Mixing of Genres and Literary Program in Herodas 8

Abstract

N Herodas' eighth Mimiamb, one of the most enigmatic examples of Hellenistic literary polemic, the speaker (usually identified with the poet himself) relates to one of his slaves a dream from which he has just awakened. He states explicitly (66-79) that the dream presaged attacks from his critics: just as the goatherds tore apart and feasted on the limbs of his goat, so the poet's critics will tear apart his own limbs, both literally and metaphorically (with a pun on gtLkog = poem; tx&