ey 4 LITERATURE IN LINIEN PERIOD Edited by Gregory Nagy GREEK LITERATURE : o g E Greek Literature Volume 7 Greek Literature in the Hellenistic Period Edited with introductions by Gregory Nagy Harvard University Series Content Volume 1 THE ORAL TRADITIONAL BACKGROUND OF ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE Volume 2 HOMER AND HESIOD AS PROTOTYPES OF GREEK LITERATURE Volume 3 GREEK LITERATURE IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD: THE EMERGENCE OF AUTHORSHIP Volume 4 GREEK LITERATURE IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD: THE POETICS OF DRAMA IN ATHENS Volume 5 GREEK LITERATURE IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD: THE PROSE OF HISTORIOGRAPHY AND ORATORY Volume 6 GREEK LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY Volume 7 GREEK LITERATURE IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD Volume 8 GREEK LITERATURE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD AND IN LATE ANTIQUITY Volume 9 GREEK LITERATURE IN THE BYZANTINE PERIOD Acknowledgments The editor wishes to thank the following scholars for their help and encouragement: Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, Victor Bers, Emmanuel Bourbouhakis, Casey Dué, Mary Ebbott, David Elmer, Corinne Pache, Jennifer Reilly, Panagiotis Roilos, David Schur, Roger Travis, T. Temple Wright, Dimitrios Yatromanolakis. Published in 2001 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an Imprint of Taylor & Francis Books, Inc. Copyright © 2001 by Routledge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including any photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Greck literature / edited with introductions by Gregory Nagy. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references. Contents: v. 1. The oral traditional background of ancient Greek literature -- v. 2. Homer and Hesiod as prototypes of Greek literature -- v. 3. Greek literature in the archaic period : the emergence of authorship -- v. 4. Greek literature in the classical period : the poetics of drama in Athen--s v . 5. Greek literature in the classical period : the prose of historiography and oratory -- v. 6. Greek literature and philosophy — v. 7. Greck literature in the Hellenistic period -- v. 8. Greek literature in the Roman period and in late antiquity -- v. 9. Greek literature in the Byzantine period. ISBN 0-8153-3681-0 (set) -- ISBN 0-8153-3682-9 (v. 1) -- ISBN 0-8153-3683-7 (v. 2) -- ISBN 0-8153-3684-5 (v. 3) -- ISBN 0-8153-3685-3 (v..4) -- ISBN 0-8153-3686-1 (v. 5) -- ISBN 0-8153-3687-X (v. 6) -- ISBN 0-8153-3688-8 (v. 7) -- ISBN 0-415-93770-1 (v. 8) -- ISBN 0-415-93771-X (v. 9) -- ISBN 0-8153-2- 1, Greek literature--History and criticism. 1. Nagy, Gregory. PA3054 .G74 2001 880.9--dc21 2001048490 ISBN 0-8153-3681-0 (set) ISBN 0-8153-3682-9 (v.1) ISBN 0-8153-3683-7 (v.2) ISBN 0-8153-3684-5 (v.3) ISBN 0-8153-3685-6 (v.4) ISBN 0-8153-3686-1 (v.5) ISBN 0-8153-3687-X (v.6) ISBN 0-8153-3688-8 (v.7) ISBN 0-4159-3770-1 (v.8) ISBN 0-4159-3771-X (v.9) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent. Contents vii Series Introduction Volume Introduction Section A. Conventions and Realities 1. The Quarrel between Kallimachos and Apollonios: Part I, The Epilogue of Kallimachos' Hymn to Apollo Elroy L. Bundy 2. The Future of Studies in the Field of Hellenistic Poetry Rudolf Pfeiffer 3. Monody, Choral Lyric, and the Tyranny of the Handbook Malcom Davies 4. Text or Performance: Alan Cameron’s Callimachus and His Critics Peter Bing 5. The Future of a Hellenistic Illusion: Some Observations on Callimachus and Religion Anthony W. Bulloch 107 6. Mimesis and Aetiology in Callimachus’ Hymns Mary DePew Section B. Varieties of Literary Interests 129 7. The Nightingale’s Refrain: P Oxy. 2625 = SLG 460 lan Rutherford 135 8. Alexandrian Sappho Revisited Dimitrios Yatromanolakis 153 9. Callimachus: Victoria Berenices Peter 7. Parsons 205 10. The Epilogue to the Aetia Peter E. Knox 213 11. The Naive and Knowing Eye: Ekphrasis and the Culture of Viewing in the Hellenistic World Simon Goldhill 241 12. Apollonius Rhodius as a Homeric Scholar Antonios Rengakos Section C. Poetic Virtuosity 265 13. Theocritus’ Seventh /dyll, Philetas and Longus Ewen L. Bowie 291 14. Callimachus and the Muses: Some Aspects of Narrative Technique in Aetia 1-2 Annette Harder vi Contents 305 15. Callimachus' Lock of Berenice Kathryn Gutzwiller 333 16. Writing the God: Form and Meaning in Callimachus, Hymn to Athena Richard Hunter 359 17. Gods in Action: The Poetics of Divine Performance in the Hymns of Callimachus Albert Henrichs 381 Copyright Acknowledgments Series Introduction This nine-volume set is a collection of writings by experts in ancient Greek literature. On display here is their thinking, that is, their readings of ancient writings. Most, though not all, of these experts would call themselves philologists. For that reason, it is relevant to cite the definition of “philology” offered by Friedrich Nietzsche. In the preface to Daybreak, he says that philology is the art of reading slowly: Philology is that venerable art which demands of its votaries one thing above all: to go aside, to take time, to become still, to become slow— it is a goldsmith’s art and connoisseurship of the word which has nothing but delicate cautious work to do and achieves nothing if it does not achieve it lento. But for precisely this reason it is more necessary than ever today; by precisely this means does it entice and enchant us the most, in the midst of an age of “work,” that is to say, of hurry, of indecent and perspiring haste, which wants to “get everything done” at once, including every old or new book:— this art does not easily get anything done, it teaches to read well, that is to say, to read slowly, deeply, looking cautiously before and aft, with reservations, with doors left open, with delicate fingers and eyes. (This translation is adapted, with only slight changes, from R. J. Hollingdale, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality (Cambridge, 1982].) Nietzsche’s original wording deserves to be quoted in full, since its power cannot be matched even by the best of translations: Philologie namlich ist jene ehrwiirdige Kunst, welche von ihrem Verehrer vor Allem Eins heischt, bei Seite gehn, sich Zeit lassen, still werden, langsam werden—, als eine Goldschmiedekunst und -kennerschaft des Wortes, die lauter feine vorsichtige Arbeit abzuthun hat und Nichts erreicht, wenn sie es nicht lento erreicht. Gerade damit aber ist sie heute nothiger als je, gerade dadurch zieht sie und bezaubert sie uns am stárksten, mitten in einem Zeitalter der " Arbeit," will sagen: der Hast, der unanstándigen und schwitzenden Eilfertigkeit, das mit Allem gleich "fertig werden" will, auch mit jedem alten und neuen Buche:— sie selbst wird nicht so leicht irgend womit fertig, sie lehrt gut lesen, das heisst langsam, vii vili Series Introduction tief, rück- und vorsichtig, mit Hintergedanken, mit offen gelassenen Thüen, mit zarten Fingern und Augen lesen... (Friedrich Nietzsche, Morgenréthe. Nachgelassene Fragmente, Anfang 1880 bis Frübjabr 1881. Nietzsche Werke V .1, ed. G. Colli and M. Montinari [Berlin, 1971], 9.) This is not to say that the selections in these nine volumes must be ideal exemplifications of philology as Nietzsche defined it. Faced with the challenge of describing their own approaches to Greek literature, most authors of these studies would surely prefer a definition of “philology” that is less demanding. Perhaps most congenial to most would be the formulation of Rudolf Pfeiffer (History of Classical Scholarship 1 (Oxford, 1968]: “Philology is the art of understanding, explaining and reconstructing literary tradition.” This collection may be viewed as an attempt to demonstrate such an art, in all its complexity and multiplicity. Such a demonstration, of course, cannot be completely successful, because perfection is far beyond reach: the subject is vast, the space is limited, and the learning required is ever incomplete. Finally, it is important to keep in mind that disagreements persist in the ongoing study of ancient Greek literature, and thus the articles in these nine volumes necessarily reflect a diversity of opinions. There is ample room for disagreement even about the merits of representative articles, let alone the choices of the articles themselves. It is therefore reasonable for each reader to ask, after reading an article, whether it has indeed been true to the art of philology. The editor, a philologist by training, has his own opinions about the relative success or failure of each of the studies here selected. These opinions, however, must be subordinated to the single most practical purpose of the collection, which is to offer a representative set of modern studies that seek the best possible readings of the ancient writings. Volume Introduction Greek literature in the Hellenistic period, as represented primarily by the scholar- poets of the new city-state Alexandria, is well known for its formalism and stylization (a premier study is that of Bundy 1972, article 1). Rudolf Pfeiffer (1955, article 2, p. 73) describes the Hellenistic poets this way: I expect many a modern ami de lettres will approve Jane Austen's wise decision to aim at perfection within the limited sphere of “her few square inches of ivory,” as she said, and not to be lured into any grand literary adventure; so he may understand at least the conscious self-limitation of Hellenistic poets and may appreciate the perfection reached by the few masters of the third century, who had a lightness of hand, an indefinable touch of irony and that imperishable charm which is a divine gift of the Kbarites, the Graces whom they implored so often. At an earlier point (p. 73), Pfeiffer says defensively: "for Hellenistic poetry, non- classical as it was, was still genuinely Greek.” And yet the Hellenistic scholar-poets were largely responsible for the definitions of the classical and archaic genres as we know them to this day (Davies 1988, article 3). They clearly knew the rules and conventions of classical poetics, displaying this knowledge in their own poetry by generally observing the same rules and conventions— but occasionally violating them in ostentatious gestures that serve to highlight their artistic mastery (Rossi 1971). The self-conscious stylization of Hellenistic poetry has led to lively debates about the occasionality of the poems (Bing 2000, article 4) and even about their functionality (Bulloch 1984 and Depew 1993, articles 5 and 6). Although there is disagreement about the circumstances of composing and performing Hellenistic poetry, there is general agreement about the learning and precision of the poets themselves in their use of earlier literary forms (articles 7-12: Rutherford 1995, Yatromanolakis 1999, Parsons 1977, Knox 1985, Goldhill 1994, Rengakos 2001). The poetic virtuosity of the Hellenistic poets is evident in the evocative power of their choices in wording (Bowie 1985, article 13), the deftness of their narrative technique (Harder 1988, article 14), and their seemingly effortless applications of past conventions to present realities (Gutzwiller 1992, article 15). Hellenistic artistry, it can be argued, confers seriousness and even sublimity to traditional themes that would otherwise be lost to indifference (Hunter 1992 and Henrichs 1993, articles 16 and 17). ΙΧ