AEVUM ANTIQUUM - 2019 - 19. CALLIMACO E APOLLONIO

Presentation of the papers collected in the Forum Callimaco e Apollonio, tracing an ideal line between this discussion on the relationship between the two Hellenistic poets, Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes, and the periodical “Workshops on Hellenistic Poetry” organized in Groningen by Annette Harder, main contributor of the present Forum.

The article discusses the relationship between Apollonius Rhodius and Callimachus. After a brief survey of the ancient biographical evidence I argue that it can be more profitable to look at what the actual texts tell us about the ways in which these two Hellenistic poets carried on a metapoetic dialogue in which claims of divine protection, aspects of structure and chronology, genre and (ideological) contents as well as a certain need for poetic ‘sobriety’ were important issues. The aim is to give an indication of what was at stake between these two poets and inspire further investigations along similar lines. Apart from the literary-historical aspect of the interaction between Callimachus and Apollonius in III BC this approach should also be important in creating a firmer basis for the understanding of their reception in Latin poetry.

This article considers the metapoetic terms Callimachus uses in the opening of his Aetia, highlighting the role these same terms play in the epic poem of Apollonius and highlights an overlooked correspondence, one emblematic of the relationship of the two works.

Annette Harder’s suggestion that Callimachus and Apollonius had access to each other’s poetry and engaged in a «dialogue of poetics» offers a compelling hypothesis regarding their extant works and can be paralleled not only among Roman poets, but among modern artists as well, supporting her vision of a less acrimonious relationship between the scholar-poets than imagined among the ancient biographies.

In this contribution, I look at the Thera-episode in Apollonius Rhodius (IV 1731-1764) from the point of view of the poetic interaction between Callimachus and Apollonius as sketched by Annette Harder. I first briefly review scholarly findings about the ideological significance of the Thera-episode in Apollonius’ Argonautica, following Stephens 2011 and others. I then go into the importance of Thera (and the Cyrenaean foundation story in general) for Callimachus. The theme features not only in his Apollo Hymn and Aetia fr. 7c, 1-5, but in several other Callimachean poetic fragments as well. Next, I will point out what I believe is a neglected element of the Herodotean subtext of Apollonius’ Thera episode, the story of Phronime in Hdt IV, 154. Finally I present a reading of the Apollonian passage which takes into account both the importance of Callimachus’ Cyrenean connections and the neglected Herodotean subtext.

This paper offers bi-directional readings of the intertextual allusions between Apollonius’ Argonautica and Callimachus’ Argonautic stories in the Aetia. It argues that the allusions represent direct confrontations between Callimachus’ οὐχ ἓν ἄεισμα διηνεκές (aet. fr. 1, 3 Harder) and Apollonius’ ὅσσα τ᾿ ἔρεξαν (Ap. Rh. I 21) narrative strategies within the same ‘Callimachean’ aesthetic framework. On the basis of the conclusion of my 2014 article, Anchored in Time: the date in Apollonius’ Argonautica, which uses the poem’s astronomical references to argue for 238 BC as the terminus post quem for the epic, these readings assume that the Aetia is the prior work and that the Argonautica is the alluding text. Stephen Hinds’ example of the metapoetic dialogue between Ovid and Vergil in Allusion and Intertext provides the theoretical model for the kind of bi-directional readings offered here. This paper explores the programmatic and metapoetic functions that the Argonautic myth has within Aetia, reorienting Callimachus’ allusions toward the archaic epic tradition and contextualizing the ‘Argonautica’ in the Aetia within longstanding metaphorical discourses of ‘the ship of poetry’ and ‘the ship of state’. This analysis concentrates on the beginning of the Anaphe-aetion (frr. 7c-8 Harder) and the Cyzicus-aetion (frr. 108-109a Harder).

This article reconsiders a number of the metapoetic oppositions which Harder has identified between Callimachus and Apollonius, subjecting them to closer scrutiny. First, I explore two metapoetic motifs (talking birds and programmatic paths), before turning to examine issues of narrative (dis)continuity. In particular, I focus on moments where clear-cut distinctions between the two poets appear to break down.

Callimachus and Apollonius had a very similar destiny about the way they conceived and created their major poems, Aetia and Argonautika, and about their relationship with the public of contemporary Alexandria. They were both not much appreciated for the manner they used to present their poetry in performances; that’s why they ampliated and reworked their poems in time, to reply by the final form of the book to criticism of the erudite public.

This brief note highlights the different ways that Apollonius and Callimachus treat athletes and athletic events, and how their treatments reflect contemporary Hellenistic interest in such events.

The Essay develops the theme of barbaries in the Historia Romana of Velleius Paterculus from the point of view of gestuality, rhetorically considered as a typical aspect of characters or moments which assume a paradigmatic meaning. Gestures underline the hyperbolic cruelty of some protagonists of the history of late Roman republic, while at the beginning of the Empire, especially under Tiberius, some deferential acts towards him by barbarians can be considered as tipical Roman behaviours.

This article aims at showing the presence of a literary allusion to Virgil in Petron. 68, 1-2. The changing of the individual tables assigned to Trimalchio’s guests and his subsequent wordplay are a well-constructed reference to the prodigy of the eating of the tables described in Aen. VII 107-129 and to Celaeno’s oracle in Aen. III 250-257. In this passage, through his actions and words, Trimalchio is once again trying to show off his literary knowledge by challenging the superior culture of the scholastici invited for dinner.

The article compares the speeches of Hanno against Hannibal (Liv. XXI 10) and of Drances against Turnus (Verg. Aen. XI): both orators speak against war and propose a truce between their people and the enemy. After discussing the similarities between the two speeches, the article deals with the character of Hanno as found in Silius’ Punica II and finally considers the possibility of an intertextual relation between Livy and Vergil.

The few details of Dido’s physical aspect in Virgil’s Aeneid (iuventa, exceptional beauty and blond hair) express both her socio-political status and her intimate change from powerful virago to loving woman to victim of amoris furor.

The final poem of the first book of the Instructiones by the mid-third-century Christian poet Commodianus (I 45 De die iudicii) is distinguished by the fact that in addition to the acrostic, which as usual gives the title of the poem, a telestichon can be read (Osee mater Sar). The telestichon refers to Hos. 1-2, which reinforces the eschatological message of the poem and testifies to an exegetical tradition that interprets Hos. 1-2 eschatologically.

Lucian’s Tyrannicide, Phalaris and Downward Journey encourage us to think that power can turn out to be an irrational exaltation of omnipotence, everywhere and every time, and that in every man there can be some seed of tyrannical folly. At the same time, while criticizing the mighty, the writer also criticizes the society they rule and he makes us laugh and think over ourselves and our vices.