Callimachus

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For other people named Callimachus, see Callimachus (disambiguation).
Callimachus
Καλλίμαχος
Bornc. 310/305 BC
Cyrene, Ancient Libya
Diedc. 240 BC
Alexandria
Occupationpoet, critic and scholar

Callimachus (/kæˈlɪməkəs/; Greek: Καλλίμαχος, Kallimakhos; c. 310/305–c. 240 BC[1]) was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya.[2] He was a poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus[3] and Ptolemy III Euergetes. Although he was never made chief librarian, he was responsible for producing a bibliographic survey based upon the contents of the Library. This, his Pinakes, 120 volumes long,[4] provided the foundation for later work on the history of ancient Greek literature. He is among the most productive and influential scholar-poets of the Hellenistic age.

Family and early life[edit]

Callimachus was of Libyan Greek origin. He was born c. 310/305 BC and raised in Cyrene, as member of a distinguished family, his parents being Mesatme (or Mesatma) and Battus, supposed descendant of the first Greek king of Cyrene, Battus I, through whom Callimachus claimed to be a descendant of the Battiad dynasty, the Libyan Greek monarchs that ruled Cyrenaica for eight generations and the first Greek Royal family to have reigned in Africa. He was named after his grandfather, an "elder" Callimachus, who was highly regarded by the Cyrenaean citizens and had served as a general.

Callimachus married the daughter of a Greek man called Euphrates who came from Syracuse. However, it is unknown if they had children. He also had a sister called Megatime but very little is known about her: she married a Cyrenaean man called Stasenorus or Stasenor to whom she bore a son, Callimachus (so called "the Younger" as to distinguish him from his maternal uncle), who also became a poet, author of "The Island".

In later years, he was educated in Athens. When he returned to North Africa, he moved to Alexandria.

Works[edit]

P.Oxy. XI 1362
A papyrus of Callimachus' Aetia (Pfeiffer fr. 178 = P.Oxy. XI 1362 fr. 1 col. i, 1st century AD)

Elitist and erudite, claiming to "abhor all common things,"[5] Callimachus is best known for his short poems and epigrams. During the Hellenistic period, a major trend in Greek-language poetry was to reject epics modelled after Homer. Instead, Callimachus urged poets to "drive their wagons on untrodden fields," rather than following in the well worn tracks of Homer, idealizing a form of poetry that was brief, yet carefully formed and worded, a style at which he excelled. "Big book, big evil" (μέγα βιβλίον μέγα κακόν, mega biblion, mega kakon) is another saying attributed to him,[6] often thought to be attacking long, old-fashioned poetry. Callimachus also wrote poems in praise of his royal patrons (such as Ptolemy II Philadelphus),[7] and a wide variety of other poetic styles, as well as prose and criticism.

Due to Callimachus' strong stance against the epic, he and his younger student Apollonius of Rhodes, who favored epic and wrote the Argonautica, had a long and bitter feud, trading barbed comments, insults, and personal attacks for over thirty years. It is now known, through a papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus listing the earliest chief librarians of the Library of Alexandria [8] that Ptolemy II never offered the post to Callimachus, but passed him over for Apollonius. Some classicists, including Peter Green, speculate that this contributed to the poets' long feud. According to the current scholarly consensus, however, the evidence for this putative feud is lacking, and it is likely to be specious; according to Alan Cameron, "there is no genuinely ancient evidence at all."[9] Moreover, without knowing the precise nature of the role, it is impossible to conclude what should be inferred from Callimachus' failure to become chief librarian.

Though Callimachus was an opponent of "big books", the Suda puts his number of works at (a possibly exaggerated) 800, suggesting that he found large quantities of small works more acceptable. Of these, only six hymns, sixty-four epigrams, and some fragments are extant; a considerable fragment of the Hecale, one of Callimachus' few longer poems treating epic material, has also been discovered in the Rainer papyri. His Aetia (Αἴτια, "Causes"),[10] another rare longer work surviving only in tattered papyrus fragments and quotations in later authors, was a collection of elegiac poems in four books, dealing with the foundation of cities, obscure religious ceremonies, unique local traditions apparently chosen for their oddity,[11] and other customs, throughout the Hellenic world.[12] In the first three books at least, the formula appears to ask a question of the Muse, of the form, "Why, on Paros, do worshippers of the Charites use neither flutes nor crowns?"[13] "Why, at Argos is a month named for 'lambs'?"[14] "Why, at Leucas, does the image of Artemis have a mortar on its head?"[15] A series of questions can be reconstituted from the fragments.[16] One passage of the Aetia, the so-called Coma Berenices, has been reconstructed from papyrus remains and the celebrated Latin adaptation of Catullus (Catullus 66).

The extant hymns are extremely learned, and written in a style that some have criticised as labored and artificial. The Fourth Hymn appears to have been heavily influenced by Pyrrhonist philosophy.[17]The epigrams are more widely respected, and several have been incorporated into the Greek Anthology.[12]

According to Quintilian (10.1.58) he was the chief of the elegiac poets; his elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans (see Neoterics), and imitated by Ovid, Catullus, and especially Sextus Propertius.[12] Many modern classicists hold Callimachus in high regard for his major influence on Latin poetry. Archaeological remains attest to this thematic and stylistic interaction as well. An erotic epigram attributed to Callimachus was found painted onto the interior wall of the Auditorium of Maecenas, a triclinium preserved on the Esquiline Hill in Rome.[18] Gaius Maecenas was a prominent patron of the arts who funded and entertained the most prominent elegiac writers of his time; it follows naturally than much activity intrinsic to Latin poetry took place in this Callimachus-inscribed room. This epigram's subject matter, an apology to a male lover for misbehavior caused by wine and lust, reinforces the tradition-breaking emotional individualism and witty experimentation valued by Latin elegiacs.[19]

Callimachus' most famous prose work is the Pinakes (Lists), a bibliographical survey of authors of the works held in the Library of Alexandria. The Pinakes was one of the first known documents that lists, identifies, and categorizes a library's holdings. By consulting the Pinakes, a library patron could find out if the library contained a work by a particular author, how it was categorized, and where it might be found. It is important to note that Callimachus did not seem to have any models for his pinakes, and invented this system on his own.[20]

Critical editions (Ancient Greek texts)[edit]

  • Pfeiffer, R. Callimachus, vol. i: Fragmenta (Oxford, 1949). ISBN 978-0-19-814115-0.
  • Pfeiffer, R. Callimachus, vol. ii: Hymni et epigrammata (Oxford, 1953). ISBN 978-0-19-814116-7.
  • Lloyd-Jones, H. et al. Supplementum Hellenisticum, (Berlin, 1983). ISBN 978-3-11-008171-8.

Commentaries[edit]

  • Bing, Peter. Callimachus’ Hymn to Delos 1–99: Introduction and Commentary (Dissertation, U. Michigan, 1981).
  • Bulloch, A. W. Callimachus: The Fifth Hymn (CUP, 1985). ISBN 978-0-521-11999-3.
  • Harder, M.A. Callimachus: Aetia (OUP, 2012). ISBN 978-0-19-958101-6.
  • Hollis, A.S. Callimachus: Hecale (OUP, 1990); 2nd ed. 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-956246-6.
  • Hopkinson, Neil. Callimachus: Hymn to Demeter (CUP, 1984). ISBN 978-0-521-60436-9.
  • Hopkinson, Neil. A Hellenistic Anthology (CUP, 1988). ISBN 978-0-521-31425-1.
  • Kerkhecker, Arnd. Callimachus' Book of Iambi (OUP, 1999). ISBN 978-0-19-924006-7.
  • Massimilla, G. Aitia. libri primo e secondo (Pisa: Giardini editori, 1996). ISBN 978-88-427-0013-5.
  • Massimilla, G. Aitia. libro terzo e quarto (Pisa: F. Serra, 2010). ISBN 978-88-6227-282-7.
  • McKay, K. J. Erysichthon: A Callimachean Comedy (Brill, 1962). ISBN 978-90-04-01470-1.
  • McKay, K. J. The Poet at Play: Kallimachus, The Bath of Pallas (Brill, 1962).
  • McLennan, G. R. Callimachus: Hymn to Zeus (Edizioni dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri, 1977).
  • Stephens, Susan A. Callimachus: The Hymns. Edited with Introduction, Translation and Commentary Oxford: Oxford University Press (2015). ISBN 0199783047
  • Williams, Frederick. Callimachus: Hymn to Apollo (OUP, 1978). ISBN 978-0-19-814007-8.

Translations[edit]

  • Lombardo, S. & Rayor, D.J. Callimachus: Hymns, Epigrams, Select Fragments (Johns Hopkins 1988). ISBN 978-0-8018-3281-9
  • Mair, A.W. & Mair, G.R. Callimachus: Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron and Aratus, Loeb Classical Library No. 129, 2nd rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: 1955) ISBN 978-0-674-99143-9.
  • Nisetich, Frank. The Poems of Callimachus (Oxford 2001). ISBN 978-0-19-815224-8
  • Stephens, Susan A. Callimachus: The Hymns. Edited with Introduction, Translation and Commentary Oxford: Oxford University Press (2015). ISBN 0199783047
  • Trypanis, C.A. et al. Callimachus: Aetia, Iambi, Hecale and Other Fragments. Musaeus: Hero and Leander, Loeb Classical Library No. 421 (Cambridge, MA: 1958) ISBN 978-0-674-99463-8.
  • William Johnson Cory 's well-known "Heraclitus" is a poetic translation of Callimachus's elegy for his friend Heraclitus of Halicarnassus (not the pre-Socratic philosopher.)

Criticism and history[edit]

  • Acosta-Hughes, B. Polyeideia: The Iambi of Callimachus and the Archaic Iambic Tradition (U. California, 2002). ISBN 978-0-520-22060-7.
  • Bing, P. The Well-Read Muse: Present and Past in Callimachus and the Hellenistic Poets, 2nd ed. (University of Michigan Press, 2008). ISBN 978-0-9799713-0-3.
  • Blum, R. Kallimachos. The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography, trans. H.H. Wellisch (U. Wisconsin, 1991). ISBN 978-0-299-13170-8.
  • Cameron, A. Callimachus and his Critics (Princeton, 1995). ISBN 978-0-691-04367-8.
  • de Romilly, J. A Short History of Greek Literature, trans. L. Doherty. (University of Chicago Press, 1985). ISBN 978-0-226-14312-5.
  • Fantuzzi, M. & Hunter, R. Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry (CUP, 2004). ISBN 978-0-521-83511-4.
  • Ferguson, John (1980). Callimachus. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
  • Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age (U. California, 1990) ISBN 978-0-520-08349-3, chapters 11 ('The Critic as Poet: Callimachus, Aratus of Soli, Lycophron') and 13 ('Armchair Epic: Apollonius Rhodius and the Voyage of Argo').
  • Harder, M. A.; Regtuit, R. F.; Wakker, G. C., eds. (1993). Hellenistica Groningana. Vol. 1: Callimachus. Groningen: Egbert Forsten.
  • Hunter, R. The Shadow of Callimachus (CUP, 2006). ISBN 978-0-521-69179-6.
  • Hutchinson, G. O. (1988). Hellenistic Poetry. New York: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814748-0.
  • Selden, D. "Alibis," Classical Antiquity 17 (1998), 289–411.
  • Smith, William (1844). "Callimachus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 3. Taylor and Walton.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Hopkinson 1988: 83 gives the birth year as "c. 305"; Mair 1955: 2 offers: "The most probable date on the whole for the birth of Callimachus is circ. 310 b.c. We learn from Vit. Arat. i. that Callimachus, both in his epigrams and also ἐν τοῖς πρὸς Πραξιφάνην, referred to Aratus as older than himself. But as they were fellow-students at Athens the difference of age is not likely to have been considerable: we may put the birth of Aratus in 315, that of Callimachus in 310."
  2. ^ Hopkinson 1988: 83
  3. ^ Hutchinson 1988: 38.
  4. ^ Hopkinson 1988: 83.
  5. ^ Epigram 2 Gow-Page.
  6. ^ See fr. 465 Pfeiffer.
  7. ^ See, e.g., Hymn to Zeus vv. 85-90, Hymn to Delos vv. 165ff.
  8. ^ P.Oxy. 1241.
  9. ^ Cameron (1995), p.227
  10. ^ The Greek word αἴτιον, aition means "cause" and here refers to a story type popular in Greek myth and history. The founding myth is a common example of an aition. The plural of αἴτιον, αἴτια (aitia), is most often rendered via the Latinized transliteration Aetia when referring to this poem.
  11. ^ Noel Robertson, "Callimachus' Tale of Sicyon ('SH' 238)" Phoenix 53.1/2 (Spring 1999:57–79), p. 58
  12. ^ a b c  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Callimachus". Encyclopædia Britannica. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 57.
  13. ^ Aetia 1, frag. 3.
  14. ^ Aetia 1, frags. 26–31a.
  15. ^ Aetia 1, frags. 31b–e.
  16. ^ Robertson 1999:58f, note 5.
  17. ^ Dee Clayman, Timon of Phlius 2009 ISBN 3110220806 pp 174-176
  18. ^ Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin (2019). Henriksen, Christer (ed.). A Companion to Ancient Epigram. John Wiley & Sons. p. 329.
  19. ^ Wyler, Stéphanie (2013). "An Augustan Trend towards Dionysos: Around the 'Auditorium of Maecenas'". In Bernabe, Alberto; Herrero deJáuregui, Miguel; San Cristóbal, Ana; Martín Hernández, Raquel (eds.). Redefining Dionysos.
  20. ^ Blum 1991, p. 236, cited in Phillips, Heather A. (August 2010). "The Great Library of Alexandria?". Library Philosophy and Practice. ISSN 1522-0222. Archived from the original on 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2011-01-03.

References[edit]

  • A history of the literature of ancient Greece, Vol. 1, J. W. Parker and son, 1858, p. 269f.
  • Callimachus at Livius.org
  • Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia - 2002

External links[edit]

Library resources about
Callimachus
By Callimachus
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