The Development of the Epyllion Genre Through the Hellenistic and Roman Periods PDF
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EPYLLION GENRE THROUGH THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PERIODS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EPYLLION GENRE THROUGH THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PERIODS Carol U. Merriam Studies in Classics Volwne 14 The Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston•Queenston•Lampeter Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationD ata Merriam, Carol U. The development of the epyllion genre through the Hellenistic and Roman periods / Carol U. Merriam. p. cm. - (Studies in classics ; v. 14) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7734-7532-X 1. Epic poetry, Classical-History and criticism. 2. Greek poetry, Hellenistic-History and criticism. 3. Literary form. I. Title. II. Series. PA3022.E6 M47 2001 880'.09--dc21 00-050097 This is volume 14 in the continuing series Studies in Classics Volume 14 ISBN 0-7734-7532-X SC Series ISBN 0-88946-684-X A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Copyright © 2001 Carol U. Merriam All rights reserved. For information contact The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press Box450 Box67 Lewiston, New York Queenston, Ontario USA 14092-0450 CANADA LOS lLO The Edwin Mellen Press, Ud. Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT Printed in the United States of America For Anton Studieisn the EpyllionT; heB ackP oot of Epic TABLEO FC ONTENTS Preface by R.S.Kilpatrick vii Introduction . 1 Chapter I: Alcmena's Story (Theocritus, /dyl/ 24) . 25 Chapter 2: Europa's Adventure (Moschus' Europa) . 51 Chapter 3: Culmination of the Form (Catullus 64) 75 Chapter 4: The Final Stages (The Latin Epyllion) 127 Conclusion 159 Bibliography . 163 Index of passagesc ited . 171 General index . 179 vii PREFACE R.S Kilpatrick Towards the end of the second century C.E., Athenaeus of Naucratis completed a lengthy literary symposium called Doctors at Dinner (ileurvooocpu:mxi). Among the scraps of information he records on ancient literature is a use of the diminutive "epyllion"(2.65a) to signify a Homeric miniature epic. In modem times "epyllion" has supplied a technical term for the Alexandrian mini-epic in Greek (and later Latin) hexameters, appearing first in the work of Haupt (Opuscula ,1855). Fordyce uses it with some misgivings (1961) in his Catullus-commentary (1961) : The term has a certain convenience, but it is misleading in so far as it obscures the fact that the technique of story-telling was essentially the same in 'miniature epics' (like Callimachus' Hecale) and in Narrative elegies (like his Aetia) and in the narrative parts of hymns (like his hymn on the Bath of Pallas). Present understanding of a genre regularly referred to as the "epyllion" has been further shaped by the work of Jackson (1913), Perutelli (1923), Crump (1931), Allen (1940), Perotta (1979) and Gutzwiller (1981). The real deficiencies in our understanding of the elusive epyllion are clearly revealed by Professor Carol Merriam's fine monograph. viii As Professor Merriam points out, the responses to the ancient epyllion have included attempts to discredit not only the use of the term, but the very existence of the literary form to which it has been applied for a century and a half. She establishes beyond reasonabled oubt that there exists a definablet ype of ancient poetry with clear and distinctive characteristics,a nd fitting a designationb y the long-establishedt erm, epyllion. There are, she demonstrates, shorter narrative hexameter poems and parts of poems and sections of poems in Greek and Latin, beginning with Theocritus and continuing in an unbroken tradition through Ovid, which taken as a group do constitute a sub-genre of narrative epic. It excludes grand traditional themes of epic such as battlefield, megaron society, extended journey, and centrality of the male hero. (Selection of events for the Hellenistic epyllion may also be inspired, for instance, by Homer's domestic scenes in Odysseus' palace on Ithaca, or even the panels on Achilles' shield, which represent aspects of the peaceful and productive domestic life the hero must forgo to preserve his honour.) The epyllion gives us wives and mothers and the children who will one day grow up to be heroes. Merriam finds the characters who most typically influence the events of the epyllion to be, in fact, women at home within their own women's world in that heroic age of myth. In the major genres of epic and tragedy, however, important female characters must make their marks in a man's world. Q.E.D. We have as unmistakable sub-genre of poetic narrative deserving a name not recorded in ancient literature, but for which "epyllion" is available, and well established in modem usage. In this poetic tradition, Merriam finds "women with a strong domestic base, taking action on their own initiative which strongly affects this domestic milieu and the characters therein." Such women tell their stories, while the traditional male characters become "furniture." Among the defining elements borrowed by the epyllion from epic, for example, is the "prophecy" -- hopeful or ominous. (Prophecies in the lliad, for
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