Hellenistic poetry

Το άρθρο εξετάζει ένα κυπριακό επιτύμβιο επίγραμμα του 2ου π.Χ. αιώνα, το οποίο αναφέρεται στον θάνατο ενός νέου ανθρώπου. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, το επίγραμμα αναλύεται δομικά, αλλά, πρωτίστως, με βάση τους τρεις θεματικούς του άξονες, δηλαδή τον νεκρό, τον θάνατο και την προτροπή του επιγραμματοποιού για μια στωική αντιμετώπισή του, καθώς και τους ζωντανούς γονείς. Παράλληλα, γίνεται απόπειρα να συνδεθούν τα μοτίβα αυτά, τα οποία απαντώνται και σε άλλα κυπριακά –και όχι μόνο– επιγράμματα της αρχαιότητας, αλλά και στη διαχρονία της ελληνικής λογοτεχνίας, με την ποίηση της σύγχρονης κυπριακής γραμματείας και, ειδικότερα, με τους ποιητάρηδες της μεγαλονήσου.

Twice in Petronius’ novel (75.1 and 130.1) a moralizing sentiment is expressed in a pithy fashion regarding the fallibility of human beings. I explore the literary genealogy of this topos and its links with the Petronian passages, and I discuss how the sentiment is mock-philosophically readjusted in Encolpius’ narrative through “two-tier allusions” which combine the grandiose setting of an episode from the Iliad with unseemly, everyday-life scenes from New Comedy and the Hellenistic mime. I conclude that the Petronian sayings on the tendency of the human
race to err were not intended (by the characters who uttered them) to be profound but should best be understood within the narrator’s melodramatic role-playing and the author’s literary game with his educated readers.

The paper offers the first publication of three metrical inscriptions found in the Southern Suburb of Chersonesos Taurica: a brief epitaph on the ossuary of Pharnaces, son of Dionysios (the second quarter – the middle of the 2nd cent. AD) and two marble tablets, one containing a more extended but not fully preserved epitaph of Philo, the daughter of Apollonios (2nd cent. AD), the other the fragmentary epitaph for an unknown person, possibly a warrior (the last quarter of the 2nd cent. –
the 1st quarter of the 1st cent. BC).

En este trabajo, intentamos buscar las razones por las que Orfeo continua apareciendo en calidad de poeta mitico en los manuales europeos e hispanos de literatura griega a lo largo del siglo XIX. Las razones deben buscarse en la Bibliotheca Graeca (1790) de J.A. Fabricius, que aporta los contenidos sobre la figura y las obras atribuidas al poeta, y la nueva historia de la literatura griega (1831) de F.A. Wolf, que confiere a Orfeo un lugar preferente en la etapa prehomerica. Poco a poco, la figura de Orfeo ira cediendo su lugar a los “Poetas orficos”, lo que implica la diseminacion de las obras orficas en etapas posteriores de la literatura griega.

Si tratta di un’antologia multifunzionale, idonea ad accompagnare gli studenti per tutto il corso del liceo. I primi testi scelti (epigrafi arcaiche su lapide o su vaso) possono essere utili già nel primo anno, una volta che gli studenti leggano con sicurezza l’alfabeto greco, onde osservarne la storia, attraverso i vari orientamenti della scrittura (da destra, bustrofedica, da sinistra) e attraverso le varianti felle varie aree geografiche. In tal modo potranno capire come si sia arrivati dagli alfabeti greci maiuscoli alla scrittura capitale latina. Le epigrafi metriche spiegano l’origine dell’epigramma, prima con supporto reale, poi con supporto virtuale, cui il testo allude. L’antologia non serve a scopo d'apprendimento linguistico, ma a fine prettamente culturale, perciò tutti i testi sono corredati da una traduzione. Tra i frammenti antologizzati ce n’è anche uno del nuovo Posidippo, edito a Milano nel 2001, dove se ne conserva il papiro, trovato nel 1992 (anticamente fu riutilizzato per fabbricare la maschera di cartapesta di una mummia).

In this work we study νυκτιπόλος as an epithet of Dionysus in the fragment 472 of Euripides’ Cretans and we place it in relation to the Orphic rituals that the fragment seems to refer to. Our conclusion is that the adjective probably involves, as well as the idea of night, that of dancing around the god, given that the derivatives of πέλομαι usually imply rotating, and several testimonies support the concept of the Dionysian dance as rotations. By comparison with later testimonies that speak
of the dances and performances in the Orphic rituals, we suggest that this epithet could point to the dance that Kouretes performed around the child Dionysus, as it tells the central myth of Orphism and that it could have been recreated by the faithful at some point in the ritual.

Antologia de Spoon River é a obra máxima do poeta norte-americano Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950). Nesta obra-prima da poesia norte-americana, 244 personagens nos falam através de seus epitáfios, inscritos nas lápides do cemitério da vila fictícia de Spoon River, inspirada em diversas cidadezinhas do Illinois. Elogiado por poetas e críticos seus contemporâneos como Amy Lowell, Ezra Pound, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl Sandburg e Louis Untermeyer, entre outros, Masters é um dos grandes poetas modernos e um dos poucos a conquistar popularidade entre leitores comuns nos EUA. Ainda em 1931, Jorge Luis Borges traduz três poemas de Masters e os publica na revista Sur. Em sua Introducción a la literatura norteamericana, publicada em 1967, Borges reconhece Masters como um dos mais importantes inovadores da poesia estadunidense do século XX e resume assim o seu projeto: "Integram esse livro, que é uma espécie de comédia humana, duzentos e quarenta e quatro epitáfios, ou melhor, confissões de outros tantos mortos de um obscuro povoado provinciano, que nos revelam sua intimidade". No Brasil, permanece quase desconhecido, e foi pouquíssimo lido, mas principalmente por autores como Mário de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira e Jorge de Lima.

Publicada originalmente em 1915, Antologia de Spoon River é uma coleção de 244 epitáfios, poemas cujos títulos são os nomes dos mortos que, como eu líricos, narram brevemente suas vidas, tragédias particulares, sonhos incompletos e memórias, do mais prosaico ao mais profundo, no verso livre sempre ritmado e imagético do poeta norte-americano Edgar Lee Masters. Profundamente humano, o livro aborda temas como morte, frustração, aspirações, dramas interiores e interpessoais, a memória individual e coletiva, a poesia, a guerra e a arte. Os poemas formam uma trama complexa entre os habitantes de Spoon River, de modo que o leitor vai conhecendo aos poucos as nuances de cada personagem e de suas relações com os outros moradores desse vilarejo. O livro de Masters nasce do interesse do autor pela poesia da Grécia antiga, mais especificamente os epitáfios da Antologia Grega, somado ao interesse do poeta pelo verso livre e por temas à época subversivos, resultando em uma poesia essencialmente modernista. Sucesso de público e crítica, a Antologia de Spoon River vendeu mais de 80 mil exemplares nos primeiros quatro anos de sua publicação, e foi calorosamente recebida por poetas e críticos como Ezra Pound.

This chapter discusses several comic and parodic fragments in which extracts of epic text are examined, quoted, or ridiculed. Two questions are posed: first, what prompts comedy to engage with Homeric texts and what effect it might have on the audience; second, how comedy contributes to the textual transmission of the Homeric epics. The first part of the chapter looks at the texts of ancient comedy and their interaction with the epic past. The second part examines key aspects of epic parody and how it contributes to the transmission of the Homeric epics. Finally, the third part analyses examples from later Greek comedy and how they use the epic tradition. The continuing preoccupation of comic and parodic poets with the Homeric text affords a glimpse into the state of the text in the pre-Hellenistic period, before the Alexandrian scholarly work. Parody and comedy preserved the treasure of the earliest layers of the Homeric textual heritage.

Parece verosímil que este fragmento 912 Kannicht pertenezca a los Cretenses, como han pensado algunos estudiosos. El fragmento 472 Kannicht, que pertenece a esa tragedia, presenta un cuadro religioso indiscutiblemente órfico. En él, el coro, que ha sido llamado por Minos, se presenta como un grupo de hombres santos que obedecen una ascesis de vida y que honran a Rea (la madre montaraz) a Zeus del Ida y a Zagreo. Es probable que fueran estos dos últimos dioses a los que se invocara en nuestro fragmento 912. Dentro de la trama de la tragedia, nuestro pasaje podría ser la plegaria realizada por el coro a los dioses a los que rinden culto. Con ella pretenderían averiguar a qué se debe la desgracia de Pasífae, pues por eso les habría hecho venir Minos. Sin embargo, sus súplicas transcienden del origen de un mal en particular al origen de todos los males y con ellos al propio nacimiento del hombre.

Este capítulo se centra en dos cuestiones: en primer lugar,
el tratamiento que recibe la figura de Orfeo por parte de los autores trágicos; en concreto, observamos los atributos de esta figura y los episodios de lo que se podría llamar «biografía mítica» de Orfeo en los que estos autores insisten más. En segundo lugar estudiamos los testimonios más importantes relacionados con la religión órfica, a través de los cuales podremos conocer las huellas que ésta ha dejado en la tragedia y, en cierto modo, cuál pudo haber sido el conocimiento de esta corriente religiosa que tuvieron los grandes trágicos y la postura que tomaron ante ella.

In the present article, a sequel to a contribution published elsewhere in this issue of Lampas, I discuss afrocentric attempts to amend James’ story of the plundering of the Royal Library at Alexandria by Alexander and Aristotle. The aim of these attempts is to salvage from its critics the fiction of a palpable theft of Egyptian wisdom by the Greeks. Rakote, the original Egyptian settlement on the location of the city founded by Alexander, is substituted for Alexandria, a temple library for the Ptolemaic institute, and Callisthenes for Aristotle. While James’ apologists pretend that they are defending the main thesis of Stolen Legacy, they are actually coming up with a new story to replace James’ untenable invention. The amended story may look superficially less implausible than the original one, it still is an unfounded contention, unsupported by any evidence, and hard to combine with what we know about Alexander’s policies in Egypt and elsewhere. Rather than rescuing James’ ‘hypothesis’ from its critics, the amendments demonstrate the indispensability of fiction for afrocentric discourse.

The present contribution, the first panel of a diptych, discusses a claim put forward by George G.M. James in his book Stolen Legacy (1954). According to James, the Macedonian king Alexander III in association with the philosopher Aristotle plundered the Royal Library at Alexandria – a crucial episode in what Afrocentric thinkers consider the theft of African philosophy by the Greeks. The article presents and analyses the evidence for the founding of Alexandria, for Aristotle’s whereabouts during Alexander’s conquest of the Persian Empire, and for the establishment of the Alexandrian library. James’ contention turns out to be unsupported by any evidence. In addition, it is at odds with the results of historical research into events of the late fourth and early third century BCE relevant to the matter at hand. The alleged theft must have taken place in a city not yet founded, by a philosopher with an alibi, and in an institution that would not be established until at least a quarter of a century after the death of the Macedonian conqueror. Afrocentric responses to such criticisms will be discussed in a sequel to this contribution,
published elsewhere in this issue of Lampas.

A Mold-Made Bowl from the Kahramanmaraş Archaeology Museum

The Hellenistic Period mould-made bowls were a popular type of ceramic during that era. Typically hemispherical and decorated with relief on the exterior, these drinking bowls were widely used in the Mediterranean basin and the Black Sea region from the 3rd century to the mid-1st century BCE. Created as imitations of metal vessels, the bowls featured relief decorations of floral, geometric, and figurative motifs on the exterior surfaces. These bowls are divided into two main classes: Attic and Delian. Local workshops in Anatolia began producing these bowls by the late 3rd century BCE, and notable production centers included Pergamon, Sardis, Ephesus, and other cities in the region. The mould-made bowl preserved in the Kahramanmaraş Archaeology Museum was acquired through purchase. This particular bowl stands out due to its figurative scene on the wall section. It is believed to depict hoplites, Amazons (?), and the duo of Athena-Hera. These figures are organised into twelve groups, comprising a total of sixteen figures. While this bowl's figures do not have an exact parallel, it bears resemblance to Homeric bowls among the Ionian ceramics in terms of form, mythological themes, and figures. It is believed to have been produced in Ionia and likely dates between the late 3rd century and the 2nd century BCE based on its form and decoration. The detailed examination of this bowl, which is part of the Kahramanmaraş Archaeology Museum collection, is significant as it adds a new example to the corpus of Hellenistic relief bowls.

Quite contrary to what nineteenth‑century critics had tried to pontificate, the legacy of the historian Herodotus in Hellenistic and Imperial literature is beyond dispute, not only, as might be expected, among the epigones of the historiographical genre, but also among the representatives of the different poetic genres. This chapter will briefly analyse the Herodotean imprint in some emblematic passages of the most fragmentary Hellenistic elegy.

Hellenistic relief pottery provides an excellent case study for investigating how this specific class influenced other ceramic classes, even those far removed geographically from the original centre of production.
This study aims to define the general characteristics of this pottery class and its various production sites. It will be followed by a focus on some specimens found in Taranto, studied through a multidisciplinary approach involving both chrono-typological and technical analysis.
In addition to a classical humanistic approach, the analytical study of all steps of the operational chain applied to the selected artifacts will be key to introducing new, less investigated research questions. These include how the contribution of technical and production characteristics, as well as experimental archaeology, can offer valuable insights into the processes of disseminating craft techniques and the probable connections between central and peripheral workshops.

The purpose of this article is to reexamine the interpretation of comics 363-6 in Marvel's The Mighty Thor series as a retelling of the Hellenistic mock epic poem Batrachomyomachia, a view expressed by scholars such as Nicholas Newman in his paper entitled The War of Frogs and Rats. The Batrachomyomachia in Marvel's The Mighty Thor. The article proposes an alternative approach to reading these comics outside of the antique context, interpreting the similarities between the two works through the lens of cultural universals theory.

This paper traces the reception of two towering figures of Ancient Greek literature, namely Homer and Sappho. Although both are viewed as epitomes of poetic talent, the fact that Sappho is a woman makes her stand out in the literary tradition and as a female poet she is perceived as an extraordinary phenomenon. The analysis of the reception of Sappho in antiquity, especially in Hellenistic and early Imperial epigrams in which her gender is often underlined, aims to show that while both Homer and Sappho are authority figures for subsequent generations of poets, they are not regarded in the same way. At the same time, Sappho's unique position as a woman in the literary world results in a double effect: on the one hand, she is confined to the realm of poetry written by women, which almost amounts to a distinct category of literature, but on the other hand, the position makes it possible for her to become the fundamental literary figure and inspiration that she has been for women writers, artists, and activists for centuries, and even millennia, afterwards.

In this paper I will look at the representation of space in the Argonautica, the third century BCE epic poem by the Alexandrian poet Apollonius of Rhodes, with an eye on its politico-ideological overtones. The Argonautica relates the mythical journey of the Argonauts, a group of fifty young heroes, from Greek Iolcus to exotic Colchis on the edge of the Black Sea and back again in search of the Golden Fleece, which they obtain with the help of the Colchian princess Medea. The journey encompasses some remarkably detours, most notably past the Libyan coast and through a river network in central Europe. It is immediately clear on a first reading that the route of the Argo is not told in a purely realistic way; literary tradition and myth play an important role in its constitution. Apart from being a rich tale of adventure, a refined psychological portrait of first love gone wrong and a creative commentary on Homeric poetry, the Argonautica is also a (literarily) allusive and a geographi...

This paper contains the notes to my biographic novel "Strategos", a tentative reconstruction of the memories of Aratus of Sicyon (271-213) which has produced many new findings of scientific interest. Elected 16 times strategos of the Achaean League, Aratos was the democratic leader of a federation of cities in a multipolar world dominated by five superpowers. The challenges he faced bear many similarities to those threatening the European democracies in the 21st century. The life of Aratus is an intricate story with many doubtful passages, but with the help of these notes the understanding of various problems can be increased. This paper contains the notes to book 2, "Die Tyrannen von Argos", and those of particular scientific interest have been highlighted in the text. Among the most interesting ideas presented here is a new solution for the beginning of the Aetolian presence in East-Arcadia (pp. 37, 48, 50) and the consequences for the Aetolian-Achaean-alliance (pp. 87, 96, 147, 149), as well as a reconstruction of the campaign that led to the battle of Phylakia (p. 216), new evidence on the life of victorious general Bithys (p. 231, 239, 240, 312) and a different reading for the inscription FD III 4.239 (p. 240) regarding the Aetolian Simos in Skiros. New arguments are provided to prove that Phthia of Epirus was not the mother of Philip V (p. 308). A new interpretation is also proposed for Plutarch, Aratos 29.5-6 (p. 126) and similar passages, shedding new light on the purpose and character of the Hypomnemata. 2nd enhanced edition, 2024

This paper shows that: 1) the adespoton SH 1185 is handed down by a number of sources greater than that reported by its last editors: not only Zonaras, but also Et. Gen. (AB), Et. Sym. (EF), and Magna Grammatica (Magna Grammatica and especially Et. Gen. [B] providing new, significant readings); 2) the gloss παρείατο in Et. Gen. (A) is likely to transmit a short epic fragment, which had remained unnoticed until now.

Mold-made ceramics from the Brown University excavation of the Roman Bath in the Palaiopolis of  Kerkyra. They date from the Hellenistic period to the Early Christianity. It includes the most extensive catalog of so-called Corinthian bowls. Their function was unknown and is now explained and reconstructed.

This is an abstract of a conference paper intended to be read at Bibliotheca Alexandrina (The Alexandria Centre for Hellenistic Studies), 8-10 April, 2011, on: "Alexandria and the Hellenistic World: New Finds and Interpretations."
The Conference did not take place due to the current events in Egypt at the time (2011).

This paper aims to investigate myrtle and mauve’s symbolic meaning in Adv. Ind. 3, in which Lucian parodies Hesiod’s Theogony (vv. 5-34) to attack his opponent – an ignorant book collector. Making a satirical comparison between Hesiod’s poetic wisdom and the poor knowledge which Lucian’s enemy pretends to acquire by purchasing expensive books, Lucian creates the following parodic scenario: Hesiod receives a laurel branch from the Muses as a symbol of his poetic coronation and Mnemosyne’s daughters whip the bibliophile with branches of myrtle and mauve to chase him away from Helicon. Thanks to a detailed study of the symbolic meanings associated with myrtle and mauve within Greek and Latin literature, I suggest that in Adv. Ind. 3 Lucian treats myrtle and mauve as femininity’s symbols, so that the ignorant book collector sees both his culture and his manhood dramatically reduced by Muses’ humiliating punishment.

Resumen. La creencia homérica en la inanidad de la vida de las almas en el Hades choca frontalmente con la doctrina de los misterios, según la cual las almas de los iniciados, por el solo hecho de serlo, gozan de una bienaventuranza eterna tras la muerte terrenal. Esto pone en desventaja al guerrero frente al iniciando, por lo que no es raro que en los poemas homéricos pueda detectarse una crítica a los misterios, alusiva pero patente (1). Tal hecho podría explicar el papel irrelevante y el trato que se da en las obras a dioses o héroes de los misterios como Orfeo, Deméter y Dioniso (2). Otro método de distanciamiento es la ridiculización de Dioniso y su culto (3). Por último, la catábasis para traer al mundo de los vivos a un ser querido, característica de los fundadores de misterios, se invierte trágicamente en el canto XXIV de la Ilíada (4).

[Typescript—please cite by the published version in Helios 50 (2023) 17-49.] The apotheoses in Augustan poetry, which range from tropes of a leader's fame reaching the stars to full-blown catasterisms, participate in a Roman appropriation, contestation, and management of Hellenistic monarchical discourse that is as old as Rome's claims to inherit global rule from the East. The present paper studies texts from Ennius to Lucan, with the greatest attention given to Virgil's, Horace's, and Ovid's transculturations of Ptolemaic encomium for the new Caesarean dynasts. As Roman leaders approximate Hellenistic rulers, Latin encomium stages an assimilation between poet and leader, both engaged in a contest over authenticity that depends on a closer imitation/emulation of Hellenism. In consequence, legitimating tropes of teleology and singular merit, resolved into poetic discourse, undergo the destabilizing polyphony native to intertextuality and interculturalism.

[Typescript—please cite by the published version in Helios 50 (2023) 17-49.] The apotheoses in Augustan poetry, which range from tropes of a leader's fame reaching the stars to full-blown catasterisms, participate in a Roman appropriation, contestation, and management of Hellenistic monarchical discourse that is as old as Rome's claims to inherit global rule from the East. The present paper studies texts from Ennius to Lucan, with the greatest attention given to Virgil's, Horace's, and Ovid's transculturations of Ptolemaic encomium for the new Caesarean dynasts. As Roman leaders approximate Hellenistic rulers, Latin encomium stages an assimilation between poet and leader, both engaged in a contest over authenticity that depends on a closer imitation/emulation of Hellenism. In consequence, legitimating tropes of teleology and singular merit, resolved into poetic discourse, undergo the destabilizing polyphony native to intertextuality and interculturalism.

The paper deals with passages from Theocritus (7.113–114), Callimachus (H. 4.206–208), Nicander (Ther. 174–176), and Oppian (Hal. 1.620), united by the joint mention of the Nile and the Ethiopians. The appearance of these two details within the same verse/sentence can be interpreted as an allusion to one of the debatable questions of ancient geography — the location of the sources of the Nile. It is likely that here we are dealing with a special type of allusion: each of the poets in question refers not to a specific place or text, but to a scientific problem, awareness of which he wants to demonstrate. The author concludes that such geographical allusions can be regarded as an implicit commentary and are similar to the poetic technique of so-called interpretatio Homerica (the use of a Homeric hapax, in which the context itself contains the author’s opinion on the correct interpretation of a particular rare word). In connection with the passages from Theocritus and Oppian, the problem of “double” Ethiopians — western and eastern — is also relevant. The article pays attention to the origins of this (Hom. Od. 1.23–24) and also considers interpretations of this Homeric place in Herodotus’ Histories, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound and Pliny’s Natural History.

В статье рассматриваются места из Феокрита (7.113–114), Каллимаха (H. 4.206–208), Никандра (Ther. 174–176) и Оппиана (Hal. 1.620), объединенные совместным упоминанием Нила и эфиопов. Появление этих двух деталей в рамках одного стиха/предложения можно истолковать как намек на один из дискуссионных вопросов античной географии — местоположение истоков Нила. Вероятно, мы имеем дело с особым типом аллюзии: каждый из упомянутых поэтов отсылает не к конкретному месту или тексту, но к ученой проблеме, осведомленность в которой он желает продемонстрировать. В связи с пассажами из Феокрита и Оппиана релевантна также проблема «двойных» эфиопов (западных и восточных), берущая начало из толкований гомеровского места (Od. 1.23–24). Автор приходит к выводу, что перечисленные поэты создают своего рода комментарии к трудным географическим названиям; эта техника аналогична так называемой interpretatio Homerica, т. е. толкованию редких гомеровских слов путем помещения их в определенный поэтический контекст.