Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context [Reprint 2020 ed.] 9780520918979

Citation preview

HELLENISTIC

CULTURE AND

SOCIETY

General Editors: Anthony W. Bulloch, Erich S. Gruen, A. A. Long, and Andrew E Stewart I.

A l e x a n d e r to Actium: T h e Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic A g e , by Peter Green

II.

Hellenism in the East: T h e Interaction of G r e e k and N o n - G r e e k Civilizations f r o m Syria to C e n t r a l Asia after A l e x a n d e r , edited by Amélie Kuhrt and Susan Sherwin- White

III.

T h e Question of "Eclecticism": Studies in Later G r e e k Philosophy, edited by J. M. Dillon and A. A. Long

IV

Antigonus the O n e - E y e d and the C r e a t i o n o f the Hellenistic State, by Richard A. Billows

V

A History o f M a c e d o n i a , by R. Malcolm Errington, translated by Catherine Errington

VI. VII.

Attic Letter-Cutters of 229 to 86 B.C., by Stephen V Tracy T h e Vanished Library: A W o n d e r of the Ancient World, by Luciano Canfora

VIII. IX. X.

Hellenistic Philosophy of M i n d , by Julia Annas Hellenistic Culture and History, edited by Peter Green T h e Best of the Argonauts: T h e Redefinition of the Epic H e r o in Book 1 of Apollonius's Argonautica, by James J. Clauss

XI.

Faces of Power: Alexander's I m a g e and Hellenistic Politics, by Andrew Stewart

XII.

Images and Ideologies: Self-Definition in the Hellenistic World, edited by A. W. Bulloch, E. S. Gruen, A. A. Long, and A. Stewart

XIII.

From S a m a r k a n d to Sardis: A N e w A p p r o a c h to the Seleucid E m p i r e , by Susan Sherwin-White and Amélie Kuhrt

XIV

Regionalism and C h a n g e in the E c o n o m y o f Independent Delos, by Gary Reger

XV

H e g e m o n y to Empire: T h e D e v e l o p m e n t of the R o m a n I m p e r i u m in the East f r o m 148 to 62 B.C., by Robert Kallet-Marx

XVI. XVII.

M o r a l Vision in the Histories of Polybius, by Arthur M. Eckstein T h e Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia M i n o r , by Getzel M. Cohen

XVIII.

Interstate Arbitrations in the G r e e k World, 337-90 B.C., by Sheila L. Ager

XIX.

Theocritus's U r b a n Mimes: Mobility, Gender, and Patronage, by Joan B. Burton

XX.

A t h e n i a n D e m o c r a c y in Transition: Attic Letter-Cutters of 340 to 290 B.C., by Stephen V. Tracy

XXI.

Pseudo-Hecataeus, O n the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish Diaspora, by Bezalel Bar-Kochva

XXII.

Asylia: Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World, by Kent J. Rigsby

XXIII.

The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy, edited by R. Bracht Branham and Marie-Odile Goulet-Caze

XXIV

The Politics of Plunder: Aitolians and Their Koinon in the Early Hellenistic Era, 279-217 B.C., by Joseph B. Scholten

XXV

The Argonautika, by Apollonios Rhodios, translated, with introduction, commentary, and glossary by Peter Green

XXVI.

Hellenistic Constructs: Essays in Culture, History, and Historiography, edited by Paul Cartledge, Peter Garnsey, and Erich Gruen

XXVII. XXVIII.

Josephus' Interpretation of the Bible, by Louis H. Feldman Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context, by Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

Poetic Garlands

Poetic Garlands Hellenistic Epigrams in Context

Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London

This book is a print-on-demand volume. It is manufactured using toner in place of ink. T y p e and images may be less sharp than the same material seen in traditionally printed University of California Press editions.

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England ©1998 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gutzwiller, KathrynJ. Poetic garlands : Hellenistic epigrams in context / KathrynJ. Gutzwiller. p. cm. — (Hellenistic culture and society : 28) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-520-20857-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Greek poetry, Hellenistic—History and criticism. 2. Epigrams, Greek—History and criticism. 3. Books and reading—Mediterranean Region. 4. Meleager—Knowledge—Literature. 5. Callimachus. Epigrams. 6. Literary form. I. Title. II. Series. PA3123.G88 1998 888.'oio8-dc2i 97-5676 CIP Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

For Bob and Charlie

CONTENTS

PREFACE

/

ix

ABBREVIATIONS

1. Introduction

/

xiii

/

i

2. Hellenistic Epigram Books: The Evidence from Manuscripts and Papyri "In the Epigrams of..." On Papyri 20 In Manuscript 36

16

3. The Third Century: From Stone to Book

/

47

Anyte 54 Nossis 74 Leonidas ofTarentum 88 4. The Third Century: Erotic and Sympotic Epigram

/

115

Asclepiades 122 Posidippus 150 Hedylus 170 5. The Book and the Scholar: Callimachus' Epigrammata

/

The Epigrammata 188 Dedicatory Epigrams igo Sepulchral Epigrams ig6 Erotic Epigrams 213 6. The Art of Variation: From Book to Anthology Antipater of Sidon 236 Mekager 276 TABLES

I. II. III. IV V. VI.

/

323

Structure of Cephalan Books 325 Meleager's Amatory Book 326 Structure of Meleager's Amatory Book 328 Meleager's Dedicatory Book 32g Meleager's Sepulchral Book 330 Meleager's Epideictic Book 332

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

/

I N D E X OF P A S S A G E S C I T E D GENERAL INDEX

/

353

333 /

341

/

227

183

/

15

PREFACE

In the Foreword to his commentary on Hellenistic epigrams, A. S. F. Gow remarks that he took up the Greek Anthology because he had been "constantly reminded how inadequate was the provision of signposts for those who strayed into that labyrinth." T h e image of the maze seems particularly apt in describing the various woven and unwoven strands that make up our Byzantine anthologies of Greek epigrams. T h e commentary of Gow and Page remains an essential guide in matters of chronology, diction, and text, and one now supplemented in important ways. Sonya L. Taran has reprinted in two volumes a n u m b e r of earlier G e r m a n monographs that provide crucial information about the ancient anthologies through which Hellenistic epigrams passed into the Byzantine tradition. In addition, Alan Cameron has recently issued a detailed history of the Greek Anthology, which builds upon these earlier discoveries and adds a wealth of information derived from papyri and his own study of the Byzantine texts. What remains to be attempted, however, is a specifically literary study of Hellenistic epigrams. T h e poems themselves have, apparently, seemed too brief and the labyrinth of the Anthology too uncharted to accommodate lengthy studies concerned with interpretation rather than the realia of textual transmission. But the problem has seemed to me, in literary terms, to be one of failure to account fully for context; I have thought that, if we could uncover to any degree at all the original settings in which these epigrams were read, we would have a basis for understanding the literary meaning the poems held for ancient readers. T h e significance of the term context in my title is twofold. O n the one hand, it refers to the specific physical context in which an epigram is read. Verses inscribed on grave monuments or accompanying dedications take on meaning in relation to their site of inscription. During the Hellenistic era epigrams were sometimes recited as entertainment for friends, a context that produced different types of epigrams—erotic, satiric, and sympotic—as well as different responses. Within the third century B.C. epigrams were also collected into poetry books,

IX

*

PREFACE

where even the briefest ofpoems could acquire broader meaning by juxtaposition with other epigrams. By the beginning of the first century b.c. these epigram collections were being excerpted and rewoven into anthologies, like Meleager's Garland, where the grouping of poems by multiple authors on a single theme contextualized the history of the form. In the course of time even these contexts were remolded as the ancient anthologies were plucked apart to form the great Byzantine compendia based on different principles of arrangement. O n e goal of this book is to show how changed context produces changed meaning. Because readers tend to privilege the poetic contexts established by authors, I have concentrated on studying the way in which Hellenistic epigrams may have functioned in their original collections. I am under no delusion that the scope or order of these lost poetry books can be reestablished. Meleager clearly used earlier epigram collections, but he thoroughly redistributed their contents throughout his anthology. In addition, he probably excerpted only a small percentage of published Greek epigrams and may have selected from a given poet certain types of epigrams over others. But it is also likely that he tended to anthologize key poems from earlier collections, those on themes unique to a certain author and those that foster an impression of the poetic persona controlling the collection. Although I believe that in certain instances enough evidence exists to justify speculation about a poem's position within a collection, usually as an opening, closing, or transitional poem, my order of discussion, both of individual poems and of poems in groups, is more often designed to illustrate similarities and so interconnections, not to suggest an original order. T h e exception is Meleager's Garland, for which I have been able to build upon earlier, and largely unknown, scholarship in order to establish the major structure of his various sections. T h e patterns of arrangement that can now be reconstructed for this anthology are so complex and fascinating that they no doubt represent a culmination in the Hellenistic process of weaving poetic garlands. Because I concentrate in this diachronic continuum on the synchronic moment of the author-issued epigram collection, the term context acquires a further reference to the social and historical matrix in which the author composed. These are not poems written by scholars in ivory towers, with an eye only to earlier Greek literature or contemporary literary quarrels. The individuals presented in the epigrams are, for the most part, either historically real or fictioned as like persons of the poet's own day. T h e dominating themes I identify for the epigrammatists discussed here are connected to the personal positions they occupied in the fragmented and shifting world of Hellenistic culture. Anyte and Nossis write from the perspective of women dwelling in communities far from the centers of literary culture and political power. Leonidas, who characterizes himself as a poor wanderer, presents a more sympathetic identification with the underclass figures in his epigrams than with the wealthy and aristocratic ones, those who would be more likely to appreciate, and patronize, his art.

PREFACE

xi

Asclepiades, Posidippus, and perhaps Hedylus as well eschew bonds of traditional aristocratic affiliation in favor of an individually chosen philosophical perspective. Antipater of Sidon and Meleager, both eastern Greeks inhabiting a world increasingly dominated by Rome, employed techniques of varying the earlier epigrammatic tradition as a way of marking their right to belong to the historical trajectory of Greek culture. These contexts too, the social and historical ones, have been obscured by the long process of anthologizing. N o n e of the scholars w h o have seriously examined the evidence have questioned the existence of epigram books from as early as the third century B.C. N o t only do we have ancient references to such collections, but traces o f these poetry books have been identified on papyri and even in the manuscript tradition. More important, it is no longer the case that all Hellenistic epigram books are essentially lost. After I had begun work on this project, there came to light a papyrus o f the late third century B.C. containing about one hundred epigrams, at least two of which were known compositions of Posidippus. I regret that, as my book goes to press, the papyrus as a whole has yet to be published. But the future editors have published the texts of twenty-five epigrams, and I have information about the arrangement of the papyrus both from published reports and from private correspondence. T h e Milan papyrus is clearly an exciting discovery, which provides important information about early epigram collections. Scholars were, for instance, surprised to learn that a collection of this early date was divided by headings into epigram types, in the manner of Meleager's Garland. It remains to be seen whether the epigrams within the sections are linked associatively by theme or key word, as in that later anthology. But I caution against taking the new Posidippus collection as a model for all epigram books. Such collections were likely structured in a variety of ways. We do not even know if the sylloge in Milan was arranged by the author himself or by a posthumous editor. Because few readers will bring to this book a thorough familiarity with Hellenistic epigrams, I have printed the texts of many of the poems I discuss. Whenever possible, these are cited from Gow-Page's Hellenistic Epigrams, but a variety of other editions needed to be used as well. T h e edition from which the text was drawn will be indicated by the first reference given in the citation. In a fair number of instances I have felt compelled to edit the epigram, either because the earlier editor (often Gow-Page) has printed a clearly corrupt text in daggers or because the reading in my source, most often an emendation, seems to me unlikely to be correct; such changes are indicated in a note. T h e translations are my own, though I have borrowed at times from earlier translators. In working over a number of years on a book of this complexity, I have developed a good many debts. Opportunity for research and writing on this project was afforded by the Semple Classics Fund, which awarded me a series of summer research grants, and the University of Cincinnati, which provided a period of sabbatical leave in 1990-91 and again in 1994-95- Preliminary versions of various parts of the book were presented as lectures at Case Western

xii

PREFACE

Reserve University, the University of Cincinnati, Emory University, Ohio State University, the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, and the American Philological Association. I am grateful for various comments and encouragements offered by all these audiences. In response to requests from editors, a portion of Chapter 3 was published, in an earlier form, as "Anyte's Epigram Book," Syllecta Classica 4 (1993) 71-89, and another portion of that same chapter has been adapted as a part of "Genre Development and Gendered Voices in Erinna and Nossis," in Dwelling in Possibility: Women Poets and Critics on Poetry, edited by Yopie Prins and Maeera Shreiber (Ithaca, 1997) 202-22. I have benefited from discussion about epigrams with several scholars, in particular Peter Bing and Alan Cameron, and I appreciate information about the Milan papyrus provided by Guido Bastianini. Those who read the book in manuscript have been helpful in suggesting various improvements: Ann Michelini, who is a good enough friend to read practically everything I write, and the kind readers for the press, Diane Rayor and David Sider, whose detailed comments were a great aid in final editing. Shannon Leslie proofread much of the manuscript for me and saved me from several mistakes. I am grateful as well to Erich Gruen, who solicited the manuscript for this series, and Mary Lamprech, who waited patiently for its completion. Cincinnati July

1

997

ABBREVIATIONS

AP

Palatine Anthology.

API

Planudean Anthology.

BKT

Berliner Klassikertexte. Berlin, 1904-39.

CA

Powell, John U., ed. Collectanea Alexandrina. Oxford, 1925.

CEG

Hansen, Peter Allan, ed. Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculorum VII-V

CEG2

Hansen, Peter Allan, ed. Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculi IV a. Chr. n.

CGF

Kaibel, Georg. Comicorum Graecorumfragmenta.Berlin, 1899.

EG

Page, D. L., ed. Epigrammata Graeca. Oxford, 1975.

FGE

Page, D. L., ed. Further Greek Epigrams. Cambridge, 1981.

GLP

Page, D. L., ed. Greek Literary Papyri I. Cambridge, Mass., 194a.

Gow

Gow, A . S. F., ed. Theocritus. 2 vols. 2nd ed. Cambridge, 1952.

G-P

Gow, A . S. F., and D. L. Page, eds.

a. Chr. n. Berlin, 1983. Berlin, 1989.

The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic

Epigrams. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1965. G-P, Garland

Gow, A . S. F., and D. L. Page, eds. The Greek Anthology: The Garland

GV

Peek, Werner, ed. Griechische Vers-Inschriften I: Grab-Epigramme. Berlin,

M.-W. PCG

Merkelbach, R., and M . L. West, eds. Hesiodi fragmenta selecta. 3rd ed. Oxford, 1990. Kassel, R., and C . Austin, eds. Poetae comici Graeci. Vols. 2 - 5 , 7 . Berlin,

Pf.

Pfeiffer, Rudolf, ed. Calämachus. 2 vols. O x f o r d , 1949-51.

PLF

Lobel, Edgar, and Denys Page, eds.

of Philip. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1968. '955-

1983-' Poetarum Lesbiorum fragmenta.

Oxford, 1955. PMG

Page, D. L., ed. Poetae melici Graeci. Oxford, 1962.

P.Oxy.

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. London, 1898-.

RE

Pauly, A., G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll, eds. Real-Encyclopädie der klas-

SH

Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, and Peter Parsons, eds. Supplementum Hellenisticum.

SVF

Arnim, Hans von. Stoicorum veterumfragmenta.3 vols. Leipzig, 1903-21.

W

West, M . L., ed. Iambi et elegi Graeci ante Alexandrum cantati. 2 vols.

sischen Altertumswissenschaft. Stuttgart, 1893-1978. Berlin, 1983.

2nd ed. Oxford, 1989.

xiii

CHAPTER

ONE

Introduction

The epigram, as its name indicates, is a written form, often a verse inscription. From the eighth or seventh century B.C. epigrams, among our earliest examples of writing in the Greek alphabet, were chiseled on grave monuments to commemorate the dead and on votive offerings to explain the act of dedication. 1 Numerous verbal and metrical parallels show that epigrams, composed first in hexameters and later primarily in elegiac couplets, drew from the same i. Pre-Hellenistic verse inscriptions have been collected by Peter A. Hansen, Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculorum VII-Va. Chr. n. (Berlin, 1983) and Carmina epigraphica Graeca saeculi IV a. Chr. n. (Berlin, 1989). For a survey of the earliest inscriptions, down to 650 B.c., see Barry B. Powell, Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet (Cambridge, 1991) 123 -80. N o comprehensive edition of verse inscriptions, including those from later antiquity, has appeared since Georg Kaibel, ed., Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta (Berlin, 1878), but sepulchred epigrams through the late period may be found in Werner Peek, ed., Griechische Vers-Inschriften I (Berlin, 1955) and, selectively, in Griechische Grabgedichte (Berlin, i960). T h e reader is cautioned, however, that Peek includes many epigrams preserved in manuscript and perhaps never intended for inscription. A comprehensive book on ancient epigram is yet to be written, but general discussions may be found in R. Reitzenstein, "Epigramm," RE 11 HB (1907) 71—HI; J. GefTcken, "Studien zum griechischen Epigramm," NJA 39 (1917) 88-117, reprinted in shortened form in Das Epigramm: %ur Geschichte einer inschriftlicher und literarischen Gattung, ed. Gerhard Pfohl (Darmstadt, 1969) 21-46; Hermann Beckby, ed., Anthologia Graeca (Munich, 1957) I 9-99; and, for the later Greek period, R. Keydell, "Epigramm," Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 5 (1962) 539-77. Two more recent books go some way toward filling this gap. Marion Lausberg, Das Ein&ldistichon: Studien zum antiken Epigramm (Munich, 1982), though ostensibly concerned only with two-line poems, surveys much of the history of GrecoRoman epigram as well as the history of scholarship on epigram. Pierre Laurens, L'abeille dans l'ambre: célébration de l'épigramme (Paris, 1989) covers literary epigrams from the beginning of the Hellenistic age through the Renaissance, but with a concentration on the Latin poems.

1

2

HELLENISTIC

EPIGRAMS

traditional language found in epic and elegy.2 Although some scholars, by associating writtenness with literature, have placed epigram at the head of the western literary tradition and others have compared inscribed verse to the occasional poetry of the oral period, 3 it is my own view that early Greek culture granted to epigram, in comparison with the major poetic forms of epic, elegy, and lyric, an aesthetic value like that of "craft to art." 4 It was the writtenness of the epigram, as its essential feature, that for centuries confined it to the ranks of the minor arts, to the category of the decorative and the trivial. During this period literary works of higher rank obtained written form only for mnemonic purposes, to be preserved for the next oral performance. 5 The epigram, on the other hand, unlike any other archaic or classical poetic form, was intended

2. For these parallels, see Paul Friedländer with Herbert Hoffleit, Epigrammata: Greek Inscriptions in Versefromthe Beginnings to the Persian Wars (Berkeley, 1948) 65-70; A. E. Raubitschek, "Das Denkmal-Epigramm," L'épigramme grecque in Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique 14 (Geneva, 1968) 3-26; and B. Gentili, "Epigramma ed elegia," L'épigramme grecque 39-81. O n the change to elegiac in the sixth century, see M . B. Wallace, " T h e Metres of Early Greek Epigrams," in Greek Poetry and Philosophy: Studies in Honour of Leonard Woodbury, ed. Douglas Gerber (Chico, 1984) 303-17. 3. For célébration of epigram's position in western literature, sec Raubitschek 5 and, more elaborately, Helmet Häusle, Einfache undfrüheFormen des griechischen Epigramms in Commentationes Aenipontanae 25 (Innsbruck, 1979). For the comparison of epigram to oral song, see G. B. Walsh, "Callimachean Passages: The Rhetoric of Epitaph in Epigram," Arethusa 24 (1991) 79 and J. W. Day, "Rituals in Stone: Early Greek Grave Epigrams and Monuments," J HS 109 (1989) 26, who likens the role of the epitaph reader to that of a praise poet. 4. In his use of this phrase, Friedländer 1 seems to have in mind the essential merit of inscribed verse, while I am referring only to ancient aesthetic evaluation. 5. See, in general, B. M . W. Knox, "Books and Readers in the Greek World: From the Beginnings to Alexandria," The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I, ed. P E. Easterling and B. M . W. Knox (Cambridge, 1985) 4. O n the rarity of books in the fifth century, see E. G. Turner, Athenian Books in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.c. (London, 1952); H. R. Immerwahr, "Book Rolls on Attic Vases," in Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies in Honor of B. L. Ullman I, ed. C. Henderson, Jr. (Rome, 1964) 17-48, where the use of scrolls for oral recitation is evident; and William V. Harris, Ancient literacy (Cambridge, Mass., 1989) 84-88. O n the existence of written poetic texts in the "song culture" of ancient Greece, see John Herington, Poetry into Drama: Early Tragedy and the Greek Poetic Tradition (Berkeley, 1985) 45-47, 201-6. Important studies on the change from a predominantly oral to a predominantly literate culture include: Eric Havelock, Preface to Plato (Oxford, 1963), The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences (Princeton, 1982), and The Muse Learns to Write: Reflections on Orality and literacyfromAntiquity to the Present (New Haven, 1986); J. Goody and I. Watt, "The Consequences of Literacy," in literacy in Traditional Societies, ed. Jack Goody (Cambridge, 1968) 27-68; Walter J. Ong, Orality and literacy (London, 1982). These works should be read in conjunction with the revision in the theoretical approach to orality and literacy put forth by, e.g., Ruth Finnegan, Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance, and Social Context (Cambridge, 1977) and Rosalind Thomas, Oral Tradition and Written Record in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 1989) and literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 1992).

Introduction

3

not for public recitation but for private reading whenever a passerby, whose curiosity was piqued by a monument or dedication, paused briefly to peruse the inscription.6 Although the solitary reading of an epigram does anticipate the experience of later book readers, within this cultural context verse inscriptions were valued more for their practical function of praise and commemoration than purely as literary objects. The literariness of an inscription was further limited because the reader's aesthetic experience involved visually perceived objects as well as discourse—it was based on the shape of the letters as much as the poetic quality of the verse and on the relationship of the inscription to the crafted object of which it was a part.7 As long as the epigram was confined to its monument, it was excluded from the arena of oral discourse where poetry could obtain rank and status by performance, and reperformance, before a collective audience. Only at the beginning of the Hellenistic age did epigrams emerge as fully literary forms; in fact, they became a favorite of those on the cutting edge of literary development. 8 Certain authors, like Posidippus and Leonidas, were known primarily or exclusively as epigrammatists, while poets better known for their work in other genres, like Callimachus and Theocritus, also composed significant quantities of epigrams. Epigram is in some ways the most characteristic of Hellenistic poetic forms. Because of its inherited brevity and conciseness, its necessary concern with the personal and the particular, it conformed well

6. Jesper Svenbro, Phrasikleia: An Anthropology of Reading in Ancient Greece, trans. Janet Lloyd (Ithaca, 1993) 44-63 has argued that an inscription was normally read by a single reader to a group of auditors, but he produces a doubtful text of a single epigram (108 CEG) as his only evidence for this custom. While such a "performance" of an epigram may sometimes have taken place, surely it was also common, we may suppose more common, for an epigram to be read by a single reader. Nor should we assume that inscriptions were always read aloud. While B. M . W. Knox, "Silent Reading in Antiquity," GRBS 9 (1968) 433-34, has shown that silent reading was not unusual in the fifth century, there is no reason to doubt that it was accomplished at an even earlier date. 7. For the dependence of an epigram's meaning upon its relationship with its monument, see Raubitschek 3 and H&usle 88-105. Christoph W. Clairmont, Gravestone and Epigram: Greek Memorials from the Archaic and Classical Period (Mainz, 1970) is concerned with the relationship between stone and inscription in the narrower sense of what the verse reveals about the figures represented on the monument. 8. M . Puelma, " 'Eitiypamja—epigramma: Aspekte einer Wortgeschichte," MH 53 (1996) 123-39 has recently argued that epigram was not canonized as a poetic genre until the time of Martial.

His argument is primarily a semantic one, based on the fact that the word

¿Tuypa^ijia does not appear in the texts of Hellenistic epigrammatists.

T h o u g h the poets

themselves do use a variety of terms to refer to their short poetry, ample evidence shows that

¿Ttiypanna

was a standard designation for short verse in the third century

B.C.;

see

Chapter 2. As with other new Hellenistic poetic forms, such as pastoral, the genre itself was practiced by poets before the terminology to designate the genre became fixed. Praxis preceded canonization.

4

HELLENISTIC

EPIGRAMS

to the Callimachean aesthetic preference for the miniature, the intricate, and the fragmented. T h e term later used by Philip of Thessalonica to designate the brevity characteristic of the epigram (óXiyocm)(ír¡v, 1.6 G-P, Garland = AP 4.2.6) echoes Callimachus' programmatic term for his own short poetry (óXiyóoTi)(o £>aive- Spoaiü^aÖoo auußoXtXT] itpoitooic;aiyaaÖto Zr)vtov, ö aocpö? x u x v o ? , a t e KXeavöoui; M o ö a a , n i X o i 8' fjjiiv 6 yXuxuiuxpo«; "Epw01 MeXavirotov ¿GarcTOjiev, fjeXiou Suojievotj BamXib xatQave rcapQevix^ autoxEpi, £weiv y a p aSeXcpedv ¿v nupi 9etoa odx ETXT}' Si8u(iov 5' oixo? ioeiSe x a x 6 v Ttatpoi; 'ApiCTTtiwcoio, xatiicpTjaev Kup^vr) Ttaoa TOV si/texvov x^pov I8o0aa 8o[aov. ( 3 2G-P = 2 oPf. = ^ 7 . 5 1 7 ) At dawn we were burying Melanippus, but at the setting of the sun the maiden Basilo died by her own hand, For she couldn't bear to live when she had placed her brother on the pyre. A double misfortune the house Of their father Aristippus saw, and all Cyrene was downcast to see a family with noble children bereft. Aataxl8r)v TOV Kpf|T0T TOV atrcoXov fjpnaae Nu(icpr) ¿5 Speo?, x a l vuv iepoq 'AaxaxiSri?.

42. Other scholars as well have found allusion to poetics in the epigram; see Hauvette 22; Meyer 173-75; Gronewald (1993) 29. 43. The uncertain epitaph is 62 G-P = 36 Pf. = AP 7.454, which is quoted without author's name in Athenaeus (io-436d-e) but said in the AP to have the same author as the preceding epigram (46 G-P = 19 Pf.). Wilamowitz, "Die Thukydideslegende," Hermes 12 (1877) 346, n. 29 and (1924) 1 1 3 3 , n. 3 denied Callimachus' authorship on the belief that Athenaeus had found the poem in Polemon, and Pfeiffer rejected it because he considered the elision at the diaeresis unworthy of Callimachus. But E. Livrea, "Due epigrammi Callimachei," Prometheus 15 (1989) 199-202 has now argued for the authenticity of the Anthology ascription, and I believe there to be insufficient reason for rejecting the Callimachean authorship of a poem that occurs in a Meleagrian sequence. Given the thematic concerns of Asclepiades, Posidippus, and Hedylus with drinking and composing poetry, a satirical epitaph for a "heavy wine-drinker" could easily have served as a Callimachean contribution to this ongoing conversation about poetic theory.

Callimachus' Epigrammata

oùxéTi AixTodflaiv òitò Spuatv, oùxéti Aàcpviv, Ttoijaéve?, AoTctxiSrjv 8' ctlèv àsiaó^eSa. (36 G-P = 22 Pf. = AP 7.518) Astacides the Cretan goatherd a Nymph snatched from the mountain, and now Astacides is holy. No longer under the Dictaean oaks, no longer will we shepherds sing of Daphnis, but always of Astacides. Soufiova TT? 8' e5 oìSe TÒV afjpiov a v t x a x a l aé, X à p ^ i , TÒV ò