Taking a fresh look at the poetry and visual art of the Hellenistic age, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. to the Romans’ defeat of Cleopatra in 30 B.C., Graham Zanker makes enlightening discoveries about the assumptions and conventions of Hellenistic poets and artists and their audiences. Zanker’s exciting new interpretations closely compare poetry and art for the light each sheds on the other. He finds, for example, an exuberant expansion of subject matter in the Hellenistic periods in both literature and art, as styles and iconographic traditions reserved for grander concepts in earlier eras were applied to themes, motifs, and subjects that were emphatically less grand.

Hellenistic poets of the third and second centuries BC were concerned with the need both to mark their continuity with the classical past and to demonstrate their independence from it. In this revised and expanded translation of Muse e modelli: la poesia ellenistica da Alessandro Magno ad Augusto, Greek poetry of the third and second centuries BC and its reception and influence at Rome are explored allowing both sides of this literary practice to be appreciated. Genres as diverse as epic and epigram are considered from a historical perspective, in the full range of their deep-level structures, providing a different perspective on the poetry and its influence at Rome. Some of the most famous poetry of the age such as Callimachus' Aitia and Apollonius' Argonautica is examined. In addition, full attention is paid to the poetry of encomium, in particular the newly published epigrams of Posidippus, and Hellenistic poetics, notably Philodemus.

Offering unparalleled scope, A Companion to Hellenistic Literature in 30 newly commissioned essays explores the social and intellectual contexts of literature production in the Hellenistic period, and examines the relationship between Hellenistic and earlier literature. Provides a wide ranging critical examination of Hellenistic literature, including the works of well-respected poets alongside lesser-known historical, philosophical, and scientific prose of the period Explores how the indigenous literatures of Hellenized lands influenced Greek literature and how Greek literature influenced Jewish, Near Eastern, Egyptian, and Roman literary works

This volume contains the papers of the 'Seventh Groningen Workshop on Hellenistic Poetry: Beyond the Canon' (Groningen 2004). During the workshop a first draft of each of the papers was commented on by an international group of specialists in the field of Hellenistic poetry. A number of previous workshops was devoted largely to the major Hellenistic poets. This recent workshop explores what the poets 'beyond the canon' of Callimachus, Theocritus and Apollonius Rhodius had to offer and it discussed questions of canonicity in Hellenistic poetry on a more general level. The papers in the present volume deal with a large range of authors and genres: Herondas, Lycophron, Euphorion, Hermesianax, Cercidas, Crates of Thebes and Alexander Aetolus, and the didactic poetry of Aratus, Nicander and Ps.-Scymnus, the later bucolic poems of Moschus and Bion and the pattern poems of Simias. At the same time special attention is given to the hexameter in inscribed Hellenistic epigram, which is compared to that of poets in the environment of the Museum of Alexandria. This volume is part of a series. Every two years a 'Workshop on Hellenistic Poetry' takes place at the University of Groningen, the papers of which are published in 'Hellenistica Groningana'.

The first detailed analysis of the female portrait statue in the Greek world from the fourth century BCE to the third century CE.

This compendium (4 vols.) studies the continuity, flexibility, and variation of structural elements in epic narratives. It provides an overview of the structural patterns of epic poetry by means of a standardized, stringent terminology. Both diachronic developments and changes within individual epics are scrutinized in order to provide a comprehensive structural approach and a key to intra- and intertextual characteristics of ancient epic poetry.

Hellenistic Poetry has enjoyed a notable re-appreciation in recent years and received ample scholarly discussion, especially focusing on its reception and innovation of Greek poetic tradition. This book wishes to add to our picture of how Hellenistic poetry works by looking at it from a slightly different angle. Concentrating on the interaction between contemporary poets, it attempts to view the dynamics of imitation and reception in the light of poetical self-positioning. In the courtly Alexandrian surroundings, choosing a poetic model and affiliation determines one's position in the cultural field. This book sets out to chart, not only the well-known complexities of handling the poetic past, but especially their relation to the poetic interaction of the Hellenistic, in particular Alexandrian poets.

Before the publication of the second-century AD papyrus containing eight and a fragmentary ninth of the Mimiamboi of Herodas in 1891, Herodas was known only through approximately twenty lines which had survived in quotations found principally in Athenaios and Stobaios. Even after the publication of the papyrus and subsequent work on it, scarcely anything is known of their author. The scant evidence that has survived suggests that he lived during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphos (285-247 BC), on the island of Kos, and was a direct contemporary of the greatest of the Hellenistic poets, Callimachus, Theocritus and Apollonius. His Mimiamboi are short humorous dramatic scenes written in verse, often bawdy, reflecting everyday life and dialect. In this Aris & Phillips Classical Text, Graham Zanker explores what we do know of the poet including the language, dialect and metre that he uses. Each poem is translated and accompanied by an individual commentary with synopsis, information on date, setting, sources and purpose, as well as close examination of vocabulary and grammar. This edition, the first translation of the Mimiamboi since 1906 reveals Herodas' work in all its skill and subtlety.

As all scholars increasingly use digital tools to support their research, and every internet user becomes used to data being available, elucidating, and engaging, the creative aspects of Digital Humanities work are coming under increasing scrutiny. This volume explores the practice of making new tools, new images, new collections, and new artworks in an academic environment, detailing who needs to be involved and what their roles might be, and how they come together to produce knowledge as a collective. The chapters presented here demonstrate that creation is never neutral with political and theoretical concerns intentionally or unavoidably always being written into the fabric of what is being made, even if that's the seeming neatness of computer code. In presenting their own creative research, the writers in this volume offer examples of practice that will be of use to anyone interested in learning more about contemporary Digital Humanities scholarship and its implications.