Greek erotic epigram : a diachronic approach / Maria Kanellou ; with a preface by Annette M.Harder.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kanellou, Maria, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Epigrams, Greek--History and criticism.

Epigrams, Greek.

Erotic literature, Greek--History and criticism.

Erotic literature, Greek.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (324 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2025]

Summary:

Despite its small size, epigram attracted some of the best poetic talents of antiquity, exerting a strong influence on Latin literature and continuing to inspire poetic creativity until today. During the last decades research on epigram flourished to an unprecedented degree. This book draws on and engages with this renewed scholarly interest in the briefest of the ancient Greek genres. By shifting focus away from a particular poet, collection, and the epigrammatic production of a specific historical period, it explores diachronically erotic epigram from various interpretative angles, treating the surviving material as an organic whole.

Contents:

Cover

Greek Erotic Epigram: A Diachronic Approach

Copyright

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Why Write a Book on the Diachronic Study of Erotic Epigram?

2. The Contents of the Book

1. The Lamp as a Vehicle for Exploring the Lover's Emotions

1. First Appearances of the Lamp Motif in Asclepiades

2. The Development of the Motif in the Meleagrian Epigrams

3. Outside the Meleagrian Garland: Philodemus and Statyllius Flaccus

4. Marcus Argentarius and the Lamp's Prophetic Abilities

5. The Survival of the Lamp in the Cycle of Agathias

6. Conclusions

2 Unboxing Sea and Nautical Metaphors

1.1 The Ship-ProstituteEpigrams and Their Intertextual Background

1.2 Alcaeus and the Ship-Prostitute

1.3 Theognis and Aristophanes: Ship Imagery and the Ambiguities of Control

2.1 The Ship-Prostitutein Epigram: Hetaerae Described as Ships

2.2 Ships Described in Language Applicable to Hetaerae

3.1 Hellenistic Epigram and the Sea of Love

3.2 The Heterosexual Epigrams

3.3 The Homoerotic Epigrams

4.1 The Survival of Sea and Nautical Metaphors after Meleager's Garland

4.2 Sea Metaphors in Their Sexual Form: The Case Study of Automedon AP 11.29

4.3 Further Examples of Sexual Sea Metaphors: The Anonymous AP 11.220 and Rufinus AP 5.35

4.4 The Sea of Love in Macedonius Consul AP 5.235

5. Conclusions

3 Comparing the Beloved with the Supreme Goddess of Beauty

1. The Beloved's Praise in the Poetic Tradition: The Limitations of Hyperbole

2. Implied Comparison with Aphrodite: Nossis' Dedicatory Epigrams

3. Hellenistic Queens and Aphrodite: Three Posidippean Epigrams and Asclepiades or Posidippus APl (A) 68

4. Asclepiades or Posidippus AP 5.194: Indirect Links Between a Non-RoyalWoman and Aphrodite.

5.1 Antipater of Sidon: Staying within Limits (AP 9.567 and 7.14)

5.2 Antipater of Sidon: Stretching the Boundaries (AP 7.218)

6. The 'Apotheosis' of the Motif in the Meleagrian Epigrams

7. Comparing the Male Beloved with Eros

8.1 The Motif after Meleager: Marcus Argentarius and Rufinus

8.2 The Motif in the Cycle of Agathias

9. Conclusions

4 Eros and the Erotes: The Tormentors of Humans

1.1 Eros' Disguises: Recollections of Lyric Poetry

1.2 Eros the Crawling Creature

2. Amalgamation of Different Portrayals of Eros in the Same Epigram

3.1 From the Single Eros to the Erotes: The Motif 's Literary Roots

3.2 Multiple Erotes for Multiple Effects

4. Conclusions

Epilogue

Bibliography

General Index

Index Locorum

Literary Sources

Inscriptions

Papyri.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on February 28, 2025).

ISBN:

0-19-185354-2

0-19-254810-7

OCLC:

1503677266