Hellenistic Epigram Research Articles

Two Unnarrated Stories in Horace's Roman Odes (Carm.3.2.1–12 and 3.6.21–32): Echoes of Vergil's UnfinishedAeneidand a Lowlife Epigram

AbstractWithin the rhetorical frameworks of exhortation and illustrative exemplum, Horace's second and sixth Roman Odes offer compressed, contrasting images of a young person's education and transformation, presenting these as stories about apuerand avirgo, respectively, in a lyric mode that does not narrate. In the first of these stories (Carm. 3.2.1–12), Horace slyly usurps characters from Vergil's unfinishedAeneid, alluding to some of its distinctive narrative techniques, but also draws on the similes and plot structure of its Iliadic model. The second of Horace's stories (Carm. 3.6.21–32) plays off his first, as he converts theadulta virgowho figures inCarm. 3.2 into her antitype. This story has as its intertext an obscene Hellenistic epigram by Automedon. Horace makes both intertextual and metatextual use of his models, while his indirect references, through Homer, to Vergil's intended design for his emergingAeneidmay be considered under the new heading of extratextual.

Greek Epitaphic Poetry: A Selection by Richard Hunter

Reviewed by: Greek Epitaphic Poetry: A Selection by Richard Hunter Sara Kaczko Greek Epitaphic Poetry: A Selection. By Richard Hunter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics). 2022. Pp. 294. The volume provides a commentary on eighty-one private inscribed funerary Greek epigrams from the archaic period through later antiquity. The texts are organized by gender consistent with Hunter's focus on the Hellenistic and imperial periods, with eleven epigrams down to the fifth century b.c.e., a dozen from the fourth century b.c.e., three dozen from the Hellenistic period, and twenty-two from the imperial era. In fact, epigrams down to the fifth century b.c.e. seldom show gendered differences in style or formulation (aside from references to death in battle). Public inscriptions are excluded, partly owing to Hunter's emphasis on poetic language celebrating the "ethical" and familial virtues of the deceased, though this language is characteristic of epigrams from the Hellenistic period onwards, with intimations of it in the fourth century b.c.e., rather than being an original defining characteristic of the genre. Also, public inscriptions, often being stylistically more elaborate than coeval private inscriptions, would offer valuable comparanda (e.g., CEG 4, 6, and 10 for Athenians fallen in battle; SEG 56.430, the new epitaph for the fallen at Marathon; and SEG 41.540, the polyandrion at Ambrakia). At any rate, anthologies require selection, and these are the criteria used for this volume. Five introductory chapters precede the commentary. The first provides definitions and context, including the differences between inscribed and literary funerary epigrams and the size of the corpus relative to that of prose funerary inscriptions, and describes the scope of the book. The second chapter addresses stylistic considerations, focusing on poetic models from Homer to tragedy (especially in fourth-century b.c.e. Attica) and on their language. This language is described as a negotiation between, as well as a blend of, poetic models (again, mostly Ionic-epic) and epichoric features. Hunter's remarks on the ostensibly limited local flavor of the dialect include the observation that Hellenistic epigrams favor the contemporary koine and seem not to display a marked Doric language, unlike the Doric of Theocritus' idylls. However, in the archaic and classical periods, Homeric features were adapted to the epichoric dialect precisely because of the strength of the local context. Also, the Doric flavor of Theocritus' verse was a literary mannerism in a period when the koine was, in many areas, including Doric ones, the "local" dialect, i.e., the language in common use. In other words, the expectation of a strong Doric flavor in a poetic composition is valid for some literary texts, but not for both literary and epigraphic poems. Overall, the chapter rightly stresses that in epigrams the linguistic and dialectal features vary, and that Doric features are found in both verse-inscriptions and literary funerary poems in non-Doric and Doric areas. The third chapter addresses the authors of the epigrams, whether they were members of the family or friends of the deceased. Alternatively, stonemasons may have provided the services of professional poets or ready-made poems for adaptation to individual circumstances, and pattern books, which have been invoked to explain strong similarities in funerary epigrams across the centuries and parts of Greece,1 may also have been in use. [End Page 368] In any case, Hunter correctly stresses the importance of oral memory and transmission. Also considered here is how the stonecutter received instructions regarding the epigram to be inscribed, whether directly from the poets, from intermediary figures (entrusted with the ordinatio), or from patrons, and whether these instructions were in written or in oral form, scenarios that may have consequences for the accuracy of the text. The extent of the errors in the inscribed epigrams and the claim that literary epigrams are more accurate both seem somewhat overstated. In inscribed epigrams there are, indeed, instances of correction, which indicate that accuracy was valued, and mistakes are also found in the literary transmission. For instance, the dialectal features of epigrams and of archaic and classical poetry are often banalized, especially when the...

Lovely Earth (Leonidas of TarentumAnth. Pal.7.440 = Gow/Page,HE11)

AbstractScholars and editors of Hellenistic epigram have often discounted the authenticity of dialectal variance attested in the manuscript tradition, either privileging the dialectal variant that conforms to the predominant dialect in the epigram or even choosing to change attested dialect forms to produce a uniform coloring. This article argues that the addresses to earth at lines 2 and 10 of Leonidas of TarentumAnth. Pal.7.440 = Gow/Page,HE11 were originally Doric. I show that there are paleographic as well as literary grounds for the reading. In particular, the presence of Doric forms at these two points in the epigram evoke the language of tragic lament. The findings of this article have potentially significant implications for the editing of dialectal mixture in theGreek Anthology.

Faces of Silence in Ancient Greek Literature ed. by Efi Papadodima

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 327 As Floridi states in the foreword, Hedylus’ epigrams have benefitted from the careful treatment of Gow and Page,5 but the small number of his poems has so far kept scholars from dedicating a monographic work to Hedylus. However, growing scholarly interest in this kind of poetry, attested by recent publications,6 has made a book such as the one under review a desideratum for all aficionados of Greek epigrams. This beautiful edition fully complies with the two tough goals the author set for herself. As outlined in the foreword, Floridi’s first aim was to prepare an updated critical text of Hedylus’ poetic output, based on a new examination of the ancient tradition and on a detailed analysis of the remarkable philological activity carried out over the last centuries. The extensive critical apparatus (where I have noticed four emendations put forward by Floridi) is clear evidence that this goal has been successfully met. Secondly, she wished to offer a close study of Hedylus’ poetry in order to evaluate his relevance in the development of the epigrammatic genre, particularly in the satiric subgenre. Her precise notes on Hedylus’ six satiric poems, almost half of his remaining production, well demonstrate that this kind of poetry, very popular in the first century c.e. as evidenced by Lucillius, Nikarchos, and Martial, has its roots in the Hellenistic age. These are two very good reasons for buying this book (even though, as all De Gruyter books, it is quite expensive at more than 100 dollars). University of Siena Simone Beta Faces of Silence in Ancient Greek Literature. Edited by Efi Papadodima. Berlin: De Gruyter (Trends in Classics Suppl. 100; Athenian Dialogues 1). 2020. Pp. viii, 318. This inaugural volume in the sub-series “Athenian Dialogues” is the product of a one-day conference sponsored by the Research Centre for Greek and Latin Literature of the Academy of Athens.1 Of the twelve contributions, two deal with epic and lyric, two with the novel, and eight with drama, of which the first treats comedy, the rest, tragedy. André Lardinois leads off with a study of silences in epic and lyric. Homer often signals silence in response to a statement by another character, for example, sig_ at Iliad 3.420, of Helen, frightened by Aphrodite’s rebuke; other causes are shame, awe, shock, and anger. In the example cited, sig_ is in enjambment; Lardinois argues that the rhapsode may well have paused here, reproducing and extending Helen’s silence before resuming the recitation, thereby inducing suspense when the explanation for the silence is given afterward. So too, when the other gods fall silent (sivp_, Il. 8.28, end line position) after Zeus’ threat, the performer might have paused, allowing the audience to wonder why. Lyric poets more often refer to their own silence, as when Theognis (not precisely a lyric poet) says, sig™ (420). A wedge is inserted between speaker and performer in Sappho 31, when she affirms her tongue is tied and she cannot speak. (Lardinois concludes by suggesting that the chorus in Euripides’ Medea may have paused significantly after 1283, at the word tŽknoiw, leaving the audience to expect in 5 A. S. F. Gow and D. L. Page (eds.), The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams 1–2 (Cambridge 1965). 6 Cf., for example, Kanellou et al. (above, n. 2). 1 It follows on S. Montiglio, Silence in the Land of Logos (Princeton 2000) and P. Bernardini (ed.), Le funzioni del silenzio nella Grecia antica (Pisa 2015). 328 PHOENIX the antistrophe another outcry from the children inside the house). Praise poetry, as Anna Tatsi observes in her chapter on Pindar, is by its nature anything but taciturn, since, as Pindar himself puts it, great accomplishments should not be covered in silence (Nem. 9.67), while shirkers and losers deserve mute obscurity (Isth. 4.30; cf. Parth. 1 = fr. 94a.6–10). Even earned praise, however, should not be carried to excess, for it may arouse envy; also, a victor’s achievements may be too numerous to recount (Isth. 1.60–63). Moreover, the mythic ancestors of great families are guilty of various crimes, which are best left unsung...

Musaeus’ “Hero and Leander”: Introduction, Greek Text, Translation, and Commentary by Silvia Montiglio

346 PHOENIX more enjoyable than its satisfaction. Smith sees this posture as unusual and distinctive, and he reads the epigram as engaging with conceptions of manhood: since self-control (enkrateia) was “traditionally” the way to express manliness, the door deprives the speaker of an opportunity to express his masculinity and instead provokes “a complete disregard of encratic practice and an impulse to luxuriate in apparent powerlessness” (125). Here, the adverb “traditionally” does a lot of work and effaces some nuance. From the standpoint of the tradition, Paul’s speaker is also a descendant of the numerous excluded lovers of Hellenistic epigram who stand outside, and sometimes directly complain to, the door of a would-be lover, and who often seem to derive an analogous, self-indulgent pleasure from their exclusion and from their suffering and lack of control. In other cases, too, some additional consideration of Hellenistic intertexts would be beneficial. To give a single example, in Paulus AP 10.15.3, Smith sees a specific allusion to A.R. 2.594–595, where a ship at sea rides the waves “as if on a cylinder” (ºste kul’nd~), but the reference in both passages is to the practice of launching ships on rollers such as is recounted at A.R. 1.375–377 (cf. A.R. 1.377: ¥lisya’nousa). In any case, the idea that encouraging sailors to set sail without fear “exposes the fear and anxiety at the heart of masculine identity” and that it evokes the sailors’ shortcomings relative to the Argonauts in the alleged intertext (154) does not adequately address the direct model provided by Satyrus AP 10.6.5 or account for the tradition, grounded in reality, that all sailors, no matter how brave, had good reason to be anxious, especially outside of the sailing season (e.g., Leonidas AP 7.665.1–2). Such quibbles hardly detract from Smith’s achievement in this pathbreaking book. I have learned a tremendous amount from it, and it has led me to think about the ways that the approach could be applied productively to earlier poetry. It is essential reading not only for specialists in Byzantine literature, but also for anyone working on epigrams or interested in the treatment of sex, gender, and power in antiquity. Georgetown University Alexander Sens Musaeus' “Hero and Leander”: Introduction, Greek Text, Translation, and Commentary. By Silvia Montiglio. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. 2020. Pp. 123. The tale about Leander, the nighttime clandestine lover who crosses the dangerous waters between Sestos and Abydos to see his beloved Hero and drowns in the process, is among the “classics” of European literature. Since the editio Aldina of 1495, Musaeus’ poem has been associated above all with tragic romantic love. Manutius’ choice to print this poem even before the Homeric epics—Musaeus was thought a forerunner of Homer—has marked the reception of the poem as one of the hallmarks of humanism. The present work is a convenient and useful edition. It includes an extensive introduction of forty-nine pages, taking up almost half the book; a Greek text with a facing English translation; and a concise line-by-line commentary. The up-to-date bibliography provides an excellent reference tool as it includes all past and even forthcoming scholarly works. Below I present some of the highlights of Montiglio’s edition as well as some personal thoughts on the poet in his late antique context. The author has succeeded in producing a modern English translation and an excellent literary discussion accessible to novice and expert readers alike. By contrast to C. Whit- BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 347 man, who attempted to maintain the poetic effect of the text by adopting a loose fourbeat verse,1 Montiglio’s adaptation is in free verse and resembles rather Orsini’s poetic French prose for the 1968 Budé edition.2 The interpretation of pœmatow (“hindmost,” “last”) in line 343 (úll}lvn d' úp—nato ka“ \n pum‡t~ per ¥lŽyr~), for instance, translated as “and they had joy of each other even in the extremity of death,” evokes Orsini’s “et ils jouirent l’un de l’autre éternellement, jusque dans l’abı̂me...

The Epigrams of Crinagoras of Mytilene: Introduction, Text, Commentary ed. by Maria Ypsilanti

Reviewed by: The Epigrams of Crinagoras of Mytilene: Introduction, Text, Commentary ed. by Maria Ypsilanti Kathryn Gutzwiller Maria Ypsilanti (ed.). The Epigrams of Crinagoras of Mytilene: Introduction, Text, Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xi, 578. $130.00. ISBN 978-0-19-956582-5. More than a half century ago the field of Greek literary epigram was made accessible to a wider range of scholars and readers by two editions with basic commentaries: A. S. F. Gow and D. L. Page, The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams (Cambridge 1965) and The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams (Cambridge 1968). Scholarship made possible by these foundational collections has since advanced in two directions. One involves development of methods for reading epigrams as legitimate literary objects, particularly when treated in groups or in poetic contexts. The other involves publication of comprehensive commentaries on the epigrams of individual epigrammatists, which include textual issues and explanations of the finer points of poetry, as well as literary readings. The two approaches are complementary, and Ypsilanti's commentary on Crinagoras is an excellent example of blending traditional editorial subjects with literary interpretation. Crinagoras is a figure of note who should be better known to both Greek and Latin scholars. Inscriptions from Mytilene indicate that he belonged to a prominent family of Lesbos and that he made at least three trips to Rome on [End Page 233] official business between c. 48 and 25 bce. His literary output makes it likely he spent a significant amount of time in Italy, where he clearly received literary patronage from high-status Romans, including members of the imperial family. A fair number of his epigrams reflect these relationships, such as poems that accompany gifts (as later in Martial)—a silver pen, a toothpick, a bronze oil flask, and a garland of roses (3–6). Of particular interest are epigrams that concern a gift of Greek poetry: a box holding five books of Anacreon's poetry presented to Antonia (36 bce–37 ce) on a special occasion (7), and a copy of Callimachus' Hecale given to Marcellus, to encourage him to follow the example of the young Theseus (11), the latter epigram perhaps being Crinagoras' best known. The fifty-one epigrams that remain to us were preserved in Philip's Garland, intermingled with others of the Julio-Claudian era in a rough alphabetical order. Ypsilanti argues that Crinagoras' "preference for personal experiences and current events over the traditional topoi of the genre" led to a "'renovated' type of court-epigram" that breathed "new life" into the epigrammatic tradition (13). Although she does not say so, it is highly likely that Philip selected from a collection of epigrams made by Crinagoras himself, mirroring his own gifts of Anacreon and Callimachus. In her Introduction Ypsilanti presents the usual series of topics: life and work, language and style, meter, and manuscript tradition. Her presentation of the two main manuscripts from the Byzantine era is rather barebones, reasonably enough, however, since descriptions of these are available in other editions. She focuses rather on the lesser-known apographa of the Palatine Codex, manuscript copies of epigrams that were rediscovered at the beginning of the seventeenth century by Saumaise but first fully published only in Brunck's edition of 1772. The value of these apographa lies mainly in their marginal emendations, which have been but rarely acknowledged in modern editions. Ypsilanti's principal contribution to the topic is the attention she calls to Parisinus Coislinanus 352, which has escaped the notice of most other editors. She argues at length that this apographon, written c. 1633 and ascribed to Philaras, bridges the two branches of apographa, the French and the Dutch, and possibly derives directly from the famous lost copy made by Saumaise. Oddly, however, in her apparatus criticus she cites, in the traditional manner, the select apographa that were the basis for the first printed editions, when in my view it is better practice to cite the earliest apographon that contains a given reading. Quibbles with such a full and well-presented commentary are just that, and therefore I limit my examples. Three epigrams that are of doubtful authorship because of differing attributions...

Some more ways to die: Accidental deaths in Hellenistic epigrams

In this article, the focus falls on five Hellenistic epigrammatic poets (Theaetetus of Cyrene, Antipater of Thessalonica, Bianor of Bithynia, Apollonides of Nicaea and Antiphilus of Byzantium) and epigrams they wrote on the theme of extraordinary accidents. Typically of Hellenistic epigrammatists, each poet aimed at finding novelty and surprise, or at varying (and outdoing) predecessors’ efforts. The process generated innovative language and thought, pushing the literary epigram far away from its origins in lapidary epitaphs. The article aims at demonstrating this.

Generic Ambiguity and “Tendentious” Humor in the Hellenistic Epigram

This article looks at a selection of Hellenistic epigrams (mostly by Callimachus), focusing on the way they produce humor through verbal ambiguity and subversion of the conventional form and meaning of epigrammatic topoi relating to religion, sexuality, common values and beliefs, and death. A detailed analysis of the epigrams is followed by a general discussion of their ideological orientations, which are shown to resemble the psychological motives for jokes identified by Freud in Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious. Epigrams discussed include Callimachus 10, 13, 23, 28, 30 Pfeiffer, Asclepiades 2 Sens, and Hippon 1 Page.

Hellenistic Epigrams: Contexts of Exploration by Francis Cairns

Hellenistic Epigrams: Contexts of Exploration by Francis Cairns

Lyricism in Hellenistic Epigram

Abstract:The paper explores the lyrical qualities of Hellenistic epigram not only by linking it to the lyric poems and tropes of the past but primarily by drawing on the modern understanding of lyric as genre or mode. Taking as a point of departure the notion of lyric subjectivity, it discusses the degree to which the poet’s voice is involved in the different types of epigram, namely dedicatory, sepulchral and erotic. An in-depth reading of selected epigrams from the

La tradición clásica en "El reino blanco" de Luis Alberto de Cuenca

This paper examines the influence of the Classical Tradition in Luis Alberto de Cuenca’s El reino blanco (2010). This influence affects both form and content. So, on the one hand, the Hellenistic epigram becomes the formal model of most of the poems in the book. Moreover, Cuenca takes from Greco-Roman culture several episodes, topics, quotes etc., that he recreates in a very personal way (often with humor and irony), in his verses, usually set in contemporary settings, and thus, away from the classical world.

Asclepiades of Samos: Epigrams and Fragments by Alexander Sens (review)

Reviewed by: Asclepiades of Samos: Epigrams and Fragments by Alexander Sens Christos Tsagalis Alexander Sens. Asclepiades of Samos: Epigrams and Fragments. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Pp. cxv, 353. $150.00. ISBN 978-0-19-925319-7. Asclepiades of Samos has recently attracted special attention thanks to the publication of two fully fledged commentaries that do ample justice to his poetic skill and the enormous influence he exerted on the work of his contemporaries. After I. A. Guichard (Asclepíades de Samos: epigramas y fragmentos. Estudio introductorio, revisión del texto, traducción y comentario, Bern 2004), Sens has now made available to an English-speaking public for the first time a detailed and authoritative commentary of the entire epigrammatic production of this gifted Samian epigrammatist. I am making it clear up front that this is a highly commendable piece of scholarship, which should serve as a model for the kind of commentary scholars should be writing on such demanding Hellenistic poets as Asclepiades. The first part of this book includes a lengthy (89 pages) introduction that offers a detailed presentation of the multiple contexts pertaining to Asclepiades: his life and works, the rise of the Hellenistic epigram, the relation between Asclepiades and inscribed epigram, the erotic epigram and its generic background, narrative voice and genre, Asclepiades and some of his famous contemporaries, the royal court, language and style, meter, and textual transmission. Sens is well informed with respect to secondary literature, covers all of his material with precision, and has a keen eye for matters pertaining to diction and meter, as his previous work also attests. The commentary proper takes up the largest part of the book. The presentation is simple and straightforward: first comes the epigram, followed by a critical apparatus and a translation into English; second, Sens offers a general interpretation of the given epigram; and third, he continues with a line-by-line (if not word-by-word) commentary. [End Page 299] Given the limited size of this review, it is hard to do justice to the sheer wealth of information and sound judgment contained in this edition. I will, therefore, focus on a few observations pertaining to a single epigram (11) which validate my overall evaluation presented above: First, Sens rightly draws attention (68) to the blending in asyndeton of imperatival phrases pertaining to verbs both transitive and intransitive. This is a subtle point, for the absence of the accusative µε as object of αἶθε and κεραύνου is not a mere syntactical idiosyncrasy but an elaborate rhetorical strategy of a slow disclosure of information about who the addressee is and in what context he is to be placed. Second, Sens convicingly shows (72) that it is better to take the dative ἐν with χθονί than with σεῖε (contra Ouvré and Knauer), since there is no other example of tmesis in the extant corpus of Asclepiades. He cites an example from A.R. 3.1308 and stresses that this phenomenon is easier with verbs like βάλλω and πίπτω “that allow a statement of destination.” Perhaps, in the light of the phrase χαλκείων χρυσὸς in l. 6 that evokes the famous Homeric phrase χρύσεα χαλκείων in the Diomedes-Glaucus meeting in Iliad 6.235–236, the use of ἐν χθονί may be due to Asclepiades’ knowledge of a Homeric text reading ἐνὶ χθονί instead of ἐπὶ χθονί in Il. 6.213 (cf. Il. 11.378). The simile in 12.156–158 would have also helped here: νιφάδες δ᾽ ὡς πῖπτον ἔραζε, | ἅς τ᾽ ἄνεµος ζαὴς νέφεα σκιόεντα δονήσας | ταρφειὰς κατέχευεν ἐπὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ. The phrase ἐνὶ χθονί (a v.l. of ἐπὶ χθονί) would indicate the falling of the snowflakes (νεῖφε) or hail (χαλαζοβόλει) produced after the shaking of the clouds (σεῖε νέφη). There may also be a sound-play on the initial and final words of this first couplet (νεῖφε–νέφη), which would nicely round off Zeus’ activity. Third, the shift from grandiose to quotidian style with respect to the first and second distichs is effectively noted and explained by Sens (69 and 73), as well as the final revelation of the addressee of the first couplet that is effected only in the very last line of the epigram. I would also have liked to see here a brief note on another change observed between the first and the second couplet, i.e., that of the faster, “running” rhythm of the asyndetic imperatival clauses on the one hand, and the staccato...

Michael A. Tueller: Look who’s talking. Innovations in voice and identity in Hellenistic epigram.

Michael A. Tueller: Look who’s talking. Innovations in voice and identity in Hellenistic epigram. Leuven/Paris/Dudley, MA: Peeters 2008. 231 S. (Hellenistica Groningana 13.)

Facing the gods: epiphany and representation in Graeco-Roman art, literature, and religion

Introduction Part I: 1. Framing epiphany in art and text 2. Material epiphany: encountering the divine in cult images 3. Epiphany and authority in Hellenistic Greece 4. The poetics of epiphany in Hellenistic epigram Part II: 5. Virtual visions: piety and paideia in Second Sophistic literature 6. Dream visions and cult images in Second Sophistic literature 7. The apologetics of representation in Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana Part III: 8. Dying to see: epiphanic sarcophagi from Imperial Rome.

Archaic and Classical Greek Epigram by Manuel Baumbach, Andrej Petrovic, and Ivana Petrovic

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 181 materiality, and a desire to reconcile otherwise opposed or estranged parties), may be able to excavate the “popular” voices that have been so efficiently muted by our elite texts. Swarthmore College Jeremy B. Lefkowitz Archaic and Classical Greek Epigram. Edited by Manuel Baumbach, Andrej Petrovic, and Ivana Petrovic. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. 2010. Pp. xiv, 439. Ancient epigram is a “hot topic,” the subject of an APA panel in 2011, a symposium at ENS-Lyon in 2010, several monographs since 2005, recent and forthcoming work on Poseidippos and Simonides, and surveys by N. Livingstone and G. Nisbet (Epigram [Cambridge 2010]) and P. Bing and J. Bruss (Brill’s Companion to Hellenistic Epigram [Leiden 2007]), as well as Bing’s The Scroll and the Marble (Michigan 2009). The present excellent volume, stemming from a 2005 conference, serves as a companion for earlier, mostly inscribed Greek epigram. The highlights of the volume are chapters by, in order of appearance, T. Schmitz, C. Keesling, W. Furley, C. Higbie, K. Gutzwiller, M. Fantuzzi, E. Bowie, and J. Bruss. All the pieces, however, repay one’s attention, and all contribute, as R. Hunter says of epigram collections in his chapter, “like stones in a mosaic, to a whole greater than its individual parts” (286), because the topics covered include most of those that demand attention. In Chapter One, the editors articulate the book’s conceptual unity around twin themes of “contextualisation” and “literarisation.” Twelve chapters in Part I explore the former, “the historical reception” of epigrams, i.e., their “ ‘meaning’ . . . decoded” from the situational , material, religious, political, and literary-generic contexts “which are in dialogue with the epigram.” Four chapters in Part II consider literarisation, “the place of archaic and classical Greek epigram in the epigrammatic genre as well as its role in the genre’s development from stone to book” (8). T. Schmitz (25–41) sets the stage for the first section of Part I by analyzing “strategies of incorporating the act of communication” (among imaginary speakers and addressees and real readers) “into the text, thus creating a special space for communication that is clearly demarcated from pragmatic, everyday discourse” (27); M. Tueller (42–60) on the passer-by, including the “stranger” motif, and G. Vestrheim (61–78) on “I” and “you” deixis, and the rhetorical efficacy of sentiments reflecting community values, treat specific issues along similar lines. Little attention is paid here or elsewhere to the thorny question (mentioned at 7) of whether these contexts of reception were activated in real encounters with inscribed monuments. Rather, these authors explicate epigraphic deixis, voice, and other authorial techniques for imagining readings in ways consistent with potential readers’ expectations. Those expectations were shaped in part by exposure to archaic lyric poetry, which, as Schmitz points out, employed similar strategies of constructing performances as fictional situations where, for instance, audience and addressee were not necessarily identical, as they were not in epigrams with prayers like CEG 326 (Mantiklos). Schmitz might have compared poets composing simultaneously for premieres and reperformances (cf. Vestrheim 75–77). The papers in the next section, on material and spatial contexts, give the visual equal billing with the verbal in their reconstruction of ancient encounters with inscribed monu- 182 PHOENIX ments and the recipients’ making of meanings for them. Given the variety of monuments, there is space only for three sondages, but the choices are interesting. B. Borg (81–99) examines the “chest of Kypselos,” dedicated at Olympia, now lost, but described by Pausanias , who quotes metrical labels accompanying various scenes.1 K. Lorenz (131–148), writing on inscriptions for kouroi, focuses on the reader-viewer’s active, dialectic contribution in responding to visual cues and speaking the text aloud. C. Keesling (100–130), in the volume’s closest approach to epigraphical analysis, focuses on Kallimachos’ Marathon dedication, which she helps us reconstruct mentally from the base (original location known from a cutting on the Akropolis), inscribed column in several pieces, Ionic capital , and winged female statue. The ensemble now stands restored in the new Akropolis Museum. Keesling demonstrates how the monument provided visual cues that triggered viewers’ expectations, and argues that this cueing reflected earlier...

Ροδιακό όστρακο με ερωτικό επίγραμμα

Ροδιακό όστρακο με ερωτικό επίγραμμα

Hunting in the Hellenistic Epigrams

Hunting in the Hellenistic Epigrams

Sublime monuments and sublime ruins in ancient aesthetics

The Greeks and Romans produced monuments – monumental buildings, temples, tombs, inscription-bearing slabs and other structures – as a way of projecting themselves into their own present and into the future of others. Monuments are reminders, in enduring material, of the achievement of a collective, even when they appear to commemorate an individual. They are collective expressions with ideological force. This paper explores the interaction between materiality, language and architecture in a Greek tradition of the sublime that exalts monuments and their ruins. The paper begins by proposing an aesthetics of early sepulchral inscriptions; it then looks at selected Hellenistic epigrams. It culminates in Hellenistic poetics, Vitruvian architecture and the Longinian sublime, which looks directly back to earlier developments in the same tradition of verbal architecture. The sublime is generated at the nether ends of the spectrum that monuments can occupy – at their moment of greatest possible expansion (at the limits of the cosmos) and at the moment of their imminent collapse. From Homer to the postclassical eras, the traditions of sublime monuments and their ruins are ways of confronting and expressing the fragilities of time, matter and existence under changing cultural circumstances in a cumulative and self-reflexive fashion.

Textbooks in Greek and Latin: 2009 Supplementary Survey

Textbooks in Greek and Latin:2009 Supplementary Survey Judith Lynn Sebesta This survey includes those Greek and Latin textbooks and language and etymology textbooks in print, published between November 2008 and March 2009, updating the 2008 full survey (CW 101.3) and 2007 supplementary survey (CW 100.3). Included also are textbooks inadvertently omitted from the 2008 full survey, and corrections for textbooks listed in that full survey. Data have been primarily gathered from the publishers themselves, supplemented by sources such as the annual Books in Print. A directory of publishers' abbreviations, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and websites appears at the end of this issue. Prices are those sent directly from the publishers or those listed in Books in Print; readers are advised that prices may change without notice. Books are assumed to be clothbound unless otherwise noted. The texts in the section "Author/Genre" are primarily annotated editions. Those that include a translation are marked "w. tr." The inclusion of a vocabulary is noted by "v" unless the nature of the work makes such an annotation unnecessary. No bilingual series (e.g., Budé, Loeb), series of plain texts (e.g., Teubner, Oxford), or books written in foreign languages are included. The textbook's ISBN or publisher's order number, where available, precedes its price. Please note that when updating the ISBNs to the new thirteen-digit system, the survey preserved the format given by publishers. This means that many of the new ISBNs in this survey do not have hyphens separating numbers. Also, please note that the final digit of many of the thirteen-digit ISBNs may differ from that of the former ten-digit ones. An asterisk (*) appearing after a text title indicates that AV or PC materials for that particular text are separately listed in the AV survey. Readers are urged to inform the survey editor of additions and changes. Greek I. Author/Genre Epigrams The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams. Vol. 1 Epigrams. Vol. 2 Commentary, Indices. A. Gow and D. Page. Vol. 1: 978-0-521-73573-1 $99.00 (paper) (C) The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams. Vol. 1 Texts. Vol. 2 Commentary, Indices. A. Gow. 978-0 521-73758-6 $99.00 (C) [End Page 331] Euripides Euripides: Helen. W. Allan. 9780521836906 $99.00 (cloth), 9780521545419 $38.99 (paper) (C) Homer Homer: Odyssey Books VI-VIII. A. Garvie. 9780521338400 $39.99 (paper) (C) Lucian Lucian: A Selection. N. Hopkinson. 9780521842006 $99.00 (cloth), 9780521603041 $34.99 (paper) (C) Plato Plato: Alcibiades. N. Denyer. 9780521632812 $99.00 (C) Plato: Protagoras. N. Denyer, 9780521840446 $90.00 (cloth), 9780521549691 $35.99 (paper) (C) Sophocles Sophocles: Antigone. M. Griffith. 9780521337014 $34.99 (paper) (C) II. Beginner's Books Edwards, L. A Reading Course in Homeric Greek Book Two (3rd ed.) 978-1-58510-176-4 $29.95 (paper) (F) Ellsworth, J. Reading Ancient Greek: A Reasonable Approach (2nd ed.). Teacher's manual free with text adoption (paper) (McGH) Shelmerdine, C. Introduction to Greek (2nd ed.) 978-1-58510-184-9 $36.95 (paper) (F) III. Grammars and Grammatical Aids Geannikis, E., A. Romiti and P. T. Wilford. Greek Paradigm Handbook. 978-1-58510-307-2 $12.95 (paper) (F) Rijksbaron, A. The Syntax and Semantics of the Verb in Classical Greek: An Introduction. (3rd ed.). 978-0-226-71858-3 $20.00 (Chi) IV. Readers Hansen, W. Anonymous Life of Aesop. 978-1-931019-04-0 $11.95 (paper) (BMC) Trapp, M. Greek and Latin Letters: An Anthology with Translation. 9780521495974 $99.00 (cloth), 9780521499439 $39.99 (paper) (C) VII. New Testament Beginner's Books Countryman, L. Read It in Greek: An Introduction to New Testament Greek. 978-0-8028-0665-9 $24.00 (paper) (Eerd) Robinson, T. Mastering New Testament Greek: Essential Tools for Students. 978-1-56563-576-0 $19.95 (paper) (Hen) Grammars Long, G. Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Greek: Learning Biblical Greek Grammatical Concepts through English Grammar. 978-1-56563 406-0 $19.95 (paper) (Hen) Mueller, W. Grammatical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek. 978 0-8028-1447-0 $12.00 (paper) (Eerd) [End Page 332] Readers and Texts Bruce, F. The...

Brill's companion to Hellenistic epigram: down to Philip

Brill's companion to Hellenistic epigram: down to Philip