways. We might be
tempted to conclude that the difference between the brothers is that Chairestratos, in
contrast to Smikrines, is a good kinsman. While this is true, it is not the salient point.
That is, Chairestratos does not behave as he does merely because of kinship.
Certainly, Chairestratos seeks to make an appropriate marriage for the heiress because
he is her uncle and recognizes the responsibilities of kinship. But he acts this way
because he is chrēstos, his character is upright, rather than because he happens to be a
kinsman. Just as in the case of Smikrines, character is prior to kinship as a source of
motivation and action.
Although virtue may not be its own reward in Menander’s reality, bad character (or
a lack of moral virtue) is perhaps its own punishment; for character not only motivates
action, but also shapes and constrains the way one sees reality and one’s choices.
Smikrines’ key flaw – wanting to have everything – renders him vulnerable to mistakes
of perception and judgment (326–7). Accordingly, although kinship and age give
Smikrines legal leverage, the real advantage in the play belongs to those who under-
stand character. Just as kinship identities come with certain scripts, so too ethical
identity carries a degree of predictability. Smikrines’ money-loving greed is apparent
to everyone. Chairestratos even tries to strike a deal with him by appealing to it
(263–9), but Smikrines refuses it because he knows that an Athenian jury might well
take it away from him in the future if the heiress should have a child. Fortunately,
Daos, the Phrygian slave, has a firmer grasp of Smikrines’ likely behavior. Acting as
folk psychologist and amateur playwright, he scripts and directs a play within the play
to foil Smikrines’ nefarious marriage plot in which he calculatingly exploits precisely
the old man’s desire to have it all.
As it happens, the fake tragedy that Daos convinces Chaireas and Chairestratos to
stage mirrors the larger dramatic frame (329; Blänsdorf 1982: 37–41; Gutzwiller
2000: 132; Vogt-Spira 1992: 84–5; Scafuro 1997: 348). They are to pretend that
Chairestratos has become depressed and died, succumbing to his well-known melan-
cholic side (306–7, 338–9). Chairestratos’ supposed death will make his daughter an
heiress too, and a far wealthier one than Kleostratos’ sister. Daos predicts that
Smikrines will immediately lay claim to her, leaving Chaireas free to marry
Kleostratos’ sister. When Chairestratos subsequently appears alive and well, it will
presumably be too late and too embarrassing for Smikrines to claim Kleostratos’
sister. Although the play’s continuous text breaks off after the scene between
Smikrines and the fake doctor summoned to play up Chairestratos’ illness and
eventual death, we know that Daos got it right and that the play ended happily, with
the return of Kleostratos and with the right marriage between Chaireas and his sister.
In the examples discussed in the previous sections, Athenian civic kinship norms
were critiqued by speakers arguing that outsiders ought to be judged not on the basis
of birth but rather in terms of character. The Aspis stages the other side of the coin,
showing an insider – a legitimate Athenian citizen – who exploits his kinship for
self-interested and disreputable motives. In so doing, the play creates a space for
theater-goers to identify with the romantic plot irrespective of their national affili-
ation or social status. In fact, the Aspis seems especially concerned with creating such
a broader perspective. For the character who saves the day is Daos, the foreign slave.
296 Susan Lape

When he learns that Smikrines will use the law to get his hands on the heiress, Daos
immediately intuits a plan to outwit him, which he subsequently explains to the slow
but eager citizens. The Aspis thus casts a foreign slave as the hero (or at least most
clever character and crucial enabler) and as a figure for the playwright within the play.
At the same time it portrays an Athenian citizen, oblivious to the constraints and
duties of kinship, as the villain. With this setup, it underscores the folly of judging
people on the basis of given identities – in this case, ethnic and social identities (Sherk
1970) – and suggests that given identities may not actually determine or even shape
the motivations of their bearers, implying their inadequacy as a basis for apportioning
political goods and privileges.
Yet, although the play includes a variety of perspectives, its inclusivity is not without
limits. That there is no perspective for the greedy and apparently unredeemed
Smikrines is not surprising. But in addition, the notional heroine, the epiklēros herself,
remains silent and unnamed throughout. While this made her a good, that is,
respectable Athenian girl, it also risked alienating audiences outside Athens where
women enjoyed slightly better conditions (Schaps 1977). There is, however, no
evidence that Menander’s Hellenistic audiences outside Athens were bothered
by the elision of the heroine’s perspective from the Aspis, or from any other
Athenocentric comedy. It is striking, however, that when Menander’s plays are
adapted for the Roman stage, we suddenly find marriage plots in which the heroine’s
view and desire matter (e.g., Plautus’ Cistellaria). But whether and how such repre-
sentations created and molded female identification is another story.

FURTHER READING

For the text of Menander’s plays and fragments, see Sandbach 1990 (Greek text only) and
Arnott 1979, 1996a, 2000a (with English translation), for the fragments of Menander and
other New Comic poets also Kassel and Austin 1983– (the volume containing Menander’s
substantially preserved works is not yet published). The basic commentary on all plays and
fragments is Gomme and Sandbach 1973; the numerous commentaries on individual plays
published since then are listed by Katsouris 1995, who provides a complete bibliography on
Menander up to that year. Useful general introductions are Webster 1974, 1970 and Hunter
1985.
For Menander’s comedy in the Hellenistic world, see Lape 2004a. In addition to investigat-
ing the politics of comic romance in the Athenian historical context, this work also discusses
Menander’s Perikeiromenē and Misoumenos, plays that articulate and promote the perspective of
the Greek cities over and against the Hellenistic kingdoms. Several recent studies investigate
aspects of gender in Menander’s comedy; see, in particular, Konstan 1995 (for gender and
ideology), Rosivach 1998 (for the comic rape plot and male maturation), and Traill 2008 (for
perceptions of women). Goldberg 1980, Traill 2008, Wiles 1991, and Zagagi 1994 investigate
different aspects of the poetics of Menander’s comedies. Scafuro 1997 analyzes the disputing
behavior of comic characters in New Comedy, connecting it to pre-trial judicial practice in
Athenian culture. Omitowoju 2002 reviews the social and legal questions raised by Menander’s
rape plays and considers the more general issue of female consent to sexual relations in
Athenian law. For the poetics of Menander’s comedy, see Gutzwiller 2000 and Wiles 1991.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Hellenistic Tragedy
and Lycophron’s Alexandra
Alexander Sens

Among the texts carried by Alexander on his campaigns, according to Plutarch, were
the works of the Attic tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (Alex. 8.3).
This transportation of Attic tragedy deep into Asia is a striking index of a change
already well under way at the time Alexander set off against Persia: inscriptional and
material evidence reveals that by the mid-fourth century, comedy and tragedy, forms
originating in a specific Athenian performance context, had far transcended the
boundaries of Attica (Sifakis 1967; Vinagre 2001). The ‘‘classic’’ plays of the fifth
century, and especially Euripidean tragedy, were widely re-performed (and sometimes
augmented with additional material) by guilds of artisans (‘‘artists of Dionysus’’;
Pickard-Cambridge 1968: 279–321; Lightfoot 2002), including actors, musicians,
and choral instructors as well as poets, while new plays were composed for dramatic
festivals throughout the Greek-speaking world. But apart from the uncertain case of
the Rhesus preserved among the works of Euripides, only scraps of fourth-century
tragedy have survived. In the third century, the Ptolemies (like other Hellenistic
dynasts) seem to have patronized the public performance of drama, for example by
exempting the guild of dramatic artists known as ‘‘craftsmen of Dionysus and of the
Savior Gods’’ from the salt-tax (Fraser 1972: 1.618–19).
As an epigram of Dioscorides on the playwright Sositheus (33 GP ¼ AP 7.707)
implies, the works of the third-century tragedians known corporately as the ‘‘Pleiad’’
were probably performed occasionally at public festivals, though it is clear that these
men had higher literary pretensions than run-of-the-mill ‘‘artists of Dionysus.’’ The
exact composition of the Pleiad (a name that implies a group of seven men) varies in the
ancient sources (Fraser 1972: 1.619), and it is dangerous to generalize or to assume
uniformity of style and substance within the group. But the fact that it included the
scholar-poet Philicus (author inter alia of a metrically innovative Hymn to Demeter),
Alexander Aetolus (who produced learned compositions in several meters and forms),
and Lycophron of Chalcis (the grammatikos charged with work on comedy at the
Library), gives a sense of its general literary concerns and aspirations.
298 Alexander Sens

Of the tragedies that can be dated with some confidence to the Hellenistic period,
only a few fragments survive. The best-preserved fragment of what may be a tragedy is a
passage, probably drawn from the prologue, of Sositheus’ Daphnis or Lityerses (TrGF
99 F 2). Something of the plot of that play can be gleaned from a passage of Servius
Auctus (on Verg. Ecl. 8.68), who reports that when a nymph Daphnis loved was
abducted, he searched the world for her, and eventually found her as a slave at the
court of the Phrygian king Lityerses, who required strangers to engage in a contest of
reaping and killed them when he won; Heracles, pitying Daphnis, decapitated Lityerses
and returned the nymph to her lover. The play also seems to have contained a singing
contest judged by Pan, in which Daphnis defeated Menalcas (F 1 ¼ schol. Theoc. 8 arg.
b at Wendel 1914: 203–4); whether that contest was acted on stage or simply described
is unclear. The work, which has often been considered a satyr-play, shows the influence
of comedy and satyr-play in its diction and in the focus on Midas’ folly and Lityerses’
gluttony (F 2; Xanthakis-Karamanos 1997). On the other hand, there is no evidence
that Silenus or his children appeared in the play, and that fact, together with the
metrical strictness of the fragment, which contrasts with the fragments of
Lycophron’s satyr-play Menedemus (in which Silenus and the satyrs do appear) in its
avoidance of resolution and observance of Porson’s Law, has been taken to suggest that
it is a tragedy, though substantial uncertainty remains (tragedy: Webster 1964: 129;
Xanthakis-Karamanos 1994; contra, Cipolla 2003: 404–6; Cozzoli 2003: 283–4).
Whatever the case, the rigidity of metrical practice is reminiscent of early tragedy, but
the sentimental tragicomic plot seems indebted to Euripides (Xanthakis-Karamanos
1997). Given the apparent popularity of his works in the late Classical and early
Hellenistic periods, it is perhaps significant that the best-preserved Hellenistic ‘‘tra-
gedy,’’ Ezekiel’s Exagoge, is also essentially Euripidean in style (TrGF 128; Jacobson
1983: 50–67; Holladay 1989: 344–405; Gruen in this volume).
Beyond this, the fragments of Hellenistic tragedy offer little to go on (for discus-
sion, Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 432–7). A fragment of a play recounting the story
of Gyges and Candaules (TrGF 664) is perhaps more likely a Hellenistic dramatiza-
tion of the tale told in Herodotus than that historian’s source, but its date remains
debated. Few surely Hellenistic titles survive; the only author for whom our sources
provide a substantial list is Lycophron of Chalcis. Most of his tragedies seem to have
treated mythological themes, some relatively obscure, but the list transmitted by the
Suda includes a Cassandreis, which likely dealt with the recent history of the
Macedonian city of Cassandreia in Chalcidice or with its fictional mythic past, and a
Marathonioi, which, like the Themistocles of Philicus and the homonymous tragedy by
Moschion, likely dealt with an episode from the Hellenic past. Indeed, the treatment
of specifically Athenian history in the Marathonioi and the two Themistocles plays
may perhaps be read as evoking the Athenian origin of the form, as well as, more
generally, the theme of contact and conflict between Greeks and non-Greeks. How
prominent a role historical topics, already found in fifth-century tragedies such as
Aeschylus’ Persians and Phrynichus’ Sack of Miletus, played in Hellenistic tragedy
generally is hard to know.
As for satyr-play, already in the fourth century, Python had turned the form into a
vehicle of personal abuse in his Agen, in which he lampooned Alexander’s companion
Harpalus; Timocles, too, poked fun at Hyperides in his Icarian Satyrs (F 15–19 KA;
 Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 299

TrGF 86 F 2), although that play is more likely a comedy. In the third century, too,
Lycophron composed a satyr-play in which he poked fun at a living individual, the
Eretrian philosopher Menedemus, whose diet is treated with humorous irony
(Xanthakis-Karamanos 1996). To the extent that this personal abuse can be thought
to represent a broader trend, post-Classical satyr-play seems to have taken over one of
the original features of comedy, which in the Hellenistic period apparently no longer
engaged in extensive ad hominem attacks on contemporaries (Fantuzzi and Hunter
2004: 437). Python’s play was performed at the Dionysia celebrated by Alexander at
the river Hydaspes (Ath. 13.595d). It cannot be said for certain whether Lycophron’s
Menedemus was intended for performance and under what circumstances, but the
play included a speech by Silenus to his sons the satyrs, who will have served as the
chorus. Indeed, the evidence, including titles like Cassandreis, Pheraioi, and
Marathonioi, suggests that the chorus continued to play a meaningful role in tragedy
and satyr-play well into the Hellenistic period (Sifakis 1967: 116–20; Vinagre 2001).

Lycophron’s Alexandra
If little is known about Hellenistic tragedy, much more can be said about a work that,
while not a tragic drama in the strict sense, depends on and plays with the conventions of
the form: the Alexandra ascribed by ancient sources to the scholar and playwright
Lycophron of Chalcis. Some modern scholars have questioned the attribution, for
reasons discussed below. Although nothing excludes the possibility that sections of
the poem were read aloud to an exclusive, private audience (Cameron 1995a: 81), the
work as a whole must have been intended for elite, learned readers rather than broad
public performance (West 2000: 155); there is no reason to think that its effect
depended on recitation (pace Fountoulakis 1998). The poem consists of 1474 iambic
trimeters and takes the form of a first-person monologue in which a messenger reports
to Priam (never directly named) the prophecies of Cassandra, whom the speaker calls
Alexandra. The narrative is framed by the messenger’s words, but the bulk of the poem
consists of Cassandra’s prophecy, reported as direct, first-person speech. The poem’s
most striking feature, noted since antiquity, is its riddling obscurity: both the prophecy
itself and the messenger’s speech that frames it use elaborate, high-style language, with
numerous compound adjectives and obscure words, many of which occur nowhere else
or are first attested here. Moreover, identification of the individual humans, gods, and
places treated in the poem often requires tremendous erudition, since they are usually
not named directly but introduced metaphorically and periphrastically. In addition,
Cassandra’s prophecy draws on a wide array of mythical material, much of it recondite,
and that fact combined with the linguistic difficulty makes the poem demanding
reading (though undoubtedly it would be less demanding had we more of the texts
on which Lycophron drew, as the discovery of the Cologne Alcaeus [SLG 262] and the
fragments of Sophocles’ Locrian Ajax [TrGF F 10] show). As a result, the Alexandra
has often been dismissed as merely a curiosity of Hellenistic erudition.
In fact, however, closer consideration shows the Alexandra to be a rich and
complex work that engages with the literary traditions on which it depends in
300 Alexander Sens

sophisticated and interesting ways. Most obviously, the poem occupies a ‘‘liminal’’
position between tragedy and epic (Fusillo 1984). First, the poem locates itself in an
imaginary dialogue between the messenger and Priam (ἅ μ ἱсτορειÐ с, 1), but is itself a
monologue. In a basic sense, Lycophron has isolated and expanded a constituent
feature of tragedy, while playing with its conventions. Whereas tragic messenger
speeches commonly report unpleasant or unviewable events that have already taken
place off stage, in the Alexandra the messenger reports a direct speech (for which the
closest antecedent in tragedy is the report of the public meeting at Eur. Or. 866–952)
– but one that looks to the future rather than the past, though it moves with
serpentine fluidity from anticipated events to their background in the present and
in the distant past (Cusset 2006c). More importantly, whereas in tragedy messenger
speeches are delivered to an addressee who appears on stage, here the internal
audience is only implicitly present, and the Trojan king, addressed as ‘‘master’’ in
the third verse (cf. 1467), merely serves as an internal doublet of the external reader
(who in 9–11 is thus invited, like the Trojan king, to ‘‘wind and traverse, pondering
with wise mind, the obscure path of riddles’’), and thus perhaps of Lycophron’s royal
patron (Kosmetatou 2000: 35–9).
In its apocalyptic character, Cassandra’s prophecy has something in common with
Egyptian and Near Eastern prophetic literature such as the so-called ‘‘Oracle of the
Potter’’ (West 2000: 160–3; Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 440; Dieleman and Moyer in
this volume), but one need not look far beyond Greek sources for the primary literary
background of the Alexandra. The predictions, which find parallels in the use of
prophecy as a narrative device elsewhere in Hellenistic poetry (e.g., in the Apollo of
Alexander Aetolus, on which see Magnelli 1999: 15–17; cf. Call. Hec. fr. 74.10–20
Hollis 2009; A.R. 2.311–407; West 2000: 160), develop and expand on Cassandra’s
speech in the second half of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, a connection reinforced both by
specific allusions and by the generally Aeschylean style and meter. Indeed, the prolife-
ration of animal imagery, one of the most striking features of the Alexandra, may
productively be taken as a development of Cassandra’s speech in the Agamemnon,
where, like her counterpart in Lycophron, she refers to humans as animals (e.g.,
1258–60; Saı̈d 1997: 344; Cusset 2001), though such imagery is a common feature of
prophecy in general. The apocalyptic prophecies of the fates of Agamemnon and
Odysseus find a parallel elsewhere in tragedy in Cassandra’s predictions about the
suffering of these heroes in Euripides’ Trojan Women (353–405, 424–61). These
models have been widely noted; what has been less widely observed is that the prologue
in particular evokes the prophecies of Prometheus, whose comprehension of the sweep
of universal history mirrors Cassandra’s own, in the Prometheus Bound (for the possi-
bility of connections between the Alexandra and the Prometheus Unchained as well, cf.
West 1984: 150). Although the authorship of that play is now widely questioned, it was
ascribed to Aeschylus already in the Hellenistic period, and Lycophron’s engagement
with it may thus be read as part of a broader strategy to affiliate his poem with Aeschylean
tragedy. Indeed, the connection is established by a specific allusion. In the opening
lines of the Alexandra, the speaker promises to tell his master all he asks of him: ‘‘I will
tell you accurately everything you inquire of me from the very beginning’’
(λέξω τὰ πάντα νητρεϰωÐ с ἅ μ ἱсτορειÐ с = ἀρχηÐ с ἀπ ἄϰραс). On the whole, the first
verse resembles – and may be read as a variation of – the openings of Homeric speeches
 Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 301

in which the speaker promises to speak the entire truth (e.g., Od. 24.123 сοὶ
δ ἐγὼ ευ μάλα πάντα ϰαὶ ἀτρεϰέωс ϰαταλέξω, ‘‘I will tell you all things very well and
truly’’; cf. Il. 10.413, 427; Od. 24.303), but the speaker’s opening words also engage
with Prometheus Bound 609–11, where Prometheus promises to avoid riddles in telling
Io what she wishes to know:

λέξω τορωÐ с сοι παÐ ν ὅπερ χρήιζειс μαθειÐ ν

οὐϰ ἐμπλέϰων αἰνίγματ , ἀλλ ἁπλωÐ ι λόγωι
ὥсπερ δίϰαιον πρὸс ϕίλουс οἴγειν сτόμα.
I will tell you clearly everything you want to learn, not weaving riddles, but with a simple
story, as it is just to open one’s mouth to friends.

The verbal similarity is reinforced by what is most easily explained as deliberate

thematic variation. Like the opening of the Alexandra, Prometheus’ words are the
prelude to an extended and detailed account of future suffering. But whereas
Lycophron’s messenger immediately emphasizes the confusing and obscure character
of Cassandra’s prophecy (3–12; cf. 1462–6), Prometheus insists that he will speak
clearly. That in the Alexandra it is the messenger rather than the princess herself who
initially lays claim to the authority of truth is an important feature of the poem and is
discussed in greater detail below.
Other allusions to specific extant tragedies can be found throughout the poem
(Cusset 2003); were more Athenian drama extant, we could surely identify others.
The thematic and generic connection to tragedy, however, is only a piece of a more
complex puzzle. Cassandra’s prophecy focuses on the Trojan War and its aftermath,
and especially the sufferings experienced by Trojans and Greeks as a result of the rape
(or seduction) of Helen by Paris, and the assault on Cassandra herself by Locrian
Ajax. Her speech thus covers topics treated in the major Homeric poems and the epic
cycle – Cassandra’s prophecies on the occasion of Paris’ abduction of Helen were
already a feature of the Cypria – though it also draws on a wide range of now lost texts
from genres other than epic and tragedy. Cassandra’s prophecy rewrites the Iliad
briefly and the Odyssey more extensively; and in general the contents of the lengthy
monologue are strongly evocative of epic, despite the difference in narrative voice
between Cassandra’s emotional, first-person account and that of the remote (or at
least ostensibly remote) third-person epic narrator (Fusillo 1984). In that sense, the
poem plays on the interrelation between epic and tragedy in general, and between
epic and tragic messenger speeches in particular.
But at a basic level the narrative complexity and temporal fluidity of the Alexandra,
with its numerous digressions and seamless movement between future events and
their antecedents, resembles the narrative style of Herodotus’ Histories. A good
example of such ‘‘Herodotean’’ digressiveness is Cassandra’s treatment of the settle-
ment of Cyprus by Greeks returning from Troy. That narrative opens with the
summary statement that ‘‘five shall come to the Horned Wasp Island and Satrachus
and the land of Hylates [i.e., Cyprus] and dwell beside Morpho the Lady of
Zerynthus [i.e., Aphrodite]’’ (447–9). Each of the first three, Teucer, Agapenor,
and Acamas, is then treated in a detailed narrative, while the fourth and fifth, Cepheus
and Praxandrus, are treated more briefly (584–91). The story of Acamas, the third
302 Alexander Sens

(and thus the central) figure discussed, expands to include an extended account
(itself containing other digressions) of the battle between the Dioscuri and their
cousins, Idas and Lynceus, which Cassandra frames as a gift to the Trojans from
Zeus.
Indeed, the complex Herodotean structure of the narrative is mirrored by its
broader theme. It is worth noting that the poem as a whole is couched as a response
to the ‘‘inquiry’’ posed by the king (ἱсτορειÐ с, 1); although the verb used by the
messenger to describe this act is common in tragedy, for the reader who knows the
entire composition it may also evoke the ‘‘research’’ (ἱсτορίη) fundamental to
Herodotus’ own project and essential to the work of learned scholar-poets such as
Lycophron. More important, in the final section of the prophecy it becomes clear that
the immediate focus of Cassandra’s concern, the Trojan War and its aftermath, forms
part of a larger, ongoing conflict between East and West (1283–1450). Like
Herodotus’ Persian logioi, Cassandra views the conflict as beginning with the
Phoenician abduction of Io and the Cretan counter-abduction of Europa and con-
tinuing through a series of misdeeds and reprisals, including Paris’ involvement with
Helen and its aftermath, so that the subject of her account is shown to be part of a
broader historical dialectic. The series of reprisals Cassandra describes reaches a climax
with the Persian campaigns against Greece, the subject of Herodotus’ own research,
so that the final section of the Alexandra may be understood as both a rewriting and a
continuation of the Histories. In this sense, the end of Cassandra’s prophecy answers
the teleological problem, ‘‘when (and how) will it end?’’ left open by Herodotus.
According to Cassandra, the campaigns of Alexander, whose ancestry is explicitly
connected to both Aeacus (grandfather of Achilles) and Dardanus (great-grandfather
of Priam), and thus to both sides of the coming Trojan conflict, will end the hostility
between Europe and Asia. This unification was a crucial feature of Alexander’s own
self-representation and must have resonated powerfully with his Macedonian succes-
sors (Hurst 1996). Unfortunately, problems of date and uncertainties about the text
make larger conclusions about the ideology of the poem difficult.

The Problem of Authorship and Date

The Suda (λ 827) treats the Alexandra as the work of the grammarian and tragic
playwright Lycophron of Chalcis, who was charged with work on comedy in the
Library. If this is correct, the poem belongs to the early third century. Two passages,
however, raise problems for that dating. First, since antiquity (schol. Lyc. 1226,
p. 226 Leone 2002) critics have wondered whether the glorification of Roman power
that opens the extended account of Aeneas’ foundation of Rome would have been
possible in a poem written under the early Ptolemies, or even before the Roman
victory at Cynoscephalae in 197 BCE (1226–31):

γένουс δὲ πάππων τωÐ ν ἐμωÐ ν αυ θιс ϰλέοс

μέγιсτον αὐξήсουсιν ἄμναμοί ποτε
αἰχμαιÐ с τὸ πρωτόλειον ἄραντεс сτέϕοс,
 Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 303

γηÐ с ϰαὶ θαλάссηс сϰηÐ πτρα ϰαὶ μοναρχίαν

λαβόντεс, οὐδ ἄμνηсτον, ἀθλία πόλιс,
ϰυÐ δοс μαρανθὲν ἐγϰαταϰρύψειс ζόϕωι.
Someday my descendants will again exalt to the highest the glory of the race of my
ancestors, when they have won with the spear the foremost garland, obtaining the
scepter and monarchy of earth and sea. Nor, wretched city, will you hide your withered
glory in the darkness of oblivion.

Second, what seems at first glance to be the culmination of Cassandra’s prophecy, the
campaigns of Alexander, whose ancestry makes him a fitting agent of the end of strife
between Europe and Asia, is followed immediately by a puzzling reference to a
mysterious ‘‘kinsman’’ (1446–50):

ωffl ι δὴ μεθ ἕϰτην γένναν αὐθαίμων ἐμόс,

ειffl с τιс παλαιсτήс, сυμβαλὼν ἀλϰὴν δορὸс
πόντου τε ϰαὶ γηÐ с ϰεἰс διαλλαγὰс μολών,
πρέсβιсτοс ἐν ϕίλοιсιν ὑμνηθήсεται,
сϰύλων ἀπαρχὰс τὰс δοριϰτήτουс λαβών.
With him after the sixth generation my kinsman, a unique wrestler, having joined battle
on land and sea and come to terms, will be sung of as best among friends, taking the
spear-won first-fruits of the spoils.

Although this passage has been read as referring to the Persians, the verbal and
thematic similarities between it and 1226–31 support the now generally accepted
view that Cassandra is referring to a specific Roman or to the Romans generally here
as well (West 1984: 134). But the proper method of calculating the six ‘‘generations’’
specified by Cassandra, the identities of the ‘‘kinsman,’’ the ‘‘wolf general of
Galadra’’ mentioned in 1444, and the antecedent to the relative pronoun ωffl ι in
1446 continue to be disputed (synopsis in West 1984; Fusillo, Hurst and Paduano
1991: 17–27; Fernández-Galiano 1991).
The problems of chronology and authorship raised by these passages have been the
principal focus of scholarship on the Alexandra, and are closely connected to ques-
tions of ideology. If one discounts the possibility that Lycophron was prescient,
discussion of the issue takes three basic approaches. First, some scholars argue that
references to Roman power are not in fact inappropriate to an early third-century
context, especially given the diplomatic contact between Rome and the Ptolemies
(Momigliano 1942, 1945; Hurst 1976). Others argue that the bulk of the work
belongs to that period, but that the problematic passages (and perhaps others) are
later intrusions (West 1983, 1984). Finally, some would move the date of the
Alexandra to the second century, assigning it to different author, perhaps of the
same name (recently, Gigante Lanzara 1998, 2000; Kosmetatou 2000; Musti 2001;
Stirpe 2002). None of these approaches has yet won the day, and a detailed examin-
ation of the questions falls outside the scope of this essay. It must nonetheless be said
that, despite recent arguments for a second-century date, there is much in the style
and interests of the poem to recommend the view that the poem, or at least most of it,
is a product of early Hellenistic Alexandria (cf. West 1984: 129–30).
304 Alexander Sens

The strongest argument for the view that the lines 1226–80 are interpolated is the
fact that 1281–2, ‘‘so many difficult woes will they who are about to destroy my
country suffer,’’ seem out of place after the long account of the successes of Aeneas
and his descendants in the West (a story which, however, it is hard to imagine
Cassandra passing over entirely), but would fit nicely after 1225. In addition to
their obscurity, 1446–50 come as an anticlimax to the account of Alexander’s cam-
paigns, which are treated only briefly. Indeed, the name Alexandra (30), comparable
to Paris’ doublet Alexander and perhaps containing a reference via false etymology
(Ἀ-λέξ-ανδρα) to Cassandra’s difficulties in communicating believably with her audi-
ence (cf. 1 λέξω; Lambin 2003: 134; Cusset 2006c), may be read as anticipating the
natural culmination of her prophecy, in which she anticipates the reconciliation of
Asia and Europe by Alexander. Thus the end of her predictions as they are transmitted
seems an odd appendage (West 1983, 1984).
One piece of support for the view that the Alexandra was produced in the early
Hellenistic period is that the last dateable event mentioned is the murder of Alexander’s
son Heracles by Polypherchon in 309 BCE (801–4; Paus. 7.9.2). If the poem were from
well after the first few generations following Alexander, the absence of any reference to
intervening Hellenistic history would be striking. The view that the entire poem
belongs to the second century has nonetheless recently received some favor: Musti
(2001; followed by Stirpe 2002) has argued that it should be associated with the last
Antigonid kings of Macedon, Philip V and his son Perseus, while Kosmetatou (2000)
suggests that it was composed in the Attalid court at Pergamum. That the Alexandra
would resonate in interesting ways if it were written in a second-century Antigonid or
Attalid context is beyond question. It is important to recognize, however, that despite
the fact that the Alexandra does not directly refer to the Ptolemies or evidence detailed
knowledge of Egyptian geography, several passages might easily have had particular
significance for a Ptolemaic audience, especially in the early third century. Given the
range of the poem’s subject matter, it is perilous to isolate any story or feature to
privilege a particular political context. Still, it is arguable that individual Alexandrian
interests, for instance, might help account for the attention paid to the settlement of
Cyprus, an important Ptolemaic territory, by Greeks returning home (446–591),
whatever one makes of the argument that the passage could not have been written
before the latter part of the third century (Fraser 1979).
More striking is the emphasis Cassandra places on Proteus’ role as arbiter and
upholder of divine justice (128–9; see also Stephens in this volume). According to
the prophetess, Proteus, whose residence in the Nile delta is explicitly noted (‘‘the
coastland furrowed by the effluence of Triton,’’ 118–19), deprives Paris of Helen,
whisking her off to Egypt and leaving a phantom in her stead (113–14). Cassandra
stresses that the stern Proteus (whose hostility to Paris’ act is recounted extensively in
Herodotus, 2.115) returned to his Egyptian homeland from Pallene, in Macedonian
Chalcidice, and in this sense his connection to both Macedon and Egypt may be seen to
mirror, however imperfectly, that of the Ptolemaic line itself. The connection cannot be
pushed too far (it is hard to imagine that a Ptolemy would have relished any implication
of a resemblance between the unjust children of Proteus, whom he left Pallene to
escape, and his own progeny), but it is nonetheless striking that, other than Zeus,
Proteus is the poem’s most important agent of divine justice. The prominence of this
 Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 305

figure, called the ‘‘Pallenean prophet,’’ in the programmatically and ideologically

fraught opening of the Victory of Berenice at the beginning of Callimachus’ Aetia 3 is
a telling parallel for the potential significance of Proteus and his connections to Pallene
in a Ptolemaic context (SH 254.5; Stephens in this volume). In this regard, the
prominence of North Greek and Macedonian geography in key passages in the poem
(408–10, where the Greek North, including Macedon, is used as a synecdoche for all of
Hellas; 1342 and 1404–8 focus on Asian encroachment on Macedonian landmarks in
the long struggle between East and West) is interesting, if ambiguous: such references
may have been particularly meaningful to an original audience in Macedon, but the
early Ptolemies also took pains to emphasize their Macedonian roots, and emphasis on
Macedonian geography would probably have resonated powerfully for them as well (cf.
Posidip. 88.4 AB; Bearzot 1992; Sens 2004: 74–5).

Cassandra and Poetic Authority

When Callimachus declares that he sings of ‘‘nothing without a witness’’
(ἀμάρτυρον οὐδὲν ἀείδω, fr. 612 Pf.; cf. h. 5.56, fr. 75.54–77), he seems to be laying
claim (perhaps ironically) to the authority afforded by the literary and scholarly
tradition on which he relies. To judge from a famous programmatic passage of
Theocritus, truthfulness and accuracy were important metaphors for a broader set of
literary qualities that third-century Alexandrian poets admired (Theoc. 7.44; Posidip.
63 AB; Sens 2005: 209–12). Moreover, Hellenistic poets were often concerned to link
their poetic enterprise with authoritative literary ancestors, real or imagined, and to
establish the legitimacy both of their own projects in general and of their own versions
of particular myths in particular. In that connection, Cassandra, guaranteed the power
of accurate prophecy but denied believability, is ipso facto a powerful if problematic
emblem of poetic authority, since her words carry the weight of divine sanction. In a
sense, her embedded speech, drawing as it does on a wide gamut of models, may be
read as a ‘‘prophecy’’ of Lycophron’s own literary heritage – a tradition that in the
poem is at once the poet’s past and his narrator’s future. As in other Hellenistic poetry,
we see the poet writing himself into the literary tradition: like, e.g., Apollonius in the
Argonautica or Theocritus in Idyll 11, Lycophron represents his own narrative as a
precursor to the very texts that he draws on. It is useful in this regard to consider
Cassandra’s role as (embedded) narrator in the context of the competitive intellectual
environment in which the work was likely composed (Strootman in this volume). By
making her the voice for his own reworking of a series of texts, Lycophron implicitly
claims authority for his rendition of Greek literary history, while simultaneously
acknowledging the problematic character of that authority: however much the accur-
acy of his version of individual myths (like the reliability of Cassandra’s prophecies)
might be subject to disagreement, they are the ‘‘correct’’ versions.
The poem’s interrogation of ‘‘poetic truth’’ is a complicated one, however. From a
Hellenic perspective, Cassandra’s speech is manifestly biased, and her characterization
as anti-Greek, anti-war, and anti-sex is an important feature of the work. Her prophe-
cies, moreover, are reported by the messenger, who himself emphasizes their accuracy
306 Alexander Sens

in the opening and closing frame (1 νητρεϰωÐ с, 1471 ἐτητύμωс). The assertion of
veracity is a conventional feature of messenger speeches, but in the context of the
Alexandra the assertion is rendered problematic by the length, difficulty, and complex-
ity of the speech the speaker claims to report. Lycophron’s use of the frame thus not only
establishes a dramatic context for Cassandra’s prophecy but raises the question of
whether they are accurately reported: Cassandra may be infallible, but given the nature
of her words, how can the messenger be, except to the extent that his voice is identical to
that of the omniscient poet? (For messenger speeches generally, cf. Barrett 2002, esp.
56–101; Lowe 2004 on the multiple narrators and audiences of the Alexandra.)
Indeed, in several passages the poem explicitly calls attention to the problem of
narrative authority. The issue is most overtly framed by Cassandra’s treatment of the
Odyssey, and in particular by her comments about Odysseus’ role as a storyteller.
Cassandra’s account of the death of Idomeneus near Colophon describes the hero as
‘‘the very brother of Aethon in fictitious writings’’ (ἐν πλαсταιÐ с γραϕαιÐ с, 432), a
reference to Odysseus’ lying claim to be Aethon, brother of Idomeneus, at Od.
19.181–4. Similarly, Cassandra characterizes Odysseus’ account of his wanderings as
a μυθοπλάсτην . . . γόον, ‘‘fictitious lament’’ (764). In both cases, the words may be
understood as a bitter comment on Odysseus’ veracity and (in the latter case) on the
fact that as narrator, he controls how he is represented in Odyssey 9–12. But there is also
a pointed irony to Cassandra’s snide description of Odysseus’ narrative at the climax of
an account that, with variations and material drawn from other sources, covers the
same ground as the hero’s own (648–765). That fact may suggest that the phrase
ought to be read at another level as well, as a broader observation (by Lycophron qua
author rather than by his narrator Cassandra) about the fundamentally fictitious nature
of poetry, and especially epic poetry, generally (Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 441), and
implicitly about its power to shape the reception and reputation of the heroes whose
deeds it recounts (cf. Pi. N. 7.22–3 ‘‘I expect that through sweet-voiced Homer the
story of Odysseus was enhanced beyond his suffering, since there is something impres-
sive [сεμνόν] in lies [ψεύδεсι] and a winged device’’).
Elsewhere, Cassandra’s words raise the problem of poetic authority in other ways.
At 512–16, for instance, her expressed hope that the Dioscuri never join the Greek
expedition against Troy resonates significantly against readers’ familiarity with their
fate as represented elsewhere. In this passage, the Trojan princess couches what is
functionally a claim about the future as a wish:

οὓс μήποτ , ω ΖευÐ сωÐ τερ, ἐс πάτραν ἐμὴν

сτείλαιс ἀρωγοὺс τηÐ ι διсαρπάγωι ϰρεϰί.
μηδὲ πτερωτὰс ὁπλίсαντεс ὁλϰάδαс
πρύμνηс ἀπ ἄϰραс γυμνὸν αἰψηρὸν πόδα
εἰс Βεβρύϰων ρ ίψειαν ἐϰβατηρίαν.
May you never send them, Savior Zeus, to my fatherland as defenders of the twice-
snatched krex, nor arming winged ships may they throw from the end of the stern their
swift, naked foot onto the landing place of the Bebrycians.

The engagement with the literary and mythological tradition is complex. On the one
hand, Cassandra’s hope that the Dioscuri will not set foot in Troy is ‘‘realized’’ in a
 Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 307

famous passage of the Iliad, where Helen, surveying the Greek forces arrayed on the
battlefield, wonders why her brothers have stayed away, only to have the narrator
observe that they are already dead and buried in Sparta (Il. 3.236–44). Indeed, the
focus on Helen (whose identification with the now unidentifiable bird called the krex
depends on the belief that that creature was inauspicious for marriage; cf. Call. fr. 428
Pf.; Euph. CA 4) invites the reader to think of the ‘‘aftermath’’ of Cassandra’s prayer
as it plays out in Homer, and in this sense Cassandra’s prayer may be understood not
only as a precursor but perhaps even as the reason for the absence of Helen’s brothers
from the war at Troy.
At the same time, the phraseology of the last line (516) involves an irony that
depends on the reader’s knowledge of a different story involving the Dioscuri. As
the scholia recognize, the designation of the Trojans as Bebrycians derives from the
identification of Troy as the area once occupied by the people of that name. The
equation of Trojans with Bebrycians recurs at 1305 and 1474, but the word’s first
occurrence here is highly significant: while it is true that the Dioscuri never set foot in
Troy to aid Helen, Polydeuces’ triumphant boxing match with the inhospitable king
of the Bebrycians, Amycus, was a prominent feature of the Argonautic saga, and was
treated at length by other Hellenistic poets (A.R. 2.1–154; Theoc. 22.27–134; cf.
Euph. CA 77; Gengler 2003). Indeed, Theocritus in Idyll 22 explicitly recounts the
Argonauts’ disembarkation onto Bebrycian territory (30–3):

ἔνθα μιαÐ с πολλοὶ ϰατὰ ϰλίμαϰοс ἀμϕοτέρων ἒξ

τοίχων ἄνδρεс ἔβαινον Ἰηсονίηс ἀπὸ νηόс
ἐϰβάντεс δ ἐπὶ θιÐ να βαθὺν ϰαὶ ὑπήνεμον ἀϰτὴν
εὐνάс τ ἐсτόρνυντο πυρειÐ ά τε χερсὶν ἐνώμων:
There many men descended a single ladder from both sides of Jason’s ship. And
debarking on the broad strand and windless shore, they spread beds and brandished
firesticks in their hands.

Cassandra’s wish that the twins never set foot on the ‘‘landing place of the
Bebrycians’’ thus recalls an episode from the Argonautic saga not explicitly treated
by Lycophron (for the Argonauts in the poem, cf. Schmakeit-Bean 2006) and
complicates any simple reading of the success of her wish for the future. On the
one hand, Cassandra, armed with prophetic power, correctly anticipates the absence
of Castor and Polydeuces from Troy. But her prayer, if taken at face value, evokes a
story in which the Dioscuri did land in the territory of the Bebrycians, and thus subtly
raises the issue, once again, of the troubling multi-valence of Cassandra’s words – and
of literary narrative in general.

The Style and Poetics of the Alexandra

We have already observed that the thematic affiliation between the Alexandra and
Aeschylean tragedy is signaled in the opening verse, which evokes Prometheus’
prophecies in the Prometheus Bound, and is continued in Cassandra’s prophecies,
308 Alexander Sens

which by their nature recall her namesake’s words in the Agamemnon. That evocation
of Aeschylean tragedy also operates on the stylistic plane. At a metrical level,
Lycophron’s trimeters (like those in the fragments of Hellenistic tragedy) resemble
the earliest extant tragedies in their avoidance of resolution (Del Ponte 1981). More
important, the diction, with its numerous rare words and elaborate compound
adjectives, and the complexity and obscurity of the poem’s many circumlocutions
create an impression of stylistic grandeur and weight that evoke Aeschylean drama
(Schade 1999: 22–3; Cusset 2003a).
Lycophron’s Aeschylean (or proto-Aeschylean: Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 439)
weightiness may profitably be read against the backdrop of what we can know about
the values expressed by other early Hellenistic poets. The most widely discussed
passage in this regard is the reply to Callimachus’ critics at the opening of the
Aetia, where the poet opposes his own ‘‘fine’’ style with the weighty one of his
adversaries. Whatever the chronological relationship between the poems, there is
little reason to see in one a direct response to the other. The opposition set up in
the Aetia prologue may nonetheless serve as an interesting touchstone for evaluating
Lycophron’s literary project. As scholars have recognized, the critical language of the
Aetia prologue finds a precursor in the debate between Aeschylus and Euripides in
Aristophanes’ Frogs (Acosta-Hughes and Harder in this volume). There, the stylistic
qualities attributed to Euripides – including clarity, subtlety, and cleverness or wis-
dom – conform closely to what Callimachus later claims for his own poetry. The
bombast and weight ascribed to Aeschylus, on the other hand, is picked up in the
treatment of Callimachus’ enemies, whose work is represented as excessively large –
i.e., excessively grand and insufficiently refined. Indeed, the extant Hellenistic epi-
grams on Aeschylus emphasize (in a laudatory way) the figurative ‘‘size’’ of his poetry
(Diosc. 21.3 GP ¼ AP 7.411.3 ἐξύψωсεν, ‘‘brought to a height’’; Antip. Thess. GPh
141–2 ¼ AP 7.39.1–2 ὀϕρύοεccαν ἀοιδὴν = πυργώсαс, ‘‘have made a tower of
haughty song’’; Diod. GPh 2167 ¼ AP 7.40.1–2 τὸν μέγαν, ‘‘the great’’). Thus at
a basic level an attempt to emulate Aeschylus’ grand style might seem to contradict
the values praised in the Aetia prologue, despite the resemblance between the two
poems in (among other things) their interest in aetiology, their fondness for rare or
disputed diction, and their love of obscure mythology. Read in this light, the
Alexandra’s engagement with Aeschylus may be seen as, in part, a project to write
in a manner at once ‘‘Aeschylean’’ and ‘‘refined’’ – stylistic qualities which, to judge
from Callimachus, might arguably be understood as opposed.
But if the style of the Alexandra, insofar as it may be called Aeschylean, is
superficially at odds with the qualities recommended in the Aetia prologue, the poem
remains broadly speaking ‘‘Alexandrian’’ in other respects. It is worth noting in this
regard that the messenger’s opening frame may be read as a self-referential statement
of poetic program (Durbec 2006). Thus the messenger draws on the image of the
path of song, used by other poets of their own work (e.g., Pi. O. 9.47; Call. fr. 1.25–8
Pf.), to call attention to the learning required of his audience (9–12), but in so doing
varies convention by applying the metaphor to the experience of the listener (and thus
the reader), who must make his way through the complicated byways of her prophecy,
rather than to the project of the poet. Indeed, in calling attention to the ‘‘literary’’
quality of the prophecy, the messenger furthers the gap between the poet and his
 Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 309

embedded narrator Cassandra: to the extent that Cassandra is represented as a poet,

she is distanced from Lycophron by the mediation of the messenger’s report.
Other than its obvious lexical difficulty, the most notable feature of Lycophron’s style
is its use of riddling periphrases: mortals and gods are rarely referred to directly by their
proper names, but are instead identified by circumlocutions or identified with animals,
especially wolves and lions (Cusset 2001, 2003: 142); gods are typically identified by
local cult names, often strung together in asyndeton; large geographical areas are
generally identified by synecdoche through reference to specific local features or other
periphrases; and other kennings abound (e.g., 22–4, of Paris’ ships at sea: ‘‘the wooly-
footed, fair-faced, stork-colored Phalacraean maidens struck maiden-killing Thetis with
their blades’’). Moreover, these circumlocutions, which occur without stylistic distinc-
tion in both the messenger’s frame and Cassandra’s reported prophecies, are labile, so
that an individual first identified as one beast may be treated as another shortly there-
after. Although the difficulties thus created have often been emphasized, sufficient
information is usually included to allow the learned reader (or at least the ideal reader
with access to more texts than now survive) to puzzle them out. In some cases, the very
instability of the metaphor is itself helpful: Helen, for example, is referred to within a
single verse (87) as both ‘‘dove’’ and ‘‘Pephnian hound,’’ the latter a nod to her
characterization as a ‘‘bitch’’ already in Homer and a clue to her identity.
Lycophron’s riddling style, often denigrated as a mark of Hellenistic self-indulgence,
requires patience and learning on the part of the reader, but it is important to
emphasize that the circumlocutions used by Cassandra are sometimes meaningfully
appropriate to their context. A single example may suffice to illustrate the point: when
the prophetess reports that Proteus will intervene to deprive Paris of Helen (i.e., by
stealing her away and leaving a phantom in her place), she calls him the ‘‘gloomy
husband of the Phlegraean spouse Torone’’ (ὁ . . . сυλλέϰτροιο Φλεγραίαс πόсιс =
сτυγνὸс Τορώνηс, 115–16), emphasizing his status as a husband and his role as a
protector of the marriage bonds that Helen and Paris violate. A further example, the
use of the cult title Melanthus to refer to Poseidon, will be discussed below; systematic
consideration of the literary function of Lycophron’s periphrases would doubtless
yield interesting results. Moreover, in cases where we have access to Lycophron’s
models his kennings often have a specific allusive point, and this fact suggests that
many similar points are now lost to us. Thus, for example, the point of treating
Odysseus’ men as ‘‘mullets’’ at 664–5 (οἳ πάντα θρανύξαντεс εὔτορνα сϰάϕη = сχοί-
νωι ϰαϰὴν τρήсουсι ϰεсτρέων ἄγρην, ‘‘who smashing all the well-lathed hulls will
pierce their evil catch of mullets with reeds’’) would be obscure were the passage
not recognizable as a reworking of Odysseus’ account of the Laestrygonian attack
on his crew at Od. 10.1223–4 ϰόναβοс . . . = ἀνδρωÐ ν τ ὀλλυμένων νηωÐ ν θ ἅμα ἀγνυμε-
νάων = ἰχθυÐ с δ ὣс πείροντεс ἀτερπέα δαιÐ τα ϕέροντο, ‘‘the sound . . . of men dying
and ships being broken up at the same time; and piercing them like fish they carried off
their unpleasant feast’’), with the Homeric simile turned concrete and specific (Fusillo,
Hurst, and Paduano 1991: 233, noting Lycophron’s broader tendency to make con-
crete what is metaphorical in his model; Gigante Lanzara 1997: 47–8), and the phrase
ϰαϰὴν . . . ἄγρην picking up and varying Homer’s ἀτερπέα δαιÐ τα.
Indeed, the Alexandra shows an engagement with the text of Homer similar to
that found in other early Hellenistic poetry. Lycophron’s diction, for example, seems
310 Alexander Sens

to exhibit a familiarity with scholarly debates about the constitution and interpret-
ation of early epic texts, as may be suggested by a number of cases where words are
used in senses debated in the Homeric scholia (Rengakos 1994b). A different sort of
erudite engagement with prior literature may be seen in 1375, where the poet applies
a rare adjective meaning ‘‘mute’’ (μυνδόс) to the word used since early epic to refer
(both as adjective and as substantive) to ‘‘fish’’ (ἔλλοψ) – a word said by some ancient
sources to derived from ἰλλεсθαι ‘‘be barred’’ and ὄψ ‘‘voice’’ (Olson and Sens 2000:
61 on Archestr. fr. 12.1), so that the adjective may be understood as a gloss on the
supposed etymology of the noun (for the muteness of fish, cf. Aesch. TrGF F 307).
Indeed, the Alexandra is replete with typically Hellenistic evocation and variation of
Homeric language, as in 661, where ἐπιδόρπιον in the context of Odysseus’ encoun-
ter with the Cyclops varies Homer’s use of ποτιδόρπιον at Od. 9.234 (cf. Theoc.
13.36), or 679, where the use of μωÐ λυс as an adjective suggests that Lycophron is
engaging in an interpretation of μωÐ λυ, famously used as the name of a plant at Od.
10.305 (Hurst 1999: 121).

Cassandra’s ‘‘Odyssey’’ and Lycophron’s

Literary Technique
The loss of so many of the texts with which Lycophron engages has hindered the
study of the Alexandra as a work of literature, and has made it difficult to evaluate the
poem’s intertextuality in a systematic way. There are, however, a few passages about
the literary background of which we are better informed, and in them one can catch a
glimpse of the extent to which what at first glance might seem erudition for its own
sake can prove meaningful. The most extended such passage is Cassandra’s account of
Odysseus’ return from Troy, an account that engages intensively with the Odyssey
itself but also draws on and exploits a number of other texts, including tragedy and
local history, especially in its identification of the places visited by the hero with sites
in Italy (Gigante Lanzara 1997; Hurst 1999; Schade 1999). What follows is merely a
selective treatment of areas of interest to illustrate possible avenues of approach for
future scholarship.
Cassandra’s account of Odysseus’ wanderings (648–765) is a masterpiece of hostile
rhetoric, which subtly diminishes Odysseus’ accomplishments as he describes them in
Odyssey 9–12 and, even when acknowledging his suffering, puts it in the most
humiliating light possible. Thus whereas Odysseus in the Odyssey claims that in order
to avoid Charybdis he hung from a fig tree ‘‘like a bat’’ with no way to support
himself with his feet or climb on the branch (Od. 12.432–4), Cassandra eliminates the
difficulty of the labor and grandness of the accomplishment by representing him as a
gull sitting on (προсϰαθήμενοс) the branch of the fig (Gigante Lanzara 1997: 54). So,
too, Odysseus’ seven-years-long suffering on Calypso’s island, where, Homer empha-
sizes, he lived in constant grief, having grown tired of the goddess and sleeping with
her unwillingly (Od. 5.151–5), is reduced in Cassandra’s narrative to a brief and
pleasurable tryst (744 βαιὸν . . . τερϕθείс, ‘‘having taken brief pleasure,’’ a phrase that
the scholiast struggles to explain). Whereas Homer emphasizes the craftsmanship
 Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 311

with which Odysseus constructs his raft (Od. 5.249–51), Cassandra dismisses it as ‘‘a
thrown-together vessel’’ (αὐτοϰάβδαλον сϰάϕοс, 745; Gigante Lanzara 1997: 54–5).
Similarly, in her account of the hero’s experience in disguise on Ithaca (where
Cassandra acknowledges the extent of the hero’s suffering), she notes that he
endured having pottery thrown at him, an embarrassing detail not found in Homer
but imported from Aeschylus (as the scholiast to 778 notes; cf. TrGF F *180), where
the vessel in question is a chamber pot.
Indeed, a closer consideration of Cassandra’s account of Odysseus’ experiences in
Ithaca (766–88) may help illustrate the richness of Lycophron’s engagement with
earlier literature. As we have seen, the long account of Odysseus’ adventures at sea that
precedes this section culminates with ironic self-reflexivity in Cassandra’s description of
the story told to the Phaeacians as a ‘‘fictitious lament’’ (μυθοπλάсτην . . . γόον, 764).
In the succeeding verses, Cassandra opens her account of Odysseus’ continued suffer-
ings upon his safe return to Ithaca by expressing the hope that Poseidon will not lose
interest in punishing her nemesis for wounding Polyphemus (765 ἀρὰс τετιϰὼс
τουÐ τυϕλωθέντοс δάϰουс, ‘‘having paid for the curses of the blinded monster’’), to
continue (766–7; for the text and translation, cf. West 1983: 117):

οὔπω μάλ , οὔπω: μὴ τοсόсδ ὕπνοс λάβοι

λήθηι Μέλανθον ἐγϰλιθένθ Ἱππηγέτην.
Not yet, not yet! Let not such sleep take Melanthos, Lord of Horses, yielding to
forgetfulness.

And in fact, on his return the hero will see his house ‘‘overturned by lewd wife-
stealers’’ (769–71) and his vixen wife acting coquettishly and spending his wealth on
banquets, a tendentious and nasty interpretation of Penelope’s behavior that reflects
Cassandra’s burning hostility to Odysseus and his family (771–3; Hutchinson 1988:
262–3; Gigante Lanzara 1995: 92–4; Hurst 1999: 123). Odysseus himself,
Cassandra reports, will be forced as a parasite to endure great suffering, including
threats and physical abuse at the hands of his own servants (774–8):

αὐτὸс δὲ πλείω τωÐ ν ἐπὶ сϰαιαιÐ с πόνουс

ἰδὼν μολοβρόс, τλήсεται μὲν οἰϰετωÐ ν
сτυγνὰс ἀπειλὰс εὐλόϕωι νώτωι ϕέρειν
δέννοιс ϰολαсθείс, τλήсεται δὲ ϰαὶ χερωÐ ν
πληγαιÐ с ὑπείϰειν ϰαὶ βολαιÐ сιν ὀсτράϰων.
He himself, a parasite, seeing more labors than at the Scaian gates, will endure bearing
the hateful threats of his domestics on his back, punished by jeering, and will suffer to
yield to blows from their hands and to the throwing of pottery.

At least two points are worth making about the engagement with Homer in this
passage. First, the word μολοβρόс, ‘‘beggar,’’ is a Homeric rarity, applied, as the
scholiast notes, derogatorily to Odysseus by his goatherd Melanthius at Od. 17.219
and by the beggar Irus at Od. 18.26. By having Cassandra use the word of Odysseus in
her account of his treatment at the hands of his own servants, Lycophron enacts the
very abuse she describes. Second, Cassandra’s description of Odysseus’ experiences on
312 Alexander Sens

Ithaca lends special significance to her use of the cult name Melanthus in the exclam-
ation of 766–7. According to the scholiast, that title was an Athenian name for
Poseidon. At the same time, however, the name evokes, for readers who have reached
the description of Odysseus’ treatment at the hands of his domestics several lines later,
the names of the archetypal abusive servants of the Odyssey, Melanthius and Melantho,
who together serve as the named representatives of the community of bad domestics.
Far from being merely a display of obscure erudition, therefore, the use of the name
Melanthus to refer to Poseidon links Cassandra’s wish that the god’s wrath continue to
its realization in the treatment afforded the hero by his disloyal servants.
The next stage of Cassandra’s account of Odysseus’ return home is equally interest-
ing in its engagement with the Homeric text. Immediately after describing the hero’s
mistreatment on Ithaca, Cassandra turns to an episode mentioned earlier in the
Odyssey: a spying mission to Troy, in preparation for which Odysseus had his comrade
Thoas whip him, leaving scars that, Cassandra says, will still remain (779–80). In the
Odyssey Helen says that Odysseus ‘‘tamed himself with unseemly blows’’ (4.244),
but a beating by Thoas seems to have been mentioned in the Little Iliad (PEG 7
[EGF 8] ¼ schol. Lyc. 780; for other versions of Odysseus’ infiltration of Troy, cf.
Soph. TrGF F 367–*9a; Eur. Hec. 239–50; Rh. 503–7; Arist. Poet. 1459b6; Euph. CA
69). Lycophron has thus taken advantage of the reference to Odysseus’ suffering and
mistreatment at the hands of his domestics in Ithaca to introduce a different, themat-
ically related story from an earlier phase of the Trojan cycle. At the same time,
Cassandra’s insistence that, at the time of his arrival home, Odysseus will still bear
the scars of Thoas’ mistreatment recalls an episode from the end of the Odyssey that
Lycophron omits from his own narrative: the story of how Odysseus got the scar which
is recognized by his old nurse Eurycleia (Od. 19.392–475). Just as in the Odyssey
Eurycleia’s recognition of her master’s scar triggers a narrative ‘‘flashback’’ that
explains how he got it, so too, in the Alexandra, the presence of scars on Odysseus’
body at the time of his arrival on Ithaca is explained by a narrative flashback – albeit to a
different story drawn from a different source: Lycophron’s Cassandra, hostile as ever to
the Greek hero, omits the aristocratic hunting mishap of the Odyssey, substituting in its
stead another instance of Odysseus’ deceptiveness.

FURTHER READING

The most accessible translation of the Alexandra into English remains that of Mair in the Loeb
series (1921). Readers seeking commentary on the entire poem in English must still resort to
Mooney 1921; there is a short selection of Greek text from the poem (348–72), with
commentary, in Hopkinson 1988. The Teubner edition of Mascialino (1964) can be consulted,
but warrants updating. The poem has fared better in languages other than English, especially
Italian: Gigante Lanzara 2000 and Fusillo, Hurst and Paduano 1991; and French: Lambin
2005 and Hurst and Kolde 2008. The essays of Stephanie West (1983, 1984, 2000, 2003a)
remain fundamental for framing the question of date and authorship, as well as for raising
larger literary questions. Fusillo 1984 treats the problems of genre in interesting ways, and
 Tragedy and Lycophron’s Alexandra 313

Hunter’s brief but suggestive discussion of the poem in Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 437–43
raises important areas for future work. Lowe 2004 is a crucial study of the multiple narrative
levels on which the poem operates. The abundant ancient scholia (and ancient and Byzantine
paraphrases) are now best accessed through Leone 2002. Scheer 1908 remains important for
the extensive twelfth-century commentary by Tzetzes.
PART THREE

Prose
 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Historiography, Rhetoric,
and Science: Rethinking a Few
Assumptions on Hellenistic Prose
Martine Cuypers

While this chapter owes its chimerical shape to practical considerations, including
limitations of space and overlap with other Companions (Marincola 2007,
Worthington 2007), I would like to make a virtue out of necessity by using it to
discuss some wider issues as a background to the chapters that follow, all but the last
dealing primarily with prose texts. As was noted in Chapter 1, Hellenistic prose
typically fills little space in surveys of Greek literature. For example, in Easterling
and Knox 1985, Hellenistic science, literary criticism, and rhetoric are absent, and
Hellenistic historiography fills only five pages, devoted largely to Polybius. Only
philosophy fares better with 20 pages. Hellenistic poetry, in contrast, receives 81
pages. The choices made reflect the surviving evidence only to some extent: scientific
texts are by far the best-preserved Hellenistic prose genre, the evidence for Hellenistic
historiography beyond Polybius is sizeable, and the output of the Hellenistic philo-
sophers is no better preserved than that of historians, rhetors, and literary critics.
Clearly, then, we are also dealing with assumptions about the purpose of a literary
history and, more importantly, about the significance of the Hellenistic period for the
history of ancient literature at large. Bluntly put, many surveys of Hellenistic litera-
ture create the impression that poetry, philosophy, and Polybius made a difference,
and that other genres and texts did not. In essence this reproduces the Classicistic
stance of Greek and Roman authors of the late Hellenistic period and Empire on
whom much of our knowledge about Hellenistic literature depends.
Literary history is no exception to the truth that history is written by the victors;
and the victors’ truth in due course tends to become the reality that dominates
diachronic overviews. Yet in the past decades, in line with general trends in the field
of history, there has been a growing inclination among literary scholars to take
318 Martine Cuypers

ancient evaluations of Hellenistic literature and culture as merely a perspective, a

product of the cultural and political dynamics of their time and perhaps also of a more
general tendency in Greco-Roman literature to claim originality by rejecting the
immediate past and turning a more remote past into an idealized source of inspir-
ation. This curious discourse of tradition and innovation is shared between the early
Empire and the Hellenistic period (at least), and a polemic stance is part and parcel
of it. Ancient authors’ verdicts about their predecessors should not always be taken at
face value (Acosta-Hughes, Murray, and Clauss in this volume): no matter how loudly
they may deny it, the status quo which these predecessors produced still forms their
own point of departure. Just as Hellenistic philosophy formed the basis of Imperial
authors’ interaction with the oeuvre of Plato (White in this volume), developments of
the Hellenistic period in other spheres, too, could not simply be undone. It is from
such considerations that many chapters in this volume and in other recent surveys
(e.g., Worthington 2007) look beyond ancient evaluations and emphasize continuity
and shared ground among forms of literary expression and types of intellectual
activity across the cultures of the Mediterranean world from the Classical period
through the Hellenistic period to the Empire. One of the gains of this approach is a
rehabilitation of Hellenistic intellectual pursuits other than poetry and philosophy as
subjects of interest not only to historians but also to students of literature – a
development which fits into a more general blurring of boundaries between literary
and historical approaches in Classical scholarship and beyond.
In the following three sections, I will discuss Hellenistic historiography, rhetoric,
and science (or technical prose) in order and without any pretension to comprehen-
siveness. For the last two topics extensive further reading suggestions are provided at
the end of the chapter. Historiography is discussed in more detail in the chapters of
Erskine, Gowing, Whitmarsh, Gruen, Knippschild, and Dieleman and Moyer. My
emphasis for this genre, in line with what was said above, will be on the problems
which indirect transmission poses for the evaluation of individual texts and for tracing
developments. Rhetoric and oratory, also touched upon in the chapters of Wissmann
and Gutzwiller, raise similar issues. For science, where many works are in fact extant,
the question is rather how these texts, which were food for specialists then as they are
now, relate to the ‘‘mainstream’’ of Hellenistic literature.

The Trouble with Fragments: Historiography

Most brief treatments of Hellenistic historiography have recourse to Polybius’
Histories as a haven in the sea of murky evidence that stretches from Xenophon in
the fourth century BCE to Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Diodorus Siculus in the
first. There are many reasons for doing so. First of all, Polybius’ work is much better
preserved than any other history from this period. Secondly, it provides a contem-
porary account of the political sea-change caused by the military exploits of Rome.
Thirdly, it does so in a manner that is sufficiently in line with Thucydidean and
modern concepts of history to earn its author respect as a ‘‘serious’’ historian. And
last but not least, Polybius while defending his own ideas about writing history
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 319

extensively reflects on the achievements of his predecessors, so that he is now a key

witness for the lost historiography of the fourth through second centuries. While all
of this makes sense, it is to be feared that the primacy of Polybius in literary surveys
has left generations of Classicists with a skewed picture of Hellenistic historiography,
and has steered them away from material that is no less significant and interesting, if
considerably harder to access and navigate.
To start with navigability, it should be said that Polybius’ Histories do not present
particularly fair sailing either. Of its original 40 books only the first five survive intact.
Books 6 to 18 we know largely from the so-called ‘‘Excerpta Antiqua,’’ a Byzantine
epitome of Books 1 to 18, and for the remaining 22 books we rely primarily on a
collection of excerpts made for the Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (912–
50 CE ). These sources can be supplemented from citations by other authors, ranging
from a few to none for some books (nothing at all survives of Books 17 and 40) to
very many for the geographical Book 34. Arranging and interpreting this evidence is
fraught with difficulties (Walbank 1979: 1–62).
This, then, is the best a scholar of Hellenistic historiography may hope for. On the
opposite side of the evidence spectrum are historians who are little more than a name,
such as a certain ‘‘Demetrius who wrote about his fatherland,’’ named in Stephanus
of Byzantium’s sixth-century CE encyclopedia of geographical names (Ethnica) for no
other purpose than to illustrate the ethnic ‘‘of Odessus’’ (FGrH 808). Demetrius’
local history On Odessus is as easily imaginable in the Empire as in the third century
BCE , and such dating problems are persistent throughout the evidence even where
more information is available. This in itself says something about the continuities in
Greek historiography and spells trouble for attempts to construct a developmental
history of the genre.
Somewhere between Polybius and Demetrius fall historians such as Nymphis, a
third-century author from Heraclea on the Black Sea, whose best-known work, like
that of Demetrius, dealt with his fatherland, and who, like Polybius, played a political
role of some significance within his community. In Felix Jacoby’s Fragmente der
griechischen Historiker (FGrH), our principal guide to most of the hundreds of known
Hellenistic historiographers, the evidence for Nymphis consists of six testimonies (T),
remarks in other authors which tell us something about the author and his oeuvre,
and 19 fragments (F), citations of various sorts (e.g., paraphrases, summaries, or
verbatim quotations) which tell us something about the content of his work. Their
nature and contents are fairly representative of the evidence for many Hellenistic local
historians (FGrH 432):

T1 The entry ‘‘Nymphis’’ in the Suda, an encyclopedia of the tenth

century CE , which says that Nymphis wrote a work about Heraclea
in 13 books, ending with Ptolemy III Euergetes; and a work on
Alexander, the Successors, and their successors in 24 books.
T2 Ps.-Chion 13.3, of uncertain date, a passage in a fictional letter
written in the name of Chion, one of the Heraclean notables who
murdered the tyrant Clearchus in 353 BCE . To add verisimilitude,
the author has used the names of well-known Heracleans, including
Nymphis who lived a full century later.
320 Martine Cuypers

T 3, 4 Photius, Library 224.226a and 228b, two passages from this ninth-
century patriarch’s summary of Books 9–16 of the Heraclean history
of Nymphis’ compatriot Memnon (first or second century CE ). The
first says that after the death of Lysimachus (281 BCE ) ‘‘Nymphis,
advised the remaining exiles, being also one of them himself, to
return to Heraclea.’’ The second mentions ‘‘Nymphis the historian’’
as the leader of a Heraclean embassy to the Galatians.
T5 ¼ F 3, a scholion on Apollonius, Argonautica 2.729–35, which
ends with the words ‘‘(this) says Nymphis in Book 1 of On
Heraclea, from whom Apollonius seems to have taken it’’ (in fact
borrowing in the opposite direction, Nymphis using Apollonius,
cannot be entirely excluded).
T6 A citation of the third-century CE Neoplatonic philosopher
Porphyry by Stobaeus, Anthology 1.49.52 (fifth century CE ), which
mentions a work by Philo of Heraclea entitled Reply to Nymphis
Concerning His Wonders.
F 1, 2 The entries ‘‘Phrixus’’ and ‘‘Hypius’’ in Stephanus’ Ethnica, which
cite Nymphis as an authority for the topographical names ‘‘Phrixus’
Harbor’’ and ‘‘Hypia Mountains.’’
F 3, 4, 5a, 8, Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.729–35a, 752,
11, 12, 13, 14, 780–3b, 4.247–53, 2.168b, 649–50, 672–3, 786–7a, 815, and
15, 16 854, citing Nymphis for mythical events and facts on the south coast
of the Black Sea relating to the locations and stories mentioned in
Apollonius’ epic.
F 5b, 9, 10, 18 Athenaeus, Learned Banqueters 14.619f–20a, on a ritual of the Pontic
Mariandynians and its origin, including a long quotation of Nymphis’
actual words; 12.536a–b, an anecdote about the corrupt Spartan
general Pausanias, also with a quotation; 12.549a–d, an anecdote
about the mortally obese Heraclean tyrant Dionysius, with a long
quotation; and 13.596e, on Sappho’s love for Phaon, curiously refer-
ring to ‘‘Nymphis’ Periplus of Asia’’ – surely Nymphodorus is meant.
F6 Lexicon Rhetoricum Cantabrigiense 353.2, a note in the margin of a
Cambridge manuscript of Harpocration’s Lexicon of the Ten Attic
Orators, citing Nymphis for an explanation of the Persian term
orosangēs.
F7 Plutarch, Virtues of Women 9.248d, citing Nymphis for the origin of
the custom of using metronymics rather than patronymics in Lydian
Xanthos, where women once persuaded Bellerophon to lift a curse
he had imposed for non-payment for a service.
F 17 Aelian, On the Nature of Animals 17.3, on giant snakes in the land
of the Troglodytes, mentioned ‘‘in Book 9 of Nymphis’ work on
Ptolemy.’’
F 19 The Byzantine lexica Etymologicum Magnum and Etymologicum
Genuinum under ‘‘Gargaros,’’ a city in the Troad named after a son
of Zeus of that name, ‘‘as Nymphias (sic) the philosopher (sic)
explains.’’
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 321

I have included this lengthy assemblage of disiecta membra primarily to illustrate the
complexity of the evidence and the number of interpretive moves required to make
sense of it. Engagement with Nymphis implies dealing not only with a very broad
array of source texts – many non-mainstream and quite a few untranslated – but also
with the works on which some of these sources comment, and with other authors
and works cited in the same context. To make informed judgments, one needs a
basic familiarity with all of these texts: their nature, content, and aims; their
intended audience and production context; their state of transmission; the author’s
interests, citation habits, and overall accuracy. Many general caveats apply
(Marincola 2007: 2). Ancient authors often cited from memory, which is far from
infallible: they may get various bits wrong – from the precise words to the context or
title of the cited work – while still providing significant information on other points.
Furthermore, it is often hard to tell to what extent an author is following the cited
historian – for example, whether he is quoting verbatim or paraphrasing, where the
citation ends and his own words start, and whether he has perhaps misrepresented
his source text through misunderstanding, or has purposely tailored it to suit his
own argument. One must also take into account the distortion caused by selection.
This is most obvious in summaries of entire works, such as those of Photius, but also
applies to incidental citations. For example, because most of our evidence for
Nymphis comes from Learned Banqueters and the scholia on Apollonius, it looks
as if Nymphis dealt primarily in anecdotes and myths; but this was precisely what the
Apollonian commentators and Athenaeus were looking for and may not be repre-
sentative of the work they mined. And in the case of evaluative discussions we must
also reckon with polemical bias: an author keen on showing the superiority of his
own knowledge, understanding, or approach may not be doing justice to the work
he discusses.
Despite all these problems, surprisingly much can often still be elicited from little
scraps. In the case of Nymphis, where we are lucky enough to have book numbers in
most citations, we can reconstruct the overall layout of On Heraclea with a reasonable
degree of plausibility (FGrH vol. 3b.259–61). Book 1, the source of most citations in
the scholia to Apollonius, appears to have dealt with mythical events in northwestern
Asia Minor before the foundation of Heraclea (an ‘‘archaeology’’ comparable to
those in Herodotus and Thucydides). Books 2 to 9 covered the period from the
city’s foundation to the start of the tyranny and the Heracleans’ dealings with
Achaemenid Persia (660/50–365/4 BCE ). Books 10 and 11 dealt with the tyranny
of Clearchus and perhaps also that of his successor, Timotheus (364/3–353/2 or
–338/7), and the final Books 12 and 13 treated the later history of the tyranny, its
fall, and events down to at least the succession of Ptolemy III Euergetes (247/6).
Although Books 2 to 13 covered ‘‘historical’’ events, it is clear from the citations that
aetiological, ethnographical, and geographical excursus were not restricted to Book 1
but occurred throughout the entire narrative, as they do in Herodotus. Therefore,
and because of Nymphis’ inevitable interest in Persian matters, it is perhaps no
coincidence that there is a significant change of theme after nine books, precisely
the length of Herodotus’ Histories. The relatively limited space reserved for recent
history may be explained by the fact that Nymphis dealt with this period at much
greater length in his work on Alexander and the Successors. And apart from such
322 Martine Cuypers

structural observations, the evidence also allows some analysis of Nymphis narrative
style in digressive passages, thanks to the three lengthy verbatim quotations in
Athenaeus (F 5b, 9, and 10).
The example of Nymphis stands for hundreds of Hellenistic historians whose work
is lost and can now only be gleaned from testimonies and citations. The practical
explanations for their disappearance vary per author and genre. In the case of the local
historians, their regional focus certainly did not help their chances of survival; to a
wider audience such works held a limited appeal. In the case of Nymphis in particular
one may also cite the tyranny of compilations. When Memnon continued the history
of Heraclea to the late Hellenistic period or early Empire, his work in due course
supplanted that of Nymphis (which he used to compile his own version) as the first
port of call for all things Heraclean and as a handy continuous account of the entire
Hellenistic period (albeit one written from a local vantage point). In very much the
same way Nymphis had obliterated his own predecessor, Promathidas (FGrH 430),
and the accounts of Arrian, Diodorus, and Plutarch supplanted the early histories of
Alexander.
But an ideological explanation also looms in the background, which one might call
‘‘the tyranny of Thucydides,’’ exemplified notably by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Dionysius’ developmental scheme of Greek historiography (which may go back to
Theophrastus) identifies as the genre’s originators ‘‘local’’ historians who in plain
language recorded the traditions of the past of their own towns, including not only
the evidence of monuments and records but also marvelous stories (‘‘myths’’).
Herodotus in turn did not write about one time or place, but included all important
events of the Greek and non-Greek world in a single narrative. Thucydides then
rejected both the marvelous stories of the early writers and Herodotus’ broad scope
and wrote about a single war, basing his account solely on his own inquiry and
autopsy (On Thucydides 5; Marincola 2007: 4–5). In Dionysius’ view, then, local
history is primitive, Herodotus a pivotal figure, and Thucydides the telos of the genre
(at least in content if not in style).
A teleological model of historiography that culminates in Thucydides underlies the
thinking of virtually all ancient theorists, including Polybius, Plutarch (On the Malice
of Herodotus), and Lucian (How to Write History). It persists also in modern evalu-
ations of the genre, even if their taxonomies of the evidence differ. For example,
Jacoby’s collection (FGrH) arranges Greek historiography into five subgenres in the
order in which he believed they developed (Jacoby 1909; Marincola 2007: 5–7;
Schepens 1997). First, Jacoby thought, mythography appeared, which sought to
organize the many different stories about the mythical past. The second subgenre,
ethnography, focused on the distinctive features, customs, and marvels of lands
and peoples and was a hybrid form, containing both narratives of events and descrip-
tions. Chronography, the third, took as its point of departure the events within a
certain time period, organizing them by year. The fourth and best subgenre, con-
temporary history (Zeitgeschichte), Jacoby saw emerging in Books 7 to 9 of
Herodotus (whom he, like Dionysius, constructed as a pivotal figure) and coming
to maturity in the work of Thucydides. The key features of this type were an emphasis
on the author’s own time and a Panhellenic perspective. The fifth subgenre, local
history (horography), limited itself to a local perspective, treating not only
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 323

‘‘historical’’ events but also mythographical and ethnographical material. Unlike

Dionysius, Jacoby saw this as a late development inspired largely by Herodotus (a
view which has its attractions). He agreed with Dionysius, however, in evaluating it as
an inferior genre, and more generally in seeing Thucydides’ work as the pinnacle of
Greek historiography and all that followed as a step back.
Most scholars now seem to agree that such models do injustice to the sheer variety
of Greek historical writing throughout antiquity and that they ignore that historio-
graphy as a genre is far from clearly demarcated. For the Hellenistic period in
particular, they disqualify a very substantial slice of the evidence (texts such as the
Letter of Aristeas, Euhemerus’ Holy Account, and the Periplus ascribed to Scymnus are
also, in their own way, historical writing) and so rather hinder our understanding of
the period’s literary culture. We should keep in mind that Nymphis and his colleagues
were no less familiar with Thucydides’ work than we are; if they wrote something
different, this is surely not a matter of incompetence but one of choice. It is more
fruitful to look beyond the bias of our sources and modern historiographical norms
and ‘‘read’’ these authors as working in a different tradition. While the remains of
most Hellenistic historians are not generous in providing hard historical data, they do
furnish important evidence for social and political ideology and identity building
(Erskine in this volume), building blocks for the development of prose fiction
(Whitmarsh in this volume), and a context for the interests of contemporary poets
(Harder and Köhnken in this volume). For all these reasons this material deserves
more attention, and it is to be hoped that the current re-edition of Jacoby’s collection
with English translations and commentaries (Worthington 2006–) will make an
important part of it more accessible.

The Trouble with Silence: Rhetoric and Oratory

The fate of Hellenistic rhetoric and its practical application, oratory, resembles that of
historiography. Here too the Classicism of the late Hellenistic period and Empire
hangs as a shadow over what preceded, and here too modern scholars have often
taken the judgment of later authors for granted. This is perhaps more excusable than
for historiography because the evidence is both more limited and more biased. Not a
single Greek rhetorical treatise or oration written between c.300 and the late first
century BCE survives (with the possible exception of Demetrius’ On Style), and while
historical texts are often cited and summarized in a fairly neutral way for the facts and
narratives they contain, our information about Hellenistic rhetoric almost entirely
comes from later treatises and handbooks on the topic (which are evaluative by
nature) and much depends on a relatively small number of authors (notably Cicero,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Quintilian). These sources allow us to say a fair bit
about the theoretical interests and tenets of Hellenistic rhetors but only little about
the practical application of their teachings; what they do provide us with are negative
evaluations of Hellenistic styles of speaking as opposed to the oratory of Classical
Athens. Their grand narrative of the history of rhetoric eventually underlies modern
assessments such as the following (Kühnert 1993: 666, my translation):
324 Martine Cuypers

Practical rhetoric reached its highpoint in the fourth century BCE , especially in
Demosthenes. When after the Battle of Chaeronea (338) Greece had become politically
insignificant and for this reason free speech had lost its most important application, the
play of political forces, practical rhetoric swiftly declined and the art of rhetoric more and
more retreated into the schools. Rhetoric’s scholastic nature determined its further
development in the Hellenistic period, characteristic of which are the central position
of rhetoric in education, the primacy of stylistic issues in rhetorical theory and practice, a
spread of rhetoric to literature at large, and last but not least, a detailed expansion of
rhetorical theory through far-reaching systematization and ever more complicated clas-
sification and differentiation.

Although today few scholars of ancient rhetoric would compose this passage as it
stands, it provides a convenient starting point for an attempt to move beyond the bias
of our literary sources and construct a picture of the innumerable Hellenistic theor-
eticians and practitioners of eloquence whom they reduce to near-silence.
First of all, contrary to Kühnert, ‘‘Greek political eloquence did not die at
Chaeronea’’ (Pernot 2005: 73) because ‘‘the Greek city did not die at Chaeronea’’
(Robert 1969: 42). In the new political world wrought by Alexander and his succes-
sors, the polis continued to be the primary focus of social life for most people (Erskine
in this volume). Independence had always been the privilege of a relatively small
number of hegemonic poleis, and for the majority of Greek cities the new status quo
changed relatively little. If anything, the polis became more important because the
number of Hellenic cities grew, thanks to new foundations and foreign cities’ adop-
tion of the institutions of the polis. In all Hellenistic poleis, old and new, factions vied
for power, individuals brought their disputes to court, and councils and assemblies
deliberated about internal and foreign affairs. Countless men defended themselves
against charges, proposed decrees, praised the benefactors of their city, and spoke to
its interests in other cities, leagues, and royal courts. Their immense production does
not survive and is barely visible in our literary sources, but it is omnipresent in the
epigraphic record. Each of the innumerable Hellenistic decrees preserved on stone is a
testimony to speeches delivered, and the text of the inscription often gives a fair
impression of the content of such speeches (examples in Erskine 2007). Occasionally
we even have an actual address, as in the case of epistles sent by rulers to cities, which
were read aloud in public as well as recorded on stone. These observe many of the
conventions of public address and give us some first-hand evidence for Hellenistic
styles of oratory (Pernot 2000: 103–14 ¼ 2005: 73–82).
The epigraphic evidence and common sense, then, defy the claim that ‘‘practical
rhetoric swiftly declined’’ at the end of the fourth century. This implies that it is
dangerous to approach Hellenistic rhetoric as a ‘‘scholastic’’ discipline in the modern
sense of the word, i.e., as a subject that is primarily of theoretical interest and of
limited practical use. If in the Hellenistic period rhetoric came to occupy a crucial
position in higher education, this is not merely as a symbol of Greekness, to inculcate
Greek cultural values, but first and foremost as a system to equip elite youths from
different places and backgrounds with the power of the word, spoken and written,
which was key to a successful completion of many of the tasks that were expected of
them in later life. Rhetoric in the Hellenistic period became the single most important
educational tool to promote good citizenship, achieving a status already promoted by
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 325

Isocrates and later theorized notably by Cicero and Quintilian. A rhetorical education
became ‘‘virtually a minimum requirement for full elite status’’ (Vanderspoel 2007:
129), and it is for this reason that philosophers of all persuasions theorized about it in
one way or another, handling the competition between rhetoric and philosophy in
different and often confusing ways – from embracing rhetoric as part of philosophical
knowledge (epistēmē) to degrading it to a ‘‘routine’’ (tribē; Quint. Inst. 2.15, 17;
Philodemus’ Rhetoric: Gutzwiller in this volume).
Yet theorizing by rhetors and theorizing by philosophers cannot really be separated,
and rhetoric never retreated into the schools, be they schools of philosophy or schools
of rhetoric; practical education, and not contemplation, remained the context of its
development. It is in this context that the Hellenistic drive towards systematization,
classification, and differentiation must be understood (Connolly 2007: 147–8). Critics
who observe that the practicing orator does not need such detailed taxonomies are
missing the point. Ancient rhetors were well aware of the importance of experience and
talent. They knew that oratory in action tends to blur the lines drawn by theory, and
that their classifications and differentiations were open to argument. While they may
have found pleasure in intricate description (as did contemporary poets, historians,
geographers, and mathematicians), system building was not a goal in itself. Formal
analysis played an important role in the system of literary education, which was in place
already at the beginning of the Hellenistic period and, though continually tweaked and
refined, remained in essence the same during the Empire.
Its first serious stage, after students had learned their letters, was grammatical
training, well documented in the school texts of Greco-Roman Egypt (Wissmann in
this volume) and a handbook ascribed to Dionysius Thrax (170–90 BCE ), to whom at
least the work’s introduction goes back. According to Dionysius, the purpose of
grammatical training was to make pupils familiar with poets and, to a lesser extent,
prose authors of the canon. It consisted of six parts: reading aloud and learning poetic
meters; identification of tropes; explanation of the meaning of rare words and
historical references; etymology; declining nouns and conjugating verbs; and finally,
‘‘judgment,’’ comprising textual criticism, questions of authenticity, and esthetic
evaluation. Standard elements of rhetorical training, typically starting at age 12 to
14, would have been the different types of speeches, techniques of argument and
organization, and aspects of style (sentence structure, word choice, prose rhythm),
the nature, effect, and appropriateness a great variety of tropes or figures of speech
and thought (schēmata, including personification, irony, anaphora, antithesis, apo-
siopesis, preteritio, climax, and simile). These were ingrained through the study of
various types and styles of prose writing and through written exercises on set themes,
ranging from preliminary exercises (progymnasmata) for specific modes (such as
narrative, ecphrasis, comparison, fable, and speaking in character) to declamations
(meletai) on imaginary themes drawn from mythology, history, and daily life (such as
‘‘advise Agamemnon whether or not to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia’’). Analysis of
language, style, structure, and arguments, formalized in a theoretical framework that
combined elements of literary criticism, grammar, logic, dialectic, and psychology,
formed a crucial intermediary step in the learning process, helping students appreciate
the qualities of the examples and providing them with guidelines for their own
attempts at text composition.
326 Martine Cuypers

A practical factor which must also be taken into account is that most rhetors were
paid directly by their students, so that their income depended on how many (and
which) students they managed to attract. This in turn depended not only on their
location (major cities attracting the best teachers and students) and reputation as an
active speaker (i.e., their perceived ability to teach by example), but also on the
efficiency of their teaching system. Since the set examples and exercises did not leave
much room for innovation, the realm where a rhetor could prove himself better than
the competition was the ‘‘system’’ on which he based his teaching. In a sense,
therefore, there were as many rhetorics as there were rhetors, which goes a long
way to explaining why so little of Hellenistic rhetorical writing survives: most texts
had the status of handbooks; they were ‘‘operator’s manuals’’ (Vanderspoel 2007:
130) of a type well attested in Latin during the Empire (Kennedy 2003). Like modern
textbooks, they were swiftly superseded as educational practice adapted to develop-
ments in rhetorical theory, a ‘‘finite, logical system capable of meshing with the
virtually infinite disorder of the world’’ which continually evolved to ‘‘compensate
for contingencies with a superabundance of possibilities for classification’’ and to
‘‘impose systematic order on speech that always threatens to escape its proper
bounds’’ (Connolly 2007: 152, 148).
The educational context is also important for a proper assessment of what Kühnert
calls ‘‘the spread of rhetoric to literature at large,’’ with a metaphor (das Ausgreifen)
that suggests uncontainable infection, unruly horses, and trespassing. In light of
educational practice, there can be no doubt that nearly all Hellenistic authors had
rhetorical training; yet it is difficult to trace the influence of this training in the works
we possess. Where in the Second Sophistic we see the world of rhetorical exercises
enter literature with spoofs such as Lucian’s Encomium of the Fly, few such tell-tale
signs of educational practice appear in Hellenistic literature. When it comes to less
obvious influence, the most rewarding objects of study would seem to be texts such as
Polybius’ Histories and Apollonius’ Argonautica. Yet using the set speeches and
representation of public speaking in these works as evidence for Hellenistic rhetoric
is tricky. It is true that both works emphasize the power of the spoken word and that
features of their set speeches can be mapped onto the instructions of later rhetorical
handbooks. Such observations, however, equally apply to numerous pre-Hellenistic
texts, from Thucydides’ Histories to the Homeric epics. Rhetors in fact loved to trace
the origin of their profession back to the Iliad, pointing to Phoenix’s claim that he
taught Achilles everything to make him a ‘‘speaker of words’’ (9.440–4), but surely
they did not seriously believe that Homer derived his eloquence and that of his
characters from a rhetorical handbook. Rather they assumed that the ancient poets
intuitively or through experience knew the very parameters of effective speech making
which they themselves elaborately spelled out for their inexperienced and, on average,
considerably less talented students. In the end, then, the reason why rhetorical
training is hard to trace in what survives of Hellenistic literature is not that rhetoric
was an abstract system without practical use for literary composition, but that good
literature tends not to reveal how the author learned his métier.
Finally, let us look at Kühnert’s ‘‘primacy of stylistic issues in rhetorical theory and
practice.’’ This observation, it seems, is to a significant extent inspired by the prominence
of the discussion about Attic and Asiatic style in the late first century BCE . Leaving this
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 327

discussion aside for the moment, we may observe that what is perhaps the most crucial
Hellenistic contribution to rhetorical theory does not concern style but content and
organization. Hermagoras of Temnos (active c.150 BCE ) developed a classification of
‘‘types of issues’’ (Greek staseis, Latin statūs) which had a decisive influence on theorizing
about invention (heuresis), one of the key aspects of speech making – together with
arrangement (oikonomia), diction (lexis), memory (mnēmē), and delivery (hypokrisis). It
was further developed by authors such as Cicero (On Invention), Quintilian, and
Hermogenes (On Issues), who give us a good impression of Hermagoras’ ideas. The
purpose of his so-called stasis theory was to define the key point on which a case turned,
i.e., what a speech had to establish. This defined the nature and structure of its argument.
Discussions of Hermagoras’ system tend to focus on its usefulness for forensic oratory
(‘‘Did X kill Y? If so, was it murder or homicide? Were there mitigating circumstances?
Should it be tried in this court?’’). Yet by including not only issues concerning particular
situations (hypotheseis: ‘‘should Socrates marry?’’) but also general issues (theseis: ‘‘should
a man marry?’’), Hermagoras also made an important contribution to bringing moral
and philosophical subjects within the scope of rhetorical education. On style he had
relatively little to say (Cic. Brut. 263, 271).
Another Hellenistic development was refinement of the basic Aristotelian division of
oratory into forensic (genos dikanikon), deliberative (symbouleutikon), and epideictic
(epideiktikon). The epideictic logos in particular was subdivided into a large number of
subgenres, including the logos epitaphios (funeral speech), basilikos (speech to a king),
panēgyrikos (festival speech), epithalamios (wedding speech), genethliakos (birthday
speech), and presbeutikos (ambassador’s speech), each with its own do’s and don’ts.
Theophrastus provided at least some of the drive for such refinements. Building on
Aristotle’s groundwork, he wrote about 20 works on a wide range of rhetorical topics
(all lost). They included separate treatments of forensic, deliberative, and epideictic
oratory and treatises on examples, maxims, non-technical proofs, praise, slander,
statement of the case, narration, and humor (D.L. 5.42–50; fragments in FHSG
2.508–59). Theophrastus may also have been the first to systematically discuss delivery
(the use of voice and gestures), in a work which also covered the performance of music,
acting, and poetic recitation. If later authors primarily cite Theophrastus’ treatise On
Style and its distinction of four stylistic ‘‘virtues’’ (hellenismos, correctness; saphēneia,
clarity; to prepon, appropriateness; kataskeuē, ornamentation) and three types of style
(ischnos, plain; megaloprepēs, grand; and mesos, mixed), this primarily reflects the focus
of their own interest and an overall agreement with Theophrastus’ advice always to seek
the mean between extremes and to use a style appropriate to the subject.
The Stoics made a significant contribution to the philosophical acceptability of
rhetoric by defining it as a part of logic. Their technical contributions came largely
from the study of language and the overlapping spheres of grammatical theory and
literary criticism. They may have been responsible for the distinction between figures
of thought and figures of speech, and for the concept of tropes (tropoi), single words
used in ‘‘novel’’ ways (including metaphor, metonymy, and hyperbole).
Exclusively devoted to style but not focusing exclusively on oratory is the treatise
On Style which the manuscript tradition attributes to Demetrius of Phalerum (Chiron
1993; Innes 1995). Its date has been heavily debated, with some scholars placing
it as early as the third century BCE and others as late as the second century CE . An
328 Martine Cuypers

early-first-century BCE date is perhaps most plausible – somewhere between the

rediscovery of Aristotle’s Rhetoric and the rise of Atticism, which the treatise does
not discuss, and well after the ‘‘critics’’ of the third and second centuries BCE of
whom it includes concepts (Gutzwiller in this volume). The author describes four
styles – plain, grand, elegant, and forceful – in terms of appropriate diction, compos-
ition, and subject matter, copiously illustrating his statements with examples drawn
from poetry and prose. In light of the evidence from Philodemus, the distinction of
four styles (instead of Theophrastus’ three) no longer seems as remarkable as it once
did, which serves as a warning that we should also not make too much of the treatise’s
‘‘idiosyncratic’’ inclusion of a substantial discussion of letter-writing. Since the letter
was a popular literary form (White in this volume), manuals of letter-writing probably
existed. Given the state of our evidence, it means little that the earliest surviving
example of such a manual dates from late antiquity.
In short, Hellenistic rhetoric was concerned with describing in increasing detail
all the facets of planning, writing, memorizing, and delivering a speech. Style was
one of these facets and an important one, but it surely did not eclipse everything else.
That it nevertheless appears all-important has, it seems, much to do with how a
polemic originating in the first century BCE has colored the perception of Hellenistic
rhetoric from Imperial to modern times. I am deliberately using ‘‘polemic’’ rather
than other terms that often appear in scholarly discussions about the opposition
between ‘‘Atticism’’ and ‘‘Asianism.’’ Take for example the following assessment
(Vanderspoel 2007: 133):

What had begun as a dispute between the philosophers and the sophists about the utility
and nature of rhetoric became a disagreement between different schools of rhetorical
thought on the proper style for oratory. In some ways, the Asianists replaced the sophists
in what was by and large the same debate, a battle now fought in technical terms rather
than centering on issues of morality.

This approach is confusing for two reasons. First, it reduces the issue to style and
technical matters whereas, as we shall see, the opposition between Atticism and
Asianism is more complex and in fact very similar to that between the philosophers
and sophists of the Classical period. Secondly, we are not really dealing with two
debating schools of rhetoric, but with a one-sided move of the rhetorical proponents
of Classicism, who call themselves Atticists and define their enemy by opposition
(Wisse 1995). If Atticism stands for good, Asianism stands for bad. Asianism is not so
much a school but a stigmatizing label like Callimachus’ Telchines, which could be
applied with a fair degree of liberty.
Significant is the case of Cicero, in whose On Invention of c.80 BCE and On the
Orator of 55 BCE Asianus simply means ‘‘from Asia.’’ The term ‘‘Atticism’’ first
appears in a letter to Atticus of 54 BCE (4.19.1), and by 46 BCE Cicero is writing
Brutus and The Orator in response to accusations of composing in the Asiatic manner.
He defends himself by citing Attic antecedents in the speeches of Demosthenes and
claiming for his own style the label ‘‘Rhodian’’ (Brut. 51, Or. 25; cf. Quint. Inst.
12.1.16–19), which he defines as a mean between the two extremes of Atticism and
Asianism – the mean being good and extremes by definition bad, as we saw with
Theophrastus. Attempts to describe Attic, Asiatic, or Rhodian style outside the
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 329

context of individual authors’ stylistic polemic run into trouble: there is no less
variation in style between the canonical Attic orators (Lysias and Demosthenes could
not be further apart) than there is between the orators whom our sources stigmatize
as Asiatic. Ancient descriptions of Asiatic style typically comprise two very different
modes: one that is ornate and impetuous and another that is terse and epigrammatic,
full of Gorgianic figures (Cic. Brut. 325–6). The key similarity is that they are both
extreme and therefore bad; otherwise they could not be more different. And no one
ever sold himself as an Asiatic orator – in fact, Hegesias, an alleged third-century
‘‘inventor’’ of Asianism, apparently claimed Lysias as his model (Cic. Or. 226).
A passage in Strabo about this same Hegesias gives a good impression of the spirit
in which the war against Asianism is conducted, and may lead us back to the question
of the actual importance of style in this polemic (Str. 14.1.41):

Well-known Magnesians are the rhetor Hegesias, who primarily invented the so-called
Asiatic style, corrupting the existing Attic ethos; also Simus the melic poet, who in a
similar way corrupted the ways of earlier melic poets by introducing free song . . . and
Cleomachus the boxer, who fell in love with a pervert (kinaidos) and with some slave-girl
raised by this pervert, and started speaking and behaving like a pervert. The first to use
pervert-speak in poetry was Sotades, and then Alexander Aetolus. But they did so in
recited poetry, Lysis in sung poetry, and Simus even earlier than him. Another Magnesian
is Anaxenor the lyre-singer, who was exalted by theatre audiences in general but espe-
cially by Antony, who granted him the right to collect tribute from four cities and
supplied soldiers to give him a hand.

While the words about Hegesias refer to his corruption of the Attic style, all that
follows tarnishes him further by association. The birthplace of the Asiatic style is also
the home of kinaidoi, inventors of suspect song, effeminate boxers, slave prostitutes,
and histrionic opera singers who are admired by despotic Roman politicians. Stylistic
corruption, moral corruption, and political corruption go hand in hand. What is at
stake here is more obvious in the opening of Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ On the
Ancient Orators (1, translation adapted from Usher 1974):

We ought to acknowledge a great debt of gratitude to the age in which we live, my most
accomplished Ammaeus, for an improvement in certain fields of serious study, and
especially for the considerable revival in the practice of civil oratory (politikos logos). In
the epoch preceding ours, the ancient wisdom-loving Rhetoric (philosophos rhētorikē) was
so badly smeared and suffered such terrible abuse that she was obliterated. From the
demise of Alexander of Macedon she started to expire and wither away bit by bit, in such
a way that by our time she was almost completely dead. Another rhetoric sneaked in and
took her place, one who was intolerably theatrical, without dignity, ill-educated, without
even a hint of philosophy or any other aspect of liberal education. By deceiving the
ignorant mob she not only managed to live in greater wealth, luxury, and splendor than
the other rhetoric; in fact, she made herself indispensible for positions of honor and
leadership in the cities, which ought to have been the prerogative of her wisdom-loving
rival. She was vulgar and disgusting and in the end made Greece like a house abandoned
by morality and the gods. Just as in such a house the free-born, prudent wife has no
control over what is hers by right while a senseless harlot claims control of the entire
estate and runs it into the ground, terrorizing the wife and treating her like dirt – just
330 Martine Cuypers

so in every city. . . the ancient, autochthonous Attic Muse sat deprived of the respect
and privileges which were rightfully hers, while her antagonist, who had arrived only
yesterday or the day before from some Asian pit, a Mysian or Carian or Phrygian pest,
claimed the right to administer Greek cities, expelling her rival from public life.
Ignorance thus expelled love of wisdom, and insanity expelled prudence.

Our own age, however, Dionysius continues, has corrected this wrong and swiftly
restored the ancient Rhetoric to her former glory, thanks to the Romans (2–3):

But this is perhaps not the only reason for praising the present age and our allies in the
love of wisdom (sumphilosophountas), that they started to make what is good more
honored than what is bad . . . Equally recommendable is how swiftly they have given us
this change and how much the situation has improved. Apart from a few Asian cities
which because of their ignorance are slow to learn what is good, the world has ceased to
admire vulgar, frigid, and senseless oratory. . . Yes, I think the cause and origin of this
great change has been Rome, the ruler of all, who has turned the eyes of the entire world
upon her, and those who administer her public life according to what is virtuous and
best, highly educated men, noble in their judgments.

Excavating the ideological depths of these paragraphs would command a chapter by

itself (Hidber 1996). Like many passages in Dionysius’ Roman Antiquities, they are the
product of a complex symbiosis between the elite of Rome and the Greek intellectuals
streaming into the city in the late first century BCE (Gowing in this volume). For
Dionysius the Romans are not just honorary Greeks but the true heirs of Classical
Athens. Athenian moral, political, educational, cultural, and literary values are equated
with Roman values. The key to these values, in Dionysius’ presentation, is the philosophos
rhētorikē, the philosophical rhetoric advocated by Isocrates as a complete education in
itself, which provides its students not only with the power of the word but also with the
moral and political attitudes required to wield it justly. In time, in the first century CE ,
this position in the debate over the respective remits of the philosopher and the rhetor
would give birth to ‘‘sophists’’ who occupied a niche somewhere between the two
poles, and with them to the Second Sophistic. Meanwhile the role Isocrates had
envisaged for rhetoric in education was firmly established; in this respect rhetoric never
needed rescuing by the Atticists, the Romans, or anyone else. Practical oratory probably
did not need quite as much rescuing either, but unfortunately we will never know for
sure. When Dionysius wrote ‘‘I should be surprised if the craze for that silly sort of
oratory survives another generation’’ (Ancient Orators 3), he accurately predicted that
Atticism would obliterate Hellenistic oratory swiftly and completely. Already in
Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists of the early third century CE , the history of rhetoric
jumps straight from the fourth century BCE to the time of Nero.

The Trouble with Specialization: Science

This final section takes the form of that most annoying of rhetorical figures, the
praeteritio, its length being in inverse proportion to the number of subjects and
authors covered. As systematic learning flourished, the Hellenistic period produced
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 331

innumerable texts in fields which Classical scholars tend to label as ‘‘science,’’ loosely
used to include all disciplines which endeavor ‘‘to understand or model some aspect
of the natural world on the basis of investigation and reason’’ (Keyser and Irby-Massie
2008: 1). This definition covers, in alphabetical order, agriculture, alchemy, architec-
ture, astrology, astronomy, biology, cosmology, geography, harmonics, mathematics,
mechanics, human and veterinary medicine, meteorology, metrology, optics, pharma-
cology, physiognomy, and psychology.
Even a superficial survey of what we know about developments in these fields
during the Hellenistic period would fill a book. My primary aim here is to draw
attention to the fact that, differently from most areas of Hellenistic prose, quite a few
scientific texts are actually extant in their original form or something resembling it.
The survivors are unevenly spread over the disciplines and they are not always what
we would have wanted to have, but the corpus is sizable. Of Euclid, active in
Alexandria under Ptolemy I (ruled 323–283), we have the mathematical Elements
and Data, the astronomical Phaenomena, and the Optics; his On Divisions of Figures
partially survives in Arabic translation. Aristarchus of Samos (c.310–230 BCE ), who
famously advocated a heliocentric model of the universe, is meagerly represented with
On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and the Moon. The extant works of Archimedes
(c.287–212 BCE ) include On the Equilibrium of Planes, On the Measurement of a
Circle, On Spirals, On the Sphere and the Cylinder, On Conoids and Spheroids, On
Floating Bodies, The Quadrature of the Parabola, (O)stomachion, The Cattle-Problem,
The Sand-Reckoner, and last but not least, The Method of Mechanical Theorems,
surviving in a palimpsest which is currently being re-examined (Netz and Noel
2007). The Conics of Apollonius of Perga (c.262–190 BCE ) exist in Greek and
Arabic, and much of the treatise On Burning Mirrors by his contemporary Diocles
is preserved in Eutocius’ commentary on Archimedes’ On the Sphere and the Cylinder.
In the field of engineering, Hero of Alexandria (c.10–70 CE ) falls slightly beyond
the cutoff point of this volume, but since science was largely unaffected by Classicism,
little changed from the Hellenistic period to the early Empire. We have his
Pneumatics, Mechanics (in Arabic), On Measurement, On the Dioptra, Catoptrics,
On Artillery Construction, and the strange treatise On Automaton Construction,
which deals with the construction of mechanical showpieces. Hero’s predecessors
include Philo of Byzantium (c.280–220 BCE ), of whose Compendium of Mechanics
the sections on poliorcetics and artillery construction survive in full, and the nebulous
Biton, who addressed his extant work on war machines to Attalus I of Pergamum
(ruled 241–197 BCE ). The monumental On Architecture by Vitruvius (first century
BCE ) is in Latin but gives a good impression of Hellenistic achievements in this field.
Medicine and biology are represented by Theophrastus’ Inquiry into Plants and
Causes of Plants and Apollonius of Citium’s commentary on the Hippocratic treatise
On Joints. For the debate between the various Hellenistic medical ‘‘sects’’
(Herophilus, Erasistratus, Asclepiades of Bithynia, the empiricists) we depend entirely
on later authors such as Galen.
Most of the texts in this dry list do not appear on the radar of the average Classicist
and belong primarily to historians of science. There are two obvious explanations for
this state of affairs. The first is that many of these texts are hard to access without
specialized knowledge, especially in fields that involve mathematics (including
332 Martine Cuypers

astronomy, geography, optics, mechanics, and harmonics). Secondly, these texts do

not really look like literature to modern eyes. Just like modern science dissertations,
they follow strict formal conventions, and at first sight they appear to contain little
that commands the attention of literary scholars. It is perhaps mainly on this last point
that there has been a change in atmosphere in recent decades, in tune with what
I called a ‘‘general blurring of boundaries between literary and historical approaches’’
in the introduction to this chapter. In practical terms, there is a growing interest in
scientific texts not merely as repositories of factual information but also as forms of
discourse, and more generally in their position within the intellectual, cultural, and
literary space of their time. For no matter how intractable the content of Aristarchus’
Sizes and Distances may be for non-specialists, it is a fact that it was produced at the
same time and in the same place as the poetry of Callimachus, Theocritus, and
Apollonius, namely at the Ptolemaic court of Alexandria in the first half of the third
century BCE .
If scientists and poets did not inhabit separate physical spheres, they also did not
inhabit separate intellectual and literary spheres. This is perhaps most obvious from
extreme examples such as Philodemus (Gutzwiller and Clauss and Cuypers in this
volume), Eratosthenes, whose diverse production comprised poetry, philosophy,
grammar, musical theory, history, chronography, mathematics, astronomy, and geo-
graphy (Geus 2002), and Posidonius, who wrote on philosophy, historiography,
military tactics, descriptive geography and ethnography, mathematical geography,
physics, meteorology, and astronomy (Gowing in this volume). Modern demarca-
tions between disciplines are clearly of limited value for assessing Hellenistic ‘‘intel-
lectual profiles.’’ Mythology and reasoned investigation of the natural world were also
married by others than Eratosthenes. Aratus’ Phaenomena and Nicander’s Theriaca
and Alexipharmaca have scientific subjects, and not only because these poets wanted
to show off their skill by creating poetry out of unpromising material (Volk and
Magnelli in this volume). Science is also omnipresent in the work of other poets.
Posidippus wrote epigrams on precious stones (Sider 2005b), Callimachus alludes to
theories about epilepsy (Lang 2009), and Apollonius’ Argonautica is informed by, at
the very least, astronomy, biology, cosmology, geography, mechanics, medicine,
meteorology, and psychology. Hellenistic poets read around, and it is clear that they
were not bound by the distinction between scholarship and science which defines the
modern academic world – and which has perhaps restricted our understanding of the
Hellenistic literary space more than we care to admit.
What then about the extant scientific treatises themselves? Much remains to be
done here. As the Further Reading section below shows, editions are often quite old,
and studies which discuss these texts as discourse are still relatively thin on the
ground. This is a pity because they raise many interesting questions, notably regard-
ing their authors’ communication strategies. All scientific texts are didactic in one way
or another, and most have an explicit addressee. Archimedes wrote his Cattle Problem
and Method of Mechanical Theorems in the form of letters to his colleague
Eratosthenes. Other works, including Biton’s On Artillery Construction, are
addressed to royal patrons. Beyond these explicit addressees there are also implicit
addressees, because Archimedes and Biton counted on others than Eratosthenes and
Attalus reading their work. The identity of explicit and implicit addressees is reflected
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 333

in the voice, content, and aims of a treatise. These authors’ attitude towards the work
of predecessors and colleagues/competitors also merits consideration – for example,
how they sell their own contribution to the topic at hand, and how they present
material borrowed from others (synopses, paraphrases, and epitomes abound, and
with them, questions of authorship). An issue specific to technical texts, finally, is the
relationship between verbal explanation and visual illustration.
What can be done with a ‘‘literary’’ approach has been exemplarily illustrated for
the mathematical texts by Reviel Netz (2009), who identified in them a playful
aesthetic akin to that of Hellenistic poetry. Similar studies in other fields would be
welcome, as the opening lines of two of the extant mechanical texts may illustrate:

The study of automaton construction has been considered an acceptable pursuit by our
predecessors because of the complexity (to poikilon) of the craftsmanship involved and
because it produces a baffling (ekplēkton) spectacle. For, briefly put, automaton con-
struction encompasses every part of mechanics in its step by step construction . . . Avoid
old-fashioned scenarios so that your presentation will look modern. For it is possible . . .
to vary and create different scenarios while using the same techniques.
Hero, On Automaton Construction 1.1, 12

Philo to Aristo, greetings. The volume I sent you before dealt with harbor construction.
Now it is time to explain, in accordance with the program I laid out for you, the subject
of artillery construction, which some call engine construction. If all who previously dealt
with this field of mechanics had used the same method, all I needed to provide would be
a description of the standard artillery designs. But since previous writers disagree not
only about the proportions of interrelated parts but also about the prime guiding factor,
namely the hole that is to receive the spring, it is fair to ignore old authors but explain
those methods of later specialists which can achieve the required effect in practice. Now I
know you are not unaware that for the mass of people this art has something inscrutable
and unfathomable. Many people who have tried to build engines of the same size, using
the same design, similar wood, and identical metal of the exact same weight, have
produced some engines with long range and powerful impact but others that fall short.
Asked why, they had no explanation. The remark of Polycleitus the sculptor applies here.
He maintained that ‘‘perfection is achieved gradually in the course of many calcula-
tions.’’ Likewise in this art, where constructions require many calculations, if you
produce a small discrepancy in particular parts, you get a large error in the end.
Philo, On Artillery Construction, preface

Both authors create an interesting conspiracy with their addressee – Aristo in the case
of Philo, anonymous in Hero – but these conspiracies have a very different feel. Hero
is evidently addressing a specialist in mechanics and does not beat around the bush.
The enemy is detractors who might say that automaton-making is trite – Hero and his
addressee know better: automata are a true test of skill – and spoiled audiences which
need to be baffled with ‘‘new’’ shows which are technically speaking really the same
shows, in order to earn applause and respect. Philo’s addressee, on the other hand,
has a general interest in engineering and is reasonably knowledgeable, but he is not a
specialist. He needs to be made curious and seduced into reading this treatise.
Artillery construction is a noble art (the Polycleitus quotation), it has something
mysterious, and even seasoned specialists often cannot get it right (including the
334 Martine Cuypers

overpaid Alexandrian engineers whom Philo ridicules in the next paragraph). Philo,
however, has the keys: the size of the hole for the spring, getting the dimensions spot
on and, because theory goes only so far, not being afraid to get your hands dirty.

FURTHER READING

Historiography is discussed in more detail by Erskine, Gowing, Whitmarsh, Gruen, Knippschild,

and Dieleman and Moyer in this volume who provide further guidance on individual authors and
genres. On the problems associated with indirect transmission, see for example Marincola 2007:
1–9 and 1997, Erskine 2003: 4–14, Brunt 1980, and Schepens 1997. Most of the fragmentary
evidence can be found in Jacoby 1923–58 (FGrH), currently re-edited with English translations
and commentaries in Worthington 2006– (BNJ). Brief introductions include Marincola 2001:
105–49, Connor 1985: 458–71, and Saı̈d 1997: 384–402. Marincola 2007 includes many
chapters relevant to the Hellenistic era, all of which provide further reading at the end; see
notably those on the Alexander historians, local history, Western Greek historiography, the
Greek historians of Persia, Western Asia, and Rome, Hellenistic Jewish historiography, and early
Roman historiography; also the chapters on the relationship between history and myth, fiction,
tragedy, antiquarianism, ethnography, and biography. For local history, see further Scheer 1993,
2003, and Clarke 2008; for biography, Bollansée 1999 and Erler and Schorn 2007; for early
Roman historiography, Ruschenbusch 2004; and for the shadow Polybius has cast over his
predecessors, Schepens and Bollansée 2005.
Greek rhetoric and oratory are surveyed in Worthington 2007 and Porter 1997. Helpful
Hellenistic chapters in single-authored overviews include Kennedy 1963: 264–336 and 1994:
81–101, and Pernot 2000: 82–114 ¼ 2005: 57–82. Martin 1974 and Lausberg 1973 ¼ 1998
remain useful tools for the technical aspects.
On Hellenistic oratory, see Erskine 2007 (on the continued importance of the polis and civil
rhetoric), Wooten 1973 (on ambassadors’ speeches) and 1975 (on Asianism), Smith 1974 (on
oratory in Alexandria), and Pernot 2000: 103–14 ¼ 2005: 73–82 (on the epigraphic evidence).
The speeches in Polybius’ Histories are discussed by Wooten 1974, Walbank 1985a, Champion
1997, Oliver 2006, and Fox and Livingstone 2007; those in Apollonius’ Argonautica, by Clare
2002: 261–85 and Mori 2007, 2008.
On rhetorical education, see Marrou 1982 (1948) and Morgan 1998, 2007. Cribiore 1996
and 2001a focus on Egypt; Kennedy 1969 and Morgan 1998a, on Quintilian. On the early
stages of education, see Wissmann in this volume; on literary criticism, Gutzwiller in this
volume and Laird 2006; on grammar and philosophy of language, Sluiter 1990, 1997,
Ildefonse 1997, Lallot 1998, Frede and Inwood 2005. Hock and O’Neill 2002 and Kennedy
2003 are crucial for rhetorical school exercises; Russell 1983 and Berry and Heath 1997 discuss
the technicalities of declamation (for which most of our evidence is of Imperial date) and stasis
theory. On the latter topic, see also Dieter 1950 and Heath 1994, 1995; Matthes 1962 collects
the fragments of Hermagoras of Temnos (discussion in Matthes 1958 and Kennedy 1963:
303–21). The evidence for Theophrastus’ rhetorical work can be found in FHSG 2.508–59,
with commentary in Fortenbaugh 2005; see also Fortenbaugh and Mirhady 1993.
On Greek rhetoric in Rome, see Connolly 2007, Wisse 1995, Clarke 1996, Dominik 1997,
and Dominik and Hall 2007; further Kaster 1995 on early teachers of rhetoric at Rome; May
2003 on Cicero; De Jonge 2008 on Dionysius of Halicarnassus; Sussman 1978 and Bonner
1949 on Seneca the Elder and Roman declamation; generally on intellectual life in late-
 Historiography, Rhetoric, and Science 335

Republican Rome, Rawson 1985; and on the birth of the Second Sophistic, Jones 1978
(focusing on Dio Chrysostom).
Short introductions to Hellenistic science and technical prose include Gutzwiller 2007:
154–67, Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, and Fraser 1972: 1.376–434. Irby-Massie and Keyser
2002 provides selected passages from Hellenistic and Imperial treatises in English translation.
Accessible book-length surveys of ancient science at large include Lloyd 1973, Rihll 1999,
and Lindberg 2007. Collective volumes give a good impression of current interests: see
Giannantoni and Vegetti 1985, Argoud and Guillaumin 1998, Rihll and Tuplin 2002,
Santini 2002, Celentano 2003, Horster and Reitz 2003, Lang 2005, Keyser and Irby-Massie
2008.
The discourse strategies and literary context of ancient technical treatises are discussed by
Meissner 1999, Formisano 2001, Asper 2007, and Netz 2009. On their social and political
contexts, see Lloyd 1983, 1987, 1991, and 1996, Schürmann 1991, White 1993, Rihll and
Tuplin 2002, and Cuomo 2007. Early modern science is a useful comparandum: see Moran
1991b, Biagioli 1993, and Long 2001.
Hellenistic mathematics is covered in Chapters 3–4 of Cuomo’s 2001 survey; Heath 1921 is
seminal but demands considerable mathematical competence. Translations include Thomas
1939–41 (a selection), Heath 1926 (Euclid’s Elements), Netz 2004b (Archimedes’ On the
Sphere and the Cylinder), Heath 1912 (Archimedes’ other works), Heath 1896, Fried 2002,
and Rashed, Decorps-Foulquier, and Federspiel 2008– (Apollonius of Perga, Conics), Toomer
1976 (Diocles’ On Burning Mirrors), and Burton 1945 (Euclid’s Optics). See further
Dijksterhuis 1987 and Jaeger 2008 on Archimedes, Netz, and Noel 2007 on the Archimedes
palimpsest, and Netz 1999, 2004a, 2009 on the intellectual principles underlying Hellenistic
mathematics.
For mathematical astronomy Neugebauer 1975 is indispensible but not easy reading. Evans
1998 and Heath 1932 are accessible introductions to this topic, the latter including translations
of key Hellenistic texts. Other translations include: for Euclid’s Phaenomena, Berggren and
Thomas 1996; for Archimedes’ The Sand-Reckoner, Heath 1912; for Aristarchus’ On the Sizes
and Distances of the Sun and the Moon, Heath 1913; Bodnár and Fortenbaugh 2002 and
Zhmud 2006 discuss the evidence for Eudemus of Rhodes. Work on astrology includes
Neugebauer and Hösen 1959, Barton 1994, Jones 1999, Swerdlow 2000, and Beck 2006.
On meteorology and time-reckoning, see Taub 2003, Cusset 2003b, Feeney 2007, Lehoux
2007, Sider and Brunschön 2007, and Hannah 2008.
For Hellenistic geography Fraser 1972: 1.520–53 is a good starting point. Hübner 2000
includes chapters on Eudoxus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, and geographical poetry. Thomson
1948 and Tozer 1964 provide readable though somewhat outdated introductions in English;
Jacob 1991, in French. For Eratosthenes’ measurement of the earth, see Aujac 2001, Bowen
and Todd 2004, and Nicastro 2008; see further on this polymath Geus 2002, Pàmias and Geus
2007, Cusset and Frangoulis 2008. Cartography is discussed in Dilke 1985 and Talbert and
Unger 2008. On the relationship between geography and ethnography, paradoxography, and
fiction, see Whitmarsh in this volume, Dihle 1961, Romm 1992, Schepens and Delcroix 1996,
Clarke 1999, Geus 2003, Dench 2007, and Engels 2007. Kish 1978, a sourcebook for ancient
geography at large, includes some Hellenistic material. Translations of individual authors
include Dicks 1960 for the geographical fragments of Hipparchus; Roseman 1994 and
Bianchetti 1998, for Pytheas of Massilia; and Burstein 1989, for Agatharchides.
Rihll 2009 is a short introduction to ancient technology at large. Book-length surveys
include Landels 1978, White 1984, Schürmann 2005, Schneider 1992, 2007, and Oleson
2008. Extracts from various Hellenistic works in this field can be found in Humphry, Oleson,
and Sherwood 1998. Drachmann 1963 translates Hero’s Mechanics; Marsden 1969–71, the
336 Martine Cuypers

treatises On Artillery Construction by Biton, Hero, and Philo; Garlan 1974 and Lawrence
1979, Philo’s Poliorcetics; see also the helpful illustrations in Campbell and Delf 2003a and
2003b. Hero’s On Automaton Construction is translated by Murphy 1995; his Pneumatics, by
Woodcroft 1971. Schmidt, Nix, Schöne, and Heiberg 1899–1914 in five thick volumes edits
the Greek text of Hero’s entire extant oeuvre with German translation. For Vitruvius’ On
Architecture, see Granger 1931–4 and Rowland and Howe 1999.
Brief discussions of Hellenistic medicine include Flemming 2003 and Fraser 1972: 1.338–
76; Nutton 2004 surveys ancient medicine at large. For discussion of the various Hellenistic
‘‘sects,’’ see also Hankinson 1995 and Lloyd 1995; von Staden 1996 imaginatively explores the
connections between medicine, mechanics, and philosophy. Kollesch, Kudlien, and Nickel
1965 contains the text, illustrations, and a German translation of Apollonius of Citium’s
commentary to On Joints. Von Staden 1989 collects the evidence for Herophilus; Garofalo
1988, for Erasistratus; Deichgräber 1965, for the ‘‘empiricists’’; Vallance 1990, for Asclepiades
of Bithynia; various extracts also in Longrigg 1998.
French 1994 and Wöhrle 1999 survey ancient biology and natural history. For
Theophrastus’ work in these fields, see Fortenbaugh, Huby, and Long 1985 (introduction),
Fortenbaugh and Gutas 1992 (translations of preserved treatises), and Fortenbaugh, Huby,
Sharples, and Gutas 1992: 106–253 (fragments of lost works).
For Hellenistic scientific poetry, see in general the essays in Horster and Reitz 2005, Cusset
2006, and Harder, Regtuit, and Wakker 2009. On Aratus and Nicander, see Volk and Magnelli
in this volume; on Eratosthenes, Geus 2002, Cusset and Frangoulis 2008, and Trachsel 2009;
on Posidippus, Sider 2005b; on the Periplus attributed to Scymnus, Bianchetti 1990, Korenjak
2003, and Hunter 2006b: 123–40 ¼ 2008: 503–22.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Literary Criticism
Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

The three centuries after the death of Alexander were a period of intense and lively
debate about the nature and purpose of literature. The concepts about literature that
originated with the sophists, Plato, and Aristotle were scrutinized, refined, and
reworked into new formulations. In fact, most of the critical discussion of poetry
and prose found in later Greek and Latin texts derives from ideas and typologies
developed in the early Hellenistic period and extensively debated over the course of
the next two centuries. Because of the loss of almost all key texts from this period, the
modern tradition of literary criticism, as well as Classical scholarship, has remained
largely ignorant of the historical importance and sophistication of this body of
thought. It is now clear, however, that Hellenistic philosophers, literary theorists,
textual scholars, and poets engaged seriously with such fundamental questions as the
nature of the poetic, the function of literature, and how to judge a literary work.
In recent years it has become increasingly possible to piece together major critical
trends of the Hellenistic period. Essential to the process have been new and better
editions of the texts of Philodemus, especially his On Poems (Janko 2000 on Book 1;
Mangoni 1993 for Book 5) and On Music (Delattre 2007 on Book 4). The library of
this Epicurean philosopher, who was friend and mentor to Vergil, was discovered in
the eighteenth century, preserved in a lavish villa at Herculaneum on the Bay of
Naples (Armstrong, Fish, Johnston, and Skinner 2004; Sider 2005a). Through new
imaging techniques and brilliant editing, the works of Philodemus on poetry, rhet-
oric, and music, as well as other traditional philosophical subjects, have been, and will
continue to be, restored for us (Delattre 2006). Interpretation of this material
remains difficult, the province of specialists, because of the fragmentary nature of
the charred papyri and the author’s method of quoting earlier thinkers, usually out of
context, in order to refute their theories. But even so, our knowledge of Hellenistic
literary criticism is undergoing a renaissance in terms of new material and new
understanding of old material. For instance, scholars generally agree that
Demetrius’ On Style, a treatise of perhaps the early first century BCE which deals with
338 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

types of style in both prose and poetry, contains critical concepts important to the
theories of the so-called ‘‘critics’’ of the third and second centuries, who are known
almost exclusively through Philodemus. Likewise, it is now clear that the literary
critical works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, most importantly his On Composition, do
not contain the idiosyncratic thoughts of an inventive thinker, as earlier scholars
sometimes suggested, but rather explore in pragmatic detail literary critical topics
basic to the Hellenistic period, such as the euphonious arrangement of words and
phrases. Even On the Sublime by ‘‘Longinus’’ now seems to advance a strand of
Hellenistic criticism, one that favored stylistic grandeur and promoted authorial
inspiration. A still largely untapped benefit of this new knowledge of Hellenistic
criticism is the opportunity it affords to understand how the literary artists of the
age reflected, and contributed to, the theoretical debate going on around them in and
through their own compositions.

What’s in a Name?
At the dawn of the Hellenistic Age, scholars and theoreticians of literature were
apparently called ϰριτιϰοί, ‘‘critics.’’ Strabo (14.2.19) referred to Philitas of Cos as
‘‘both poet and critic’’ (ποιητὴс ἅμα ϰαὶ ϰριτιϰόс), and according to Plutarch (Mor.
1095c–e), Epicurus in his On Kingship advised even cultivated kings to banish from
their symposia conversation about ‘‘musical problems and the philological inquiries of
critics’’ (προβλήμαсι δὲ μουсιϰοιÐ с ϰαὶ ϰριτιϰωÐ ν ϕιλολόγοιс ζητήμαсιν). Plutarch fur-
ther asserts that if the Ptolemy ‘‘who founded the Museum’’ (Ptolemy I) had encoun-
tered Epicurus’ advice, he would have rejected it out of hand and that Epicurus was
foolish to prefer the pleasure of the theater to that of hearing, over wine, Theophrastus,
Aristoxenus, or Aristotle discoursing on music or Homer. It appears, then, that already
at the beginning of the Hellenistic Age literary criticism was practiced by a wide range
of educated persons and that royal courts were a hotbed for discussion and debate
about such issues.
With the increasing specialization typical of the age, terminology developed to sort
out different categories of persons working on literary questions. Zenodotus and the
later textual scholars of Alexandria were called γραμματιϰοί. The term was in use by
the time of Philicus of Corcyra, a priest of Dionysus during the reign of Ptolemy II
Philadelphus, who addressed his Hymn to Demeter in choriambic hexameters to
γραμματιϰοί, apparently as experts in metrics (SH 677). In the second century BCE ,
Diogenes of Babylon, a leader of the Middle Stoa, referred to a group of earlier
writers on literature as ϰριτιϰοί (Phld. Mus. 136.26 Delattre). His contemporary
Crates of Mallus, an important literary theorist working at Pergamum, distinguished
the ϰριτιϰόс, one concerned with systematic knowledge of discourse, from the
γραμματιϰόс, who was concerned only with explaining glosses, prosody, and the like.
In sum, he said, the critic is like an architect and the grammarian comparable to his
assistant (Sext. Emp. Math. 1.79 ¼ F 94 Broggiato 2001). Or as a later source tells us
(schol. Dion. Thr. pp. 169.30–170.5, 471.34–472.2 Hilgard 1901), the grammarian
judges whether a poem is genuine or spurious but the critic judges whether it is good
 Literary Criticism 339

or bad. In making such a distinction, Crates was aligning himself with a theoretical
approach to literature that descends from the Classical Age; he was claiming for it
superiority over the more specialized studies of the Alexandrian grammarians, such as
his settled opponent, Aristarchus of Samothrace. In this positive sense, Crates called
himself a ϰριτιϰόс, as heir to certain literary thinkers of the third century BCE , whom
he seemed to have discussed in a lost work (or works) refuted by Philodemus in On
Poems (Janko 2000: 125–7).
At the same time, within the Hellenistic philosophical schools there developed
theories about literature that reflected technical views on knowledge, language,
ethics, and the psychology of the soul. For those who were primarily philosophers,
literary criticism was just another branch of philosophy. The Peripatetics continued
the work of Aristotle and Theophrastus in defining, categorizing, and analyzing the
formal aspects of literature. Peripatetic influence on literary critical thought in
Alexandria is indicated by the presence of Demetrius of Phalerum and later Strato
of Lampsacus at the court of the first two Ptolemies, and by Callimachus’ treatise
against the Peripatetic Praxiphanes (fr. 460 Pf.). The Stoics found poetry a method
of expressing truths, and sometimes employed allegory to extract these truths.
Cleanthes, who wrote philosophical poetry, believed that poetic diction was better
at conveying the power of the gods than was prose, and among the titles of treatises
by Chrysippus are On Poems, On the Right Way to Read Poetry, and Against the Critics
(D.L. 7.200). The Cynics and Skeptics, who lived rather than argued their philoso-
phies, preferred to demonstrate the uses of poetry by composing works, such as
Menippus’ satires and Timon of Phlius’ Silloi (SH 775–840; Scodel in this volume),
which satirized other philosophers through literary parody. Although Epicurus did
not consider poetry and music serious enough occupations to warrant philosophical
speculation, Philodemus’ efforts in writing On Poems, On Rhetoric, and On Music
reflect a later Epicurean tradition of dealing seriously with such topics, especially in
opposition to Peripatetic and Stoic views on the subject.
Distinctions between the three categories of grammarians, literary critics, and philo-
sophers were far from absolute. Almost all intellectuals of the Hellenistic Age had
philosophical training and sympathies, and technical exegesis of Homeric language and
passages was widely practiced (Wissmann in this volume). In addition, judgments
about whether a poem was good or bad were surely made by most lovers of literature,
whether or not they were committed theorists of the subject. To take one example,
Crates of Mallus, who laid claim to the title ϰριτιϰόс, also wrote on grammatical
problems in Homer and proffered allegorical interpretations in the Stoic manner.
The terms developed, then, not only to define the increasing specialization of the age
but also to promote the superiority of one’s chosen approach over that of opponents.

What is the Function of Literature?

Early Greek poets perceived no conflict between the cognitive benefits and the
emotional pleasures provided by their verse. With the advent of critical thinking
about poetry by those who were not necessarily its practitioners, this integrated
340 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

duality of purpose began to be interrogated, its logical inconsistencies analyzed, and

even the value of poetry questioned. Plato knew already of ‘‘a long-standing quarrel
between philosophy and poetry’’ (Rep. 607b). In the Hellenistic Age the debate
about the goal of literature, colored by the oppositional positions staked out by Plato
and Aristotle, crystallized around the terms διδαсϰαλία, ‘‘instruction,’’ and
ψυχαγωγία, ‘‘enthrallment.’’ In this dichotomy, διδαсϰαλία was associated with bene-
fit (ὠϕελία), and ψυχαγωγία with pleasure (ἡδονή).
The old argument about the purpose of poetry, now formulated as instruction
versus enthrallment, or cognitive/ethical benefit versus aesthetic pleasure, was further
complicated by the emergent importance of prose. The question posed in our
heading ‘‘What is the function of literature?’’ could not be directly asked by
Hellenistic critics because they lacked a term that united both artistic prose and
poetry in a single category. Originally, the literary had been synonymous with the
poetic. By the early Hellenistic Age, however, prose treatises had come to assume one
of the functions earlier performed by poetry, namely, the transmission of knowledge;
and poets often acquired, sometimes with acknowledgment, the material for their
poetry from prose sources. In addition, by the third century sophisticated theories of
prose styles had developed, as well as technical rules for achieving them, with parallels
for poetic technique, for which our main extant source is Demetrius’ On Style. So
while the practice of the literary had expanded in scope, the conceptual framework for
defining it had not.
A commonly held position throughout the Hellenistic period was the assignment
of διδαсϰαλία to prose and ψυχαγωγία to poetry. In this view, the function of prose
was cognitive, to convey to the reader information (‘‘truth,’’ ἀλήθεια), often with the
added benefit of instilling moral principles, and that of poetry was aesthetic, to
produce a sensation of pleasure, such as often comes from an account of the unusual,
distant, or impossible (‘‘falsehood,’’ ψευÐ δοс). The word ψυχαγωγία, often translated
‘‘entertainment,’’ retained much of its etymological sense of ‘‘leading the soul,’’ as in
necromancy; it commonly refers to the quasi-magical, physically entrancing effect
that language can have on its audience. This dual division in the function of literature
was in formation as early as Theophrastus, who criticized poetic effects in serious
speeches, such as overuse of antithesis and other types of word play (D.H. Lys. 14.1 ¼
F 692 FHSG). We can also trace the idea through Andromenides, one of the earlier
critics, who said that the skilled prose writer seeks truth but the poet commonly
accepts ideas from others; for him the most beautiful style is the one that enchants the
common reader, not the one that is admired for its learned correctness (Phld. Po. 1,
161.2–6, 13–15 Janko 2000). Andromenides’ purpose, as it seems, was to defend the
aesthetic pleasure of hearing beautiful language, and as we will see, a feature common
to all the critics was their detailed theoretical analysis of the means by which poetic
language produced ψυχαγωγία.
One of the clearest statements of the division of purpose between poetry and prose
comes from Eratosthenes, an Alexandrian librarian, scientist, and scholar of the late
third century BCE , who also composed poetry. He described himself as a ϕιλόλογοс,
a term designed to accommodate his wide-ranging knowledge in such diverse fields as
astronomy, mathematics, and geography (Suet. De gram. et rhet. 10 Brugnoli 1963).
Near the beginning of his important treatise on geography, Eratosthenes rejected
 Literary Criticism 341

traditional claims that Homer was a polymath, and so a source of knowledge, by

asserting that ‘‘every poet aims at enthrallment, not instruction’’ (ποιητὴс παÐ с
сτοχάζεται ψυχαγωγίαс, οὐ διδαсϰαλίαс, Str. 1.1.10; cf. 1.2.3). In the original con-
text of the Geographica, the point was no doubt to distinguish the scientific truth of
his own prose treatises, based on observation, reliable reports of others, and astro-
nomical studies, from the embellished, sometimes mythical, descriptions of geo-
graphy in Homer. He made the colorful remark that someone would as soon find
the shoemaker who sewed up the bag of winds as the places where Odysseus
wandered (Str. 1.2.15). It is reasonable to assume that Eratosthenes’ lost Erigone
(CA 22–8b, more fully in Rosokoki 1995), a short epic concerned with the origin of
wine and Attic festivals, and his Hermes (CA 1–16, SH 397–8; discussion in Geus
2002: 110–28; Ambühl in this volume), a fragment of which (16) describes the five
heavenly circles, converted the knowledge available from prose resources, or his own
scientific/historical investigations, into imaginative poetry that had as its goal enjoy-
ment, rather than learning. When Ps.-Longinus calls the Erigone an ‘‘altogether
blameless little poem’’ (Subl. 33.5), in contrast to the divinely inspired but disordered
outbursts of Archilochus, he suggests that Eratosthenes followed the Alexandrian
emphasis on technical proficiency in poetry. It seems likely, then, that Eratosthenes
accepted for his own poetic practice the view that poetry was a τέχνη, ‘‘art,’’ requiring
precision and skill and having as its goal ψυχαγωγία, rather than the διδαсϰαλία
offered in prose treatises on technical and scientific subjects.
While the ϕιλόλογοс Eratosthenes allows a place for the ψυχαγωγία of poetry
alongside the search for truth characterizing non-rhetorical prose, Polybius expresses
anxiety about the encroachments of dramatic, or poetic, elements upon history. In a
number of passages, Polybius makes clear that the goal of his Histories was to benefit
the elite members of society through models of good and bad behavior provided by
accurate accounts. He is highly critical of those historians who imported poetic
elements into their narratives (Whitmarsh in this volume). These writers of ‘‘tragic
history,’’ such as Duris of Samos and Phylarchus, dwell, he claims, on the emotional
aspects of events and aim to arouse pity in the reader (2.56.10–12):

A prose author (i.e., historian; сυγγραϕέα) should not provide his readers a thrill
(ἐπιπλήττειν) by incorporating marvels (τερατευόμενον) into his history, nor should he
seek to invent possible speeches and recount events only incidental to his subject, as
writers of tragedy (τραγωιδιογράϕοι) do, but rather report in full what was actually
(ϰατ ἀλήθειαν) said and done, even if it should be rather ordinary. For the goal
(τέλοс) of history is not the same as that of tragedy, but the opposite. The tragedian
should thrill and charm (ἐϰπληÐ ξαι ϰαὶ ψυχαγωγηÐ сαι) his audience for the moment by
presenting the most plausible (πιθανωτάτων) speeches, but the historian should instruct
and persuade (διδάξαι ϰαὶ πειÐ сαι) those eager to learn for all time by reporting true
(ἀληθινωÐ ν) deeds and words, since in the first case the plausible even if false (ψευÐ δοс)
compels its viewers through illusion (ἀπάτην), while in the other case truth compels by
benefiting lovers of learning (ϕιλομαθούντων).

It is unfortunate that we do not know how the ‘‘tragic historians’’ justified their more
dramatic and emotional style of writing. In all likelihood, their goal was not simply to
provide the reader aesthetic pleasure, since Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Comp. 4)
342 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

criticizes a group of Hellenistic historians, including Phylarchus, Duris, and Polybius

(as well as Stoic writers like Chrysippus), for their inattention to beauty of style. The
quarrel over ‘‘tragic history’’ probably centered on the historiographical question of
how best to convey truth, and the role that imaginative accounts may have in that.
Polybius here revises Aristotle’s assertion that ‘‘poetry is more philosophical and more
serious than history’’ because it relates the universal through possible events while
history relates the particular through actual events (Poet. 1451b3–8). In Polybius’
vehemence we hear a sympathetic echo of Plato’s opposition to poetry and its qualities,
which he believed harmful to an ideal society based on philosophical truth.
Despite the widespread acceptance of the division in purpose between poetry and
prose in the Hellenistic Age, the problems raised by its absolute application underlay
much of the theoretical debate of the era. Some thinkers, most prominently the
Stoics, sought to defend poetry as a source of knowledge, through such interpretative
approaches as allegory or etymology. The Stoics also defended music as having ethical
and educative value, as pure sound apart from words, a position that reflects the new
reality of lyric poetry composed and recited without musical accompaniment. This
belief regarding music helps to explain Stoic sympathies toward the ‘‘critics,’’ even
though their euphonist position advocated aesthetic pleasure as the goal of poetry
and, for some, of prose as well. As the Epicurean Philodemus makes clear in On
Rhetoric, ‘‘sophistic rhetoric,’’ which focused on linguistic τέχνη rather than content,
was discussed by early Epicureans and had become a settled trend by the first century
BCE ; this display of rhetorical and poetic features developed as a mark of cultured
prose in the imperial era.
The rivalry between διδαсϰαλία and ψυχαγωγία as dichotomous goals of literature
came, then, to define the oppositional poles in theoretical discussions of both prose
and poetry. At the same time, some thinkers advocated a more synthetic position, as
is evident from Book 5 of Philodemus’ On Poems. Among them was Philodemus
himself, who argued that good poetry offered the reader a mixture of instruction and
pleasure, a position famously enshrined in Horace’s reference to the utile and the
dulce (Ars 343). In looking now more closely at the concepts and trends that define
Hellenistic literary criticism, we will see that differing beliefs about the function of
literature underlie these various attempts to theorize the literary.

How to Divide Poetic Art?

The existence of a τέχνη or ‘‘art’’ that applied to poetry was a generally accepted
premise of the Hellenistic period. Various approaches to poetic theory were differen-
tiated on the basis of the definition given to this τέχνη ποιητιϰή, ‘‘poetic art,’’ and its
position within differing divisions into species (εἴδη) relating to poetry. A separation of
the τέχνη ποιητιϰή from the ποιητήс, ‘‘poet,’’ is implied by Aristotle’s two treatises,
Poetics and the lost On Poets, and other early Academic and Peripatetic scholars, like
Heraclides of Pontus and Praxiphanes of Mitylene, offered discussion of poetry in
works whose titles suggest a continuing dual conception. Within the third century
there developed a new tripartite division, in which the ποιητήс was grouped with
 Literary Criticism 343

ποίηсιс and ποίημα to form the three species of the τέχνη ποιητιϰή. The terms ποίηсιс
and ποίημα are not translatable without context, and their variable meanings, such as
‘‘composition of poetry’’ versus ‘‘a poetic composition,’’ ‘‘subject’’ versus ‘‘style,’’ or
‘‘long poem’’ versus ‘‘short poetic unit,’’ are discussed below. The tripartition was
widely adopted by later grammarians and continued to influence literary discussions of
the imperial period. In On Poems 1 Philodemus reports that Crates of Mallus accepted
the three species, which he knew from Andromenides (132.23–7 Janko), and in Book 5
(13.33–16.28 Mangoni 1993) he attributes the same division to Neoptolemus of
Parium, on whose precepts Horace modeled, at least in part, his Ars Poetica
(Pomponius Porphyrio on Ars 1 Holder 1894). Since Andromenides is apparently
one of the earliest euphonists and Neoptolemus is cited in the late third or early second
century by Aristophanes of Byzantium (F 19 Mette 1980 ¼ 194 Slater 1986), the
dating of this new categorization to the third century is secure. Despite similarities to
Academic discussions of rhetoric (Asmis 1992c), most scholars have pointed to the
Peripatetic affinities evident in the thought of both Andromenides and Neoptolemus.
Neoptolemus was clearly a major theorist of the tripartite division. Although his
views must be reconstructed through the filter of Philodemus’ polemic, certain key
ideas can be established. For Neoptolemus (15.1–3 Mangoni), ποίημα is synonymous
with сύνθεсιс τηÐ с λέξεωc, ‘‘arrangement of the language,’’ which was separated from
διανοήματα, the ‘‘ideas’’ expressed. The new division is justified by Neoptolemus’
belief that ποίημα is ‘‘no less, or greater, a part’’ of the poetic art (13.33–14.3
Mangoni). In his view, the division called ποίηсιс consists of only ‘‘subject matter’’
(ὑπόθεсιc), which includes ‘‘thoughts, actions, and characterizations’’ (διανοί[αс
. . . ] ϰαὶ πράξειс ϰαὶ [προсω]ποποιίαc, 14.26–8, 15.3–6). He considers ποίημα ‘‘the
first of the three divisions’’ (πρωτεύ[ει]ν τ[ωÐ ν] εἰδωÐ [ν], 15.27–8), and since the
arrangement of the language could scarcely occur before selection of the subject
matter, he likely means that verbal composition ranks above subject matter as the most
essential element of poetry qua poetry. Neoptolemus’ separation of ποίηсιс from
ποίημα reduces to two categories Aristotle’s list of the four component parts shared
by tragedy and epic – plot (μύθοc, based on action or πράξιc), character (η θοc), thought
(διάνοια), and language (λέξιc). As a result, λέξιс is now separated off from the other
three, which fall together into one category, and style thus becomes, in a reversal of
Aristotle’s ordering, the category of primary importance.
Etymologically, ποίηсιс should mean the process of composing poetry and ποίημα
the object so created, the poetic composition itself. Conceptual difficulty ensued,
however, when ποίηсιс and ποίημα began to be treated as different aspects or kinds of
texts, rather than action and product. For instance, the Stoic Posidonius of the first
half of the first century BCE defines ποίημα as ‘‘metrical or rhythmical language that
exceeds prose form with elaboration’’ and gives a line of Euripides as an example;
ποίηсιс he defines as ‘‘ποίημα with meaning, containing an imitation of divine and
human affairs’’ (D.L. 7.60 ¼ F 44 EK). For Posidonius, as it seems, the two terms are
interrelated, the ποίημα being a verbal and metrical building block of the more
complex ποίηсιc. Similarly, in refuting Neoptolemus, Philodemus views ποίημα as
potentially nothing more than a poetic passage, such as the first thirty lines of the
Iliad, while the ποίηсιс is the epic as a whole, that is, a ‘‘web’’ (ὕϕη) or interweaving
of the many ποιήματα or ἔργα, ‘‘units of poetic work’’ (14.12–17, 31–6 Mangoni).
344 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

For some Hellenistic thinkers, the ποίημα could be an independent composition with
its own semantic coherence, defined by its brevity. Lucilius (338–47 Marx 1904)
defines the poema as a pars parva, such as an epistle (presumably in verse), and the
poesis as a complete and unified work like the Iliad or Ennius’ Annals. Likewise, Varro
(Men. fr. 398 Astbury 2002) gives an epigram of a single couplet as an example of the
lexis enrythmos called poema and cites epic poems to illustrate the perpetuum argu-
mentum that constitutes a poesis. Philodemus was also familiar with the concept of
ποίημα as a short independent poem, since he specifies that ‘‘writers of epigrams and
Sappho’’ are considered composers of ποίηсιс only in a general rather than specific
sense (38.7–15 Mangoni); he means that ποίηсιс in the specific sense would refer to
long poems such as epics and exclude such short ones.
The separation of ποίηсιс from ποίημα as distinct literary types on a quantitative
basis – long versus short poetry – has significant implications if good verbal compos-
ition is associated with one type more than the other. Reflecting the changed nature
of poetry in the Hellenistic Age, the tripartite division accommodated a broader
range of what might be considered poetry, such as shorter stichic poems that do
not involve narrative or action. It also provided terminology that could designate the
shorter hexameter narratives, called epyllia in modern terminology, that were popular
in the Hellenistic period. The privileging of verbal composition as the essential quality
of poetry (its ἴδιον) provides justification for emphasizing the technical aspects of
poetic production and fits well with aesthetic practice and programmatic statements
found in third-century poetry.
Other information about Neoptolemus indicates that he was not only a literary
theorist but also a scholar and a poet, in the manner typical of the third century. The
titles of two poems survive, a Dionysias (F 1 Mette 1980) and Trichthoniai, from
which we have one partial hexameter about Oceanus surrounding the earth (F 2).
Like Philitas of Cos, he was a glossographer, and his treatise explaining rare words ran
to at least three books (F 9). Also attributed to him are On Witticisms (F 8) and On
Epigrams (F 7). In light of the identification of epigrams as ποιήματα by Varro and
Philodemus, it is tempting to speculate that in the latter treatise Neoptolemus
explored a theoretical basis for the new literariness granted the epigram form. He
quoted there an epitaph for the sophist Thrasymachus (F 7 ¼ Ath. 10.454f):

τοὔνομα θηÐ τα ρ ωÐ ἄλϕα сὰν υ μυÐ ἄλϕα χιÐ ου сάν,

πατρὶс Χαλϰηδών, ἡ δὲ τέχνη сοϕίη.
His name is theta rho alpha sigma upsilon mu alpha chi upsilon sigma,
his country Chalcedon, his profession wisdom.

Athenaeus’ report that the epitaph was engraved on the sophist’s tomb in Chalcedon
carries no weight, and πατρίс need only give his native land, not the reputed location
of the grave. Athenaeus quotes it in a section on riddles, just before a passage by
Castorion that refers to Hellenistic critical practice (discussed below). Neoptolemus’
inclusion of the epitaph, possibly his own composition, in On Epigrams surely had to
do with his theoretical concerns. Thrasymachus is now best known from Plato’s
Republic as a political theorist. In antiquity, however, he was famous for his Τέχνη
ρ ητοριϰή (Suda θ 462; cf. Pl. Phdr. 266c, 269d, 271a; schol. Ar. Av. 880), and the
 Literary Criticism 345

Suda reports that he introduced the concept of the period and colon. Thrasymachus
was, then, deeply involved in the sophistical development of rhetorical and linguistic
theory, and the epitaph, as an illustration of the building blocks of speech, demon-
strates this expertise, or τέχνη, perhaps with allusion to his famous treatise. The
hexameter consists of the first elements of language, that is, letters, spelled out as
syllables. When pronounced together, they form the οὔνομα ‘‘Thrasymachus,’’ which
can be understood both as the deceased’s ‘‘name’’ and in the grammatical sense of
‘‘word’’ or ‘‘noun,’’ one of the parts of speech from which sentences are formed.
With letters, syllables, and words illustrated in the first line, the pentameter gives two
examples of cola, the building blocks of periods, of which the couplet as a whole
could be viewed as an example. From the perspective of grammatical theory, the
epitaph constitutes a period that illustrates the letters, syllables, words, and clauses
from which it is composed, and ends by naming the linguistic or rhetorical art that is
the goal of combining these elements (cf. Plato’s similar analysis of grammatical art in
Crat. 424e–5a). From the perspective of Neoptolemus’ poetic theory, however, it
offers a basic ποίημα – a single couplet forming an epigram. Philodemus reports,
intriguingly, that Epicurus’ close friend Metrodorus discussed Thrasymachus’ τέχνη
in the first book of his Περὶ ποιημάτων in which he argued against another writer on
ποιήματα (Rh. 2, Cols. 49.27–51.1 Sudhaus 1892: 85–7 ¼ 1895: 42.14–43.12). We
might speculate, then, that Thrasymachus’ linguistic theories somehow foresha-
dowed Neoptolemus’ own analysis of the poetic art and that inclusion of the epitaph
was an acknowledgment of that. Certainly, it illustrates the potential for even the
briefest of ποιήματα, when composed with expert, technical knowledge, to provide
not only complex information but also poetic pleasure.
Callimachus’ programmatic statements fit remarkably well with the new emphasis
on ποίημα, as the poetic division focused on the poet’s technical skill. His rejection of
ἓν ἄειсμα διηνεϰέс, ‘‘one continuous song,’’ in many thousands of lines on kings and
heroes (cf. perpetuum argumentum, Var. fr. 398 Astbury; perpetuum carmen, Ov.
Met. 1.4; Hor. Ars 146–7) is associated, in the flow of the Aetia prologue, with his
accusation that his critics, the Telchines, judge poetry not by ‘‘art’’ (τέχνηι) but by a
measure of length called the Persian chain (fr. 1.3–5, 17–18 Pf.). The implication is
that the essence of poetry lies in its verbal artistry, within the confines of manageable
subject matter. Here issues of style are intertwined with length and content because
the third-century debate about poetics involved the opposition between those who
continued the Aristotelian emphasis on plot and character as developed in drama and
epic and those who turned the focus to the stylistic component (λέξιс), which could
be more artfully demonstrated in small poems or free-standing parts of larger ones.
Such an understanding of Callimachean poetics against the theoretical background of
third-century criticism obviates modern scholarly debates about whether his quarrel
with the Telchines was about length, genre, or style, and suggests that Callimachus’
passion was to prize poetry away from the Aristotelian emphasis on subject matter
and to center it on linguistic practice. Such a view is supported by his treatise
criticizing the Peripatetic theorist Praxiphanes (fr. 460 Pf.) and by the presence of
Praxiphanes’ name in the list of Telchines provided by the Florentine scholiast to the
Aetia prologue. According to this scholiast, the Telchines ‘‘found fault with
[Callimachus] because of the thinness of his short poems’’ (τὸ ϰάτιс[χνον τωÐ ν
346 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

ποιη]μάτων, 8–9 Pf.). The new division of the poetic art may also illuminate another
scholiast’s remark that Callimachus was forced to write the Hecale by the critical
accusation that he could not compose a μέγα ποίημα (schol. h. 2.106 ¼ test. 1
Hollis). Since this poem was a short epic of perhaps about a thousand lines (Hollis
2009: 337–40), the term ποίημα, which eventually became the standard way to refer
to a single book of Homer, is apparently used in a specific sense. The challenge to
Callimachus was not to write a full-scale epic, which would be a ποίηсιс, but to
demonstrate his skill at refined language in a ποίημα of sustained length.
It is more difficult to assess Neoptolemus’ third category, that of ποιητήс. In
vehemently accusing him of illogicality, Philodemus fails to clarify Neoptolemus’
thoughts on this division of the poetic art. Horace relies on Neoptolemus, however,
in an early section of the Ars Poetica (Brink 1963) where he discusses the poet’s
technical or natural capacity (vis) with reference to subject matter (sumite materiam
vestris, qui scribitis, aequam viribus, ‘‘you writers should choose a subject equal to your
powers,’’ 38–9) and style (cui lecta potenter erit res, nec facundia deseret, ‘‘eloquence
will not desert the writer who chooses a topic within his capacity,’’ 40–1), divided into
arrangement (ordo, 42–5) and word choice (verba, 46–72). In all likelihood, then,
Neoptolemus’ discussion of the ποιητήс in his tripartite division focused on the poet’s
‘‘technical skill and compositional capacity,’’ or τὴν τέχνην ϰ[αὶ τὴν] δ[ύν]αμιν, as
Philodemus phrases it (14.5–7 Mangoni). It was through this skill and capacity that
the elements of the other two divisions could be realized – the linguistic substance of
the text (ποίημα) and the ideas expressed therein (ποίηсιс).
Perhaps in reaction to the complexity of the tripartite scheme, there developed a
simpler, dual division of the poetic art, which excluded the poet. Just after his
discussion of Neoptolemus in On Poems 5, Philodemus presents a certain ‘‘one of
the Stoics,’’ whose name has been read as Aristo (16.28–30 Mangoni). If this is the
correct reading, he is likely Aristo of Chios, a student of Zeno, and an independent
thinker; he rejected both logic and physics and concerned himself only with ethics
(D.L. 7.160–4). This Aristo, as I will call him, made a dual categorization of the
poetic art, dividing it into thought (διάνοια) and stylistic composition (сύνθεсιс). The
order of Philodemus’ discussion suggests that he considered Aristo’s dual division a
reaction to, or improvement upon, the tripartition theorized by Neoptolemus,
although their relative chronology is unknown. While in many ways analogous to
the separation of ποίηсιс from ποίημα, the διάνοια---сύνθεсιс division avoids the
confusing use of the terminology to refer to longer versus shorter poems and
eliminates the complication caused by the parallel category of ποιητήс. While the
tripartition is often acknowledged in later sources, the simpler opposition of thought
to style also becomes commonplace in the late Hellenistic and imperial eras.

The Euphonist Critics

The poetic theorists called ϰριτιϰοί are known to us primarily through Philodemus’
On Poems and to a lesser extent through another Epicurean work preserved at
Herculaneum, Demetrius of Laconia’s On Poems, written about 100 BCE (Romeo
 Literary Criticism 347

1988). Chrysippus’ Against the Critics and Aristo’s adaptation of the doctrine of
euphony (21.10, 21.16–17, 23.26–33 Mangoni) indicate that some critics’ views on
the aesthetic quality of poetry were known before the middle of the third century. In
the second century, Crates of Mallus revised the earlier work of the critics for his own
poetic theories, and it may have been Crates’ sympathetic treatment of them, from a
quasi-Stoic perspective, that provoked the interest of loyal followers of the Garden.
The critics focused their attention on the category of ποίημα, which was furthered
subdivided into arrangement (сύνθεсιс) and diction (λέξιс). Philodemus claims, how-
ever, that what unites them, what ‘‘remains as if engraved on a stele for all the critics’’
(παρὰ παÐ сι μὲν ὡс ἐν сτήληι μένει τοιÐ с ϰριτιϰοιÐ с) is that ‘‘the supervening euphony is
the unique characteristic’’ (τὸ τὴν μὲν ἐπιϕαινομένην εὐϕωνίαν ἴδιον ει ναι) of poetry,
while ‘‘the ideas and phrases must be considered external and common’’ (τὰ δὲ
νοήματα ϰαὶ τὰс λέξειс ἐϰτὸс ει ναι ϰαὶ ϰοινὰ сυνάγεсθαι δειÐ ν; P.Herc. 1047 þ 1081
þ 1676, Col. 17.2–9 Sbordone, p. 253). For these euphonists, the desired effect of
poetry was the pleasure of hearing beautiful sound, a physical sensation in the ears; it
was thus a purely aesthetic, ‘‘irrational pleasure’’ (χάριν τὴν ἄλογον, 83.24–5 Janko),
independent of thought. Other aspects of a poem were considered ‘‘common,’’ shared
with other speech acts, but the euphonic component was the peculiar poetic feature,
the basis on which a poem was to be judged qua poem. While this separation of the
sound of poetry from the meaning of its words may seem extreme to us, as it did to
Philodemus, the development of the euphonist theory should be understood within
the literary problematic of the third century. Since prose writers had largely usurped the
traditional role of poets as purveyors of the truth, what was left to poetry was to delight
its audience, through the pure beauty of sound. The poet was an expert in how to put
together language, a wordsmith, and the job of the critic was to establish criteria by
which to judge whether a poet had succeeded or failed to produce a pleasing
composition.
Andromenides is probably the earliest identifiable euphonist (named in Phld. Po. 1,
131.2–3, 132.24–5 Janko; Demetrius of Laconia On Poems 1, 14.7–8 Romeo 1988;
Hsch. ε 3231). He has clear Peripatetic affinities and shares with Aristotle an interest
in high-style poetry – that concerned with gods and heroes – but he also knows and
accepts the tripartite division of the poetic art. His particular concern was choice of
diction (ἐϰλογή). Much like Theophrastus in his On Style (D.H. Comp. 16 ¼ F 688
FHSG), Andromenides believes that good poetry is dependent on the use of words
that are naturally beautiful, or luminous (λαμπρόс; cf. Arist. Poet. 1460b4–5 where
the term describes ornamental diction and Hermog. Id. 1.9 where luminosity is an
aspect of thought that produces grandeur). The job of the poet is to move the soul by
appealing to the sense of hearing through beautiful diction. At the same time, diction
should be appropriate to its content, and luminous words are well suited to the stories
of gods and heroes. Philodemus’ quotations or paraphrases from Andromenides
illustrate his views: ‘‘poets are suited to working out the language and vocabulary’’;
‘‘for human beings there exists by nature attention to and instinctive kinship with the
Muses, as revealed by the lulling to sleep of children by illiterate song’’; and ‘‘beau-
tiful effects of words exist for the hearing as do luminous (λαμπρά) letters, and from
the quality and quantity of letters are produced the beautiful effects’’ (131.5–132.2
Janko). While the idea of a natural human affinity for poetry is easily recognizable as
348 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

an Aristotelian heritage, Andromenides’ emphasis is on the emotional, comforting

effects of lovely sound, as the comparison to simple lullabies indicates.
Another passage attributed to Andromenides by Janko reveals his unusually meta-
phorical language, which tends to explain the aural effects of poetry through synaes-
thesia (181.4–19 Janko):

The composer of fictional narrative (ψευδορήμονα) must choose (ἐϰλέγειν) not only
words exotic to the mouth (ξενόс[τ]ομα) but also very beautiful ones, and the most
beautiful are those having syllables densely woven (ἐсπαθημένα[с) with many letters, and
the mouth must grasp onto euphonious ([εὐη]χηÐ letters and hurl weighty (ὀγϰώδειс)
syllables made of very luminous sounds; and the most luminous is lambda, for it is the
most beautiful and the peak of luminosity and gleaming.

Here Andromenides provides the reader the sensation of the ‘‘exotic to the mouth’’
with his unique compounds (ψευδορήμονα, ξενόсτομα), the heavy feel of densely
woven consonant clusters with his word choices (ἐсπαθημέναс), and the quasi-visual
effect of lambda’s gleaming brilliance with his repetition of that letter (ἀ[λλ]ὰ
λαμπρότ[α]τον ει ναι τὸ λάβδα, ϰαὶ γὰρ ϰά[λλιсτον ϰ]αὶ τουÐ λαμπρο[τάτου] ϰορυ-
ϕαιÐ ον). Elsewhere the same critic makes explicit the visual quality of sound by claiming
that ‘‘ears seem to hear heroic bodies’’ (τὰс ἀϰοὰс δοϰειÐ ν ἡρωι ϰ ̈ ωÐ ν сωμάτων ἀϰούειν,
171.2–4 Janko) when the poet ‘‘marshals his language out of pure colors’’
(τ[ὴν] γηÐ ρυν ἐξ εἰλιϰρινωÐ [ν] χρωμάτων сυντάξηται, 170.24–171.1). Andromenides,
as it seems, explains further that in the Homeric line ‘‘braids which were plaited with
gold and silver’’ (πλοχμοί θ , οἳ χρυсωÐ ι τε ϰαὶ ἀργύρωι ἐсϕήϰωντο, Il. 17.52) the
luminous exists not in the mention of gold and silver but in the dense sound of
πλοχμοί ‘‘braids’’ and ἐсϕήϰωντο ‘‘plaited’’ (producing a spondaic line) (23.27–
24.12; cf. 185.13–186.3 Janko). It is significant that πλοχμοί, a Homeric hapax,
appears next in Apollonius of Rhodes (Arg. 2.677), where it refers to the ‘‘golden
locks’’ of Apollo, who carries a ‘‘silver bow.’’ It is just the type of word that delighted
Philitas and other early Hellenistic glossographers. What becomes evident from these
precepts preserved by Philodemus is that scholarly study of diction also functioned as a
form of poetic criticism in the third century and so influenced poetic practice.
Apollonius’ motivation for alluding to this Homeric passage with πλοχμοί and the
references to gold and silver was perhaps not just to display his learnedness but also to
adorn his verse with sounds of epic splendor, to convey the ‘‘pure colors’’ of Apollo’s
dawn epiphany through the sound supervening on his diction.
Another euphonist critic discussed in On Poems is Heracleodorus, for whom, if we
follow Janko’s reconstruction, poetic excellence lay not in the choice of beautiful
words, but in arrangement (сύνθεсιс). Heracleodorus (named in Col. 201.23 Janko;
P.Herc. 1074 þ 1081 þ 1676, fr. n Sbordone, p. 221; Col. 3.28 Sbordone, p. 225;
Col. 24.28 Mangoni) seems to have been opposed to the views of Peripatetic critics
such as Andromenides since he rejects the idea of generic distinctions. The following
fragments show this: ‘‘[There is] not one epic [style], one tragic, another iambic, and
another comic or whatever some people say’’ (192.13–17 Janko); ‘‘it is not possible
for generic kinds to be differentiated’’ (193.1–3). He thus disavows, it appears, the
doctrine of styles, with appropriateness for certain genres, which existed as early as the
 Literary Criticism 349

fifth century in its simplest form of the grand style and the more bookish or
technically polished plain style (O’Sullivan 1992). He rather advocates a mixture of
generic forms and levels of diction, and even went so far as to consider the prose
writings of Demosthenes, Xenophon, and Herodotus to be ποιήματα, ‘‘poetic texts’’
(197R.19–25 Janko). In Heracleodorus’ view, the poet’s task is not the construction
of thought, common to other forms of communication, but the arrangement of
rhythms and words to produce poetic pleasure through beautiful sound. This critic’s
means to prove that sound alone is the source of poetic effect is metathesis, the
re-arrangement of words to show that the emotional appeal of poetry disappears
when the word order is altered. As an example, he points out that the lovely Homeric
line ἔсπετε νυÐ ν μοι, ΜουÐ сαι Ὀλύμπια δώματ ἔχουсαι (Il. 16.112) is deprived of its
beauty when rearranged as ἔсπετε ΜουÐ сαι Ὀλύμπια δώματα νυÐ ν μοι ἔχουсαι (38.28–
39.5 Janko). Citing another Homeric line, τὼ μὲν ἀναρρήξαντε βοὸс μεγάλοιο βοείην
(Il. 18.582), the same theorist credits it with a quality that Janko reconstructs as
‘‘sonority’’ (λιγυροτάτηι), destroyed when the words are re-ordered (40.7–14).
Metathesis, which became a common critical tool in the early Hellenistic period,
continued to be used well into the imperial era (Demetr. Eloc. 185; D.H. Comp. 4,
7; ‘‘Longin.’’ Subl. 39.4; De Jonge 2005).
There are a number of correspondences between the views attributed to
Heracleodorus and the innovative practices of third-century poets. The rejection of
rules for genres is strikingly close to the position of Callimachus, who in Iamb 13
defends himself against criticism of his πολυείδεια, or composition in multiple genres
and dialects (Janko 2000: 164). The fragments of this critic’s views thus give us an
ancient theoretical precedent for the ‘‘mixture of genres’’ that has long been an
established element in modern analysis of Hellenistic poetry. In addition, his claim
that content has nothing to do with the ἴδιον of poetry, provides a theoretical support
for the phenomenon of reworking prose treatises of a scientific or technical nature
into verse, as in the didactic poets Aratus and Nicander. I call attention as well to a
text in which the critical tool of metathesis is incorporated into poetic practice.
Castorion of Soli, a poet of the early Hellenistic period, composed a Hymn to Pan,
of which we have the opening lines (SH 310):

сὲ τὸν βολαιÐ с νιϕοϰτύποιс δυсχείμερον

ναίονθ ἕδραν, θηρονόμε Πάν, χθόν Ἀρϰάδων,
ϰλήсω γραϕηÐ ι τηÐ ιδ ἐν сοϕηÐ ι πάγϰλειτ ἔπη
сυνθείс, ἄναξ, δύсγνωсτα μὴ сοϕωÐ ι ϰλύειν,
μωсοπόλε θήρ, ϰηρόχυτον ὃс μείλιγμ ἱειÐ с.
You who dwell in a wintry home struck by blasts of snow,
the land of the Arcadians, Pan the herder of wild beasts,
I will celebrate in this learned text where I have arranged
words renowned to all that are hard for the uneducated to understand,
Muse-tending beast, you who send forth a wax-molded melody.

Athenaeus (10.454f–455a) preserves the lines in his section on literary puzzles, just
after the Thrasymachus epitaph, because each of its iambic trimeters consists of three
segments of 11 letters that can be rearranged without changing the meaning.
350 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

By specifying that he has ‘‘arranged in this learned text words . . . hard for the
uneducated person to understand,’’ Castorion alerts the reader acquainted with
contemporary poetic theory to the game he is playing with metathesis. Peter Bing
(1985) has shown that any re-arrangement of the metrically equivalent segments
produces a harsh collocation of sounds, such as a clash of sigma’s or nu’s. What now
becomes clear is that Castorion is self-consciously poeticizing the practice of meta-
thesis, which critics used to demonstrate an excellent arrangement producing beau-
tiful sound. The poet expressly invites the reader to perform the test of excellence on
his own poem and arranges his verses to facilitate that process. The result is proof of
his poetic expertise, since the poem is to be judged stylistically good, while the
invitation to judge also demonstrates the poet’s learned knowledge of critical theory.
Pausimachus of Miletus, known only from Philodemus (Janko 2000: 165–6),
continued the euphonist emphasis on good sound but modified the approach of
Heracleodorus. Playing down the importance of arrangement, Pausimachus located
the ἴδιον of poetic beauty purely in εὐηχία, ‘‘good sound’’ (P.Herc. 994 W.24–6
Sbordone, p. 15). Explaining that it is insufficient simply to analyze the successes and
failures of poets, as through metathesis, Pausimachus criticizes earlier euphonists for
not explaining systematically what they mean by good and bad sound (P.Herc. 994
frs. 14.25–11.11, as joined and quoted in Janko 2000: 165 n.4; cf. 80.6–20 Janko).
In Janko’s reconstruction, Pausimachus contributed a detailed study of sounds at the
level of letters, syllables, and words, accompanied by critical analysis of exemplary
passages. In the view of this critic, broad vowels such as alpha, eta, and omega are
more beautiful than closed ones like iota, and he praises words that combine broad
vowels with liquids, especially lambda. He argues that sound governs word choice
and gives examples from Homer, such as ϰίονα μαϰρήν, ‘‘long column,’’ which he
claims Homer chose for its broad vowels to create aural pleasure. Another example is
πλατειÐ Ἑλληсπόντωι, ‘‘wide Hellespont,’’ used even though the strait is narrow
(103.12–21 Janko) because syllables combining stops and lambda, as in πλατειÐ are
especially lovely. He attaches great importance to onomatopoetic words, such as
Homer’s ὑλαϰτειÐ ν and μυϰαÐ сθαι (perhaps also τρίζειν and сίζειν, as Janko conjectures,
106.6–10), which ‘‘move the hearer’’ by reproducing through the physical sensation
of ‘‘tickling’’ the ears (γαργαλιсθηÐ ναι, itself onomatopoetic) the experience being
described (49.5–10 Janko). The more unattractive sounds also have, then, a poetic
role in physically conveying to the reader certain types of subject matter, as he advises
the poet to ‘‘try to [produce] imitations of content’’ (49.26–8).
For Pausimachus, the poetic experience is entirely conditioned by sound, which
moves us to sympathetic engagement even against reason. From birds, especially the
nightingale, he draws an analogy to the good poet who is ‘‘naturally talented’’ and
who succeeds because he has an affinity for producing sounds suggestive of his
subject; he seems to have held that poets with less innate ability can learn to compose
through τέχνη, as parrots imitate articulate speech without understanding (114.19–
115.23 Janko; cf. 100.3–6). He concludes that excellent poets can compose in any
genre because genres are conventional, but poets compose by nature when ‘‘they
name their subject by finding sound that is noble, primary, and entirely fitting’’
(117.16–21). With Pausimachus, the euphonist tradition reached its most extreme
point, through the denial of any poetic value in content and even the rejection of art
 Literary Criticism 351

as an essential component in the poet’s skill. Like Heracleodorus, he was such a

radical exponent of ψυχαγωγία that for him not even prose writers should aim at the
truth rather than pleasing the many (49.1–5 Janko).
The question of poetic sound, which lies at the heart of euphonist theories of
composition, is often the subtext in passages of Hellenistic poetry that seem to
address issues of genre, style, and content. To return to the Aetia prologue, we
may note that Callimachus’ rejection of long compositions ‘‘on kings and heroes’’
places him in critical opposition to the early euphonist theory of diction, apparently
Andromenides’, which pertains to epic subject matter (ἥρωсι ϰα[ὶ] βαсιλε[υÐ сι]
πρεπωδέсτερον, ‘‘more appropriate for heroes and kings,’’ 170.18–19 Janko).
Callimachus’ imagery for the poetry he rejects is the long flight of cranes from
Egypt to Thrace or the far bow shot of the Massagetae against the Medes; in contrast,
he offers the simple statement that ‘‘nightingales are sweeter’’ (fr. 1.13–16 Pf.). If the
issue were merely the length of poetry, the nightingale image would be a non-
sequitur. The point seems to be rather that, however we want to understand the
cranes and the Massagetae, as examples of distance or epic subjects or allusions to
specific poems, they do not as images exemplify the essential poetic quality of
beautiful sound (for the harsh sound of cranes, see Lucr. 4.181–2 ¼ 910–11); it is
in this sense that nightingales are sweeter. While the loveliness of the nightingale’s
song is represented by Callimachus’ melodious ἀ[ηδονίδεс] . . . μελιχρ[ό]τεραι (still
the best conjecture, fr. 1.16 Pf.), the onomatopoetic word for the harsh sound made
by both cranes and the bow, ϰλαγγή, is absent from Callimachus’ text, to be supplied
by the reader’s knowledge of Homer (e.g., Il. 1.49, on Apollo’s bow, and Il. 3.3, 3.5,
on cranes battling Pygmies). A few lines later, Callimachus tells us expressly that some
poets produce unpleasant and harsh sounds, like the braying of the ass (ὀγϰήсαιτο,
fr. 1.31). The word for braying is here chosen to suggest the weightiness, or ὄγϰοс, of
the grand style (cf. ὀγϰώδειс сυλ[λαβάс], ‘‘weighty syllables,’’ 181.12–13 Janko). It is
an appropriate word for its purpose because it features the ugly short ‘‘o’’ sound as
well as a harsh consonant cluster combining a guttural with nasalization (as in the
absent ϰλαγγή). Callimachus prefers a style of more studied polish, with a charming
sweetness of sound. In a fragment of On Poems, a euphonist, perhaps Heracleodorus,
attributes to Homer ‘‘sonority and musicality’’ (λιγυρότητα ϰαὶ ἐμμέλειαν), qualities
he associates with that poet’s ‘‘winged words’’ (P.Herc. 1677, 6.21–2, 7.3–5 Romeo
1992: 196). It can scarcely be unrelated that Callimachus claims for his song the
‘‘sonorous sound’’ (λιγὺν η χον) of the cicada and describes himself as ‘‘the small one,
the winged one’’ (fr. 1.29–30, 32 Pf.).
A principal theme of bucolic poetry, as it develops from Theocritus’ Idylls, is the
beauty of song, particularly in terms of its relationship to the sounds of nature. In
the pseudo-Theocritean Idyll 8, which likely belongs to the late third century, the
goatherd who judges (ϰρινειÐ , 25; ϰρίνειν, 29) the singing match between Daphnis
and Menalcas declares Daphnis the winner on the following basis (82–3):

ἁδύ τι τὸ сτόμα τοι ϰαὶ ἐϕίμεροс, ω Δάϕνι, ϕωνά

ϰρέссον μελπομένω τευ ἀϰουέμεν ἢ μέλι λείχειν.
Sweet is your mouth and lovely your voice, Daphnis;
hearing you sing is better than licking honey.
352 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

To decide the contest on the basis of the pleasing sweetness of Daphnis’ song
would unavoidably evoke, for Hellenistic intellectuals, the critical practices of the
euphonists. In particular, the emphasis on the physical pleasure of hearing through
the synaesthetic comparison to taste (emphasized by the aural similarity in
μελπομένω . . . μέλι) recalls euphonist argumentation. For instance, Dionysius of
Halicarnassus argues that not all words affect the ear in the same way but produce
sweetness or bitterness, roughness or smoothness, ‘‘just as not all visible objects
affect in the same way the perception of sight, or tasted objects the perception
of taste or other stimuli other forms of perception’’ (Comp. 12). An even more
elaborate example of synaesthesia occurs in the Theocritean passage that is the
model for Idyll 8.82–3. The goatherd of Idyll 1 compliments Thyrsis on his song
by wishing that his month be full of honey or sweet figs since he sings better than
a cicada (146–8). He then gives him a carved wooden cup, saying ‘‘see how sweet
it smells’’ (149). Here we have taste, sight, and smell as the aesthetic equivalent
of lovely sound. Another important model for the poetic judging in Idyll 8
comes from the fifth Idyll, where Morson declares Comatas the winner over
Lacon, but without expressly stating the basis for his judgment. In his last song,
however, Comatas has just boasted of his own superiority by proclaiming that ‘‘a
nightingale should not compete with magpies or hoopoes with swans’’ (5.136–7).
Morson apparently accepts Comatas’ judgment, based on an analogy of human
singers to birds. The passage strongly suggests that Pausimachus’ comparison of
the nightingale, as the emblem of the poet naturally talented in producing beautiful
sound, to the parrot, as an emblem of the less talented composer who must rely on
mimicking others through art, develops euphonist discussions known already to
Theocritus.
Another point of intersection between bucolic poetry and euphonist criticism
involves onomatopoetic words. A theory of word origin in imitation of natural
sounds is found in Plato’s Cratylus (423b–c) and was further developed by the
Stoics. Working from a derivation of onomatopoeia as a ‘‘coining of words,’’
Demetrius (Eloc. 94) claims that many such words are ‘‘uttered in imitation of an
emotion or action,’’ and he gives as examples сίζε and λάπτοντεс, both from Homer
(Od. 9.394, Il. 16.161). Pausimachus advised poets to attempt imitations of their
subject matter (49.26–8 Janko) and posited that the hearer was stimulated by
imitative words ‘‘on account of their similarity to the experience of the [ears]’’
(106.13–14 Janko). The Theocritean corpus famously opens with an onomatopoetic
imitation of the sound of the syrinx, a feat that Demetrius (Eloc. 185) claims also for
Plato’s reference to the herdsman’s pipe (Rep. 399d). In Idyll 1.1–3 the sound
pattern dominated by π, τ, and с replicates the aural similarity between the song of
the whispering pine and the goatherd’s piping, while the anaphora in ἁδύ, ἁδύ points
to pleasure as the goal of their music, as it is of bucolic poetry in general. A bucolic
scholiast points out that the key word ψιθύριсμα, ‘‘whispering,’’ is onomatopoetic,
chosen for ‘‘its particularity of sound as mimetic of voice’’ (1c). In defining it,
through a false etymology from ψίω and θύρα, as ‘‘sounding out in the ears some
thin sound (λεπτὸν η χον ἠχειÐ ν) like ‘pssss’ at doors’’ (1d), the scholiast gives precise
evidence that the ‘‘thin’’ style of the Alexandrians was associated with the quality of
their sound.
 Literary Criticism 353

Many of the standard onomatopoetic words cited in ancient sources appear in

Theocritus and his successors, often to provide a harsher-sounding counterweight to
the prevailing sweetness of sound produced by long alpha and omega, and by the
combination of liquids with voiceless stops. Theocritus, for example, juxtaposes two of
these imitative words in Idyll 6.29 – сίξα δ ὑλαϰτειÐ ν, ‘‘I hissed [to a dog] to bark’’ –
to convey something of the Cyclops’ harsh character (on the use of rough letters such
as ξ, ζ, с, and even ρ, see Phld. Po. 2, P.Herc. 994, Col. 33.3–8 Sbordone, p. 103).
Another passage filled with sonorous imitation of nature is Theocritus’ description of
the sounds produced by insects and birds during the Thalysia. In introducing the
scene, Theocritus describes the lovely gurgling of the water flowing from the
nymphs’ cave with a half line taken from Il. 21.261: ϰατειβόμενον ϰελάρυζε (Id.
7.137). Significantly, a critic identified by Janko as Pausimachus discusses the sound
of this very Homeric passage, an effect he attributes largely to the onomatopoetic
ϰελαρύζει (107.26–108.21 Janko; cf. schol. Theoc. Id. 1.1d, Hsch. ϰ 2139–41). In
adapting the Homeric phrase, Theocritus appears to be signaling, by allusion to a
critical tradition followed by the euphonists, his own creative use of imitative sound in
the lines to follow. Another example comes from Moschus’ Europa, a poem that
throughout displays evidence of attention to the type of sweet sound favored by the
euphonist critics. When Europa is enchanted by the white bull that is Zeus in
disguise, touches him all about, wipes the foam from his mouth, and kisses him, he
‘‘moos gently’’ (μειλίχιον μυϰήсατο), like the ‘‘sweet sound of a Mygdonian flute’’
(αὐλουÐ Μυγδονίου γλυϰὺν η χον, 97–8). Here Moschus enhances the sound-sense of
the standard onomatopoetic word μυϰαÐ сθαι by further conveying the animal noise it
imitates through the alliteration in μ supported by the gutturals γ, ϰ, χ and assonance
in sonorous υ.
Another well-known passage from Theocritus alludes, I suggest, to the euphonist
interest in сύνθεсιс as a vehicle for conveying beautiful sound. In the third and last
scene on the goatherd’s cup in the first Idyll, a boy who guards a vineyard sits on a
rock wall weaving a grasshopper’s cage as foxes plunder the fruit and plot to steal his
lunch. In Theocritus’ words (52–4):

αὐτὰρ ὅγ ἀνθερίϰοιсι ϰαλὰν πλέϰει ἀϰριδοθήραν

сχοίνωι ἐϕαρμόсδων μέλεται δέ οἱ οὔτε τι πήραс
οὔτε ϕυτωÐ ν τοссηÐ νον ὅсον περὶ πλέγματι γαθειÐ .
He plaits a lovely grasshopper’s cage by fitting together rush
with flowering asphodel, and he pays no notice to his wallet
or to the plants since he takes such great joy in his plaiting.

The boy has often been interpreted as an emblem of the poet, and certainly weaving may
stand for poetic composition, just as tuneful insects were associated with song. I believe
there is here a more specific allusion to Hellenistic theories of poetic art. The words
πλέϰει and πλέγματι evoke the technical usage of words from the same root, such as
πλοϰή and сυμπλοϰή, to refer to ordering of letters or words (as in Phld. Po. 1, 80.7
Janko; D.H. Comp. 2, 16). In addition, ἐϕαρμόсδων recalls the use of ἁρμονία for
melodious arrangement (Theophr. F 691 FHSG ¼ D.H. Isoc. 3; cf. Phld. Po. 1,
117.19, 131.14–15 Janko; D.H. Comp. 2–3). The grasshopper, playing the same role
354 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

here as do the nightingale and the cicada in the Aetia prologue, likewise points to
euphonist theories. A parallel is offered in Idyll 7.39–41, where Simichidas professes
that in poetic skill he is inferior to Philitas and Asclepiades as a frog is to grasshoppers
(βάτραχοс . . . ποτ ἀϰρίδαс ὥс τιс); a scholiast’s comment that grasshoppers ‘‘pipe
harmoniously’’ (сυρίζουсιν ἐναρμόνιον, 41b) points to the insect’s connection with
musical harmony. For knowledgeable ancient readers, then, the harmonious plaiting of
rush and asphodel would emblematize good poetic composition, as the grasshopper who
will occupy the ‘‘lovely’’ cage would represent the sound that supervenes upon it. Vergil
reworks this image at the end of the Eclogues to close his own textual plaiting: ‘‘this will
be enough for your poet to have sung, goddesses, while he was sitting and plaiting a basket
from slender marsh mallow’’ (10.70–1). Servius explains, using technical terms, that
Vergil ‘‘means allegorically he has composed (composuisse) in the thin style.’’

Stoic Uses of Poetry and Allegorical Interpretation

Another dominant trend, contrasting sharply with that of the euphonists, emphasized
the didactic utility of poetry. The Stoics provided much of the theoretical basis for this
view, which found in poetry moral instruction and even accurate information about
the nature of the universe. According to a Herculaneum papyrus (P.Herc. 403, fr.
4.12–18, quoted by Mangoni 1993: 251–2), the true Stoics held that a beautiful
poem was one containing wise thought and a good poet was the maker of such
poems. Uncovering the particular Hellenistic manifestations of Stoic critical practice
is difficult, however, since the views of the major philosophers in the early Stoa are
known only in fragmentary form. It is clear, however, that etymology and allegory
played an important role in Stoic exegesis from the time of Zeno of Citium, the
founder of Stoicism, even if the more sustained form of allegorical interpretation was
a secondary development.
The early Stoics were more interested in literary topics than their contemporary
Epicureans, because they found interpretive ways of reading poetic texts in accord-
ance with their own philosophical beliefs (Ramelli and Lucchetta 2004: 79–203).
Among the known writings of Zeno are On Styles, Homeric Problems in five books,
and On the Reading of Poetry (D.L. 7.4); he also wrote on Hesiod in an unrecorded
work (Cic. ND 1.36 ¼ SVF 1.167). The fragments of his literary criticism suggest
that he brought a Stoic approach to scholarly problems, particularly the interpretation
of epic passages. As a general principle, Zeno taught that Homer ‘‘composed some
things in accordance with opinion (ϰατὰ δόξαν) and some things in accordance with
truth (ϰατὰ ἀλήθειαν),’’ in order to show that the poet did not contradict himself in
passages of seemingly oppositional content (Dio Chrys. Or. 53.4–5 ¼ SVF 1.274). It
appears that Zeno believed some parts of Homer to be directly accurate and others
composed in accordance with the primitive understanding of the era (cf. Cic. ND
2.63 ¼ SVF 1.166). Strabo reflects this view in an important passage (10.3.23):

Every discourse about the gods investigates ancient opinions and myths (δόξαс ϰαὶ
μύθουс), since the ancients hid in riddles their physical understanding of affairs and
 Literary Criticism 355

always imposed myth on their discourses. It is not easy to solve all the riddles accurately,
but . . . , though some (myths) agree with each other and others are contradictory, one
could successfully conjecture the truth (τἀληθέс) from them.

The Stoic method of solving the riddles in earlier myth was allegory, which was
already in use in a certain strand of Homer interpretation and in ritual practice, as
shown by the Derveni Papyrus (Obbink 2003). Etymology was a favorite device for
revealing that the divine figures of early poetry represented the physical nature of the
universe as the Stoics understood it. Zeno interpreted Hesiod’s Theogony in this way,
since he argued, for instance, that χάοс stands for water, one of the elements forming
the universe, through a derivation from χέεсθαι (SVF 1.103). Cleanthes, who is
credited with a treatise about Homer entitled On the Poet (D.L. 7.175), created even
more extravagant etymologies. He rewrote as one word – ἀναδωδωναιÐ ε – part of
Homer’s phrase ΖευÐ ἄνα, ΔωδωναιÐ ε, ‘‘lord Zeus, of Dodona’’ (Il. 16.233), and
explained that his new compound referred to exhalation (ἀνάδοсιс) of air (i.e.,
Zeus) from the earth (Plu. Mor. 31d–e ¼ SVF 1.535). He also supported his
interpretation of Atlas as ‘‘unwearying’’ divine providence by rewriting his Homeric
epithet ὀλοόϕρων, ‘‘destructive-minded,’’ with a rough breathing, as if it were
derived from ὅλοс, ‘‘whole,’’ and ϕρήν, ‘‘mind,’’ to signify the divine thought
pervading all (schol. Od. 1.52 ¼ SVF 1.549). Similarly, in his On the Nature of the
Gods Chrysippus accommodated the poetry of the earliest poets – Orpheus, Musaeus,
Homer, and Hesiod – to Stoic belief in the pantheistic presence of the divine by
interpreting the gods as synonymous with physical features of the universe (Cic. ND
1.39–41 ¼ SVF 2.1077). Among the early Stoics, only Chrysippus is known to have
made a sustained allegory, that of a painting on Samos. In his infamous reading, the
depiction of Hera fellating Zeus represents the diffusion of seminal reason into matter
(SVF 2.1071–4). Scholars have often focused on the question of whether the early
Stoics believed that information about the physical universe was knowingly encoded in
mythical stories by philosophers or poets living in a primitive age (Long 1992; Boys-
Stones 2001: 28–43 and 2003a). What seems clear, however, is that the Stoics, at
least the early ones, were working from a belief in a divine λόγοс that pervades
everything, including the mythical language of poetic texts and artistic depictions.
The surviving etymologies and allegories rather monotonously identify gods with
basic elements such as water, air, and fire or find yet another reference to the rational
principle controlling all.
Some Stoic thinkers of the Hellenistic Age still found poetic expression useful for
conveying their philosophical beliefs. From the perspective of Stoic criticism, these
were likely considered ‘‘good’’ poets who composed ‘‘beautiful’’ poetry. Aratus’
Phaenomena begins with a tribute to Zeus as pervasively present, revealing to mortals
beneficial signs, including the constellations. In Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus, the phrase
διὰ πάντων (CA 1.12) not only expresses the god’s pantheistic presence throughout
the universe but also etymologizes his name. For Cleanthes, as reported by
Philodemus in On Music (142.5–14 Delattre 2007 ¼ SVF 1.486), philosophical
prose had a sufficient capacity to explain divine and human matter, but since it was
unadorned, it lacked a poetic style appropriate for conveying divine grandeur. In
Cleanthes’ view, meter, melody, and rhythm more effectively bring the hearer to
356 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

contemplation of the divine in accordance with the truth (cf. Sen. Ep. 108.10 ¼ SVF
1.487). This surprisingly strong belief in the utility of poetry for the philosopher is
related to the Stoic belief in the power of music to move the soul toward virtue and to
guide the intellect (vigorous opposed by Philodemus in On Music). It helps to explain
Cleanthes’ own verse production. Though Chrysippus apparently did not compose
poetry, he filled out his hundreds of prose treatises with citations from lyric and
dramatic poets as well as early epic. He copied out practically all of Euripides’ Medea
in his On the Soul (D.L. 7.180), where he argued for the heart as the seat of an
undivided soul in which emotions and reason interact (Galen, On the Doctrines of
Hippocrates and Plato 3.3.13–18 De Lacy 1978 ¼ SVF 2.884–90; Gill 1983, 1996:
226–36; Dillon 1997). He offered as evidence for this Stoic concept Medea’s process
of decision making in her monologue (Eur. Med. 1021–80), not an allegorical
reading. As suggested by Chrysippus’ Against the Critics, the Stoics were interested
in the usefulness of poetry in terms of its content, whether that was straightforwardly
truthful or obscured by the conventions of the age in which it was composed. Poetic
expression was of concern only to the extent that it could enhance the cognitive or
ethical message (Nussbaum 1997).
More extended allegorical readings of Homer were conducted by Crates of Mallus in
the second century. His Stoic credentials have been disputed, but Hesychius calls him a
‘‘Stoic philosopher’’ (ϰ 2342 ¼ T 1 Broggiato 2001) and Panaetius is said to have been
his student (Str. 14.5.16 ¼ T 21). In the Stoic manner, he identified the gods with
natural elements, such as Zeus with the sky (F 131 Broggiato) and Apollo with the sun
(schol. A Il. 18.240 b ¼ F 26). Borrowing from the third-century poet Moero, he
interpreted the πέλειαι, ‘‘doves,’’ that bring ambrosia to Zeus in Od. 12.59–65 as the
constellation of the Pleiades (Ath. 11.490e ¼ F 59). What underlay these interpreta-
tions of specific passages was Crates’ belief in Homer’s πολυμαθία, or wide under-
standing of natural principles discovered by scientists only much later (Str. 3.4.4 ¼
F 75). He attributed to Homer the understanding that the universe was a sphere with
the earth at its center, the view of most Hellenistic scientists; this сϕαιροποιία, as it was
called, refers to Homer’s re-creation of the cosmic sphere in poetic form (Phld. Po.,
P.Herc. 1074 þ 1081 þ 1676, Col. 2.23–5 Sbordone, pp. 223 ¼ F 99 Broggiato;
Geminus 16.21–8 ¼ F 37). To establish this interpretation, Crates explained Homer’s
description of Agamemnon’s shield (and probably Achilles’ shield as well) as a
μίμημα τουÐ ϰόсμου (schol. bT Il. 11.40 b ¼ F 12). Related was his interpretation of
the scene in which Hephaestus is thrown from heaven as an attempt by Zeus to measure
the universe (Il. 1.590–3). Since the sun’s crossing of the sky in one day was equal to
the duration of Hephaestus’ fall, it was proven that the universe is equally distant
horizontally and vertically (Heraclit. All. 27.2–4 Russell and Konstan 2005 ¼ F 3); this
of course would prove its sphericity. In his reading of the passage, Crates also employed
an etymology. He derived the problematic word βηλόс, normally understood as the
‘‘threshold’’ from which Hephaestus was tossed to earth, from ηffl λοс, ‘‘nail head,’’ to
associate it with the nail-like appearance of the stars in the sky (F 21).
Our most complete record of a Hellenistic allegorical interpretation of Homer
comes from a work entitled On Nestor’s Cup by Asclepiades of Myrlea (Pagani 2004).
This scholar of the first half of the first century BCE offered a thorough explanation of
Homer’s description of the famous gold cup (Il. 11.632–7), much of which is
 Literary Criticism 357

preserved in Athenaeus (11.489c–94b). Asclepiades explains that those of the

ancients who ordained for humans the equipment of civilized life, through their
belief in the spherical shape of the universe, developed ‘‘vivid mental images’’
(ἐναργειÐ с ϕανταсίαι, 11.489c) from the sun and moon, from which they produced
round tables, tripods, and circular loaves. In ‘‘imitation of the cosmos’’ (μίμημα
τουÐ ϰόсμου, Ath. 11.489d), they also made cups. But Nestor’s cup is special because
it had upon it stars, which Homer compares to nail heads (ἥλοιс), and doves, by
which Homer means the Pleiades who offer to humans signs of the agricultural
seasons. Asclepiades’ debt to Crates is thus clear. The passage continues with increas-
ingly strained interpretations based on philological arguments, including the claim
that the cup was adorned with not two or four doves as usually assumed, but six to
match the number of visible stars in the Pleiades. It is indisputable, then, that by the
first century BCE , one strand of poetic interpretation sought to find in Homer –
through etymology, philological contrivance, and allegorical interpretation – evidence
that the earliest Greek texts are true sources of knowledge, expressed in the forms
available to the poets of that age.
We have been tracking the Hellenistic use of allegorical interpretation in establish-
ing the didactic benefits of poetry. It is important to note, however, that the practice
of what was called ‘‘allegory’’ was a widespread phenomenon that often served other
literary goals. The term ἀλληγορία, in its general sense, designated a stylistic trope
common to both poetry and prose (Innes 2003: 19–20). In On Rhetoric 4 (Col.
3.20–2 Sudhaus 1892: 164; Cols. 22.24–5, 23.18–25 Sudhaus 1892: 181).
Philodemus describes allegory as a figure akin to metaphor and divides it into riddle
(αἴνιγμα), proverb, and irony. What unites these three species of allegory is that more
is meant than what is said (cf. Quint. Inst. 8.6.44, ἀλληγορία . . . aliud uerbis, aliud
sensu ostendit). Demetrius finds the trope of allegory useful in his various styles – in
the elegant style to produce wit (Eloc. 151) and in the forceful and grand styles to
produce shock and fear (99–102, 243, 282–6). As a favorite example, he cites the
threat of the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius to the Locrians that their cicadas would sing
to them from the ground, which, as Demetrius says, is more fear-inspiring in its
cryptic brevity than an explicit threat to denude their land of trees (99, 243).
Demetrius points out that allegory was used in the mysteries, like ‘‘darkness and
night,’’ to provoke ‘‘shock and shuddering’’ (101). He recommends avoiding a
succession of allegories so that the ‘‘language does not become a riddle (αἴνιγμα)’’
(102; cf. Cic. de Orat. 3.167). Quintilian (Inst. 8.6.44–7) defines the trope as
sustained metaphor and gives a series of useful examples from Latin poetry:
Horace’s ship of state (Carm. 1.14; cf. Heraclit. All. 5.5–9 Russell and Konstan
2005, on Alcaeus), Lucretius’ claim to wander upon the ‘‘untrodden places of the
Pierides’’ (1.926–7 ¼ 4.1–2), and Vergil’s veiling of his own persona in the bucolic
figure of Menalcas (e.g., Ecl. 10.20). Clearly, then, allegory in its simpler form was a
type of imagery commonplace in Greek and Latin literature and was considered an
effective adornment for enhancing literary speech. The interpretive practice that
provoked controversy was finding sustained allegory in texts where it was far from
obvious that any had been intended, in order to use the authority of literature to
authenticate truth claims. Philodemus in On Poems, for instance, condemns those,
like Crates in his sphaeropoeia, who understand that the signified content of the Iliad
358 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

begins with the word μηÐ νιс but still desire that the poet present other meanings; he
even considers ‘‘clearly mad’’ those who try to show that the Iliad is about the
physical nature of the universe or laws and customs by identifying heroes and gods
with celestial bodies or organs of the body (P.Herc. 1074 þ 1081 þ 1676, Cols.
2.18–3.14 Sbordone, pp. 223, 225).
Allegorical imagery was used by many Hellenistic authors. Greek models for
Quintilian’s examples of Latin allegory include Callimachus’ image of the ‘‘untrod-
den places’’ in the Aetia prologue (e.g., τὰ μὴ πατέουсιν ἅμαξαι τὰ сτείβειν, ‘‘to go
on the tracks not trampled by wagons,’’ fr. 1.25–6 Pf.) and the identification of the
bucolic poet with the cowherd, as in Bion fr. 10 Gow 1952a or the Epitaph for Bion.
It is altogether likely, then, that Hellenistic poets thought of their programmatic
imagery, in which they self-consciously reflected their own poetic choices, as, tech-
nically, allegory. The treatise On Tropes ascribed to Tryphon (first century BCE ; West
1965) cites as an example of allegory (1.1 West ¼ Spengel 1856: 3.245) a passage
from Iamb 5 in which Callimachus bids a pederastic school teacher to contain his
flame from blazing forth and to hold back his horses from a second running of the
chariot race (23–9). In offering his addressee this erotic ‘‘riddle’’ to solve,
Callimachus expressly names himself a prophetic Bacis, a Sibyl, an oracular laurel
and oak (31–3). Other poetry of the era displayed a more sustained, ‘‘enigmatic’’
form. The technopaignia are of this sort. The reader must decode the riddling
language to understand what object is described, and the visible shape on the page
provides a clue to solving the riddle. All descend to us with scholia in which the
cryptic language is translated into the true meaning. The most sustained example of
allegorical composition in the Hellenistic period is Lycophron’s Alexandra (Sens in
this volume). The messenger who reports Cassandra’s inspired prophecies to Priam
characterizes them with language descriptive of the strongest forms of allegory: she
‘‘mimics the speech of the black Sphinx’’ (7), and the king must ‘‘pursue the ill-
spoken paths of her riddles’’ where a ‘‘learned track guides that which is in darkness’’
(10–12). In the figure of Cassandra, Lycophron may be presenting an image of the
god-inspired poet, flinging out a torrent of words and driven by enthousiasmos. The
‘‘mad’’ poet, such as Horace’s Empedocles who thinks he will become a god (Ars
453–76), was often mocked in an age that preferred the learned art of the technically
proficient composer. Ps.-Longinus, however, seems to reflect a contrary stand of
critical thought in which authors could be so inspired by older poets of natural talent
that they speak with like grandeur of style. His model for such inspiration is the
Pythia’s experience of issuing prophecies as a result of inhaling divine vapors (Subl.
13.2). In Lycophron, Cassandra ends her ranting prophecy by predicting that,
although her words will be of no ‘‘benefit’’ (ὠϕελειÐ ν, 1459) to her homeland because
they will be disbelieved, in time everyone will learn of their accuracy. This is a basic
claim made by those practicing the strong form of allegorical interpretation for early
poetry – that mythical language conceals underlying truths understood by wise men
only in the fullness of time. The Alexandra can thus be read, metapoetically, as an
allegorical text that self-consciously challenges its reader to decode the ancient
inspired predictions of mad Cassandra from the later perspective of known history.
Other Hellenistic authors seem to encourage allegorical readings of their texts. For
instance, a scholiast explains the embroidered figures on Jason’s cloak in Apollonius’
 Literary Criticism 359

Argonautica (1.721–68) as referring to ‘‘cosmic order and the deeds of human

beings’’; in addition, Athena is said to have given him the cloak because ‘‘the cosmos
came about through divine intelligence’’ (schol. 1.767). Such interpretations were
perhaps influenced by allegorical readings of Homeric objects, such as Crates on
Agamemnon’s shield and Asclepiades on Nestor’s cup. It is also possible that the
Stoic idea of manufactured objects reflecting the wisdom of primitive men about the
universe is related to Hellenistic interest in poetic ecphrases, like Jason’s cloak, with
evident symbolism. If so, Crates’ concept of сϕαιροποιία was perhaps not so unique,
but had precedents in earlier Hellenistic critical thinking.
Yet other poets represented dramatically the process of interpreting the more
sustained αἰνίγματα. Many of the ecphrastic epigrams preserved in the Greek
Anthology dramatize the process of ‘‘reading’’ a work of art to unravel the figure
depicted and its attributes. In a few, the art object was created as a figure of allegory.
For instance, in an epigram by Posidippus (142 AB ¼ 19 GP ¼ AP 16.275),
Lysippus’ statue of Kairos speaks in dialogue with a viewer to explain his peculiar
physical appearance and the sculptor’s purpose in making him, namely, to offer
διδαсϰαλίη, ‘‘instruction.’’ A series of epigrams that represent a passer-by attempting
to decipher the symbols placed on a grave monument (AP 7.421–9) seem to function
differently, to interrogate the reliability of allegorical exegeses and so of its didactic
utility. In one such epigram, by Alcaeus (16 GP ¼ AP 7.429), a passerby thinks of
various explanations for the two phi’s (διссάϰι ϕειÐ ) engraved on a gravestone, before
deciding that they must indicate the burial of a poor woman named Pheidis, meaning
‘‘phi twice,’’ but also suggesting ‘‘Thrifty.’’ In self-satisfaction, he proclaims himself
an ‘‘Oedipus’’ who has solved ‘‘riddles of the Sphinx,’’ praiseworthy for working out
an αἴνιγμα that is ‘‘light to the wise and darkness to the unwise.’’ What the reader
does not know is whether the clever interpretation of the emblems as representing a
linguistic game with letters and a name should be construed as correct (Gutzwiller
1998: 268–70). It is certainly possible to read his triumphal boasting as mimicking
the misplaced confidence of an allegorical critic.

Synthetic Approaches
To summarize, this survey has shown that Hellenistic literary theory struggled at its
core with a debate about whether ψυχαγωγία or διδαсϰαλία was the proper goal of
literature. This debate descends from dichotomous reactions provoked by Plato’s
challenge to the conventional view of poetry as a source of knowledge and a basis for
moral education. One response was to refocus on technical expertise as the province
of the poet, independent of the truth or falsehood of content, as in euphonist
criticism, which judged poetry in terms of the material, aesthetic pleasure it gave.
The other response, given a theoretical basis by the Stoics, continued to defend
poetry as utilitarian and instructive, differentiated from prose treatises through its
reliance on such tools as etymology and allegory. To the modern mind, this privil-
eging of pleasure or instruction, form or content, seems overly simplistic, and
throughout the Hellenistic period some literary theorizers attempted more synthetic
360 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

analyses. The theorists discussed in Book 5 of Philodemus’ On Poems may have been
selected to represent this more moderate or synthetic approach which Philodemus
himself championed, and it is fitting that we conclude with a survey of his final book.
First, let us review the current thinking about the contents of On Poems. In Books 1
and 2, Philodemus discusses primarily the euphonists, who are criticized for their
focus on how poetic form affects the recipient. The less well preserved Books 3 and 4
take up questions of genre and engage with Aristotelian principles, including whether
the concept of mimēsis is an adequate means of defining the poetic. It is not
unreasonable to surmise that Philodemus discussed in the first two books those
theorists who privileged form and then in the next two those focused on content,
such as the earlier Peripatetics. Book 5 contains summaries with refutation of the
major ideas advanced by several literary thinkers. The surviving portion of the book
appears to be organized by philosophical schools: first the Academics, then
Peripatetics, next Stoics, and finally the Epicurean reaction. Although it is unclear
whether the theorists are presented in chronological order, there does appear to be a
progression of thought, as if each thinker was responding to the one before. The
central question addressed is the nature of poetic excellence (ἀρετή) with subsidiary
questions about the intended effect of poetry (ὠϕελία or ἡδονή) and the proper
divisions of the poetic art, a topic that involves the relationship between subject
and style. In short, Book 5 offers a brief history of what Philodemus may have
considered the best or most important theories about the nature of poetry.
Because the name Heraclides twice appears (3.14–16 Mangoni) in the first section
of On Poems 5 yielding any readable text (1.1–12.9), a number of scholars, starting
with Jensen (1936, correcting his 1923 attribution to Neoptolemus; cf. Mangoni
1993: 36–44; Janko 2000: 137–8), have attributed all or part of that material to
Heraclides of Pontus. This fourth-century follower of the Academy, who later
attached himself to Aristotle, wrote numerous works on literary and musical topics,
including On Poetic Art and the Poets and On Genres (D.L. 5.87–8). Philodemus’
presentation of ideas that look back to Plato’s criticisms of poetry supports the
identification of Heraclides as one opponent, and we know that Philodemus discussed
Heraclides in the lost Book 3 of his On Music (138.5–7 Delattre). In On Music 4
(49.1–20, 137.27–138.4 Delattre), he reports that Heraclides was interested in what
melodies were appropriate for what types of (dramatic?) character and how musical
practice shapes dispositions toward virtue. Here in On Poems 5, he discusses his
opponent’s position that a poet both pleases and benefits his audience (3.3–32
Mangoni), apparently with moral virtue as the goal. He objects that, according to
Heraclides’ argument, the most useful poetry would be the best (4.21–4) and that
Heraclides excludes from excellence the most famous poets because their poetry lacks
utility. He also points out that his opponent has laid upon the poet the burden of
having accurate knowledge of various technical disciplines, such as geometry, geo-
graphy, and navigation (5.11–6.1). The views here attributed to Heraclides suit well
an attempt to accommodate Plato’s complaints against traditional poetry and yet
salvage a social role for verse by assigning an educative and moral value to certain
types of music and poetry.
After a brief lacuna, Philodemus reports that the same theorist (as it seems)
prescribes as a requisite for both the poet and his art a concise preconception of his
 Literary Criticism 361

subject and plausible, clear development of thought (6.12–19). Philodemus’ follow-

ing remarks indicate that this opponent made a division of poetic styles (7.25–8.34),
like the four χαραϰτηÐ ρεс of Demetrius or the three genera loquendi known from
Roman sources. In addition to the preceding poetic qualities, the opponent man-
dated, for his first stylistic category of poems that are very solid and rather substantial
(сτερεώτατα ϰαὶ μείζω), the qualities of richness (πολυτελωÐ с) and weight (ἐμβριθωÐ с),
not commonness (εὐτελωÐ с) and lightness (ἐλαϕρωÐ с). These qualities are attainable
because the poet draws raw material (ὕλη) from an abundant supply of personages
(πρόсωπα) and ethical traits (ἤθη) as well as unique stories (μύθοι) and plots
(ὑποθέсειс), chosen for their truth and novelty. The opponent’s second or ‘‘inter-
mediate’’ type of poem likewise required some richness (πολυτελεία) and had plot.
The third type, which the opponent apparently did not commend, was common
(εὐτελέс) and light (ἐλαϕρόν), lacking unique narrative, plot, truth, and individuality.
The preferences behind this categorization of literary styles are strikingly reminiscent
of the views that Callimachus assigns to the Telchines, who championed lengthy
poetry on epic themes and muttered against his ‘‘slender Muse’’ (ΜουÐ сα λεπταλέη, fr.
1.24 Pf.). In turn, Callimachus defends his style by vaunting his role as the ‘‘small’’
cicada (οὑλαχύс, fr. 1.32). Philodemus worries that the poems favored by his oppon-
ent, if they lack forcefulness, would not differ from the swollen or bombastic
(ὀγϰώδεсιν, 8.14), just as Callimachus rejects the bombastic braying of the ass
(ὀγϰήсαιτο, fr. 1.31) and criticizes Antimachus’ Lyde as a ‘‘fat and unclear’’ compos-
ition (παχὺ . . . ϰαὶ οὐ τορόν, fr. 398 Pf.). Behind the literary quarrels of Callimachus
and his contemporaries seem to lie, then, the critical theories of philosophers such as
Heraclides. Philodemus ends the section in agreement with his opponent, arguing
that excellent poets, such as Homer and Sophocles, are more than just good com-
posers because they also incorporate thought through their selection of subject
matter (10.20–3). He thus signals his own belief in the importance of content for
good poetry.
In the next section, on Peripatetic theorists (12.10–13.32 Mangoni), Philodemus
accepts the contention that the best poet should excel more or less equally in subject
matter, in character portrayal, and in style, but he criticizes the Peripatetics for not
distinguishing the poet from mime writers or other prose authors who also excel in
these categories (cf. Arist. Poet. 1447b2–4; Hordern 2002b on Demetrius of
Laconia’s treatment of Sophron’s prose mimes). After mentioning Praxiphanes,
against whom Callimachus wrote a prose treatise, and Demetrius of Byzantium,
who held elegant (ἀсτείωс) thought to be the first element of a good poem followed
by appropriate word choice and then a beautiful execution of style, Philodemus turns
to Neoptolemus’ tripartite division of the poetic art, discussed above. At the end of
the passage (16.4–28 Mangoni), Philodemus comments on Neoptolemus’ claim that
the perfect poet, identified with Homer, provides not only enthrallment (ψυχαγωγία)
but also benefit and edifying instruction, the origin, it seems, of Horace’s famous
endorsement of the utile mingled with the dulce to both delight and advise the reader
(Ars 343–4). Philodemus’ complaint is that Neoptolemus does not make clear what
sort of benefit derives from poetry, though Philodemus surmises it is philosophical
wisdom or other forms of knowledge. Again, he seems to have chosen theorists who
found some way of accommodating both form and content.
362 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

There follows the Stoic, likely Aristo of Chios (16.28–24.22 Mangoni), whose dual
division of the poetic art was discussed above. Aristo provided a Stoic perspective on
the question of how to judge poetry. Poetry was to be judged as (1) good, (2) neither
good nor bad, or (3) bad, a division derived from the Stoic idea that all things are
good, bad, or indifferent. In his synthetic approach, the interaction of the thought
and the composition determines the overall value of the poem. A poem that falls into
the category of good has both good content, which means that it contains fine
thoughts and actions and aims at education (17.14–20), and good or artful compos-
ition, which includes the ‘‘euphonies of the critics’’ (21.16–17). Aristo’s Stoic
orientation is evident in his category of the absolutely good poem, which would,
presumably, be the poem written by a sage, and Philodemus complains that no poet
has ever written or will ever write such a poem (17.20–4). A poem may be classed as
bad simply on the basis of faulty composition (21.1–5), and he condemned some
poems of the ancients as absolutely bad, apparently on the basis of content, even
though their composition was meritorious. It appears, then, that the category into
which would fall actual poems commonly judged to be of superior quality would be
the intermediate one, neither good nor bad.
Aristo was a great admirer of Antimachus, apparently for both his technical preci-
sion and his ‘‘educational’’ content (παιδευτιϰά, 17.24–31). In this, he followed
Plato, who reportedly so admired Antimachus that he sent Heraclides of Pontus to
Colophon to collect his poetry (Call. fr. 589 Pf. ¼ Procl. in Ti. 21c). Aristo finds
original or ingenious explanations for mythical material in Antimachus, whose use of
narratives as ‘‘consolation’’ to soothe his grief for his beloved in the Lyde suggests
that his educational value lay partly in ameliorating passion, thus countering the
arousal of emotions to which Plato objected. Diogenes of Babylon’s claim that one
benefit of music was to soothe the pains of love (Phld. Mus. 4, 129.1–4 Delattre) may
contribute to our understanding of why Antimachus was appreciated by certain
Hellenistic poets, such as the erotic epigrammatists Asclepiades (32 GP ¼ AP 9.63)
and Posidippus (9.1–2 GP ¼ AP 12.168.1–2; Gutzwiller 1998: 157–69 on his Stoic
inclinations). In Aristo’s analysis, Antimachus’ poetry modeled the ‘‘therapy of
desire’’ that was the general goal of Hellenistic philosophy. Aristo’s emphasis on
the importance of euphony with its musical qualities, indicating acquaintance with
the critics, may not be far from Cleanthes’ view that sound clarifies the grandeur of
thought. It appears that Aristo managed to integrate an analysis of poetry in terms of
content and form with Stoic views of how the rational mind cooperates with irrational
perception to form judgments that lead toward virtue.
Next comes a summary refutation of the views of Crates (24.23–29.23 Mangoni),
who is Philodemus’ intermediary source for earlier poetic criticism, just as the Stoic
Diogenes is his intermediary in On Music. While some of Crates’ interpretations of
Homer reflect Stoic allegorical readings, his views on judging poetry, that is, what he
wrote as a ϰριτιϰόс, blend the focus on style and euphony typical of the euphonist
critics with Stoic views on language as a natural system. In opposition to certain
philosophers (perhaps early Epicureans) who based literary judgment on conventions
that vary from one group to another (25.2–30 Mangoni), Crates argues for a
standard of judgment based on a rational method of composition involving art, that
is, a λόγοс that constitutes a single, universal principle of language use independent of
 Literary Criticism 363

genre, meter, or other poetic variables. This overarching principle involved euphony,
which could be created in any poem through the proper combination of sounds.
Crates’ focus on letters, discussed more fully in lost parts of Book 2 (29.7–18
Mangoni), points to his grounding in the Stoic theory of natural language, which
underlies his acceptance of, and interest in modifying, euphonist views.
A key doctrine for Crates is that, although pleasure comes from poems through
hearing, ‘‘a poem is to be judged good not whenever it pleases the hearing but
whenever it is realized in accordance with the logos of art’’ (ὅταν ϰατὰ τὸν τηÐ с
τέχνηс λόγον ἐνεργηθηÐ ι, 28.2–4 Mangoni). Unlike the earlier critics, Crates does not
base poetic judgment on the irrational faculty of hearing, despite the fact that sense
perception was the means through which the pleasure of poetry was received; for him,
judgment should be directed to the artistic acts of the composer. Likewise, he objects
to judging the contents of poetry, although contents remain essential to poetry qua
poetry (in opposition, for instance, to music), because he understands content to be
pre-existing thought, not that which the poet creates in his art. Crates wants to exclude
from poetic judgment both the irrational element of hearing, since hearing might find
pleasure in accidental euphony, and the cognitive assimilation of meaning, since the
utility of the thought is not a specifically poetic effect, so that judgment is directed only
to the poet’s activation of artistic principles (28.19–29 Mangoni). In doing so, Crates
is shifting from judgment based on the reader’s response, whether that be to the
pleasure of hearing or the usefulness of content, to judgment based on the poet’s
skills. It is not surprising, then, that he, ‘‘like Andromenides’’ (and like Neoptolemus),
agrees with the tripartite division of the poetic art into ποίηсιс, ποίημα, and ποιητήс
(132.23–7 Janko), since this division allows judgment to be directed, through analysis
of both style and content, to the creative artist. Despite Philodemus’ attempt to link
Crates with some extreme views of the critics, it is clear that his theory of poetic
judgment was one of the most sophisticated and synthetic of the Hellenistic era. The
great attention given in On Poems to the euphonists and Crates’ sympathy for them
indicates Philodemus’ desire to respond, from an Epicurean perspective, to this critical
theory with its (partially) Stoic underpinnings.
Philodemus’ own views on poetry, to the extent that we can reconstruct them,
are also synthetic. Throughout On Poems, as in On Music, he prefers to refute his
predecessors rather than to argue his own theoretical positions. This approach is likely
rooted in Epicurean practice, which developed from the master’s relative indifference
to music and poetry. Epicurus considered music to be simply sound that could give
physical pleasure, lacking in intellectual content, and likewise he found no philosoph-
ical utility in poetry. For the Epicurean master, a theatrical performance was an
enjoyable experience (Plu. Mor. 1095c), but literary criticism was a waste of time.
Later Epicureans took poetic and musical theory more seriously, at least in part in
order to refute the falsehoods that they found in other philosophers. Zeno of Sidon,
an eminent scholar at Athens who taught Philodemus and whose lectures Cicero
attended, was respected for his acute intelligence and clarity in interpretation (Cic.
Ac. 1.46, Fin. 1.16, Tusc. 3.38). In the Epicurean manner, he made a list of thirteen
doxai encapsulating the principal views of others about poetry. Philodemus repro-
duces these as the closing section of Book 5 (29.23–39.14 Mangoni), with refuta-
tions that also likely emanate, at least in part, from Zeno.
364 Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

It is because of the nature of the Epicurean approach, then, that Philodemus’

statements of his own opinions so often concern what he does not like. He does
not believe that poetry has any natural utility in either diction or content (25.31–4
Mangoni). In this, he stands opposed to the Stoic attempt to enlist poetry in the
service of teaching wisdom. He considers ‘‘clearly mad’’ those who think the Iliad
means something other than what it says (P.Herc. 1074 þ 1081 þ 1676, Col. 2.25–6
Sbordone, p. 223). For Philodemus, the goal of poetry is pleasure, and this point of
agreement with the euphonists is likely one reason that he takes them so seriously. He
disagrees, however, with the fundamental euphonist belief that sound produces a
physical sensation of pleasure without any cognitive component. Analogously to the
‘‘mad’’ Stoic allegorizers, the euphonists, he says, become downright Corybantic in
their enthusiasm for the effects of sound on the hearer (P.Herc. 1074 þ 1081 þ
1676, fr. c, Col. 2.5–13 Sbordone, p. 201; cf. Col. 181.1–4 Janko). For Philodemus,
thought is an essential component in poetic pleasure. Musical rhythm, he believes,
may produce in the ears an irrational physical pleasure, but the sounds of language do
not (26.29–27.2 Mangoni). As he says elsewhere in On Poems, ‘‘verbal arrangement is
the particular quality of poets, not being essential and praiseworthy in itself, but
rather because it presents thoughts by which [poets] lead the soul (ψυχαγωγουÐ сιν),
not taking them from anyone else but creating them from themselves’’ (P.Herc. 1074
þ 1081 þ 1676, Col. 17.19–27 Sbordone, p. 253). The latter part of this comment
signals disagreement with one of the doxai listed by Zeno which encourages the poet
‘‘to imitate well the works of Homer and other poets similarly handed down’’
(33.24–8 Mangoni). This principle of writing well by imitating earlier authors took
hold in the theoretical thought of the imperial period (‘‘Longin.’’ Subl. 13.2–14),
and is evident already in the late Hellenistic period, for instance, in the imitation of
Theocritus in bucolic poets by in the epigram variations by Antipater of Sidon and
Meleager (Gutzwiller 1998: 227–322). Perhaps reacting to a contemporary trend,
Philodemus sets in opposition the idea that poets should convey through verbal
composition compelling and original thought.
Since for Philodemus there is no natural utility in diction or thought, the under-
lying goals for creating poetic excellence are two: to imitate in poetic diction language
that benefits by teaching the useful and to participate in the thought that lies between
the wise and the vulgar (26.1–7 Mangoni). The first part of this directive indicates
that ultimately Philodemus approves of poetry that brings some instruction in ad-
dition to its strictly poetic qualities, and there may be a degree of support here for
didactic poetry such as that of Lucretius. The second part of the directive looks
toward the Epicurean idea of common ‘‘preconceptions’’ about good and bad poetry
as a basis for judgment. For Philodemus as an Epicurean, poetry should not provide
hidden meanings that offer wisdom only to the enlightened elite, nor does it simply
provide physical pleasure from the beauty of well-arranged letters and words. Poetry
is rather something accessible to all and subject to judgment that can be commonly
held, without a specialized knowledge of conventions as a standard of excellence. In
justifying pleasure as a response to poetry that both moves the soul and provides
instruction, On Poems modifies to only some degree Epicurus’ disinterested interest
in poetry while it also provides a sophisticated defense to the views of other literary
theorists.
 Literary Criticism 365

FURTHER READING

A history of Hellenistic literary criticism remains to be written. Pfeiffer 1968 is mostly

concerned with Hellenistic scholarship, and Kennedy 1989: 200–19 is now quite inadequate.
More useful are Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 449–61, and Sider 1997: 24–39, 2004 on
Philodemus’ poetic theory in relationship to his epigrams.
Although much important scholarship on Philodemus, especially On Poems, has been
completed in recent years, the situation remains somewhat chaotic, and difficult for the non-
specialist. With the aid of new technologies, improved editions with translations and commen-
taries are being published through the Philodemus Translation Project, edited by D. Blank, R.
Janko, and D. Obbink. To date there has appeared only On Poems 1, Janko 2000, which
includes a history of the papyri and discussion of the theorists analyzed in Books 1 and 2.
Although not universally accepted (Asmis 2002), Janko’s reconstruction of the text and
identification of Philodemus’ opponents is fundamental. Sbordone’s 1976 edition of the papyri
preserving On Poems 2 (and 3?) has been superseded in parts by publications listed in Janko
2000: 12–13. Janko 1991 provides a new edition of the remains of Book 4. Jensen’s 1923
edition of On Poems 5 has been replaced by Mangoni 1993, with English translation in
Armstrong 1995. Greenberg 1955, with translations from Book 2, should be used with caution
because many readings have been improved. The following editions of On Poems are in
progress: C. Romeo for Book 2, Janko for Books 3–4, and D. Armstrong, J. Fish, and
J. Porter for Book 5. Important for Philodemus’ aesthetic thought is Delattre’s 2007 edition
of On Music 4. Sudhaus’ 1892/6 and 1895 editions of On Rhetoric have been replaced for
Books 1–2 by Longo Auricchio 1977; for translation of these books, see Chandler 2006,
partially based on Blank’s forthcoming edition.
There exists a growing body of scholarship, editions in some cases as well as articles or books,
on individual Hellenistic theorists and on philosophical approaches to literature. On
Eratosthenes’ writings, see Geus 2002. Neoptolemus of Parium has been edited by Mette
1980; for the theories of Neoptolemus, see Brink 1963: 43–78; Asmis 1992c; Mangoni 1993:
53–61; and Porter 1995. On Andromenides, Heracleodorus, and Pausimachus, see Janko
2000: 143–89. For the kritikoi as materialists, see Porter 1995: 133–42; for sound and sense
in Philodemus’ discussion of the euphonists, Asmis 2004; and for the Classical background to
euphonism, Porter 2004.
For Stoic use of allegory and etymology, see Whitman 1987: 31–47; Most 1989; Long 1992;
Boys-Stones 2003a; Ramelli and Lucchetta 2004. For allegorical readings more generally, see
Dawson 1992a; Struck 2004; Russell and Konstan 2005: xiii–xxvii. For Aristo, see Ioppolo
1980: 256–78; Asmis 1990; and Porter 1994. Crates of Mallus has been edited, with Italian
translation and commentary, in Broggiato 2001; discussion of his poetics also in Mette 1936
(with the fragments); Asmis 1992a; Porter 1992: 85–114; and Janko 2000: 120–34.
On Epicurean poetics, see Asmis 1991, 1992b, and 1995. The fragments of Demetrius of
Laconia are collected in Romeo 1988. The essays in Armstrong, Fish, Johnston, and Skinner
2004 demonstrate the importance of Philodeman studies for Latin poetry.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Philosophy after Aristotle

Stephen A. White

Philosophy attained full maturity in the fourth century, and its institutionalization
established an Athenocentric orientation that endured through most of the
Hellenistic period. At Socrates’ death in 399, philosophy had no permanent base,
nor any substantial literature. Still largely an avocation pursued among likeminded
friends, it was confined mainly to homes, gymnasia, and similar retreats. By 322,
when Aristotle followed his pupil Alexander to the shades, it had come of age, both
studied and taught as a distinct professional discipline with its own set of methods and
aims. Thanks principally to a pair of centers for advanced study, Athens had become
its capital. Plato’s Academy, a private estate beside a suburban sanctuary from which it
acquired its name, had grown into a thriving school under his successors; and
Aristotle’s Lyceum, associated with another suburban shrine, was already a friendly
rival though barely a dozen years old. These two centers, the minds they attracted, the
work they fostered, and the libraries they housed, mark the acme of ancient philoso-
phy as we know it. That is in part a tribute to the genius of their founders. But it is
also an accident of survival: the works from the following three centuries that eclipsed
their influence for generations are almost entirely lost. For philosophy, far from
faltering in the Hellenistic Age, exploded with intense creative energy, spawning an
enormous literature, captivating cities and courts around the vast Hellenic realms,
and acquiring a steadily larger role in the acculturation of Greeks and foreigners alike.
By the end of our period, philosophy is fluent in other tongues, most notably Cicero’s
Latin. When Octavian entered Alexandria after Actium, at his side was one of the
city’s leading philosophers, the Stoic Arius, in whose honor, reportedly, he spared the
new jewel in Rome’s imperial crown (Plu. Ant. 80).
 Philosophy after Aristotle 367

Orientation
The boundaries of philosophy have always been flexible and porous. The label,
apparently a fifth-century coinage that initially had very broad scope, was hotly
contested. Inquiring minds and intellectuals of various stripes laid claim to it from
the start: learned scholars and polymaths, ‘‘sophists’’ and teachers, scientists and
logicians, even Isocratean advisers and orators. But by the end of the fourth century,
a formal demarcation of its terrain had gained a currency that would persist through-
out antiquity. Like Gaul, Hellenistic philosophy had three parts: physics, ethics, and
logic. Physics, the study of the natural world as a whole and in its manifold parts,
encompassed cosmology, theology, and metaphysics as well as special sciences such as
biology, geology, and meteorology. Ethics, the study of human conduct, character,
and value, addressed both normative and psychological issues, both theoretical and
applied, and for both individuals and groups, from households to cities and empires.
Logic, the study of language, reasoning, and knowing, covered mainly formal logic
(standardly called ‘‘dialectic’’) and epistemology but also grammar, rhetoric, and
literary criticism. Many philosophers ranged even more widely, into history (political,
cultural, literary), anthropology, biography, mathematics, and more, not to mention
poetry and public affairs.
It was not only by subject matter that philosophy defined its boundaries. After all,
its vast domain overlapped and intersected with many other disciplines. More to the
point, it had distinctive methods and aims. The universalizing impulse apparent in its
all-encompassing three fields reflects its central ambition: nothing less than a theory
of everything, formulated in clearly defined and rigorously argued terms. Its regula-
tive norms demand dispassionate inquiry governed by objective canons of evidence
(observation, correlation, corroboration) and reasoning (semantic precision, formal
validity, systematic explanation). Adherence to these norms could hardly ensure
accuracy or understanding any more than it does today. But they were the newly
articulated rules of a game that had truth and universality as its primary objectives.
The methods of conceptual analysis and logical argument that we can see evolving in
Plato’s dialogues reach maturity with Aristotle and his colleagues. At Aristotle’s death,
the discipline called ‘‘philosophy’’ addressed many of the same basic questions using
many of the same basic methods as philosophers do today. Serious pursuit of these
questions required substantial training and leisure, and it gained strength in numbers.
The upshot was a ‘‘reflective’’ (theōrētikos) and ‘‘studious’’ (scholastikos) way of life,
roughly what we now call an ‘‘academic’’ life after its most famous base: withdrawal
from politics and the marketplace in order to maximize time for theoretical inquiry and
discussion. The new institutions, and the explosion of philosophical study they fos-
tered, soon made Athens the capital for philosophers everywhere, and the impact of
their work rippled steadily outward until it won over the leading minds of Rome.
Disciplines develop at their own pace, and the standard chronological boundaries
fit ancient philosophy only loosely. Aristotle’s death marks an epoch for us mainly
because it closes our book: very little philosophical writing survives from the next
three centuries. But the appearance of closure is deceptive. The Academy, under
Xenocrates and Polemo, continued to explore its founder’s lines of thought well into
368 Stephen A. White

the third century. Likewise Theophrastus and Strato pressed ahead with Aristotle’s
encyclopedic agenda in the Lyceum, which benefited from the political authority of a
star pupil, Demetrius of Phalerum. Even Cynic iconoclasm soldiered on with Theban
Crates and his natural law partner, Hipparchia. But others were already raising new
questions and devising new theories that would shift the direction of philosophical
discussion for the next two centuries.
The impetus for change came from many quarters, but chiefly four figures, all well
versed in ongoing debates, each radically innovative in similar but starkly opposed
ways. Epicurus (342/1–271/0), born to Athenian settlers on Samos, was in Attica
for his ephebic service by 322, having already shown a bent for philosophy by
challenging his teachers to explain the origin of ‘‘chaos’’ in Hesiod’s Theogony.
After building a following in Mytilene and Lampsacus, he returned to Athens around
306 and established a base for ‘‘co-philosophizing’’ (as he calls it) on a suburban
estate – the famous ‘‘garden’’ (kēpos) – near the Academy. Zeno of Citium (c.334–
262/1) left Cyprus for Athens around 315. Inspired by Socratic dialogues (report-
edly Xenophon’s), he first sought out the Cynic Crates, then studied under
Theophrastus in the Lyceum, Polemo in the Academy, as well as Stilpo of Megara
and the master dialectician Diodorus ‘‘Kronos,’’ before venturing to expound his
own ideas on the edge of the agora in the Stoa Poikile, from which his followers
acquired their familiar name. Pyrrho of Elis (c.365–c.275), after accompanying
his teacher, Anaxarchus of Abdera, in Alexander’s entourage all the way to the
Indus, returned home to live out his long life with a cluster of followers attracted
by his cultivation of tranquil indifference to the world around him. Story has it they
had to rescue him repeatedly from wild dogs, precipices, and onrushing wagons;
more likely his novel brand of ascetic skepticism inspired comic caricature. The
youngest of the four innovators was Arcesilaus of Pitane (316/5–241/0), an exact
contemporary of Callimachus. Trained in mathematics by his compatriot Autolycus,
he too studied with Theophrastus before joining Polemo in the Academy, which he
soon transformed into a bastion of critical argument, chiefly targeting Zeno’s theor-
ies. The skeptical stance of his ‘‘New Academy’’ (as it came to be called) remained a
dynamic force down to Cicero, its leading Roman proponent.
Philosophy enjoyed great prestige at the opening of the third century, and occa-
sional assaults notwithstanding, its public stature generally continued to increase.
Young minds from all around the Mediterranean – even from Carthage and Rome –
flocked to Athens to study with its leading lights. In return, new outposts of
Hellenism like Alexandria and Pergamum competed with towns from mainland and
periphery alike to attract philosophers, if only to visit, and the subvention of their
schools became a popular form of benefaction, both local and royal (Scholz 2004b).
Strabo, writing at the end of our period, repeatedly gives philosophers pride of place
in the catalogues of local heroes he compiles for the sites on his itinerary. But the focal
points of philosophical debate gradually shifted in the first century. When Sulla laid
siege to Athens in 86, denuding the original groves of Academe in the process, many
of its philosophers sought safety elsewhere: the Stoic Posidonius in Rhodes, promin-
ent Epicureans in Campania, the Academic Philo in Rome, and his neo-Aristotelian
rival Antiochus in Alexandria. The ensuing diaspora undercut Athenian dominance
and promoted other centers for philosophical study. It also signals a threefold shift in
 Philosophy after Aristotle 369

focus that would shape the next three centuries: a return to the texts of Plato and
Aristotle that launched a growing stream of constructive exegesis; a vigorous revival
of Pyrrhonian skepticism; and renewed interest in Pythagorean traditions. Hellenistic
philosophy endured well into the third century CE , as Epicureans, Stoics, and
Pyrrhonists proliferated around the Mediterranean. But the first century BCE inaugu-
rates a return to earlier work that became increasingly influential in the following
centuries, culminating in the magisterial synthesis Plotinus developed in Rome in the
mid-third century, now known as Neoplatonism.

Texts and Sources

By the end of Aristotle’s life, philosophy had accumulated a substantial literature of its
own. Joining the extant works of Plato and Aristotle, numerous enough on their
own, are hundreds of titles by their colleagues (attested mainly in booklists recorded
by Diogenes Laertius): Heraclides, Speusippus, and Xenocrates; Theophrastus,
Eudemus, Clearchus, Dicaearchus, and others; not to mention Xenophon and many
fellow ‘‘Socratics.’’ But their production, massive as it was, was dwarfed by the
harvest of philosophical writing generated during the next three centuries. As the
number of teachers and students grew from the dozens to hundreds and then
thousands, so the production of texts increased exponentially, as we can see from a
handful of extant booklists. The most prolific were Epicurus (‘‘about 300 cylinders’’;
a shortlist of his ‘‘best writings’’ runs to over 40 titles and over 80 rolls: D.L. 10.26–
8) and the Stoic Chrysippus (over 700 works: D.L. 7.180; a truncated catalogue in
7.189–202 lists 161 titles comprising over 400 rolls). But records for some of their
associates (16 works, one in 22 rolls, by two Epicureans: D.L. 10.24–5; 82 works,
some in multiple rolls, by two Stoics: 7.174–8) indicate that the total volume of
writing was colossal – and it almost entirely vanished long ago.
What survives in its original form is swiftly catalogued: a trio of summary letters by
Epicurus to his followers; a handbook of excerpts from his writings (entitled Kuriai
Doxai or ‘‘Key Doctrines’’); a short hexameter Hymn to Zeus by the Stoic Cleanthes;
scraps of occasional verse by a few others; various pseudepigrapha preserved under
the names of Plato, Aristotle, and others; and a few documents, most notably wills.
A thorough census would include two treatises on botany and several short studies by
Theophrastus (372/0–288/6), all or most composed after Alexander’s death; essen-
tially extensions of Aristotle’s projects, they illustrate continuity, not the new trends
that are the focus here. Everything else, if not entirely lost, has suffered gravely from
the depredations of time. Remnants of more works by Epicurus and over 20 by later
followers, most notably Philodemus of Gadara (c.110–c.40), survive on Herculanean
papyri, as do scraps of a logical work by the Stoic Chrysippus (280/76–208/4); and
some excerpts from Teles illustrate the stylized sermonizing of third-century ‘‘Cynic
diatribe’’ – essentially rhetorical rather than philosophical in method and form. The
rest is scattered citations in later authors, occasionally exact quotations but mainly
paraphrase, more or less distorted by abbreviation or expansion, friendly, hostile, or
ostensibly neutral.
370 Stephen A. White

Four of our later sources loom largest, and the first two, both written in Latin, fall
within our period: Lucretius’ exuberant hexameter presentation of Epicurean physics;
Cicero’s stately dialogues and treatises, typically matching Roman proponents of
Epicurean and Stoic theories against Academic critics; lengthy skeptical critiques by
the Pyrrhonian Sextus Empiricus (later second century CE ); and the tantalizing ‘‘lives’’
of philosophers by Diogenes Laertius (early third century CE ), roughly a third on
Hellenistic figures. Many other works of Imperial date play supporting roles, most
notably Seneca’s essays, letters, and treatises, all rich in summary and citation;
Plutarch’s dialogues and essays, which include sustained critiques of Stoic and
Epicurean theories; a monumental display of Epicurean texts erected in Lycian
Oenoanda by an ardent follower named Diogenes; and the voluminous commentaries
on Aristotle’s treatises by diverse hands, from the Aristotelian Alexander of Aphrodisias
(fl. 200 CE ) to Neoplatonists such as Simplicius (fl. 530 CE ). Also deserving mention
are the discourses of Epictetus recorded by Arrian, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius,
detailed critiques by Galen, introductory courses on Stoic ethics by Hierocles and Stoic
cosmology by Cleomedes, the magpie compilations of Aelian and Athenaeus in Greek
and Aulus Gellius in Latin, polemical works by Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius,
and the chalcenteric anthologist Stobaeus.

Philosophers in Action: Dialogues, Lives, Anecdotes

Philosophical writing before Plato took mainly two forms: didactic verse, usually
hexameter, as in Parmenides and Empedocles; or expository prose, typically magis-
terially terse, starting with Anaximander and continuing through the following
century. The charismatic Socrates, however, inspired a number of companions to
recreate his conversational exploits by adapting dramatic techniques from mime and
the stage. The resulting hybrids, conversations in prose presented either directly as
scripts or embedded in narratives, acquired a new name: initially ‘‘Socratic logoi’’ and
eventually dialogoi or ‘‘dialogues’’ (from dialegesthai, ‘‘discuss’’ or ‘‘converse’’).
Plato had many rivals in composing textual memorials to Socrates in action, but most
he soon eclipsed, and for us his corpus stands almost alone, joined only by
Xenophon’s efforts and meager fragments of a few others. Why Plato restricted
himself to this novel form is a perennial controversy, encouraged by his own writings.
But two points are paramount here. Dialogue can, and in Plato’s corpus usually does,
highlight two essential features of philosophical practice: the dynamic interplay of
question and assent or dissent; and thereby an explicit articulation of premises and
inferences (whence the label ‘‘dialectic’’ for logic).
The motives behind this hybrid varied among its varied authors: apologetics for a
condemned hero, reaching wider audiences, deflecting authorial authority, and so on.
But the form itself is inherently protreptic: an invitation to engage in the practice
portrayed. On the surface, dialogues purport to depict or mimic actual discussion, and
as verbal mimesis, the form is continuous with other narrative and dramatic modes. But
it depicts a radically different kind of activity, and in ways that reflect its protreptic
ambitions: the depiction of philosophical debate induces readers and listeners to
 Philosophy after Aristotle 371

engage in philosophy themselves. To some extent, other modes achieve something

comparable: ecphrasis mimics the process of observant viewing, encomium and invec-
tive an attitude of admiration or reproach, soliloquy a focused intensity of thought or
feeling. But in no other mode does the text induce readers to engage in the act itself – to
see or denounce or deliberate – as readers of a philosophical dialogue must do in order
to follow its course and grasp the train of thought. In short, the very act of reading such
dialogues is itself an exercise in philosophical thinking.
A number of shorter dialogues in the Platonic corpus are plainly spurious, and
some of them probably have Hellenistic origins. No others survive from our period,
apart from Cicero’s in Latin, and evidence for continuing composition is scarce
and mainly circumstantial. Many of Plato’s associates and their colleagues employed
the form: certainly Heraclides, Aristotle, Clearchus, and Dicaearchus, probably
Speusippus, Xenocrates, and Theophrastus. But apart from some diehard Socratics
and minor Peripatetics, dialogues are securely attested for very few after the fourth
century. One by the Peripatetic Praxiphanes imagined a conversation between Plato
and Isocrates ‘‘on poets’’ (D.L. 3.8), which makes it a likely locus of ideas
Callimachus associated with his Rhodian Telchines and addressed in a Reply to
Praxiphanes (frs. 1 and 460 Pf.; Brink 1946). Stilpo of Megara (c.360–c.280) is
credited with ‘‘nine frigid dialogues,’’ one entitled Aristotle and another Ptolemy
(D.L. 2.120). But he is the last we hear of who wrote dialogues exclusively – if indeed
he did, for one of his ‘‘dialogues’’ was entitled To His Daughter, and the names
forming the other eight titles could signify recipients of letters or criticism too.
Stilpo’s case highlights the tenuous nature of our evidence. In the later authors on
whom we must rely, the term dialogos does not refer uniquely to dialogues (witness
Seneca’s ten Dialogi); and titles are an unreliable index of form, not least because
proper names are also standard in titles for encomiastic works. Cicero, in his dialogue
doubly entitled Cato and On Old Age (Sen. 3), cites as one of his models a discourse
by Tithonus from a work by Aristo of Ceos, head of the Lyceum after 225 (or Zeno’s
dissenting associate, Aristo of Chios: the text is uncertain; Stork 2006: 62–5). The
context readily suggests a dialogue (sermo in Cicero), possibly entitled Tithonus, or
(after Aristo’s teacher) simply Lyco, a work noted for its blend of theory and myth.
Evidence for others is even more tenuous. A few works entitled Symposium, Erotic
Discourses, or the like are probable suspects; similarly a Platonicus and Aristo by
Eratosthenes, a student of both Arcesilaus and Aristo of Chios. But dialogues by
Epicureans are unlikely; we have no firm evidence for any by Academics; and even if
some of Zeno’s associates composed a few, later Stoics apparently did not, perhaps on
principle (Sedley 1999).
The decline of philosophical dialogue is probably due in part to the continuing
popularity of fourth-century works. Cicero’s efforts, which highlight their debt to
Plato’s and Aristotle’s, are part of the Classical revival that marks the end of
Hellenistic philosophy. But broader trends are also involved. Once entrenched in
cultural literacy, philosophy had less need to advertise its distinctive methods, and
interest shifted to supplying its larger audience with portraits of philosophers in
action. Platonic dialogue seeks to capture live argument on the page, and so did
Aristotle’s, in which he typically took the leading role himself, speaking at length and
magisterially. But the volumes of Recollections and Discourses (Diatribai) attested for
372 Stephen A. White

Zeno and others apparently shifted the emphasis from rigorous argument to moral
instruction, as in the series of vignettes that make up Xenophon’s Memories of
Socrates. Antigonus of Carystus evidently did much the same in the Lives of philo-
sophers he composed for many of his elder contemporaries: Pyrrho, Zeno, Polemo,
Arcesilaus, Lyco, Menedemus of Eretria, and others. Unlike Hermippus of Smyrna
and previous Peripatetics, who wrote mainly on earlier figures and with more histo-
rical aims, Antigonus concentrated on character and conduct, reporting revealing
encounters and intellectual habits along with major events and accomplishments.
Philosophical conversion was apparently a special interest: a drunken Polemo (like
Alcibiades in Plato’s Symposium) stumbling into a lecture by Xenocrates, whose
imposing dignity inspires the dissolute youth to turn to philosophy (D.L. 4.16);
the Academic Crantor quoting Euripides’ Perseus rescuing Andromeda and the
young Arcesilaus reciting her reply (D.L. 4.29).
On a still smaller scale, collections of the episodes called chreiai or ‘‘anecdotes’’
exhibited insight and character even more succinctly. As found in Aelian, Athenaeus,
and Diogenes Laertius above all, they have been reworked repeatedly, often sharply
condensed or freely expanded. Although some must come from Hellenistic collec-
tions, many plainly derive from continuous compositions like dialogues, ‘‘lives,’’ or
even plays. Accounts of the frugal symposia that Menedemus of Eretria hosted stem
from a satyr-play by Lycophron, excerpted already by Antigonus (Ath. 419e–20c; D.L.
2.139–40); Zeno figured in comedies by Philemon and Posidippus (D.L. 7.27–8); and
the stage is the likely source of an amusing story about Lacydes, head of the Academy
after Arcesilaus, being fleeced by his servants (D.L. 4.59; Eus. PE 14.7). Extant chreiai
involving philosophers often have edifying themes: they chastize common foibles and
failings, usually with wit, sometimes stinging. But some target their ideas, often at
symposia amongst illustrious company: Ptolemy Philopator trying (and failing) to
confute the Stoic Sphaerus by serving him wax pomegranates (D.L. 7.177);
Diodorus Kronos, with a dislocated shoulder, hearing the doctor Herophilus recite
back to him his argument that nothing can move (Sext. Emp. PH 2.245).
Much of this work reflected encomiastic impulses. As Socrates was lionized in
dialogues, so was Plato in posthumous eulogies, and traces of tributes to several
Hellenistic figures survive. Epicurus in particular gave commemoration a central role
in his teaching, composing memorials to his closest associates, including his own
family, that were read aloud at monthly and annual ceremonies to inspire emulation of
their exemplary Epicurean conduct (Clay 1998: 62–74).

Philosophers at Work: Notebooks and Treatises

Most philosophical writing in our period was technical and professional, texts for
teaching and study or ongoing research. The output of notebooks and treatises
(hypomnēmata and pragmateiai) was industrial in scale, and booklists for the major
figures record only a fraction of the total. Strato of Lampsacus (330s–270/68), tutor
to Ptolemy Philadelphus on Cos before heading the Lyceum after Theophrastus,
wrote some 45 works spanning all three fields of philosophy, almost all in the form of
 Philosophy after Aristotle 373

technical studies of technical topics: On Void, On Time, On Definition, and so on

(D.L. 5.59–60). Here, and in a few other cases, a stichometric total enables us to
estimate the scale: over 332,000 lines, which is roughly 12 times all of Thucydides
(Sedley 1998: 103). Few others besides Epicurus and Chrysippus were so prolific, but
their steadily increasing numbers produced mountains of texts. The vast majority of
this work resembled Strato’s in focus and format: mostly treatises On X (Peri tinos),
often flagged by Reply to X (Pros tina) as contributions to specific debates (as in over
half the titles in Chrysippus’ catalogue), or comprehensive studies of an entire field,
like Physics or Ethical Theory. Another common format, illustrated by the 38 books of
Problems transmitted under Aristotle’s name but compiled early in our period and
expanded repeatedly, were collections of material for study and discussion: multiple
volumes of Arguments (logoi), Puzzles (aporēmata), Investigations (zētēmata), and the
like, often with a field or topic specified.
Philosophy, as an intellectual practice and discipline, is fundamentally an oral
activity. Its lifeblood is discussion, the give and take of vigorous argument, claim
and counter-claim, reasons and rejoinders, proof proffered and objections marshaled.
For many, therefore, Socrates was its model practitioner, and the literary recreation of
his viva voce inquiries the ideal textual format. But the impact of this oral context is
evident in other formats as well. Both treatises and shorter studies typically grew out
of collaborative inquiry, discussion, and instruction. Whether fodder for teaching or
its fruit, they were typically framed by questions or problems to be resolved, and
studded with alternative solutions, objections, and replies. Some of these texts
circulated only among the writer’s associates and students as informal ‘‘notebooks’’
(hypomnēmata). But many were reworked into more accessible form, sometimes by
other hands. The will of Lyco of Troas, head of the Peripatos after Strato, distin-
guishes works ‘‘already read’’ (ta anegnōsmena) from his ‘‘uncirculated’’ works
(anekdota), which require further attention from a colleague (D.L. 5.73). And
although the brilliant Academic skeptic Carneades of Cyrene (214/13–129/8) wrote
nothing himself, many of his disquisitions (ostensibly imitated by Cicero in the
Tusculan Disputations: 1.7–8 and 3.54) were recorded by associates, who duly
continued to dispute the master’s point and purport (Cic. Ac. 2.78).
A typical ‘‘course’’ (akroasis, scholē, or diatribē) can be sampled in the remnants of
Epicurus’ magnum opus On Nature, which filled 37 books composed over the course
of two decades. The whole, as reconstructed by David Sedley (1998: 94–144) on
the basis of parallels between fragments (both papyrus remains and later reports)
on the one hand and the extant letters and Lucretius on the other, had two distinct
sequences, apparently reflecting stages of composition: an initial presentation in
Books 1–13, then subsequent elaborations and revisions in the remainder. What
survives smacks of the classroom: expansive and informal in diction, syntax, and style,
with hiatus and hiccups in grammar; stretches of quasi-dialogue with critics or
opponents, both real and imagined; and references to his colleague Metrodorus
and others present. But the detail of these volumes and the tortuous progress of
their arguments could deter even avid readers, as Epicurus acknowledges in his extant
letters, all intended to make his teaching more digestible.
Summaries can be a boon to novice and expert alike, and epitomes of major works
such as Plato’s Republic and treatises on logic and physics are attested already for
374 Stephen A. White

Aristotle and his colleagues. But some works, thanks to their conceptual or linguistic
obscurity, or simply their authoritative status, received the opposite treatment. Plato’s
Timaeus, which stimulated intense discussion well into the third century, elicited
detailed exegesis from the Academic Crantor (d. 276/5), the first in the long and
distinguished tradition of commentaries on Plato (Sedley 1997). Works by Epicurus
and Zeno provoked similar efforts, as key texts and problematic passages were studied
and debated by followers and critics alike (Sedley 1989; Erler 1993).

Philosophical Pulpits: Essays and Letters

The boundary between classroom and society, though ordinarily clear enough, often
blurs in writing. Since technical treatises had little appeal outside the schools, many
philosophers distilled some of their thinking and clothed it in more appealing form.
Crantor’s ‘‘golden booklet’’ On Mourning (Cic. Ac. 2.135) was a signal success.
Addressed to a father in mourning, it was the fountainhead for a rich tradition of
literary consolations, which drew on it repeatedly: the Stoic Panaetius (c.185–110/
109) addressing Scipio’s nephew, Aelius Tubero; Cicero’s lost Consolatio on the
death of his own daughter; another by Arius to Livia on the death of Drusus; the
Consolation to Apollonius transmitted under Plutarch’s name; and many more. Taking
a specific event as an occasion for general reflections, these works targeted very broad
audiences, including but never limited to fellow philosophers. Crantor, for example,
leavened his case for sensitive fortitude with abundant exempla from history and
poetry, including frequent quotations, and a parable of his own in which a personified
Andreia, speaking before a Panhellenic assembly, wins the prize over Health, Pleasure,
and Wealth. The result must have resembled the discourses on ethical topics by
Seneca and Plutarch now widely labeled ‘‘essays.’’ Nor was Crantor the originator
of this format; short works on similar topics go back at least to Plato’s associates: On
Friendship, On Wealth, On Fortune, and so on.
The range of this protean format, though largely restricted to ethical themes, was
extremely wide. Crantor’s libellus probably fell near the middle in its union of
philosophical content and rhetorical dress. Near the rhetorical end of the spectrum
stood the moralizing ‘‘diatribes’’ of itinerant teachers and speakers such as Teles
(mid-third century BCE ). Marked by narrow thematic focus, earthy imagery, collo-
quial style, feigned dialogue, and a hectoring tone, his harangues against the laxity of
conventional values and attitudes are long on oratorical flair but very short on
philosophical argument or analysis. Incidentally, it is probably inaccurate, and defin-
itely misleading, to label this style of discourse ‘‘Cynic diatribe.’’ As previously noted
in passing, the term diatribē spans very diverse forms and styles, from school discus-
sions (like the diatribai of Epictetus) to epideictic lecturing; and neither Teles nor his
putative models – which include Socrates and Socratics as well as avowed Cynics like
Diogenes and Crates – were distinctly or exclusively Cynic, while Bion as well studied
in the Academy and Lyceum (Trapp 2007). At the other end of the spectrum, and
differing little from technical treatises, fall works like Cicero’s De officiis, which he
modeled closely on a work On Duty by Panaetius. Addressed to his son studying in
 Philosophy after Aristotle 375

Athens (in part to indicate the target audience of serious students), its three books
present a methodical introduction to a distinctly Stoic system of applied ethics.
Dedicatory prefaces, their occasional significance aside, signal a calmer tone suit-
able for studious reading, and typically also the kind of audience envisioned. In effect,
they announce an open or public letter: Cicero writing to his son, or to Atticus,
Brutus, or others, speaks beyond them to corresponding segments of Rome if not to
Romans at large. The core idea of letters is then near to hand, and some exploited the
affinity between philosophical and epistolary stances. Letters, as virtual conversations
interrupted and delayed by distance, are implicitly dialogical (Demetr. Eloc. 223–35),
and by mediating the intimacy of oral exchange with the reflective distance of
textuality and lapse of time, they offer effective ways to promote serious reflection.
Even more than dialogues, they can moderate the impersonality of abstract reasoning
by establishing an intimate tone of sincere concern. Here again Plato led the way, if
any of the 13 letters preserved under his name are genuine. The longest and richest
seventh is illustrative by omission: its elaborate apology for not providing a more
substantive discussion, though in part a reflex of peculiarly Platonic reservations
about ex cathedra discourse, shows how natural a context letters provide for candid
self-presentation, however illusory in fact.
Letters are attested for many Hellenistic philosophers. But rarely is there any reason
to think they had much philosophical content. An exchange between Zeno and
Antigonus Gonatas, authentic or not, affords a glimpse of philosophy’s prestige: a
fervent invitation and a polite refusal (D.L. 7.6–9). The first distinctly philosophical
epistles evidently came from Epicurus. Necessity was one of his motives, since many
of his followers lived abroad. Intense discussion with friends and associates in Athens
was the furnace in which he forged his theories, working out new ideas and argu-
ments, wrestling with problems and objections, testing rejoinders and solutions.
But the resulting texts, exemplified by papyri of On Nature, were prolix and ram-
bling, hard to follow, and sorely lacking in the clarity and simplicity that many of
his followers required. Epicurus tackled the problem by adapting his ideas to epi-
stolary form. The chief need, as the extant letters acknowledge, was brevity, which
he achieved by producing concise epitomes: a synopsis of atomic physics in a letter
To Herodotus, of meteorological theories in one To Pythocles, and of ethics in one
To Menoeceus (all in D.L. 10). The opening of the second is instructive (D.L.
10.84–5):

Epicurus to Pythocles, glad greetings. Cleon brought me a letter from you in which you
continue to show a friendliness to us worthy of our concern for you. Clearly you are
trying to commit to memory the reasonings that lead to a happy life, and you ask me to
send you a concise outline of my reasoning about celestial phenomena, so you can readily
remember it. For our other writings are hard to remember, even though, you say, you
review them constantly. We were pleased to receive your request, and we retain high
hopes. So now that we have finished writing everything else, we shall provide what you
request, these reasonings which will be useful to many others, especially to those who are
just getting their first taste of genuine physical theory, and those who are tied up with
more demanding work than any of the standard subjects. So read these points carefully,
store them in your memory, and study them diligently along with the rest of what we
sent Herodotus in the short summary (mikra epitomē).
376 Stephen A. White

Epicurus relied heavily on letters both to extend the reach of his teaching and to lend
it the requisite pastoral tone and authority. Fragments of many of his letters survive,
addressed to over 20 different correspondents and preserving some of his most
famous remarks. The three that survive intact show how well the form suits concise
instruction. The shortest, addressed to an otherwise unknown Menoeceus, is a model
of brevity that deploys a simple but supple style marked by flashes of elegance (D.L.
10.122–3):

Ἐπίϰουροс ΜενοιϰειÐ χαίρειν: μήτε νέοс τιс ὢν μελλέτω ϕιλοсοϕειÐ ν, μήτεγέρων ὑπάρχων
ϰοπιάτω ϕιλοсοϕωÐ ν οὔτε γὰρ ἄωροс οὐδείс ἐсτιν οὔτε πάρωροс πρὸс τὸ ϰατὰ ψυχὴν
ὑγιαιÐ νον: ὁ δὲ λέγων ἢ μήπω τουÐ ϕιλοсοϕειÐ ν ὑπάρχειν ὥραν ἢ παρεληλυθέναι τὴν ὥραν
ὅμοιόс ἐсτι τωÐ ι λέγοντι πρὸсεὐδαιμονίαν ἢ μὴ παρειÐ ναι τὴν ὥραν ἢ μηϰέτι ει ναι: ὥсτε
ϕιλοсοϕητέον ϰαὶ νέωι ϰαὶ γέροντι, τωÐ ι μὲν ὅπωс γηράсϰων νεάζηι τοιÐ с ἀγαθοιÐ с διὰ τὴν
χάριν τωÐ ν γεγονότων, τωÐ ι δ ὅπωс νέοс ἅμα ϰαὶ παλαιὸс ῃ διὰ τὴν ἀϕοβίαν τωÐ ν μελλόντων:
μελεταÐ ν ου ν χρὴ τὰ ποιουÐ ντα τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν, εἴπερ παρούсηс μὲν αὐτηÐ с πάντα ἔχομεν,
ἀπούсηс δὲ πάντα πράττομεν εἰс τὸ ταύτην ἔχειν: ἃ δέ сοι сυνεχωÐ с παρήγγελλον, ταυÐ τα
ϰαὶ πραÐ ττε ϰαὶ μελέτα, сτοιχειÐ α τουÐ ϰαλωÐ с ζηÐ ν ταυÐ τ ει ναι διαλαμβάνων.

Epicurus to Menoeceus, glad greetings. No one who is young should delay studying
philosophy, nor anyone who is old tire of it. For no one is either too young or too old to
have a healthy soul. Anyone who says it is either too soon or too late for philosophy is
like someone who says it is too soon or too late to be happy. Therefore, both young and
old ought to study philosophy: the one so that as he ages, he may stay young in good
things because he is thankful for what is past, and the other so that he may now be both
young and old at once because he is fearless of what will come. So one must study what
produces happiness, given that we have everything when it is present, and we do
everything to get it when it is absent. Both perform and study the instructions I
continually gave you, recognizing them to be the basic elements of living honorably.

A series of elaborately balanced antitheses creates a powerful exordium. Sharp polar-

ities heighten the sense of urgency, universalizing singulars create a tone of personal
intensity, and the central moral imperative is underscored by an insistent train
of injunctions, sustained but varied in form (third-person imperatives, verbal adjec-
tives, impersonal chrē). Two sudden and significant shifts in the final sentence mark
the transition from exhortation to theory: from third-person generality to intimately
direct address (I/thou singulars for shared concerns), and from philosophy in general
to specifically Epicurean precepts.
The body of the letter proceeds to summarize the famous ‘‘fourfold cure’’ (tetra-
pharmakos; cf. Kuriai Doxai 1–4), a catechism of four basic principles designed to
yield what the exordium loudly advertises: a healthy soul and thereby a happy life. The
principles on which Menoeceus is advised to ‘‘study,’’ and which he is told everyone
should ponder, whether young or old, are these. First, a radically revisionist concep-
tion of the gods: imperishable paradigms of happiness, but never the agents of either
benefit or harm for anyone, living or dead. Second, death is ‘‘nothing to us’’: a total
extinction of life and awareness that leaves us immune to the posthumous pain and
sorrow imagined by the misguided multitude. In short, gods exist, and forever; but
the dead do not, ever. The main external sources of anxiety thus banished, Epicurus
turns to its internal sources, which he defuses by sketching the two linchpins of his
 Philosophy after Aristotle 377

decidedly austere brand of hedonism. First, a pleasant life is readily within our reach if
we live naturally; in particular, the natural needs we must meet to be happy are few
and readily satisfied, and the resulting state of pleasure is the happiness that is (as
announced at the start) the fulfillment of all we naturally desire. Finally, the sole
remaining threat to happiness, physical pain, is either ‘‘short if strong, or weak if
long’’: even intense pain can be overcome by the joy of a healthy soul, happy in its
memories of pleasure past, secure in its prospect of pleasure to come, hence fully
content in its present state, whatever pains may assail the body.
Epicurus concludes by capping his fourfold cure with a pair of rebuttals: no one can
ever be happy without virtue, or virtuous without happiness; and we always have
sufficient control over our lives to attain the happiness envisioned, since no power
either divine or natural – neither ‘‘Dame Destiny’’ nor atomic determinism – can
defeat the power of ‘‘sober reasoning.’’ A muscular peroration recaps the argument in
a sprawling rhetorical question that delineates the devout Epicurean in a string of
isocola (D.L. 10.133):

For who do you think is superior to one who has pious beliefs about the gods, who is
entirely fearless about death, who has rationally determined the goal of nature, who
realizes that the limit of good things is easy to fulfill and maintain, whereas the limit of
bad things is either brief or not intense?

His cure recapitulated, Epicurus closes with an exhortation (D.L. 10.135):

So study these and the related points day and night both by yourself and with someone
like yourself, and you will never feel anxiety either awake or asleep, and you will live like a
god among men; for anyone living with immortal boons bears no resemblance to a
mortal creature.

The farewell, though addressed to Menoeceus, extends the letter’s reach by urging
him to study it with likeminded companions. Their reward, promised to all who
master the principles outlined therein, is a virtual immortality: the release from all
anxiety called ataraxia.

Philosophers in Verse
Prominent poets repeatedly paid homage to leading philosophers. Witness epitaphs
for Polemo by Antagoras of Rhodes (1 GP ¼ D.L. 4.22), for Crantor by Theaetetus
(2 GP ¼ D.L. 4.25; cf. Call. ep. 7 Pf. ¼ 57 GP ¼ AP 9.565), for Zeno by Antipater of
Sidon (35 GP ¼ D.L. 7.29), and so on. Well schooled in poetry themselves, philo-
sophers were often proficient in verse as well. Specimens of occasional verse survive in
various sources. From Arcesilaus, who wrote no books, we have two polished
memorials: one commemorating an Attalid chariot victory, the other the untimely
death of a colleague’s friend (SH 121–2 ¼ D.L. 4.30–1). From the end of our period
come 35 epigrams by Philodemus, and incipits of many more (Sider 1997). Most
have erotic themes, but one, inviting his Roman patron Piso to a modest dinner
378 Stephen A. White

honoring Epicurus (27 Sider), illustrates the vitality of the Epicurean community
outside Naples, and its impact on the Roman elite, including Vergil and friends.
Another famous example of the interaction of poetry, politics, and philosophy is
Aratus, who studied under Zeno in Athens before visiting the court of Antigonus
Gonatas alongside various other poets and students of Zeno. The catalogue of stars
that forms the bulk of his Phaenomena embellishes work by Eudoxus, an associate of
Plato’s; and the accompanying survey of weather signs draws on Peripatetic work.
A glance at the poem (discussed more fully by Volk in this volume) will highlight
some of its Stoic inflections. Apart from the central theme of intelligent design, these
are rarely prominent. But an opening invocation to Zeus gives traditional poetic
motifs distinctly Stoic coloring (1–14):

ἐϰ Διὸс ἀρχώμεсθα, τὸν οὐδέποτ ἄνδρεс ἐωÐ μεν

ἄρρητον μεсταὶ δὲ Διὸс παÐ сαι μὲν ἀγυιαί,
παÐ сαι δ ἀνθρώπων ἀγοραί, μεсτὴ δὲ θάλαссα
ϰαὶ λιμένεс πάντη δὲ Διὸс ϰεχρήμεθα πάντεс.
τουÐ γὰρ ϰαὶ γένοс εἰμέν: ὁ δ ἤπιοс ἀνθρώποιсι
δεξιὰ сημαίνει, λαοὺс δ ἐπὶ ἔργον ἐγείρει
μιμνήсϰων βιότοιο λέγει δ ὅτε βωÐ λοс ἀρίсτη
βουсί τε ϰαὶ μαϰέληιсι, λέγει δ ὅτε δεξιαὶ ωffl ραι
ϰαὶ ϕυτὰ γυρωÐ сαι ϰαὶ сπέρματα πάντα βαλέсθαι.
αὐτὸс γὰρ τά γε сήματ ἐν οὐρανωÐ ι ἐсτήριξεν
ἄсτρα διαϰρίναс, ἐсϰέψατο δ εἰс ἐνιαυτὸν
ἀсτέραс οἵ ϰε μάλιсτα τετυγμένα сημαίνοιεν
ἀνδράсιν ὡράων, ὄϕρ ἔμπεδα πάντα ϕύωνται.
τωÐ ι μιν ἀεὶ πρωÐ τόν τε ϰαὶ ὕсτατον ἱλάсϰονται.
From Zeus let us start, the one we men never leave
unspoken. Full with Zeus are all routes
and all gatherings of people, full are the sea
and harbors; in all ways do we all have need of Zeus.
For we are also part of his family; and kindly to people
he shows apt signs. The folk he rouses to work
by reminding them of their living: he tells when the soil is best
for oxen and hoes; he tells when the seasons are apt
both for trenching plants and for casting all kinds of seeds.
For he himself fastened the signs in heaven,
forming constellations, and he saw to the annual
stars whose risings and settings would give the best signs
of seasons to men, so that everything always may grow securely.
Therefore they always pay homage to him first and last.

Nothing here requires philosophical training to follow. But Stoic theory informs the
choice of emphasis. The world is ‘‘full with Zeus’’ not simply in contrast with
Hesiodic pessimism (where earth and sea are full of ills: Th. 101), but because his
power pervades the cosmos as the dynamic rational ‘‘principle’’ (archē, echoed in
opening archōmestha) on which everything wholly depends (2–4). The essential
rational nature of this principle is emphatically marked as ‘‘unspoken’’ (arrhētos):
another echo of Hesiod, and a pun on the poet’s own name, but also an allusion to
 Philosophy after Aristotle 379

the silent and ineffable cosmic mind. This unspoken but implicit order is most evident
in perceptible signs (6, 10, 12) that tell us (legei, 7 and 8) more than eyes alone can
see: as a divinely governed rational system, the world is an open book, to be read by
intelligent human interpreters; and the cornerstone of Stoic empiricism is human
aptitude for learning these inferential signs, observable facts and features that not
only point to other facts but reliably entail them.
Although the poem presents no sustained argument for Stoic doctrines, its elab-
orate account of celestial pageantry corroborates and exalts the operation of divine
providence that is central to the Stoic outlook and theories. Cosmology is Aratus’
theme, his ‘‘phenomena’’ the visibly manifest signs that adorn both the heights of
heaven and the realms below. Logic is effectively absent, and ethics receives only
passing attention, most notably in an allegorical rewriting of Hesiod’s myth of ages
(96–136; cf. WD 106–201). But Aratus’ celebration of Stoic physics finds its com-
plement in a miniature hymn by Cleanthes (c.330–c.230), which focuses on ethics
and theodicy.
Chronology is elusive and best left to the side. Ancient tradition has Aratus com-
posing his poem at the request of Antigonus in the mid-270s; Cleanthes, who suc-
ceeded Zeno as head of the school a decade later, was then in his 50s, with over 40 years
still to live. His hymn (so labeled in lines 6, 37, and 39) can stand alone (as it does in
Stobaeus, 1.1.12), serving solely to exalt Zeus, not to introduce another theme
(Bulloch in this volume). But its portrait of Zeus, while heavily indebted to traditional
diction, is intensely argumentative and thick with correctives to traditional beliefs.
Even its epithets, while modeled on epic phrasing, re-assemble their components in
telling ways: ‘‘much might’’ becomes ‘‘almighty’’ (pankrates, 1) for the Stoic deity,
and ‘‘bright-lightning’’ now ‘‘lightning-leader’’ (archikeraune, 32), to suit the cosmic
mind or ‘‘command-center’’ (hēgemonikon) that in Stoic determinism governs every-
thing in the universe as fate and providence (1–8; Thom 2005):

ϰύδιсτ ἀθανάτων, πολυώνυμε παγϰρατὲс αἰεί,

ΖευÐ ϕύсεωс ἀρχηγέ, νόμου μετὰ πάντα ϰυβερνωÐ ν,
χαιÐ ρε сὲ γὰρ ϰαὶ παÐ сι θέμιс θνητοιÐ сι προсαυδαÐ ν.
ἐϰ сουÐ γὰρ γενόμεсθα, θεουÐ μίμημα λαχόντεс
μουÐ νοι, ὅсα ζώει τε ϰαὶ ἕρπει θνήτ ἐπὶ γαιÐ αν
τωÐ ι сε ϰαθυμνήсω, ϰαὶ сὸν ϰράτοс αἰὲν ἀείсω.
сοὶ δὴ παÐ с ὅδε ϰόсμοс ἑλιссόμενοс περὶ γαιÐ αν
πείθεται ῃffl ϰεν ἄγηιс, ϰαὶ ἑϰὼν ὑπὸ сειÐ ο ϰρατειÐ ται
Most renowned of immortals, multinamed, almighty always
Zeus, nature’s arch-leader, steering all with law,
hail, for righteous it is for every mortal to address you;
for from you we have come into being, a semblance of god our lot,
we alone among mortal creatures that live and crawl on earth.
Therefore I shall hymn you and always sing your might:
You this world entire as it spins around the earth
obeys wherever you may lead, and to you it freely submits.

Cleanthes adopts a very different tone. Whereas Aratus addresses his mortal readers,
he directs his verses to Zeus himself, addressed directly and repeatedly, almost
380 Stephen A. White

throughout. Zeus enters Aratus only alongside the Muses in a transitional invocation
(15–18). But Cleanthes fills his proem with vocatives from the start, continues with
personal pronouns and second-singular verbs (eight times in 3–8 alone), closes with a
thicket of both (32–9), and steers clear of Zeus only in the latter part of his central
exposition, when deprecating the impious follies of humankind at large (22–31). In
effect, the entire poem is a prayer: first honoring Zeus with a litany of praise; then
delineating his all-encompassing justice in an extended meditation that supplants
the customary narrative; and after requesting – on behalf of a collective ‘‘us’’ (3–6,
33–8) – continued rational self-control (with three imperatives in 33–4), finally
rejoicing in his beneficent justice (32–9).

ἀλλὰ ΖευÐ πάνδωρε ϰελαινεϕὲс ἀρχιϰέραυνε,

ἀνθρώπουс ρ ύοιο ἀπειροсύνηс ἀπὸ λυγρηÐ с,
ἣν сύ, πάτερ, сϰέδαсον ψυχηÐ с ἄπο, δὸс δὲ ϰυρηÐ сαι
γνώμηс, ῃffl πίсυνοс сὺ δίϰηс μέτα πάντα ϰυβερναÐ ιс,
ὄϕρ ἂν τιμηθέντεс ἀμειβώμεсθά сε τιμηÐ ι,
ὑμνουÐ ντεс τὰ сὰ ἔργα διηνεϰέс, ὡс ἐπέοιϰε
θνητὸν ἐόντ , ἐπεὶ οὔτε βροτοιÐ с γέραс ἄλλο τι μειÐ ζον
οὔτε θεοιÐ с ἢ ϰοινὸν ἀεὶ νόμον ἐν δίϰηι ὑμνειÐ ν.
But Zeus all-giving, dark-clouding, lightning-leader,
fend off baleful ineptitude away from humans;
scatter it, you our father, away from our soul, and grant us gaining
judgment, which you deploy in steering all with justice,
so that honored thus we may return you honor
hymning these your works continually, as is seemly,
mortal that we be, since no prize is greater for mortals
or for gods than always hymning justly the law we all share.

Thematically, the hymn wears its Stoic vision on its sleeve. Zeus is figured as cosmic
reason, alias universal law of nature, fate, and providence: so much aligns with Aratus.
But here divine intelligence is fully personalized, principally in political terms: an ‘‘arch-
leader’’ (2) and ‘‘highest king’’ (hupatos basileus, 14) to be obeyed, or disobeyed to our
own chagrin alone; and echoing Heraclitus, to whose work Cleanthes devoted four
books of exegesis (D.L. 7.174), a thunderbolt-wielding helmsman (2, 10, 32, 35). His
Zeus is also a benevolent ‘‘all-giving father’’ (32–4), because he has endowed us with
the patrimony of rationality (4; cf. Arat. Phaen. 4), which makes humans alone among
mortal creatures (5) fellow citizens and administrators of the cosmopolis (37–9).
Stoic ecumenism is indebted to Zeno’s early flirtation with Cynicism, which cast a
long shadow via his Republic, memorably impugned as ‘‘written on the cynosure’’ or
‘‘dog’s tail’’ (D.L. 7.4). The Cynic vision, by contrast, was defiantly antinomian and
earthbound. Crates (368/5–288/5), in a celebration of austerity modeled closely on
the imaginary Crete of Homer’s Odysseus, extols his beggar’s pouch (pēra) as his
polis, free from the frenzied vainglory of fools but rich in humble fare to slake his
meager needs (SH 351 ¼ D.L. 6.85). Other remnants of his verse (some 65 lines,
mainly hexameters but also elegiacs and iambics) elaborate his rugged asceticism,
often in similarly parodic manner (Scodel in this volume). A blatant parody of Solon’s
elegy to the Muses prays for ‘‘a dung-beetle’s wealth’’: ‘‘easy to carry, easy to get,
 Philosophy after Aristotle 381

valuable for virtue’’ (SH 359); and he converts a vaunt from the Dolonia (Il. 10) into
a hymn to the virtues of Frugality (SH 361). But verse was only instrumental to his
true vocation: the cultivation of virtue in himself and others. A volume of letters
‘‘resembling Plato in style’’ (D.L. 6.98) might have engaged in theoretical debates,
though he ridiculed Stilpo and others for toiling over empty verbal disputes (SH
347–8).
Philosophers, despite their increased prestige but also because of it, remained
popular targets of satire. None cast his net more widely than one of their own:
Pyrrho’s eloquent publicist, Timon of Phlius (c.325–c.230), whose Silloi or ‘‘lam-
poons’’ spared few, living or dead. A first book narrated the poet’s own katabasis; two
more interviewed Xenophanes of Colophon about all the ‘‘busybody professors’’ from
the first down to his own day (D.L. 9.111–12). Some 65 fragments (preserving over
140 lines) display masterly command of parody’s arsenal: Homeric and colloquial
diction cheek to cheek, cumbersome compounds, stilted phrasing, multivalent puns,
farcical animal imagery, all pompously inflated by heroic meter and dialect. Miniature
caricatures pinpoint idiosyncrasies both philosophical and personal: ‘‘stonemason’’
Socrates is a ‘‘snotty Attic ironist’’ (SH 799); ‘‘the giant platitude’’ Plato ‘‘equal to
the cicadas singing in Hecademus’ trees’’ (804); ‘‘Phoenician’’ Zeno a ‘‘voracious old
lady in delusion’s shade’’ (812); and Epicurus ‘‘last in the sty (hustatos) of physicists
and most dogged’’ (825). But as a proponent of skepticism, Timon had his favorites,
and he seasoned his satire with cameos of praise. Pyrrho he duly exalts as ‘‘alone
delusion-free and indomitable’’ (783). Likewise Xenophanes, deemed a forerunner,
is ‘‘all but free of delusion, basher of deceitful Homer’’ (834). A handful of others are
also portrayed as proto- or quasi-skeptics: ‘‘mighty Parmenides, high-minded hero of
disbelief,’’ ‘‘Melissus, superior to many illusions,’’ ‘‘Democritus keenest of minds,
ambidextrous debater’’ (818–20). The upshot is a noble heritage for Pyrrhonian
skepticism that still echoes in later sources (including D.L. 9).

Philosophical Scholarship
Timon’s best-known lines deride the ‘‘endless polemics’’ of Alexandria’s ‘‘cloistered
pedants’’ (SH 786; Strootman in this volume). Ironically, his work was indebted to
the pioneering labors of the Lyceum, which was both model and, via Demetrius of
Phalerum and Strato, prime mover for the Ptolemies’ Museum. Peripatetic research
on archaic and Classical poetry is widely recognized; its disiecta membra preserved in
Athenaeus and elsewhere are still a rich harvest of scholarship. Less familiar is their
work on earlier philosophers. Studies of individual figures survive only as titles. But
the fruits of this research appear repeatedly in Aristotle, whose dialectical methods
rely heavily on compiling, analyzing, and assessing the rival claims and arguments of
his predecessors and contemporaries.
Philosophy continued to study its past as it advanced in age. Plato was read more or
less continuously, and signs of renewed interest in other fourth-century figures –
including rival Socratics – appear in the second century. Epicureans kept detailed
records of their school’s history, with special attention to the founder and his closest
382 Stephen A. White

associates, and similar but less hagiographic accounts were produced for the other
schools and their leading members. Some of this material survives in the Register of
Philosophers by Philodemus, originally in ten books; substantial portions of the two on
Academics and Stoics have been recovered from Herculaneum (Dorandi 1991, 1994).
One of its main aims is to trace the ‘‘succession’’ (diadochē) of each school: the lineage
of its leading members, via lists of their teachers, students, and associates along with
notable traits and accomplishments. Booklists reflect similar interests, but also doctri-
nal issues, since determining authenticity can affect school orthodoxy; debates about
Zeno’s Republic are a case in point (Schofield 1991: 3–21). The Register and other lost
works like it supplied the framework for Diogenes Laertius. But their philosophical
content was very thin. For meatier fare he and others had to look elsewhere.
Complementing these historical accounts were summaries and catalogues of ‘‘doc-
trines’’ (doxai) or ‘‘tenets’’ (areskonta). A major impetus for this work was the
dialectical nature of the discipline. Epicurus, like Aristotle, developed many of his
positions through critical reflection on claims made by others, and the recitation and
rebuttal of rival positions continued to play a large role in later Epicurean writing.
Collections of opposing views, whether held by rival parties or a single figure, were a
powerful critical tool, widely deployed in skeptical arguments. Systematic surveys and
summaries also had pedagogical value. The volume and complexity of many major
works were daunting, and few had either the mind or the stomach to take their
Chrysippus straight. Digests afforded easier access, and ready resources for discussion
and debate. This kind of ‘‘doxography’’ (a label introduced by Diels 1879) looms
large in many of our post-Hellenistic sources, and therefore in modern scholarship.
Although its origins go back to Hippias and his fellow sophists, it came into its own
during the third century, and some of the best surviving examples come from the end
of our period: detailed surveys of Stoic and Aristotelian ethics (Stob. 2.57–152), and
careful summaries of key points in Stoic and Aristotelian physics (some 40 excerpts:
Diels 1879: 447–72). The authorship of this material has recently been questioned
(Göransson 1995: 182–226), but at least some of it probably comes from Octavian’s
Alexandrian friend, the Stoic Arius, and it is tempting to conjecture that he compiled
his digests while serving the Augustan household. In any event, in its attention to
Aristotle, this material typifies the renewed interest in the originary texts of the
discipline that marks the close of our period. Its critical treatment of fourth-century
ideas, now construed in the light of subsequent theories, also indicates the continuity
of Hellenistic philosophy both with earlier debates and with what would follow. For it
was largely this constructive interaction between Hellenistic and older work that
ushered Greek philosophy into a new phase under imperial Rome.

FURTHER READING

Study of Hellenistic philosophy remains heavily dependent on outdated editions and collec-
tions of source material; the standard works for major figures, schools, and sources are
conveniently listed in Algra, Barnes, Mansfeld, and Schofield 1999: 805–19. More recent work
of note includes editions of Antigonus of Carystus (Dorandi 1999); Demetrius of Phalerum
 Philosophy after Aristotle 383

and several Peripatetics (Fortenbaugh and Schütrumpf 2000; Fortenbaugh and White 2004
and 2006; Sharples forthcoming); Hermippus (Bollansée 1999); and Philodemus (Janko 2000;
Delattre 2007). New editions are in preparation for Diogenes Laertius (Dorandi) and multiple
works by Philodemus (see Gutzwiller in this volume), and also for Hellenistic Stoics (Mansfeld
et al.) and Peripatetics (Fortenbaugh et al.).
Translations: Inwood and Gerson 1997 contains the extant letters of Epicurus and substan-
tial excerpts from later sources; Long and Sedley 1987 provides short excerpts organized by
topic along with analytical essays. Cicero’s philosophical works are excellent introductions to
major debates and styles of argument; notable translations include Annas and Woolf 2001;
Brittain 2006; Graver 2002; Walsh 1997 and 2000. Similarly Sextus Empiricus, in Annas and
Barnes 1994; Bett 1997 and 2005; Blank 1998; and for Diogenes Laertius, Goulet-Cazé 1999
and White forthcoming.
Algra, Barnes, Mansfeld, and Schofield 1999 surveys the main philosophical issues and
positions by field and school, with succinct accounts of the sources, the history of the main
schools, the ‘‘Socratic legacy,’’ and the period’s end; chapters in Gill and Pellegrin 2006 survey
related issues. Habicht 1988 paints a vivid picture of philosophers in Hellenistic Athens;
likewise Long 1986 on Arcesilaus, Sedley 1977 on Diodorus Kronos and dialectic, Clay
1998: 3–102 on Epicurean practices, Schofield 1983 on Stoic styles of argument, and
Warren 2007 on Diogenes Laertius. For Aratus, see Volk in this volume, and Long 1978 on
Timon. Goulet 1989– is a goldmine of prosopography. Critical discussion of philosophical
issues is well represented in Ierodiakonou 1999 and Inwood 2003 on Stoicism, Warren 2009
on Epicureanism, Bett 2010 on skepticism, and volumes from the triennial Symposium
Hellenisticum, most recently Ioppolo and Sedley 2007.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

From Polybius to Dionysius:

The Decline and Fall of
Hellenistic Historiography
Alain M. Gowing

What constitutes a ‘‘Hellenistic’’ historian? Or rather, when does a Greek historian

writing after Alexander the Great cease to be Hellenistic and become something else?
Most will agree that once we reach the Augustan period, the term Hellenistic is no
longer apt, and that therefore characters such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo deserve a different label. Precisely what label is most
appropriate for them is itself unclear (Greco-Roman? Augustan? Late Republican?
Imperial?), but ‘‘Hellenistic’’ is obviously wrong. As most surveys of Hellenistic
historiography rightly observe (e.g., Marincola 2001: 105), the expansion of Rome
and the emergence of its territory between the third and second centuries BCE
inevitably influenced and forever altered the nature of Greco-Roman historiography.
Such surveys tend to stop with Polybius, recognizing that post-Polybian historio-
graphy is indeed different, yet they seldom articulate how it is different.
My concern in this paper is not to forge new ground in already familiar territory;
the historians as well as the general historiographical trends discussed here have been
the subject of numerous studies, some quite recent and extensive (e.g., Oliver 2006;
Marincola 2001, 2007). Rather, my aim is to bring Polybius and Dionysius into play
with one another, first, by tracing briefly the evolution of Greek historiography,
specifically that which touches on Roman history, from the unproblematically
Hellenistic historian Polybius down to Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the
Augustan period; and secondly, by illustrating this evolution in concrete terms via a
comparison of the prefaces of Polybius and Dionysius.
 Historiography from Polybius to Dionysius 385

Between Polybius and Dionysius:

Polyhistor and Posidonius
Polybius (c.200–118 BCE ) is well known to students of Greco-Roman historiography.
This aristocratic native of Megalopolis in the Peloponnese came to Rome as a political
hostage shortly after the Roman defeat of Perseus in 168 BCE (Erskine in this
volume). Befriended by P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus and subsequently part of
the ‘‘Scipionic Circle,’’ he composed a celebrated 40-book Histories, an account of
the rise of Rome and its hegemony over the Mediterranean from 246 to 146 BCE . The
scholarship on Polybius is extensive, though his views of Rome have perhaps received
the most thorough attention. Of recent studies, Champion has persuasively argued
that Polybius, via what Champion terms ‘‘indirect historiography,’’ expresses in
subtle ways both criticism of and admiration for Romans, resulting in a ‘‘politics of
cultural indeterminacy’’ (2004: 4, 27–8, and passim). Champion’s argument, com-
plex and nuanced, nicely elucidates the undeniable ambiguity of Polybius’ account.
Despite Polybius’ familiarity with them, his Romans remain an alien people, a people
who may possess admirable, even ‘‘Hellenic’’ traits, but are still ‘‘other.’’ As we shall
see, Dionysius’ attitude towards the Romans is conditioned by very different circum-
stances and in consequence bears little resemblance to that of Polybius.
Less familiar are Polybius’ immediate successors, either because their works simply
do not survive or survive only in a few fragments, or because their impact on
historiography appears to have been minimal. In terms of gauging the impact the
Roman conquest had on the way history would now be written, however, these
authors have something to tell us.
Of the characters of whom we have any knowledge, one of the most intriguing is
Alexander ‘‘Polyhistor’’ (born c.105 BCE in Miletus). As was Polybius’ fate, war
brought Polyhistor to Rome, though as a slave (a paedagogus) rather than a hostage,
sometime in the 80s during the conflict with Mithridates. Made a citizen under Sulla,
he went on to become a prodigious writer, among whose works may have been an
Italika as well as a work On Rome.
The one secure fragment belonging to the former forms part of an aetiologizing
story about an Etruscan king named Anius (from whom the Anio river is said to have
taken its name), and the rape of his daughter by one Cathetus. This results in the
birth of Latinus, from whom it is claimed the (Roman?) nobility are descended
(FGrH 273 F 20), evidently another in the myriad accounts of the origins of the
Latin king known best to us from the Aeneid. The fragment thus attests an interest in
the pre-history of Rome, an interest that will be pursued in greater depth by
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who shares Polyhistor’s curiosity about Latinus (e.g.,
1.43). Along the same lines, Polyhistor attempted to account for the name of the
Tiber (F 110). Other fragments suggest a similar concern for imparting to Greek
readers recondite information about the origins of Rome and early Italic history. In
one (F 104), for instance, perhaps to be assigned to either the Italika or On Rome, he
builds on information found in Cato’s Origins about the Oromobii, a mountain
people living in northern Italy, proposing a Greek etymology for the name. The
fragment suggests that Polyhistor had read Cato, an indication that by the early part
386 Alain M. Gowing

of the first century influence in historical writing is no longer a one-way street, a point
which I see as characteristic of a historiography that is no longer purely ‘‘Hellenistic’’
and to which I shall return. In short, Polyhistor appears to have moved beyond the
sort of historical narrative favored by Polybius, as well as beyond Polybius’ aims, to a
brand of history that resembles Cato’s Origins (Rawson 1985: 26) and anticipates the
project of his successor Dionysius.
Roughly contemporary with Polyhistor is the far better known Posidonius (c.135–
51 BCE ), a towering figure in the intellectual history of the late Roman Republic
(Yarrow 2006: 87–8, 161–6, and passim; Gruen 1984: 351–5). He was an even more
prolific and wide-ranging author than Polyhistor; his historical writings represent but
a very small portion of his output. Nonetheless, the most substantial of this, the
History, is the most comprehensive treatment of Roman history attempted by a Greek
since Polybius and indeed appears to be a continuation of Polybius, the chronological
range being roughly 146–86 BCE (Kidd 1988: 1.277–80). Insofar as we can tell from
the surviving fragments, in terms of approach Posidonius’ universalizing history
seems to have had more in common with Polyhistor and even with Cato than with
Polybius (in the edition of Posidonius by Edelstein and Kidd 1972 – hereafter EK –
13 pages comprise F 51–78, which are assigned with certainty to particular books of
the History, with an additional 32 pages for F 252–84, whose provenance is uncer-
tain). It is distinctly a work of empire, an account of a world in the middle (rather
than at the beginning) of the process of political and administrative consolidation that
prefigured what we know as Imperial Rome.
A glance at some of the topics covered in Posidonius’ History underscores the
commonality of interests with Polyhistor as well as with Cato: Roman customs (e.g.,
F 53 EK, on banquets), the habits of various races (e.g., the Gauls, F 67–9, 274–275;
Germans, 73, 277b; Parthians, 282; Celtiberians, 271); curiosity about various things
Posidonius has encountered in his travels (e.g., rabbits seen near Naples, F 52;
vegetables in Dalmatia, 70; perfume, 71). He is appalled by drunkenness and
debauchery (e.g., F 63, 72a, 77). The Posidonian world, in short, is a vast but for
the most part known world, not unlike the imperial world so vividly described a
century later by Pliny the Elder. It is a world conquered by Rome rather than in the
process of being conquered (Gruen 1984: 351); and thus Posidonius’ history reads
less like a narrative of conquest (like Polybius’) than one of preserving and safe-
guarding a largely secured empire.
Posidonius’ acknowledgment and acceptance of this fact are perhaps most apparent
in the substantial fragment treating Athenion, the philosopher-tyrant who held sway
over Athens in 88 BCE at the height of the First Mithridatic War (F 253 EK).
Athenion had attempted to rouse the Athenians against a firmly entrenched Roman
domination (lines 30–2) and restore their traditional ‘‘democracy’’ (28–9).
Posidonius’ colorful account, distinctly unsympathetic to Athenion, concludes, with
no hint of disapproval or reproach directed against the Romans, with a massacre by
the Roman commander Oribius of Athenion’s supporters, the ‘‘senseless Athenians’’
(τοιÐ с ἀνοήτοιс Ἀθηναίοιс, F 253.159), who were attacked while in a drunken
stupor.
The fragments in fact contain virtually no negative press for the Romans (Gruen
1984: 354). Posidonius speaks with approval of Scipio’s relationship with Panaetius
 Historiography from Polybius to Dionysius 387

(F 254 EK), and evidently found a place in his narrative for more than one flattering
reference to Claudius Marcellus, the Roman general who took Syracuse for the
Romans in 212 BCE (F 257; cf. 258–61). He seems, Cato-like, to have admired the
old Roman virtues of frugality, justice, and piety (F 266–7). Polybius, to be sure, also
admires Romans, but in Posidonius we find no trace of the ambiguity or diffidence
that marks Polybius’ work. He writes instead as a man entirely comfortable with
Rome and the Romans and with the world they now dominate, but not yet as a man
overly influenced by or indeed even interested in Roman culture. Marincola aptly
summarizes the difference between Posidonius and his predecessor: ‘‘[he] . . . had far
more catholic and cultural interests than Polybius’’ (1997: 239). Roman culture,
however, evidently held little interest for him, a point that, as we will see, differen-
tiates him from Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
It is worth noting in this connection the one reference to Posidonius in Cicero’s
correspondence (Att. 2.1.2 ¼ 21 Shackleton Bailey 1965 ¼ F 82 EK; in his youth
Cicero had heard Posidonius lecture, Plu. Cic. 4). Cicero had sent Posidonius a
hypomnēma or ‘‘memoir’’ that he had composed in Greek on the subject of his
consulship, with a request that he should produce his own version, a more elaborate
one (ornatius). Posidonius declined. Cicero implies that he did so on the grounds
that the original was so perfect, it had no need of improvement by Posidonius, but
the alternative explanation may be more plausible, that Posidonius simply had no
interest in either the subject or Cicero (Shackleton Bailey 1965 ad loc.). Posidonius’
reaction is revealing: it suggests no hesitation at refusing a request from Rome’s
greatest orator, no desire whatsoever to attach his name to this particular moment in
Roman history, and complete deference on the part of Cicero toward the famous
Greek he had hoped would write him into history. Significantly, Cicero similarly
alleges that the Greek poet Archias, whom he defended in 62 BCE in a celebrated
speech (the same year he wrote to Posidonius), had in fact written, or begun to write,
an account of his consulship (Arch. 28).

Greeks and Roman History in the Pro Archia

The Pro Archia illustrates well the impact made on the Roman cultural and political
scene by the many Greek intellectuals who came to Italy and Rome in the late
Republic, of whom Polyhistor and Posidonius are representative. In this speech
Cicero identifies as one of the chief benefits of cultivating Greek poets such as
Archias the positive promulgation of Rome to the farthest flung reaches of the
Empire (Arch. 23). Although Archias is a poet, his themes are nonetheless often
historical, and here as elsewhere, Cicero blurs the line between historiography proper
and historicizing poetry; both constitute a legitimate means of celebrating and
recording the past. Thus Theophanes of Mytilene, the chronicler attached to
Pompey the Great, of whose deeds he had written (as perhaps had Posidonius:
F 79 EK), is adduced as an example of a Greek intellectual whose writings have
served Rome well (Arch. 24; on this important character see Yarrow 2006: 54–67).
Archias himself had as a young man penned poems about the Cimbrian campaigns of
388 Alain M. Gowing

Marius (Arch. 19), a theme also treated by his coeval Posidonius (F 272 EK). Later,
he composed an evidently celebrated account of Lucullus’ campaigns during the First
Mithridatic War, spreading thereby the renown of not only his patron but also of the
Roman people (Arch. 20–1). Posidonius, too, had treated this war in depth. Indeed,
it seems highly likely that given their respective situations, circle of acquaintances, and
overlapping interests, the paths of Archias and Posidonius had crossed, despite the
absence of any evidence for a relationship.
Significantly, Cicero does not cite Polybius as an example of what he is talking
about in the Pro Archia. For despite Polybius’ relationship with Scipio (and the
laudatory nature of his treatment of the Roman general), Polybius did not write
the sort of history Cicero refers to in the Pro Archia nor for the same purposes; his
relationship with neither Scipio nor Rome was precisely analogous to that, say, of
Theophanes. Rather, the phenomenon to which Cicero alludes, of Greek intellectuals
celebrating the achievements of Romans (and of Romans who are often their
patrons), is a relatively recent development, characteristic of the late Republic, when
Roman hegemony over the Mediterranean is not only essentially complete but also
largely accepted.
The remarks on historical writing in the Pro Archia, however oblique, mark an
important stage in the transition from the Hellenistic historiography practiced by
Polybius and his predecessors to the increasingly ‘‘Rome-influenced’’ historiography
of Polyhistor, Posidonius, and their successors. Those successors include a couple of
important writers not surveyed here – Nicolaus of Damascus, for instance, the author
of a universal history that covered Roman history from its beginnings and perhaps
most notably of a biography of Augustus (Yarrow 2006, esp. 156–61), or the
crucially important Diodorus Siculus, who also wrote universal history (for a fine
analysis of the ways in which Diodorus marks the end of the Hellenistic period, see
Wirth 1993). But this is the essential point: between Polybius and the middle of the
first century BCE dramatic political as well as cultural changes have taken place. With
the subjugation of Greece as well as the Hellenized world substantially complete,
a new symbiosis develops between the Roman elite and the Greek intellectuals
streaming into Rome. The relationship is hardly hostile, an uneasy pact between
conqueror and conquered, but rather a relationship of mutual respect, each group
recognizing the benefits of a rapport with the other (Wiseman 1979: 154–6; Rawson
1985: 3–18). More Greeks are living in Rome; more Greeks are writing Roman
history (in both poetry and prose). Does this make their projects no longer
‘‘Hellenistic’’? The circumstances in which Polyhistor or Posidonius wrote history
in the early part of the first century BCE clearly differ from those operative for Polybius
in the second, but all still write what we term universal history, a history that takes a
holistic (rather than strictly localized) approach; and all are obviously interested in the
actions of both Greeks and Romans. Yet even despite the fragmentary nature of late
Republican Greek historical writing, we find little that is critical of Romans or even
simply ambiguous, quite different from what one finds in Polybius. And again, the
changes to which I allude are not strictly political. They involve equally significant
developments in Roman cultural life, and linked to those developments is the emer-
gence of a historiography that is no longer ‘‘Hellenistic.’’ The best example of these
‘‘new’’ historians is Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
 Historiography from Polybius to Dionysius 389

The Prefaces of Polybius and Dionysius

The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus represent a striking departure
from Hellenistic models, and especially from Polybius (Gabba 1991: 118). Moving
to Rome in 30 BCE , shortly after Octavian defeated Antony at Actium, he set to
work on a 20-book account of Rome encompassing its mythical origins down to
the beginning of the First Punic War in 264 BCE , a project that took him some
22 years (1.7.2–4). Simply in terms of subject matter, this differs significantly from
the contemporary and universalizing history of Polybius, whose theater of action
included virtually the entire Hellenistic world. While a full-scale comparison of
Polybius and Dionysius is beyond the scope of this chapter, some sense of the evolu-
tion in their attitude – both toward the Romans and toward their historiographical
task – may be obtained by comparing their prefaces. In the process we glimpse as
well what differentiates the Hellenistic historian Polybius from a Greek historian
who has moved beyond Hellenistic models and who prefigures his Imperial
successors.
Although the two prefaces are in many respects standard and predictable and have
certain qualities in common (Walbank 1957: 39), they differ at crucial points. It
should be stressed that an enormously eventful century and a half separate the two
authors, Polybius writing just as Rome emerges as a powerful military and political
presence in the Mediterranean, Dionysius at a time when Rome’s hegemony is not
only fully established but extends over an area that even Polybius could perhaps not
have imagined. It is true that Polybius asserts that Rome holds the ‘‘whole world’’
under its sway (3.3.9), but as Gruen rightly observes, such a remark owes more to
rhetoric than reality: ‘‘The future mistress of the Mediterranean was not yet foreseen’’
(1984: 325). By Dionysius’ day, rhetoric had become reality.
One apparent similarity between the two prefaces nicely captures this point. Both
historians share the belief that the achievements of former empires pale in comparison
with the nearly total domination of Rome. In Polybius’ words, Rome had conquered
‘‘nearly the whole world’’ (сχεδὸν ἅπαντα τὰ ϰατὰ τὴν οἰϰουμένην, 1.1.5). He then
rattles off previous empires: Persians, Spartans, and especially Macedonians. The last
deserves special comment: the Macedonians failed to take Sicily, Sardinia, Northern
Africa, and knew nothing of the peoples inhabiting Western Europe. The Romans
were better; they have conquered ‘‘nearly the whole world’’ (сχεδὸν . . . παÐ сαν . . .
τὴν οἰϰουμένην, 1.2.7) – that phrase again.
Dionysius constructs his own list with differences that are small but significant
(1.3). He begins with the Assyrians, then moves on to the Persians (who incidentally
failed to overcome the European tribes), and finally, to the Macedonians, whose
dominion he describes in much the same way as Polybius. Missing from the list to
this point are the Greeks, but Dionysius reserves special comment for them. Greeks,
he flatly admits, simply cannot compare with either those empires just mentioned or
with the Romans: the Athenians (not even mentioned by Polybius) ruled not long
and not much; the Spartans were no better. In the end, however, albeit with a greater
flourish, Dionysius comes to the same point as Polybius: in distinction to these other
powers, Rome has conquered nearly the whole world (1.3.3):
390 Alain M. Gowing

ἡ δὲ  Ρωμαίων πόλιс ἁπάсηс μὲν ἄρχει γηÐ с ὅсη μὴ ἀνέμβατόс ἐсτιν, ἀλλ ὑπ ἀνθρώπων
ϰατοιϰειÐ ται, πάсηс δὲ ϰρατειÐ θαλάссηс, οὐ μόνον τηÐ с ἐντὸс Ἡραϰλείων сτηλωÐ ν, ἀλλὰ ϰαὶ
τηÐ с Ὠϰεανίτιδοс ὅсη πλειÐ сθαι μὴ ἀδύνατόс ἐсτι, πρώτη ϰαὶ μόνη τωÐ ν ἐϰ τουÐ παντὸс αἰωÐ νοс
μνημονευομένων ἀνατολὰс ϰαὶ δύсειс ὅρουс ποιηсαμένη τηÐ с δυναсτείαс.

The city of Rome rules every land which is not unreachable and is inhabited; and she rules
every sea, not only that within the Pillars of Heracles, but also of the sea of Ocean, except
that part which cannot be sailed. And Rome is the first and the only nation of all those ever
recorded who has made the rising and setting of the sun the boundaries of its Empire.

But Dionysius is able to make a point Polybius cannot, that Rome has experienced
successes where others have failed, notably, in the conquest of Asia, Northern Africa,
and Gaul. In the mid-second century, of course, these conquests had not yet hap-
pened. Thus the ‘‘nearly’’ in Polybius’ ‘‘nearly the whole world’’ must carry more
weight than appears at first sight; his claim is more rhetorical than it is credible.
Equally important is the acknowledgment of not only space – extent of conquest –
but time as well. Polybius is impressed by the speed with which Rome has acquired
its domain – only 53 years, measuring from the beginning of the Social War waged
by the Aetolian League and its allies against Philip V down to the end of the Third
Macedonian War (220–167 BCE ), the period of time he originally intended to covered
in his History (1.1.5; Erskine in this volume). Dionysius, on the other hand, is
impressed by the longevity of Roman rule (1.2.1; Gabba 1991: 193). This he meas-
ures from the founding of Rome down to his own day (by his reckoning, 751 to 7
BCE ), a period of 745 years; and interestingly, he dates by both consular year and
Olympiads (1.3.3–4).
A further distinction emerges in the envisaged function of their work. Polybius
famously describes his specific genre as ‘‘pragmatic history’’ (ἡ πραγματιϰὴ ἱсτορία,
1.2.8; cf. 1.1.4; Walbank 1972: 56–8, 66–96); its aim is to educate those bent on a
political career (1.1.2). But a political career where? Certainly not in Rome . . . or not
exclusively in Rome. Polybius notably distances himself from Romans; when he speaks
of ‘‘we,’’ he means Greeks, not Romans (e.g., 1.3.7), and while he may anticipate that
the lessons of his history will apply to Greek and Roman alike (Champion 2004, esp.
96–8), he writes with a Greek audience uppermost in his mind.
Dionysius, too, consistently refers to the Romans in the third person; like Polybius,
when he says ‘‘we,’’ he means ‘‘we Greeks’’ (e.g., 1.32.3). Yet while he may seem to
distance himself from Romans in the same way as Polybius, in fact he does precisely
the opposite. His aim is not to educate would-be politicians; nor is it merely to
impress his reader with a litany of Roman virtues. Rather, he wishes to demonstrate
that Romans are in fact Greeks (1.5.1; on Dionysius’ tendency to identify Romans as
Greeks see Gabba 1991: 87–8; Schultze 1986: 128–9). In so doing, of course, he
brings Romans within the orbit of ‘‘we Greeks,’’ effectively erasing the difference
between ‘‘us’’ and ‘‘them’’ – a distinction rigorously maintained by Polybius.
It is in this context that the term Dionysius uses to characterize his work should be
understood: ἡ ϰοινὴ ἱсτορία (1.2.1). This is not ‘‘universal history’’ (as Cary 1943
renders it), but rather ‘‘common’’ or ‘‘shared history.’’ This represents an important
move away from Polybius’ ἡ τωÐ ν ϰαθόλου πραγμάτων сύνταξιс (1.4.2) – a ‘‘synthesis of
events in general’’ or true ‘‘universal history,’’ whose function he elaborates at some
 Historiography from Polybius to Dionysius 391

length (1.4.6–11). Incidentally, Dionysius’ conception also suggests a still deeper

engagement with Rome and the Romans than that which one encounters in Polyhistor
or Posidonius. He demonstrates the fundamental unity of the Mediterranean peoples,
and does not, like Polybius, merely narrate a series of interrelated events happening over
an extensive geographic area that throw into relief the achievement of one discrete
group, i.e., the Romans. Dionysius’ approach, I would suggest, is the product of the
emerging and increasingly ecumenical Roman Empire (and will find further expression
in the writers associated with the Second Sophistic); the other, a characteristic of the
Hellenistic period and of at least one form of Hellenistic historiography.
Polybius, therefore, would not have considered Dionysius’ task a particularly
profitable one, because it focused too exclusively on one people (cf. Polybius’ criticisms
of such narrowly focused histories at 1.4.3, with Walbank 1957 ad loc.). He may
further have disapproved of Dionysius’ lack of nuance in treating the Romans. This
may be precisely why Dionysius feels compelled to defend his choice of subject.
Ironically, he alleges that no historian has yet adequately celebrated Rome’s achieve-
ment (1.2.1), yet this was exactly what Polybius himself implies he means to do
(1.3.7–8). Polybius alleges that Greeks are unaware of the prior history of Rome
and Carthage, a situation he intends to remedy; Dionysius, too, adduces the ignorance
of his Greek reader as a motivating factor, though in this instance ignorance of
‘‘Rome’s ancient history’’ (ἡ παλαιὰ τηÐ с Ῥωμαίων πόλεωс ἱсτορία, 1.4.2). It is an
ignorance caused, however, not by inattention but, more seriously, by the falsifying
and slanderous histories of his predecessors. It is difficult to resist the notion that
Dionysius directs his criticisms here, at least in part, specifically at Polybius, a writer of
whom he is elsewhere quite critical (e.g., Comp. 4), including once in the preface itself,
where he lumps him together with other historians accused of producing ‘‘a few things
carelessly thrown together’’ (ὀλίγα ϰαὶ οὐδὲ ἀϰριβωÐ с . . . διεсπουδαсμένα, 1.6.1;
Fromentin 1998: 221 n. 4). Indeed, shortly before this he puts it even more
baldly: there exists no history of Rome in Greek written by anyone of any competence
(D.H. 1.5.4):

οἱ δὲ сύμπαντεс οἱ τοсουÐ το περιθέντεс αὐτηÐ ι δυναсτείαс μέγεθοс ἀγνοουÐ νται πρὸс Ἑλλήνων,
οὐ τυχόντεс ἀξιολόγου сυγγραϕέωс οὐδεμία γὰρ ἀϰριβὴс ἐξελήλυθε περὶ αὐτωÐ ν Ἑλληνὶс
ἱсτορία μέχρι τωÐ ν ϰαθ ἡμαÐ с χρόνων, ὅτι μὴ ϰεϕαλαιώδειс ἐπιτομαὶ πάνυ βραχειÐ αι.

All of them (i.e., the Romans), despite having established for their country such a sizable
hegemony, are unknown to Greeks: they have not yet found a worthy historian. For no
truthful history of them has been published in Greek up to our time, except for some
brief, summarizing epitomes.

Dionysius and the End of Hellenistic Historiography

It is, therefore, Dionysius himself who repudiates his Hellenistic predecessors, carving
out a new historiographical niche, one which has far more in common with Cato and
Livy – and, as we have seen, intermediary Greek historians such as Polyhistor and
Posidonius – than it does with Polybius. However, the factors that contributed to the
392 Alain M. Gowing

passing of Hellenistic historiography, of which Polybius was the last real representa-
tive, have nothing to do with whether or not Greeks ‘‘liked’’ or ‘‘disliked’’ Romans,
or even whether the subject matter is Roman history or not. Rather, the increasing
sophistication and growth of Roman literary and artistic culture, in absorbing and
assimilating Hellenic culture (a process well documented by, among other texts,
Cicero’s Pro Archia), became a force to be reckoned with. The distinctive features
of that culture would not have emerged without the infusion and influence of
Hellenism, but nonetheless Roman culture managed to individuate itself from
Hellenistic culture with stunning success. Polybius stands at the very beginning of
that process, Dionysius witnessed its culmination.
In this regard, it is an obvious fact – but a fact that warrants emphasis – that there as
yet existed no Latin historiographical tradition for Polybius to consult. While it is
possible that he may have employed other types of Latin sources – documents, for
instance, or perhaps the poet Ennius – they leave no discernible trace in the narrative,
leading most Polybian scholars to conclude that his familiarity with or use of Latin
materials was minimal (e.g., Walbank 1972: 81). In distinct contrast to Dionysius,
Polybius wrote at a time when Roman historical writing was in its infancy. The
tradition to which Polybius therefore looked (and indeed, to which the earliest
Roman historians looked as well) was Greek, embodied in Herodotus, Thucydides,
and Xenophon, to mention only the most famous. Thus despite its subject, in terms
of conception, approach, and execution, the Histories of Polybius is purely Greek and
purely Hellenistic. The same may not be said of Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
One further indication of this shift, to return to the evidence of the Pro Archia, is
the fact that Cicero is able to place side-by-side chroniclers of Roman history who
write in Greek with those who write in Latin. Ennius is the earliest of these. But closer
to his own day, Cicero mentions Accius, another poet, who wrote about Decimus
Brutus; and Lucius Plotius, who wrote of Marius’ exploits as well as of Lucullus’
(Arch. 20–7). It was Cicero himself who would lament the poverty of the Latin
historiographical tradition (Leg. 1.5, written probably in the mid-40s BCE ), though
in the Pro Archia he views such commemorative writing as already firmly engrained
in Roman culture, and practiced by Greek and Latin writers alike. And by the
Augustan period, and in the Roman world in which Dionysius lived and worked,
Roman historiography had acquired a vigor that even Cicero would have admired.
Dionysius in fact knew Latin well and had read broadly in Latin historians in the
course of his research (1.7.2–4; Gabba 1991, esp. 1–4; Schultze 1986, esp. 121–4).
He was thus fully conversant with the Latin historiographical tradition that had come
into being and developed only after Polybius; Cato, the annalists, and Livy, to
mention only the better-known examples, were all available to him (for Dionysius’
possible use of Livy, whom he never actually cites, see Gabba 1991: 95–6). It is not,
however, simply a question of the historiographical tradition. Dionysius’ Augustan
Rome was ‘‘cultured’’ in ways Polybius could not have imagined, a place now
possessed of a literary tradition that had grown, flourished, and by the Augustan
period reached what many would consider its apogee. It is no accident that Dionysius
is as well known as a literary critic as he is as an historian. This dimension to his
intellectual profile, so distinct from that of Polybius, may not define him as
‘‘Augustan’’ but it certainly aligns him with Augustan culture – that is, with the
 Historiography from Polybius to Dionysius 393

vibrant literary culture that defines the period. Dionysius is not adjacent to Augustan
(and thus Roman) culture: he was part of it.
As often, it is Dionysius himself who proves the most trenchant analyst of his
situation. Writing of the resurgence of rhetoric from the steady decline it had
experienced in the period after Alexander, he praises the cultural renaissance, the
‘‘revolution’’ (μεταβολή) made possible by the Roman conquest (Orat. Vett. 3;
Galinsky 1996: 340–2):

αἰτία δ οι μαι ϰαὶ ἀρχὴ τηÐ с τοсαύτηс μεταβοληÐ с ἐγένετο ἡ πάντων ϰρατουÐ сα Ῥώμη πρὸс
ἑαυτὴν ἀναγϰάζουсα τὰс ὅλαс πόλειс ἀποβλέπειν ϰαὶ ταύτηс δὲ αὐτηÐ с οἱ δυναсτεύοντεс
ϰατ ἀρετὴν ϰαὶ ἀπὸ τουÐ ϰρατίсτου τὰ ϰοινὰ διοιϰουÐ ντεс, εὐπαίδευτοι πάνυ ϰαὶ γενναιÐ οι
τὰс ϰρίсειс γενόμενοι, ὑϕ ωffl ν ϰοсμούμενον τό τε ϕρόνιμον τηÐ с πόλεωс μέροс ἔτι μαÐ λλον
ἐπιδέδωϰεν ϰαὶ τὸ ἀνόητον ἠνάγϰαсται νουÐ ν ἔχειν: τοιγάρτοι πολλαὶ μὲν ἱсτορίαι сπουδηÐ с
ἄξιαι γράϕονται τοιÐ с νυÐ ν, πολλοὶ δὲ λόγοι πολιτιϰοὶ χαρίεντεс ἐϰϕέρονται ϕιλόсοϕοί τε
сυντάξειс οὐ μὰ Δία εὐϰαταϕρόνητοι ἄλλαι τε πολλαὶ ϰαὶ ϰαλαὶ πραγματειÐ αι ϰαὶ Ῥωμαίοιс
ϰαὶ Ἕλληсιν ευ μάλα διεсπουδαсμέναι προεληλύθαсί τε ϰαὶ προελεύсονται ϰατὰ τὸ εἰϰόс.

The cause and origin of this revolution, I think, has been the fact that Rome has
conquered everyone, compelling every city to look to her. Her leaders, in power because
of their virtue, govern their commonwealth in good faith; they are exceptionally well
educated, and with respect to their decisions, noble minded. Under their leadership the
sensible portion of their city’s population, being well governed, has improved still
further, while the ignorant portion has been forced to come to its senses. As a result,
many admirable histories have been composed by current writers, many satisfying
political treatises and not insignificant philosophical tracts are being published; many
other fine works as well are being produced and doubtless will continue to be produced
by Greeks and Romans alike.

It is true, to be sure, that Dionysius provides no clue that he had read, for example,
Horace or Vergil. In this he anticipates what will be generally true of his successors,
especially in the Second Sophistic, who similarly took little interest in Latin literature in
general. That said, it seems entirely credible that in this passage Dionysius is thinking of
writers such as Cicero, Livy, and Sallust as well as poets such as Lucretius, Horace, and
Vergil. His acute awareness and acknowledgment of a cultural revolution – and a
revolution in which he imagines himself and other Greeks as full and equal participants –
underscore the end of Hellenistic culture, supplanted by a literary and artistic tradition
that would fuse the best of both worlds, Roman as well as Greek.

FURTHER READING

A good, recent survey of Hellenistic historiography may be found in Marincola 2001, though
as is true of many such surveys, his concludes with Polybius; see also Connor 1985: 458–71,
786–7 and Oliver 2006. Gruen 1984: 316–56, with characteristic insight, places the Hellenistic
historians in a useful context. For a more continuous account of historiography that reaches
beyond Polybius, Lesky 1966: 772–80 is still valuable; so too Tarn 1927: 227–35, which, while
394 Alain M. Gowing

dated, takes an unusually holistic view of Hellenistic historiography. Tarn terminates his survey
essentially with Diodorus and, significantly, omits all mention of Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
See also the comprehensive survey of Hellenistic historiography in Christ, Schmid, and Stählin
1959: 204–45. Yarrow 2006, an important book, contains much that is useful about the
intellectual climate in which several of the authors discussed or mentioned in this paper worked
and about the authors themselves (especially Posidonius, Diodorus Siculus, and Nicolaus of
Damascus). With regards to Polybius and Dionysius of Halicarnassus specifically, I recommend,
for the former, Champion 2004 (apart from proposing an innovative and interesting approach
to the historian, this book is quite thorough in its use of previous scholarship on Polybius), and
for the latter, Gabba 1991 and Pelling 2007.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Prose Fiction
Tim Whitmarsh

Hellenistic prose fiction is not a self-evident category. The Greek novel, as conven-
tionally understood, is almost certainly a product entirely of Roman times (Bowie
2002). Xenophon of Ephesus, Achilles Tatius, Longus, and Heliodorus undoubtedly
wrote in the first four centuries of our era; there is some debate over Chariton, but most
commentators locate him in the first century CE . The various fragments are harder to
date; recent critics have, however, tended to locate them in the first century CE or later.
This absence has not deterred the quest for traces of proto-fiction in the Hellenistic
period; indeed, it has, perhaps predictably, stimulated it. The formative work of
modern scholarship on Greek prose fiction – still subtly influential – has been
Erwin Rohde’s Der griechische Roman und seine Vorläufer, first published in 1876.
Rohde’s interest lay primarily in the Imperial novel, a phenomenon he sought to
explain by revealing its ‘‘forerunners’’ (Vorläufer) in the Hellenistic period: princi-
pally, erotic poetry and prose travel narrative. The novel, in his view, was the hybrid
offspring of these two Hellenistic forms.
Rohde’s work has inspired a number of attempts to locate the origins of the
Imperial novel (Lavagnini 1921; Giangrande 1962; Anderson 1984), but in general
this kind of evolutionary narrative has fallen out of favor (see esp. Perry 1967:
14–15). There are, however, two consequences of his argument that are still with
us. The first is a general reluctance to consider Hellenistic prose narrative on its own
terms. Despite recent studies of individual works (Lightfoot 1999; Brown 2002;
Winiarczyk 2002), scholars of ancient fiction have generally been too fixated upon
the paradigm of the Imperial novel to acknowledge the existence of any culture of
Hellenistic ‘‘fiction.’’ If, however, we cease to view Hellenistic prose culture teleo-
logically, that is to say simply as a stepping stone en route to the novel, then we can
begin to appreciate a much more vibrant, dynamic tradition of storytelling. As we
shall see below, there are indeed elements of continuity between Hellenistic prose and
the Imperial novel; but the latter also self-consciously marks the break from its
Hellenistic predecessors (Whitmarsh 2005a).
396 Tim Whitmarsh

The second fallacy I wish to identify is the belief that Greek culture was insulated
from non-Greek influence. Rohde’s project is driven by a veiled racism, seeking to
defend the novel against the charge (as he sees it) of oriental influence. ‘‘What hidden
sources,’’ he asks programmatically, ‘‘produced in Greece this most un-Greek of
forms?’’ (Rohde 1914: 3). The identification of echt Hellenistic precursors allows
him to preserve the Greekness of this superficially ‘‘un-Greek’’ form. Of course, few
nowadays would formulate their views like this. Nevertheless, scholars of Greek
literature tend to emphasize Greek sources, and hence tacitly to exclude the possibil-
ity of cultural fusion.
This chapter is principally designed to contest both these assumptions. The first
half argues against the retrojection of anachronistic concepts of ‘‘fiction,’’ arguing
that we ought to look instead for challenges to dominant modes of narrative author-
ity (conveyed particularly through the genres of epic and history). The second claims
that Hellenistic narrative was energized by frictions both within Greek culture and
between Greek and other cultures.

Ancient Fiction?
The category of fiction is not only philosophically complex, but also culture-specific:
each society, in each historical phase, has its own different way of conceptualizing
narratives that are accepted as not literally true, but instead serve as vehicles for a
different order of moral or cultural truth. Fiction is not a linguistic pathology, but
primarily and most fundamentally a way of expressing a culture’s view of the logic of
the world and the cosmos in narrative form (Pavel 1986; Newsom 1988; Currie
1990); it is, hence, responsive to changing ideas around the nature of the cosmos and
humanity’s place within it.
Although eternally aware of the potentially fictive properties of all discourse,
Greeks only rarely acknowledged fiction as a concept: although partial exceptions
can be found in forms of rhetoric and New Comedy (discussed below), it is not until
the emergence of the novel in the Imperial period that one particular literary form
became definitively fictive (Morgan 1993: 176–93; Schirren 2005: 15–37). In the
Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, on the other hand, literary ‘‘fictions’’ were
rather communicated through established narrative forms, which hovered ambigu-
ously between truth and falsehood.
From earliest times it was accepted that poetry could mislead as well as pronounce
authoritatively. Hesiod’s Muses know how to tell ‘‘lies like the truth,’’ as well as the
truth (Th. 27). A similar phrase is used of Homer’s Odysseus (Od. 19.203), who also
prefaces his narration to the Phaeacians with a reminder that he is ‘‘famous among all
for my deceptions’’ (9.19–20). Lyric poetry, from Archilochus to Pindar, is also full of
reflections upon the truth status of stories and myths (Pratt 1983; Bowie 1993).
The fifth century, however, saw a set of cultural developments that increased
consciousness of fictitious narrative (Finkelberg 1998; Rösler 1980, with reserva-
tions). When drama emerged as a major form in the fifth century, it too became a
prime site for exploring questions of truth and fiction. The Sicilian sophist Gorgias
 Prose Fiction 397

famously claimed that in tragedy ‘‘the deceiver is more just than the non-deceiver,
and the deceived wiser than the undeceived’’ (82 F 23 DK). Drama also presents the
earliest examples of what critics would later call ‘‘plasmatic’’ narrative: stories based
on neither historical nor mythical but on invented characters and events (Sext. Emp.
Math. 1.263–5; Roman writers called this argumentum: Rhet. Her. 1.13; Quint. Inst.
2.4.2; further, Barwick 1928). This kind of plot can be found in mime, and even
occasionally in tragedy (cf., e.g., Arist. Poet. 1451b), but is most prominent in
comedy. Old Comedy often blends real figures (e.g., Cratinus’ Pericles or
Aristophanes’ Cleon) with fictional, and uses scenarios that are fantastical distortions
of contemporary reality. Hellenistic New Comedy, by contrast, is set in a ‘‘realistic’’
(if idealized) version of the democratic city, but uses entirely invented characters.
Comedy is thus one pre-Imperial literary genre that consistently handles people
and events that are – and are recognized by the audience as – entirely conjured from
the author’s imagination. Another example is rhetoric: the scenarios of invented
declamatory exercises (progymnasmata such as Lucian’s Tyrannicide and Disowned),
acted out by a speaker adopting the persona of another (a prosecutor, defendant or
famous figure from the past), involve impersonation and make-believe (Webb 2006,
esp. 43–4). Both set-piece rhetoric and comic drama are, indeed, as has long been
acknowledged, key intertextual reference points for the Imperial novel, invoked as
literary precedents (Fusillo 1989: 43–55, 77–83; Whitmarsh 2005b: 86–9).
Whether such dramatic and rhetorical acting actually constitutes fiction, however,
turns entirely upon how we choose to define the concept. For the purposes of this
chapter, I concentrate instead upon narrative forms, where the fictionality consists
not in a performer mimetically assuming the role of another, but in the discursive
presentation of invented scenarios as though they were true. This distinction is,
admittedly, not absolute – genres such as epic and history could of course be
performed mimetically, through recitation – but it will allow us to focus more
sharply upon the literary techniques used by authors who wrote principally to
be read.

Epic and Fiction

Pre-Imperial fiction, understood in this way, emerges not as a free-standing category,
but as an ontologically ambiguous subcategory of existing narrative forms. Of these,
the most evident is traditional hexameter epic. The Homeric and Hesiodic poems
became a particular target of scorn in the early Classical period, when the so-called
Ionian revolution shifted the burden of cosmic explanation from mythical narrative to
physiological speculation. Xenophanes (early fifth century) mocks epic ‘‘inventions’’
(plasmata) about Centaurs (21 F 1.22 DK) and naive anthropomorphisms (F 13–14),
chiding Homer and Hesiod for their depictions of divine immorality (F 10–12).
Heraclitus too castigates his epic predecessors vigorously (F 42, 56–7, 105, 106).
This process of decentering the cultural authority of epic continued within the
philosophical tradition, most notably in Plato’s famous critiques (in Ion, and espe-
cially Rep. 2–3 and 10).
398 Tim Whitmarsh

Much of the anxiety, as the above examples show, focused upon the role of the gods,
who were held to behave in ways that were either unbecoming or incredible (Feeney
1991: 5–56). For some ancient writers, the Homeric gods themselves were fictions. In
a dramatic (perhaps satiric) fragment of the late fifth century, Critias has Sisyphus claim
that the gods were invented by ‘‘a shrewd and thoughtful man,’’ in order to terrify
other humans into social conformity (88 F 25.12–13 DK). Whether this claim
was undermined in the later narrative, we do not know; but it is clearly designed to
reflect or refract contemporary sophistic beliefs, mimicking the patterns of social-
constructionist anthropological aetiology elsewhere attributed to Prodicus and
Protagoras (P.Herc. 1428 fr. 19, with Henrichs 1975: 107–23; Pl. Prot. 320c–323a).
This form of theological debunking is most fully realized in a Hellenistic text,
Euhemerus of Messene’s Holy Account (c.300 BCE ; cf. below), which survives princi-
pally in the summary of Diodorus Siculus (6.1.3–10; contextual survey in Winiarczyk
2002). The author claims to have visited the Panchaean islands (supposedly off the
eastern coast of Arabia), where he saw a golden pillar inscribed with the deeds of
Ouranos, Kronos, and Zeus, three Panchaean kings (D.S. 6.1.7–10). The Greek gods
were, it transpires, originally mortals, who were accounted gods because of their great
achievements. Although it is not stated explicitly (at least in Diodorus’ summary),
Euhemerus’ narrative clearly constitutes an implicit critique of Homeric fictionalizing.
Euhemerus was influential upon Dionysius ‘‘Scytobrachion’’ (second century BCE ),
who composed prose versions of the Argonautic and Trojan events shorn of mytho-
logical apparatus (FGrH 32; Rusten 1982 adds three other fragments). In both cases, as
far as one can tell from the fragments and summaries that survive, there is a playful
tension between claims to narrative realism and the outrageously bathetic treatment of
canonical myth (as emphasized by Rusten 1982, e.g. 112 [on the Libyan stories]: ‘‘a
work of fiction’’). As so often with literary innovation in the ancient world, new con-
cepts emerge out of dialogue with the traditional narrative authority embodied in epic.
Further challenge to the veridical authority of epic came from the development of
forensic oratory, beginning in fifth-century Athens. Particularly critical was the role of
‘‘plausibility’’ (to eikos): invoking or impugning the credibility of a particular account
was a way of buttressing or assailing a speaker’s trustworthiness (Goldhill 2002:
49–50). Rhetoric opened up a new language for assessing narrative: do we believe
Homer’s version of affairs? Is he a credible witness? Questions of narrative plausibility
thus become central to literary criticism (they are famously prominent in Aristotle’s
discussion of tragic plotting in the Poetics). These debates persisted into the
Hellenistic period. In the early third century, the scholar-poet Callimachus protests
that ‘‘the ancient poets were not entirely truthful’’ (Hymn to Zeus 60) in their account
of the gods’ drawing of lots for heaven, earth and the underworld ‘‘it is plausible
(eoike) that one should draw lots for equal things,’’ not on such asymmetrical terms
(62–3; Hopkinson 1984b). Later, in the first century CE , Dio Chrysostom would
argue that Troy was not captured, making heavy use of the criterion of to eikos in his
argument (11.16, 20, 55, 59, 67, 69, 70, 92, 130, 137, 139). Were such rhetorical
confabulations promoted in the intervening Hellenistic period? We can, appropriately
enough, appeal only to plausibility.
Back in late fifth-century Athens, such issues also allowed sophists to begin experi-
menting with alternative Homeric ‘‘realities.’’ Hippias claimed to have an authoritative
 Prose Fiction 399

version of Trojan events, based not upon Homer alone but upon a synthesis of multiple
sources (86 F 6 DK). Gorgias, followed in the mid-fourth century by Isocrates,
defended Helen on the count of willing elopement, and composed a defense speech
for Palamedes. Homer’s most notorious woman could thus be re-appraised, and a
figure who does not appear in the Iliad could be wedged into the Trojan War narrative.
Sophistry also fostered a relativistic approach to storytelling. Around the turn of the
fourth century, Antisthenes composed versions of Ajax’s and Odysseus’ speeches for
the arms of Achilles. Once forensic rhetoric had permitted the idea that a single event
could be narrated from multiple perspectives, then the Muse-given authority of the
epic narrator ceased to be wholly authoritative.
This development allowed for the possibility of versions of the Trojan narrative told
from alternative angles. The best-known examples are Imperial in date: in addition
to Dio’s Trojan Oration, noted above, we also have Philostratus’ Heroicus, which
impugns Homer’s version of events for its pro-Odyssean bias, and the diaries of Dares
and Dictys, which purport to offer eyewitness accounts of the Trojan War. This
phenomenon has its roots in the numerous Hellenistic prose texts attempting to
establish the truth of the Trojan War, now largely lost to us: philological works such
as those of Apollodorus and Demetrius of Scepsis, and synthetic accounts like those
of Idomeneus of Lampsacus and Metrodorus of Chios. Other late-Classical and
Hellenistic versions seem to have come even closer to the fictionalizing accounts of
the Imperial period. The fourth-century Palaephatus composed a Trōika, which
seems to have concentrated on the rationalizing of wonders, like his extant On
Incredible Things. A particularly captivating figure is Hegesianax of Alexandria
Troas, a polymath of the third to second century BCE who composed a prose Trōika
pseudonymously ascribed to one Cephalon (or, less probably, Cephalion) of
Gergitha. ‘‘Cephalon’’ was probably not presented as a contemporary of the Trojan
action, as is sometimes claimed: his account of the foundation two generations
afterwards of Rome by Aeneas’ son Romus (sic) seems to rule that out (FGrH 45
F 9). Nevertheless, the narrator certainly did pose as a voice from the distant past, and
convincingly enough to persuade Dionysius of Halicarnassus, writing not much more
than a century later, that he was an ‘‘extremely ancient’’ authority (1.72 ¼ FGrH 45
F 9; cf. 1.49 ¼ F 7).
Hellenistic texts also demonstrate a different kind of relativization of narrative
authority, based upon the conflict between local traditions. Callimachus’ Hymn to
Zeus begins by noting the clash between two versions, the Cretan and the Arcadian, in
relation to Zeus’ birthplace. The poet professes himself ‘‘in two minds,’’ before
deciding upon the Arcadian version on the grounds that ‘‘Cretans are always liars’’
(4–9). The rejection of the ‘‘lying’’ tradition does not by itself guarantee that the
other is true; in fact, the more emphasis one places upon partiality in traditional
narrative, the less likely it becomes that any of it is true. Indeed, this is a poem that
seems haunted by awareness of the fictionality of poetic traditions. Later, the poet
mocks the story of the divine drawing of lots (discussed above), and expostulates:
‘‘May my own lies be such as to persuade my listener!’’ (65). Whatever the narrator
means here – perhaps just ‘‘if I ever lie, I hope it’s more persuasive than this’’ –
readers can hardly miss the hidden author’s wink, which playfully risks collapsing the
whole poem into the black hole of untruth.
400 Tim Whitmarsh

History and Fiction

These cultural shifts in the nature of narratorial authority also had implications for the
writing of history. Prose records emerged in the fifth century, out of the same
adversarial climate that produced cosmologists, scientists, and philosophers: a claim
to speak the truth was at the same time a rejection of the falsehoods spoken by
predecessors (Lloyd 1987: 56–70). As early as Hecataeus of Miletus (early fifth
century) we find an author’s programmatic assertion that he will deliver ‘‘the truth,’’
in explicit contrast to the ‘‘many ridiculous stories’’ told by the Greeks (FGrH 1
F 1a). Herodotus (1.1–5) and particularly Thucydides begin with rationalized,
scaled-down accounts of the Trojan War (1.1–22), which programmatically announce
each author’s factual reliability. Thucydides’ austere rejection of ‘‘the mythical ele-
ment’’ (to muthōdes, 1.22.4) in favor of ‘‘accuracy’’ (akribeia: 1.22.2; 5.20.2, 26.5,
68.2; 6.54.1, 55.3) marks his predecessors as inherently untrustworthy. Indeed, many
extant authors of Greek history (Xenophon, the Oxyrhynchus historian, Polybius,
Dionysius, Arrian, Appian, and so forth) do seem generally to replicate his fondness
for relatively unadorned, linear narration.
Yet there was also a different tradition, stemming from Herodotus, which privil-
eged storytelling, exoticism, and wonder (thauma). Thauma is, indeed, a key term in
the history of fictional thought. Wonders occupy a peculiarly indeterminate epi-
stemological position, between the plausible and the impossible (Packman 1991).
Moreover wonders standardly form part of a discourse of geographical otherness,
located at the margins of Greek ken (Romm 1992). Thaumata within a narrative are
culturally or physiologically exotic, or both: they thus serve as a challenge to ‘‘our’’
received ideas as to what is plausible and what not.
Collections of thaumata and paradoxes become a genre in their own right in the
Hellenistic period: such authors as Palaephatus, Callimachus, Antigonus of Carystus,
Archelaus, Aristocles, Isigonus of Nicaea, and Apollonius compiled catalogues of
extraordinary plants, animals, and events. Wonders also enriched the narrative texture
of the now-fragmentary fourth-century historians Theopompus, Ephorus, and
Timaeus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus remarks of Theopompus that ‘‘he tells of the
inaugurations of dynasties and goes through the foundations of cities, he reveals the
lifestyles of kings and the peculiarities of their habits, and includes in his work any
wondrous paradox produced by land or sea’’ (D.H. Pomp. 6 ¼ FGrH 115 T 20a[4]).
These writers – famously excoriated by the austere Polybius (12.4a) – seem to have
raised Herodotus’ digressiveness (Theopompus FGrH 115 T 29–31; Ephorus 70 T
23; Timaeus 848 T 19) and prurience (Theopompus 115 T 2; Ephorus 79 T 18b) to
new heights. Rather than seeing this habit in Polybian terms, as a deficiency of
seriousness, it is preferable to see it as the sign of a distinctive literary aesthetic
celebrating narrative polymorphousness – an aesthetic that seems to have exerted
continued influence in swathes of Hellenistic history now largely lost (composed by
figures such as Eudoxus of Rhodes, Myrsilus of Lesbos, and Zeno of Rhodes), and
the influence of which can be seen everywhere in the Imperial novel (particularly
evident in Antonius Diogenes’ Implausible Things beyond Thule), as well as in the
Alexander Romance (discussed below).
 Prose Fiction 401

Allied to this textural experimentation was a willingness to embrace diverse con-

tent, including erotic narrative. The third-century historian Phylarchus – famously
attacked by Polybius on the grounds of untruth and of presenting his narrative more
like a tragedy than a history (Plb. 2.56.10–11 ¼ Phylarchus FGrH 81 T 3; cf.
Walbank 1960) – certainly incorporated erotic and mythological narrative. One of
Parthenius’ Love Stories (see below), a distinctive version of the attempted rape of
Daphne by Apollo, is said in the manchette to derive from ‘‘Diodorus of Elaea and
the fifteenth book of Phylarchus’’ (Erot. Path. 15 ¼ FGrH 81 F 32). Another (Erot.
Path. 23), detailing the love of Cleonymus of Sparta (third century) for his unfaithful
wife Chilonis, is attributed by Plutarch to ‘‘Phylarchus and Hieronymus’’ (Plu. Pyrrh.
27.8 ¼ FGrH 81 F 48; 154 F 14).
The most ‘‘romantic’’ of historians, however, according to tradition, was Ctesias of
Cnidus, who served as the doctor to the Persian king Artaxerxes II (c.436–358 BCE ).
Ctesias’ principal compositions were the Persian Affairs and Indian History, the
former of which survives in summaries by Diodorus Siculus and Eusebius, as well as
in numerous fragments (FGrH 688; Lenfant 2004; on Ctesias’ importance in the
history of fiction see esp. Holzberg 1993). These works were known in antiquity for
their scurrility and exaggeration. Plutarch in his Artaxerxes, while using the Persian
Affairs as a source for his own narrative, refers to Ctesias’ ‘‘farrago of extravagant and
incredible tales’’ (1.4 ¼ FGrH 688 T 11d), which ‘‘turns away from the truth
towards the dramatic and mythical (to muthōdes)’’ (6.9 ¼ T 11e). Lucian cites him
as one of his literary precursors in the prologue to his fantastical True Stories: ‘‘he
wrote things about India and its customs that he had neither seen nor heard from
anyone truthful’’ (1.3 ¼ T 11h).
The surviving testimonia on Ctesias are uniformly critical of his mendacity, but he
was clearly widely read in antiquity, particularly for the romantic themes and his
orientalizing perspective upon Persia and the Middle East. If more of Ctesias survived
then our understanding of the Persian scenes in Chariton and Heliodorus would no
doubt be richer. Nor is his significance confined to this. He is our earliest known
source for the story of the union between the Syrian (historical) Semiramis and the
(mythical) Assyrian king Ninus (FGrH 688 F 1), which captivated later writers
including Cornelius Alexander ‘‘Polyhistor’’ (FGrH 273 F 81) and the author of
the fragmentary proto-novelistic work that modern scholars call the Ninus Romance,
probably of the first century CE (Stephens and Winkler 1995: 23–71; Knippschild in
this volume). This story clearly took on a narrative life of its own: Semiramis could be
a hyper-powerful queen with divine elements as in Ctesias, who makes her the
daughter of the Syrian goddess Derceto ( Atargatis), and implicitly associates her
with Astarte/Ištar; in the novel, she is transformed into a blushing maiden (Billault
2004); elsewhere we read that she was a prostitute who tricked Ninus out of his
kingdom (FGrH 690 F 7; 681 F 1; Plu. Mor. 753d–e).
Ctesias is likely also to have been the source of an erotic intrigue between the Mede
Stryangaeus and the Sacian Zarinaea, alluded to in a later source (Demetr. Eloc. 213;
cf. P.Oxy. 2230 ¼ FGrH 688 F 8b). This shows a range of motifs that will later
re-appear in the Imperial novel: threatened suicide, a love letter, the bewailing of
fortune (Holzberg 1993: 81–2). Again, the influence upon the later novels is argu-
ably direct. Stryngaeus’ letter to Zarinaea contained the phrase ‘‘I saved you – and
402 Tim Whitmarsh

although you were saved by me, I have been destroyed by you’’ (Demetr. Eloc. 213).
The phrasing seems to have been picked up by Chariton and Achilles (perhaps via
Chariton) in their letters of aggrieved lovers (Char. 4.3.10; Ach. Tat. 5.18.3–4).
Quasi-historical works such as these raise difficult questions. They are not ‘‘plas-
matic’’: they deal with figures and events that already exist within the broad span of
traditional records of the past. Moreover, while Lucian may cite Ctesias as a liar, and
Polybius may reprove Phylarchus for mixing lies and truth, there is nothing to suggest
that such texts were ‘‘fictional’’ at the level of a contract between reader and narrator.
Ancient readers, presumably, turned to historians for truths, even if there were
discrepancies between different kinds of truth and the different narrative registers
through which they were communicated. Even so, neither is this history in the
Thucydidean sense, of ‘‘realist’’ chronological sequence and meticulous accuracy.
Ctesias, Theopompus, Ephorus, and Phylarchus, in their different ways, seem rather
to have privileged (what they understood as) the Herodotean tradition of thrilling,
episodic narrative; they re-instated ‘‘the mythical element’’ (to muthōdes) so famously
excoriated by Thucydides (1.22.4; cf. 1.21.1). It is in the margins of historiography
that Hellenistic prose culture develops its most vigorous storytelling.

Local Histories
In order to approach Hellenistic fiction, then, we need – paradoxically – to set aside the
concept of fiction, and turn instead to the gray areas between history, mythology and
creative storytelling, for it is here that Hellenistic culture typically locates its most
exuberant narrative. I want to turn now to the local history of cities. ‘‘Local history’’ is,
of course, not a coherent genre, but a modern label covering everything from verifiable
recent history to the fantastic mythography of origin narratives. Such works were
widely composed throughout Greek literature: I count over 85 titles alluding to
specific locales that are securely datable to the Hellenistic period alone. Here more
than anywhere, however, we are hampered by the fragmentary nature of sources. In the
overwhelming majority of cases we have only brief snippets preserved in later sources,
and reflecting the interests (often purely lexicographical) of the later author.
Nevertheless, there are good reasons to focus upon local history as a locus for fictional
thinking. Greek accounts of the past that survive intact from antiquity are as a rule the
synthesizing overviews that were too culturally authoritative for Christian late antiquity
and Byzantium to ignore. Below this visible tip, however, lies a huge iceberg of diversity.
Many of these stories may have circulated orally, whether jealously preserved as part of
local culture or intermingled with more exotic stories thanks to cross-cultural traffic
between travelers, traders, prostitutes, and soldiers. Oral culture is of course lost to us
now, but some of its vibrancy can be detected in written texts that do survive.
The political organization of Greek society was highly conducive to generating
stories. Each community advanced its own claims to prominence through local
myths, often in the form of ktistic (dealing with foundation) or colonial narratives.
For the Classical period, the works of Pindar and Bacchylides dramatize this phe-
nomenon in abundance. Epigraphy in particular testifies to the genuine, ongoing
 Prose Fiction 403

importance to individual cities of ktistic myth in the Hellenistic period. Far from
being simply a parlor game for intellectuals as was once thought, local myth-history
was a politically important medium, through which a city might advance its claim
to pre-eminence. Poets might be commissioned to add the luster of version:
Apollonius of Rhodes and Rhianus were active in this field (CA pp. 5–8, 12–18;
Cameron 1995a: 47–53), as of course was Callimachus (whose Aetia contains
numerous examples of the type). Narratives might be inscribed on stone: an excellent
example is the inscription recently discovered in the harbor wall of Halicarnassus,
connecting the city’s foundation with the nymph Salmacis and Hermaphroditus,
the ‘‘inventor of marriage’’ (Lloyd-Jones 1999; Erskine in this volume). Another
medium for preserving and disseminating local history was religious cult. The guides
(‘‘exegetes’’) whose role was to explain the sacred history of epichoric cult sites are
more familiar from Imperial texts such as Plutarch’s On Why the Pythia No Longer
Prophesies in Verse, Pausanias, and Longus (Jones 2001); but the practice is already
attested in Strabo (17.1.29), and would almost certainly have existed in the
Hellenistic period.
What do these stories have to do with fiction? The first point to make is that local
myths are both endowed with an intrinsic cultural authority and conceded (at least by
the elite sophisticates who tend to record them) a license to confabulate, free from the
rationalist strictures of more urbane narrative. Local history is expected to be bizarre,
exotic: it tolerates stories of immortal intervention, of metamorphosis, of improper
passion. It is no doubt for this reason that Longus’ faux-naı̈f novel Daphnis and
Chloe (second to third century CE ) is dressed in the garb of a local myth, as told to the
narrator by the exegete of a Lesbian cult of the Nymphs.
There is also a recurrent linkage between erotic narrative and local history: sexual
union seems often to betoken some kind of foundational event (Rohde 1914:
42–59). Consequently, a number of texts emerged that used this form as a cover
for scurrility and titillation. The most notorious example is the Milesian Events of
Aristides: ‘‘lascivious books,’’ according to Plutarch (Crass. 32.4). Ovid refers to
Aristides in the same breath as Eubius, ‘‘the author of an impure history,’’ and ‘‘he
who recently wrote a Sybaritic Events’’ (Tr. 2.413–16). The Suda also attests to such
works. Philip of Amphipolis (of unknown date) composed Coan Events, Thasian
Events, and Rhodian Events, the last of which are styled ‘‘totally disgraceful’’ (Suda
f 351; cf. Theod. Prisc. Eup. Rose 1894: 133.5–12).
Late-Hellenistic prose collections of local narratives (by Nicander, Parthenius,
Conon, and others; Lightfoot 1999: 224–34) point to the fact that they were
increasingly perceived to have intrinsic narrative interest, independent of their ori-
ginal (or supposedly original) function in local ideology. Such collections are often
united by narrative theme: Parthenius gathers love stories (like the pseudo-Plutarchan
assemblage, which is probably later in date), and other later examples include the
collection of metamorphosis stories of Antoninus Liberalis. What this suggests is that
local history came to be viewed as a quarry for arresting and alluring narrative,
independent of any ‘‘original’’ political, cultural or religious value to their commu-
nities. Parthenius, indeed, dedicates his collection to his patron Cornelius Gallus for
use in his (Latin) hexameters and elegiacs: this is a collection designed not for locals
but for the Empire’s ruling class.
404 Tim Whitmarsh

Local history is not fictional in the same way that the Imperial novel is (Lightfoot
1999: 256–63). Its subject matter veers from obscure mythology to central mythology
to recent history, with plenty of indeterminate areas between. Nor is it ‘‘plasmatic,’’
like the novel and New Comedy: so far from being invented ex nihilo, these stories tend
to advertise their source history (witness, e.g., Callimachus’ footnoting of Xenomedes
in his story of Acontius and Cydippe, Aetia fr. 75.54–5 Pf.). For these reasons, it is
misleading to present local history as a genetic predecessor of the Imperial novel (e.g.,
Lavagnini 1921). To grasp the fictionality of local history, we need to resist, once again,
conceptions of fiction that are shaped by the Imperial period.

Greek and Near Eastern Narratives

The forms of local history and mythology emerging into view during this period were
not just Greek. We have already discussed above the multiple versions of the story of
the Syrian Semiramis and the Assyrian Ninus, which (for Greeks at least) stemmed
ultimately from Ctesias. As the doctor of Artaxerxes II, Ctesias is likely to have had
access to Persian narratives, and may well have spoken the language. Similarly culturally
bifocal was Xenophon, whose experiences with the mercenary army of 10,000 fighting
to support Cyrus – in his rebellion against Ctesias’ patron Artaxerxes – will have
brought him into contact with different traditions. Xenophon’s most ‘‘novelistic’’
work was the Cyropaedia, an idealized biography of the king who united the Persians
and Medes. Interwoven with the central section is a subnarrative dealing with the
constant, enduring love between Panthea and Abradatas, before the latter is tragically
killed in battle (4.6.11–12, 5.1.2–18, 6.1.31–51, 6.3.35–6.4.11, 7.1.15, 7.1.24–32,
7.1.46–9, 7.3.2–16). Critics have rightly emphasized the influence of this episode
upon the Imperial novel, particularly upon the Persian episodes of Chariton’s Callirhoe
(Perry 1967: 166–73; Heiserman 1977). We also have a report in Philostratus (third
century CE ) of a work called Araspes in Love with Panthea (Araspes being a suitor of the
Xenophontic Panthea), which some attribute to Dionysius of Miletus but Philostratus
gives to a certain Celer (VS 524). Whether this was a ‘‘novel’’ (as modern critics tend to
assume) or (more likely, in my view) a rhetorical declamation, it shows the iconic
significance of this episode in amatory literary history.
Indeed, erotic prose seems to have been associated with eastern storytelling
from the very beginning. Herodotus’ Histories begins with the intriguing assertion
that Persian logioi – the term seems to mean something like ‘‘prose chroniclers’’
(Nagy 1987) – tell the story of the Trojan War as an escalation in tit-for-tat woman-
stealing after the Phoenician abduction of Io (1.1–4). The Phoenicians’ version,
Herodotus proceeds to tell us, is different: Io left willingly, having fallen pregnant by
the captain of a Phoenician ship (1.5). Whether Herodotus is accurately reporting
Persian and Phoenician traditions is simply unknowable: it is possible, but it is
equally possible that it represents an orientalist mirage. The central point for our
purposes, however, is that he is presenting himself as someone with access to Persian
and north-Semitic cultural traditions – and also, crucially, implying that these tradi-
tions are preserved in a form alien to the Greek generic taxonomy, viz. ‘‘realist’’ (i.e.,
 Prose Fiction 405

non-mythological) erotic prose. Nevertheless, thanks to Herodotus they become

part of the Greek cultural repertoire, and part of the history of fiction (see in general
Tatum 1997).
The allure of glamorous, oriental eroticism remains evident through the Hellenistic
period. The Ninus and Semiramis story was undoubtedly the most popular ‘‘orien-
talist’’ narrative, but we can identify others too. Particularly notable is the association
between (particularly erotic) prose fiction and Semitic culture. One striking example
is the complex of narratives around Stratonice, the wife of Alexander’s successor
Seleucus, and her stepson Antiochus (later to be Antiochus I). According to the
story, he fell in love with her, and began wasting away; the doctor Erasistratus
diagnosed the problem, and then Seleucus ceded to him not only Stratonice but also
his kingdom (Val. Max. 5.7 ext; Plu. Demetr. 38; Luc. DDS 17–18; App. Syr. 308–27;
further sources at Lightfoot 2004: 373–4). Despite the historical characters, the main
theme of the story is clearly folkloric: an inversion of the motif of the lusty older
woman and the virtuous younger man, familiar from the Greek Hippolytus myth as
well as the Hebrew story of Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39). The Semitic overtones of
the story are strongly underlined in Lucian’s version, which segues into an aetiology
of the cult of the Syrian goddess Atargatis at Hierapolis (DDS 19–27; Lightfoot
2003: 373–402, with copious reference to Semitic parallels). It looks very much as
though the historical story has been blended with a Syrian myth in order to explain
the distinctive nature of the Hierapolitan cult.
This interpenetration of Greek and Semitic erotic narrative can be paralleled else-
where. A certain Laetus composed a Phoenician Events, including accounts of the
abduction of Europa and Eiramus’ (i.e., Hiram’s) presentation to Solomon of his
daughter (together with an amount of wood – presumably Lebanese cedar – for
ship-building; FGrH 784 F 1b). The latter story was also told by Menander of
Ephesus, who was held (no doubt on his own testimony) to have learned Phoenician
to access his sources (FGrH 783 T 3a–c). According to the Suda, Xenophon of
Cyprus (undatable, but probably Hellenistic, and perhaps Ovid’s source for the
Metamorphoses) composed a Cypriot Events, glossed as ‘‘a history of erotic plots’’
including the stories of Cinyra, Myrrha, and Adonis. All of these figures are Semitic
in origin, and no doubt reflect Cyprus’ partially Phoenician heritage. We can point also
to the Nachleben of the Phoenician setting in the Imperial romance, in Lollianus’
Phoenician Events and Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon.
Another erotic story that may be Semitic in origin is the notorious love between the
children of Miletus, either of Caunus for his sister Byblis or the reverse. The major
Hellenistic versions were in now fragmentary works of the epic poets Apollonius
of Rhodes (CA 5) and Nicaenetus (CA 1), as well as the prose mythographers
Parthenius (11, incorporating his own hexameter version, fr. 33 Lightfoot 1999 ¼
SH 648) and Conon (2 Brown 2002; sources discussed at Rohde 1914: 101–3; also
Lightfoot 1999: 433–6). The Semitic case (Brown 2002: 59–60) is based partly upon
the incest motif (which superficially resembles that of the Cypro-Phoenician Myrrha
narrative), and partly upon the name Byblis, which looks like an eponym for the
Phoenician city of Byblos. It is also possible that Caunus is an originally Semitic name,
given that Caria was a Phoenician settlement (Armand d’Angour suggests to me that
it may derive from the root qwn, ‘‘sing’’ or ‘‘chant’’). Again, a Semitic erotic myth has
406 Tim Whitmarsh

apparently entered the Greek tradition; as it has done so, its aetiological aspects have
been gradually pared away to emphasize the erotic narrative.
A different kind of Semitic narrative hove over the Greek horizon with the translation
of the Septuagint (discussed by Gruen in this volume): a number of the so-called
apocrypha have been claimed as ‘‘novels,’’ including Esther, Susanna, Judith, and
Daniel (the Greek version of which is longer than the Hebrew, having taken on a life
of its own: Wills 1995, 2002). To what extent gentiles actually read them is more
difficult to ascertain: beyond the much-debated reference to Genesis in the treatise
On the Sublime (9.9) – which is itself nigh-impossible to date – there is little evidence for
a ‘‘pagan’’ Greek readership of Jewish texts. Even at the stylistic level, they manifest a
certain intractability, their paratactic style (which renders the vav [‘‘and’’] constructions
distinctive to the Hebrew language) marking their difference from ‘‘native’’ Greek. But
the non-existence of evidence for circulation is not evidence for its non-existence: who
knows how widely these stories traveled? In any case, direct influence is only one form of
cultural contingency; they do in fact share motifs with Greco-Roman story culture. In
particular, the focus upon the preservation of female integrity in the face of predatory
monarchs (present in Judith and Esther) is a theme that we find in both Latin (Lucretia)
and Greek (Chariton, Xenophon, Achilles Tatius, Heliodorus) narrative.
Certainly, Jewish narrative seems to have been influenced by the Greek erotic
tradition. Retellings of the erotic segments of the Torah by Josephus and Philo seem
to inflect them with Greek narrative motifs (Braun 1934). The convergences between
Greek and Jewish are closest in the extraordinary Joseph and Aseneth (also discussed by
Gruen in this volume), which elaborates upon the biblical story of Joseph’s marriage
to a young Egyptian maiden (Genesis 41:45; cf. 26:20). This text may be Hellenistic
(S. West 1974: 80–1, tentatively suggesting the first century BCE ), although it is
probably overlain with Christian ideas (Philonenko 1968: 99–109, arguing for a
second-century CE date), the latest strata perhaps being late-antique (Kraemer
1998: 225–42). Whatever the truth of that matter, the history of this text is clearly
interwoven with the rise of the erotic novel. This narrative plays repeatedly upon the
substitution of erotic with righteous motifs. She is egregiously beautiful like a
goddess (4.2); she is immediately stupefied by the sight of him (6.1), grieves when
they are separated after their initial meeting (8.8), and weeps in her room that night
(10.2; Philonenko 1968: 43–8; S. West 1974). Yet their relationship is built around
not just erotic obsession but also pious reverence of the Jewish god. Although this
text is aimed at Jews and probably represents a translation from the Hebrew (it
displays the same paratactic style as the apocrypha), it is clearly designed for a
readership also familiar with the Greek literary (and particularly erotic) repertoire.

Greece and Egypt

The existence of significant Hellenistic prose stories on pharaonic themes, Egypt’s
prominence in the later, Imperial novel, and the significance of Hellenistic Alexandria
as a point of intersection between Greek and Egyptian traditions (Selden 1998;
Stephens 2003), have together led some to believe that the novel first developed in
 Prose Fiction 407

Egypt (Barns 1956). Scholars have even detected in the Imperial novel survivals of
narrative motifs from the pharaonic period (Rutherford 1997, 2000). While any
crude hypothesis of a single cultural origin for the novel is unconvincing (in the light
of the evidence discussed above for local Greek and Semitic elements), it is clear that
Egypt played an important role in the novelistic imaginaire.
Two major traditions are of critical importance. The first is that surrounding the
king and conqueror Sesonchosis (or Sesostris, Sesoosis), a mythical amalgam of
various historical pharaohs (Stephens and Winkler 1995: 246; Dieleman and Moyer
in this volume), credited with numerous conquests in Asia and Europe. In addition to
the various historical (or quasi-historical) accounts of this figure (Hdt. 2.102–11;
Manetho FGrH 609 F 2, p. 30; D.S. 1.53), we also have three papyrus fragments that
seem to derive from a ‘‘novelistic’’ version of the story, composed in unassuming
Greek (Stephens and Winkler 1995: 252–66). Two are military (one names the king’s
adversaries as an ‘‘Arab’’ [Palestinian?] contingent, led by one Webelis); a third,
however, is erotic, describing the handsome young king’s relationship with a girl
Meameris, the daughter of a vassal king. This episode does not appear in any of the
‘‘historical’’ versions of the narrative, and the themes of young love, wandering,
infatuation, erotic suffering, and distraction at a banquet (Stephens and Winkler
1995: 262) invite obvious comparisons with the Imperial novel. Thematically, the
narrative resembles the fragmentary, novelistic version of the Ninus Romance (dis-
cussed above): each deals with a great national leader from the distant past, focusing
upon both military exploits and erotic vulnerability.
What we are to conclude from these similarities is less clear: is Sesonchosis a text (or,
at any rate, part of a now-lost tradition) that exerted a powerful influence on later
erotic fiction? Or does it represent a specifically local-Egyptian, populist variant upon
the Imperial novel? A third alternative, no doubt the safest, is to rephrase the terms of
the question. ‘‘The Greek novel’’ and ‘‘the Sesonchosis tradition’’ were not mono-
lithic and wholly independent traditions, nor was any traffic between the two neces-
sarily unidirectional. As in the case of the Phoenician and Jewish material discussed
above, Greek narrative prose proves to be a flexible and capacious medium, able to
incorporate numerous cultural perspectives.
This is nowhere truer than in relation to the most important Egyptian-centered
text, the text we call the Alexander Romance (Hägg 1984: 125–40; Jouanno 2002:
57–125; Stoneman 2003; Dieleman and Moyer, Stephens in this volume). The work
survives in numerous different recensions, some prose and some (Byzantine) in verse;
in all, there are over 80 versions from antiquity and the middle ages, in 24 languages
(including Pahlavi, Arabic, Armenian and Bulgarian). Different versions contain
different episodes, sequences and cultural priorities: the Alexander Romance is a
prism, through which cultural light is sharply refracted.
The earliest recension is referred to as A, and represents a text probably compiled
between the second and fourth centuries CE . The raw materials for this earliest stratum
of the complete text were, however, Hellenistic: a bedrock of (creatively) historical
narrative, an epistolary novel (manifested in the various letters that dapple the text,
most notably Alexander’s letters to his mother Olympias, 2.23–41), and a work of
Egyptian propaganda. The latter is the motivation behind the identification of
Alexander as the son, and hence continuator, of the last pharaoh Nectanebo
408 Tim Whitmarsh

(1.1–12). The Persian invasion can thus be re-interpreted as a minor blip in the
otherwise unbroken tradition of wise, powerful, and autonomous Egyptian kingship.
On seeing a statue of Nectanebo, Alexander is told that a prophecy was delivered to his
father: ‘‘the exiled king will return to Egypt, not as an old man but as a youth, and will
beat down our enemies, the Persians’’ (1.34.5). Alexander’s pharaonic credentials,
indeed, are more deeply rooted than this. He visits monumental obelisks set up by
Sesonchosis (1.33.6, 3.17.17), is hailed as a new Sesonchosis (1.34.2), and even
receives a dream visitation from the man himself, announcing that Alexander’s feats
have outdone his. These episodes function on two levels: Alexander is appropriated
into Egyptian history, as the restorer of Egypt’s self-determination; and the Alexander
Romance presents itself as a rejuvenated version of the Sesonchosis tradition.
In the substance of the narrative, however, he represents a figure with whom all
peoples can identify: a wise, brave, questing prince, seeking out the edges of the earth.
As so often in Greek narrative of this period, he is also a lover: a section towards the end,
perhaps originally a separate romance, details his (entirely fictitious) liaison with
Candace, queen of Meroe (3.18–23). Here too, there is a hint that the author is weaving
together different traditions: Candace lives in the former palace of Semiramis (3.17.42–
18.1). What is striking is not so much the tweaking (although the Ctesian Semiramis did
in fact visit Nubia), but the author’s self-conscious concern to portray this section of
his narrative as a metamorphosed version of the Ninus and Semiramis story. If the
fidelity to tradition is dubious, the negotiation of the anxiety of cultural influence is
artful. The Alexander Romance presents itself as the summation of that tradition,
outdoing each of its predecessors, just as its subject outdid all others in conquest.

Imaginary Worlds
The primary locations for such narrative confections were, then, Egypt and the Syrian
coast. Others exist (for instance, the Black Sea littoral in the fragmentary Calligone, of
uncertain date), but I want to conclude by focusing briefly upon two narratives set in
imaginary worlds, Iambulus’ ‘‘utopia,’’ which modern scholars like to call The Islands
of the Sun (second to first century BCE ; Winston 1976), and the Holy Account of
Euhemerus of Messene (c.300 BCE ; Rohde 1914: 210–60; Winiarczyk 2002;
Holzberg 2003). Each is preserved primarily in a summary by Diodorus Siculus
(2.55–60 and 6.1.3–10 respectively), which gives little flavor of the tone and style
of the originals, and moreover appropriates the content to suit Diodorus’ own
agenda, viz. a universal history in which all the individual elements cohere.
Euhemerus’ and Iambulus’ narratives are geographically similar: both involve sea
journeys beginning in Arabia (via Ethiopia in Iambulus), and into the Indian
Ocean. It is tempting, given our discussion above, to see this journey as a self-
conscious attempt to outdo the Semitic and Egyptian narrative traditions (as well as
Alexander’s conquests), by progressing beyond their geographical limits.
Despite the difficulties in peering through the Diodoran fug, certain features are
evident. Euhemerus, as we have seen earlier, was concerned primarily to provide
human, historical identities for the Homeric/Hesiodic pantheon. His actual journey
 Prose Fiction 409

to Panchaea seems not to have been described in any detail; the process of geograph-
ical dislocation is primarily a device allowing him to offer a perspective that is radically
alternative to traditional Greek thought (in this respect, he is a forerunner of authors
like Swift, the Butler of Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited, Edwin Abbott, Jules Verne,
and Pierre Boulle). Certainly, the ancient tradition sees Euhemerus more as an atheist
philosopher than as a travel writer (Winiarczyk 2002: 12–13, 28–52).
Iambulus is more difficult. Some have detected a philosophical, even political,
promotion of a communist society ‘‘according to nature.’’ The islanders ‘‘do not marry,
but hold their wives in common, rearing any children that are born as common to them
all, and love them equally . . . for this reason no rivalry arises among them and they live
their lives free of faction, extolling likemindedness to the highest’’ (2.57.1). Iambulus
(or Diodorus) describes a society that embodies the ideals of Greeks politics (no
‘‘faction,’’ stasis, only ‘‘likemindedness,’’ homonoia) by following the principals of
common property laid out in Plato’s Republic (449c–50a; on the influence of this text
on later philosophical utopias, see Dawson 1992b). Yet the socio-political aspects of the
island in fact receive far less attention than the bountiful nature of the island, and the
extraordinary health, size and longevity of its inhabitants. Diodorus prefaces his sum-
mary by promising to recapitulate in brief the ‘‘paradoxes’’ (ta paradoxa, 2.55.1) found
on the island, a strong signal that he, at any rate, conceived of Iambulus as a purveyor of
marvels rather than a systematic political theorist. Lucian too in his True Stories refers to
his ‘‘paradoxes,’’ adding that ‘‘it is obvious to everyone that he fabricated a fiction’’
(pseudos, 1). Iambulus seems to have found room enough within a supposedly veridical
genre, the geographical travel narrative, to create a ‘‘fictional’’ work.
As recent scholarship has noted, there is an intrinsic connection in the ancient world
between travel and fiction: alternative geographies are home to alternative realities
(Romm 1992, esp. 172–214). Names of Hellenistic authors such as Antiphanes of
Berge – who claimed to have visited a climate so cold that words froze in the air (Plu.
Mor. 79a) – and Pytheas of Massilia became bywords for literary confection. It is
important, however, to re-emphasize that there was no firm generic dividing line
between ‘‘factual’’ report and ‘‘fiction.’’ The writers we have discussed in this section
inhabited the same literary space as more sober geographical writers like Strabo – which
is why Diodorus felt licensed to include such material in his own purportedly historical
work.
***
I have argued in this chapter that Hellenistic prose fiction needs to be understood on its
own terms, not simply as a forerunner to the Imperial novel. In particular, prose fiction
does not occupy its own generic category; rather, it nests in the form of supposedly
veridical literature, especially history and travel narrative. I have also argued that
imaginative storytelling often emerges from the friction between Greek history and
exotic cultural traditions, whether bizarreries of local Greek cult, non-Greek traditions,
or (in some cases) completely invented locales. Hellenistic Greeks who experimented
with these new forms of exciting, episodic and/or erotic narrative tended to locate
them in Greek backwaters, or in a cultural ‘‘elsewhere’’ (typically, but not exclusively,
Egypt and the Near East. This is no doubt in part a defense mechanism: scandalous
stories are less offensive if they are about other peoples.
410 Tim Whitmarsh

This, however, is not the whole story. Hellenistic Greek literature was not written by
Greeks peeking at other peoples over the crenellations of their own cultural traditions,
as is so often assumed. The prose innovations of the period are the products of genuine
cross-cultural hybridity, fusing Greek, Egyptian, Semitic, and indeed other elements
into literary forms that are recognizably different from their predecessors. The works
discussed in this chapter do not simply rehash barbarian stereotypes from the Classical
period. Rather, they are composed by people with an impressive range of cultural
competence: figures like Ctesias, Laetus, Alexander Polyhistor, and the authors of
Joseph and Aseneth, the Alexander Romance, and Sesonchosis.
This, then, is the primary reason why so much searching for the ‘‘origins’’ of the
Imperial novel in the Hellenistic period is wrong-headed: fiction is inherently hybrid;
it has no single point of origin. Storytelling in this period is born of the kind of
cultural dialogue between traditions that we have been discussing; it makes no sense
to attempt to pinpoint a literary prime mover in (for example) Greek travel narrative
or Egyptian resistance literature, and then hypothesize about its impact in other
cultural fields. The story of prose fiction in antiquity is not clean, clear, and linear:
we should imagine a much more tangled network of influences, contraflowing
simultaneously between multiple narrative forms.

FURTHER READING

For the fragments of novels and related material (some of which may be Hellenistic) see
Stephens and Winkler 1995; this corpus has since been supplemented by Hägg and Utas
2003, offering new material in relation to Metiochus and Parthenope, and P.Oxy. 4760–2,
4811. The larger fragments are also translated, together with the extant novels (including
the Alexander Romance but not Joseph and Aseneth) in Reardon 1989. For a Greek text of the
Alexander Romance see Van Thiel 1974, and (for book 1) Stoneman 2007. Hägg 1984: 125–
40, Jouanna 2002, and Stoneman 2003 offer helpful introductions; see also the general
account of Stoneman 2008. Joseph and Aseneth is best consulted in Philonenko 1968; see
Humphrey 2000 for a recent translation, and Kraemer 1998 for discussion and bibliography.
For translations of the Jewish apocrypha see Wills 2002, with Wills 1995 for discussion and
further references. Fragmentary Hellenistic prose narratives can be consulted (in Greek, with
German commentary) in Felix Jacoby’s multi-volume Fragmente der griechischen Historiker
(FGrH), presently being re-edited (with English translation and commentary) as Brill’s New
Jacoby (BNJ) under the direction of Ian Worthington. For text, translation, and interpretation
of Parthenius and Conon respectively see Lightfoot 1999 and Brown 2002. Rusten 1982 offers
a rich discussion of Dionysius Scytobrachion, focusing on papyrus fragments; Winiarczyk 2002
is a good contextual account of Euhemerus, while Winston 1976 discusses Iambulus.
‘‘Utopias’’ in general are surveyed by Ferguson 1975 (a rather superficial account) and
Dawson 1992b (focusing on the influence of Plato’s philosophical ‘‘republic’’); see also
duBois 2006. Paradoxography is a neglected field: Ziegler 1949 is still authoritative; see also
Hansen 1996.
Among modern theories of fiction, the most helpful are Pavel 1986, Newsom 1988 and
Currie 1990. Ancient theories are discussed by Barwick 1928, focusing on the division in
rhetoric between historical, mythical and ‘‘plasmatic’’ (invented) narratives; Rösler 1980,
arguing (not fully convincingly) that the spread of literacy caused awareness of fiction;
 Prose Fiction 411

Feeney 1991, on the conceptual trouble caused by the gods in post-Homeric culture;
Gill 1993, on Platonic ideas of falsehood; Morgan 1993: 176–93 and 2007, focusing on the
Greek novel; Feeney 1993, a general discussion; Finkelberg 1998, on philosophical develop-
ments in the Classical period; Schirren 2005: 15–37, linking ancient ideas with semiotic theory.
For older theories on the emergence of ‘‘fiction’’ in the Hellenistic period, see Lavagnini 1921;
Braun 1934; Giangrande 1962.
PART FOUR

Neighbors
 CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Jewish Literature
Erich S. Gruen

Hellenistic Jews inhabited a world dominated by Greek culture. Whether they

dwelled in Alexandria, Cyrene, Antioch, Corinth, or even Palestine, they encountered
(indeed became) Greek-speakers, gained exposure to Greek social and political insti-
tutions, and, at least among the educated classes, acquired a deep familiarity with
Greek literature. Greek was the language of diaspora Jews everywhere in the
Mediterranean (and a good number in Palestine too). As late as the fourth and fifth
centuries CE the Jews of Rome still composed their epitaphs in Greek, a remarkable
testimony to the tenacity of Hellenism in the far-flung communities of the Hebrews.
The lure of Greek culture did not entail ‘‘assimilation,’’ a loaded and deceptive
term. Jews retained their traditions, their distinctive traits, and their history. They
simply found ways to express them in Greek. The surviving examples of Jewish
writing in that language (and we have just a fraction of the corpus) show a command
of Hellenic literature but also a drive to convert it to Jewish ends.
Translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, begun possibly as early as the third
century BCE , emblematizes this process. The tale of that event as recorded in the
Letter of Aristeas may be a fantasy. But the translation is a fact. The creation of the
Septuagint probably did not come about on the initiative of the librarian in
Alexandria or at the command of a Hellenistic monarch. The need for a Greek
Bible arose largely because diaspora Jews had lost the mastery of Hebrew but clung
to the centerpiece of their tradition. The new version acquired the sanctity of the old,
not a replacement but an exact replica (so, at least, it was portrayed). The expression
of the Jews’ deepest beliefs and fundamental lore in the language of the diaspora
signals the embrace of Hellenism for the advance of Judaism.
This mode of thinking characterizes at its essence the encounter of the cultures.
There was no ‘‘clash of civilizations.’’ Jews did not face a dilemma in which every
adoption of Greek learning required them to sacrifice part of their heritage. The
conquests of Alexander the Great brought a host of Greeks into the lands of the Near
East. The removal of the Persian regime, the reshuffling of the political order, and the
416 Erich S. Gruen

large-scale creation, re-foundation, and expansion of settlements that followed

Alexander’s invasion sparked a wave of migrations ushering in an era of mobility
and relocation. Jews took advantage of it. The Greek diaspora inspired a Jewish one in
its wake. Jews joined communities old and new in various parts of the Mediterranean
that were at least partially Hellenic in makeup. And they found more and more Greek
or Greco-Phoenician communities in and around the lands of Syria and Palestine.
Jews met Hellenism in one form or other almost anywhere they dwelled. A gymna-
sium stood even in Jerusalem itself, installed on the directive of none other than the
High Priest – not to cater to the Greeks but to delight the Jews (2 Macc. 4.9–14).
In view of this, a good grasp of Greek literature causes no surprise. Jewish intellec-
tuals were well versed in most forms of Hellenic writings and wrote in a wide range of
Greek literary genres. Those conversant with the conventions include epic poets like
Theodotus and Philo, tragedians like Ezekiel, historians like Demetrius and
Eupolemus, philosophers like Aristobulus, composers of prose fiction like the authors
of the Letter of Aristeas, 3 Maccabees, and Joseph and Aseneth, and those who engaged in
cosmology and mythography like Pseudo-Eupolemus and the author of the Sibylline
Oracles. But, although they wrote in Greek and adapted Greek literary modes, they
held undeviatingly to the goals of rewriting biblical narratives, recasting the traditions
of their forefathers, and shaping the distinctive identity of Jews within the larger
Hellenistic world. Jewish intellectuals may have utilized Greek genres but they saw
no value in recounting the tale of Troy, the labors of Heracles, the Persian Wars, or the
contest of Athens and Sparta. Their heroes were Abraham, Joseph, and Moses.

Greek Genres and Jewish Content

A few examples will suffice to illustrate the Jewish penchant for appropriating
Hellenic conventions to refashion their own heritage. Tragic drama, for instance,
has a notable representative. Little of it survives from Hellenistic Greeks (Sens in this
volume), but we have an extensive portion of a play produced by a Jewish dramatist
named (and the name is almost all that we know of him) Ezekiel (text in Jacobson
1983: 50–67; Holladay 1989: 344–405; TrGF 128). His play, the Exagoge, was one
of many Jewish tragedies, but the only extant one. Ezekiel was steeped in the tradition
of Athenian drama, strongly influenced by Euripides, but also enamored of themes
and motifs to be found in Aeschylus (Jacobson 1983: 23–8). He held to the traditions
of the Greek theater, writing monologues and dialogues in iambic trimeter verse,
keeping the battle scenes and the gore off stage, even bringing on the trusty messen-
ger to summarize events. But the subject matter remained rigorously biblical. Ezekiel
retold the story of the Exodus, employing the tragic mode to convey a familiar tale in
a new form. He followed closely the narrative and language of the Septuagint (there is
nothing to suggest that he consulted the Hebrew version or even knew the language),
but did not refrain from injecting elements that went beyond material in the Book of
Exodus. In one notable scene, he invented a dream in which Moses saw a great throne
at the cleft of heaven and a noble man handed him a scepter and diadem and left the
throne to him. Moses’ father-in-law then interpreted the dream as signifying that
 Jewish Literature 417

Moses would exercise a vast new authority and would serve as a guide to mortals
everywhere (Eus. PE 9.29.4–6). The passage corresponds to nothing in the Book of
Exodus. Indeed no other tale anywhere ascribes a dream vision to Moses. But Greek
tragedy supplied ample precedents. And the Moses figure in the Exagoge would
resonate with Ezekiel’s contemporaries. His role as executor of God’s will on earth,
with absolute authority, plainly evokes contemporary royal rule. Moses becomes
precursor of the Hellenistic kings (Gruen 1998: 128–35; Collins 2000: 224–30).
The Greek influence is powerful, but the biblical tale holds center stage. Ezekiel has
effectively commandeered a pre-eminent Hellenic genre and deployed it as a source of
esteem for his Jewish readership.
Another venerable Greek genre attracted Jewish writers: epic poetry. A certain
Theodotus, of unknown provenance and only approximate date (prior to the first
century BCE ), composed hexameters in Homeric language and style that exhibit
parallels also with Hellenistic epic and epyllia (text in Holladay 1989: 51–99).
A familiarity with the contemporary literary scene is plain. Form, genre, and expres-
sion in the fragments suggest an education of the most exemplary Hellenic sort. Yet
the topic of his surviving fragments, all lamentably brief, is a strictly Hebrew one, the
tale of Dinah’s rape by the Shechemites and the rather questionable retaliation by the
sons of Jacob in Genesis 34 (Eus. PE 9.22.1–11; Holladay 1989: 106–27).
Theodotus cleans up the biblical story somewhat, softening the duplicity of the
Israelites and treating the Shechemites more as impious violators than as victims,
but he keeps in general to the Genesis narrative. He injects a palpable Greek element
or two into the presentation, such as identifying Shechem’s founder with the son of
Hermes, treating the city’s origins as a ktisis tale, and having its fate determined by an
oracular forecast. Yet Theodotus unabashedly employed epic poetry and Homeric
style to recast a biblical narrative in the interest of exculpating the Hebrew patriarchs
(Pummer 1982: 177–88; Gruen 1998: 120–5).
We have the name and a few fragments of one other Jew who composed in the epic
genre. Philo (c.100 BCE ) produced an apparently lengthy poem, On Jerusalem, of which
we have a bare fraction. The title may imply that this work fits into the frame of
Hellenistic epic that celebrated the foundations of cities, such as Rhianus’ Messeniaca,
Pseudo-Moschus’ Megara, and the Ktiseis of Apollonius Rhodius (CA 4–12). The
extant fragments, a mere 24 lines, exhibit tortured language, enveloped in studied
obscurity, the vocabulary rich in hapax legomena, and a variety of arcane allusions as if
to outdo the opacity of a Lycophron (text in Holladay 1989: 234–45). The style of
Philo’s poetry is thoroughly Hellenistic. Yet the subject matter is again firmly rooted in
Jewish tradition. The surviving verses treat Abraham, Joseph, and the waters of
Jerusalem. And the inflated language that hails Abraham as ‘‘abounding in lofty
counsels’’ and Joseph as holder of the scepter on the ‘‘thrones of Egypt’’ carries
significance. Like Theodotus, Philo employed the epic genre to expand upon
Scripture. In his verses the Hebrew patriarchs take on a pronounced eminence designed
to resonate with a sophisticated audience (Gruen 1998: 125–7; Collins 2000: 54–7).
Historiography claimed additional Jewish practitioners. The first of whom we are
aware, Demetrius, dates to the later third century. The remains of his work too are
scanty but revealing. They show a keen interest in solving chronological and other
historical puzzles, an understanding of critical method, and an adherence to rational
418 Erich S. Gruen

inquiry that may owe something to Alexandrian scholarship (text in Holladay 1983:
62–79; Bickerman 1975: 72–84; Sterling 1992: 153–67). But Demetrius trains his
focus exclusively on issues arising out of the Bible. So, for example, in case anyone
wondered how Jacob managed to father 12 children in just seven years, he offered a
solution: there were four different mothers (Eus. PE 9.21.3–5). On the question of
how the Israelites, who left Egypt unarmed, managed to secure weapons in the
desert, he had an answer: they appropriated the arms of Egyptians who drowned in
the sea (Eus. PE 9.29.16). This was not frivolous exegesis. For Jews exposed to Greek
learning and historical investigation, the Bible presented some vexing inconsistencies,
chronological disparities, and historical perplexities. Demetrius took the authority of
the Scriptures for granted but wrote for a sophisticated readership. He adapted
Hellenic scholarly methods to re-inforce confidence in the biblical tradition and to
corroborate the record of his nation’s past (Gruen 1998: 112–18).
A final example in a different genre confirms the point. The enigmatic but enter-
taining prose narrative Joseph and Aseneth, which survives intact (in more than one
version), defies ready categorization. Its date too remains a matter of controversy,
with some seeing it as a Christian text and putting it as late as the fourth century CE
(Kraemer 1998: 225–85). But common consensus puts it in the late Hellenistic
period (Johnson 2004: 108–9). The work has clear affinities (though equally clear
differences) with what we generally classify as Greek romances, such as those of
Chariton, Xenophon of Ephesus, and Longus. The relative dates of these works
and Joseph and Aseneth cannot be determined, but the genre or a form thereof goes
back at least to the fragmentary Ninus Romance, which belongs to the late Hellenistic
period (Whitmarsh in this volume). There can, in any case, be little doubt that Joseph
and Aseneth belongs to the category of protreptic prose fiction (like Xenophon’s
Cyropaedia), composed for entertainment but also communicating values, ideas, or
offering guidance (S. West 1974: 70–81; Wills 1995: 170–84; Chesnutt 1995: 85–
92; Johnson 2004: 108–20). Hellenic and Jewish influences may well be mutual
rather than one-sided. But the work certainly emerged in a literary climate that also
produced the Hellenic novel. Joseph and Aseneth, like the other works discussed
above, draws the inspiration for its tale from the Pentateuch. In this case, however,
the Book of Genesis serves as the merest launching pad (the union of the Hebrew
patriarch Joseph with the Egyptian noblewoman Aseneth) for a narrative that goes far
beyond the scriptural text. The narrative combines two loosely connected fantasies,
the first a love story in which the initially antagonistic principals, of different faiths
and ethnicity, are brought together in a happy marriage, the second an adventure tale
that divides the households of both Joseph and the pharaoh, culminating in a mighty
battle and a final reconciliation. The close links with Greek prose fiction do not
obviate the fact that this text has its setting entirely in the world of the ancient
Hebrews and embellishes upon a core to be found in the Torah.
Jewish authors, in short, showed a wide familiarity with the genres, forms, and
styles of Greek literature. But concluding that such familiarity betokened assimilation
or acculturation misplaces the emphasis and misunderstands the process. Jews con-
sistently employed Hellenic texts and conventions to express their own traditions, to
recast and re-invigorate their ancient legends, and to convey their values in modes
shared by the intellectual world of the Hellenistic era.
 Jewish Literature 419

The Letter of Aristeas

Hellenistic Jewish authors did not by any means confine themselves to wrapping
biblical tales in contemporary packages. They could incorporate Greeks themselves
into their imaginative writings. It will be of value to discuss a few important texts that
represent Jewish relations with real Hellenic figures (as they conceived them) and
their significance for the Jews’ own self-perception.
The Letter of Aristeas holds a central place in any such investigation. It purports to
describe the events that led to the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, an
episode of the highest consequence for Hellenistic Judaism. And the story that it tells
has traditionally served as the prime document of a harmonious and mutually bene-
ficial interchange between Greeks and Jews.
The work is not, in fact a letter. The author describes it as a diegesis, an unspecific
and widely applicable term referring to prose narratives (LetArist 1, 8, 322). This
could encompass any number of genres and fits snugly into none. The treatise as a
whole is sui generis. But individual features have close affinities with a range of
Hellenistic writings. The Jewish author clearly had a strong education in the literature
of Hellas.
First, a brief summary (text in Hadas 1951: 92–227). The narrative consists of a
communication from Aristeas, supposedly a prominent figure at the court of Ptolemy
II Philadelphus, to his brother Philocrates. It records Aristeas’ eyewitness account of
the decision and process that produced a Greek rendition of the Hebrew Bible. The
initial impetus came from Demetrius of Phalerum, chief librarian in Alexandria, who
persuaded King Ptolemy to authorize the addition of the ‘‘laws of the Jews,’’
evidently the Pentateuch, to the shelves of the great Library. This required transla-
tion, for the available Hebrew texts were carelessly and improperly drawn up. Ptolemy
duly composed a letter to the High Priest in Jerusalem, to be delivered by Aristeas
and another courtier, seeking translators. He paved the way with the magnanimous
gesture (suggested to him by Aristeas) of releasing the Jewish slaves who had been
brought to Egypt by his father Ptolemy I. The High Priest Eleazer happily complied
with the request (handsome gifts from Ptolemy helped to facilitate matters) and
selected 72 scholars, six from each of the 12 Jewish tribes, experts in both languages,
to do the job. Aristeas then pauses for a digression, in which he not only describes in
detail the ceremonial gifts that Ptolemy had sent for the Temple in Jerusalem but also
supplies an extensive description of the city, the countryside, the Temple itself and its
furnishings, and even the vestments of the High Priest. He proceeds to recount
Eleazer’s gracious responses to his questions regarding the religious beliefs and
dietary prescriptions of the Jews, a lengthy speech that extols the virtues of his own
people and outlines the symbolic character of some of their practices, leaving a
powerfully positive impression.
The Jewish sages reached Alexandria, where they were warmly welcomed. Ptolemy
himself paid homage to the sacred scrolls that they had conveyed from Jerusalem.
Indeed he organized a seven-day banquet (serving kosher food), during which the
king put a different question to each of the 72 guests. Most of his questions
concerned the appropriate means of governing wisely, and he found reason to praise
420 Erich S. Gruen

every one of the guests for his sagacity. Aristeas cites court records as testimony to
these events. Demetrius of Phalerum then found spacious quarters for the translators
on the island of Pharos where they went to work, periodically comparing drafts,
agreed upon a common version, and completed their task in precisely 72 days.
Demetrius assembled the Jews of Alexandria and read out to them the finished
translation, which they received with great applause. The priests and leaders of the
Jewish community pronounced it a definitive version, not a line of it to be altered.
Ptolemy joined them in admiration, paid reverence to the new Bible, and lavished
gifts upon the Jewish scholars.
Such is the tale. No one can doubt that it derives from the pen of a Jewish author,
cloaked in the garb of a learned court official. It bears little relation to historical
events. But the work did not aim for historical accuracy, nor to deceive readers with
the pretense of a verifiable narrative. The author offers verisimilitude rather than
history, employing known figures and plausible circumstances to present Jewish
learning and Hellenic patronage as mutually beneficial (Honigman 2003: 65–91;
Johnson 2004: 34–8; Rajak 2009: 28–63).
The Letter of Aristeas supplies a showcase for the familiarity of Jewish intellectuals
with diverse features and forms of Greek literature common in the Hellenistic period.
For example, the lengthy segment on Aristeas’ visit to Jerusalem, with its detailed
description of the features of the landscape, the setting of the citadel, the terrain of
the city, the geography of its surroundings, the appointments of the Temple, and the
garb of the priests, much of it remote from reality, evokes Hellenistic geographical
treatises and utopian literature (LetArist 83–120). Eleazer’s exegesis of peculiar
Jewish customs in turn has parallels with Hellenistic ethnographic excursuses
(LetArist 128–70). The Letter of Aristeas also frequently cites and quotes documents,
whether royal decrees, memoranda, administrative reports, or letters, a regular prac-
tice in Greek historiography. The extended symposium, of course, is a thoroughly
Hellenic institution, and most of the Jewish sages respond to the king’s questions
with answers drawn from Greek philosophy or political theory (LetArist 187–294).
The High Priest, in recounting the significance of Jewish dietary prescriptions,
explains them in good Greek manner as either having a rational basis or requiring
allegorical interpretation (LetArist 128–71). He himself receives description, in fact,
in terms befitting a Greek aristocrat (a man of kalokagathia, LetArist 3). The text
includes learned references to Greek intellectuals like Menedemus, Hecataeus,
Theopompus, and Theodectus. Perhaps most striking is the process of translation
itself as the narrative presents it. The project arose when the librarian found Hebrew
copies to be deficient and inadequate (LetArist 29–30). And the Jewish scholars,
when they set about their task, in comfortable quarters supplied by Ptolemy, did so by
comparing translations and arriving at an agreed upon text (LetArist 301–12, 317–
21). The activity (if not the result) surely evokes the scholarship subsidized by the
court and carried out in the Alexandrian Museum (Honigman 2003: 13–35).
The author, steeped in Greek learning, brought it to bear on his construct of
Jewish and Hellenic collaboration in the making of the Septuagint; the overlap of
religious sensibility is striking. He begins with a notice that the available copies of the
Hebrew Bible had been carelessly transcribed and ends with a definitive Greek text
subject to no further revision (LetArist 29–30, 311). That implies a sanction of the
 Jewish Literature 421

Septuagint that supersedes the Hebrew original. And, in a famous statement, Aristeas
declared to Ptolemy that the Jews revere God, overseer and creator of all, who is
worshiped by all including ourselves, except that we give him a different name, Zeus
(LetArist 16).
On the face of it, the Letter of Aristeas appears to be the ultimate document of
cultural convergence (Hengel 1974: 1.264–5; Barclay 1996: 138–50; Collins 2000:
191–5). That impression, however, reflects only the surface. The author, like others
already discussed, exploits his profound familiarity with Hellenic literary genres and the
Alexandrian scholarly scene, to advertise the advantages of Jewish tradition. The
superiority of the Jews is never in question. The god to whom all bear witness, even
though the Greeks may call him Zeus, is the Jewish god. Eleazer the High Priest
happily sends Jewish scholars to Alexandria to render the Bible into Greek, but he
reminds Aristeas of the transcendence of Jewish monotheism, ridiculing those who
worship idols of wood and stone fashioned by themselves. He also insists that Mosaic
law insulated the Hebrews from outside influences, erecting firm barriers to prevent
the infiltration of tainted institutions (LetArist 134–42). The seven-day symposium
may be a fundamentally Hellenic setting, but the Jewish sages answer every query put
by the king with swift and pithy answers, adding a reference to God in each response.
They earn the admiration not only of Ptolemy and his courtiers but of all the Greek
philosophers in attendance, who acknowledge their inferiority to the erudite guests
(LetArist 200–1, 235–96). The learned librarian Demetrius of Phalerum declares the
wisdom of the Pentateuch to be both holy and highly philosophical, citing other Greek
intellectuals for confirmation (LetArist 312–16). The king’s munificence and encour-
agement make the whole scenario possible, but his awe-struck reverence (bowing seven
times before the scrolls of the Law, supplying extravagant gifts to the Temple, provid-
ing a kosher meal for the visitors, praising the answer of every Jewish scholar no matter
how banal, and ordering an annual festival to commemorate the translation) borders
on caricature (Gruen 1998: 218–20). It is the Lord of the Jews who guides Ptolemy’s
actions and keeps his kingdom secure. And the High Priest observes that the Jews offer
sacrifices to God to ensure the peace and renown of the Ptolemaic kingdom – a neat
reversal of the patron–client relationship (LetArist 45). In short, the Letter of Aristeas,
that quintessential text of Jewish Hellenism, testifies most eloquently to the appropri-
ation of Hellenistic literature to express the pre-eminence of Jewish values.

Aristobulus
Pride in priority emerges more blatantly from another Hellenistic Jewish author.
Aristobulus, a second-century BCE Jew of philosophical education and inclinations,
played with what became a favored Jewish fiction: that Hellenic ideas derive from
Hebraic roots. A mere handful of fragments survive, and the identification of
Aristobulus is disputed (text in Holladay 1995: 128–97). But his acquaintance with
Greek philosophy and his emphasis on Jewish precedence are plain enough.
Aristobulus’ work, it appears, was cast in the form of a dialogue between himself
and Ptolemy VI Philometor in the mid-second century. That frame may be a literary
422 Erich S. Gruen

conceit, but it reflects the author’s effort to place himself in a context comparable
to that of the Letter of Aristeas, imparting Jewish wisdom to a Ptolemaic king.
Aristobulus takes a leaf from Greek philosophy by propounding the allegorical
method for biblical exegesis (Hengel 1974: 1.163–9, 2.105–10; Barclay 1996:
150–8; Collins 2000: 186–90). Allegory allows understanding of phraseology such
as God’s ‘‘hands,’’ ‘‘feet,’’ or ‘‘visage,’’ and accounts for his ‘‘descent’’ at Sinai (Eus.
PE 8.9.38–10.17). He rebukes those who employ only literal interpretations, thus
embracing the methods of Hellenic allegorists. Indeed he refers to Judaism as ‘‘our
philosophical way of thinking’’ (hairesis; Eus. PE 13.12.8).
Aristobulus does not, however, subsume Jewish tradition under Greek learning.
Rather, the reverse. In Aristobulus’ imaginative construct, Moses provided stimulus
for Hellenic philosophers and poets, inspiring the loftiest achievements of Greek
intellectuals. Aristobulus asserts that Plato’s ideas followed the path laid out by the
legislation of Moses, indeed that Plato was assiduous in working through every
particular contained in it (Eus. PE 13.12.1). Nor did he stop there. Aristobulus cites
a still earlier case, none other than the great sixth-century philosopher Pythagoras,
who also found much in the Hebrew teachings that he could adapt for his own
doctrines (Eus. PE 13.12.1). Knowledgeable readers might, of course, wonder how
Greek sages would have had access to the Hebrew Scriptures generations or centuries
before the composition of the Septuagint. Aristobulus had a prepared answer. He re-
assured potential skeptics by maintaining that translations of the Israelite law code
were available long before the Septuagint came into being (Eus. PE 13.12.1).
Aristobulus obviously had no qualms about fabricating one fiction to save another.
That accomplished, Aristobulus proceeded with additional flights of fancy. He
included Socrates with Pythagoras and Plato among those whose reference to a divine
voice in regard to the creation of the cosmos derives from the words of Moses. And he
goes well beyond. Aristobulus offers an embracing doctrine that sweeps all of Greek
philosophy within the Jewish orbit. He asserts universal agreement among philo-
sophers that only pious opinions must be held about God. And, since that view is
embedded in Mosaic law, it follows that Jewish conceptualizing supplied the well-
spring for Hellenic philosophizing (Eus. PE 13.12.3–4, 13.12.8).
If Jewish inspiration could be claimed for Greek philosophy, why not for poetry?
Aristobulus and others had no hesitation in extending the Jewish reach into that realm.
The legendary Orpheus, fountainhead of Greek poetry, speaks of all things being in the
hand of God, a sign, for Aristobulus, that his thinking paralleled the teachings of the
Scriptures (Eus. PE 13.12.4). Aristobulus – or someone – even went to the trouble of
composing or adapting a full-scale poem, ascribed to Orpheus and directed to his son
Musaeus, that espoused a moving monotheism (Eus. PE 3.12.5; Holladay 1995: 165–
71 and 1996). This composition, whether or not from the pen of Aristobulus, certainly
represents a significant aspect of Hellenistic-Jewish thinking. By assigning to the
ancestor of pagan poets a lofty monotheistic vision of the deity, the author has
associated the inspiration for Greek literature with the doctrines of Judaism.
Nor did Aristobulus confine himself to distant or mythical poets. He quoted the
near contemporary Hellenistic poet Aratus of Soli, finding suitable material in the
opening lines of his great astronomical poem, the Phaenomena (discussed by Volk and
White in this volume). But he made a notable emendation, substituting ‘‘God’’ for
 Jewish Literature 423

‘‘Zeus,’’ and explained it as discerning Aratus’ real meaning in his description of the
divinity as permeating all on land and sea and guiding the fortunes of everyone (Eus.
PE 13.12.6–7). The parallel with Aristeas’ equation of Zeus with Yahweh is plain.
Aristobulus succeeded in transforming Aratus’ pantheistic paean to Zeus into a hymn
for the Jewish deity.
Aristobulus’ ingenuity stretched further still. He seized upon references to the
number seven as evidence that the institution of the Sabbath had seeped into Hellenic
consciousness. Aristobulus summoned up the verses of Greece’s premier epic poets,
Homer and Hesiod, to affirm that they endorsed the biblical sanctification of the holy
day. This required some fancy footwork. Aristobulus (or perhaps his Jewish source)
exercised special liberties in twisting the texts to his will. Hesiod’s reference to a
sacred seventh day of the month (WD 770) becomes the seventh day of the week, and
Homer’s ‘‘it was the fourth day and all his work was finished’’ (Od. 5.262) is
transformed through emendation to ‘‘the seventh day.’’ Other lines quoted by
Aristobulus to support his claim are not attested in the extant texts of Homer and
Hesiod and may simply have been invented (Eus. PE 13.12.12–15; Holladay 1995:
230–7). The subtle – or not so subtle – reworking had Homer and Hesiod acknow-
ledge the consecration of the Sabbath. Aristobulus was also not above assigning
fabricated lines to the mythical poet Linus, who came down in the tradition as son
of Apollo, as music teacher of Heracles, or as both. He has Linus assert that all was
made complete on the seventh morning, a perfect number also reflected in the seven
heavenly bodies (planets) set shining in their orbits (Eus. PE 13.12.16). From the
vantage point of Aristobulus, it was all for a good cause: to demonstrate the depend-
ence of Greece’s most ancient bards upon the teachings of the Torah. Observance
of the Sabbath, in this conception, is no mere idiosyncrasy of an alien and self-
segregated sect but a universal principle cherished in Hellenic song. Aristobulus thus
harnessed some of the most celebrated Greek thinkers and artists, legendary or real,
to the ancient traditions of the Jews (Gruen 1998: 246–51).

The Third Sibyl

Jewish ingenuity in adapting Hellenic forms has perhaps its most arresting expression
in the Sibylline Oracles. Commandeering the voice of the divinely inspired Sibyl had a
powerful and lasting impact. Her prophecies held a prominent place in Greek and
Roman culture. A shadowy female figure assigned to distant antiquity and located in a
variety of sites, she specialized in dire and doleful predictions for individuals and
nations. Collections of the Sibylline oracles, duly edited, expanded, or invented, had
wide circulation in the Greco-Roman world – long before Jewish writers exploited
them for their own purposes. Those collections have largely been lost, surviving only in
fragments or ancient reconstructions. The extant Sibylline Oracles, drawing upon but
refashioning those models, derive from Jewish and Christian compilers, who had their
own agenda to promote (Parke 1988: 1–50; Potter 1994: 171–93; Buitenwerf 2003:
92–123; Lightfoot 2007: 3–23). Fourteen books of oracles, gathered or reframed over
a period of centuries, now constitute the corpus. Most date to the period of the Roman
424 Erich S. Gruen

Empire, some perhaps even to late antiquity. But the earliest portion, incorporated in
the Third Sibyl, is a Hellenistic Jewish product from the era of the Maccabees (Barclay
1996: 216–28; Gruen 1998: 268–85; Collins 2000: 83–97; Buitenwerf 2003: 124–
34). Echoes of Greek literature resonate in the text. The verses are delivered in Homeric
hexameters, and the prophetess’s fierce pronouncements of dreadful events to come
have a noteworthy counterpart in Hellenistic writings: the darkly obscure poem
Alexandra of Lycophron. This is not imitation or duplication. Alexandra (Cassandra)
speaks in iambic trimeters rather than epic hexameters. But the parallel between the
raving Trojan princess and the fiery Sibyl suggests that their respective authors shared a
literary environment or tradition. Adoption of this pagan persona strikingly demon-
strates how comfortable Jewish intellectuals were with Hellenic modes of presentation.
The Jewish thrust and goals, however, emerge unmistakably in the text. Tension
and conflict dominate the Sibyl’s prophecies. She twice gives a roll call of kingdoms
that will rise and fall (3 Sib. 156–90). And forecasts of destruction recur repeatedly.
Jews will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the carnage. They will endure much suffering
at the hands of the wicked. Their devotion to righteousness and virtue, their rejection
of idolatry and sorcery, and their adherence to the law guarantee that they will gain
glory in the end when the terrible might of divine justice descends (3 Sib. 218–94,
573–600, 702–31).
Eschatology permeates this text. Ultimate glory for the Jews is a repeated refrain of
the Third Sibyl. The apocalyptic vision, setting good against evil and proclaiming
future desolation for all peoples while sparing the Jews, would seem to make it an
unimpeachable document for alienation of the chosen people from the rest of
humanity. But that inference may be hasty. The Jewish author’s choice of medium
is significant. By donning the garb of the Sibyl, he has taken on a persona with
resonance in the Greco-Roman world. The thunderous pronouncements of the Lord,
conventionally delivered through biblical prophets, here issue forth from the mouth
of the pagan Sibyl in epic hexameters. And the author is widely learned, well beyond
the traditions of the tribe. The Sibyl, in this text, can peer into the mysteries of Near
Eastern, biblical, and Greco-Roman lore alike. She recounts the tale of the Tower of
Babel, then connects it directly with the era of Kronos and Titan, proceeding to give a
version of Hesiod’s Theogony on the myths associated with the birth of Zeus and the
struggles of Olympians and Titans (3 Sib. 97–155). One might note in particular a
striking blend: the sons of Noah (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) become Kronos, Titan,
and Iapetos, sons of Gaia and Ouranos (3 Sib. 110–15). The Sibyl knows the poems
of Homer, whom she calls the blind bard from Chios, but, like Plato, regards him as
purveyor of lies (3 Sib. 419–32). She forecasts both the fall of Troy and the Exodus
from Egypt. The author sets her in the hoary mists of time that encompass a range of
peoples and cultures. The Sibyl appears as a relative of Noah. She came from Babylon,
then was dispatched to Greece where, in her mantic trance, she could deliver fiery
prophecies that conveyed the message of God in divine riddles to all men. Her
origins, she claimed, were assigned by different people to different places, including
Erythrae, seat of the most renowned Sibyl, and her pronouncements reckoned as mad
falsehoods, but she was the authentic prophetess of the great God (3 Sib. 809–29).
She thus claims the most ancient lineage, embodying Hebrew traditions, Near
Eastern legends, and Hellenic myths, all integral parts of the persona.
 Jewish Literature 425

The glories of the eschaton, moreover, need not be confined to Jews alone.
Evildoers, of course, will get their just deserts. But the hand of the Lord reaches
out to the Greeks. The Sibyl exhorts the inhabitants of the Hellenic world to repent,
urging them to acknowledge the true God, and offering hope of salvation. Oracular
verses expose the folly of trust in mortal leaders and resort to idolatry. The appeal to
repentance gains further vividness with prescriptions for sacrifices, prayers, and
righteous behavior to earn divine favor (3 Sib. 545–72, 624–34, 732–61). The
Third Sibyl includes Greeks among wayward peoples whose failure to see the truth
has led them into arrogance, impiety, and immorality, thus provoking divine retali-
ation (3 Sib. 196–210, 295–365, 594–600). But the prophetess eagerly invites them
to enter the fold of the true believers. The message is not one of cultural solidarity.
Jewish traditions take clear precedence. Greeks who show themselves worthy are
invited to partake of the values of the Jews. The oracular voice promises a happy fate
for the Jewish faithful, and shows a willingness to extend that fate to the Greeks –
provided that they embrace the ideals of the Chosen People (Gruen 1998: 287;
Collins 2000: 160–1).
Here as elsewhere Jews successfully adapted the Hellenic medium. Employment of
Greek forms, language, and themes in the service of advancing Jewish ideas inspired
the intellectual circles of Hellenistic Judaism. The composers of the Third Sibylline
Oracle had that goal in common with Ezekiel the tragedian, the historian Demetrius,
and the imaginative Aristobulus, appropriator of Hellenic philosophy. They inhabited
the same mental world that produced the fabricated verses and refashioned senti-
ments of Greek poets and thinkers in order to bring them into line with the teachings
of the Torah. Jews reckoned themselves not only as an integral part of that world, but
as its cultural forerunners.

The Significance
The fragmentary character of Jewish-Hellenistic writing makes assessment of its
literary quality a frustrating endeavor. But its ideological thrust comes through with
clarity. The bits and pieces do add up. Two other instances merit mention as re-
inforcing the conclusions already articulated. The historian Eupolemus, of whose
oeuvre only a tiny portion survives, wrote in Palestine in the mid-second century BCE
and composed a work entitled On the Kings in Judaea (text in Holladay 1983: 112–
35), which included a revealing segment on Moses. Eupolemus has him hand down
the knowledge of the alphabet first to the Jews, from whom the Phoenicians acquired
it, and they in turn passed it on to the Greeks (Eus. PE 9.26.1). The fragment (we
have only a couple of lines) is often interpreted as a shot fired in a polemical exchange
conducted by intellectuals over which nation invented the alphabet (Wacholder
1974: 77–83; Hengel 1974: 1.92, 129; Sterling 1992: 218–19). That analysis misses
the main point. Eupolemus does not actually credit Moses with inventing the alpha-
bet. He simply ‘‘handed down the knowledge.’’ At the very least, this suggests that
the debate over priority was not uppermost in Eupolemus’ mind. The historian aimed
to rank Moses as first among the sages and to give the Jews a principal role in the
426 Erich S. Gruen

transmission of literacy and literature in the ancient Mediterranean. Jewish intellec-

tuals could take satisfaction from imagining that Moses’ delivery of the Tablets
constituted a milestone in the history of letters. And, equally important,
Eupolemus’ fancy made the Greeks indirect beneficiaries of the Hebrews (Gruen
1998: 153–4).
A comparable orientation emerges from the preserved lines of the imaginative
writer Artapanus, a Hellenized Egyptian Jew of the second or first century BCE (text
in Holladay 1983: 204–25). His creative rewriting of biblical stories includes an
elaborate account of Moses’ exploits that goes well beyond the scriptural foundation.
Apart from crediting Moses with a host of Egyptian institutions and technologies, he
adds a Greek connection. The name, Moses, Artapanus claims, induced Greeks to
identify him with Musaeus, the legendary poet and prophet from Attica, son or pupil
of Orpheus, who stands at the dawn of Hellenic song and wisdom. Artapanus,
however, gives a slight but significant twist to the legend. He has Musaeus as mentor
of Orpheus rather than the other way around. Moses therefore becomes the father of
Greek poetry and prophecy (Eus. PE 9.27.3–4; Doran 1987: 258–63; Barclay 1996:
127–32; Gruen 1998: 155–60; Collins 2000: 37–46; Johnson 2004: 95–108).
Artapanus neither rejects nor disparages those traditions. He simply goes them one
better and counts them as part of a Hebrew heritage.
What is the significance of all this? Jewish literature in the Hellenistic Age did not
constitute a mere game of one-upmanship. Intellectuals in Palestine and the diaspora
could be inventive, witty, and playful. But they were doing more than showing off
their learning or toying with the genres and conventions of Greek literature. These
enterprises have a deeper purpose. The works discussed here – and they are typical –
show a Jewish penchant for co-opting Hellenic forms to convey the priority of Jewish
traditions, the precedents they set, and their continued relevance in a Greek intellec-
tual world. The process, however, does not amount to borrowing or imitation or even
influence. For Jews who grew up in literate communities and belonged to cultivated
circles, Greek language and literature were also their language and literature. Most
Jews in the diaspora had lost touch with Hebrew but not with their heritage. Epic
poetry, tragedy, history, philosophy, prose fiction, and mythic recreations were the
natural means to transmit that heritage. And, although several writers took pleasure in
pointing to the Bible or to biblical figures as precursors and models for Greek
achievements, the association itself, however artificial, carries the real significance. It
is a mistake to see this as rivalry or competition. The Jews did not distance themselves
from Hellenism; they were part and parcel of it. The recasting of scriptural narrative in
epic or tragic form, the application of historical methods to straighten out biblical
chronology, and the framing of sacred tales as romances exemplify the fundamental
interconnectedness. The Jewish drive to embrace the literary legacy of Hellas exhibits
itself again and again: in claiming biblical authority for Platonic teaching and
Hesiodic cosmology, in having Jewish sages spout Greek political theory, and in
transforming the Erythraean Sibyl into a prophetess who welcomes Greeks into the
Jewish fold.
To what audiences were texts such as these directed? Many regard them as consti-
tuting ‘‘apologetics,’’ i.e., an effort by Jewish intellectuals to explain the ways of the
Jews to Greeks, to exhibit assimilation to the other’s culture, and to address a
 Jewish Literature 427

Hellenic readership that might otherwise be disapproving or hostile. The idea that
Jews hoped to win over Gentiles as proselytes has largely (and wisely) been aban-
doned, as have interpretations that see Jewish writings as responding to anti-
Semitism. These compositions could hardly have made converts of or softened the
antagonism of the biased. But some see them still as a form of apologetics, an attempt
at least in part to educate Greek readers about the virtues of Judaism and to reassure
them of the compatibility of Jewish values and beliefs with Hellenism (Sterling 1992;
Collins 2000: 14–16, 271–2). On that thesis Gentiles would constitute an important
audience. The works considered in this chapter render the idea implausible.
Jewish writers, to be sure, underscored the connections, overlappings, and close
affinities of Judaism with Hellenic culture. But they could hardly have expected many
Greeks to find these claims congenial. The large corpus of Greek writings prior to the
Christian era, whether highbrow literature or mundane transactions on papyri, shows
barely a sign of acquaintance with Jewish texts (Tcherikover 1956: 169–93). Greek
reading habits did not extend to that realm. And Jewish authors are unlikely to have
harbored illusions about changing those habits.
Greek readers who happened to stumble upon Jewish compositions would not
have found them especially welcome or agreeable. How many Greeks would have
taken pleasure in the Letter of Aristeas, which had erudite Jews outshine Greek
thinkers, the High Priest lecture Greeks on the absurdity of idolatry, and the
Ptolemaic king ceremoniously bow down seven times to sacred Hebrew scrolls?
How many would have regarded seriously Aristobulus’ claims that eminent philo-
sophers from Pythagoras to Plato and poetic giants from Homer to Euripides drew
on biblical insights? How many would have enjoyed the pronouncements of a Sibyl
who condescendingly encouraged pagans to embrace Judaism in order to obtain
salvation? And how many would have found acceptable the idea that Greek literacy
owed a crucial debt to the tablets of Moses?
The principal audience for such fantasies was surely the Jews themselves. They
could take pride in the appropriation of Hellenic modes and figures to suggest Jewish
priority and advantage and to advance Jewish values clothed in the conventions of the
Hellenistic world. The texts emerged not in a spirit of antagonism or defensive
reaction but as an authentic expression by writers fully at home in that world.

FURTHER READING

The classic work on this subject, unfortunately available only in Hebrew, is Gutman 1958,
1963. Although some of his suggestions are speculative, Gutman remains the most compre-
hensive study. A translation would be eminently desirable. The broad and influential work of
Hengel 1974 is essential background reading, a seminal analysis that has done much to dissolve
the long-standing divide between ‘‘Palestinian’’ and ‘‘diaspora’’ literature. The writing, how-
ever, is densely packed and demanding. Barclay 1996 offers a more readable survey, generally
balanced and judicious in its assessments of the literature, although Barclay’s categories of
‘‘assimilation,’’ ‘‘cultural convergence,’’ and ‘‘cultural antagonism’’ are somewhat strained and
artificial. A fine overview, with succinct discussions of each of the writers and excellent
428 Erich S. Gruen

bibliography, can be found in Schürer 1986. Many of the interpretations offered in this chapter
are more fully developed in Gruen 1998. The second edition of Collins 2000 was prompted in
part by the publications of Barclay and Gruen with which Collins often takes issue.
The most convenient access to many of the texts discussed in the chapter comes through
Holladay 1983, 1989, 1995, 1996. His excellent editions provide texts, translations, notes, and
extensive commentaries on numerous Jewish authors whose works survive only in fragments
preserved by Church Fathers, primarily Eusebius and Clement of Alexandria. The very valuable
collection by Charlesworth 1983, 1985 includes most of the writers in Holladay’s volumes and
many more, but supplies only translations with brief notes and introductions. For the Letter of
Aristeas, the edition by Hadas 1951, with text, translation, and notes, remains quite service-
able. An original study by Honigman 2003 links that work closely to the scholarship of
Hellenistic Alexandria and questions the very concept of Jewish literature as distinct from
Hellenistic literature. Rajak 2009 offers an incisive interpretation of the work in its cultural
context. For Aristobulus, in addition to the surveys and general treatments noted above, one
should consult the more thorough investigation of Walter 1964 which set him in the Greek
philosophical tradition and in the intellectual context of his time. The Third Sibyl as the earliest
manifestation of the usurpation of that pagan symbol by Jewish writers has received much
recent attention. Gruen 1998 and Collins 2000 offer quite different interpretations of its
meaning. Buitenwerf 2003 has now supplied a new translation with extensive commentary
and discussion – although not many are likely to adopt his notion of a literary unity and a
composition between 80 and 31 BCE . For examination of other authors mentioned only briefly
here, one can recommend the controversial but erudite study of Kraemer 1998 on Joseph and
Aseneth, Jacobson’s excellent 1983 dissection of Ezekiel, Bickerman 1975 on Demetrius, and
Wacholder 1974 on Eupolemus. The issue of the relationship between Jewish fiction and the
Greek romances is treated sensitively and intelligently by Wills 1995 and Johnson 2004; see
also Whitmarsh in this volume.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Egyptian Literature
Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

What happens when the Other writes back? This is a question far more open to
investigation in the novel political and cultural conditions following the campaigns of
Alexander than in the Classical period when Greek images of exotic barbarians first
emerged. Within the frame of Ptolemaic Egypt, however, the most prominent current
debate over the possibilities of communication between Greek literature and the
surrounding Egyptian civilization is conducted on the relatively circumscribed terrain
of Alexandrian poetry. Our joint contribution aims to shift the debate beyond these
horizons to include the Egyptian chora, and to consider the traditions and innov-
ations of indigenous literature in the mixed Greek-Egyptian milieus of Ptolemaic
Egypt. We outline the framework of this approach by first considering the linguistic
situation in Egypt, the social contexts of production and reception, as well as the
problems created by the conditions of transmission and preservation. The conspectus
of Ptolemaic Egyptian literature that follows is not exhaustive; it focuses on surviving
examples in the major genres of Demotic and Greco-Egyptian literature of the
Ptolemaic period. In the case of Demotic literature, these genres have antecedents
in the long prior history of Egyptian literature and are considered as developments in
this tradition. Several inherited Egyptian forms are also found in Greco-Egyptian
literature, but in discussing examples of the latter, the focus naturally shifts to
considering the positions these texts could occupy between traditions. The organiza-
tion of this survey reflects the contention that this material, though divisible into
other linguistic or generic categories, is best studied together in order to elucidate a
spectrum of interrelated literary practices and their social contexts.
430 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

Imagining Egypt in Hellenistic Literature

and Classical Scholarship
Over the last three decades, a number of scholars have argued that Alexandrian poetry
contains references to the indigenous culture of Ptolemaic Egypt (Koenen 1977,
1983, 1993; Merkelbach 1981; Gelzer 1982; Mineur 1984; Bing 1988; Selden
1998; Stephens 2003). Especially prominent in this project has been the exploration
of a dual poetics, capable of sustaining both Greek and Egyptian readings in the
pluralistic cultural milieu of Ptolemaic Alexandria through allusions that connect the
myths and ideologies of pharaonic kingship with parallel Greek ideas and narratives.
Not everyone is convinced, and those who object often cast doubt on the supposi-
tions of the enterprise (Zanker 1989; Goldhill 2005; for a more balanced overview,
Hunter 2003a: 46–53). Such critics ask basic questions: Were Greek authors suffi-
ciently aware of, or even interested in, Egyptian culture to make such allusions? Was a
Greek readership capable of understanding the dual references? These are important
questions to ask, but they often imply a fundamental social and cultural separation
between Greeks and Egyptians, and construct a closed, purely Greek economy of
literary production and consumption. Although many questions regarding the
degrees and modes of cultural interaction in Ptolemaic Egypt are not yet settled,
most historians have retreated from the extreme isolationist view that was commonly
held in the 1970s and 1980s (e.g., Préaux 1978; Samuel 1983), and some, notably
W. Clarysse and D. Thompson, have used the wealth of documentary evidence to
assemble, incrementally, a history of overlapping and interconnected Greek and
Egyptian social worlds, whose entanglements, though more pronounced in the
second and first centuries, are nevertheless apparent already in early Ptolemaic
Egypt (e.g., Clarysse 1985; Thompson 1988; Clarysse and Thompson 2006:
2.323–7; for a brief overview, La’da 2003). Broad lines of communication between
the immigrants and the indigenes, sometimes members of the same families, cannot
therefore be excluded (for case studies, see Derchain 2000 and Lloyd 2002). These
facts can be joined to the evidence of Greek-Egyptian communication in the more
restricted world of the early Ptolemaic court as represented by figures such as
Hecataeus of Abdera, Manetho of Sebennytos, Soter’s appointment of Nectanebo
(a member of the last Egyptian royal house) as general, as well as the intermarriage of
the families of Soter and Nectanebo (Clère 1951; Lloyd 2002: 119; Huss 1994).
Particular double readings of Alexandrian poetry may or may not be successful, but
arguments over their validity cannot presume that isolation deprived Greeks of
competence in making connections between Greek and Egyptian ideas.
This leaves the question of what kinds of Egyptian references Greeks could plaus-
ibly comprehend, and how they learned about and interpreted Egyptian culture. In
approaching this issue it is important to understand the references to Egyptian
civilization in Greek poetry not simply as a product of the Greek reception and
representation of Egyptian culture for Greek consumption. Contemporary
Egyptians were undoubtedly involved as well. Greek knowledge of Egypt in all
periods was the result of complex transactional processes of communication and
exchange, in which Greeks and Egyptians each received and responded to the other’s
 Egyptian Literature 431

representations with their own motivations and strategies. Alexandrian poetry, to be

sure, was produced primarily for a Greek audience, but debates over a Greek–
Egyptian intercultural poetics must be sensitive to the broader contemporary context
of cultural interchange.
Though pioneering and innovative, scholars proposing Egyptian readings of
Alexandrian poetry at times make connections to Middle Kingdom or New
Kingdom Egyptian literature that are historically improbable. Contemporary
Egyptian literature provides a sounder basis for evaluating intercultural allusions,
and works of Greco-Egyptian literature likewise provide the closest points of cultural
and intellectual contact. In this chapter we present a survey of the genres and forms of
these two related literary traditions. We foreground what they share with the age-old
indigenous literary tradition, paying particular attention to issues of innovation and
interplay with foreign literature. Our initial discussion of the social and cultural
contexts of their production and reception aims to bring into focus the conditions
and conduits that allowed a knowledge of Egyptian traditions to reach Alexandrian
literature and its audience. It is our contention that the wealth and diversity of
indigenous literature provide an opportunity to refine the broader picture of literary,
intellectual, and cultural contacts in the Ptolemaic Period.

The Language Situation in Ptolemaic Egypt

In Ptolemaic Egypt indigenous literature was composed in Egyptian and Greek.
Literature in Egyptian was marked by diglossia, i.e., certain texts were composed in
Late Classical Egyptian (‘‘Égyptien de tradition’’) and others in Demotic. Late
Classical Egyptian represented by that time an extremely archaic form of the
Egyptian language, which nonetheless retained its high status as the official written
language of state and cult. Texts in Late Classical Egyptian were either executed in
hieroglyphs on stone, such as royal decrees, temple texts, and (tomb) autobiograph-
ies, or in hieratic or cursive hieroglyphs on papyrus, such as ritual handbooks, priestly
manuals, and funerary literature. The grammar and idiom of Late Classical Egyptian
was basically the same as that of Middle Egyptian, an earlier language phase that had
been in active use during the Middle Kingdom until the mid-eighteenth dynasty
(c.2000–1350 BCE ). As a consequence, texts in Late Classical Egyptian were com-
posed and understood only by members of the Egyptian priesthood – and only by
those who had received an in-depth scribal training.
Demotic had been adopted in the seventh century BCE as the language and script
for administration, accounting, and law as well as business and private communica-
tion. The Demotic script was a cursive form of writing that had developed out of a
Lower Egyptian variety of the hieratic script. It was usually written with a brush and
ink on papyrus or ostraca, but Demotic inscriptions incised in stone also occur. By the
Ptolemaic period it was the standard language for written communication between
members of the indigenous population as opposed to Greek that was used for affairs
related to the state and communication with the authorities. Demotic was now no
longer used only for letters, accounting, and contracts, but also for composing texts
432 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

of a literary and priestly nature for which previously (Late) Classical Egyptian had
been the sole proper language.
Greek served as the lingua franca in Egypt after the conquest by Alexander the
Great in 332 BCE , when it replaced Aramaic, the administrative language of Persian
Egypt. It was the vernacular of the ruling elite and of the many immigrants and
veterans who had come in the wake of the establishment of Macedonian rule. The
majority of Greeks lived in the metropoleis and the Fayum region, where large-scale
irrigation projects had secured large tracts of arable land from the desert fringes.
Detailed studies of onomastics and family archives in Greek and Demotic have
demonstrated that Greeks did not live in isolation from the indigenous population
in the chora. Egyptians working for or with the Greek authorities, either on a local,
regional or national level, were proficient in Greek and in regular contact with the
culture of the immigrant population. These intercultural relationships are often
difficult to trace in the sources due to the common practice of name-switching among
these Egyptians. In their family and indigenous environment they carried an Egyptian
name, whereas they adopted a Greek name when acting in a Greek milieu (Peremans
1970; Clarysse 1985, 1991). Authors such as Manetho demonstrate that some
Egyptians even in the early Ptolemaic period were proficient in Greek to the level
that they could use it as a language for literary expression.

Sources: Production, Transmission, and Preservation

Material for the study of Ptolemaic Egyptian literature is plentiful. However, as most
of it is derived from archaeological sites, the texts are often fragmentary and the
character of the corpus is subject to the hazards of preservation and recovery. Major
discoveries of literary papyri were made in the Fayum settlements of Tebtunis and
Soknopaiou Nesos, where a wide variety of cursive hieroglyphic, hieratic, Demotic,
and Greek texts of what supposedly was once the temple library were found within
the remains of a temple precinct (Ryholt 2005; Quack 2005: 11–12). The Demotic
literary manuscripts date to the first and second centuries CE , but many are undoubt-
edly copies of texts that were already around in the Ptolemaic period. Another major
group of literary texts was found in a papyrus dump in the temple precinct of the
Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara (Smith and Tait 1983: IX–XI ). These very
fragmentary manuscripts range in date from the fifth to early third centuries BCE and
attest to the existence of a mature tradition of Demotic narrative literature already
at the beginning of the Ptolemaic period. Three late Ptolemaic manuscripts (two
instruction texts and one narrative) were found in tombs in the region of Akhmim,
where they were evidently deposited as prestigious burial goods. One of these, the
‘‘Instructions of Onchsheshonqy,’’ was found rolled up together with a funerary
manuscript inscribed for a certain ‘‘Hor, son of Petemin’’ (Smith 1994). The
Ptolemaic period manuscript of Setne I was purportedly found in a tomb of
Christian date. Many manuscripts are without known provenance and can only
tentatively be assigned to a region and period with the help of palaeography and
dialectology.
 Egyptian Literature 433

Despite the relative abundance of literary material in Demotic and Greek, it is not
yet possible to write a linear history of Demotic and Greco-Egyptian literature due to
the scattered nature of the source material, both chronologically and geographically,
and to the fact that most texts are only attested in one copy. In those rare cases that
multiple copies of one text are preserved, variants in phraseology and plot lines
demonstrate that copyists felt free to make changes to the text. An Egyptian literary
text was thus not fixed at any one time and then transmitted as the unique product of
an individual author. Textual transmission could extend over a long period, as
evidenced by the ‘‘Petese Stories.’’ The oldest fragment comes from the Sacred
Animal Necropolis at Saqqara, while the other three manuscripts belong to the
Tebtunis temple library, attesting to a history of textual transmission and adaptation
of at least 400 to 500 years.
Despite the limitations of our evidence, a few preliminary comments can be made
about the contexts of production, transmission, and reception. Most Demotic literary
manuscripts date to the late Ptolemaic or Roman period, but this should not neces-
sarily lead to the conclusion that Demotic literature only bloomed late. The formative
period of Demotic literature was probably the Saite period (664–525 BCE ), even
though only a single narrative in hieratic has been preserved for this period
(Posener 1985). Of Persian date is a fragmentary Aramaic manuscript containing a
narrative about the Egyptian magician ‘‘Hor, son of Pewenesh,’’ who also occurs as a
main character in a Demotic narrative preserved in a Roman-period manuscript
(Porten 2004). Most likely the Aramaic text is a translation from the Egyptian, so
that a version of the Demotic narrative must have circulated as early as the Persian
period. These early texts confirm what is suggested by the abundance and variety of
the narratives from the Sacred Animal Necropolis at Saqqara: already in the early
Ptolemaic period Demotic literature had a rich and mature narrative tradition. The
paucity of preserved literary texts for the period between the New Kingdom and the
Ptolemaic period (1070–305 BCE ) is no evidence for a dwindling literary output or a
creative impasse, but the result of mere chance. Recent research has also demon-
strated that several literary texts of pharaonic date kept being copied well into the
Late Period, much longer than was previously assumed (Jasnow 1999; Verhoeven
1999). Demotic literature thus did not emerge in a wasteland, but continued a lively
tradition of composing and transmitting literary texts.
The earliest manuscript preserving an Egyptian literary text written in Greek, here
called Greco-Egyptian literature, dates to the second quarter of the second century
BCE and comes from the katokhē archive from the Serapeum in Saqqara. It is a copy of
the beginning of a narrative, merely the frame story, today known as ‘‘Nectanebo’s
Dream’’ (Gauger 2002), which has an almost word-for-word parallel in a very small
fragment with Demotic writing from the Tebtunis temple library. Three Demotic
scribal exercises, also from the Tebtunis temple library, preserve the opening of what
probably was a sequel to the story (Ryholt 2002a). The works of the Egyptian priest
Manetho and the Isis and Sarapis aretalogies, discussed below, also testify to the
production of Egyptian literature in Greek in the early to middle Ptolemaic period.
A recurring motif in these works is the presentation of the text as a translation of an
Egyptian original. In a fair number of cases such claims may be true and should not be
dismissed as a mere fiction to imbue the text with authority. Some texts are indeed
434 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

attested in both a Demotic and Greek version. Whether or not the motif of transla-
tion was sometimes fictive, correspondences in genre, phraseology, and subject
matter between Demotic and Greco-Egyptian texts demonstrate that they do not
belong to separate traditions but were produced in a similar cultural environment, if
perhaps for a different target audience.
The discovery of Demotic literary manuscripts in temple libraries, a dump within a
temple precinct, and funerary contexts suggests that the production and reception of
Demotic literature must be situated within an indigenous priestly milieu (Tait 1992).
This agrees well with the subject matter and social setting of most of the narratives.
The katokhē archive from the Memphite Serapeum, however, is of a different nature.
Beyond the usual letters, petitions, and accounts, and the Greek version of
‘‘Nectanebo’s Dream,’’ it holds three short instruction texts in Demotic, excerpts
from Greek drama (Euripides, Aeschylus, Menander, and another comic poet),
epigrams of Posidippus, and Greek philosophical and astronomical works
(Thompson 1988: 252–63). This bilingual archive belonged to Ptolemaeus, son of
Glaucias, a man of Macedonian descent who lived as a recluse of very modest means
in the Serapeum. Though Ptolemaeus, his brother Apollonius and his Egyptian friend
Hermais were strictly speaking not priests, they lived within the temple precinct and
probably acquired Egyptian literary texts through contacts with priests. This setting
demonstrates that the audiences of Greek, Demotic, and Greco-Egyptian literature
were not as distinct as earlier views have sometimes suggested. A similar conclusion is
suggested by the numbers and distribution of manuscripts from the Fayum preserv-
ing Egyptian and Greek literature (Van Minnen 1998).

The Major Genres: Traditions and Transformations

Egyptian literature of the Ptolemaic period continued an age-old indigenous tradition
of literary production. It should therefore not be studied in isolation from the earlier,
formative periods of Egyptian literature. The most challenging issue for scholars of later
Egyptian literature is the interplay between continuity and innovation with respect to
motifs, themes, and narrative structures in light of the dramatic changes in the political,
cultural, and demographic landscape that occurred in the Persian and Ptolemaic
periods. These aspects can best be studied in the literary texts composed in Demotic
and Greek. Texts written in Late Classical Egyptian were of a highly standardized nature
and of limited distribution, either because they were executed in stone and thus
immovable (e.g., temple texts and autobiographies) or because they contained special-
ized knowledge forbidden to all but priests (e.g., ritual handbooks, funerary literature
and priestly manuals; Baines 2004). Demotic and Greco-Egyptian literature had a wider
distribution and were the products of a lively scribal culture in which new texts were
composed and earlier texts collected, copied, translated, and modified.
The pharaonic roots of Egyptian literature of the Ptolemaic period can best be
observed in the main textual categories, which basically carry on the literary genres of
earlier periods: autobiography, narrative, instruction, dialogue, lamentation or pro-
phetic discourse, and satirical songs.
 Egyptian Literature 435

Autobiographies, which start to appear as early as 2500 BCE , constitute the

earliest, simplest, and most significant genre of Egyptian literature, out of which
instruction and narrative developed. In the Ptolemaic period autobiographies were
composed in Late Classical Egyptian, but occasionally also in Demotic. They were
written on a stele or statue, and commissioned only by high-ranking priests and
officials for themselves or family members as part of their burial equipment or a
votive gift to a deity. In addition to the usual list of priestly or official titles and
succinct descriptions of career achievements the texts stress a person’s rectitude,
resolve and piety, usually in stock phrases, some of considerable antiquity, that
continue a long tradition of moralistic self-presentation (Otto 1954; Derchain
2000; Jansen-Winkeln 2001). Rather than documenting particular biographical or
historical events, most texts portray timeless model characters who are unaffected by
historical circumstances (Zivie-Coche 2004: 291–3).
Narratives, judging from the number of preserved copies, represented the most
popular and productive genre of literature in Ptolemaic Egypt. Compared to stories
of the Middle and New Kingdom they also generally appear to have been of greater
length. As a rule, the plot is set in a past when Egypt was still an independent state
under an indigenous ruler. The opening line identifies the historical setting with a
phrase such as ‘‘It happened one day in the reign of pharaoh N.’’ The reigns to which
the stories are dated range from the beginning to the end of pharaonic history (Quack
2005: 24–65). The frequent occurrence of anachronisms and fantastical elements
demonstrates that the authors were led by a cultural memory of the past rather than
historical facts.
The stories are told by an anonymous, external narrator who describes in relatively
plain language the characters and events and seldom gives a comment or addresses the
reader. Not infrequently an episode is narrated through a character’s embedded
speech, thus producing a story within a story, sometimes of considerable length.
The plot develops around a main character, frequently a historic figure, who is a man
of extraordinary abilities, either as a ritual specialist or as a warrior, and usually serving
at, or in contact with, the royal court. The king plays most often a secondary, if not
passive role, even if the events are critical to the survival of Egypt as an independent
state and harmonious society. In most cases the royal court serves as the arena of
dispute and display, where the story finds its beginning and happy ending. The world
outside is a place of danger and conflict, where the main characters are tested, have to
correct past mistakes, or fight against enemies of all sorts. Foreign regions from
Nubia to Arabia, Mesopotamia, and India serve as places of action, but the texts are
little concerned with describing these locations beyond mentioning names, and most
characters seem to remain unaffected by their travel experiences (Vittmann 2006).
A characteristic of Demotic narrative literature is the existence of story cycles.
Three cycles have been identified on the basis of the central characters and subject
matter. One evolves around Setne Khamwase, whose interest in ancient texts and
magic motivates the plots. He is modeled after the historic Khaemwaset, fourth son
of Ramesses II (c.1279–1213 BCE ), high priest of Ptah in Memphis, and renowned
antiquarian. Knowledge of magic also plays a central role in the stories of the Atum
priesthood at Heliopolis, of which the Petese story sequence is best preserved. This
Petese may be identical with the sage Petese who was remembered for his arcane
436 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

knowledge in the technical hermetica (Ryholt 1999: 81–2; Quack 2002; Ryholt
2006: 1–19). Of a different nature are the stories of the Inaros–Petubastis complex,
which deal with the adventures and heroic deeds of Inaros and, after his death, of
members of his extended family (Quack 2005: 44–61). Instead of magicians perform-
ing cunning feats, these tales portray warriors who prove their valor, loyalty, and
honor in battle. Their historical background is the early seventh century BCE , when
the local rulers Petubastis II of Tanis and Inaros of Athribis fought against the
invading Assyrians.
Narratives were undoubtedly composed, read, and copied for multiple reasons. To
assume that they were only appreciated for their entertainment value and literary
merit is probably mistaken, since as much as 25 percent of the texts in the Tebtunis
temple library are narratives. Given their historical subject matter, it is very well
possible that priests perceived and collected the narratives as testimonies – or even
historical records – of the heroes and glorious past of pharaonic Egypt (Ryholt 2005:
147, 154–7). This would also explain why Manetho’s narrative accounts of Egyptian
kings are strikingly similar in tone, structure, and subject matter. In fact, the Pherōs
story, known from Herodotus (2.111), Diodorus Siculus (1.59), and Pliny the Elder
(NH 36.74), is attested as a short story in the Petese story sequence (Ryholt 2006:
31–58).
In addition, the narratives propagate a set of traditional norms and values, which
the main characters either embody or learn to recognize as just by bitter experience.
As such the narratives also had a didactic function and served as vehicles for promot-
ing and reinforcing a cultural and social identity for an indigenous elite that strove to
maintain traditional values and social structures and sought for role models in the
pharaonic past. In the stories about magic, the ideal is to be a ‘‘good scribe and wise
man’’ (sh nfr rmt rh), a priest who is pious, conscientious, and strictly adheres to the
cultic prescriptions ˘ and taboos (Dieleman 2005: 214–18, 237–8). In the Inaros–
Petubastis texts the warrior (rmt :kn:kn) sets the standard by his courage, loyalty,
decisiveness, physical prowess, and knowledge of fighting (sb ’ mšs). These are two
rather different types, but both are capable through their respective skills, ingenuity,
and determination, to overcome Egypt’s enemies and restore order when the state
comes under threat.
The story sequence of Petese son of Petetum, of which four fragmentary manu-
scripts have been preserved, is less concerned with male identity than with the virtues
and vices of women (Ryholt 1999, 2006). Thirty-five stories of ‘‘praise of women’’
alternate with 35 stories of ‘‘scorn of women’’ embedded in a frame story about the
Heliopolitan priest Petese. Petese learned that he had only 40 days left to live and
ordered two baboons modeled out of wax to collect for him 70 stories of good and
bad women as a literary testament to his memory. Female virtue is defined in terms of
chastity, frugality, and restraint, whereas wicked women are adulterous, selfish, and
prodigal. The stories are burlesque and racy and surely invited a good laugh within a
male audience, but their didactic nature should not be underestimated, as is borne
out by the fact that their view of female nature is in exact agreement with the
discourse on women of the instruction texts (Dieleman 1998).
Narratives could also serve as a means to rewrite recent history, as the plot of the
already-mentioned story ‘‘Nectanebo’s Dream’’ suggests. The frame tells how king
 Egyptian Literature 437

Nectanebo II, Egypt’s last native king (359–342 BCE ), once saw in a dream the god
Onuris complaining to Isis that the inscriptions in the sanctuary of his temple in
Sebennytos were left unfinished. When he woke up Nectanebo immediately ordered
the sculptor Petesis to complete the work, but Petesis failed due to his weakness for
wine and women. At this point the Greek version breaks off, but references to Petesis’
misery, a prophecy, and invading foreigners in the preserved portion of the sequel
suggest that Petesis’ indolence resulted in disaster (Ryholt 2002a: 232–7). In light of
Nectanebo’s role in the Alexander Romance and the below-mentioned prophetic
texts, the story has often been read as a conscious effort on the part of the Egyptian
priesthood to represent Alexander’s invasion of Egypt as divine retribution for
Nectanebo’s failure to satisfy the gods (see also Alexander Romance 1.3.1–2 in
Kroll 1926; translation Stoneman 1991: 36–7).
Animal fables, attested in very small numbers, constitute a distinct narrative genre.
Several are embedded as moralizing tales in the ‘‘Myth of the Sun’s Eye’’ (discussed
below) and one is preserved as a scribal exercise; a canonical compilation of animal
fables such as the Aesopica is not known for Egypt. These short, satirical narratives
feature animals acting and speaking as humans with the aim of exposing and mocking
human flaws such as arrogance, pride, and slyness. The earliest traces of the genre can
be found in drawings of animals engaged in human activities dating to the Ramesside
period (c.1290–1070 BCE ; Brunner-Traut 1968). Parallels with foreign traditions are
undeniable in certain fables, but it remains impossible to determine whether Egypt
was the recipient or donor of the motifs. ‘‘The Fable of the Swallow and the Sea,’’
preserved as a scribal exercise on a jar, reveals similarities in its basic plot structure
with an animal fable in the Indian Panchatantra collection (1.12), which may be as
old as the second century BCE ; similarities have also been noted with a Jewish
Aggadeh story and an episode in Plutarch’s Banquet of the Seven Sages (Conv. 6,
150f–151e; Collombert 2002: 68–73). Embedded in the ‘‘Myth of the Sun’s Eye’’ is
‘‘The Fable of the Lion and the Mouse,’’ which is also known from the Aesop
collection.
Instruction texts represented an important genre since the emergence of Egyptian
literature in the Middle Kingdom. In the classic format, a father teaches his son the
rules of proper conduct and how to be a competent, dependable, and responsible
member of one’s household and society at large. Unlike the instruction texts of the
Middle and New Kingdom, Demotic teachings are not made up of stanzas which
develop a thought over a few lines, but of self-contained aphorisms or maxims written
on a single line each, and they display only a very loose sense of coherence and unity.
This noteworthy shift was once explained with reference to the Hellenistic gnomo-
logical tradition, but the ‘‘Brooklyn Instruction Text’’ now suggests that the format
was already under development in the Saite period (664–525 BCE ) and thus probably
came about without foreign influence (Lichtheim 1983; Jasnow 1992; Lazaridis
2007: 241–3). The relatively low number of instruction texts in the Tebtunis
Temple Library may indicate that they were less popular than narratives (Quack
2005: 96). Nonetheless, both the so-called ‘‘Demotic Wisdom Book’’ and the
‘‘Instructions of Onchsheshonqy’’ are preserved in several (some very fragmentary)
versions, which show considerable variation in the phrasing and sequence of the
proverbs. The ‘‘Instructions of Onchsheshonqy’’ has a narrative introduction (also
438 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

preserved as an independent composition) relating how Onchsheshonqy ended up in

prison for not having divulged a plot against pharaoh’s life sometime in the Saite
period. As a prisoner, he had no other option for educating his son than by writing his
teaching on the shards of the jars of mixed wine brought to him daily. The plot is
strikingly reminiscent of the Aramaic ‘‘Tale of Ahiqar,’’ whose earliest attestation is in
a fifth-century BCE manuscript from the Jewish quarter at Elephantine (Porten and
Yardeni 1993: 22–53; Knippschild in this volume). An Egyptian translation of the
Ahiqar story is indeed attested in a number of Roman period papyrus fragments, so
that influence from the Aramaic literary tradition cannot be excluded.
Dialogues are also attested as a literary genre since the Middle Kingdom. The
format consists of two people discussing a topic of a moral nature, which setting
allows for a difference of opinion, objections being raised, and further elaborations.
Instead of giving straightforward instructions and prohibitions, this type of literature
is rather concerned with documenting the process of acquiring knowledge and
insight. The preserved versions of the ‘‘Myth of the Sun’s Eye’’ and the ‘‘Book of
Thoth,’’ two elaborate dialogues in Demotic, contain editorial glosses indicating
variant readings found in the earlier versions that were used for making the extant
recensions. This method of glossing was an old scribal technique, but reserved for
religious texts and priestly manuals only. Thus, rather than entertainment literature,
these two dialogues were considered priestly knowledge, and they possibly circulated
in temple scriptoria only.
The ‘‘Myth of the Sun’s Eye,’’ preserved in at least eight Demotic versions and a
Greek translation, is a dialogue between a ‘‘small dog ape’’ and a ‘‘Nubian cat’’ which
represent respectively the deities Thoth, god of knowledge and wisdom, and Tefnut,
the daughter and eye of the sun god (Quack 2005: 128–39). The underlying plot is
the ‘‘Myth of the Distant Goddess,’’ well known from contemporary hieroglyphic
temple texts and earlier sources, which relates how Tefnut was angry with her father
Re, went to Nubia, and had to be entreated to come back to Egypt. In the present
dialogue, the dog ape tactfully assuages the Nubian cat and persuades her to return
and accept Egypt as her true homestead by telling animal fables and explaining
proverbs to make her understand that each being has been assigned a particular role
and position in nature and that god’s plan and fate cannot be denied. Directions for
the use of the voice included in the text may indicate that it was meant to be read
aloud in front of an audience.
The ‘‘Book of Thoth’’ is a conversation, basically in question and answer format,
between a mentor, called ‘‘He-of-Heseret’’ or ‘‘He-who-praises-knowledge,’’ who is
possibly identical with Thoth, and a student called ‘‘He-who-loves-knowledge’’ or
‘‘He-who-wishes-to-learn’’ (Jasnow and Zauzich 2005; Quack 2007). The composi-
tion is preserved in at least one hieratic and about 30 Demotic manuscripts, all of
which date to the Roman period, except for one manuscript of possibly late Ptolemaic
date. The mentor guides the aspiring initiate into the mysteries of the House of Life
and the scribal profession. The House of Life was the temple’s cultic library where
ritual handbooks were composed, copied, and stored, and where rituals for Osiris and
the preservation of life were performed. The text’s tutorial format and the reference
to Thoth as ‘‘The-thrice-great’’ (B02, 9/7) suggest that the ‘‘Book of Thoth’’
constitutes an early representative of the Greco-Egyptian traditions around Hermes
 Egyptian Literature 439

Trismegistus, which became widely popular in the Roman period and later. However,
on the level of the subject matter, parallels between the ‘‘Book of Thoth’’ and the
later Hermetica are less evident.
In Egyptian lamentations or prophecies, an inspired speaker delivers a dramatic
monologue in front of an audience, usually the royal court, which listens without
intervening to the speaker’s descriptions of cosmic and social upheaval. The typical
lamentations of the Middle Kingdom can be read as literary reflections on the validity
and limits of society’s ideal norms and values as propagated in official discourse
(Parkinson 2002: 193–234). ‘‘The Words of Neferti,’’ an ex eventu prophecy fore-
telling a return to order and stability under king Amenemhat I (c.1991–1962 BCE ),
mobilized this generic form to generate legitimacy and loyalty for the first rulers of
the twelfth dynasty, who presented themselves as saviors bringing order out of chaos.
In the Ptolemaic period the so-called ‘‘Oracle of the Lamb,’’ ‘‘Potter’s Oracle,’’ and
‘‘Demotic Oracle’’ continued this tradition of prophetic chaos descriptions, with the
difference that the return to indigenous rule and order was now projected into a
distant or even undefined future (all relevant sources in Blasius and Schipper 2002).
Nature and society will be in disarray, the cult will not be properly performed or
abandoned altogether, and a foreign king will invade Egypt, taking over power and
deporting the statues of the gods. Some scholars have termed these texts apocalyptic,
even though they foretell a return to the old order rather than the advent of a
radically new age (Blasius and Schipper 2002: 298–302).
The ‘‘Oracle of the Lamb,’’ preserved in one Demotic manuscript from
Soknopaiou Nesos (but known already to Manetho in the early Ptolemaic period),
is allegedly an oracle spoken by a lamb in the days of King Bocchoris (722–715 BCE ).
The foreign king is identified as ‘‘the Mede’’ (I/22 and II/21), possibly a reference
to Antiochus IV, who invaded Egypt in 170/69–168 BCE (Thissen 2002: 123–4).
After 900 years, an indigenous savior king, ‘‘he of 55 (years)’’ (II/5) will overthrow
the foreigners, ransack Nineveh, take control over Syria, and bring back the cult
statues. The conflation of the Assyrian, Persian, and Seleucid empires demonstrates
that the text, as it is preserved, is not concerned with one particular moment in time,
but rather with the idea and trauma of foreign invasion and occupation.
The ‘‘Potter’s Oracle,’’ partly preserved in five Greek recensions of Ptolemaic and
Roman date, is presented as the plea of an indignant potter to king Amenhotep III
(c.1390–1353 BCE ) predicting the destruction of Egypt just as he was mistreated,
unjustly, himself. The text mentions the oracle of the lamb and ‘‘he of 55 (years)’’ as a
savior king, but the foreigners are called here ‘‘Typhonians’’ and ‘‘girdle-wearers’’
whose king founded Alexandria. Due to their lawlessness and impiety the Typhonians
will eventually destroy themselves, and the Agathos Daimon will leave Alexandria and
return to Memphis as the primeval snake Kmephis, together with the statues of the gods.
In the midst of this chaos, a hateful king from Syria will invade Egypt, but one day ‘‘he of
55 years, sent by the sun god’’ (P3 IV.64) will regain control and establish law and order.
The ‘‘Demotic Oracle’’ (misleadingly named the ‘‘Demotic Chronicle’’ in the past)
represents a prophetic text of a slightly different nature (Felber 2002). Preserved in an
early Ptolemaic manuscript, it gives interpretations of oracular utterances and is
primarily concerned with assessing in retrospect the piety and virtue of the indigenous
rulers of the twenty-eighth to thirtieth dynasties (404–343 BCE ) in relation to ‘‘the
440 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

law,’’ a new Late Egyptian concept reminiscent of Deuteronomistic kingship ideology

rather than pharaonic ma’at theology (Johnson 1983; Assmann 2003: 378–81, 384).
The text foretells how a native ruler from Herakleopolis will start an uprising and rule
after the Greeks, but due to the text’s enigmatic language much remains unclear.
In the past scholars have read the three texts as anti-Hellenic propaganda, possibly
even written to legitimize and stir support for indigenous uprisings against Ptolemaic
rule. However, purely ‘‘nationalistic’’ explanations of the major rebellions have come
under question, and other social and economic tensions have been identified as
factors in these unrests, which had Egyptians and Greeks on both sides (McGing
1997, 2006; Veı̈sse 2004). Recent scholarship, moreover, has played down the sharp
divide between native Egyptians and Greeks by stressing the multicultural and bilin-
gual character of society in the chora (Johnson 1992; Blasius and Schipper 2002:
294–8). The texts might just as well reflect tensions between chora and Alexandria,
periphery and center, tradition and innovation.
Satirical songs stand out for their metrical form and bawdy character. To date only
the ‘‘Harpist’s Song’’ and the ‘‘Songs for the Bastet Festival’’ are known, but the
genre may have been more popular and widespread than previously thought. These
Demotic compositions celebrate sexuality, gluttony, and drunkenness. Due to their
fragmentary state of preservation, their origin and performance setting remain con-
troversial. The singular ‘‘Harper’s Song,’’ whose preserved five columns are a mock-
ery of a harper named Hor-Oudja, has been regarded as an Egyptian adaptation of the
Greek genre of the invective (Thissen 1992: 13–15). However, the newly discovered
‘‘Songs for the Bastet Festival’’ make it more plausible to associate the genre with the
drinking festivals described by Herodotus (2.60) and known from other Egyptian
sources (Depauw and Smith 2004; Hoffmann and Quack 2007: 305–11).

A Borderland of Greek and Egyptian Literature

The genres just surveyed lay out the boundaries of Demotic Egyptian literature, a
literature that was produced and read by Egyptians of priestly background and
education and that generally presumed and re-articulated the norms and values of
this elite milieu. Several of the texts, however, have also attracted the attention of
scholars pursuing the question of interplay between Egyptian and Greek literature.
Narrative has been particularly prominent in this debate. The heroic deeds and one-
on-one battles in the Inaros–Petubastis complex, it has been argued, were composed
under the influence of Greek epic literature (Volten 1956 with ensuing discussions in
Hoffmann 1996; Vittmann 1998; Thissen 1999), while the Egyptian narrative trad-
ition, particularly in the period of Demotic literature, has been cited as a major factor
in the development of the Greek novel. The fundamental early argument in favor of
the latter (Barns 1956) pointed to the late emergence of prose fiction in the history of
Greek literature, broad parallels in themes between the novels and Egyptian narra-
tives, the prominence of Egypt in the Greek novels, and the existence of Greek
translations from Demotic such as ‘‘Nectanebo’s Dream’’ and the ‘‘Myth of the
Sun’s Eye.’’ This was in part a refutation of the extremely Hellenocentric theories
 Egyptian Literature 441

of Rohde (1876), but the debate over Egyptian influences in the novel continues.
Classicists have tended to emphasize the Greekness of the Greek novel, and some
have recently downplayed the impact of Egyptian narrative literature on the forma-
tion of the genre as a whole (e.g., Stephens and Winkler 1995: 11–18). Others accept
that Greek–Egyptian interactions played a productive role (see the balanced assess-
ment of Whitmarsh in this volume), and some studies have traced the origins of
particular motifs such as magician-priests and stories of boukoloi-bandits to Egyptian
literature (Rutherford 1997, 2000).
Whatever the outcome for the history of the Greek novel, this ongoing discussion
emphasizes the place of narrative fiction as a borderland between Greek and Egyptian
literary traditions. This fact in itself merits consideration for whatever light it can shed
on the strategies of mutual interpretation or even misinterpretation at the interface
between Greek and Egyptian literatures. Narrative, which has been described as
‘‘transcultural’’ and (unlike, e.g., lyric poetry) ‘‘translatable without fundamental
damage’’ (Barthes 1977: 79, 121), appears to have been a privileged vehicle for this
interaction; it more easily crossed the barriers of language or generic expectations that
separated Greek and Egyptian literary communities. As outlined above, however,
there were also clearly some individuals, predominantly among the indigenous elite,
who could participate in both communities, and they were undoubtedly the ones
producing translations of Egyptian narratives or composing new ones in Greek. In
such texts, it is possible to detect continuities with Egyptian narrative literature, but
also efforts to translate these traditions for a Greek audience while exploring the
literary possibilities and complexities of a dual Greco-Egyptian readership.
The evidence for the transmission of narratives goes back at least to Herodotus,
many of whose stories about Egyptian kings undoubtedly derived from indigenous
sources (Lloyd 1988: 24–7, 38–44; Moyer 2002). This was long suspected, and is
now given added support by the discovery of a Demotic version of the Pherōs story
(mentioned above; Ryholt 2006: 31–58) and the legend of Sesostris in two Roman-
period Demotic manuscripts (Widmer 2002: 387–93). The latter king, variously
transliterated as Sesostris, Sesoösis, or Sesonchosis, conflates two great Middle
Kingdom military pharaohs (Senwosret I and III) and possibly also the Libyan dynast
Sheshonq I (Malaise 1966; Widmer 2002: 392). This composite legendary figure is
also attested in other Greek sources (e.g., Manetho Dyn. 12.3 ¼ FGrH 609 F 2, F 3a–
b; A.R. 4.272–81; D.S. 1.53–9; Str. 15.1.6, 16.4.4), including papyrus fragments of a
text known as the Sesonchosis Romance (Stephens and Winkler 1995: 246–66). Stories
of a pharaoh of the glorious Egyptian past served to rival more recent conquerors,
whether Persian (Hdt. 2.110.2–3) or Macedonian (D.S. 1.55.2–3). The Sesonchosis
Romance treats a military campaign against Arabia (cf. D.S. 1.53.5), but also adds a
love story between Sesonchosis and a certain Meameris. The names in these frag-
ments, along with certain phrases paralleled in documentary papyri, suggest that this
was an Egyptian composition or translation (Stephens and Winkler 1995: 248–9),
perhaps related to the Demotic text which mentions, among other military ventures,
Sesostris’ campaign against Arabia (Widmer 2002: 390).
In the Alexander Romance, the Macedonian conqueror is assimilated to his
Egyptian predecessor as the ‘‘new Sesostris, ruler of the world’’ (1.34.2 Kroll 1926;
cf. 3.34.4), and in several versions Alexander finds the traces of Sesostris’ earlier
442 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

conquests as he pursues his own (e.g., 3.17.17). The Egyptian orientation of this
comparison is also evident in other segments of the complex Alexander Romance
tradition, the earliest elements of which have been identified as originating in early
Ptolemaic Egypt (Stoneman 1994: 122–3; Fraser 1996: 211–14; Whitmarsh in this
volume). The most notable evidence for this is the tale of Nectanebo’s magical
deception of Olympias (1.1–12), closely modeled upon the Egyptian myth of royal
succession, which results in Alexander’s over-determined paternal descent from both
the last native pharaoh of Egypt and the god Amun. Since the Nectanebo episode
begins with the pharaoh performing divinatory rites and realizing that the gods are
against him, the story can be connected to ‘‘Nectanebo’s Dream’’ (Ryholt 2002a).
Whether a translation from Egyptian (Jasnow 1997) or a new composition loosely
connected to the other Greek and Demotic Nectanebo stories, this episode provides
an excellent example of the duality of Greco-Egyptian fiction, since its twists and
turns can be read against both the ideological background of Egyptian kingship and
Greek traditions of the divine ancestry of heroes (Stephens 2003: 64–72; see also
Selden 1994). Like other Egyptian narratives, the Nectanebo episode is more than
just salacious entertainment, since it also explains recent history as a continuation of
Egyptian traditions and paradigms of kingship; Alexander’s ‘‘illegitimate’’ birth
makes him a legitimate pharaoh.
The normative and didactic dimensions of Egyptian narratives and their elabo-
ration of religious, political, and social discourses were also exploited by Manetho in
composing his Aegyptiaca, an Egyptian history in Greek now preserved only in
epitomes and fragments (FGrH 609). Manetho, a priest from Sebennytos, served as
an indigenous interpreter of Egyptian religion, history, and culture at the Alexandrian
court under Soter and Philadelphus and probably into the early years of Euergetes
(280s–240s BCE ). Aside from the Aegyptiaca, his intercultural activities may have
included a role in the development of the Alexandrian version of Sarapis and the
composition of several works on Egyptian religion as well as Criticisms of Herodotus
(FGrH 609 T 9, F 13–15, 16a, 17). The latter work, however, may be identical with
the Aegyptiaca, in which he clearly engages with Greek traditions on the Egyptian
past. The fact that he knew Herodotus and composed his history as a series of
narratives has led many Classicists to view Manetho’s work as dependent on Greek
historiographical traditions (Murray 1972: 209; Fraser 1972: 1.506–9; Dillery
1999). This view inadequately addresses the overall structure of the work, which, as
many Egyptologists have observed, takes the form of a traditional Egyptian king list
elaborated by the insertion of stories derived from Egyptian narrative literature and
other observations on various kings (Redford 1986: 225–6; Lloyd 1975–8: 1. 110–
11). Manetho’s history is thus not an imitation of Greek historiography, but rather a
response to it in the form of an innovative combination of traditional Egyptian genres
translated and re-interpreted for a Greek-reading audience (cf. Knippschild in this
volume on Berossus and Mesopotamian king lists). Through a structure that looks
like a series of lemmata and comments, Manetho elaborates an implicit pattern of
ideal kingship based on a series of good and bad kings, and their fates. In this, his
work is comparable to the ‘‘Demotic Oracle,’’ discussed above, which consist of a
series of oracular statements and interpretations retrospectively evaluating the reigns
of late Egyptian kings (Johnson 1983; Felber 2002).
 Egyptian Literature 443

Manetho’s history, fragmentary though its remains are, provides relatively straight-
forward evidence of knowledge passing between the Egyptian temple scriptoria and
Greek intellectuals, but there are also tantalizing glimpses of such circulation in the
papyri. Peter van Minnen’s overview of literature preserved in Fayum villages (1998)
reveals a large quantity of technical literature, especially medical, mathematical, and
astrological texts, in both Greek and Demotic. The astrological texts from Tebtunis and
Soknopaiou Nesos are especially noteworthy, since they provide a social and cultural
milieu for one of the distinctive Greco-Egyptian contributions to Hellenistic literature:
the astrological treatises penned under the names of Nechepso and Petosiris. The
earliest datable references place their origins in second century BCE Ptolemaic Egypt,
but they continued to have considerable authoritative weight in Roman-period astro-
logical works (Fraser 1972: 1.436–7; fragments in Riess 1892). The literary conven-
tions of the Nechepso–Petosiris tradition were used to integrate a heterogeneous array
of ideas and practices into an Egyptian scheme for authorizing knowledge. Nechepso,
the historical Necho II of the Saite twenty-sixth dynasty, is often referred to simply as
‘‘the king,’’ while Petosiris seems to have played the role of a priest. Several fragments
suggest that communications between the two provided the literary frame for the divine
astrological wisdom transmitted under their names, recalling the Demotic literary
convention mentioned above in which prophecies and narratives are recounted to the
king at court. This has been given further support by the recent discovery of fragments
of the Nechepso–Petosiris literature in Demotic (Ryholt 2008).
To the evidence of the Fayum survey and the Nechepso–Petosiris tradition must
also be added a pair of Ptolemaic astronomical-calendrical texts that explicitly evoke
the communication between Greeks and Egyptians. The Art of Eudoxus (P.Par. 1;
Blass 1887; Neugebauer 1975: 2.686–9) is a pseudepigraphical work of the early
second century BCE which draws on the astronomical ideas of the fourth-century
scientist, some of which he allegedly developed while studying with Egyptian priests
at Heliopolis (D.L. 8.8.87, 90; Str. 17.1.29, 30; Plu. De Is. et Os. 10; Lasserre 1966:
T 7, 12–13, 17; Griffiths 1965). The manuscript, preserved in the bilingual Serapeum
archive of Ptolemaeus mentioned above, seems to allude to these Egyptian connec-
tions with illustrations of a scarab, mummified ibis, and baboon (Neugebauer 1975:
3.1435, pl. VII ; Thompson 1988: 252–4). A calendar for the Saite nome, dated 301–
240 BCE , parallels phrases from the Art of Eudoxus, though in its short epistolary
prologue the author refers to a wise man from Sais as his source (P.Hibeh 27.ii.19–
22). These and other Ptolemaic Egyptian technical texts merit further investigation,
not least for their possible connections to the Hermetic literature discussed above.

Tradition and Innovation in an Intercultural Poetics

Narrative literature and technical treatises reveal both continuities and transformations
of traditional Egyptian forms. Authors of Greco-Egyptian literature could also adopt
more strikingly innovative approaches (from an Egyptian perspective) when they used
the language and formal conventions of Greek poetry. The range of possibilities is
evident in the Greek hymns honoring Egyptian gods, particularly a group of closely
444 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

related Isis hymns long studied as part of Hellenistic aretalogical literature. At the core
of this group is the so-called Kyme aretalogy (IKyme 41; IG XII Suppl. 14, pp. 98–9),
which consists of a long series of first-person self-predications by the goddess (‘‘I am
Isis, mistress of all the land; I was instructed by Hermes and I discovered writing with
Hermes . . . I established laws for men’’). This text is also preserved in three other
partial versions: inscriptions from Thessaloniki (IG X(2).1.254) and Ios (IG XII Suppl.
14, p. 98), and a passage from Diodorus Siculus’ account of Egypt (1.27.3–4). There
are two other related inscriptions from Andros and Maroneia which treat many of the
same themes, though in different forms (see below). The Kyme inscription explicitly
claims Egyptian origins by stating that the Greek text was copied from a stele standing
near the temple of Ptah in Memphis, a tradition partly confirmed by the testimony of
Diodorus, who adds that the original was composed in hieroglyphs (1.22.2, 27.3–4).
The Egyptian character of the text, its Memphite origins, and the question whether it
was first composed in Greek or Egyptian have been much debated (Grandjean 1975:
12–15; Fowden 1986: 46–8; Versnel 1998: 41–4; Dousa 2002: 149–51; Quack 2003:
319–24). The initial case for Egyptian origins met with stiff resistance by those who
saw the aretalogies as a thoroughly Hellenized representation of Isis, but their objec-
tions have been overcome by an accumulation of parallels in Egyptian hymns and other
liturgical and mythical texts belonging to the formal religious literature of the temples
(e.g., Harder 1944; Žabkar 1988; Quack 2003). In arguing for Greek or Egyptian
identity, however, both sides have at times pursued an untenable cultural essentialism.
Recent work has developed a more complex picture of continuity and transformation
by analyzing traditional characteristics of Isis as they appear in both the Greek hymns
and in contemporary Demotic literature (e.g., Dousa 2002, building especially on Ray
1976: 155–8, 174).
The formal qualities of these texts add to the complexities. The stichic declarations
of the Kyme aretalogy owe little to Greek hymns, and bear a closer resemblance to the
serial construction and parallelismus membrorum of poetic texts in Classical Egyptian
(Quack 2003: 332–5). The aretalogies from Andros and Maroneia, however, use
Greek literary forms to present much the same content (IG XII(5).739 ¼ Totti 1985:
no. 2; Grandjean 1975). This is particularly clear in the Andros inscription, which
casts the simple self-predications of the Kyme aretalogy in hexameters filled with
poetic vocabulary. This variation cannot be taken as evidence for a gradual process of
Hellenization resulting from the articulation of Egyptian traditions in Greek (contra
Fowden 1986: 45–8), since the inscriptions from Andros and Maroneia, dated to the
first century BCE and the late second/early first century BCE respectively, are in fact
among the earliest texts in this cluster of aretalogies. The Kyme, Thessaloniki, and Ios
inscriptions, on the other hand, range in date from the first to third centuries CE . The
original – if there ever was a single original – has not been recovered in Egypt or
elsewhere, so it is impossible to be certain of its form or language. It would, therefore,
be more prudent to consider the variations in poetic form as a spectrum of co-existent
options drawing upon Greek and Egyptian literary forms. The content, the range of
forms, and the dates of the earliest versions point to a genesis for this tradition in the
mixed cultural milieu of Ptolemaic Egypt in the second century BCE or earlier.
The production of Greco-Egyptian poetry in an Egyptian context can be explored
more directly through the Greek hymns of Isidorus found inscribed at the temple of
 Egyptian Literature 445

Renenutet in the Fayum village of Narmouthis (modern Medinet Madi). The most
recent editor dated the inscriptions to the 80s BCE (Vanderlip 1972; cf. Bollók 1974),
though composition in the third century BCE has also been proposed. The texts
themselves furnish what little is known about the author. The name Isidorus is
ostensibly Greek, but it is not uncommon for a theophoric name like this to translate
an Egyptian equivalent, in this case perhaps Petese. In one of the hymns, he explicitly
presents himself as translating Egyptian traditions for Greeks (4.18–19, 38–9),
though he makes no overt claim to have read Egyptian texts himself. Isidorus’ ethnic
or socio-linguistic identity is not entirely clear, but these few facts, together with the
content and form of the hymns, evoke a moment of literary communication between
the Greek immigrant and indigenous Egyptian communities in the Fayum.
Isidorus’ four hymns are arranged in two pairs on separate piers of the entry to the
outermost forecourt, and each pair consists of one hymn in hexameters and one in
elegiac couplets. The hymns on the west pier (1–2) honor Isis while identifying her
with Renenutet (known in Greek as Thermouthis or Hermouthis), an Egyptian
agricultural divinity prominent in the Fayum; those on the east (3–4) form a diptych
on kingship. Their origin in the Egyptian chora does not prevent these texts from
using a common Hellenistic language of praise and drawing on the same Greek poetic
traditions as the poetry of the Alexandrian court (Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004: 350–3,
360–3). The texts combine these Greek models with material explicitly derived from
Egyptian literature. This is especially apparent in the third and fourth hymns. The
third, in praising Isis-Hermouthis as a patron of kingship, presents in hexameters and
Homeric language an ideal ruler, likely an early Ptolemy, who is favored by the
goddess: a king who controls Europe and Asia, bringing peace, prosperity, and victory
in war. Though in line with Egyptian traditions, these are broad themes of Hellenistic
kingship. Juxtaposed to hymn 3, however, is a much more direct appeal to pharaonic
kingship. Hymn 4, the elegiac counterpart of hymn 3, honors Porammanres, i.e., the
twelfth dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat III (c.1818–1770 BCE ), who built the original
Renenutet temple at Narmouthis, and was active in the extension of irrigation and
settlement in the Fayum (like Ptolemy Philadelphus). The allusions in this hymn to
tales of the ancient king’s strange deeds and magical powers (4.11–20, 35–6), along
with calques on Egyptian phrases (4.23, 31) support Isidorus’ claim to have obtained
the material of this hymn from Egyptian sources. These neighboring inscriptions thus
embody not only the duality of Ptolemaic kingship, but also the double literary
position that a Ptolemaic author from the Egyptian countryside could occupy.
A small collection of less intensively studied texts from the Egyptian chora provides
further evidence for Greco-Egyptian poetry. Three stelai from Hassaia, the necropolis
of Apollinopolis Magna near Edfu, preserve funerary epigrams, all composed by a
certain Herodes, and all related to one small family (IMEG 5, 6, 35). The texts, which
date to the late second century BCE , are composed in elegiac couplets, exhibit
numerous Homeric usages, and dwell on themes familiar to Greek funerary epigrams.
The individuals mentioned all have Greek names, and the men were officers in the
Ptolemaic army, so the texts could have passed without much notice as the products
of Greek immigrant society in Egypt. A few clues, however, allow us to identify these
individuals with members of a priestly family with Egyptian names honored in
hieroglyphic funerary stelai (Cairo CG 22018, 22021, 22050). The examination of
446 Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer

these two sets of stelai reveals remarkable parallels between the titles, honors, and
familial relations mentioned in the Greek epigrams and those in the hieroglyphic
funerary texts, proving that we are dealing with two entirely different forms of literary
self-representation, Greek and Egyptian, used by a single family from the chora
(Yoyotte 1969). Read together, these texts also reveal the extent to which the
outward appearances of Greek names and Greek poetry can mask the Egyptian milieu
in which, and for which, Greco-Egyptian literature was produced. ‘‘Apollonius’’ is
also ‘‘Pashu’’; ‘‘Aphrodisia’’ is ‘‘Hathor-iity.’’ Their home, ‘‘the steep, sacred city of
Phoebus’’ (IMEG 5.10) is Edfu, the city of Horus. The ‘‘sacred seat of Persephone’’
in which they were laid to rest was in ‘‘the peaks of mountainous Bakhthis,’’ a Greek
rendering of Behdet, the ancient Egyptian name of Edfu (IMEG 35.1–6). This is not
a Greek poetry of dislocation or diaspora, but one that has roots in the Egyptian
landscape.

***
These inscriptions, then, like the papyrus texts discussed earlier in this chapter,
provoke reflection on the boundaries that scholars set when they understand the
language, generic categories, and formal conventions of Hellenistic literature in
Ptolemaic Egypt as a set of expectations negotiated between writers and a particular
readership. Such texts reveal that a Hellenistic literature in the language and idiom of
Greek traditions was at times produced and read in a mixed Greco-Egyptian milieu, at
least from the second quarter of the second century, when there was in any case more
overlap and interconnection between the social worlds of Greeks and Egyptians.
While these particular texts shed light only indirectly on the production and reception
context of third-century Alexandrian poetry, they are part of a broader history of
literary communication stretching back to the first Ptolemies. The outlines of this
history are evident in the texts discussed above, whether Egyptian–Greek translations,
or new compositions in Greek that have adapted inherited Egyptian genres or
narrative patterns to a new social and linguistic situation. These Greco-Egyptian
texts, together with the extensive (albeit fragmentary) evidence of Demotic literature,
form a body of Ptolemaic Egyptian literature created primarily, but perhaps not
exclusively, by the indigenous priestly classes. Egyptian writers produced and main-
tained a flourishing contemporary literature that continued and transformed long-
standing traditions rooted in the earlier history of pharaonic Egypt. The further
exploration of these texts, on which much work remains to be done, promises to
provide a fuller picture of the cultural horizons of the indigenous elite in the
Ptolemaic period and the knowledge, literary practices, and ideas they contributed
to the Hellenistic literary and intellectual encounter between Greeks and Egyptians.

FURTHER READING

The best introduction to Egyptian literature in Demotic and Greek is provided by Quack 2005,
a comprehensive and insightful survey of the genres and texts, in combination with Hoffmann
and Quack 2007, an anthology of German translations of the major texts. Both contain an
 Egyptian Literature 447

extensive bibliography with references to the editions of texts mentioned in this chapter. More
concise introductions, though outdated in certain respects, are Tait 1994, 1996 and Thissen
2004. English translations of selected Demotic texts can be found in Lichtheim 1980 and
Ritner’s contributions to Simpson 2003. Convenient handbooks for the study of Demotic texts
are Depauw 1997 and Hoffmann 2000. Translations of the relevant Greek texts are more
scattered. The Alexander Romance and the fragments of Sesonchosis can be found in Reardon
1989; the latter is also included in Stephens and Winkler 1995. Recent German translations of
the ‘‘Potter’s Oracle’’ and ‘‘Nectanebo’s Dream’’ along with discussion and bibliography can
be found in Blasius and Schipper 2002. English translations of Manetho: Waddell 1940 (Greek
text and translation); Verbrugge and Wickersham 1996. Bernand 1969 provides a collection of
the Greek metrical inscriptions from Egypt with French translations. For English translations of
Isidorus’ hymns, see Vanderlip 1972. Several of the Greek papyri and inscriptions are included
in the convenient collection of Totti 1985. For the socio-cultural context of indigenous
literature, see Tait 1992, who addresses the question of who produced and read Demotic
literature; Van Minnen 1998, who provides a useful survey of literary texts (both Greek and
Demotic) found in Fayum settlements; and Ryholt 2005, a preliminary assessment of the
holdings of the Tebtunis temple library. Issues of continuity and innovation in Demotic
literature are discussed in Vittmann 1998. Arguments for or against Greek influence in
Demotic literature are summarized in Hoffmann 1996, Thissen 1999, and Smith 2000. The
most extensive recent treatments of Egyptian influence in Greek literature are Selden 1998 and
Stephens 2003.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Literature in Western Asia

Silke Knippschild

After Alexander’s conquest of Asia and the end of the Persian Empire, new sovereigns
controlled Iran, Mesopotamia, and the Levant. The Seleucid dynasty, originating
with Seleucus I who had been given Babylon as his share of Alexander’s dominion,
controlled large parts of Western Asia. However, the Seleucid kings never managed to
establish lasting control over their possessions and during their reign various sections
of their territories achieved autonomy under different rulers. One effect of this
political instability manifested itself in the sphere of culture. Whereas tightly con-
trolled successor states such as Ptolemaic Egypt exhibited a certain uniformity, the
lands of Western Asia retained highly individual cultural characteristics. In other
words, they remained culturally independent and diverse, much as they had been
under Persian rule. One area in which this diversity is visible is literature, which
thrived under the new sovereigns just as it had under each of the preceding dynasties.
In Greek and Roman literature we encounter two ways of representing Western
Asia. On the one hand, authors present an idealized picture of the East and of its key
city, Babylon, a place associated with riches, culture, and grandeur. But we also
encounter an image of decline, decadence, and the downfall of culture, in particular
again regarding Babylon (Boiy 2004: 77–8). The city is portrayed as a wasteland,
mostly devoid of people, its buildings in ruins, the land within the famed city walls
used for farming. Alongside these ancient topoi stands the portrayal of a Western Asia
Hellenized in the wake of Alexander’s conquest of the Persian Empire, which was
created by twentieth-century scholarship. These images must be challenged.
As far as the material evidence is concerned, archaeology refutes the picture pre-
sented by ancient authors, both that of fabulous grandeur and that of decline and fall
(Boiy 2004: 55–97). The surviving texts likewise prove the image of the waning of
Western Asian literature and culture to be false. Literary traditions were cultivated
and existing works copied down to the end of the use of cuneiform script in the first
century CE (Geller 1997), and cuneiform texts were read until the second or third
 Literature in Western Asia 449

century CE (Geller 1995: 44; differently Westenholz 2007). Extant documents are
written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages, generally using the cuneiform
script, although every now and then Greek characters appear. A group of Sumerian
and Akkadian texts written in Greek script, apparently discovered in Babylon and now
in the keeping of the British Museum, comprises administrative documents, practice
texts from scribal schools, literary texts, incantations, and dedications. The reverse of
these clay tablets is generally written in cuneiform, while the obverse contains a
transliteration of the same text into the Greek alphabet. Although not many texts
of this type survive (edited in Geller 1997), it appears that the practice started in the
second century BCE , became popular in the first century BCE , and continued until
the second century CE (Geller 1997: 83–4). The texts from scribal schools demon-
strate familiarity with the enunciation of both Akkadian and Sumerian. The Greek
may have been used as guide for pronouncing the cuneiform scripts. Geller suggests
that the transliterations, which resemble Origen’s transliterations of Hebrew with
Greek letters of the third century CE , may be linked to the adoption of leather as
writing material in the second half of the second century BCE , as attested by, e.g.,
astronomical diaries, which coincides with the rising popularity of the school texts
(Geller 1997: 47–8, 68). Alphabetical scripts work well for writing on leather and
Greek letters were highly suitable for representing Akkadian vowels and consonants.
The adoption of this new system of writing for traditional literature shows that this
literature was very much alive and is indicative of the flexibility of the people writing
and reproducing it.
In addition to traditional forms of literature such as astronomical diaries or king
lists, the intercultural contact with the Greek world produced new types of writing,
such as the history of Western Asia in Greek by the Babylonian Berossus. In turn,
Greeks such as Ctesias of Cnidus and Apollodorus of Artemita, living in
Mesopotamia and Iran, also created reference works about their surroundings, their
time, and the history of these areas, enabling their fellow countrymen to gain access
to knowledge of these faraway regions in a familiar literary format. Some of the racier
stories presented by authors such as Ctesias also influenced the budding literary
genre of the Greek novel (Kuhrt 1995; Whitmarsh in this volume).
Nevertheless, this picture of continuity does not apply to all types of literature in
the area. Specific genres vanish, such as medical texts, which become rare and
eventually disappear completely in the early Hellenistic period (Oelsner 1986: 202
and 264). On the whole we have little indigenous narrative literature dating to
Hellenistic times. It is unclear whether this is due to the chances of transmission or
to other causes. Further, few Greek texts from Western Asia have survived, which may
be due to the material used for writing: leather or papyrus perished, while the clay
tablets used for cuneiform script (or Sumerian and Akkadian written in the Greek
alphabet) were more likely to survive. Aramaic and Phoenician texts, too, were
written in alphabetic scripts on perishable materials and are now mostly lost. A
notable exception is Papyrus Amherst 63, an Aramaic text written in demotic script
(Steiner 1995), which preserves a variety of literary forms, including a variation on a
biblical Psalm and the so-called ‘‘Tale of Two Brothers,’’ a story to which we will turn
shortly.
450 Silke Knippschild

Lists and Literature

The major and most varied part of Western Asian literature consisted of lists. The
division between documentary and literary is particularly problematic for Western
Asia once one goes beyond the realm of easily classifiable texts like administrative
records. While lists may not appear to be works of literature to us at first glance, it is
important to keep in mind that this distinction was probably not apparent to the
inhabitants of ancient Western Asia. Within these lists, we encounter a wide variety of
literary genres.
King lists were abundant in Hellenistic times. These texts list the names of kings in
chronological order, often adding further information such as the number of their
regnal years, the date of their accession to the throne, their death, and other pertinent
details. A Babylonian example of the genre opens its record with Alexander and
continues down to the Parthian period (Oelsner 1986: 202). When there was no
acting king or the king was far away, the person exercising power would be named
instead, such as the Macedonian generals Seleucus or Antigonus Monophthalmus
when they governed Babylonia (Del Monte 1997: 208–9). A typical entry in the
Babylonian king list on Seleucus I Nicator reads (BM 35603 obv. 6–8, trans. Van der
Spek; cf. Glassner 2004: 134–5):

Year 7, which is year 1: Sel(eucus was) king. He reigned for twenty-five years.
Year 31, Ulûlu: Sel(eucus), the king, was killed in the land of the Haneans.

While this text is highly informative for the historian, for example as evidence for the
chronology of the Seleucid era, it is sparse in narrative.
The related and more edifying genre of chronicles also catalogues important events
under the headings of the regnal years of the ruling king. The most prominent
Hellenistic example of this genre is the ‘‘Diadochi Chronicle’’ (BCHP 3 ¼ Grayson
1975: no. 10), which starts its report in the third year of Philip Arrhidaeus and
continues on to the ninth year of ‘‘Alexander the son’’ (321/20–308/7 BCE ). It
contains entries such as the following (23–5, trans. Van der Spek):

That same month the king did battle with the satrap of Egypt, and the land . . .
The troops of the king were slaughtered. Month 8, day 10 . . . the satrap of Akkad
entered Babylon.

Astronomical diaries were another ancient Mesopotamian literary genre that flour-
ished from Neo-Babylonian to Arsacid times (652/1–75 BCE ). The latest known
cuneiform document (75 BCE ) belongs to this category (Geller 1995: 44), and
astronomical diaries in fact make up the bulk of our extant texts (Hunger and Sachs
1988–96). They report the risings and settings of stars, eclipses, and other astro-
logical phenomena in conjunction with the wind direction. They also list events
which the observer considered to be omens, and occasionally we find endearing
remarks such as ‘‘I did not watch’’ or ‘‘there were clouds in the sky’’ (Lendering
2008). Astronomy and astrology were not considered to be separate areas of inves-
tigation in antiquity; accordingly, these texts also functioned as horoscopes. Related
 Literature in Western Asia 451

are mathematical-astronomical lists predicting astral phenomena such as solstices and

equinoxes. Other mathematical tablets list multiplication tables or square numbers.
With these texts, it is important to keep in mind that labels such as astronomical,
astrological, and mathematical are again no more than modern attempts at pigeon-
holing our evidence.
Another genre which continued in the Hellenistic period were prophecies. These
were invariably recorded after the fact, a time-honored tradition not restricted to
Western Asia (Grayson 1975: 24–37; Dieleman and Moyer in this volume). These
texts list kings and differentiate their reigns by years and character: good or bad. One
such prophecy from Babylon, today kept in the British Museum, represents a some-
what dubious source on Alexander the Great. In this so-called ‘‘Dynastic Prophecy,’’
written at the earliest during the first regnal period after Alexander’s death,
Alexander’s reign is unsurprisingly characterized as bad (Sherwin-White 1987: 11).
Further, the reversal of Darius’ defeat by a successor to Alexander is announced, after
which the people will flourish (Sherwin-White and Kuhrt 1993: 8–9). Key to the
people’s future wellbeing, it appears, is a tax exemption, always an indicator of good
kingship.
These forms of Western Asian literature represent the voice of the indigenous
population. However, the new sovereigns employed traditional forms of writing as
well. An outstanding example is the cylinder of Antiochus I Soter (280–262/1 BCE )
from the temple of Nabu in Borsippa, the city’s patron deity and god of writing. The
text conforms largely to the standard formula of Babylonian foundation texts,
although Antiochus included ‘‘the Macedonian’’ into the list of his royal titles, just
as the Achaemenids incorporated their ethnic identity into the titulary. He calls
himself caretaker of Esagila (the main sanctuary of Marduk, the highest god of the
Babylonian pantheon and father of Nabu) and of Ezida, the sanctuary of Nabu in
Borsippa where the text was buried. He goes on to describe how he restored those
sanctuaries, forming bricks with his own hands as Babylonian kings were supposed to
do, and relaid the foundations of Ezida. He prays for assorted blessings for himself
and his family and promises tribute from his successes to the god for further con-
struction in the sanctuaries. All this is standard behavior for a Babylonian king and
just as standard writing, perfectly in keeping with the genre. Antiochus is presenting
himself as a good Babylonian king, who takes great care to fulfill the religious
obligations of his office. One feature, however, surprises: the text mentions
Antiochus’ wife Stratonice. Royal women do not normally appear in Western Asian
royal texts. Exceptions are few and far between, one being the Assyrian queen
Sammuramat, who lies behind the legendary Semiramis (Dalley 2005). Apparently,
royal consorts appear in Western Asian literature when they played a key role in the
dynastic succession, especially in times when the dynasty was perceived to be in peril
(Kuhrt and Sherwin-White 1991: 84–5). This certainly applies to Stratonice, daugh-
ter of Demetrius Poliorcetes, who was married off to Antiochus’ father Seleucus as
part of a political transaction and passed on by Seleucus to his son, successor and co-
regent. This deal resulted in the emergence of romantic legends about Antiochus’
mad love for his father’s young wife and the father’s cure for his son’s lovesickness
(Whitmarsh in this volume). In other words, the appearance of Stratonice is, albeit
unusual, consistent with Western Asian precedents. Her naming on an official
452 Silke Knippschild

document such as the foundation cylinder further suggests that the close bond of the
royal couple was widely advertised, which is a typical feature of royal propaganda in
the Hellenistic period: Mesopotamian and Hellenistic royal ideology concur on this
point as on many others (Strootman in this volume). The truth behind the propa-
ganda is, of course, a different matter. Nevertheless, it may have facilitated the
formation of legends around Stratonice and Antiochus.

High Kings in High Halls

The question of whether or not a given text may count as literature is less pressing for
religious texts, including incantations, laments, hymns, and cult songs (Linssen
2003), and for wisdom texts such as the tantalizingly obscure fable of the little
duqduqqu bird (tentatively identified as a wren) preserved in a copy dated
December 22, 242 BCE (Walker 1972: no. 93). Such texts enjoyed a wide dissemin-
ation in the Hellenistic period as before. Even more popular, however, are stories
about the kings of old. The most prominent of these is the epic of Gilgamesh, which
goes back to the twenty-first century BCE and continued to be copied at least down to
the end of the Hellenistic period, as a colophon on a surviving version testifies
(Oelsner 1986: 206). It tells the tale of Gilgamesh, the ruler of Uruk, his heroic
feats, his friendship with the wild Enkidu, his sorrow at the death of this friend, and
his unsuccessful quest for immortality. Its main characters appear as evil giants in
Jewish mythology and even made it into Islamic incantations against evil demons
(George 2003: 60–1). Aelian and the Nestorian Christian Theodorus bar Konia
preserve the memory of Gilgamesh as a great king (George 2003: 61). The transmis-
sion through Aramaic, Phoenician, and Greek shows the enduring popularity of
characters of the Gilgamesh story. Although the epic itself was apparently forgotten
with the loss of the ability to read cuneiform, its legacy may be found in popular
literary motifs such as the story of the wanderer, the water of life, and the land of the
blessed (George 2003: 70; Geller 1995: 44).
The ‘‘Tale of Two Brothers,’’ preserved on Papyrus Amherst 63, is another
instance of narrative literature, albeit on a much smaller scale (Steiner and Nims
1985). The Aramaic text, written in the Egyptian demotic script, recounts the story
of Sarbanapal and his brother Sarmuge, recasting the historical struggle between
Ashurbanipal and his brother Shamash-shumukin. When their father Esarhaddon
installed them as independent rulers of Ashur and Babylon in his succession treaty
(Parpola and Watanabe 1988: 28–58), their relationship turned sour. The ensuing
war ended with Ashurbanipal conquering Babylon and Shamash-shumukin either
dying in the flames of his palace or killing himself in an intentionally kindled fire.
The version of Papyrus Amherst 63 is remarkable both for its version of the death of
the Babylonian king and for its representation of the background. The brothers’ strife
is portrayed as a rebellion on the part of Sarmuge who here holds the throne of
Babylon by the grace of his brother rather than his father. The Assyrian king makes a
valiant attempt at settling the dispute by diplomacy, sending his sister as an envoy, but
her mediation fails due to the wickedness of the Babylonian king. The sister warns
 Literature in Western Asia 453

Sarbanapal that he is putting himself in deadly peril, and he reluctantly sends an army
to conquer Babylon. Sarmuge ushers his family and his doctors into a specially built
wooden contraption to burn them and himself to death, then changes his mind,
surrenders, sets off to his kindly brother in Nineveh, and dies on the road of
unspecified causes. This is an interesting example of storytelling based on history
written by the victor: the victorious survivor is portrayed as a kindly ruler who is
forced to bring his unthankful sibling to Nineveh after having made every attempt to
reason with him. In this, it reflects the attitude of righteous outrage displayed by the
historical Ashurbanipal (e.g., Borger 1996: 229). The ungrateful rebel then dies in a
manner that leaves his brother blameless. This version of the ‘‘Tale of Two Brothers’’
is possibly a source for the legend of Sardanapalus we encounter in Ctesias (Steiner
1995: 203), who is also a source of stories about another historical Assyrian ruler,
Queen Semiramis.
Two of the best examples of the continued popularity and transmission of
Mesopotamian narrative literature through the Hellenistic period are the ‘‘Poor
Man of Nippur’’ and the ‘‘Tale of Ahiqar.’’ These folktales, which predate the
Hellenistic period, both survived to make their way even into follow up collections
of the Arabian Nights. The ‘‘Poor Man of Nippur’’ is the story of a trickster by the
name of Gimil-Ninurta, who is disgraced by the mayor of his hometown. Robbed of
his only possession, a goat, he obtains help from the king and pays back the ill
treatment threefold: in a variety of disguises he swindles the mayor out of a sizable
sum of money and beats him up three times. Our Akkadian source for this story,
dating to 701 BCE (Gurney 1957: 147), constitutes the oldest extant example of a
folktale which also appears in the sixth-century CE Sanskrit Panchatantra, in Medieval
Europe, and finally in the ‘‘Tale of the First Larrikin’’ in the Arabian Nights
published by R. F. Burton (Gurney 1972; Marzolph, Van Leeuwen, and Wassouf
2004). While the Gilgamesh epic may have influenced broad literary topoi, the ‘‘Poor
Man of Nippur’’ shows specific similarities to later stories of a trickster repaying an ill
treatment. As the literary tradition that produced the version of the Arabian Nights
originates at least in part in the Mesopotamian story, its transmission through the
Hellenistic period is presupposed.
The evidence for transmission and popularity during the Hellenistic period is more
direct in the case of the ‘‘Tale of Ahiqar.’’ Its main character is a high official – scribe,
counselor, and keeper of the royal seal – at the court of the Assyrian king Sennacherib
(704–681 BCE ). After Sennacherib’s death, Ahiqar continues his duties under the
king’s son and successor, Esarhaddon. He is in the king’s good graces, is well thought
of by all for his wisdom and fairness, and lives comfortably and contently, except for
the fact that he has no children. Therefore, he adopts his sister’s son Nadin and brings
him up as his own. When old age rests heavily upon Ahiqar and he finally decides to
retire, he asks for his office to be transferred to his son whom he trained for it, a wish
the king grants gladly. Nadin proves unappreciative and falsely denounces his adop-
tive father, claiming that Ahiqar was plotting against the king. The angry Esarhaddon
sends his executioner to kill Ahiqar. However, Ahiqar turns out to have once saved
the executioner’s life when Sennacherib decreed his death on a similar whim, and he
now pleads for the favor to be returned. The executioner kills a slave of Ahiqar in his
stead, ensuring that there is a body to be found if the king should send someone to
454 Silke Knippschild

look for proof. Then he hides his former benefactor in his own house, just as Ahiqar
had done for him. Later, when the king misses his former counselor sorely, the
executioner produces him, Ahiqar is reinstated, and his son severely punished for
his evil deed. In one version, Ahiqar takes the mischievous Nadin prisoner and regales
him with his wisdom until Nadin combusts and dies (Meyer 1912: 105–11). This
story formed the narrative frame for a collection of sayings and fables, which consti-
tuted the main body of the text. Of these only a few disjointed fragments survive.
Although the names of the characters are proper Assyrian ones, we have no way of
knowing how old the story of wise Ahiqar actually is. It was probably conceived soon
after the lifetime of the protagonists (George 2003: 59), but the oldest extant version
is a papyrus from Elephantine which contains the narrative frame in Aramaic as used
in the Persian Empire, dating linguistically to approximately the sixth century BCE .
The framed sayings already appear in Old Aramaic texts, dating back to the eighth or
early seventh century, and may, based on linguistic evidence, stem from southern
Syria or Lebanon, a detail that fits well with the provenance of the population of
Elephantine (Kottsieper 1991: 321; Dieleman and Moyer in this volume).
In the Hellenistic period the story was widely known. There is a Babylonian parallel
dating to 165 BCE , naming prediluvian kings and their wise men (Kottsieper 1991:
322). According to this text, the ummanu (‘‘teacher’’) of Esarhaddon was Aba’enlil-
dari, whose Aramaic name is given as ‘‘Achuqar.’’ Theophrastus is said to have written
an entire work about ‘‘Akicharos’’ (D.L. 5.50), and although we have no information
about the content, the mere title suggests that Hellenistic Greeks were familiar with the
character. Ahiqar also appears in the Book of Tobit (1.21–2, 2.10, 11.17, 14.10),
generally believed to have been composed in the second century BCE . Here, Tobit from
Naphtali is sent to Nineveh into exile. He lives during the rules of Sennacherib and
Esarhaddon. Ahiqar appears as cupbearer, keeper of the royal seal, and vizier of
Esarhaddon, and as a relation of Tobit’s. A brief version of Ahiqar’s life story appears
as part of a warning speech Tobit delivers to his son, and in fact the entire work is to a
certain extent modeled on the ‘‘Tale of Ahiqar.’’
Ahiqar remained a household name well beyond the Hellenistic period. Strabo
names Ahiqar in a list of seers (16.762). According to Clement of Alexandria,
Democritus appropriated teachings from a translation of the stele of Ahiqar (Strom.
1.15.69). The sage also features in the Life of Aesop. On the so-called Monnus mosaic
from Trier of the third century CE , each of the Muses appears along with a character
prominent in her specialty. Polyhymnia is accompanied by a seated man holding a
book roll whose name was possibly ‘‘Acicar’’ (Parlasca 1959: 41–3 and fig. 43.1;
differently Daniel 1996, cf. West 2003b).
Apparently, the ‘‘Tale of Ahiqar’’ continued to be told in Arab countries. In the late
eighteenth century Dom Denis Chavis, a Christian monk, translated a number of
Arabic tales into French, this story among them. The tales were linguistically polished
by Jacques Cazotte (1719–1792) and published between 1788 and 1790 as books
38–41 of Les Mille et Une Nuits. The popularity of 1001 Nights as published by
Antoine Galland between 1704 and 1717 apparently inspired the imitation. The
collection went on to be translated into English and was published in England as
Arabian Tales (1792 and 1794). Here, a somewhat insipid Scheherazade entertains
Schariar and her sister Dinarzade with stories. In this collection we find the ‘‘Story of
 Literature in Western Asia 455

Sinkarib and His Two Viziers’’, named Hicar and Nadan (Chavis and Cazotte 1794:
197–222). It contains the main elements of the ‘‘Tale of Ahiqar,’’ but omits the
wisdom texts with the exception of one example: before Nadan takes over the office
of vizier, his uncle offers advice on governing clothed in a metaphor about the
flowering and fruit-bearing of the almond and mulberry trees. It adds to the original
story the enterprising character of Hicar’s first wife, Zesagnie, and an episode situated
in Egypt in which Hicar and Zesagnie manipulate and outwit the pharaoh on behalf
of the king of Assyria. The Arabian Tales version also curiously glosses over Nadan’s
death: the ungrateful nephew is cast into a dungeon, where he rids ‘‘the world of his
crimes by becoming his own executioner’’ (Chavis and Cazotte 1794: 221). The
‘‘Tale of Ahiqar’’ stands out as an example of continuity in Western Asian literature.
Widely popular and translated into most ancient languages, it survived in the Arabic
tradition and was translated and again published in Early Modern Europe.
The stories of the Assyrian kings in this section stand in a tradition of their
own: just as the rulers of Akkad symbolized the proverbial Great Rulers of the
world in ancient Western Asia, the Assyrian kings and Queen Semiramis, who inci-
dentally also presented themselves as successors of the rulers of Akkad, took their
place in folktales after the fall of their empire. In a way they occupy a similar position
to that of the popular figure of Harun ar Rashid in the Arabian Nights, the fifth
Abassid caliph of Baghdad (786–809 CE ), whose name translates as Harun the
Just and who established diplomatic relations as far afield as India and Western
Europe.

Western Asians Writing in Greek

We have seen how Antiochus I inscribed and buried a foundation cylinder in Nabu’s
sanctuary in Borsippa in good Mesopotamian tradition reaching back to the second
millennium BCE . Likewise some Mesopotamians took up the Greek language and
addressed a Greek-speaking audience through Greek forms of writing.
Berossus, whose Greek name probably stands for the Babylonian Bel-re’ushu
(‘‘Bel/Marduk is his shepherd’’) was a native of Babylon and a contemporary of
Alexander the Great (FGrH 680; Verbrugge and Wickersham 1996). Because he
apparently had access to archaic records, it is generally assumed that he was a high
official in Esagila, the Babylonian temple of Marduk (Kuhrt 1987: 48). He composed
a history of Babylonia for Antiochus I Soter, probably called Babyloniaka (although
alternative titles also appear). Unfortunately, only fragments of the work are extant,
and these are often several steps removed from Berossus’ orginal, such as excerpts by
the eighth-century monk Syncellus from the Chaldaika of Eusebius, who himself
probably epitomized a digest of the Babyloniaka by Alexander Polyhistor. It is worth
pointing out that our most substantial sources for the work of Berossus are Jewish
and Christian works, whose apologetic agenda informed the selection of passages
(Kuhrt 1987: 35). Some astrological and astronomical works were also attributed to
Berossus in antiquity in order to give them an aura of reliability, but this attribution
lacks confidence (Kuhrt 1987: 36–44).
456 Silke Knippschild

Berossus dedicated the first book of the Babyloniaka to geography, cosmogony,

and anthropology, describing the beginning of civilization in Babylonia. In the
second book he dealt with the kings before the Flood, the Flood itself, and post-
diluvian dynasties and their wise men down to Nabu-nashir (747–734 BCE ). The
third contained the history of the Assyrian Empire and the Assyro-Babylonian conflict
from Tiglath-pileser III (744–727 BCE ) to the downfall of the last Assyrian king Sin-
shar-ishkun (623?–612 BCE ). Focal points in further books were the glorious reigns of
the Babylonian kings Nabopolassar (625–605 BCE ) and Nebuchadnezzar II (604–
562 BCE ), the Persian rule, and the conquest of Alexander. The last king to feature
was Antiochus I Soter (281–261 BCE ). Berossus appears to have used a late version of
the ‘‘Dynastic Chronicle’’ for his list of kings and their wise men.
Of special interest is the story of the sage Oannes who brought civilization to
mankind. Berossus is an important source for this figure, who was not attested in
cuneiform literature until the beginning of the twentieth century, when his name was
discovered in texts from Uruk and elsewhere (Van Dijk 1963: 217). In his Ecloga
Chronographica (51) Georgius Syncellus reports (trans. Verbrugge and Wickersham
1996: 44):

In the very first year there appeared from the Red Sea (i.e., the Persian Gulf) in an area
bordering on Babylonia a frightening monster, named Oannes, as Apollodorus also says
in his history. It had the whole body of a fish, but underneath and attached to the head of
the fish there was another head, human, and joined to the tail of the fish, feet, like those
of a man, and it had a human voice. Its form has been preserved in sculpture to this day.
Berossus says that this monster spent its days with men, never eating anything, but
teaching men the skills necessary for writing and for doing mathematics and for all sorts
of knowledge: how to build cities, found temples, and make laws. It taught men how to
determine borders and divide land, also how to plant seeds and then to harvest their
fruits and vegetables. In short, it taught men all those things conducive to a settled and
civilized life. Since that time nothing further has been discovered. At the end of the day,
this monster Oannes went back to the sea and spent the night.

Berossus named six further fish-men who continued Oannes’ work. These seven
sages, the apkallu, are well known in Western Asian literature. Their fish bodies refer
explicitly to the god Enki/Ea, god of wisdom and of the underground fresh water.
Oannes’ role as giver of culture is particularly associated with Enki as well. As giver of
culture, Berossus also credits him with bestowing on mankind an account of creation
that can be identified with the Western Asian creation epic Enuma Elish. In cuneiform
texts, we now possess seven references to Oannes (Uan, ‘‘Light of An’’). He is called
all-knowing, is connected with temple building, and especially with the creation of
literary works. Closest to Berossus’ texts is the above-mentioned catalogue of apkallu
(‘‘sages’’) and ummânu (‘‘teachers’’) from Hellenistic Uruk which names Oannes as
first in a line of seven sages who taught in the time of King Ajjalu. This ruler may be
identified with Alulim, the first king of Eridu according to the Sumerian king list and
the first person to hold this office after kingship descended from heaven – that is,
Berossus’ Aloros (Streck 2005).
Berossus apparently explicitly criticized ‘‘the Greek historians’’ (Jos. Ap. 1.142) for
what he considered to be errors and misconceptions. His primary target was certainly
 Literature in Western Asia 457

Ctesias, even if, as far as we can tell, Ctesias was never identified by name. One
example is Berossus’ account of the end of the Assyrian Empire, preserved in the
fragments of Abydenus (FGrH 685), who employed an epitome of Berossus’ work as
source for his Chaldaean History. Ctesias had the Assyrian Empire end with King
Ashurbanipal, while it in fact continued to exist for nearly two decades after
Ashurbanipal’s death. According to Berossus, the last king of Assyria was Sarakos, a
Hellenization of Sin-shar-ishkun, under whose reign the last capital, Nineveh, was
indeed conquered (FGrH IIIC: 404). Another correction concerned the foundation
of Babylon, which Ctesias attributed to Semiramis, the wife of the mythical founder
of the Assyrian Empire, Ninus. Berossus corrects this notion along with Semiramis’
association with the creation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world (Verbrugge and Wickersham 1996: 59 ¼ Jos. Ap.
1.142). These corrections may spring from a genuine desire to set matters straight,
but discrediting preceding authors also suits the competitive nature of Greek histori-
ography, equally manifest in Ctesias’ attitude toward Herodotus.
The assumption of Greek modes of discourse and a Greek frame of reference is a
striking feature of Berossus’ Babyloniaka. He described the world in Greek terms,
reflecting Greek philosophy and using a Greek conception of the succession of
empires (Kuhrt 1987: 54). One explanation why Berossus adopted this Greek voice
is that he intended to provide the ruling Seleucids with a native dynastic legitimation
similar to the one Hecataeus of Abdera and Manetho bestowed upon the Ptolemies
(Dieleman and Moyer in this volume). He imported the Seleucids into the framework
of local tradition, which he described in terms comprehensible to Greeks, and made
their reign the final stage in the succession of empires. By describing in great detail
the deeds of Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadnezzar, founders of the Neo-
Babylonian Empire, to whom he attributed control over Koile-Syria, Phoenicia
and – historically incorrectly – Egypt, Berossus may have intended to refute the
propaganda of the Seleucids’ main competitors, the Ptolemies. In addition, he
boosted their image by offering a local historical precedent for the successes of
Seleucus I and Antigonus I (Kuhrt 1987: 56) and an ideological framework for
accepting the new rulers as legitimate sovereigns (in itself an often practiced strategy
in Babylonia). By showing that the Seleucids had come to rule subjects with a long
and impressive history and had assumed the legacy of great kings, Berossus’ work cut
both ways: it not only flattered the Seleucids but also presented a source of pride for
Babylonians who were able to read Greek, a competency which we may assume at
least for the local elite who needed to co-operate with the Macedonians in order to
gain and retain power.
In the end, the Babyloniaka proved to be a case of failed influence. By writing in
Greek and using Greek ethnographical traditions as his model, Berossus clearly aimed
at least in part at a Greek readership. However, he remained deeply rooted in the
traditions of Western Asian literature, which, as we have seen, consisted to a consid-
erable extent of lists. More often than not the sources Berossus used would have had
this form, and it appears that he did not really flesh them out and offer the engaging
narratives we find in authors such as Herodotus and Ctesias. This is probably a matter
of choice rather than ability; he may have chosen to retain the literary style of lists in
order to give his information greater authority. However this may be, Berossus’ work
458 Silke Knippschild

did not catch on with a readership attuned to literature that paid more attention to
marvelous details and entertainment. Ctesias’ work continued to dominate the
market. Furthermore, western interest in Mesopotamia seems to have faded when it
fell under Parthian rule at the end of the second century BCE and thus ceased to be
part of the Mediterranean world. The most avid readers Berossus’ work encountered
were scholars who used it to promote their own religious beliefs and vilify those of
ancient Mesopotamia: Jewish historians used the Babyloniaka to corroborate the
traditions of the Torah, Christian authors to show all pagans the error of their ways.

Greeks Writing about Western Asia

Working along the same lines as Berossus, some Greek authors also attempted to
bring Mesopotamia closer to a Greek audience. In the oikoumenē created by
Alexander, ambassadors and military commanders produced works on their sur-
roundings, following in the footsteps of earlier Greek ethnographers, especially
Herodotus. The historian Megasthenes (c.350–290 BCE ) undertook several diplo-
matic missions to India for King Seleucus I between 302 and 291 BCE . His geo-
graphical and ethnographical work Indika consisted of three or four volumes, now
extant only in fragmentary form (FGrH 715). It appears to have been based on
autopsy, indigenous informers in situ, hearsay and quite possibly his Greek predeces-
sors. Megasthenes’ work was used as a source by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pliny the
Elder, and last but not least Arrian, who appears to have based his Indika on it.
Another author writing about the East, Patrocles, was the Seleucid commander of
Babylon from 312 BCE . Sent on a nautical expedition by Seleucus I and Antiochus in
285 and 282 BCE , he explored the Amu Darya (Oxus) and laid down his findings in a
geographical work, also surviving only in fragments (FGrH 712).
Remarkably, in this changed world Greek views of the world changed very little.
Although the margins had been pushed back further by authors such as Megasthenes,
strange beings still populated the periphery of the oikoumenē, and the East remained
alien. The reason for this appears to have been the work of Ctesias, by far the most
influential author writing on Western Asia. Although he wrote before the conquests
of Alexander, his work must be discussed here because of its enduring impact on the
Greek perception of Asia: Ctesias created the reference works which no later author
could choose to ignore.
Between 405 and 398 BCE , Ctesias of Cnidus lived as doctor of Artaxerxes II (404–
358 BCE ) at the Persian court in Susa (FGrH 688; König 1972; Lenfant 2004, 2007).
His works included a Periodos (description of the world), the Indika, and the Persika,
all designed for a Greek audience. The Persika comprised 23 books and dealt briefly
with Assyrian and Median history (largely ignoring Babylon) before entering into the
history and affairs of Persia proper. While the majority of Ctesias’ work is now lost,
substantial fragments are preserved in Diodorus Siculus, Nicolaus of Damascus, and
Photius.
The Persika began with the reign of Ninus, a mythical king whose name is probably
derived from the Assyrian capital Nineveh. He was married to Semiramis, who
 Literature in Western Asia 459

founded Babylon after her husband’s death. Semiramis is probably based on the
Assyrian queen Sammuramat, married to Shamshi-Adad V (824–811 BCE ) and mother
of Adad-Nirari III (811–783 BCE ; Dalley 2005: 12–14). Ctesias, however, portrays
her with details derived from the iconography of Ishtar, goddess of love and war:
Semiramis is the daughter of a goddess, she is of exceptional beauty, courage, and
intelligence, she builds palaces and devises cunning engineering works, creates won-
ders of the ancient world such as the Hanging Gardens and the walls of Babylon, leads
armies, fights battles, travels to the furthest reaches of the earth, takes her most
handsome soldiers as lovers, and disposes of them after the act. While the historical
Sammuramat indeed played a prominent political role and accompanied her son on
campaigns, she was obviously nothing like Ctesias’ gaudy creation. His fictional
queen more resembles, and indeed in many ways inspired, the character of
Candace, Alexander’s love interest in the Alexander Romance (Whitmarsh in this
volume). Ctesias’ account of Persian affairs ends with the eighth regnal year of
Artaxerxes II (398/7 BCE ), presumably the end of his stay in Persia. In good
Western Asian tradition Ctesias offered a list of rulers for the period covered, now
lost. Apart from that, his work was thoroughly Greek. It was also colored by the
author’s personal interests. Greco-Persian relations did not concern Ctesias at all.
Medical matters, on the other hand, featured prominently.
Even through the haze of indirect transmission we can easily see that Ctesias’ text
was attractively written and offered colorful accounts of the lives of exotic kings and
queens. Equally clear is that he was generally far off the mark in terms of accuracy. To
give but one example, his description of the fall of Nineveh continues to puzzle. The
scenarios that have been suggested to explain the mismatching pieces of his narrative
are illustrative of the problems posed by his work.
In Ctesias’ account of the fall of Assyria, Nineveh is situated on the Euphrates
instead of the Tigris and Khosr. Its conquerors plunder the treasury, remove earth
and tamper with the river so it washes away the remains of the destroyed city. Since
Western Asian literature often portrays Nineveh and Babylon as mirror cities, this
description may reflect the sack of Babylon by the Assyrian King Sennacherib in 689
BCE , where these events actually took place (Van de Mieroop 2004). In the record of
his achievements, Sennacherib paralleled the fall of Babylon with the building of
Nineveh. Accordingly, a Babylonian might draw on the sack of Babylon to create an
account of the destruction of Nineveh by Babylonian and Median forces. If this is the
case, Ctesias can hardly be blamed for getting it all wrong; he simply followed a
Babylonian source (Van de Mieroop 2004: 4).
Alternatively, Ctesias may have conflated the fall of Nineveh with events that
happened when King Ashurbanipal conquered Babylon after his brother Shamash-
shumukin, the ruler of that city, rebelled against him (MacGinnis 1988: 37–42). As
we saw, Ctesias refers to Ashurbanipal (Sardanapalus, reigned 668–631 BCE ) as last
king of Assyria, which is historically false: Assyria fell 19 years after his death. While we
remain in the dark as to the circumstances of the deaths of the last kings of Assyria,
Ctesias’ account fits in nicely with the end of Shamash-shumukin, who reputedly
burned to death. The two-year period Ctesias claims the siege of Nineveh lasted does
not fit in with the cuneiform sources (who say it lasted two and a half months), but
works nicely for Ashurbanipal’s siege of Babylon in 650–648 BCE . As in the alternative
460 Silke Knippschild

explanation, the general conflation of Babylon and Nineveh accounts for Ctesias’
mistake in locating the Assyrian capital on the Euphrates; and all further confu-
sions may derive from no other source than the ‘‘Tale of Two Brothers’’ (Steiner
1995: 203).
Interestingly, Herodotus, whom Ctesias sought to emulate and, accordingly, criti-
cized liberally, had gotten the location of the Assyrian capital right. In his eagerness to
trump Herodotus, Ctesias frequently used sources of questionable reliability and
came up with rather dubious results. Perhaps he prioritized entertainment value over
veracity. At the very least, Ctesias’ work appears to move away from the approach to
historiē we encounter in Herodotus. Equally, as far as we can tell from the extant
fragments, it does not seem to have contained an overarching concept of history or
worldview. The general impression it makes is that of a collection of stories focusing
on exotic and sensational events and people, aiming at amazement and one-upman-
ship rather than veracity and unity of thought. Nevertheless, the Persika ended up
being the standard source of information on Western Asian in Greece, consulted, for
example, by Plato, Aristotle, Theopompus, Ephorus, and Diodorus Siculus. In
addition, authors such as Dino of Colophon and an otherwise unknown Athenaeus
(late fourth century BCE ) embellished Ctesias’ story of Ninus and Semiramis, provid-
ing the story line for the Ninus Romance, one of the earliest known Greek novels
(Kuhrt 1995: 61; Stephens and Winkler 1995: 23–71). Apparently, Greeks liked
stories about racy, power hungry ‘‘oriental’’ women of questionable morals. As a rich
source of such material, Ctesias’ Persika made a significant contribution to the
development of prose fiction that would lead to the Imperial novel (Whitmarsh in
this volume).

Greeks and Greek Under Parthian Rule

While politically Mesopotamia ceased to be a part of the Greek world after the Parthian
conquest of the late second century BCE , Greek literature continued to be appreciated
and produced under Parthian rule. Plutarch informs us that Greek compositions were
performed during the celebration of a royal marriage between the houses of Orodes II
of Parthia and Artavasdes II of Armenia (Crass. 33). He emphasizes that the Parthian
king knew the Greek language and Greek literature, while the Armenian even com-
posed Greek tragedies, as well as historical and other prose texts, some of which were
available to his day. When a messenger bearing the head of the decapitated Roman
general Crassus reached the Parthian court, a staging of Euripides’ Bacchae was
allegedly in progress. The actor playing Agaue included the head into his performance
of Bacchae 1170–9 and was put into his place by one of the wedding guests. The point
here is not whether or not an actor actually improvised on Euripides at a historical
event, but that Greeks such as Plutarch expected educated Parthians, Armenians, and
presumably their subjects to be familiar with Greek literature. Greek poems produced
in Hellenistic Parthia corroborate the impression that Hellenic culture was very much
alive (Tarn 1938: 39). Furthermore, geographical works and descriptions of routes in
Parthia were produced and transmitted in Greek, such as Isidorus of Charax’s short
 Literature in Western Asia 461

Parthian Stations, which may be drawing on a survey undertaken under King

Mithridates II after Parthia had acquired Merv (before 115 BCE ).
The most important representative, however, of Greek literature under Parthian
rule is the historiographer Apollodorus, a Greek living in Artemita, a Greco-Parthian
city situated at a vital crossroads east of the Tigris. His Parthika, in at least four books
and most likely written around 100 BCE , recorded the rise of the Parthian Empire,
along with information on geography and botany. A large section appears to have
been dedicated to the successful Greek kings of Bactria, Demetrius (180–165 BCE )
and Menander (155–130 BCE ), whose conquests included India and outstripped even
Alexander’s military achievements. Menander is of particular interest, as he inspired
later literary works, especially the semi-fictional character of the wise king Milinda.
The work The Questions of King Milinda, written in India around or soon after the
beginning of the Christian era, describes with didactic purpose the discussions of
Milinda with the wise monk Nâgasena in the form of a historical novel (Rhys Davids
1975). Although little of Apollodorus’ work is extant (FGrH 779), he was an
important source for Pompeius Trogus and Strabo. Strabo probably drew largely
on Apollodorus for his descriptions of Mesopotamia, Iran, and parts of Central Asia
as well as in his accounts of the Scythians, Sakae, and Massagetae (Alonso Nuñez
1989: 2). He states that under Parthian rule, more information about these far-off
lands and tribes had become known than was previously available (in, for example,
Herodotus, Ctesias, or the Alexander historians) because authors like Apollodorus
had seen them with their own eyes (Str. 11.6.3–4).
The scarcity of the evidence should lead us to speculate about Apollodorus’ work
only with the greatest caution. In his research he probably used both oral sources and
written Parthian records (Nikonov 1998). He appears to have been enthusiastic
about the Parthians. The emphasis in the fragments on the exploits of the Greek
kings of Bactria, who outdid Alexander, may indicate that Apollodorus presented the
Arsacids, the Parthian kings who conquered the Bactrians’ realm, as the culmination
of military prowess. If this is true, the Parthika may have been designed to do for the
Parthian kings what Berossus’ Babyloniaka did for the Seleucids: Apollodorus, the
voice of Greco-Parthian nationalism, legitimated the Arsacids’ rule by including them
into the succession of dynasties (Alonso Nuñez 1989: 4).

***
In the Hellenistic period literature and culture flourished in Western Asia. Traditional
literary forms such as lists continued to be produced by the native population and
were adapted by the new rulers. While there is little evidence for the creation of new
narrative literature, which may in part be due to the fragmentary nature of our
sources, existing epics, wisdom texts, and folktales were retold, rewritten, and trans-
mitted. Greeks living in Western Asia created historiographical, ethnographical, and
geographical works about their surroundings, inspiring in turn the Babylonian priest
Berossus to write a reference work on Babylonia in Greek. Much as during the Persian
Empire, political instability and changes in power led to a diverse and independent
culture of writing. Continuity in all genres, writing systems, and languages remains
the most important characteristic of Western Asian literature at least to the beginning
of the Christian era.
462 Silke Knippschild

FURTHER READING

For lists as literature in Western Asia see Kuhrt and Sherwin-White 1987. Chronicles and king
lists are easily accessible in transcription and translation with a commentary on the website
www.livius.org, which contains a prepublication of I. Finkel and R. J. van der Spek, Babylonian
Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period (indexed at www.livius.org/babylonia.html). Astronomical
diaries are published in transcription and translation by Hunger and Sachs 1988–96. Maul
1991 discusses Greco-Babyloniaca and provides a list of Greek, Sumerian, and Akkadian
transcriptions. Del Monte 1997 provides a succinct compilation of Hellenistic Mesopotamian
texts in Italian.
The fragmentary Greek literature of Western Asia is available, with German commentary,
in Felix Jacoby’s multi-volume Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (FGrH) and partly, with
English translation and commentary, in Brill’s New Jacoby, edited by Ian Worthington (at
present only available online). Verbrugge and Wickersham 1996 present a translation of
Berossus with a helpful introduction. Lenfant 2004 provides a new edition of Ctesias with
French translation and notes; König 1972 is still highly useful as a reference work on this
author.
The ongoing online project Melammu (www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu) has a useful data-
base on the intellectual heritage of Assyria and Babylonia in East and West and provides easy
access to information on many of the topics discussed in this chapter, with ancient sources in
translation and bibliographies.
On the influence of the Western Asian literary tradition on Greek literature and culture see
Kuhrt 1995, who emphasizes the literary quality of works such as that of Berossus. Geller 1995
and Gruen, Whitmarsh, and Dieleman and Moyer in this volume provide an outlook on
Mesopotamian influences in areas not discussed in this chapter.
 CHAPTER THIRTY

From the Head of Zeus: The

Beginnings of Roman Literature
James J. Clauss

The topic of the reception of Greek literature in Rome, in particular poetry from the
Hellenistic period, has been admirably covered over the past 50-plus years following
the publication of Pfeiffer’s epic two-volume work on Callimachus (1949–53),
which, together with many other fundamental works on writers of the period, has
made Hellenistic poetry more readily available to scholars of Roman literature. In a
relatively short amount of time, so much of Roman poetry has come into greater
focus. Not only can texts be interpreted on firmer ground now that we can securely
identify specific Hellenistic models, but we also have a better understanding of how
Hellenistic writers negotiated contemporary and earlier literature, which, as it turns
out, furnished a significant model for Roman writers from the very beginning of their
engagement with Greek literature. In what follows, I hope to take advantage of our
greater appreciation of Hellenistic literary practices and push the interpretive envel-
ope for the earliest Roman literature, with the understanding that the envelope may
split here and there.
Once Rome, similar to other Mediterranean and Near Eastern lands, began to
adopt the Hellenic mode of composition, their own meager native approaches to
literary self-representation ultimately gave way. Such dependency is perhaps less
surprising for the Romans than for the peoples of Egypt, Palestine, and Western
Asia, who had been engaged in formal literary compositions for many centuries
before the Greeks (Gruen, Knippschild, Dieleman and Moyer in this volume).
Moreover, Rome, similar to Alexandria (Stephens in this volume), was from the
beginning a multicultural city, the amalgamation of Latin, Italian, Etruscan, and even
Greek cultures, as is evident from the city’s physical remains and its distinctive blend
of political and religious practices (Veyne 1979). In fact, there never existed an ur-
Roman per se. Romans only came into being after the diverse inhabitants of the Seven
Hills decided to pool their cultural resources and traditions and create an impressive
464 James J. Clauss

melting-pot society. Rome’s original strength lay not so much in its military might,
impressive as it was, but in its wisdom of welcoming and incorporating the talents of
others. Their loss of this original wisdom would in time lead to the kind of bunker
mentality that builds walls instead of relationships, a phenomenon that sadly repeats
from time to time.
Many excellent studies have already addressed the extensive influence of Hellenistic
literature on the Romans (see Further Reading). In these few pages I will not attempt
to examine the full array of authors and genres in the long history of Roman literature
that could be discussed. Such a piece would of necessity be very superficial. Rather,
I will attempt to highlight essential aspects of the Roman reception of Hellenistic
modes of thought from its very beginning, which I hope will also function as a sort of
conclusion to the present volume. In particular, I will focus on the epics of Livius
Andronicus, Gnaeus Naevius, and Quintus Ennius, and argue that what we think of as
‘‘Hellenistic’’ writing migrated to, and established itself in, Rome definitively already
in the mid-third century BCE , even during the Golden Age of Alexandrian literature.
Before I turn to the individual authors, however, I would like to illustrate a central
feature of the Romans’ earliest Hellenized literary productions by looking at an
Italian movie of the early 1960s: La Leggenda di Enea (1962), directed by Giorgio
Rivalta and released in America as The Avenger. The film is a cinematic rendition of
the second half of the Aeneid. A glimpse at the cast shows that most of the actors and
actresses are Italian. The star of the film, however, is American body-builder Steve
Reeves, whose successful role as Heracles in Le Fatiche di Ercole (1958) and Ercole e la
regina di Lidia (1959) earned him more work in Italy thereafter in other sword and
sandal movies that, like La Leggenda di Enea, made it to America in dubbed versions.
Like the Aeneid on which it is based, La Leggenda di Enea is a sequel, in this case to
La Guerra di Troia (1961), a fanciful version of the Iliad in which, among other
irregularities, Reeves’ Aeneas competes at the funeral games of Patroclus. What struck
me about the former film as I watched the American version is that, liberties aside, it
replicated the Aeneid in a significant way: the majority of the characters were not
speaking their original language. Although by Vergil’s time Naevius and Ennius had
already told the story of Aeneas’ travels to, and his establishment of a Trojan presence
in, Italy in Latin, nonetheless the Roman audience must have been well aware that
their Anatolian ancestors entered literature, through the Iliad, as speakers of Greek.
In Latin, then, at least in the early poems, they would have been experienced as
dubbed. As for the Aeneid, not only was Vergil’s Aeneas speaking Latin, but he stood
out in the poem in another critical aspect: the heroic code he came to personify
evolved in the course of the epic from Greek to Roman. He spoke and came to act like
a Roman in an otherwise Greek genre. A comparable cultural disconnect can be
observed in the 1962 film. Its hero differs from the rest of the cast not only in his
physique (Reeves was a former Mr. Universe) but also by virtue of his body language,
facial expressions, and original voice that stand out as patently American in an
otherwise predominantly Italian milieu. Though approximate, I find this parallel
helpful in reconstructing how the early Roman audiences might have encountered
the translation and adaptation of Greek literature into Latin: the characters of the new
literature were, figuratively speaking, dubbed in Latin and altered to fit the Roman
ethos; the dynamic tension in the resulting product could not have been missed.
 The Beginnings of Roman Literature 465

Livius Andronicus
As mentioned above, from the very beginning Roman culture, including religion, was
composite in general and inclusive of Greek influence in particular. So, it should not
come as a surprise that the history of Roman literature composed by professional
writers began, in 240 BCE , with the introduction of Greek tragedies and comedies in
translation at the ancient Ludi Romani (Cic. Brut. 72–3, Sen. 50, Tusc. 1.3). Nor
should we be surprised that the first translator and adaptor was a Greek, Livius
Andronicus from Tarentum, who also translated the Odyssey into Latin saturnians
and composed a hymn to Juno Regina, presumably in a lyric meter (Livy 27.37.7;
Festus 492.22). Significantly, the context for the introduction of these particular
literary innovations was war: the successful completion of the First Punic War in the
case of the first Greek drama and, for the hymn, a moment of crisis during the Second
Punic War (207 BCE ). The searing reality of war may account for the fact that roughly
half of Livius’ known tragedies involve events during or surrounding the Trojan War
(Achilles, Aegisthus, Ajax Mastigophorus, Equos Troianus, Hermiona). War and its
mediation through the Trojan cycle may also have motivated Rome’s first national
epic, about which more below.
Stephen Hinds’ reading of the first line of Livius’ Odusia (1998: 58–63) has shown
decisively that the first epic in Latin foregrounded its scholarly pretensions. According
to Hinds, the Tarentine’s later negative reception was based on ‘‘renegotiations of the
same cultural move’’ on the part of later writers staking out their position in Roman
literary history (1997: 63). A glance at the opening of the poem reveals the hand of a
dicti studiosus, to use Ennius’ phrase (Ann. 209 Sk.): Virum mihi, Camena, insece
versutum (1 Bl.) features an Italian water divinity whose name suggests carmen, an
elegant Roman substitute for the Greek Muse; the rare and archaic insece replicates
the similarly uncommon, similarly accented, and, and as it happens, etymologically
related ἔννεπε (according to Sheets 1981: 68, an Umbrian gloss as well); and
versutum not only translates πολύτροπον (‘‘of many turns’’) but also incorporates
the meaning ‘‘translate,’’ versio being the technical term for ‘‘translation,’’ and as
such enacts a reference to the status of the work.
The other fragments, few though they are, reveal more evidence of linguistic
and mythological playfulness. For instance, in Pylum deveniens aut ibi<dem>
ommentans (9 Bl.) cleverly picks up the directional suffix -δε in the line ἠὲ
Πύλονδ ἐλθὼν ἢ αὐτουÐ τωÐ ιδ ἐνὶ δήμωι (Od. 2.317), with aut ibi<dem> o-, if cor-
rect, echoing αὐτουÐ τωÐ ιδ ἐνὶ δήμωι; vestis pulla porpurea ampla (27 Bl.) echoes the
alliteration in χλαιÐ ναν πορϕυρέην οὔλην ἔχε διÐ οс  Οδυссεύс, = διπληÐ ν (Od. 19.225);
quando dies adveniet, quem profata Morta est (23 Bl.) calls to mind such lines as
ὁππότε ϰεν δὴ = μοιÐ ρ ὀλοὴ ϰαθέληιсι τανηλεγέοс θανάτοιο (Od. 3.237–8; cf. 2.99–
100), suggesting that Livius contracted the phrase μοιÐ ρα θανάτοιο into a name for
one of the fates, Morta, that also evoked the word for death (Livingston 2004: 7–11);
the translation of η λθ ἐριούνηс = Ἑρμείαс, η λθεν δὲ ἄναξ ἑϰάεργοс  Απόλλων (Od.
8.322–3), Mercurius cumque eo filius Latonas (19 Bl.), includes what looks like a
clever substitution of the god’s matronymic, Λητοίδηс, which might look to the
Homeric Hymn to Hermes, a text of great interest to Hellenistic writers, where this
466 James J. Clauss

title is featured; his interest in matronymics recurs in the line nam diva Monetas filia
docuit (21 Bl.), with Moneta an elegant allusion to Mnemosyne (Livingston 2004:
23–30). The attention to linguistic detail and nuance is sophisticated. ‘‘Livius
Andronicus is a Hellenistic poeta doctus, whose poetic practice bears the stamp of
literary reflection’’ (Albrecht 1997: 1.116).
What about the choice of the saturnian? Forced ‘‘by Roman conditions’’ (Williams
1982: 59)? I suspect not. Obviously Livius read and understood hexametric verse and
composed poetry in iambic and lyric meters. He should have been able to manage a
decent hexameter, had he wanted. Rather than imagining this choice as based on the
author’s lack of literary sophistication – which the fragments belie – or on the
intended audience’s expectations – why were Romans any more open to dactyls in
the next century? – we might more productively think of the decision to choose the
language of ‘‘fauns and vates,’’ to use Ennius’ deprecatory phrase (Ann. 207 Sk.), as
strategic and influenced by Hellenistic practice. Alexandrian poets at this very time
were exploring the application of archaic meters to new purposes with remarkable
results (e.g., the resurrection of Hipponax’s choliambic verse by Callimachus and
Herodas; see Scodel and Esposito in this volume). What is more, Livius’ articulation
of the Homeric narrative in an old and established meter allowed the heroic narrative
to feel both archaic, like the model text, and more familiar at the same time; the
rhythm surely evoked a Roman sense of heroic identity, as could be heard in the
funeral inscriptions of the Scipiones (CIL 12 6–9) or the poetic elogium of A. Atilius
Calatinus that stood along the Appian Way (Cic. Sen. 61, cf. Tusc. 1.13); these were
themselves already a gesture towards the elegiac Greek epigram (Van Sickle 1987). In
this too, Livius can be said to have been a man of his time.
Of equal interest is Livius’ choice of epic to translate. Gruen (1990: 84–5) provides
a compelling answer: the orientation of the western Greek in Rome. In addition to
the fact that Odysseus was an Adriatic prince, that his sons by Circe were believed to
be founders of Italian cities, and that in some accounts Odysseus was a companion of
Aeneas, the Odyssey also brought its hero to the Roman sphere of interest (Sicily, the
Aeolian islands, the Tyrrhenian coast); one might compare fascination with stories
that celebrate the presence in Rome itself of other Greek heroes, such as Evander and
Heracles. Yet, I sense that the choice of the Odyssey involves more than what is, after
all, a specious link between early Greeks and Romans (though speciousness should
not be undervalued in the contentious longing for early membership in the pantheon
of Greek heroes). The Odyssey is also a poem about a hero’s return from war, an event
that, including the war itself, took 20 years to complete. Although we do not know
the date of publication of Livius’ Odusia (on which, see Gruen 1990: 80–2), during a
significant part of his lifetime the Romans were involved in a war that lasted 23 years,
the First Punic War (264–241 BCE ), at whose conclusion Livius staged the first Greek
play in Latin for the Ludi Romani. It is difficult not to imagine that the Odusia
responded to the most significant event of the period and reflected the anxieties of so
many Romans at the time: a 20-year-plus war and the need to negotiate an eventual
return home. Odysseus’ successful homecoming from the Trojan War after undergo-
ing a kind of rebirth, re-establishing his identity, and validating the right to be among
his people once again would have been a meaningful narrative for Livius’ audience. If
the Odusia was composed after 241, I have to imagine that Livius was drawn to this
 The Beginnings of Roman Literature 467

Homeric epic because he felt that it spoke to the audience’s need for closure. The
selection of an archaic theme that he explored in an archaic verse, infused with literary
and mythological pyrotechnics and intended to reflect a critical issue of the day,
however we ultimately explain that issue, looks and feels Alexandrian. Livius was a
vates indeed, but more in an Augustan sense than Ennian.

Gnaeus Naevius
During and after the Second World War, Hollywood released over 600 films cele-
brating American victories and losses in both the European and Asian theaters. The
desire for cinematic representations of America in armed conflict with Japan and
Germany was intense. Director John Ford, a navy officer and combat photographer,
made a documentary film during the course of the war, The Battle of Midway (1942).
One film, To Hell and Back (1955), directed by Jesse Hibbs, was based on the
autobiography of, and even starred, Audie Murphy, who won the Congressional
Medal of Honor, among numerous other awards, for remarkable acts of courage
during battle in Europe. Artistic representation of war by soldiers was nothing new.
One such ancient military artist was Gnaeus Naevius who both fought in the First
Punic War and later created the first national epic in Latin celebrating Rome’s victory
in this long and devastating conflict. We learn from Varro, by way of Gellius
(17.21.45), that the poet mentioned his service in the war in his Bellum Poenicum,
composed like Livius’ Odusia in saturnians (perhaps a subtle nod to the association of
that poem with the same event; similar to Livius, Naevius’ tragedies also focused on
the Trojan War: Albrecht 1997: 1.125). Ironically perhaps, the preface to Ovid’s Ars
Amatoria suggests a possible rationale for including such a statement (1.25–30).
There, the Augustan poet, humorously contrasting his poetic authority with that of
Hesiod and Callimachus, insists that he was not inspired by any god in the writing of
this work but by personal experience; he could give instruction on the art of love
because he could say, in the modern parlance: ‘‘been there, done that!’’ Might
Naevius, then, have vouched for his personal participation in the war as part of a
programmatic statement, explicitly or implicitly ascertaining the accuracy of his
account? At any rate, the combination of personal experience and association with
the Muses (Naevius referred to them in what may well be the opening line of the
poem, novem Iovis concordes filiae sorores, 1 Bl.) finds parallel in the opening of
Callimachus’ Aetia where he recounts his dream of a conversation with the Muses.
What is more, the fragments of the Bellum Poenicum, meager though they too are,
also hint at an artist of Hellenistic sensibilities.
Naevius begins his historical epic with the founding of Rome by the grandsons of
Aeneas, whose departure from Troy and journey to Italy appears to have been
described, possibly as a flashback, with considerable detail. The fragments, in this
section of the poem as elsewhere, reveal an interest in the origins of words that marks
Naevius too as dicti studiosus. Varro informs us that Naevius derived Palatium from
Balatium because of the presence of ‘‘bleating’’ (balatus) sheep on that hill (LL 5.43)
and Aventinum from the aves, ‘‘birds,’’ that assembled there (LL 5.53). The
468 James J. Clauss

following lines appear to suggest an etymology for auspicium, which comes from the
combination of avem and specio (25 Bl.):

Postquam avem aspexit in templo Anchisa,

sacra in mensa Penatium ordine ponuntur;
immolabat auream victimam pulchram.
After Anchises saw a bird within the duly apportioned precinct of the sky,
offerings are placed appropriately on the table of the Household Gods;
he began to sacrifice a splendid golden victim.

If correct, Naevius might be associating the taking of auspices with Trojan religious
practice (compare the figura etymologica in the lines virum praetor advenit, auspicat
auspicium / prosperum [39 Bl.] which, together with the previous passage, suggests
more than passing interest in the rite). If the line silvicolae homines bellique inertes (10
Bl.) refers to the aboriginal people of Italy, Naevius might be anticipating the future
rulers of Alba Longa who bore the name Silvius. When someone, most likely Venus,
addresses Jupiter as patrem suum supremum optumum (15 Bl.), the poet plays with
the cult title Jupiter Optimus Maximus. References to Roman rites, such as the
traditional declaration of war (scopas atque verbenas sagmina sumpserunt, 35 Bl.),
and topographical features, such as the Pons Sublicius (mentioned in the poem
according to Festus 414.15), in addition to the other items listed above, suggest that
Naevius imbued his account of early Roman history with cultural details the likes of
which one would find in ktisis-poetry such as that written by Apollonius, in which the
foundation of cities is traced back to legendary heroes (CA 4–12; for the likelihood
that Naevius knew Apollonius, see Mariotti 1986: 16), or in chronicle poetry such as
the Messeniaca of Rhianus or the Mopsopia of Euphorion.
Naevius’ choice to incorporate the Trojan migration within his historical epic not only
connected the origin of Rome, possibly even the Punic War, with the most important
event in Greek literary history; it also afforded him the opportunity to engage in the sort
of intertextual narrative we typically associate with later writers in Rome. For example,
while the departure from Troy includes elements that probably come from the cyclic
Iliou Persis in which Aeneas and his entourage are described as leaving Troy (e.g., 5 Bl.),
Naevius’ description of the storm that beset the Trojans on their way to Italy (which
Servius on Aen. 1.198 tells us Vergil adapted in the first book of the Aeneid) was likely
influenced by the passage from the Odyssey in which Odysseus is assailed by a storm sent
by Poseidon (Od. 5.282–493). In fact, at some point in this part of the story, Anchises
addresses Neptune, a detail that encourages us to think of this Odyssean passage (9 Bl.):

Senex fretus pietatei deum adlocutus

summi deum regis fratrem Neptunum
regnatorem marum.
The old man, trusting in his piety, addressed the god
Neptune, brother of the almighty king of the gods,
ruler of the seas.

This kind of interweaving of models can be observed again and again in Hellenistic
authors such as Callimachus and Apollonius. We are fortunate in having evidence of it
 The Beginnings of Roman Literature 469

elsewhere in Naevius’ poetry, as we learn from Terence (Andria 15–21) that he

‘‘contaminated’’ discrete dramatic narratives in his plays as well.
Still other possible connections with the Trojan War and the Homeric poems can
be found among the fragments. The sheer length of the Punic War must have
conjured up a parallel with the Trojan conflict; at one point, in fact, Naevius talks
about a 17-year siege (septimum decimum annum ilico sedent, 44 Bl.). Moreover, we
encounter a number of Homericizing phrases and conceits. The question put to
Aeneas by someone during his journey to Italy or after reaching his destination
(20 Bl.),

Blande et docte percontat, Aenea quo pacto

Troiam urbem liquerit.
Agreeably, yet to the point, he asks how Aeneas
left the city of Troy.

recalls such scenes as when Aeolus asks Odysseus about his travels (Od. 10.14–15):

μηÐ να δε πάντα ϕίλει με ϰαὶ ἐξερέεινεν ἕϰαсτα,

Ἴλιον Ἀργείων τε νέαс ϰαὶ νόсτον ἈχαιωÐ ν:
For a whole month he hosted me and asked all sorts of questions
about Troy, the ships of the Argives, and the return of the Achaeans.

The line that follows, ‘‘and I told him everything down to the last detail,’’ gives us a
good idea of what may have followed in the Naevian text. In the lines

manusque susum ad caelum sustulit suas rex

Amulius, divis<que> gratulabatur.
And King Amulius raised his hands up toward the sky
and thanked the gods.

(26 Bl., with Merula’s widely accepted manusque for isque) Amulius’ action echoes the
many examples of phrases using χειÐ ραс plus a form of ἀνέχω and accompanied by the
name of a god or gods in the dative that are found in both Homeric poems. In the line
sanctus Iove prognatus Pythius Apollo, ‘‘holy child of Jupiter, Pythian Apollo’’ (24 Bl.),
Pythius Apollo seems to toy with the Homeric clausula ΦοιÐ βοс Ἀπόλλων, and the
line as a whole with Homeric whole-verse formulas such as διογενὲс Λαερτιάδη
πολυμηÐ τιс ὈδυссευÐ . Topper capesset flammam Volcani, ‘‘quickly it will lay hold of
Vulcan’s flame’’ (60 Bl.), recalls a phrase such as αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δή сε ϕλὸξ ἤνυсεν
Ἡϕαίсτοιο (Od. 24.71). We are even fortunate in having a brief ecphrasis (8 Bl.):

Inerant signa expressa, quomodo Titani

bicorpores Gigantes magnique Atlantes
Runcus ac Porporeus filii Terras.
Images were represented on it, such as the Titans,
double-bodied Giants, huge Atlases,
Runcus and Porporeus, sons of the Earth.
470 James J. Clauss

Whatever this described (a shield, perhaps, on the model of that of Achilles), the
presence of such pre-Olympian monsters may have signified in some fashion the
victory over the forces of chaos by a new Jovian regime: Rome? In sum, rather than
translating and adapting Homer, as Livius did, Naevius was the first to use the
Homeric poems as literary models for a Roman epic, and employed these texts to
color and comment on their narratives in precisely the same way as Hellenistic poets
and as his epic successors in Rome would do after him.

Quintus Ennius
Ennius (239–169 BCE ), then, was not the first Hellenistic poet in Rome. He did,
however, bring Hellenistic literary sensitivities to a new level, and stunningly so. In
fact, the fragments and occasional details preserved by later writers suggest that he may
have consciously fashioned his life and work along the lines of a Callimachus, if not
Callimachus ipse. He claimed to be the descendant of the Oscan king and eponym of
the Messapians, Messapus (524 Sk.), as Callimachus claimed to come from the family
of the Cyrenian founder Battus (Barchiesi 1995). The assertion that he was poor at age
70 (Cic. Sen. 5.14) recalls Callimachus’ claim of poverty in Iamb 3. His dream at the
opening of the Annales clearly imitates the dream with which the Aetia proper opens
(fr. 2 Pf.). Like Callimachus in the Aetia, Ennius speaks of his old age in the context of
poetic composition (fr. 1.30–6 Pf.; 401, 522, sed. inc. LXX Sk.). Both poets added to
their magna opera, Callimachus Books 3–4 of the Aetia and Ennius Books 16–18 of
the Annales. In the preserved four-book format, the Aetia ends where Callimachus
began, with the Muses; it seems possible that the first ending of the Annales in Book 15
concluded with the founding of the temple of Hercules of the Muses (6 Sk.), a Roman
Museum on the model of the Alexandrian institution (Gratwick 1982: 63), and thus
passages celebrating the Muses similarly framed his great epic (the first line of which
was Musae quae pedibus magnum pulsatis Olympum, 1 Sk.).
Even Ennius’ impressive and varied literary output calls to mind, if not the
Cyrenian, at least a learned scholar-poet of the Alexandrian mold. Space and the
complexity of the questions prompted by the remains of Ennius’ minor works do not
allow any sort of treatment, but what we know of them provides the fascinating
picture of a versatile, ambitious, and combative writer whose elegiac epitaph (ROL
1.402–3),

Nemo me lacrimis decoret nec funera fletu

faxit. Cur? Volito vivus per ora virum.
Let no one adorn me with tears nor celebrate my funeral
with lamentation. Why? I live through the winged words of men.

apart from imitating the frequent question-and-answer format found among the
funeral epigrams in the Greek Anthology, also appears to cap the saturnian epitaph of
Naevius, whose Bellum Poenicum was the main competition for the Annales (ROL
2.154–5; Epitaphium Naevii Bl.):
 The Beginnings of Roman Literature 471

Immortales mortales si foret fas flere,

flerent divae Camenae Naevium poetam.
Itaque postquam est Orchi traditus thesauro
obliti sunt Romae loquier lingua latina.
If it were right for immortals to lament mortals,
the divine Camenae would lament the poet Naevius.
And so, after he was handed over to the chamber of Death
they forgot to speak Latin in Rome.

Not only has Ennius updated the meter, as it were, but his glory is such that he will
not be consigned to the land of the dead!
In addition to the dramatic pieces, more tragic than comic, Ennius composed
epigrams; Sota, an adaptation of a poem by the third-century poet Sotades;
Gastronomia, a Latin rendition, in loose hexameters, of the mock-didactic food poem
Hedyphagetica by the fourth-century poet Archestratus of Gela; the Epicharmus and
Praecepta (or Protrepticum) in iambo-trochaic verse; and four books of Saturae, in
various meters, that include fables, send-ups of stereotypical figures, proverbs, various
comic scenes, and autobiographical stories, whose metrical and thematic varietas
recalls the Iambs of Callimachus (Waszink 1972: 121–30). The Euhemerus or Sacra
Historia stands as our earliest example of artistic prose in Latin. Moreover, his
exploration of a variety of genres also calls to mind Callimachus’ defense of his own
polyeideia in Iamb 13. We even learn from Cicero (Div. 2.111) that in one of his
works Ennius included the acrostic Q. ENNIUS FECIT, reminiscent of Nicander’s
famous signature acrostic at Theriaca 345–54 (quoted by Magnelli in this volume),
and one fragment of the Annales may contain an acronym of the name MARS (156
Sk.; Hendry 1994). Not missing from Ennius’ poetic resume are the sorts of encomia
that recall Callimachus, Theocritus, and others: the Scipio, in which he stated that
Homer alone could praise Africanus’ deeds (Suda ε 1348), and the Ambracia that
celebrated the Aetolian expedition of Ennius’ patron M. Fulvius Nobilior, which was
also featured in Book 15 of the Annales. The picture we get of a poet on intimate
terms with the great leaders of Rome (e.g., Cic. de Orat. 2.276; Badian 1972), evokes
the amicable relationships that the Ptolemies had with their literary protégés and
anticipates the rapport that Vergil and Horace, among others, will have with
Augustus (see also Erskine, Gowing in this volume).
Regarding the Annales, the fragments reveal a poem that includes programmatic
self-consciousness, sophisticated word play, intertextuality, and association with
Callimachean poetics, inter alia. What follows is a select survey of some of the features
of the Annales that illustrate these points.
In the opening lines of the Annales, Ennius hijacked the dream motif featured in the
first scene of the Aetia (fr. 2 Pf.). Callimachus dreamed that he conversed with the
Muses on Mount Helicon, a trope that validates the authority of his material, itself a
clever adaptation of Hesiod’s encounter with the Muses in the Theogony (22–35). In his
rendition of the Callimachean dream, Ennius, employing Pythagorean views of the
soul, claims that Homer, a more appropriate model than Hesiod given the topic,
appeared to him and informed him that, after becoming a peacock, his soul migrated
to that of the Roman poet (1–11 Sk.). Ennius’ dream thus trumps that of his Hellenistic
472 James J. Clauss

model: validation for the content and presentation of the Annales lie in the poet himself
as Homer redivivus. At the opening of the third triad of the Annales (Book 7), Ennius,
according to Cicero, explained why he did not treat the First Punic War (206–7 Sk.):

Scripsere alii rem

vorsibus quos olim Faunei vatesque canebant.
Others have written an account
in verses which once the fauns and soothsayers used to sing.

He went on to state (208–10 Sk.):

cum] neque Musarum scopulos . . .

. . . nec dicti studiosus [quisquam erat] ante hunc
nos ausi reserare.
Nor [did anyone ascend the] cliffs of the Muses
nor [was there any] philologist before him.
We dared to lay open [the fountains?].

Ennius’ decision not to treat the First Punic War is an early, if not the earliest, example
of the recusatio motif in Latin. A Hellenistic parallel can be found in Apollonius’
statement at the beginning of the Argonautica that he would not describe the
building of the Argo because earlier poets had already done so (1.18–22), although
in Ennius’ case he disparages the unnamed alii. Closely linked with this statement is
the claim that he was the first to ascend the mountain of the Muses as dicti studiosus,
which scholars have long recognized as a translation of the Alexandrian term for
scholar-poet, ϕιλόλογοс. As seen above, Livius and Naevius were in fact also prac-
ticing ϕιλόλογοι. In this prologue, introducing the First and Second Punic Wars,
Naevius provided Ennius with precisely what he needed if he were going to be a
Callimachus in Rome: someone to evoke as a seemingly inferior rival – a faun and a
soothsayer – in order to distinguish his own work as innovative, just as Callimachus
availed himself of the Telchines or, to cite a more recent example, when Michael Stipe
of the 1990s pop group REM claimed that the Beatles produced ‘‘elevator music.’’
That he borrowed much from Naevius’ work, as Cicero observed (Brut. 19.76), was
immaterial to the agonistic stance that his priority afforded. One final example. The
prologue of the next triad (Books 10–12) contains the lines (322–3 Sk.):

Insece Musa manu Romanorum induperator

quod quisque in bello gessit cum rege Philippo.
Tell, O Muse, what each commander of the Romans
accomplished by force of arms in the war with King Philip.

It was suggested long ago that Ennius appears to ‘‘correct’’ Livius’ Camena insece,
substituting the Greek Musa for the archaic Italian water divinity but employing the
same calque on ἔννεπε (Waszink 1979: 95). The correction might even go deeper.
The object of ἔννεπε/insece in the Greek and Latin Odyssey’s was a single man,
Odysseus; the object of insece in the Annales are the achievements of a number of
 The Beginnings of Roman Literature 473

Roman generals. Roman greatness, one might deduce, lies not in individual but
corporate res gestae. These three examples, despite their fragmentary state, reveal a
poet self-consciously positioning his work within Greek and Roman literary history
and in a manner that accords with Hellenistic practice.
Many of the fragments verify Ennius’ claim to be dicti studiosus. Like his epic
predecessors, Ennius gives his narrative a Homeric cast but to an even greater degree.
For instance, dia dearum (22 Sk.) replicates the clausula διÐ α θεάων and endo suam do
(587 Sk.) echoes ἡμέτερον δωÐ ; the formula πατὴρ ἀνδρωÐ ν τε θεωÐ ν τε is imitated and
varied in good Hellenistic style (see more examples of variatio below): patrem
divomque hominumque (592 Sk.), divom pater atque hominum rex (203 Sk.), and
divomque hominumque pater, rex (591 Sk.). Ennius translated whole formulaic
lines, giving Roman battles the feel of an Iliadic conflict: concidit et sonitum simul
insuper arma dederunt (411 Sk.) renders the line δούπηсεν δὲ πεсών, ἀράβηсε
δὲ τεύχε ἐπ αὐτωÐ ι (e.g., Il. 4.504). He even attempted to reproduce the sound of
the Greek archaic genitive singular in Mettoeo<que> Fufetioeo (120 Sk.) and occa-
sionally employed tmesis, elegantly as in Hannibal audaci cum pectore de me hortatur
(371 Sk.), and playfully as in the unassigned fragment saxo cere comminuit brum
(ROL 1.450–1, a reflection of Hellenistic practice: Zetzel 1974). There are the
occasional puns, such as alter nare cupit, alter pugnare paratust (238 Sk.), navibus
explebant sese terrasque replebant (518 Sk.), and unus surum Surus ferre, tamen
defendere possent (540 Sk.), and glosses on Greek words such as et densis aquila pennis
obnixa volabat / vento quem perhibent Graium genus aera lingua (139–40 Sk.) and
nec quisquam sophiam, sapientia quae perhibetur, / in somnis vidit priusquam sam
discere coepit (211–12 Sk.). Ennius introduced non-Latin words to add color, as in
summus ibi capitur meddix, occitur alter (289 Sk.) and Illyrii restant sicis sybinisque
fodentes (526 Sk.). He may also have picked up and toyed with Naevius’ etymological
play on auspicium, seen above (87–91 Sk.):
Simul aureus exoritur sol
cedunt de caelo ter quattuor corpora sancta
avium, praepetibus sese pulcrisque locis dant.
Conspicit inde sibi data Romulus esse propritim
auspicio regni stabilita scamna solumque.
As soon as the golden sun arises
twelve holy birds swoop down from the sky,
they betake themselves to propitious and pleasing places.
From this Romulus observes that a flight of birds established
a kingdom’s throne and territory as his own.

Thanks to Macrobius, we know that Ennius recast a number of specific passages from
the Iliad, applying them to new contexts in the Annales. The felling of trees for
Patroclus’ pyre (Il. 23.114–26) was borrowed to describe the funeral preparations
after the Battle of Heraclea for the cremation of 11,000 men (175–9 Sk.); another
comment on the corporate nature of Roman heroism? Ennius applied the episode of
Ajax being pressed by the Trojans at Il. 16.102–11 to the struggle of a tribune (391–
8 Sk.), which appears to have been a part of a larger Homeric contaminatio involving
Il. 12.127–36 (see Skutsch ad loc., and for a similar blending of Homeric passages,
474 James J. Clauss

ad 432). He also adapted the celebrated horse simile assigned to Paris and Hector (Il.
6.506–11 and 15.263–8), likely a compliment to a conspicuous soldier. We learn
from Cicero (Sen. 6.16) that Ennius included a speech by Appius Claudius in which
he argued vehemently against making peace with Pyrrhus (199–200 Sk.). The line
Cicero quotes recalls Il. 24.201–2, where Hecuba rebukes Priam for even thinking
about going to the Achaeans to ransom the body of Achilles; the assignation of words
uttered by an unheroic female character to the aged Roman statesman is striking but
also typical of Hellenistic gender reversals in the rewriting of Homeric passages.
Ennius, the purported re-incarnation of Homer, repeats himself, as it were, when
he expresses inadequacy with regard to the magnitude of his topic (469–70 Sk. and Il.
2.487–9):

Non si lingua loqui saperet quibus, ora decem sint

in me, tum ferro cor sit pectusque revinctum . . .
Not if I had ten mouths with which my tongue could speak,
and if my heart and chest were bound with iron . . .
πληθὺν δ οὐϰ ἂν ἐγὼ μυθήсομαι οὐδ ὀνομήνω
οὐδ εἴ μοι δέϰα μὲν γλωÐ ссαι, δέϰα δὲ сτόματ ει εν,
ϕωνὴ δ ἄρρηϰτοс, χάλϰεον δέ μοι η τορ ἐνείη.
I could not mention or name the multitude
not even if I had ten tongues and ten mouths,
and an unbreakable voice, and a heart of bronze within.

These and the previous passages indicate that the Annales possessed the kind of
studied Homericizing narrative we find among the Hellenistic poets. The difference,
of course, resides in the fact that all of the literary and linguistic niceties color our
reading of Roman history, and not Greek mythology. Livius dubbed Homeric char-
acters in Latin; Ennius, like Naevius, has historical Romans acting and talking like
Homeric heroes, a fact that is further distanced by the self-consciousness of the
language whereby the poet effectively shares the stage with his subjects.
Another feature of the poem that reflects Hellenistic tastes involves the inclusion of
ethnographical and historiographical topics. Apart from the foundation of Rome
featured in the first book, we find traces of the founding of Ostia (128–9 Sk.) and
Carthage (472, pace Skutch ad loc.), with mention of the Carthaginian practice of
child sacrifice (214 Sk.), all recalling Hellenistic ktisis poetry. Focus on decisive
changes of fortune may reflect the kind of Hellenistic tragic history criticized by
Polybius (2.56.10–12, quoted by Gutzwiller in this volume; 312–13 and 385–6 Sk.):
Mortalem summum Fortuna repente
reddidit ysummo regno yut famul yoptimus esset.
Fortune suddenly removed the highest mortal
from the height of power to become a (a very fine?) slave.
Infit, ‘‘O cives, quae me fortuna foro sic
contudit indigno, bello confecit acerbo!’’
He begins to speak, ‘‘Citizens, what fortune so crushed me
in a cruel forum, destroyed me in a bitter war!’’
 The Beginnings of Roman Literature 475

A particularly striking example of a dramatic reversal is the ambiguous oracle sup-

posedly received by the great Roman nemesis Pyrrhus (167 Sk.):

Aio te Aeacida Romanos vincere posse.

I say, offspring of Aeacus, that you can defeat the Romans (or: the Romans can defeat you).

As Cicero who quotes the line noticed (Div. 2.116), Ennius replicated the famous
prophecy given to Croesus (Arist. Rhet. 1407a; D.S. 9.31; cf. Hdt. 1.54):

ΚροιÐ сοс Ἅλυν διαβὰс μεγαλὴν ἀρχὴν ϰαταλύсει.

Croesus, crossing the Halys, will destroy a great power (i.e., his or that of Cyrus).

Though paralleled in epic poetry, piteous scenes in which the vanquished beg for
mercy (cogebant hostes lacrumantes ut misererent, 162 Sk.) or women watch from city
walls (matronae moeros complent spectare faventes, 418 Sk.) may also recall historians
such as Phylarchus and his fourth-century BCE predecessor Duris who teased out the
emotional reactions to historical events, like modern-day tabloids.
In the composition of literary epics, writers such as Apollonius evoked Homeric
formulas but then varied their individual instances, eschewing wholesale repetition.
We can observe Ennius aiming after a comparable effect for example in descriptions of
galloping horses:

explorant Numidae, totam quatit ungula terram. 242 Sk.

consequitur. Summo sonitu quatit ungula terram. 262 Sk.
it eques et plausu cava concutit ungula terram. 431 Sk.

the night sky:

qui caelum versat stellis fulgentibus aptum. 27 Sk.

caelum prospexit stellis fulgentibus aptum. 145 Sk.
hinc nox processit stellis ardentibus aptum. 348 Sk.

and sailing (cf. also 294–6 Sk. and ROL 1.404–5.3):

poste recumbite vestraque pellite tonsis. 218 Sk.

pone petunt, exim referunt ad pectora tonsas. 219 Sk.

This tendency toward variatio is surely a conscious choice influenced by the practices
of Hellenistic writers.
Ennius thus reveals himself in many ways as an artist of Hellenistic tastes. As we
have seen, in this he built upon the work of Livius and Naevius, distancing himself
from his predecessors by presenting himself as more ‘‘philological’’ than they were.
Before concluding, I would like to explore two lines which suggest that he may also
have been engaged in the kind of pointed inversion of Callimachean aesthetics that
has been observed in later writers of the Neoteric and Augustan periods.
In his commentary on the Georgics (1988), Richard Thomas observes that on several
occasions Vergil employed wording that conflicted with orthodox Callimachean
imagery. For instance, in the prologue to Georgics 4 the poet states (3–7):
476 James J. Clauss

Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum

magnanimosque duces totiusque ordine gentis
mores et studia et populos et proelia dicam.
In tenui labor; at tenuis non gloria, si quem
numina laeva sinunt auditque vocatus Apollo.
In proper order I will recall for you the amazing spectacle of subtle things, both great-
hearted leaders and the character and passions of an entire nation, and peoples and
battles. Much work on a little topic: but no little glory, if propitious powers allow and
Apollo listens when invoked.

As Thomas notes (ad 4.6), the stylistic approach taken is Callimachean (tenuis ¼
λεπτόс), but the theme of war and the glory it will bring are non-Callimachean (see
further Thomas 1985). Even the earlier and seemingly more conformist Eclogue 6
shows signs of inversion (Clauss 2004). At the opening of the Metamorphoses, Ovid’s
request that the Muses participate in his fine-spun ‘‘continuous poem’’ (perpetuum . . .
carmen, 1.4), strikes a similar dissonance (compare and contrast Callimachus’ rejection
of the ‘‘continuous’’ poem at Aetia fr. 1.4 Pf.), as do Latona’s statements in the
episode of the Lycian Farmers that the use of water is common to all and that nature
does not make ‘‘fine waters’’ (tenues undas, Met. 6.351) the private property of
anyone; even more strikingly, the mother of Lycian Apollo here claims to come to a
common drinking-spot (publica munera), all of which runs counter to Callimachus’
aversion to such places and the water found there (see especially ep. 28 Pf.). Similarly, at
Ars Poetica 131–5 Horace states that one can write excellent poetry using ‘‘public
material’’ (publica materies, 131; on this and the Ovidian passages see Clauss 1989).
While one might imagine that pressure from the Augustan regime forced poets to
abandon their Callimachean avoidance of epic themes, the same sort of contradictory
phrases and imagery can be found in the previous generation, for example in Catullus
68b: the poem begins non possum reticere (41) and an audience of thousands is
envisaged (45–6), a lofty spider is asked to weave a ‘‘non-tenuous’’ web (nec tenuem
texens sublimis aranea telam, 49), a river that flows in the midst of many people brings
relief (59–60), an enclosed area is made open where the poet’s girlfriend places a soft
foot on a well-worn threshold (67–72; Clauss 1995). In other words, poets of the first
century BCE , even as early as the Neoteric Catullus, were fully comfortable with the idea
of evoking and then subverting Callimachean programmatic imagery.
To return to the Annales, while it contains many features that are familiar from
Hellenistic verse, in length and tone it resembles the ‘‘Persian chain’’ more than the
‘‘shrill cicada’’ (Call. Aet. fr. 1.18, 32–6 Pf.; Harder in this volume). Book 6, for
instance, which tells of the war with Pyrrhus, opens with the programmatic line quis
potis ingentis oras evolvere belli (‘‘you who can unroll the huge boundaries of this
war,’’ 164 Sk.). Evolvere is a metaphor for poetic composition that comes from
unrolling a papyrus (OLD s.v. 7). Knowing that Ennius was fully conversant with
Callimachus’ poetry, might we find in his choice of words an inversion of the equally
programmatic ἔποс δ ἐπὶ τυτθὸν ἑλίсω at the opening of the Aetia (‘‘and I unroll a
small poem,’’ 1.5 Pf.) in order to signal his intention to write the seemingly para-
doxical Callimachean epic? If so, the substitution of ingentis for τυτθόν is striking. We
are perhaps on firmer ground in the line deducunt habilies gladios filo gracilento
 The Beginnings of Roman Literature 477

(‘‘they make fine and nimble swords of delicate quality,’’ 239 Sk.). The verb deduco,
used literally of spinning and metaphorically of poetic composition, implies tenuitas,
as Servius notes on Vergil’s phrase deductum dicere carmen at Eclogue 6.5 (translatio
a lana quae deducitur in tenuitatem). Ennius’ filo introduces the metaphor of
spinning and gracilento engages a stylistic nuance (cf. tenui deducta poemata filo,
Hor. Ep. 2.1.225). The description of the making of swords (military) in terms that
evoke elegant verse (Callimachean) offers up the sort of inverted imagery we find in
Late Republican and Augustan authors and leads to the conclusion that Roman poets
as early as Ennius not only employed programmatic language but possessed consid-
erable freedom in manipulating it to suit their interests.

***
From what we have seen, Livius, Naevius, and Ennius engaged in a sophisticated and
self-conscious literary practice that might have been as much at home in Alexandria as
it was in Rome. The only true ‘‘fauns and soothsayers’’ who composed Latin litera-
ture were those who antedated the arrival of Livius Andronicus, the first doctus poeta,
who came on the scene with an already impressive panoply of philological weapons.
Thereafter, Roman poets continuously improved upon the literary doctrina of their
antecedents. In time, the works of many Hellenistic artists would perish but their
scholarly approach to writing would live on in the Roman epigonoi of the first and
subsequent generations of writers and even beyond the fall of the Roman Empire,
when Medieval and Renaissance thinkers discovered and rediscovered their Classical
past that was deeply invested in Hellenistic aesthetics. What is more, as we have seen
elsewhere in this collection, when Greek and non-Greek writers composed literature,
in verse or prose, subsequent to the first generation of Hellenistic writers, they were
primarily responding not to Archaic or Classical artists but to their successors, who set
the literary agenda throughout the Mediterranean for centuries to come, an agenda
that was fully and unmistakably Hellenistic.

FURTHER READING

A myriad of studies that describe and analyze the influence of Hellenistic literature on Roman
writers of all eras, many excellent and not a few groundbreaking, have appeared over the past
decades. In the interest of space, I cite only a small selection of recent works, especially those
that relate to some of the ideas presented here: Thomas 1993 (an article-length update of
Wimmel’s authoritative 1960 study), Cameron 1995a: 454–83, Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004:
444–85, and Hunter 2006a. Since Hellenistic literature is primarily intertextual, studies on
intertextuality in Rome, particularly as it was directly influenced by Hellenistic authors, form an
important part of any discussion of Roman literature, especially poetry. Key works on the
subject include Barchiesi 1984, Conte 1986, Hinds 1998, Thomas 1999, and Barchiesi 2001a.
For current surveys of early Roman literature in general, see Conte 1994, Albrecht 1997,
Suerbaum 2002, and the magisterial review of the latter by Feeney 2005. On the early epic
tradition in Rome, I can think of no better place to start than Goldberg 1995. On the blending
of cultures on the Italian peninsula, see Veyne 1979. Horsfall 1994 offers a useful survey of our
478 James J. Clauss

evidence for Latin literature before Livius. Regarding the appropriation of the Trojan legend by
Roman writers, see above all Gruen 1992: 6–51 and Erskine 2001.
Blänsdorf 1995 provides up-to-date Latin texts of the Odusia and Bellum Poenicum; for the
Annales, see Skutsch 1985. Volumes 1 and 2 of Warmington 1932 remain the most readily
available collection and translation of the fragments of early Latin poetry. As for studies on the
individual poets examined here, for Livius Andronicus see, for instance, Mariotti 1986 and
Livingston 2004; for Naevius, Barchiesi 1962, a truly extraordinary work of scholarship, and
Mariotti 2001. Regarding the Annales, in addition to the monumental commentary of Skutsch
1985, a number of edited collections have appeared that touch upon many of the central issues
pertaining to the first hexametric epic in Rome: Skutsch 1972, more recently Breed and Rossi
2006, and Fitzgerald and Gowers 2007. In short, our understanding of the influence of
Hellenistic literature on Roman writers has come far, but more work remains to be done as
we continue to discover the extent to which Romans, like other Mediterranean peoples, made
Greek literature their own.
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 Index

Abydenus, 457 aetiology

Academics, 10, 28, 129, 342–3, 360, 366–8, in Apollonius of Rhodes, 4, 136–7, 139,
370–4, 383 144, 146–9, 186, 405–6
Accius, 392 in Aratus, 207, 209
Achaean League, 24, 28 in Callimachus, 2, 92–105, 157, 215,
Achaemenids, see Persians 256–7
Achilles, 1, 21–2, 38–9, 41, 84, 111, 326 in Cercidas, 259
see also Epithalamius of Achilles and in epyllia, 157
Deidamia in Eratosthenes, 209
Achilles Tatius, 395, 402, 405–6 in Euphorion, 215
acrostics, 205–8, 215–16, 471 in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 192
Actium, Battle of, 12, 366, 389 in Lucian, 405
Aelian, 245, 320, 370, 372, 452 in Lycophron, 308
Aeschrion, 129–32, 134 in Nicander, 215, 220
Aeschylus in Nymphis, 321
and Alexander the Great, 22, 297 in Philodamus, 191–4
in Aristophanes’ Frogs, 83, 87–90, 101, in Polyhistor, 385
308 in Prodicus and Protagoras, 398
and Callimachus, 60–1 Aetolian League, 20, 24, 44, 390
elegy on the Battle of Marathon, 111–12 Agathon, 32
and Ezekiel, 416 agriculture, 33, 116, 198, 200–2, 331, 357
and Lycophron, 300–1, 307–8, 310–11 Ahiqar, 438, 453–5
original copies of his plays, 2, 55 aitia see aetiology
in school texts, 63, 66, 69, 434 Akkadian, 11, 449–50, 455
Agamemnon, 300, 308 Alcaeus of Lesbos, 182, 299, 357
Carians, 66 Alcaeus of Messene, 118, 135, 253, 256, 359
Eumenides, 190, 193, 195, 270 alchemy, 331
Persians, 69, 111, 298 Alcibiades, 75, 372
Prometheus Bound, 60–1, 300–1, 307–8 Alcman, 173
Prometheus Unchained (ps.), 300 Alexander Aetolus
Aesop, 256, 264, 437, 454 elegiac poetry, 114, 300
536 Index

Alexander Aetolus (Cont’d ) Antagoras of Rhodes, 23, 178, 377

hexameter poetry, 153, 155, 245 anthologies
obscene language, 329 of epigrams, 118, 120–34, 249, 359, 470
tragic poetry, 8, 297 Palatine and Planudean, 118
Alexander III, the Great in school texts, 65–9
and Alexandria, 46, 49–53, 59–61 Antigonids, 19–21, 23, 26–7, 30–7, 39, 42,
appreciation of literature, 1, 21–3, 34, 297, 44, 178, 182, 197, 264, 304, 375, 378,
299 450–1, 457
Cleitus affair, 124 Antigonus I Monophthalmus, 19–21, 33,
deified, 41, 52, 175 182, 450, 457
dialogue with the Gymnosophists, 67 Antigonus II Gonatas, 20, 23, 34–7, 42, 44,
and Dionysus, 57, 299 178, 197, 375, 378
in the Dynastic Prophecy, 451 Antigonus III Doson, 34
education, 10, 34, 75, 366 Antigonus of Carystus, 372, 383, 400
and the Greek diaspora, 1, 82, 91, 415–16, anti-heroic, 152, 154, 275
429, 448, 458 see also realism
historians of, 319, 322, 334, 461 Antimachus
and Iambulus, 408 from Colophon, 217
letters to Olympias, 407 in school texts, 63, 70
in Lycophron, 302–4 Lyde, 3, 70, 112–16, 361–2
and Ninus, 254 Thebaid, 152
as a patron, 32 Antioch, 20, 24, 36, 415
and the Persian empire, 41, 112, 448, 456 Antiochus I Soter, 20, 36, 44, 405, 451–2,
portraits by Apelles and Lysippus, 277 455–6, 458
in school texts, 67 Antiochus III the Great, 23, 26–8, 39
successors, 17–29 Antiochus IV Epiphanes, 27, 439, 465
tomb, 53 Antiochus VIII, 34
see also Alexander Romance Antiochus, Peripatetic philosopher, 368
Alexander IV, 17, 19, 450 Antipater, 19
Alexander of Aphrodisias, 370 Antipater of Sidon, 71, 364, 377
Alexander Balas, 39 Antipater of Thessalonica, 71, 216, 308
Alexander Polyhistor see Polyhistor Antiphanes of Berge, 409
Alexander Romance antiquarianism, 69, 95, 97, 105, 265, 334
and Ctesias, 459 Antisthenes, 252, 399
and the development of prose fiction, 11, Antoninus Liberalis, 403
400, 407–10 Antonius Diogenes, 400
and Egyptian literature, 11, 437, 441–2 Antony (Marcus Antonius), 329, 389
and Ptolemaic ideology, 49, 51, 60, 67 Apelles, 276–7
Alexandria, 2, 13, 20, 22, 30–61, 82, 89, 94– Aphrodite, 26, 52–3, 58, 83, 122–3, 126–7,
5, 168, 277–9, 299, 303 137, 219–20, 229–30, 257–8, 261, 301
Alexis, 76 apocrypha, 406
Alvaro, Corrado, 279 Apollo, 13, 20, 40–4, 53, 90, 92, 94, 97–8,
Amenotes, Commandments of, 67 114, 121–2, 136–8, 159, 167–9, 171,
Amun, 11, 49–50, 53, 59, 442 173, 179, 182–96, 226, 253–8, 300,
anachronism, 4–5, 76, 154, 198, 203, 268, 349–51, 356, 401, 423, 469, 476
396, 435 Apollodorus of Alexandria, 222, 227
Anacreon, 83–4, 182, 256 Apollodorus of Artemita, 449, 456, 460–1
Anaxarchus of Abdera, 368 Apollodorus of Athens, 399
Anaximander, 370 Library (ps.), 159
Andromenides, 340, 343, 347–8, 351, 363 Apollonius of Citium, 10, 331, 336
 Index 537

Apollonius son of Glaucias, 66–7, 434 and Nicander, 5–6, 211, 218–22
Apollonius of Perga, 331, 335 political context, 23, 42, 44, 197–8
Apollonius of Rhodes, 136–49 reception, 197–8, 208–9
aetiology, 136–7, 186 signs, 200–8
Amycus, 140–2, 176–7, 307 sources, 197–8, 227, 332, 349
audience, 94 Aratus, friend of Theocritus, 233–4, 239, 243
building of the Argo, 472 Arcesilaus IV of Cyrene, 147
and Callimachus, 4, 89–91, 98–100, 136, Arcesilaus of Pitane, 368, 371–2, 377, 383
146, 151–2, 156 Archelaus, author of Thaumata, 400
Egyptian context, 169 Archelaus, King of Macedon, 22, 32
Euphemus, 146–9 Archestratus of Gela, 263, 266, 310, 471
‘‘formulas,’’ 475 Archias, 28, 387–8
glosses, 212–14, 273, 348 Archilochus, 86, 96, 107–8, 131, 188, 235,
gods, 137–8 270, 341, 396
Heracles, 140–2 Archimedes, 10, 13, 35, 331, 332, 335
Hylas, 76–7, 140, 158 architecture, 20, 31, 45, 59, 69, 331, 336
Jason as hero, 4, 88, 140–5 aretalogy, 186, 179–80, 433, 444
Jason’s cloak, 358–9 Aristarchus of Samos, 35, 331–2, 335
local history, 11, 320–1, 403 Aristarchus of Samothrace, 34, 74, 339
and Lycophron, 300, 305 Aristeas, Letter of, 54–5, 323, 415–27
Medea, 88, 140–5 Aristides, author of Milesian Events, 403
and Naevius, 468–9 Aristo, epigrammatist, 134
and Nicander, 212–14, 218 Aristo of Ceos, 371
and Nymphis, 320–1 Aristo of Chios, 66, 333–4, 346–7, 362, 365,
Orpheus, 145–6 371
prose works, 400 Aristobulus, 416, 421–3, 425, 427–8
recusatio, 472 Aristocles, 400
rhetoric, 326, 334 Aristonous of Corinth, 179, 192, 194–6
royal ideology, 40 Aristophanes of Athens, 282
science, 332 Acharnians, 88
Sesostris, 441 Banqueters, 69
similes, 88 Birds, 344
structure, 138–45 Clouds, 181
Talos, 213 Ecclesiazusae, 130
and Theocritus, 176–7, 140–2 Frogs, 83, 87–90, 101, 308
tutor to the Ptolemies, 34 Knights, 397
Epigram, 90 Thesmophoriazusae, 56, 88
Ktiseis, 59, 152, 403, 405, 417, 468 Wasps, 264, 293
Appian, 24, 28, 400, 405 see also comedy, Old
Arabian Nights, 453, 455 Aristophanes of Byzantium, 34, 225, 343
Arabic translations, 10, 331, 407, 455 Aristotle, 366–82
Aramaic, 11, 432–3, 438, 449, 452, 454 commentaries on, 370
Aratea, 197–8, 208–9 dialogues, 371
Aratus, 4, 197–209 on education, 71
and Aristobulus, 422–3 on kingship, 34
and Callimachus, 132–3, 199–200, 205–8 literary criticism, 337–48, 360
on Diotimus, 72 Lyceum as model for the Museum, 9,
and Hesiod, 199–200 54–5
hymn to Zeus, 42, 170, 178–9, 355, on mimēsis, 225–7
378–80, 422–3 pseudepigrapha, 10
538 Index

Aristotle (Cont’d ) Attalus I, 44, 75, 212, 331, 332

reader of Ctesias, 460 Attalus II, 28
on Solon, 185 Attalus III, 27, 212–13
study of predecessors, 381–2 Atticism, 328–30
tutor to Alexander the Great, 10, 22, 34, Atticus, 329, 375
366 Augustus (Octavian), 6, 12–13, 29, 388,
On Poets, 342 471
Poetics, 225–7, 337–48, 360, 398 autobiography see biography
Problems (ps.), 373 Autolycus, 368
Rhetoric, 327–8 Avien(i)us, 208–10
Aristoxenus, 338
Arius, 366, 374, 382 Babylon, Babylonia, 11, 17, 19–21, 36, 45,
Arrian, 11, 21–2, 124, 322, 370, 400, 458, 484 50, 424, 448–62
Arrius Antoninus, 278–9 Bacchylides, 37, 168, 188, 190, 195–6, 402
Arsacids, 450, 461 Berenice I, 52, 276
Arsinoe II, 51–3, 57, 60, 258 Berenice II, 2, 49, 60, 93, 95–104
art for art’s sake (l’art pour l’art), 31–2, 45, Berossus, 11, 36–7, 442, 449, 455–8, 461–2
94, 105, 168, 198 Besantinus, 123, 182
Art of Eudoxus, 443 biography, 4, 10–11, 77, 90, 167, 197, 199,
Artapanus, 426 201, 212, 234–6, 242, 272, 334, 367,
Artaxerxes II, 401, 404, 458–9 388, 404, 431, 434–5, 467, 471
Artemis, 25, 41, 92, 122, 138, 167–9, 171, biology, 9, 154, 222, 331–2, 336, 367
191, 194, 218–19, 257 Bion of Borysthenes, 23, 374
artists of Dionysus, 56–7, 192–4, 283, 297 Bion of Smyrna, 6, 33, 153–4, 165, 236, 238,
Asclepiades of Bithynia, 331, 336 240, 245, 248, 250, 358
Asclepiades of Myrlea, 356–7, 359 Biton, 10, 331, 332, 336
Asclepiades of Samos, 73, 120, 122–8, 132, Boeus, 152
135, 182, 267, 354, 362 Boiscus of Cyzicus, 182
Ashurbanipal, 452–3, 457–60 book culture, 13, 112, 167
Asianism, 328–30, 334 Brutus, Decimus, 392
Assyria, 35, 254, 389, 401, 404, 436, 439, Brutus, Marcus Junius, 375
451–60 bucolic
astrology, 197–210, 209, 331, 335, 443, and allegorical criticism, 357–8
450–1, 456 and the court, 32–3, 43, 226
astronomy, 2, 5, 9–10, 22, 30, 35, 42, 59, and drama, 8
153, 170, 197–210, 220, 222, 260, and encomia/hymns, 174
331–2, 335, 340–1, 422–3, 434, 443, and epyllia, 153–6
449–50, 456, 462 and euphonist criticism, 351–2
ataraxia, 377 and mime, 267
Athena, 21, 25, 35, 53, 133, 137–8, 140, post-Theocritean, 6, 238–50, 364
143, 149, 158, 168–9, 171–3, 179, 187, Theocritean, 6, 224–36
193–6, 214, 272, 359
Athenaeus, author of a paean, 192–6 Callicrates of Samos, 53
Athenaeus of Naucratis, 23, 33, 35, 42, 48, Callimachus, 2–6, 9, 86–91
50, 56–7, 69, 89, 114, 118, 124, 245, and Alexandria, the Ptolemies, 22, 30–45,
253–4, 262–3, 279–80, 299, 320–2, 46–61
344, 349, 356–7, 370, 372, 381, 460 and Apollonius of Rhodes, 4, 89–91,
Athenion, 386 98–100, 136, 146, 151–2, 156
Attalids, 23, 25, 27–9, 34, 44–5, 55, 75, 170, and Aratus, 197, 205–8
211–12, 304, 331, 333, 377 and early Roman poetry, 463, 466–76
 Index 539

elegy, 92–105, 106–16 catalogues, 5, 55, 69, 76, 82, 92, 96, 103,
encomiastic poetry, 166–80 112–16, 145–8, 153, 203, 368–9, 373,
and Herodas, 267, 272, 275, 278 378, 382, 400, 450, 456–7
hexameter poetry, 151–65 Cato the Elder, 385–7, 391–2
iambos, 251–66 Catullus, 89, 154, 279, 476
and literary criticism, 339, 345–51, 386, Cavafy, Constantine (Kavafis), 82
400 Celer, 404
and Lycophron, 305, 308 Cercidas, 7, 182, 251, 259–63
lyric, 181–2, 196 Chaeronea, Battle of, 23–4, 324
and Nicander, 212–16, 220, 223 Charition, 280–1
Aetia, 2–4, 11, 40, 47, 52, 54, 84, 87, 89, Chariton, 395, 401–2, 404, 406, 418
92–105, 114–16, 136–7, 147–9, 155–7, Chion, Pseudo-, 319
219, 257–8, 305, 403–4, 470–1: Choerilus, 76, 83, 86–7, 111–12, 115–16,
Prologue, 10, 86–7, 89, 92–3, 95, 97–8, 254
101, 115–16, 151, 206, 235, 308, 328, choliambs, 7, 59, 129, 251–9, 268–9, 466
345, 351, 354, 358, 361, 467, 470, 476; chreiai, 7, 65, 251, 262, 372
Victory of Berenice, 49, 60, 93–105, 114, chronicles, 55, 97–8, 322, 332, 387, 392,
155, 157, 305; Lock of Berenice, 52, 404, 439, 450, 456, 462, 468
93–105 Chrysippus, 254, 339, 342, 347, 355–6, 369,
Diegeseis, 255–6, 258 373, 382
Epigrams, 52, 71, 73, 77, 125, 127–9, Cicero
132–4, 151, 182, 199, 205–6, 247, 267, and Aratus, 197, 203, 208–10
377 and early Roman poetry, 465–6, 470–5
Hecale, 4, 70, 88, 90, 151–7, 166–7, 213, and Greco-Roman cultural relations,
225, 258, 274, 300, 346 387–93
Hymns, 166–80: Zeus (h. 1), 41–2, 56, and Hellenistic literary criticism, 354–5,
102, 168–70, 178, 398; Apollo (h. 2), 357, 363
35, 44, 90, 169, 171, 173, 186, 195, and Hellenistic philosophy, 10, 366, 368,
213; Artemis (h. 3), 122, 138, 169, 219; 370–1, 373–5, 383
Delos (h. 4), 41–2, 44, 169, 171, 193; and Hellenistic rhetoric, 9, 323, 325,
Athena (h. 5), 169, 171–3, 195, 267; 327–9, 335
Demeter (h. 6), 58, 155, 169, 171–3, and Posidonius, 387
195, 226, 267 Academica, 363, 373–4
Iambs, 7, 166–7, 251, 255, 258, 471: Iamb Brutus, 327, 328, 465, 472
1, 6, 51, 58, 72, 252–3, 258; Iamb 2, Cato/On Old Age, 371, 465–6, 470, 474
255; Iamb 3, 256, 470; Iamb 4, 90, 256, Consolatio, 374
258; Iamb 5, 72, 256, 358; Iamb 6, 257; Defense of Archias, 387–93
Iamb 10, 258; Iamb 13, 86, 258, 349, Letters to Atticus, 329, 387
471 On Divination, 203, 471, 475
Melē, 181 On Duties, 374
Pinakes, 55 On Invention, 327–8
Reply to Praxiphanes, 339, 345, 361, 371 On the Ends of Good and Evil, 363
Victory of Sosibius, 33, 57 On the Laws, 392
Callinus, 270 On the Nature of the Gods, 209, 354–5
Callixenus, 48, 50, 57 On the Orator, 357, 471
Canopus, 59–61 The Orator, 328
Carneades, 28, 373 Tusculan Disputations, 35, 363, 373, 465–6
Carthage, 20, 43, 368, 391, 474 Cinesias, 85
Cassander, 10, 19, 35, 51 Cinna, 209
Castorion of Soli, 344, 349–50 citizenship, 7–8, 167, 283–91, 325
540 Index

Claudius Marcellus, 387 Curtius Rufus, Quintus, 50

Cleanthes Cynics, 7, 23, 72, 133, 251–2, 258–60, 263,
Hymn to Zeus, 5, 10, 178–80, 201, 339, 265, 339, 368–9, 373–4, 380
355–6, 369, 379–80 Cynoscephalae, Battle of, 27, 302
on poetry, 355–6, 362 Cypria, 301
prose treatises, 34, 355–6, 380
Clearchus of Heraclea, 319, 321 Darius III, 21, 112, 451
Clearchus of Soli, 245, 369, 371 Demetrius, author of On Odessus, 319
Clement of Alexandria, 370, 428, 454 Demetrius, author of On Style, 327, 337,
Clements, Wiley, 117–18 340, 349, 352, 357, 361, 375, 401–2
Cleomedes, 370 Demetrius, King of Bactria, 461
Cleopatra, 12, 21, 82 Demetrius of Byzantium, 361
colonization, 95–7, 100, 147–8, 402 Demetrius the Chronographer, 416–18, 425
comedy, 282–96 Demetrius of Laconia, 346–7
and Crates, 253 Demetrius of Phalerum, 10, 54, 328, 339,
and epigram, 129–30, 134 368, 419, 420–1
and epyllia, 155, 160 Demetrius Poliorcetes, 19–20, 26, 33, 42,
and fictionality, 225, 227, 230, 396–7, 182, 264, 451
404 Demetrius of Scepsis, 399
and Herodas, 269–70, 279–80 Democritus, 381, 454
and Macho, 262 Demosthenes, 12, 22–3, 246, 287, 289, 293,
Middle, 69, 76, 181 324, 329, 349
New, 7–8, 12, 56, 69–70, 279–80, diaspora
282–96, 297–9, 396–7, 404: see also Greek, 1, 82, 368, 416, 446
Menander Jewish, 11, 415, 426–7
Old, 88, 129–30, 397: see also Aristophanes diatribe see Cynics
personification of, 192 Dicaearchus, 369, 371
on philosophers, 372 didactic literature
Roman, 12, 465 Apollodorus of Artemita, 461
in school texts, 63, 65, 69, 76 Aratus, 5, 197–209, 226–7, 349
and tragedy, satyr-play, 297–9, 302 Archestratus, 263, 471
Conon, 59, 403, 405, 410 Callimachus’ Aetia, 102–3
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, 319 and the court, 33–4
Contest of Homer and Hesiod, 89, 167 and epyllia, 155
Corupedium, Battle of, 20 educational value of poetry, 354, 357,
cosmology, 9, 201, 331–2, 367, 370, 379, 359–62, 364
400, 416, 426 Egyptian, 436, 442
court culture, 22–3, 30–45, 46–61 Ennius, 471
Crantor, 178, 372, 374, 377 Nicander, 5–6, 152, 211–23, 226–7, 349
Craterus, 19, 182 philosophy, 370
Crates of Mallos, 28, 74, 339, 343, 347, science, 332–3
356–64 Dio Chrysostom, 252, 335, 354, 398
Crates of Thebes, 7, 251–2, 254, 368, 374, Diocles, mathematician, 331, 335
380 Diodorus, epigrammatist, 308
Cratinus, 397 Diodorus of Elaea, 401
Creophylus, 157 Diodorus Kronos, 368, 372, 383
Critias, 398 Diodorus Siculus, 11, 50, 318, 322, 384, 388,
Ctesias, 11, 401–2, 404, 408, 410, 449, 453, 394, 398, 401, 408–9, 436, 444,
457–62 458–60
Ctesibius, 33 Diogenes of Babylon, 338, 362
 Index 541

Diogenes Laertius, 34–5, 39, 54, 71, 178, 272, 275–6, 280, 284, 304, 325, 351,
327, 339, 343, 346, 354–6, 360, 406–10, 418–19, 430–46, 455
369–83, 443, 454 Eleazer, 419–21
Diogenes of Oenoanda 370 elegy, 3, 33, 57, 60, 71, 83–4, 89, 92–105,
Diogenes of Sinope, 7, 37, 252, 263, 374 106–16, 118, 124, 151, 153, 155–7,
see also Cynics 168, 173, 179, 181, 184–5, 196, 248–9,
Diogenes of Tarsus, 39 380–1, 403, 445, 446, 470
Dionysius I of Syracuse, 357 Eleusis, 2, 50, 58, 190–1
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 9–12, 318, Empedocles, 111–12, 358, 370
322–3, 329–30, 335, 338, 341–2, 352, encomiastic literature, 5, 32–3, 37, 40–4, 82,
384–94, 399–400 85, 111–12, 114, 146, 151–2, 155, 159,
Dionysius of Heraclea, 320 166–80, 182, 196, 226, 276, 326,
Dionysius of Miletus, 404 371–2, 471
Dionysius Scytobrachion, 398, 410 engineering, 10, 33, 331–4, 459
Dionysius Thrax, 325 Ennius, Quintus, 12, 156, 344, 392, 464–6,
Dionysus, 26, 40, 51, 56–8, 68, 73, 77, 470–7
87–8, 101, 127–8, 133, 179, 189–92, Enuma Elish, 456
194, 204, 271, 276, 283, 286, 297, 299, Epaphroditus, 93
338 Epaphus, 60–1, 97
see also artists of Dionysus Ephorus, 186, 400, 402, 460
Dioscorides, 119–20, 124, 129–32, 134–5, epic poetry, 4–5, 8, 21, 23, 32, 44, 67–8, 83,
297, 308 86, 89, 100–1, 103–4, 110–16, 136–49,
Diotimus, 72, 156 151–65, 174, 177–8, 212, 217, 239,
dithyramb, 167, 181, 190, 192, 245–9 257–60, 263–5, 269–71, 275, 300–1,
doctus poeta, 5, 12, 33–4, 81, 93, 105, 251, 306, 310, 341–61, 379, 396–9, 405,
257–8, 268–9, 272, 274, 297, 302, 341, 416–17, 423–6, 440, 452–3, 456,
348–50, 426, 466, 470, 477 463–77
Dosiadas, 123, 182 Epicharmus, 65, 76, 471
Duris of Samos, 33, 42, 75, 341–2, 475 Epictetus, 370, 374
Epicureans, 10, 39, 337, 339, 342, 346, 354,
ecphrasis, 149, 152, 154, 157, 202, 229, 360, 362–4, 368–72, 376–8, 381–2
232, 256, 276, 325, 359, 371, 469 Epicurus, 10, 71, 76, 338–9, 345, 363–4,
education, 2, 24, 33–4, 55, 62–77, 87, 368–9, 372–8, 381–3
359–62, 427, 438 epigram, 3–4, 32, 35, 39–40, 48, 52, 57, 64,
basic, 72–3 68–75, 90, 103, 106–16, 117–34, 157,
educational value of literature, 354, 357, 182, 199, 205–6, 217, 230, 249–50,
359–62, 364, 390 253, 255, 262, 267, 276–8, 297, 308,
of Egyptians, 440 329, 332, 344–5, 359, 364, 378, 434,
in grammar and rhetoric, 67, 70, 73–4, 445–6, 466, 470–1
324–7, 329–30, 334 epiklēros, 291–6
of Heracles, 75–7, 158–9 epinician, 32, 57, 103–4, 134, 146, 168,
of Jews, 417, 419, 421 170–1, 182
paideia, 9, 71, 73 epistolography, 10–11, 24–5, 54–5, 175, 223,
of Parthians, 461 278, 320, 328–9, 333, 369–77, 381, 383,
in philosophy, 66, 71, 72, 74–6 401–2, 407, 419–20, 431, 434
of Romans, 329–30, 393 see also Aristeas
in science, 222 Epitaph for Bion, 6, 236, 245, 250
see also gymnasium Epithalamius of Achilles and Deidameia, 153,
Egypt, 2, 12, 19–23, 35, 42–4, 46–61, 62–74, 165, 250
90, 97, 102, 111, 171, 173–5, 179, 189, epyllion, 4–5, 151–65, 174, 344, 417
542 Index

Erasistratus, 35, 331, 336, 405 papyri, 283

Eratosthenes of Cyrene, 22, 35, 116, 153, performance, 181, 297, 460–1
155, 332–3, 335–6, 340–1, 365, 371 and Ptolemy IV, 56
Catasterisms (ps.), 59, 209 in school texts, 63–9, 73, 434
Erythraean Paean, 182, 185–9, 195–6 Aegeus, 65
ethnic identity, 20, 25, 36–7, 46–8, 51, 56, Andromache, 108, 124, 286
285, 289, 296, 415–62 Andromeda, 372
ethnography, 32, 36, 152, 321–3, 332, Bacchae, 64, 73, 77, 133, 460–1
334–5, 420, 457–8, 461, 474 Cyclops, 231, 247, 280
Etymologicum Magnum, Genuinum, 320 Electra, 65, 88
etymology, 149, 186, 215, 304, 310, 325, Hecuba, 65, 164, 312
340, 342–3, 352, 355–7, 359, 365, 385, Helen, 60, 280
465, 468, 473 Heracles, 163–4
see also aetiology Hippolytus, 88
Eubius, 403 Hypsipyle, 69
Euclid, 10, 22, 35, 331, 335 Ino, 68
Eudemus, 335, 369 Iphigenia in Tauris, 280
Eudoxus of Cnidus, 55, 198, 209–10, 227, Medea, 66, 89, 138, 143, 167, 356
335, 378, 443 Orestes, 300
Eudoxus of Rhodes, 400 Phoenissae, 64, 68
euergetism, 24, 26, 29 Rhesus (ps.), 297, 312
Euhemerus, 35, 51, 323, 398, 408–10, 471 Telephus, 66
Eumenes of Cardia, 19, 75 Trojan Women, 300
Eumenes II of Pergamum, 23, 25, 170 Eurydice, wife of Philip Arrhidaeus, 19
Euphantes of Olynthus, 34 Eusebius, 370, 372, 401, 417–18, 422–3,
euphonist critics, 9, 338, 342–3, 346–64 425–6, 428, 455–6
Euphorion, 34, 74, 116, 153, 156, 159, 165, Eutecnius, 219, 223
212, 214–15, 307, 312, 468 Eutocius, 331
Eupolemus, 416, 425–6 Exodus, 8, 416–17, 424
Euripides Ezekiel, author of Exagoge, 8, 298, 416–17,
and Alexander the Great, 22, 297 425, 428
and Apollonius’ Argonautica, 4, 138, 143
at Archelaus’ court, 22, 32 festivals, 2, 5, 24–5, 54, 56–9, 94, 113, 151,
and Aristobulus, 427 167, 173, 182, 195–6, 244, 258, 280,
in Aristophanes’ Frogs, 83, 87–90, 101, 308 284, 297, 341, 421, 440
and Callimachus’ Aetia, 4 Adonia, 33, 53, 57–8, 246, 256
and Cercidas, 260–1 Apollo, 171, 190, 193–4
and Chrysippus, 356 Arsinoeia, 57
and Crantor, 372 Basileia, 56–7, 168, 171
and elegy, 108 Bastet, 440
and epigram, 77, 133 Carneia, 171
and Ezekiel, 298, 416 Dionysia, 276
and Hellenistic tragedy, 8, 298 Isis, 51
and literary criticism, 343, 356 Lenaea, 87
and Lycophron’s Alexandra, 300, 308, 312 Panathenaia, 26, 57, 111
and Megara, 163–4 Ptolemaia, 36, 56–7
and Menander, 286 Soteria, 57
and mime, 280 Thalysia, 234–5
monodies, 108, 181 Theoxenia, 190–1
original copies of his plays, 2, 55–6 Thesmophoria, 57, 171
 Index 543

Flamininus, Titus Quinctius, 182 Hermagoras of Temnos, 327, 334–5

foundation narratives see ktiseis Hermesianax, addressee of Nicander, 217,
221–2
Galen, 55, 331, 356, 370 Hermesianax of Colophon, 113–14, 116,
Gallus, Cornelius, 155, 403 245, 247, 249
gardens, 33, 36, 347, 368, 457, 459 Hermippus of Smyrna, 372, 383
Gellius, Aulus, 370, 467 Hermocles, 33
geography, 30, 32, 36, 55, 169, 304–5, 309, Hermogenes, 327, 347
319, 321, 325, 331–2, 335–6, 340–1, Hero of Alexandria, 33, 331, 333–4, 336
360, 400, 408–9, 420, 456, 458, 461 Herodas, 6–7, 267–81
Germanicus, 208–10 and bucolic fiction, 225, 244
gestures choliambs, 129, 252, 466
literary, 81, 83, 85–6, 106–8, 126, 229, and Euripides, 88
466 Mimiamb 1, 48, 54, 74–5, 272–6
performative, 281, 327 Mimiamb 2, 276
Gilgamesh, 452–3 Mimiamb 3, 71–3, 77, 276, 279
glossography, 69–70, 273, 310, 338, 344, Mimiamb 4, 276–7
348, 438, 473 Mimiamb 5, 280
gnomai, 65, 67, 232, 437 Mimiamb 8, 235, 244, 268–72, 275–6
Gorgias, 329, 396–7, 399 Herodicus, 74
grammar, grammarians, 9, 64, 72–4, 110, Herodotus, 4, 11, 21, 26, 55, 60–1, 111,
133–4, 159, 182, 302, 326, 332, 334, 138, 148, 298, 301–2, 304, 321–3, 349,
338–43, 367, 373, 431 392, 400, 404–5, 407, 436, 440–2,
Grenfellianum, Fragmentum, 89, 181–2, 280 457–61, 475
gymnasium, 2, 23–5, 74–7, 366 Herophilus, 35, 331, 336, 372
Gymnosophists, 67 Hesiod
and Aratus, 5, 199–200, 202, 208, 210,
harmonics, 331–2 378–9
Harpalus, 22, 298 and Aristobulus, 423
Hebrew Bible, 54, 405–6, 415–27 and Callimachus, 95, 97, 101–3, 114, 168,
Pentateuch, 418–19, 421 170
Torah, 36, 406, 418, 423, 425, 458 and Chrysippus, 355
see also Septuagint contest with Homer, 89, 167
Hecataeus of Abdera, 420, 430, 457 in education, 63, 65, 69, 76
Hecataeus of Miletus, 55, 400 and Ennius, 471
Hedylus, 52, 124–5 and Epicurus, 368
Hegesianax of Alexandria Troas, 23, 26, 28, and Euhemrus, 409
39, 399 and fiction, 396–7
Hegesias, 329 and Herodas, 7, 269
Hephaestion, 21–2 and Isidorus, 179
Heliodorus, 395, 401, 406 and Nicander, 5, 218–22
Heracleodorus, 348–51, 365 and Ovid, 467
Heracles, 2, 4, 8, 33, 40–1, 51, 67–8, 75–7, and Theocritus, 6, 234–5
88, 92, 95–8, 102–4, 114, 132, 137–45, and the Third Sibyll, 424, 426
148, 152–3, 155–65, 175, 177, 225–6, and Zeno, 354–5
234–5, 280, 298, 304, 390, 416, 423, Catalogue of Women, 112, 114, 116, 148
464, 466, 470 Shield (ps.), 157
Heraclides of Pontus, 342, 360–2, 369, 371 Theogony, 6–7, 95, 97 102–3, 114, 142,
Heraclitus, allegorist, 356–7 167, 218–19, 227, 234–5, 269, 354–5,
Heraclitus of Ephesus, 380, 397 368, 378–9, 396, 424, 426, 471
544 Index

Hesiod (Cont’d ) Odes, 357

Works and Days, 5, 65, 81, 102–3, 167–8, Satires, 261
170, 179, 199–200, 202, 208, 220–2, Hyperides, 298
379, 423 hypomnēmata, 372–3, 387
Hesychius, 347, 353, 356
Hiero I of Syracuse, 38, 170 iambos, 6–7, 134, 251–65, 267–81
Hiero II of Syracuse, 10, 37–43, 112, 174–5, Iambulus, 408–10
253–4 Ibycus, 81–3
Hierocles, 370 Iliad see under Homer
Hieronymus of Cardia, 37, 401 Iliou Persis, 468
Hipparchia, 368 Ion of Chios, 110, 257
Hipparchus, 197–8, 209 Ipsus, Battle of, 19, 26
Hippias, 382, 398–9 Isidorus, author of hymns, 179–81, 444–5,
Hipponax, 6–7, 51, 63, 69, 129, 251–7, 447
269–78, 466 Isidorus of Charax, 460
historiography, 10–12, 25–6, 31, 317–23, Isigonus, 400
384–93, 402–4, 417, 420, 442, 457 Isocrates, 89, 185, 289, 325, 330, 367, 371,
Homer, 4, 22, 37–8, 41, 59, 63–4, 69, 74, 399
76, 83, 85–9, 97, 104, 111, 113–14, Isyllus, 178–9, 183–96
116, 132–3, 136–49, 166–8, 171, 177,
179, 182, 199, 214–18, 231, 234, Joseph and Aseneth, 406, 410, 416, 418,
247–9, 251, 259–60, 263–5, 269–75, 428
283, 300–1, 306–12, 326, 338–41, Josephus, 36, 406, 457
346–64, 380–1, 396–9, 409, 417,
423–4, 427, 445, 465–75 Kafavis see Cafavy
Iliad, 21–3, 63–4, 68, 81–2, 97, 101–2, kennings, 8, 216, 309
104, 118, 136–7, 139, 144–5, 158, 171, king lists, 442, 449–50, 457, 462
182, 205, 225, 227–8, 259, 270–1, ktiseis (foundation narratives), 11, 26, 46,
273–4, 301, 307, 326, 343–4, 348–9, 49–51, 59–61, 152, 402–3, 417, 468,
351–2, 353, 355–8, 364, 399, 464, 474
473–4
Odyssey, 39, 59–60, 63–5, 68, 70, 97, 104, Lacydes, 372
113–14, 136–7, 139, 142, 153, 159–60, Laetus, author of Phoenician Events, 405, 410
214, 225, 228, 247–8, 264, 270–2, Lageion, 57
274–5, 301, 306, 309–12, 352, 355–6, Leonidas of Tarentum, 35, 63, 70, 75, 118,
396, 423, 465–72 133–4, 206, 208
Homereion, 74, 216 letters see epistolography
Homeric Hymns, 5, 103, 159, 168, 171, 173, library, 5, 34, 76, 265, 337
176, 179, 186, 194 Alexandria, 2, 13, 22, 25, 54–5, 95, 297,
Apollo, 167, 173, 192–3, 196, 216 302, 340, 415, 419
Dionysus, 68 Athens, 23, 366
Dioscuri, 177 Pergamum, 23, 27
Hermes, 153, 465 Rome, 13
Horace Temple, 432–8
allegory, 357–8 Life of Aesop, 454
and Augustus, 471 Limenius, 179, 192–6
and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 393 Little Iliad, 312
and iambos, 265 Livius Andronicus, 12, 464–7, 470, 472,
Ars Poetica, 342–3, 345–6, 358, 361, 476 474–5, 477
Letters, 477 Livy, 391–3, 465
 Index 545

local history, 11, 25–6, 310, 319–23, 402–4, Megasthenes, 458

457 Meleager of Gadara, 118, 121, 124, 126–8,
locus amoenus, 177, 240 131, 134–5, 364
logic, 9, 346, 367, 373, 379 meliambs, 7, 182, 251, 259–61
Lollianus, 405 Memnon of Heraclea, 322
Longinus, Pseudo-, 338, 341, 349, 358, 364 Menander of Athens, 7–8, 282–96
Longus, 250, 395, 403, 418 and bucolic, 225
Lucian, 52, 322, 326, 397, 401–2, 405, 409 and mime, 278–9
Lucilius, 344 in school texts, 63–4, 66, 70–1, 434
Lucretius, 10, 351, 357, 364, 370, 373, 393 use of trochaic tetrameter, 185
Lucullus, Lucius Licinius, 28, 388, 392 Aspis, 71, 285, 291–6
Ludi Romani, 465–6 Dyskolos, 7, 283
Lyceum, 2, 10, 54, 366, 368, 371–2, 374, 381 Misoumenos, 70
Lyco, 373 Monostichoi, 70
Lycophron, 8, 33, 60, 163–4, 215, 297–312, Samia, 285–6, 288
358, 372, 417, 424 other fragments, 288–91
Lycus of Rhegium, 246 Menander of Ephesus, 405
lyric poetry, 5, 83–5, 88, 104, 111, 124, Menander, King of Bactria, 461
155–6, 159–60, 170, 173, 176, 180, Menander Rhetor, 167
181–96, 230, 245–6, 251, 259–61, Menedemus of Eretria, 23, 298–9, 372, 420
279–80, 342, 356, 396, 441, 465–6 Menippus, 339
Lysias, 293, 329 Menoeceus, 375–7
Lysimacheia, Battle of, 20, 44 Meropis, 157
Lysimachus, 19, 26, 29, 75, 320 Messapus, 470
Lysippus of Sicyon, 75, 277, 359 meteorology, 5, 9, 198, 202–4, 208–9,
331–2, 335, 367, 375
Maccabees, 25, 416, 424 Metrodorus, epigrammatist, 71
Macedonians, 1, 2, 11, 17, 19–25, 27–9, Metrodorus of Chios, 399
30–3, 36, 41, 44, 46, 48–9, 51, 56, 68, Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger),
71, 75, 170, 178, 183, 187, 189, 216, 345, 373
266, 277, 284, 302, 304–5, 389–90, Milinda see Questions of King Milinda
432, 434, 441, 450–1, 457 mime, 7, 32, 56, 72, 160, 224–37, 238–50,
Macedonicus, 179, 189 267–81, 361, 370
Macho, 7, 119, 132, 251, 262–4, 266 mimēsis, mimetic literature, 3, 121, 155, 168,
Macrobius, 473 171–4, 179, 182, 224–37, 238–50,
Magnesia, Battle of, 27 267–81, 282–96, 352, 360, 370, 397
Manetho, 11, 36–7, 49, 407, 430, 432–3, Mimnermus, 3, 107, 110, 114–16, 142, 206,
436–43, 447, 457 217
Manilius, 209 Mithridates, 28, 385, 461
Marcus Aurelius, 370 Mithridatic Wars, 28–9, 386, 388
Marius, 387–8, 392 Moero, 356
Marsyas of Pella, 75 Moicheutria, 280–1
mathematics, 9–10, 22, 35, 68, 72, 208, 325, Moschus, 6, 238, 240, 250, 265
331–3, 335, 340, 367–8, 443, 451, 456 Europa, 153–4, 165, 353
Matius, Gnaeus, 279 Megara (ps.), 153, 156, 163–5, 165, 417
Matro of Pitane, 214, 264, 266 Mummius, Lucius, 28
mechanics see engineering Musaeus, 11, 355, 422, 426
medicine, 9–10, 22, 35, 55, 219, 221–2, 230, Museum, 2, 10, 13, 22, 34–5, 39, 48,
251–2, 262–3, 295, 331–2, 336, 372, 53–5, 74, 89–90, 95, 338, 381, 420,
401, 404–5, 443, 449, 453, 458–9 470
546 Index

music, 5, 7, 9, 56, 72, 85–6, 108, 124, 146, paeans, 5, 32–3, 109, 167, 173, 179–80,
159, 167, 179, 181, 192–4, 228–9, 181–96, 423
231–3, 239, 241, 245, 249, 262, 280, paideia see under education
297, 327, 332, 337–9, 342, 351–2, Palaephatus, 399–400
354–6, 360–4, 432 Panaetius of Rhodes, 28, 356, 374, 386
Myrsilus of Lesbos, 400 Panchatantra, 437, 453
mythography, 32, 209, 322–3, 402, 405, 416 panegyric see encomiastic literature
Panyassis, 107, 110, 157
Naevius, Gnaeus, 12, 464, 467–78 Parmenides, 370, 381
Naucratis, 52–3 Parmenion, 51
Nearchus, 37 parody, 6–7, 88–9, 214, 251–66, 269, 271,
Nectanebo II, 11, 49, 67, 407–8, 430, 437, 442 276, 339, 381
Nectanebo’s Dream, 67, 433–4, 436–7, 440, Parthenius, 29, 88, 116, 152–3, 155–6, 165,
442, 447 401, 403, 405, 410
Neoplatonism, 369–70 Parthians, 21, 386, 450, 458, 460–1
Neoptolemus of Parium, 343–6, 360–1, 363, Pascoli, Giovanni, 279
365 pastoral see bucolic
Nicaenetus, 153, 405 Patrocles, 458
Nicagoras, 127–8 patronage, 2, 5, 10, 22–3, 28–9, 30–45, 82,
Nicander, 5–6, 59, 152, 165, 198, 211–23, 102, 170, 173–7, 189, 193, 195–6, 226,
227, 332, 336, 349, 403, 471 253–4, 265, 297, 300, 333, 378, 388,
Nicias of Miletus, 75, 230–2, 242–6 403–4, 420–1, 471
Nicolaus of Damascus, 388, 394, 459 Pausanias, 23, 35, 110, 304, 403
nightingale, 350–2, 354 Pausimachus of Miletus, 350, 352–3, 365
Ninus, 254, 262–3, 401, 404–8, 418, 457, Pentateuch see under Hebrew Bible
459–60 Perdiccas, 19
Nippur see Poor Man of Nippur Pergamum, 25, 27, 55, 74, 170, 304, 331,
novel, 8, 11, 237, 250, 395–411, 418, 338, 368
440–1, 449, 460–1 see also Attalids
Nymphis of Heraclea, 319–23 Pericles, 287, 397
Nymphodorus, 320 Peripatetics, 10, 260, 339, 342–3, 345, 347,
349, 360–1, 371–3, 373, 383
Oannes, 456–7 see also Aristotle, Theophrastus
Odyssey see under Homer Persaeus, 23, 34, 37, 197
Oeniades, 246 Perses, epigrammatist, 121–2
Olympias, 11, 19, 49, 407, 442 Perseus, King of Macedon, 27, 304, 385
Onchsheshonqy, 432, 437–8 Persian Wars, 20–2, 84–6, 109–12, 302–3
Onesicritus of Astypalaea, 34, 37, 75 Persians, 1, 17, 20–2, 26, 30–1, 42, 49–50,
optics, 10, 331–2, 335 82, 302, 321, 389, 401, 404, 408,
oracles, 439–40 415–16, 432–4, 439, 441, 448, 451,
Oracle of the Potter, 300, 439, 447 454, 456, 458–60
oratory, 3, 9–10, 116, 318, 323–30, 334–5, Persius, 279
367, 374, 398 Petronius, 279
Oribius, 386 Phaedimus, 156
Origen, 449 Phanias, 72
origins see aetiology Phanocles, 113, 116
Oromobii, 385 pharmacology, 216, 223, 331
Ovid, 2, 90, 98, 106, 113, 152, 155, 197, see also medicine
208–9, 279, 345, 403, 405, 467, 476 Pharos, 46, 52, 59–61, 420
Oxyrhynchus historian, 400 Philemon, 63, 282, 372
 Index 547

philia, philoi, 26, 31–2, 37–40, 45 on mimēsis, poetry and fiction, 227, 230,
Philicus, 8, 56, 182, 297–8, 338 340, 342, 359–62, 397, 411, 424
Philitas, 3, 34, 69, 74, 101, 106, 113–16, on the New Music, 85–6, 181
153–6, 165, 338, 344, 348, 354 and Timon of Phlius, 75
Philip II, 11, 19, 22, 32, 183 Cratylus, 345, 352
Philip III, 183 Gorgias, 252
Philip V, 27, 34, 44, 183, 253, 304, 390 Ion, 397
Philip of Amphipolis, 403 Laws, 85–6, 167, 181
Philip Arrhidaeus, 17–19, 450 Meno, 65
Philip of Thessalonica, 118 Phaedrus, 109, 129, 344
Philippides, 26 Protagoras, 63, 398
Philistus, 22 Republic, 63, 230, 340, 344, 352, 373,
Philo, epic poet, 417 397, 409–10
Philo of Byzantium, 10, 331, 333–4, 336 Symposium, 258, 372
Philo of Heraclea, 320 Theaetetus, 289
Philo of Larissa, 368 Timaeus, 75–6, 374
Philodamus of Skarpheia, 179, 189–92, 195–6 Plautus, 7, 12, 281, 296
Philodemus of Gadara, 9, 13, 325, 328, 332, Pleiad of Alexandrian tragic poets, 8, 56, 182,
337–66, 369, 377, 382–3 297
Philostratus, 330, 399, 404 Pliny the Elder, 28, 34, 53, 386, 436, 458
Philoxenus, 22, 85, 246, 262–3 Pliny the Younger, 278–9
Phoenix of Colophon, 7, 217, 251–5, Plotinus, 369
259–62, 265 Plotius, Lucius, 392
Photius, 279, 320–1, 459 Plutarch
Phrynichus, 111, 298 Banquet of the Seven Sages, 437
Phylarchus, 341–2, 401–2, 475 Consolation to Apollonius (ps.), 113, 374
physics, 9, 201, 209, 332–6, 346, 367, 370, Life of Alexander, 11, 21–2, 50, 59, 67,
373, 375, 379, 382 124, 297, 322
physiognomy, 74, 331 Life of Antony, 34, 366
Pindar, 4, 21, 37, 86, 89–90, 103–4, 138, Life of Artaxerxes, 401
142–8, 159, 168, 170–3, 176, 188, 193, Life of Cato the Elder, 28
195–6, 226–7, 256, 270, 306, 308, 396, Life of Cicero, 387
402 Life of Cleomenes, 34
Pisander, 157 Life of Crassus, 403, 460–1
Pisistratus, Pisistratids, 2, 82, 190, 192, 196 Life of Demetrius, 405
Plato Life of Demosthenes, 26
and Aristobulus, 422, 426–7 Life of Pyrrhus, 35, 401
and Callimachus’ Iambi, 7, 251, 258 Life of Solon, 185, 292
and Crates, 252 Moralia, 34, 187, 190, 320, 338, 355,
and Ctesias, 460 363, 370, 401, 403, 409
on education, 71 On Isis and Osiris, 443
in Egypt, 55 On the Malice of Herodotus, 322
epitaph of, 129 On Why the Pythia No Longer Prophesies in
on grammar and euphony, 345, 352 Verse, 403
and Hellenistic philosophy, 10, 318, 337, Polemo, 367–8, 372, 377
366–81 Pollis, 47, 54, 114
and Hellenistic poetry, 91 Polybius, 9–11, 26–8, 44, 56, 58, 260,
and Iambulus, 409–10 317–19, 341–2, 384–93, 400–2, 474
and Isocrates, 89 Polycrates of Samos, 2, 82, 196
and Macho, 263 polyeideia, 257, 471
548 Index

Polyhistor, Alexander, 12, 385–8, 391, 401, Questions of King Milinda, 461
410, 455 Quintilian, 3, 106, 116, 156, 197, 208, 323,
Polyperchon, 19 325, 327, 329, 334, 357–8, 397
Pompeius Trogus, 461
Pompey, 21, 28, 387 realism, 3–4, 7, 88, 122, 157, 173, 196, 222,
Pomponius Porphyrio, 343 240, 265, 267–9, 277, 282, 397–8, 402,
Poor Man of Nippur, 453 404–5
Popillius Laenas, Gaius, 27 see also mimēsis
Porphyry, 320 recusatio, 472
Posidippus, 13, 47–8, 52–3, 57–8, 61, 63, Reitzenstein, Richard, 124
69, 71, 74, 118, 121–5, 129, 135, 243, rhetoric, 9, 13, 67–8, 70, 82, 167, 252, 286,
247, 255, 259, 267, 276–7, 305, 332, 310, 317–18, 323–30, 334–5, 337, 339,
336, 359, 362, 372, 434 341–3, 345, 357, 365, 367, 369, 374,
Posidonius, 12, 332, 343, 368, 385–8, 391, 389–90, 393, 396–9, 404, 410
394 Rhetorica ad Herennium, 397
Praxiphanes, 339, 342, 345, 361, 371 Rhianus, 151–2, 156, 403, 417, 468
prequels, 4–5, 246 Rhodian style, 328
Proclus, 166, 362 Rohde, Erwin, 395–6, 441
Prodicus, 76, 398
programmatic passages, 83–6, 98, 103–4, Saba, Umberto, 279
149, 168–9, 208, 218, 228, 269–72, 275, Sallust, 393
305, 344–5, 358, 400, 467, 471, 476–7 Sappho, 63, 69, 82, 132, 182, 320, 344
Promathidas of Heraclea, 322 Sarapis, 51, 58, 433, 442
Propertius, 106, 156 Serapeum, 51, 55, 57, 66, 433–4, 443
Protagoras of Abdera, 398 Sardanapalus, 254, 453, 459–60
Protagoras of Cyzicus, 218, 221 saturnian verse, 465–7, 470
Prusias II, 212 satyr-play, 8, 155, 298–9, 372
Prytanis, 260 Satyrus, 51–2
psychology, 46, 88–9, 229, 277, 295, 326, scholar poet see doctus poeta
331–2, 339, 367 schools see education
Ptolemaeus son of Glaucias, 66–7, 434, 443 Schwob, Marcel, 279
Ptolemy I Soter, 19, 22, 34, 36, 39–41, science, 2, 10, 22, 30, 32–6, 45, 170, 197–8,
49–53, 55, 57–8, 168, 175, 331, 430, 203, 207, 209–10, 222–3, 227, 317–8,
442 330–4, 335–6, 340–1, 349, 356, 367,
Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 34–5, 40–2, 44, 46, 400, 443
50–4, 56–7, 59, 74 Scipiones, 28, 466
Ptolemy III Euergetes, 34, 51 Scipio Aemilianus, 28, 374, 385–6, 388
Ptolemy IV Philopator, 50, 56, 74 Scipio Africanus, 471
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, 28–9 Scymnus, Pseudo-, 323, 336
Punic Wars, 20, 389, 465–9, 472 Second Sophistic, 326, 330, 335, 391, 393
Pydna, Battle of, 27 Seleucids, 11, 19–21, 23–31, 36–7, 39–40,
Pyrrho of Elis, 7, 368, 372 42, 44–5, 112, 182, 405, 439, 448–52,
Pyrrhonists, 7, 10, 251, 339, 368–70, 381, 455–8, 461, 465
383 Seleucus I Nicator, 19–20, 24–5, 27, 182,
Pyrrhus of Epirus, 35, 474–6 405, 448, 450–1, 457–8
Pythagoras, 55, 75, 369, 422, 427, 471 Sellasia, Battle of, 260
Pytheas of Massilia, 336, 409 Semiramis (Sammuramat), 401, 404–5, 408,
Pytho, 100, 169, 186, 193 451–60
Pythocles, 375 Semonides, 110, 270
Python, dramatist, 298–9 Seneca the Elder, 335
 Index 549

Seneca the Younger, 279, 356, 370–1, 374 Stilpo, 368, 371, 381
Sennacherib, 453–4, 459 Stoa of Attalus, 23
Septuagint, 54, 406, 415–16, 420–2 Stoa of Eumenes, 23
Serapeum see under Sarapis Stoa Poikile, 368
Servius, 298, 354, 468, 477 Stobaeus, 67, 178, 279, 320, 370, 379, 382
Sesonchosis (Sesostris, Sesoösis), 407–8, 410, Stoics, 5, 10, 23, 34, 37, 71, 170, 178, 197,
441, 447 201, 204, 209, 220, 327, 338–9, 342–3,
Sextus Empiricus, 10, 73–4, 338, 370, 372, 346–7, 352, 354–6, 359–64, 366–83
383, 397 Strabo, 34, 46, 54, 329, 338, 341, 354, 356,
Sibylline Oracles, 416, 423–8 368, 384, 403, 409, 441, 443, 454, 458,
Simias of Rhodes, 123, 182 461
Simonides, 3, 5 Strato, comic poet, 69
epigrams (ps.), 75, 135 Strato of Lampsacus, 34, 39, 339, 368,
leaves simile, 64 372–3, 381
lyric poetry, 160, 181 Strato of Sardis, 125
and Pindar, 89–90 Stratonice, 405, 451–2
Plataea Elegy, encomia, 38, 83–5, 107–12, Suda, 34, 238, 264, 298, 302, 319, 344–5,
116, 175 403, 405, 471
tomb, 96 Suetonius, 28, 340
Simplicius, 370 Sulla, 28, 368, 385
Skeptics see Academics, Pyrrhonists syllabary, 68, 72–3
Socrates, 7, 65, 251, 263, 289, 366, 370, symposium, 2–3, 33, 39–40, 47, 54, 83–4,
372–4, 381, 422 97, 108–10, 113, 124–9, 168, 181, 234,
Solon, 103, 184–7, 292, 380 254, 275, 278, 338, 372, 420–1
Sophists, 71, 89, 107, 225, 328, 330, 337, Syncellus, 456
342, 344–5, 367, 382, 396, 398–9 Syrian War, First, 44
see also Second Sophistic
Sophocles technitai see artists of Dionysus
and Alexander the Great, 22, 297 technopaignia, 123, 182, 358
epigrams on, 132 Telchines, 92, 115, 328, 345, 361, 371, 472
original copies of his plays, 2, 55 Teles, 72, 369, 374
paeans, 186, 189 Telestes, 22
and Philodemus, 361 Terence, 7, 469
and school texts, 63 Thales, 55
Ajax, 286 Theocritus
Locrian Ajax, 299 and Alexandria, 46–60
Trachiniae, 164 and Apollonius of Rhodes, 136, 142
fragments, 280, 286, 312 bucolic fiction, 6, 224–36, 238–50, 364
Sophron, 267, 281, 361 encomiastic poems, 5, 37–43, 46–60,
Sosiades, 67 168–9, 174–80, 196, 471
Sosibius, 33, 57 epyllia, 151–65
Sositheus, 8, 245, 297–8 and euphonist criticism, 351–3
Sotades, 182, 251, 253, 329, 471 figure poems (technopaignia), 123
Speusippus, 129, 369, 371 and Herodas, 7, 267, 278–9, 281
Sphaerus, 372 and lyric, music, 181–2, 351–3
sphragis, 71, 275 and Nicander, 5, 212–14
Stephanus of Byzantium, 319–20 performance, 94
Stesichorus, fourth-century dithyrambist, Idyll 1: 228, 232–3, 243, 245–6, 352–3
245–6 Idyll 2: 7, 88–9
Stesichorus of Himera, lyric poet, 60 Idyll 3: 231, 233, 236
550 Index

Theocritus (Cont’d ) 280, 282, 287, 295, 297–312, 341, 343,

Idyll 4: 174, 227 397, 401, 417, 426
Idyll 5: 233, 246 Tryphon, 358
Idyll 6: 6, 233, 238–50, 353 Tubero, Aelius, 374
Idyll 7: 6, 234–5, 243, 305, 353 Tyrannio, 29
Idyll 8 (ps.), 6, 246, 248, 298, 351–2 Tyrtaeus, 107, 110, 184
Idyll 9: 6, 239, 241, 243, 245
Idyll 11: 228, 230, 232–3, 243, 246–7, 305 Valerius Flaccus, 142
Idyll 13: 76, 88, 140, 142, 152–3, 156, Valerius Maximus, 405
157–60, 163, 165, 177, 310 variation (variatio), 81–2, 129, 132, 155,
Idyll 14: 7, 48, 54, 74 246, 249, 254, 269, 301, 306, 309–10,
Idyll 15: 7, 33, 47–9, 53, 57–9, 196, 246 364, 444, 449, 452, 473, 475
Idyll 16: 37–9, 43–4, 112, 174–5, 253–4 Varro, Marcus Terentius, 344–5, 467
Idyll 17: 40–3, 50–1, 56, 74, 82, 85, 112, 175 Varro of Atax, 208
Idyll 18: 60 vates, 466–7, 472
Idyll 22: 140, 142, 155, 177–8, 307 Vergil, 6, 150, 156, 174, 209, 224, 236, 238,
Idyll 23 (ps.), 75 240, 248, 250, 279, 298, 337, 354, 357,
Idyll 24: 4, 56–7, 76, 88, 138, 153–6, 378, 393, 464, 468, 471, 475, 477
157–60, 163, 270 Vergilius Romanus, 278
Idyll 25 (ps.), 88, 153, 156–63 Vitruvius, 331, 336
epigrams, 71, 74
Theodectus, 420 Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ulrich von,
Theodorus of Cyrene, 35 13–14, 123, 177, 268
Theodorus bar Konia, 452
Theodorus Priscianus, 403 Xenocles, 264
Theodotus, 416–17 Xenocrates, 367–72
Theogenes, 47, 97 Xenocritus of Rhodes, 75
Theognis, 63, 65, 69, 81, 84, 103, 109, 116 Xenomedes of Ceos, 404
Theon, 93 Xenophanes, 84, 116, 217, 251, 381, 397
Theophanes of Mytilene, 28, 387–8 Xenophon of Athens, 75–6, 263, 318, 349,
Theophrastus, 368–9, 371–2 368–70, 372, 392, 400, 404, 418
on Ahiqar, 454 Xenophon of Cyprus, 405
literary criticism, 322, 338–40, 347, 353 Xenophon of Ephesus, 395, 406, 418
rhetoric, 327–9, 331, 335 Xerxes, 112
Characters, 71–5
Weather Signs (ps.), 198, 210 Zaleukos, 187
Theopompus, 11, 400, 402, 420, 460 Zeno of Citium, 34, 197, 354–5, 364, 368,
Thessalonice, 19 372, 374–5, 377–9, 381
Thrasymachus, 344–5 see also Stoicism
Thucydides, 11, 111, 171, 318, 321–3, 326, Zeno of Rhodes, 400
373, 392, 400, 402 Zeno of Sidon, 363
Timaeus of Tauromenium, 400 Zenodotus, 74, 338
Timocles, 298 Zephyrium, Cape, 46, 53
Timon of Phlius, 7, 35, 73, 75–6, 89, 251, Aphrodite Zephyritis, 52–3
339, 381 Zeus, 22, 26, 40–4, 50–3, 56, 60–1, 65–6,
Timotheus, 83, 85, 111, 263 76, 87, 94, 101–2, 110, 130–1, 137,
Tithonus, 371 140–1, 160–1, 168–71, 175–80, 184,
Tobit, 454 186, 200–5, 218–21, 225, 255–7,
Torah see under Hebrew Bible 259–61, 265, 302, 304, 306, 321, 353,
tragedy, 8, 56, 76, 87–8, 133, 155–6, 160, 355–6, 378–81, 398–9, 421–4, 463
163–4, 181, 190, 192, 226–8, 230, 270, Zeuxis, 32