Callimachus: The Epigrams: Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

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Callimachus: The Epigrams

Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Edited by: Susan A. Stephens and Benjamin Acosta-Hughes

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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This book is in the series

Volume 174 | Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes

About this book

Recent decades have seen a flourishing of interest in Hellenistic epigram (short poems usually in elegiac couplets), an interest fostered in part by the appearance of several ground-breaking new studies of these poems and the history of their collection, as well as by the publication in 2001 of a newly found papyrus, P. Mil. Vogl. VIII 309, that preserves over 100 epigrams of Posidippus of Pela. Missing hitherto in this proliferation of new scholarship on epigram is an edition and commentary in English on the epigrams of Callimachus, one of the leading and most widely imitated creative figures of this period, an artist who composed in a wide variety of poetic genres, one of which was epigram. Callimachus' epigrams adumbrate a broad selection of types, among them sepulchral, dedicatory, epideictic and erotic poems; the poems are brilliant artworks themselves and are among the most illuminating examples of this poetic genre. Scholarship on Callimachus tends to favor the fragmentary poems (the Aetia, the Hecale, the Iambi etc.) over the extant; our study seeks to redress this imbalance, and to cast a new interpretive light upon these glittering gems, which came to be widely admired and imitated in both later Greek and Latin poetry.

Author / Editor information

Susan A. Stephens, Stanford University (em.), Stanford; Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Dedication Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Preface and Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
List of Tables, Map, and Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	XV
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Texts and Commentary
1 — Pittacus \| 54 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	95
2 — Heraclitus \| 34 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	105
3 — Timon \| 52 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	112
4 — Timon Again \| 51 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	115
5 — The Nautilus \| 14 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	117
6 — Creophylus \| 55 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	125
7 — Theaetetus \| 57 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	130
8 — “I Win” \| 58 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	134
9 — Saon \| 41 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	139
10 — Timarchus \| 33 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	141
11 — Theris \| 35 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	146
12 — Critias of Cyzicus \| 43 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	149
13 — Charidas \| 31 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	152
14 — Charmis \| 44 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	157
15 — Timonoe \| 40 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	161
16 — Crethis \| 37 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	164
17 — Sopolis \| 45 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	168
18 — Lycus the Naxian \| 38 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	171
19 — Loss of a Son \| 46 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	175
20 — Melanippus and Basilo \| 32 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	178
21 — On Callimachus’ Father \| 29 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	181
22 — Astacides the Goatherd \| 36 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	186
23 — Cleombrotus \| 53 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	189
24 — Heros Relief \| 60 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	194
25 — Lovers’ Oaths \| 11 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	198
26 — A Small Life \| 47 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	201
27 — Aratus of Soli \| 56 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	204
28 — Lysanies \| 2 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	210
29 — Diocles \| 5 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	220
30 — Cleonicus \| 12 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	224
31 — The Hunter \| 1 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	228
32 — Menippus \| 7 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	233
33 — Dedication to Artemis \| 21 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	236
34 — An Oak Branch for Heracles \| 22 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	239
35 — Callimachus’ Epitaph for Himself \| 30 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	243
36 — Erasixenus \| 62 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	246
37 — Menitas from Lyktos \| 17 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	249
38 — Simon \| 20 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	253
39 — Dedication to Demeter \| 19 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	258
40 — A Priestess of Demeter \| 48 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	261
41 — The Divided Soul \| 4 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	265
42 — Archinus \| 8 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	271
43 — The Wounds of Love \| 13 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	277
44 — Hidden Passions \| 9 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	282
45 — Menecrates \| 10 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	289
46 — Polyphemus \| 3 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	293
47 — Dedication of a Salt Cellar \| 28 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	300
48 — Dedication of a Tragic Mask \| 26 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	303
49 — Dedication of a Comic Mask \| 27 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	307
50 — The Wet Nurse Aeschra \| 49 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	311
51 — Berenice the Fourth Grace \| 15 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	315
52 — Theocritus \| 6 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	319
53 — On the Birth of a Daughter \| 23 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	323
54 — A Payment to Asclepius \| 24 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	326
55 — A Lamp for Sarapis \| 16 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	330
56 — A Cock for the Tyndaridae \| 25 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	334
57 — A Dedication to Isis \| 18 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	338
58 — The Kindness of Strangers \| 50 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	341
59 — The Madness of Writing Tragedy \| 59 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	345
60 — Cimon of Elis \| 39 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	354
61 — Menecrates of Aenos \| 42 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	357
62 — Cynthian Goats \| 61 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	361
63 — Conopion \| 63 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	365
Epigram Fragments
Fragment 1 — Diodorus Cronus \| fr. 393 Pf., 64 a + b G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	373
Fragment 2 — A Sacred Fish \| fr. 394 Pf., 65 a + b G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	378
Fragment 3 — Dyme \| fr. 395 Pf., 66 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	380
Fragment 4 — Antimachus’ Lyde \| fr. 398 Pf., 67 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	381
Fragment 5 — Chian vs Lesbian Wine \| fr. 399 Pf., 68 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	385
Fragment 6 — Propempticon \| fr. 400 Pf., 69 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	387
Fragment 7 — The Sequestered Girl \| fr. 401 Pf., 70 G-P Publicly Available Download PDF	390
Fragment 8 (testimonia) — Menander Drowning \| fr. 396 Pf. Publicly Available Download PDF	394
Fragment 9 (testimonia) — On the Margites \| fr. 397 Pf. Publicly Available Download PDF	395
Fragment 10 (testimonia) \| fr. 402 Pf. Publicly Available Download PDF	396
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed
Greek Words Publicly Available Download PDF	415
List of People Publicly Available Download PDF	433
List of Places Publicly Available Download PDF	437
List of Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed
Concordances Publicly Available Download PDF	469

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

September 22, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9783110770490

Hardcover published on:

September 22, 2025

Hardcover ISBN:

9783110770452

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

490

Illustrations:

1

Coloured Illustrations:

4

Tables:

2

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110770490

eBook ISBN: 9783110770490

Hardcover ISBN: 9783110770452

Keywords for this book

epigram; poetic voice; Callimachus; Alexandria

Audience(s) for this book

Students and scholars of ancient Greek language and literature

Safety & product resources

Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com

Callimachus: The Epigrams

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data