Download PDF | Maria Kanellou_ Ivana Petrovic_ Chris Carey - Greek Epigram from the Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine Era-Oxford University Press, USA (2019).
460 Pages
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following institutes for their generous support of the international conference from which this project originates: UCL (FIGS Funding and A. G. Leventis Fund), the SPHS, and the ICS. Our warm thanks go also to Oxford University Press and the two anonymous readers who supported this project and, last but not least, to Dr Dimitrios Stamatis for his assistance with the bibliography and to Mr Adam Gross, graduate student at the University of Virginia, for his editorial assistance and the indexing of the volume.
Introduction
Maria Kanellou, Ivana Petrovic, and Chris Carey
1. INSCRIBED AND LITERARY EPIGRAM
Greek epigram is not only the briefest but also one of the most enduring and versatile poetic forms. The earliest extant inscribed epigrams date from the eighth century scx, verse inscriptions forming a small section of the larger inscriptional canvas of the archaic and classical periods.’ Epigrams, in the original sense of texts (in prose or verse) written or carved on a stone or another physical object,” are found on grave monuments, dedications, vases, and herms. They were used for a variety of public and semi-public purposes and could be found in all sorts of contexts, from major public memorials, such as the celebrated epigram for the Spartans who fell in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 scz,
and family funereal inscriptions, which could be seen on tombs strung out along the high road leading out of any Greek city of note, through numerous dedications on statues, down to humble domestic objects visible in sanctuaries and public spaces across the Greek world. When epigram, during the Hellenistic era, ceased to be exclusively an inscribed text, its inscriptional form continued to perform all the tasks that it had always done: it accompanied dedications, statues, and other images, adorned public buildings and spaces, and figured on grave monuments, both public and private.
The earliest surviving inscribed epigrams were composed mainly in dactylic hexameters and less frequently in the iambic metre.* From the latter part of the sixth century sce onwards, however, the elegiac distich was widely used for verse inscriptions, and by the fourth century sce it was established as the most popular epigrammatic metre.° Inscribed epigrams of the archaic and classical periods rarely exceeded two couplets—naturally enough, since they were constrained by physical space. Brevity remained a dominant feature of literary epigram,” and the challenge it presented to the skilled composer was to charge the words with the maximum amount of meaning.
The interpretation of inscribed epigrams on graves, monuments, or dedicatory objects is often aided by the objects themselves and their collocation. The connection between an inscribed epigram and the object on which it was written or incised not only gave epigram its name but also influenced its reception in both antiquity and the modern age.’ For decades, inscriptional epigrams were perceived by scholars as uninspired and of lesser value in comparison with those composed by famous poets of the Hellenistic era.
Their brevity, role as conveyors of basic information, and usual lack of indication of author® relegated them to the status of craft rather than art, and they were studied mainly as precursors to the literary epigram. Scholarly consensus was that only after epigram was ‘emancipated’ from its object and found its way into books did it become a ‘literary’ genre.’ Recently, though, a series of publications have questioned and subverted these assumptions, revealing the artistry of inscribed epigram, discussing it as a poetic form worthy of study in its own right, and broadening our knowledge of the cross-fertilization between inscribed epigram and its bookish counterpart. It goes without saying that Hansen’s two-volume edition (CEG 1983-9) of archaic and classical inscriptional epigrams from the eighth to the fourth century BcE, as well as Merkelbach and Stauber’s multivolume edition (SGO 1998-2004) of inscriptional epigrams from the Greek East dating from the fourth century BcE to the seventh century cE propelled this renewed and intense study of the genre.'®
For instance, Joseph Day elucidated the sophisticated ways in which dedicatory epigram functions in unison with its object, attracting and guiding the passer-by’s attention,"* and argued that funerary inscriptions and grave markers allude to funerary rituals by employing the language of praise familiar from epic, elegiac, and encomiastic poetry.’ Andrej Petrovic contributed to our appreciation of early inscribed epigram as ‘high poetry’ by showing that Simonides was perceived as the foundational figure of the genre, probably because he was one of the prominent poets entrusted with composing epigrams for public monuments; Petrovic further argued that Greek cities organized poetic competitions in order to decide to whom they would assign this prestigious task.'* Christos Tsagalis analysed the poetic techniques of fourthcentury Attic funerary epigrams, pushing forward the study of the literary aspects of inscribed epitaphs;'* Eleonora Santin studied the corpus of verse inscriptions signed by poets, which is significantly larger than originally assumed;'* Valentina Garulli explored the ways in which the presentation of texts in papyrus rolls influenced the layout of inscriptions;'® Timo Christian, focusing on the ‘speaker’ of the monument, investigated the ways in which Hellenistic and later inscribed epigrams reacted to developments in their literary counterparts;’” Jon Bruss examined the creative reuse and refashioning of motifs and conventions drawn from inscribed sepulchral epigrams by the Hellenistic epigrammatists.
In addition, a collective volume dedicated to the archaic and classical epigram and edited by Manuel Baumbach, Andrej Petrovic, and Ivana Petrovic (2010) discussed the subgenres of epigram,”’ the epigrammatic voice,”° early collections of epigrams,”' the relationship between inscriptional epigram and its object,” and epigrammatic devices and features subsequently developed in Hellenistic book epigram.”’ Another recently published multicontributor volume, edited by Evina Sistakou and Antonios Rengakos (2016), explored the interrelated issues of the dialect, diction, and style of both literary and inscribed epigram.”*
The surge of interest in the literary aspects of inscribed epigram was initially sparked by the study of Hellenistic epigram and its early roots.” Early epigrammatic collections and the practice of quoting inscriptions and inscribed epigrams in literary texts provide precious insight into the way epigram developed as a literary genre.
The so-called Sylloge Simonidea offers a tantalizing glimpse into early compilation practices: it has been argued that its origins can be dated back to the fifth century scz.*® In addition, Kathryn Gutzwiller proposed that an early form of the pseudo-Aristotelian Peplos, which included mini-epitaphs on epic heroes, prose genealogies, and other information, was a peripatetic assemblage from the later fourth century BcE.”” The incorporation of inscribed epigrams in literary texts of the fifth and fourth centuries sce—for example, in Herodotus’ and Thucydides’ Histories, which include eight and three inscribed epigrams respectively—enabled their wide dissemination and, most likely, played an important role in the creation of collections of inscribed epigrams in the fourth century sce.
Philochorus’ Attic Epigrams was probably such a collection, although nothing is known about it apart from its mention in the Suda lexicon (s.v. BiAsyopos, p 441 Adler). The title shows that geographical location was the primary factor in the selection of epigrams by the historian; but we do not know anything about their arrangement and their theme(s), or in fact whether the inscriptions were in prose, in verse, or in a blend of the two forms.”? Moreover, as has plausibly been argued, fifth-century collections of metrical epitaphs circulating among engravers to provide them with models for inscriptions could have contributed to the compilation of collections of inscribed epigrams for the entertainment of a reading public.*°
Once detached from its bond to place or object—no longer written or carved on a tomb, monument, or object—epigram rapidly became and remained a major mainstream poetic form. It quickly flourished during the Hellenistic era and attracted some of the finest poetic talents the ancient world produced. While some poets composed epigrams alongside other poetic genres, others specialized in epigram, as we can judge by the proxeny decree of the Aetolian League at Thermon (JG IX 1* 1.17.24, 263/2 Bck), where Posidippus is called an epigrammatopoios. What survives today represents only a minute proportion of the vast output of this artistic activity. The Greek Anthology, our chief source for epigrams, is itself a selective compilation from a series of selective ancient compilations.*’ The steady stream of modern publications of epigrams preserved on papyri, but not in the Greek Anthology, or in other literary sources such as Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae, attests to the popularity of the genre in the ancient world and, more importantly, continues to deepen our understanding of its features and development in antiquity.
To offer three chief examples of such recent discoveries in the field: the Milan Papyrus (P. Mil. Vogl. VIII 309) preserves 112 epigrams attributed to Posidippus, of which only two were previously known (API 119 = HE 18 = 65 A-B and HE 20 = 15 A-B). The papyrus codex P. CtYBR inv. 4000 contains around sixty fragmentary epigrams attributed to Palladas of Alexandria by Kevin Wilkinson,** while we knew of just two of them before its publication (ep. 37 W p. 21, ll. 4-8 = Pall. AP 9.379 and part of ep. 28 W p. 12, Il. 28-31 = Pall. AP 9.127). The recently published Vienna Epigrams Papyrus (G 40611), dating from the late third century scx, includes 226 incipits of epigrams selected from at least four books of an unspecified, possibly multi-authored collection. Only the incipit in column i. 14 can be attributed to a poet already known from the Anthology, Asclepiades, since it survives as the opening line of AP 12.46 = HE 15.
Epigram also inspired Latin poets, notably Martial, Catullus, and Ausonius, and survived the rise of Christianity as the dominant state religion.** Like other genres, it virtually disappeared during the cultural and political upheavals that the Byzantine world experienced in the mid-seventh and eighth centuries cz, but experienced a revival in ninth-century Byzantium”*® and yet another one in the form of the neo-Latin epigrams of the Renaissance and after.*’ Epigram has had a profound influence in modern times with imitations in many languages, including Latin and ancient Greek,** stretching into the twentieth century, most notably influencing Ezra Pound and Constantinos Cavafis.*” In sum, epigram has maintained its popularity almost without interruption from archaic Greece to the modern world.
During the last couple of decades, the increasing popularity of literary epigram in the Hellenistic period became the focal point of several studies. As Peter Bing and Jon Bruss argue, Hellenistic poets must have been attracted by its textuality and by the ample scope it offered for experimentation.*° The separation of the text from its original material contexts allowed for innovative developments of its two traditional epigrammatic subgenres. Although some epitaphic literary epigrams originated as inscribed texts, sepulchral epigram could now become a purely fictional work referring to the (imagined) grave of a historical or fictive figure, and this allowed the epigrammatists to explore different ways of arousing pathos.*’ This class of epigrams, like others, rapidly acquired subcategories, such as those for famous poets (mainly) of the past,* for soldiers,** for men drowned at sea,** and for animals—both large and small, right down to insects.*° Additionally, the fictive dimension of this type of sepulchral poem offered opportunities for the creation of ironic distance and humour. This allowed for still further variation in tone, including a commingling of the serious and humorous that can often render the overall poetic tone elusive and open the possibility of multiple readings of the same short piece.*° Literary epigrams imitating verse inscriptions on a statue base or monument can also recreate the work itself, in ecphrasis, and in the process they can explore the aesthetics of the artefact and the nature of artistic representation. The series on Myron’s cow (AP 9.713-42) is an excellent example of an epigrammatic game with inscriptional norms.’ Literary dedicatory epigrams also inventively explore the set of relationships between the giver, an inscribed object, and the recipient through the dialogue created between the object and an imagined passer-by.**
In parallel with the play on inscriptional conventions, epigram was rapidly taken outside its traditional boundaries. Asclepiades is the first known epigrammatist to employ this form as a vehicle for exploring the theme of eros and its predicaments. Hellenistic epigrams also parody inscriptional norms, engage in personal invective prompted by literary disputes and historical events, and involve satirical attacks against sympotic figures, gluttons, and drunkards.*” The Vienna Epigrams Papyrus opens up the possibility that satirical topoi considered so far to be typical of Lucillius’ and Nicarchus’ skoptic epigrams, such as the mockery of professional categories and physical defects, had actually been already treated by the Hellenistic poets.*°
The expansion of epigram’s thematic range reflects the epigrammatists’ absorption of themes and functions from preexisting genres. The archaic and classical periods saw a vast outpouring of sympotic poetry; such poetry commented on or referred to its context by celebrating drinking and fellowship, providing advice on arrangements for the symposium, making appeals to drink, offering guidance on wine and mixtures, and including descriptions of drinking and its effects. As the symposium was a locus for desire and seduction, lyric poetry and elegy (mainly Mimnermus and Theognis) served as a medium for addressing the theme of love: declarations of love, descriptions of the impact of love and of the torment of unrequited love, songs in praise of the beloved, recriminations and appeals, prayers to Aphrodite.
But lyric song was more or less extinct by the time we get to the early classical period; no major talents emerged after Anacreon’s death in the early fifth century BcE. This partial vacuum was filled by epigram. The topics of wine and love were taken up by the epigrammatists and continuously reworked and reinvigorated, in an endless game of poetic imitation and competition. Hellenistic epigrams engaged with archaic personal lyric poetry not only at a thematic and rhetorical level but also through intertextual gestures toward specific poets and poems. A characteristic case study is the continuous adaptation of Sappho’s yAukimikpov audaxavov dpmerov (bittersweet, irresistible crawling creature’, fr. 130 V).*?
This does not exhaust the richness of the poetic form. The strong satiricalparodic strand in epigram reflects the influence of iambus and comedy.” The themes of archaic iambus included not just love but also graphic depictions of sexual exploits; iambus was also a medium for humour and parody and for the pursuit of quarrels, the enactment of revenge, and the expression of hate. Jokes, vulgar language, ridicule, and satire were also constant features of Attic comedy and, while the burlesque of the gods and their myths bloomed in fourth-century mythological comedy, illicit relationships, rapes, and unrequited loves were a key ingredient of New Comedy. Epigrams absorbed and refreshed material from both genres.
For instance, courtesans of every sort, from the expensive high-society jewel to the readily available prostitute, were an indispensable presence at the symposium and accordingly featured in all small-scale archaic poetry. But the sheer ubiquity of the hetaera in epigram and the recurrent motifs of subservience to her and praise or blame probably owe much to fourth-century Athenian comedy. In addition, epigrams ridicule and satirize not only humans but gods as well; here one detects the influence of mythological comedy. Since no unbridgeable borders existed between the various epigrammatic subtypes originally categorized on a thematic basis, the skoptic element was intermingled with the erotic one already during the Hellenistic era. Take for instance Hellenistic erotic epigrams describing sex-scenes—an excellent representative of this type of erotic-skoptic epigram with emphasis on sexual intercourse is Dioscorides AP 5.54 = HE 7 and AP 5.55 = HE 5—a feature originating in archaic iambus.”*
Just how far Hellenistic epigram replicated the performance culture of previous centuries is still a matter of debate. The theory that Asclepiades and other epigrammatists improvised their epigrams at symposia has found both followers and critics.°* As a partial model, it has much in its favour. The symposium remained an important feature of Greek culture and there is no reason to suppose that poetry lost its place at the symposium. It is reasonable to assume that epigrams suitable for the ambience of drinking parties could have been read out or even improvised at symposia” and then reworked for publication in authorial collections. From such authorial collections they could then find their way into an anthology. At the same time, however, in the bookish culture of the Hellenistic era, other epigrams would have been composed exclusively for a readership, imitating the symposiastic atmosphere.*® Gutzwiller rightly recognized that the circulation by the early third century sce of collections of short lyric songs and elegies—probably abbreviated versions or excerpts from longer poems—enabled the thematic expansion of epigram, since the generic boundaries between the two forms were now blurred, elegy losing its sympotic context and epigram its inscriptional framework.”’
Epigram was, beyond doubt, a highly experimental field for the Hellenistic poets. Its ability to absorb and amalgamate a wide range of archaic and classical poetic genres and motifs makes it a remarkable phenomenon in Greek literature.** All literary genres are both dynamic and flexible, in that there is a constant interplay between the implicit generic model shared by the artist and the audience or readership and the specific form it takes in any given case; each instance bends and stretches the generic model and contributes to the future expectations of the audience or readership. But the broad outline rarely changes radically, as it does in the case of epigram.
Moreover, the establishment of the elegiac couplet as the canonical form for the epigram had an important effect. By comparison with many of the metres of archaic personal poetry, this was a very accessible verse form. This combination of simplicity and brevity made epigram arguably the most ‘democratic’ verse form that ancient Greece produced. It was challenging enough to appeal to the best poetic talents; its brevity was attractive, since storytelling on this scale is demanding. In the hands of a master, a single word, phrase, or change of register alters the tone dramatically, or hints at a specific model that redirects one’s response. Nonetheless, this brevity and the undemanding metre placed the medium easily within reach of much more modest exponents and partly accounts for the popularity and longevity of the genre: the Greek Anthology alone includes more than 350 named and an unknown number of unidentified poets.°°
As an inscribed form, epigram was also prone to intergeneric and intertextual gestures and this tendency increased when it was detached from its material context. As literary epigram developed its own standing within the poetic options available, it also developed its own classic poets and texts that offered subsequent writers intertexts for allusion and models both to aspire to and to contest with; shared motifs and strands of allusion tie some of our earliest authors to texts dating from the Byzantine period. The transfer of epigram from stone to papyrus took place in an age when the primary mode of dissemination was the book text, irrespective of any performance. This bookishness opened up fresh opportunities to enrich and complicate the reading of individual poems. Authors could publish their own collections of epigrams,” which allowed for precise intratextual gestures (and even thematic cycles) within the corpus of a single author.
Written texts are not essential for such self-allusive gestures, but they facilitate the process by allowing the receiver to revisit and compare the texts and by creating opportunities for juxtapositions that enhance the intertextual relationships. Still further opportunities opened through the appearance of anthologies, which brought together selections from the work of different masters of the form. This allowed for cross-corpus juxtapositions that underscored the dialogue between epigrams by different poets and even served to create such dialogues. So the collective corpus became richer with time, and not simply through the accretion of additional chronological layers of material. All of this makes the surviving epigrammatic corpus, though only a fragment of a much larger original, one of the richest and most rewarding products of the classical world.
2. THE COLLECTIVE VOLUME
As this collective volume goes to press, scholarship on Greek literary epigram is thriving. Seminal, beyond doubt, have been the commentaries of Gow and Page (1965 and 1968 respectively) on Meleager’s and Philip’s Garlands together with Page’s (1981) Further Greek Epigrams. New impetus was given by Gutzwiller’s (1998) Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context, which turned the scholars’ attention to epigram collections and contributed to research on individual epigrammatists.
Important work in the field has appeared in several studies during the last decades. We now have a growing number of commentaries on individual authors. In addition, collective volumes such as Hellenistic Epigrams (Harder, Regtuit, and Wakker 2002) and Brill’s Companion to Hellenistic Epigram: Down to Philip (Bing and Bruss 2007a) have enhanced our understanding of epigram, especially during the Hellenistic era,°’ while several volumes explored the epigrams attributed to Posidippus (P. Mil. Vogl. VIII 309) from a variety of angles.°° The recent publication of the Vienna Epigrams Papyrus (G 40611) (Parsons, Maehler, and Maltomini 2015) advanced research on the development of epigrammatic subgenres during the Hellenistic period®’ and on the selection and arrangement of epigrams in third-century sce anthologies.
Academic discussion was also fuelled by the publication of P. CtYBR inv. 4000 (Wilkinson 2012), attributed by its editor to Palladas (as noted earlier in this chapter). This papyrus codex, which contains mainly epideictic and skoptic epigrams with an intense political and topical colour,” is an important discovery, as it helps us to evaluate better the history of epigram, its transmission in Upper Egypt, and the criteria for producing ancient poetry books in later antiquity.”° A forthcoming multicontributor volume centred on this papyrus codex aims to contribute to the discussion over the date and authorship of the epigrams, the interpretation of individual poems, and the organizational principles of the anthology.”*
Against this background and with the rapid increase in the number of books devoted to Greek literary epigram, our present volume aims to contribute to the understanding and appreciation of the genre by shifting focus away from an author-, collection-, and time-based study of epigram towards its exploration and analysis from wider perspectives and by adopting instead a diachronic approach, which treats the corpus as an organic whole. The volume originates in a three-day international conference, held at University College London in 2013, which aimed to investigate various facets of the evolution of Greek literary epigram, from the third century sce up until the sixth century cz. The collected papers do not seek to offer a comprehensive treatment of the genre (as if this were possible).
Rather our objective is to provide a selection of in-depth treatments of key aspects of Greek literary epigram, usually through the analysis of themes and topics in various subgenres over the course of time or through the reading of epigrams as parts of crafted sequences, authorial or editorial, and in the light of intrageneric evolution. Aspects studied include the dynamics of the relationship between literary epigram and its sociopolitical, cultural, and literary background over a long time span—from the third century BCE up until the sixth century ce—and its interaction with its inscribed origins, other literary genres, the visual arts, and (in certain cases) Latin poetry. The volume is divided into six interconnected thematic parts. Each part is composed of chapters that complement each other while simultaneously tackling core topics from a variety of angles.
The first part, ‘Encountering Epigram’, examines how the physical contexts in which we encounter epigrams—stones and ostraca, schoolbooks, private compilations, anthologies, manuscripts—and their arrangement impact our interpretation of them. Joseph Day argues that literary epigrams that represent the process of reading an inscription can be used as a medium to understand how pre-Hellenistic inscribed epigrams were read. His chapter concentrates on features of Greek literary epigrams that ‘project’ readings and viewings, meaning deixis (first-person and dialogic) and the description of objects that guide a viewer’s responses (in ecphrastic dialogue epigrams and others that include lists of offerings). Andrej Petrovic explores the transmission of Greek epigrams outside poetic books, that is, in compilations of texts designed to satisfy an individual’s needs and not for widespread distribution, such as ostraca and templates for stonemasons. He detects in such Hellenistic ‘paralitery’ contexts resonances of contemporary literary production, and argues that already in the third century sce school anthologies trained young readers in the sequential reading of epigrams and served as a means for disseminating Ptolemaic ideology.
Regina Hoschele’s chapter challenges the view held in the past that Philip of Thessalonica was a second-rate editor by comparison to Meleager. She probes subtler modes of arrangement, which she detects in what remains from Philip’s Garland in the Palatine Anthology: juxtaposition of model and variation; interweaving of epigrams anchored in thematic, structural, verbal, or intertextual connections; epigrammatic pairs or series on the same topic; clusters on key themes within individual letter groups. Kristoffel Demoen’s chapter focuses on marginal texts in manuscripts that have (mainly) authors and their work as their subject (‘book epigrams’). He examines their paratextual status, which should be taken into account in the treatment of these epigrams in modern editions of the Greek Anthology, but he also stresses their ‘fluidity’: literary transmission turns them from paratexts into texts, while variations of the same book epigram can fulfil unexpected functions.
Part 2, ‘Imitation, Variation, Interaction’, examines modes of interaction between Greek literary epigram and other poetic genres, as well as the intrageneric play between epigrammatists who belong to different eras. Annette Harder’s chapter offers a diachronic study of the Hellenistic epigram focused on the issues of thematic and generic variety as well as on the reception and ‘miniaturization’ of existing poetic genres—particularly of small-scale poetry, such as elegy, but also of didactic poetry—in Hellenistic epigram. Although these developments are more obvious in later epigrammatists, their seeds can be found in Callimachus and other poets of his generation. In Charles Campbell’s contribution, imitation and variation are related to thematic engagement. Campbell examines the intricate ways in which Philodemus, Crinagoras, and Antipater of Thessalonica engage with the poetry of Callimachus and Leonidas of Tarentum.
The three epigrammatists of Philip’s Garland use their Hellenistic predecessors as positive or negative models of poetic values and ethical outlooks, upon which they define their own authorial self-representation. Simone Beta discusses the riddling epigrams of Book 14 of the Greek Anthology and common methods employed by the poets to disguise the solution of the aenigmata (homonymy, myths, and different kinds of wordplay). He traces the origins of specific techniques and riddles back to comedy, and contextualizes the epigrams within the Greek and Latin ‘riddling tradition’. The comparative study of the relevant sources leads him to conclude that Byzantine poets could have been inspired by anthologies of riddles composed at different periods.
Part 3, “Writing Death’, examines the long-standing tradition of sepulchral epigrams. Richard Hunter explores the interrelationship between literary and inscriptional epigram, especially with regard to the quality of literariness. His analysis hinges on the study of an epigram (GV 1159 = SGO 03/05/04) about a young boy who drowned in a well and on its comparison with Posidippus (or Callimachus) AP 7.170 on grounds of versification, narrative technique, and language; this perspective brings to the fore the rich literary tradition adapted by the poet of the inscribed epigram. Silvia Barbantani studies Hellenistic and Roman inscribed and literary military epitaphs and addresses a number of interconnected issues: the unpopularity of epitaphs for individual soldiers in the Greek Anthology, the near absence of such inscribed epitaphs in literary sources despite the fact that they are often of good literary quality, and the question of their authorship.
Doris Meyer examines emotions in literary epigrams that employ the motifs of grief and weeping, starting with selected funerary epigrams by Callimachus and Posidippus and concluding with subversive and renewed uses in Lucillius and Gregory of Nazianzus. She studies emotions in epigram against the background of the literary tradition, while basing her investigation on ancient philosophical and rhetorical theories and on modern studies of the emotions, including the sociocultural approach of ‘emotional history’. Michael Tueller examines literary sepulchral epigrams where the themes of boundaries and death are intermingled in intriguing and complex ways. He illustrates how these poems bridge, strengthen, or obscure these topics, which originate in inscribed epigram in the form of separation of the dead from the living or separation of the body from the soul. Even epigrams that seem at first glance unrelated can be seen as clever variations of this scheme, in a never-ending game of poetic debt and competition.
The two chapters of Part 4, ‘Gods, Religion, and Cult’, explore aspects of the evocation and representation of gods in literary epigram. Marco Fantuzzi analyses the epigrams connected with Cybele’s cult and her priests and priestesses and their relation to Catullus 63—which comes before a string of negative or indignant portrayals of Cybele’s galli (emasculated priests’) in imperial Rome and after critical remarks found in various sources on the lack of control caused by her music. He argues that Catullus reversed the motif of the lion’s encounter with the gallus in the cave, used in several epigrams to offer a defensive or eulogistic presentation of Cybele’s cult, so as to express an opposing standpoint. Kathryn Gutzwiller exemplifies how Greek epigrams, despite their small size, develop larger topics, especially when interacting with one another in an epigrammatic series; she argues that Hellenistic epigrams influenced not only imperial epigram but Greek and Latin literature more generally. She examines Meleager’s AP 5.176-80, which represents a discourse on the nature of love. Meleager draws on Greek poetry, philosophy, and art and personalizes and focalizes earlier philosophical ideas about Eros through the lover’s figure. His reshaping of philosophical ideas about Eros served in turn as a model for representing the lover’s emotions in the later Greek and Latin tradition, including Vergil, Propertius, and Ovid.
The fifth part, ‘Praise and Blame’, explores literary epigrams where humans and gods are extolled or mocked. Maria Kanellou’s chapter acts as a connecting link between the last two parts, since, by taking as her case study Zeus’ love affair with Danae, she investigates the diachronic usage, in epigrams, of mythological burlesque for mockery turned against human and divine targets. In addition, the analysis of selected poems reveals the skoptic side of epigrams categorized as erotic; no hermeneutically sealed boundaries existed between the two subgenres. Federica Giommoni explores the use of literary epigrams as a vehicle for promoting a victorious image of emperors and for spreading political ideologies by means of traditional symbols of Greek supremacy and victory over the Persians. She argues that Hellenistic epigrams recall the victories of Alexander the Great against the Persians in order to cast the same light on the Ptolemies, while in Agathias’ Cycle legendary episodes from the Battle of Marathon and depictions of its heroes construct a triumphant image of Justinian against the Sassanians and contribute to this emperor’s representation as the ultimate heir of the celebrated Greek past. Joseph Romero examines epigram as a tool for praising or blaming a philosopher or a particular school of philosophy, together with the techniques employed for these effects. He further argues that several epigrams disavow philosophy in general and champion instead epigram and poetry as a discursive medium.
The concluding part, “Words and Images’, charts the interrelation of literary epigram with ecphrasis. Lucia Floridi examines the interaction of skoptic epigram with the ecphrastic subgenre and the visual arts: skoptic epigram satirizes unskilled artists or the subject of their artwork, reversing ecphrastic topoi; motifs and devices closely tied with specific artworks are adapted, altering the role they play in ecphrastic models; skoptic epigram alludes to well-known works of art in order to elicit the reader’s visual response and enhance the effect of the joke. Peter Bing examines how Palladas turned ecphrasis into a medium for reflecting on the tension between the Greek literary and cultural heritage and the sociopolitical and religious environment of his own turbulent times. In the hands of Palladas, ecphrastic modes are adapted to describe the dire realities of an age when statues of Greek gods were defaced, demolished, recast, or reconfigured by Christians.
In the same vein, Steven Smith’s chapter demonstrates the importance of contextualizing epigrams into the sociohistorical circumstances of their era in order to achieve deeper comprehension of the transformations that motifs undergo through space and time. He analyses a cluster of epigrams on imperial gardens that date from the first to the seventh century cz and shows how these poems reflect diverse views about imperial power, aesthetics, pagan culture, and Christianity.
Although, as noted above, they make no claim to offer a comprehensive overview of the genre, the chapters in this volume demonstrate, individually and collectively, its remarkable richness and diversity. In the process, they help to explain the fascination that epigram exercised both in the ancient world and in subsequent ages and contribute to the growing body of research on this significant and versatile poetic form.
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