The poets of Alexandria / Susan A. Stephens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stephens, Susan A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Callimachus. Aetia.

Callimachus.

Posidippus, of Pella, approximately 310 B.C.-approximately 240 B.C. Epigrams.

Posidippus.

Theocritus.

Apollonius, Rhodius. Argonautica.

Apollonius.

Greek poetry, Hellenistic--History and criticism.

Greek poetry, Hellenistic.

Poetics.

Physical Description:

xiii, 194 pages : maps ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

London : I.B. TAURIS, 2018.

Summary:

Alexandria was the greatest of the new cities founded by Alexander the Great as his armies swept eastward. It was ruled by his successors, the Ptolemies, who presided over one of the richest and most productive periods in the whole of Greek literature. Susan A Stephens here reveals a cultural world in transition: reverential of the compositions of the past (especially after construction of the great library, repository for all previous Greek oeuvres), but at the same time forward-looking and experimental, willing to make use of previous forms of writing in exciting new ways. The author examines Alexandria's poets in turn. She discusses the strikingly avant-garde Aetia of Callimachus; the idealized pastoral forms of Theocritus (which anticipated the invention of fiction); and the neo-Homerian epic of Apollonius, the Argonautica, with its impressive combination of narrative grandeur and psychological acuity. She shows that all three poets were innovators, even while they looked to the past for inspiration: drawing upon Homer, Hesiod, Pindar and the lyric poets, they emphasized stories and material that were entirely relevant to their own progressive cosmopolitan environment.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-183) and index.

ISBN:

1848858809

9781848858800

1848858795

9781848858794

OCLC:

1029206464