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Pherecydes of Syros' work is difficult to understand because of its fragmentary nature. A previously unexplored perspective on his work is to analyze how it was understood and used in Ptolemaic Alexandria, particularly by Eratosthenes and Callimachus. Eratosthenes' distinction between Pherecydes of Syros and Pherecydes of Athens (DL 1.119) has been used as a key piece of evidence that those two authors are, in fact, distinct. However, there has been little discussion of Eratosthenes' interest in these authors outside of that statement. Callimachus' interest in Pherecydes has also been ignored by both scholars of Pherecydes and scholars of Alexandrian poetry (except for brief references). Through this examination, I argue that Pherecydes of Syros was an important figure in discussions about the development of prose in Ptolemaic Alexandria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explain Callimachus' blame of Thebes in the Hymn to Delos , arguing that Callimachus uses Apollo as a mouthpiece to voice the goals of his poetic project, signaling not only the influence of earlier Greek works—particularly Pindar's Isthmian 1—but also his departure from these models. Moreover, Callimachus' relationship with Pindar is more than simply literary, as shown through an intertextual reference that reveals a perceived familial tie, which helps explain Callimachus' use of Pindar as a source. Callimachus' blame of Thebes is a programmatic statement, demonstrating how Callimachus views his sources, his poetry, and himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study argues that Callimachus' treatment of his 'animal-voiced' contemporaries at the conclusion of the fable in Iamb 2 reflects zoological and physiognomic practices so as to represent the poetic narrator as a taxonomist of men. Elsewhere the classification of men as if they were flora or fauna appears, like fable itself, in distinctly moral and ethical contexts, as, for example, in Theophrastus' Characters. Callimachus' formulation of his narrator as a taxonomist who classifies 'species' of men based upon their literary 'voices' thus plays with modes of invective new to iambos while uniting moral criticism with literary polemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes evidence to support the widely accepted view that Lucretius may justly be regarded by the reader as a Callimachean poet by synthesizing and analyzing Lucretius' use of the so-called 'Alexandrian footnote' in the DRN. Although most scholars have come to agree with Kenney that Lucretius embraces many of the same poetic ideals as his contemporaries, there are still some who remain skeptical of Kenney's thesis, and, while Kenney adduces the most prominent parts of the DRN that show signs of Alexandrianism, in fact he only scratches the surface of the extent to which Lucretius practices his own version of Roman neo-Callimacheanism. Moreover, very few of those who accept Kenney's results have followed his lead by adding corroborating evidence. It is still very much worthwhile, therefore, to explore this aspect of Lucretius' poetic artistry; this paper's analysis of the Alexandrian footnote provides further proof that Kenney's argument is correct, and it expands on his thesis by showing how integral Alexandrian poetic techniques are to Lucretius' philosophical purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phrase λεπτόν και τι μελιχρόν ἒποϛ in Hedylus 5 Gow-Page has been read as engaging with Callimachean esthetic language, though its precise significance has been debated. This paper argues that Hedylus' engagement with Callimachean esthetic imagery and language is best understood by juxtaposing Hedylus 4 and 5 Gow-Page. The structure of the former, on a gold rhyton dedicated to Arsinoe Zephyritis, pointedly treats two Egyptian deities--one miniature, the other colossal--in language evocative of poetic composition, and does so in a way that effaces the bright oppositions between large and small in the prologue to Callimachus' Aetia. At the same time, the poem identifies sounds made by wine with sounds made by water, and thus sheds light on Hedylus' treatment of wine as a source of poetic inspiration in both epigrams. Far from being a rebuttal of Callimachean values, these poems appropriate and adapt his esthetic imagery and language to the genre of epigram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juvenal's synkrisis between Orestes and Nero climaxes with the statement that the former never played Orestes; the implied antithesis, that Nero did play Nero, gains point from the princeps' practice of wearing masks resembling his own face. This blurring of the distinction between 'playing Nero' and 'playing Orestes' problematizes the princeps' identity. This problematization is furthered by the peculiarities of Orestes, who in various tragic plots repeatedly either plays other roles or is himself impersonated. This is part of Satire 8's wider exploration of identity as underdetermined by ancestry and the inadequacy of names as signifiers. The further statement that Orestes never wrote a Troica is illuminated by its intertextual engagement with Callimachus Epigr. 59 G-P, in which the poet's loss of his 'Pyladeses' through writing a play contrasts with Orestes' omission of this final act of madness. The Callimachean Orestes thus keeps distinct the roles of tragedian and tragic hero, poet and character, thereby foregrounding Nero's failure to maintain this distinction. By blurring his identity with that of Paris in both his epic and his alleged burning of Rome, Nero confuses the categories of artist and perpetrator, creator and character, just as he and Orestes confuse those of actor and role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a solution to the longstanding controversy over the identity of the obscure hunter named Aithon in SSH 970.22 by identifying him with the Callimachean Erysichthon. The fact that Erysichthon's alternative name Aithon has already been established in the Hellenistic period constitutes the primary indication for this identification. Callimachus' Hymn to Demeter includes a key-reference to Erysichthon as a hunter (ll. 81 f.) which can be suggestive of the hero's participation in the Calydonian Hunt. It is the premise of my argument that the association of the two Hellenistic texts is possible by assuming a variant list of Calydonian hunters, featuring Erysichthon among others. This list could have been the source of both the anonymous elegist and Callimachus. Further intertextual affinities and structural similarities between the two narratives are put forward to support this view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]