This paper looks beyond Ptolemaic Alexandria to consider the literary dynamics of another Hellenistic kingdom, Attalid Pergamon. I offer a detailed study of the fragmentary opening of Nicander’s Hymn to Attalus (fr. 104 Gow–Schofield) in three sections. First, I consider its generic status and compare its encomiastic strategies with those of T…[Read more]

Scholars have long noted the deeply intertextual features of Simaetha’s monologue in Idyll 2, including its Homeric, Sapphic and tragic resonances. In this contribution, however, I focus on an underexplored connection between Theocritus’ speaker and the Odyssean Penelope. I first highlight the Idyll’s pervasive engagement with heroic epic, dwell…[Read more]

In this paper, I explore how Greek and Roman poets alluded to the lamentatory background of elegy through the figures of the swan and the nightingale. After surveying the ancient association of elegy and lament (Section I) and the common metapoetic function of birds from Homer onwards (Section II), I analyse Hellenistic and Roman examples where…[Read more]

Review of C. Tsagalis (ed.), “Poetry in Fragments: Studies on the Hesiodic Corpus and its Afterlife.” Trends in Classics – Supplementary Volumes, 50. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2017

Notice of (D.) Sider (ed.) Hellenistic Poetry. A Selection. Pp. xx + 579, ills. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017. Paper, US$49.50 (Cased, US$90). ISBN: 978-0-472-05313-1 (978-0-472-07313-9 hbk).

The significance and influence of Attic drama on Hellenistic poetry has been a topic of little consistent focus in recent scholarship, reflecting the dominant academic emphasis on Hellenistic poetry as a written artefact, allegedly detached from any immediate context of performance. This paper attempts to reverse this trend by setting out the…[Read more]