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The Epigrams of Callimachus1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

John Ferguson
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Extract

Callimachus was the Housman of antiquity. He had formidable learning, combative pugnacity, and a rare capacity to put both aside and write with exquisite simplicity. His learning is seen in the traditions about his pupils, who were reputed to include Eratosthenes, Aristophanes of Byzantium, and Apollonius of Rhodes, with whom he was later on terms of enmity. It is seen in his association with the library at Alexandria. A scholiast to Plautus says that he held the post of librarian. That he was not chief librarian is proved by the list preserved in a papyrus at Oxyrhynchus, but there is no reason to doubt that he served on the library staff, especially as his published works included a library catalogue. It is to be seen in his later reputation: thus to Philippus Callimachus is the main weapon of the dry-as-dust army of commentators (AP 11. 321) and to study him is an investigation in the dark (AP 11. 347). It is seen in the volume of his works which numbered over eight hundred, and their general character. They show a taste for curious learning; one may instance a series on Local Nomenclature which included a book on Local Month-Names, or another on The Rivers of the World with separate volumes for Europe and Asia, or a volume on Foundations and Name-Changes of Islands and States, or Geographical Wonders of the World.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , April 1970 , pp. 64 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

1 A double numbering of the Epigrams is given, according to A. S. F. Gow and D. L. Page The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1965), cited as GP, and R. Pfeiffer Callimachus, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1949–1953), cited as Pf. A. E. Housman's three slim volumes of verse are cited as SL = A Shropshire Lad, LP = Last Poems, MP = More Poems. They are conveniently gathered in The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman (London, 1939).

The translations are based on the fact that the classical hexameter tends to divide into two parts at the caesura (though Callimachus often avoids a strong caesura in the third foot), and the pentameter virtually always has a strong division. I have used a kind of sprung rhythm with 4 half-lines to a couplet; in the first two there are normally from two to four stresses, in the second two normally two or three. I have tried so far as is compatible with good English to preserve the relationship of the words in the Greek where this seemed meaningful. I have tried to avoid imposing myself on Callimachus, and have let Callimachus speak for himself.