Hellenistic Poetry (Oxford University Press Academic Monograph Reprints)

415 Pages·1988·6.37 MB·English

by  G. O. Hutchinson

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title : Hellenistic Poetry
author : Hutchinson, G. O.
publisher : Oxford University Press
isbn10 | asin : 0198140401
print isbn13 : 9780198140405
ebook isbn13 : 9780585334349
language : English
subject Greek poetry, Hellenistic--History and criticism, Epic
poetry, Greek--History and criticism, Alexandria (Egypt)--
Intellectual life, Callimachus--Criticism and interpretation,
Theocritus--Criticism and interpretation, Apollonius,--
Rhodius.--Argonautica, Ar
publication date : 1988
lcc : PA3081.H88 1988eb
ddc : 881/.01/09
subject : Greek poetry, Hellenistic--History and criticism, Epic
poetry, Greek--History and criticism, Alexandria (Egypt)--
Intellectual life, Callimachus--Criticism and interpretation,
Theocritus--Criticism and interpretation, Apollonius,--
Rhodius.--Argonautica, Ar
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Hellenistic Poetry
G.O. Hutchinson

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Disclaimer:
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Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press
Published in the United States by
Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© G.O. Hutchinson 1988
Special edition for Sandpiper Books Ltd., 1997
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions
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outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hellenistic poetry/G.O. Hutchinson.
Bibliography. Includes indexes.
1. Greek poetry, HellenisticHistory and criticism. 2. Latin
poetryGreek influences. 3. CallimachusCriticism and
interpretation. 4. TheocritusCriticism and interpretation.
5. Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica. 6. Argonauts (Greek
mythology) in literature. I. Title.
PA3081.H88 1988 881'.01'09dc19 87-31517
ISBN 0-19-814040-1
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by
Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd., Midsomer Norton

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To my pupils at Exeter

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Preface
This book attempts a literary account of the principal poets writing between c.280 and c.240 BC, and also discusses
their impact on Roman poetry. Its potential audience should include both scholars and undergraduates; it could be read
by undergraduates who know Latin and not Greek. All classes will have to display tolerance at some points. Greek and
Latin in the text is translated: I am guilty of the translations, which aim purely at catching some of the sense, however
inelegantly. The work does presuppose a knowledge of such things as the basic literary history of Greece and Rome.
The footnotes are intended in the main for my more scholarly readers. The technical apparatus of scholarship has been
limited in the book as far as seemed legitimate; however, the interpretation of the poetry frequently depends on matters
of detail, and the footnotes are in that regard essential to the work. It should be observed that detailed references are
often not given for those opinions of no very fixed origin which are always recurring without much argument in the
articles of scholars and the essays of undergraduates. It has not been possible to take account of works appearing in the
last part of 1986.
After thought, the quotations from the poets have been kept within stern bounds of length. Experience and inquiry
suggest that large quantities of prolonged citation are apt to daunt the less accomplished reader.
The work has been composed in the intervals of a time that might without exaggeration be described as busy. For the
many and varied defects which spring from this cause and from others, I can only ask ashamedly for the reader's
indulgence. Mr J. Griffin, Professor H. Lloyd-Jones, and Dr R.B. Rutherford were good enough to read a portion of the
work in its infancy. I would also like to thank the Press Reader for his vigilance and for his lively remarks. My wife
gallantly elected to assist in the construction of the final typescript: a business executed, alas, with such archaic
instruments as glue and scissors. She has often dispelled an author's gloom.
G.O.H.
EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD, 1987

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Contents
Abbreviations xi
1. Introduction 1
Literary history and Hellenistic poetry: contemporary backgrounds, 2; classical literature, and poetry 400-280
BC, 10.
2. Callimachus 26
C. and learning, 26; C. and seriousness, 32. Aetia, 40; Iambi, 48; Hecale, 56; Hymns, 63; Epigrams, 71; C.'s
writing on his own poetry, 77.
3. Apollonius 85
A. and Callimachus, 86. Unity and structure: simpler cohesion, the idea of return, 96; stranger cohesion, Book
3, 104 (Jason, 106; Medea, 116), Book 4, 121.
4. Theocritus 143
Contrasts of tone, and relation to form: poems without songs, 160; poems with songs, 170. Th. and Apollonius,
and Callimachus, 190 (poem 7, 201).
5. Other Poets 214
214
A. Aratus
236
B. Herodas
257
C. Lycophron
264
D. Asclepiades
6. Roman Poetry 277
Role of Callimachus' pronouncements, 277 (treatments of prologue to Aetia, 283). Catullus' `long poems', 296;
Virgil, 325; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 329.
Bibliography 355
Indexes 363
I. General Index 363
II. Index of Passages and Works Discussed 371

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Abbreviations
Periodicals are cited more or less according to the system of L'Année philologique. The footnotes abbreviate the titles of
a few works other than those listed below, but in a fashion readily penetrable; details of most of them will be supplied in
the Bibliography.
ARV2
J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase Painters (2nd edn., Oxford 1963)
CA
J.U. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford 1925)
CEG
P.A. Hansen, Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculorum VIII-V a. Chr. n. (Texte und Kommentare XII, Berlin 1983)
CGFP
C.F.L. Austin, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta in papyris reperta (Berlin 1973)
CHCL
The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, i. Greek Literature, ed. P.E. Easterling and B.M.W. Knox (Cambridge
1985), ii. Latin Literature, ed. E.J. Kenney and W.V. Clausen (Cambridge 1982)
CIL
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin 1863- )
CMG
Corpus Medicorum Graecorum (Leipzig 1908- )
FGE
see `(Page), FGE'
FGrH
F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Berlin and Leiden 1923- )
Fraser, PA
P.M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria (Oxford 1972)
Gow
A.S.F. Gow, Theocritus (2nd edn., Cambridge 1952)
(Gow-Page), Garl. Phil
A.S.F. Gow and D.L. Page, The Greek Anthology. The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams
(Cambridge 1968)
(Gow-Page), HE
A.S.F. Gow and D.L. Page, The Greek Anthology. Hellenistic Epigrams (Cambridge 1965)
GVI
W. Peek, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, I (Berlin 1965)
HE
see `(Gow-Page), HE'
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IEG
M.L. West, Iambi et Elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum Cantati (Oxford 1971-2)
IG
Inscriptiones Graecae (Berlin 1873- )
Kaibel, CGFi
G. Kaibel, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, i (Berlin 1899)
LSAM
F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées de l'Asie Mineure (Paris 1955)
LSCG
F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques (Paris 1969)
OGIS
W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci inscriptiones selectae (Leipzig 1903-5)
(Page), FGE
D.L. Page, Further Greek Epigrams: Epigrams Before A.D. 50, revised by R.D. Dawe and J. Diggle (Cambridge 1981)
Page, GLP
D.L. Page, Select Papyri, iii. Literary Papyri: Poetry (Loeb, London and Cambridge, Mass. 1942)

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Pfeiffer
R. Pfeiffer, Callimachus (Oxford 1949-53)
Pfeiffer, HCSi
R. Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age (Oxford 1968)
PMG
D.L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford 1962)
P. Mich. Zen.
C.C. Edgar, Zenon Papyri in the University of Michigan Collection (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1931)
P. Oxy.
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (London 1898- )
P. Turner
Papyri Greek and Egyptian, Edited by Various Hands in Honour of Eric Gardner Turner (Graeco-Roman Memoirs, 68,
London 1981)
RE
Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (Stuttgart 1894- )
SH
H. Lloyd-Jones and P.J. Parsons, Supplementum Hellenisticum (Texte und Kommentare I, Berlin 1983)
SVF
H. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Leipzig 1905)
Syll.
W. Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum (3rd edn., Leipzig 1915-24)
TLL
Thesaurus linguae Latinae (Leipzig, 1900- )
TrGF
R. Kannicht, S. Radt, B. Snell, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Göttingen 1971- )
Vian
F. Vian and E. Delage, Apollonios de Rhodes (Budé, Paris 1974-81)
Wilamowitz, HD
U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Hellenistische Dichtung in der Zeit des Kallimachos (Berlin 1924)
Epigrams. Capital roman numerals refer to the numbers of poems in Gow-Page, Hellenistic Epigrams (save when `Garl.
Phil.' is prefixed); arabic numerals preceded directly by `HE' refer to the numbers of lines in that collection. Capital
roman, and arabic, numerals after `Garl. Phil.' refer to poems, and lines, in Gow-Page, Garland of Philip.

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1
Introduction
The celebrated poets of the third century BC have not received much literary treatment; what is sadder, they seem fairly
seldom to be read with much enjoyment and understanding. (Theocritus is at any rate enjoyed.) This state of affairs has
a number of causes, and involves a number of oddities. Of these one of the most arresting lies in the importance
attached to Hellenistic poetry by most critics of Latin poetry.1 Here stands the great bridge between the literatures of
Greece and Rome; yet it seems only rarely to receive more than a swift and very limited inspection. No reproach is
intended to Latinists or Hellenists. To Hellenists, indeed, one owes much fine, and some magnificent, work on the text
and basic meaning of these poems; by this the approach of the reader is enormously facilitated. And yet the poetry is in
itself difficult to discuss and often seems distant from modern enthusiasms. Literary criticism still tends to focus on
ideas, and readers (especially young ones) still tend to like their poetry to be in tone and level essentially
straightforward. These barriers are greatly strengthened by schematic preconceptions. Crude notions of literary history
often lead to ideas of a poetry absolutely different from, or much the same as, the poetry of the classical era, and an
obsession with the relationship. Swollen conceptions of the part played in this poetry by learning and still more by
theories about literature lead in practice to narrow and dull conceptions of the poems. In consequence, those who are not
directly concerned with them are apt to feel tepidly towards what
1 A necessary note on chronological terms: in this work `Hellenistic', as used of poetry, will normally denote
the time of Callimachus (see p. 5), and will refer in particular to Callimachus, Apollonius, Theocritus, Aratus,
Lycophron, Herodas (the poets of whom most is preserved). The use does not imply views about literary
history. `Classical' normally refers to the 5th c., and `archaic' to the preceding centuries of literature, with
Homer included. `Post-classical' refers to poetry from the 4th c. onwards, and includes `Hellenistic' poetry.

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