Few figures from Greco-Roman antiquity have undergone as much reassessment in recent decades as Callimachus of Cyrene, who was active at the Alexandrian court of the Ptolemies during the early third century BC. Once perceived as a supreme example of ivory tower detachment and abstruse learning, Callimachus has now come to be understood as an artificer of the images of a powerful and vibrant court and as a poet second only to Homer in his later reception. For the modern audience, the fragmentation of his texts and the diffusion of source materials has often impeded understanding his poetic achievement. Brill’s Companion to Callimachus has been designed to aid in negotiating this scholarly terrain, especially the process of editing and collecting his fragments, to illuminate his intellectual and social contexts, and to indicate the current directions that his scholarship is taking.

This monograph is a literary study of Lycophron's Alexandra, whose obscurity, a quality notorious already in antiquity, has long hampered holistic approaches. Through a series of distinct but closely integrated literary studies of major aspects of the poem, including its style, its engagement with the traditions of epic and tragedy, and it's treatment of heroism and of the gods, the book explores the way the Alexandra reconfigures Greek mythology. In particular, as it is presented in Homeric epic and Athenian tragedy, in order to cast the Romans and their restoration of Trojan glory as the ultimate telos of history. In this sense, the poem emerges as an important intermediary between Homeric epic and Latin poetry, particularly Vergil's Aeneid. By rewriting specific features of the epic and tragic traditions, the Alexandra denies to Greek heroes the glory that was the traditional compensation for their suffering, while at the same time attributing to Cassandra's Trojan family honours framed in the traditional language of Greek heroism. In this sense, the figure of Cassandra, a prophetess traditionally gifted with the power of foresight but denied credibility, self-reflexively serves as a vehicle for exploring the potentials and limitations of poetry.

The Phainomena or Heavenly Displays of Aratus is a classic poem from ancient Greece, translated here into English verse by R. Brown. This beautiful and evocative work is a must-read for anyone interested in the mythology, astronomy, and poetry of the ancient world. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This important new verse translation of the extant works and major fragments of Callimachus includes a full Introduction, covering the poet's life and times, the range of his achievements, and the difficulties in the way of appreciation. It does not offer, as other translations do, a mere selection of fragments but presents them as integral parts of the poetry books in which they originally figured, as these can be reconstructed in the light of modern research. Each fragment is introduced in relation to what precedes and follows it, enabling students and general readers, for the first time ever, to assess what Callimachus was like in his most important productions. In addition to this introductory help, the Notes take up individual points of difficulty, all proper names and adjectives are explained in the Glossary, and comparative tables facilitate identification of the translated fragments in the standard editions.

A major new collection of use to all students and scholars working on Hellenistic Greek poetry

This translation brings together ancient classical texts derived from Eratosthenes' handbook of astral mythology, Hyginus' guide to astronomy, and Aratus's astronomical poem Phaenomena to provide a complete collection of Greek astral myths.