Hellenistic Epigram Research Articles

Sappho as the Tenth Muse in Hellenistic Epigram

This essay contributes to the study of the biographical tradition of Sappho in antiquity and to the reception of Sappho in the Hellenistic period by investigating the evolution in Hellenistic epigram of the construction of Sappho as the Tenth Muse. It focuses particularly on the lineage of epigrams with allusive gestures to Sappho, Hesiod, and other epigrams in circulation that contributed to the ossification of Sappho as an iconic figure. In addition, the essay entertains how and why Sappho was treated differently than male lyric poets by the epigrammatists.

Mars as hellenistic lover: Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.29–40 and its subtexts

The passage discussed in this article has two kinds of Hellenistic subtext, one pictorial and the other poetic. The pictorial is represented by the fresco in the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii depicting Bacchus reclining on the bosom of a woman. The peotic subtext is the kind of Hellenistic epigram that describes the male lover as lying in the lap or on the bosom of the female beloved. Meleager and Philodemus provide examples. These, with the fresco, show that a Hellenistic model for the erotic schema of Mars and Venus was available to Lucretius. On this understanding, it becomes easier to explain the phrase tereti cervice (35), borrowed from Cicero's translation of the Phaenomena of Aratus. The conclusions to be drawn from this passage go counter to the prevailing view of a “sublime” Empedoclean Lucretius who had nothing in common with Hellenistic poetry.

Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context

Epigrams, the briefest of Greek poetic forms, had a strong appeal for readers of the Hellenistic period (323-31 B.C.). One of the most characteristic literary forms of the era, the epigram, unlike any other ancient or classical form of poetry, was not only composed for public recitation but was also collected in books intended for private reading. Brief and concise, concerned with the personal and the particular, the epigram emerged in the Hellenistic period as a sophisticated literary form that evinces the period's aesthetic preference for the miniature, the intricate, and the fragmented. Kathryn Gutzwiller offers the first full-length literary study of these important poems by studying the epigrams within the context of the poetry books in which they were originally collected. Drawing upon ancient sources as well as recent papyrological discoveries, Gutzwiller reconstructs the nature of Hellenistic epigram books and interprets individual poems as if they remained part of their original collections. This approach results in illuminating and original readings of many major poets, and demonstrates that individual epigrammatists were differentiated by gender, ethnicity, class status, and philosophical views. In an important final chapter, Gutzwiller reconstructs much of the poetic structure of Meleager's Garland, an ancient anthology of Hellenistic epigrams.

Las odas de Baltasar de Alc�zar: Elementos clasicos y configuraction retorica

Baltasar de Alcazar (1530–1606) is represented in the Spanish ode history with two poems in saphic stances, entitled A Don Felix and A Cupido. Lacking a specific model in the Horace's Carmina, both poems derive from the whole Horatian tradition, which in the second poem is blended with the influence of Hellenistic epigram. The classical relationship of its subject matter is strengthened by the study of structural elements (poetic voice and dispositio). Therefore, the poet makes a trustworthy adaptation of moral and satirist odes of the Latin poet. The analysis of three translations from Horace proves the acquaintance of Alcazar with this model.

Two Hellenistic Epigrams on Towns

Two Hellenistic Epigrams on Towns

THE FIRST HELLENISTIC EPIGRAMS AT ROME

THE FIRST HELLENISTIC EPIGRAMS AT ROME Get access John Sickle John Sickle Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Volume 35, Issue Supplement_51, February 1988, Pages 143–156, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.1988.tb02020.x Published: 22 February 2011

(Anthologia) Graeca. Further Greek Epigrams: epigrams before A.D. 50 from the Greek Anthology and other sources, not included in ‘Hellenistic Epigrams’ or ‘The Garland of Philip’. Ed. D. L. Page. Rev. R. D. Dawe and J. Diggle. Cambridge etc.: University Press. 1982 (1981). Pp. xiv + 598. £82.50.

(Anthologia) Graeca. Further Greek Epigrams: epigrams before A.D. 50 from the Greek Anthology and other sources, not included in ‘Hellenistic Epigrams’ or ‘The Garland of Philip’. Ed. D. L. Page. Rev. R. D. Dawe and J. Diggle. Cambridge etc.: University Press. 1982 (1981). Pp. xiv + 598. £82.50.

Further Greek Epigrams - D. L. Page: Further Greek Epigrams: Epigrams before A.D. 50 from the Greek Anthology and other sources, not included in ‘Hellenistic Epigrams’ or ‘The Garland of Philip’. Revised and prepared for publication by R. D. Dawe and J. Diggle. Pp. xiv + 598. Cambridge University Press, 1981. £82.50.

Further Greek Epigrams - D. L. Page: Further Greek Epigrams: Epigrams before A.D. 50 from the Greek Anthology and other sources, not included in ‘Hellenistic Epigrams’ or ‘The Garland of Philip’. Revised and prepared for publication by R. D. Dawe and J. Diggle. Pp. xiv + 598. Cambridge University Press, 1981. £82.50.

The Art of Variation in the Hellenistic Epigram

The Art of Variation in the Hellenistic Epigram

The Art of Variation in the Hellenistic Epigram

The Art of Variation in the Hellenistic Epigram

Originality and Eroticism: Constantine Cavafy and the Alexandrian Epigram

Although it has become generally accepted by critics that Constantine Cavafy (1863–1933) was influenced greatly by the Hellenistic epigram ‘in attitude, subject matter, and technique’, a close comparison of that poetic tradition and Cavafy’s poems reveals interesting differences as well as similarities. We know that Cavafy was familiar with Hellenistic literature and that he had a copy of J. W. Mackail’s Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology in his personal library. His reading, however, ‘was much more extensive than his library’. More significant than this is the evidence to be found in his poems, which range from an actual mention of ancient epigrams to obvious imitations of them. Cavafy’s poems for the most part, however, are quite original in their tone and erotic stance when compared directly to the Alexandrian epigrams.

Mild Frenzy. A Reading of the Hellenistic Love Epigram

Mild Frenzy. A Reading of the Hellenistic Love Epigram

Three Hellenistic Epigrams from Egypt

Three Hellenistic Epigrams from Egypt

Three Hellenistic Epigrams from Egypt

Three Hellenistic Epigrams from Egypt