Table Of ContentTALKING BOOKS
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Talking Books
Readings in Hellenistic and Roman
Books of Poetry
G. O. HUTCHINSON
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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Hutchinson,G.O.
Talkingbooks:readingsinHellenisticandRomanbooksofpoetry/G.O.Hutchinson.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindexes.
ISBN–13: 978–0–19–927941–8
1. GreekPoetry—Historyandcriticism. 2. Latinpoetry—Historyandcriticism. I. Title.
PA3092.H88 2008
881’.0109—dc22 2008004126
TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India
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ISBN 978–0–19–927941–8
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
In memoriam F. C. Downing soceri carissimi
et M. Downing socrus carissimae
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Preface
This volume collects some recent pieces which concern books of
poetry from the third century bc and the ‘long’ first century bc,
and adds four new chapters. Of these the first is a relatively lengthy
creationofcontext,bywayofprologue,thelast,bywayofepilogue,
a relatively brief attempt to assemble and advance some of the
argument. An appendix has been affixed to chapter 9; the first part
of that piece has been expanded. 40 per cent of the book is new.
Various changes have been made in the rest; but there has been no
systematic attempt to update since the original publications. The
wholepackage,thoughdealingonlywithsomeauthorsandperiods,
aspirestobroadenanddeepenthestudyofpoetry-books.
Theideaofsuchavolumewasnotmine,butProfessorA.Barchi-
esi’s; I am deeply grateful to him for his heart-warming encourage-
ment.Thearticleshadatanyratebeenwrittenwithconnectedlinesof
thoughtinmind.ThoughIhavelongbeeninterestedinpoeticbooks
(cf.Hutchinson(1984)),thepapyrusofPosidippusengagedmeinthe
subject afresh (cf. ch. 4). If other subjects come into some of the
pieces,thatisnotaltogether unfortunate: itispart of thepointthat
this subject must be considered like and together with othercritical
questions. (‘Books’ in the title is accusative as well as nominative.)
The conclusions suggested to particular problems do not matter so
much as the general approach. The work is meant to encourage,
among other things, the active study of Greek and Latin together,
andinvolvementwithactualancientbooks—papyri—inconsidering
booksofpoetry.
The work has been written during a period encumbered with
major administrative jobs in Faculty and College, and enlivened by
thefourthbookofPropertius.Thismayserveasanexcuseforsome
of its shortcomings. Besides the many debts acknowledged in the
text, I have further debts to Dr D. Colomo, Dr R. Daniel, Dr G. F.
DeSimone,DrR.Dekker,ProfessorJ.Diggle,ProfessorM.E´tienne,
ProfessorF.Ferrari,ProfessorK.J.Gutzwiller,ProfessorP.R.Hardie,
Professor S. J. Harrison, Ms J. Himpson, Professor N. Holzberg,
viii Preface
Professor R. L. Hunter, Professor Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Professor
R. T. MacFarlane, Professor D. J. Mastronarde, Dr D. Obbink, Pro-
fessor J. I. Porter, Dr F. Reiter, Professor D. Sider, Dr S. E. Snyder,
ProfessorV.M.Strocka.IamobligedtotheVerlagDr.RudolfHabelt
GmbH,Bonn,forpermissiontorepublishchapters2,4,and9(ori-
ginalversions: Zeitschriftfu¨r Papyrologie undEpigraphik 145(2003),
47–59; 138 (2002), 1–10; 155 (2006), 71–84); to the Cambridge
University Press for permission to republish chapters 5, 6, and
7 (Classical Quarterly 53 (2003), 206–21; 52 (2002), 517–37; S.
J.Harrison(ed.),TheCambridgeCompaniontoHorace(Cambridge,
2007),36–49);andtotheOxfordUniversityPressforpermissionto
republish chapter 3 (M. J. Clarke, B. G. F. Currie, R. O. A. M. Lyne
(edd.), Epic Interactions: Perspectives on Homer, Virgil, and the Epic
Tradition Presented to Jasper Griffin (Oxford 2006), 105–29). Hilary
O’Shea and others at the Press have been kind and helpful as ever.
Dr D. McCarthy and Dr K. M. Fearn have assisted indefatigably
with production, and Ms S. Newton has copy-edited vigilantly and
sympathetically. My wife and daughter have given cheerful support
and have endured my cooking, jokes, and papyri with meritorious
patience.
GregoryHutchinson
ExeterCollege,Oxford
September2007
Contents
ListofIllustrations xi
Abbreviations xiii
1. DoingThingswithBooks 1
2. TheAetia:Callimachus’PoemofKnowledge 42
Appendix:Catullus’CallimacheanBookand
theLockofBerenice 64
3. HellenisticEpicandHomericForm 66
4. TheNewPosidippusandLatinPoetry 90
5. TheCatullanCorpus,GreekEpigram,andthe
PoetryofObjects 109
6. ThePublicationandIndividualityofHorace’s
OdesBooks1–3 131
7. HoraceandArchaicGreekPoetry 162
8. Ovid,Amores3:TheBook 177
9. TheMetamorphosisofMetamorphosis:P.Oxy.
4711andOvid 200
Appendix:Metamorphoses9 225
10. StructuringInstruction:DidacticPoetry
andDidacticProse 228
11. BooksandScales 251
Bibliography 267
Indexes 309
I. IndexofPassagesDiscussed 309
II. GeneralIndex 320
Description:Increasing importance is being attached to how Greek and Latin books of poems were arranged, but such research has often been carried out with little attention to the physical fragments of actual ancient poetry-books. In this extensive study Gregory Hutchinson investigates the design of Greek and La
