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A new, provocative treatment of the Alexandrian poet Callimachus and his reception, approaching his work from four varied yet complementary angles.
Callimachus has usually been seen as the archetypal ivory-tower poet, the epitome if not the inventor of the concept of art for art's sake, author of erudite works written to be read in book form by fellow poets and scholars. Abundant evidence, much of it assembled here for the first time, suggests a very different story: a world of civic festivals rather than books and libraries, a world in which poetry and poets played a central and public role. In the course of the argument, Cameron casts fresh light on the lives, dates, works, and interrelationships of most of the other leading poets of the age. Another axiom of modern scholarship is that the object of Callimachus's literary polemic was ...
Few figures from Greco-Roman antiquity have undergone as much reassessment in recent decades as Callimachus of Cyrene, who was active at the Alexandrian court of the Ptolemies during the early third century BC. Once perceived as a supreme example of ivory tower detachment and abstruse learning, Callimachus has now come to be understood as an artificer of the images of a powerful and vibrant court and as a poet second only to Homer in his later reception. For the modern audience, the fragmentation of his texts and the diffusion of source materials has often impeded understanding his poetic achievement. Brill’s Companion to Callimachus has been designed to aid in negotiating this scholarly terrain, especially the process of editing and collecting his fragments, to illuminate his intellectual and social contexts, and to indicate the current directions that his scholarship is taking.
This book offers a detailed discussion of Callimachus' collection of Iambi, arguably one of the earliest surviving Greek 'books of poetry'. There are chapters on individual poems which examine the evidence for the text, and address questions of linguistic and antiquarian detail. Each chapter attempts an interpretation of each poem as a whole, and considers the arrangement of the poems within the book.
Callimachus' Aetia, written in Alexandria in the third century BC, was an important and influential poem which inspired many later Greek and Latin poets. Papyrus finds show that it was widely read until late antiquity and perhaps well into the Byzantine period. Eventually the work was lost, but thanks to many quotations by ancient authors and substantial papyrus finds a considerable part of it has now been recovered. The aim of the present volumes is to make the Aetia newly accessible to readers. Volume 1 (9780198144915) comprises an introduction dealing with matters such as the work's composition, contents, date, literary aspects, and its function in the cultural and historical context of third-century BC Alexandria, and a text of all the fragments of the Aetia with a translation and critical apparatus; while Volume 2 (9780198144922) presents a detailed commentary, including introductions to the separate aetiological stories.-
"This volume contains a wide range of articles. It provides a survey of current developments in research on one of the most influential authors of Hellenistic poetry and reflects the large amount of scholarly interest in Callimachus during the last decade. In the papers there is a particular focus on issues of metapoetics, intertextuality, fictional orality, the impact of poetic collections and the function of Callimachus' poetry in Ptolemaic Alexandria as well as an interest in the reception of Callimachus' poetry among Roman poets."--BOOK JACKET.
This important new verse translation of the extant works and major fragments of Callimachus includes a full Introduction, covering the poet's life and times, the range of his achievements, and the difficulties in the way of appreciation. It does not offer, as other translations do, a mere selection of fragments but presents them as integral parts of the poetry books in which they originally figured, as these can be reconstructed in the light of modern research. Each fragment is introduced in relation to what precedes and follows it, enabling students and general readers, for the first time ever, to assess what Callimachus was like in his most important productions. In addition to this introductory help, the Notes take up individual points of difficulty, all proper names and adjectives are explained in the Glossary, and comparative tables facilitate identification of the translated fragments in the standard editions.
This volume offers a text and commentary of all six of Callimachus' hymns, as well as interpretive essays on each hymn that integrate what has been the dominant paradigm--intertextuality--into a broader focus on Callimachus' context.
Callimachus was one of the most important Greek poets, and can also be one of the most rewarding to read. He was a pivotal figure in the history of ancient literature and an influential presence in later ancient poetry, including Catullus and Vergil. Yet his work is not read and enjoyed as much as it could be. This new volume in the popular Ancients in Action series seeks to bring Callimachus to a wide audience, addressing the problems with currently available scholarship, which assumes a professional level of expertise, including full knowledge of Greek. Rawles presents a much-needed introduction to Callimachus' poetry and is intended for the non-specialist reader and student, assuming no knowledge of Greek. The book is organised in thematic chapters, rich in quotation (in translation), with selective annotations and guidance for further study and reading.