A Guide to Hellenistic Literature (Blackwell Guides to Classical Literature) by Kathryn Gutzwiller

Abstract

BOOKREVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 389 in France (180)?facts that Schmitz manages tomake sound belittling?can communicate theircommitmentto trivia by adoptingthisas a textbook. CertainlySchmitz isrightthat "nobody will be able to produce competent and meaningful studies of literary theory unless (s)he enjoys reading literary texts and has a vast and intense knowledge of literatures from asmany periods and culturesas possible" (208). InLiterary TheoryandAncientTexts, it is emphatically not thecase that"intellectual mediocrity [ishiding]betweenwalls made of impenetrable words" (10). Concordia University Sean Gurd A Guide to Hellenistic Literature. By Kathryn Gutzwiller. Maiden, MA: Blackwell (Blackwell Guides toClassical Literature).2007. Pp. xii,261. Hellenistic literature has finally come into its own as a distinct sub-field within the study of ancient Greek literature. Kathryn Gutzwiller is a renowned and well-respected scholar, and her wide-ranging publications have contributed greatiy to the rise in scholarly estimationthat the field now enjoys. Accordingly, a guide to the subjectby such a knowledgeable and influential specialist isboth a timelyandwelcome addition to the handbooks and companions to classical authors already available. As the tide accurately advertises,thevolume isnot focused solelyon thepoetryof theperiod; thisnew guide includes discussions of prose aswell, a refreshing departure from the trend in handbooks to hellenistic literature sinceWilamowitz's Hellenistische Dichtung in der Zeit des Kallimachos (Berlin1924). In thisrespect,thebook also servesits intendedreadership well: general readers with an interest in the ancient world should find it an engaging introduction to the diversity of literary texts available from this period, whereas students of classics should find it a valuable precursor to the more in-depth articles in the Blackwell Companion to HellenisticLiterature (eds. J.Clauss andM. Cuypers;Maiden, MA andOxford 2010). In many ways, this volume supersedes earlier handbooks and should become an essential textbook for both graduate and undergraduate courses on hellenistic literature. The book begins with a preface followed by four substantial chapters and very useful supplemental material: Figures, Maps, Suggested Readings, and Chronological Tables. Gutzwiller appropriately begins theguide by putting the literary developmentswithin their historical and cultural context. She provides a brief discussion of the formation of thehellenistickingdoms afterthedeath ofAlexander theGreat in 323 to thedeath of Cleopatra vii in 31 b.c.e. I have only one caveat about this section, especially for those who will use the guide as a textbook. The brevity and focus of the historical introduction does assume, quite reasonably, that the student or general reader already has knowledge of the major eventsof theperiodorwill gain thatknowledgeelsewhere. An important feature of thischapteristheeven-handed way in whichGutzwillerpaysattentiontodevelopments inall thekingdoms,ratherthanfocusingprimarily on PtolemaicAlexandria. She treats thedecline ofAthens as the literary centreof theGreek world and thegrowthof its philosophical schools; thehamperingeffect ofAntigonid and Seleucidmilitary interests on court patronage of literature and the arts in Pella and Antioch respectively, and the emergence of theAttalid court in Pergamum as a cultural rival toAlexandria. This more balanced perspective on the historical and cultural context of hellenistic literature prepares the readerfor the subsequentchapters, which provide similarly fresh and balanced presentations. Gutzwiller not only treats the famous works of well-known 390 PHOENIX authors, such as Callimachus, Apollonius, and Theocritus, but also works by less familiar writers, such as Herodas and Ezechiel, as well as recently discovered texts, such as the Milan papyrus with epigramsbyPosidippus and thepapyrusfragment of thegeographer Artemidorus of Ephesus. The second chapter, "Aesthetics and Style," is made up of three sub-sections: 2.1 (Aesthetic Principles),2.2 (Meter, Dialect, andDiction) and 2.3 (LiteratureasArtefact). These discussions lay the foundation for the other two chapters, "Authors and Genres" (ChapterThree) and "Topics inHellenistic Literature" (ChapterFour). Section 2.1 (Aesthetic Principles) discusses the self-conscious way the authors both constructed and participated in the new taste for realism, erudition, precision, and the small scale that dominated the plastic arts as well as the literature of the period. Contrary to expectation Gutzwiller's approach isnot to start but to end this section with the famous and controversial aesthetic declarations of Callimachus in the prologue to theAitia. She begins the discussion with the metapoetic epigrams of Callimachus' contemporaries, demonstrating that their works reflect the same concerns. Indeed, her readings of the epigrams of Posidippus on the statueof Philitas by a studentof Lysippus (63Austin and Bastianini) and of Asclepiades on thepoetryofErinna...