Hellenistic Poetry

A major new collection of use to all students and scholars working on Hellenistic Greek poetry

An accomplished poet and classical scholar, Barbara Hughes Fowler brings Hellenistic poetry to life for the contemporary reader. Her selections engage us with the full range of Hellenistic poetic genres, styles, themes, and moods. The anthology includes Fowler's new translation of the entire Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, and eight of Theocritus' Idylls, including the beautiful, sensuous description of late summer in Idyll VII and the shrewdly comical description of two young matrons venturing into the noisy streets of Alexandria in Idyll XV. There are translations of four hymns of Callimachus, as well as poems by Aratus, Bion, Herodas, Moschus, Pseudo-Moschus, and a substantial selection from the Greek Anthology. An ideal companion to her recently published book, The Hellenistic Aesthetic, Barbara Fowler's Hellenistic Poetry is both a major contribution to classical studies and an invitation to all interested readers to discover the beauty and richness of Hellenistic poetry.

The Milan Papyrus ( P. Mil. Volg. VIII. 309), containing a collection of epigrams apparently all by Posidippus of Pella, provides one of the most exciting new additions to the corpus of Greek literature in decades. It not only contains over 100 previously unknown epigrams by one of the most prominent poets of the third century BC, but as an artefact it constitutes our earliest example of a Greek poetry book. In addition to a poetic translation of the entire corpus of Posidippus' poetry, this volume contains essays about Posidippus by experts in the fields of papyrology, Hellenistic and Augustan literature, Ptolemaic history, and Graeco-Roman visual culture.

Hellenistic poets of the third and second centuries BC were concerned with the need both to mark their continuity with the classical past and to demonstrate their independence from it. In this revised and expanded translation of Muse e modelli: la poesia ellenistica da Alessandro Magno ad Augusto, Greek poetry of the third and second centuries BC and its reception and influence at Rome are explored allowing both sides of this literary practice to be appreciated. Genres as diverse as epic and epigram are considered from a historical perspective, in the full range of their deep-level structures, providing a different perspective on the poetry and its influence at Rome. Some of the most famous poetry of the age such as Callimachus' Aitia and Apollonius' Argonautica is examined. In addition, full attention is paid to the poetry of encomium, in particular the newly published epigrams of Posidippus, and Hellenistic poetics, notably Philodemus.

Increasing importance is being attached to how Greek and Latin books of poems were arranged, but such research has often been carried out with little attention to the physical fragments of actual ancient poetry-books. In this extensive study Gregory Hutchinson investigates the design of Greek and Latin books of poems in the light of papyri, including recent discoveries. A series of discussions of major poems and collections from two central periods of Greek and Latin literature is framed by a substantial and illustrated survey of poetry-books and reading, and by a more theoretical discussion of structures involving books. The main poets discussed are Callimachus, Apollonius, Posidippus, Catullus, Horace, and Ovid; a chapter on Latin didactic includes Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, and Manilius.

Taking a fresh look at the poetry and visual art of the Hellenistic age, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. to the Romans’ defeat of Cleopatra in 30 B.C., Graham Zanker makes enlightening discoveries about the assumptions and conventions of Hellenistic poets and artists and their audiences. Zanker’s exciting new interpretations closely compare poetry and art for the light each sheds on the other. He finds, for example, an exuberant expansion of subject matter in the Hellenistic periods in both literature and art, as styles and iconographic traditions reserved for grander concepts in earlier eras were applied to themes, motifs, and subjects that were emphatically less grand.

Concentrating on the interaction between contemporary Hellenistic poets, this book attempts to chart the complex dynamics of Alexandrian poetical imitation and reception in the light of poetical self-positioning.