Callimachus in context : from Plato to the Augustan poets / Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Susan A. Stephens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin, 1960-

Contributor:

Stephens, Susan A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Callimachus--Criticism and interpretation.

Callimachus.

Callimachus--Appreciation--Rome.

Aesthetics, Ancient.

Criticism and interpretation.

Alexandria (Egypt)--Intellectual life.

Alexandria (Egypt).

Physical Description:

xii, 328 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Summary:

"Scholarly reception has bequeathed two Callimachuses: the Roman version is a poet of elegant non-heroic poetry (usually erotic elegy), represented by a handful of intertexts with a recurring set of images - slender Muse, instructing divinity, small voice, pure waters; the Greek version emphasizes a learned scholar who includes literary criticism within his poetry, an encomiast of the Ptolemies, a poet of the book whose narratives are often understood as metapoetic. This study does not dismiss these Callimachuses, but situates them within a series of interlocking historical and intellectual contexts in order better to understand how they arose. In this narrative of his poetics and poetic reception four main sources of creative opportunism are identified: Callimachus' reactions to philosophers and literary critics as arbiters of poetic authority, the potential of the text as a venue for performance, awareness of Alexandria as a new place, and finally, his attraction for Roman poets"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. Literary quarrels; 2. Performing the text; 3. Changing places; 4. In my end is my beginning; Conclusion; Appendix: The Aetia.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107008571

1107008573

OCLC:

711047824

Online:

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