The Development of the Epyllion Genre Through the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

194 Pages·2001·3.683 MB·English

by  Carol Una Merriam

THE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE EPYLLION GENRE THROUGH
THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PERIODS

THE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE EPYLLION GENRE THROUGH
THE HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN PERIODS
Carol U. Merriam
Studies in Classics
Volwne 14
The Edwin Mellen Press
Lewiston•Queenston•Lampeter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationD ata
Merriam, Carol U.
The development of the epyllion genre through the Hellenistic and Roman periods /
Carol U. Merriam.
p. cm. - (Studies in classics ; v. 14)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7734-7532-X
1. Epic poetry, Classical-History and criticism. 2. Greek poetry, Hellenistic-History
and criticism. 3. Literary form. I. Title. II. Series.
PA3022.E6 M47 2001
880'.09--dc21
00-050097
This is volume 14 in the continuing series
Studies in Classics
Volume 14 ISBN 0-7734-7532-X
SC Series ISBN 0-88946-684-X
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2001 Carol U. Merriam
All rights reserved. For information contact
The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press
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USA 14092-0450 CANADA LOS lLO
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For Anton

Studieisn the EpyllionT; heB ackP oot of Epic
TABLEO FC ONTENTS
Preface by R.S.Kilpatrick vii
Introduction . 1
Chapter I: Alcmena's Story (Theocritus, /dyl/ 24) . 25
Chapter 2: Europa's Adventure (Moschus' Europa) . 51
Chapter 3: Culmination of the Form (Catullus 64) 75
Chapter 4: The Final Stages (The Latin Epyllion) 127
Conclusion 159
Bibliography . 163
Index of passagesc ited . 171
General index . 179

vii
PREFACE
R.S Kilpatrick
Towards the end of the second century C.E., Athenaeus of Naucratis
completed a lengthy literary symposium called Doctors at Dinner (ileurvooocpu:mxi).
Among the scraps of information he records on ancient literature is a use of the
diminutive "epyllion"(2.65a) to signify a Homeric miniature epic. In modem times
"epyllion" has supplied a technical term for the Alexandrian mini-epic in Greek (and
later Latin) hexameters, appearing first in the work of Haupt (Opuscula ,1855).
Fordyce uses it with some misgivings (1961) in his Catullus-commentary (1961) :
The term has a certain convenience, but it is misleading in so far as
it obscures the fact that the technique of story-telling was essentially
the same in 'miniature epics' (like Callimachus' Hecale) and in
Narrative elegies (like his Aetia) and in the narrative parts of hymns
(like his hymn on the Bath of Pallas).
Present understanding of a genre regularly referred to as the "epyllion" has been
further shaped by the work of Jackson (1913), Perutelli (1923), Crump (1931), Allen
(1940), Perotta (1979) and Gutzwiller (1981). The real deficiencies in our
understanding of the elusive epyllion are clearly revealed by Professor Carol
Merriam's fine monograph.
viii
As Professor Merriam points out, the responses to the ancient epyllion have
included attempts to discredit not only the use of the term, but the very existence of
the literary form to which it has been applied for a century and a half. She establishes
beyond reasonabled oubt that there exists a definablet ype of ancient poetry with clear
and distinctive characteristics,a nd fitting a designationb y the long-establishedt erm,
epyllion. There are, she demonstrates, shorter narrative hexameter poems and parts
of poems and sections of poems in Greek and Latin, beginning with Theocritus and
continuing in an unbroken tradition through Ovid, which taken as a group do
constitute a sub-genre of narrative epic. It excludes grand traditional themes of epic
such as battlefield, megaron society, extended journey, and centrality of the male
hero. (Selection of events for the Hellenistic epyllion may also be inspired, for
instance, by Homer's domestic scenes in Odysseus' palace on Ithaca, or even the
panels on Achilles' shield, which represent aspects of the peaceful and productive
domestic life the hero must forgo to preserve his honour.) The epyllion gives us
wives and mothers and the children who will one day grow up to be heroes. Merriam
finds the characters who most typically influence the events of the epyllion to be, in
fact, women at home within their own women's world in that heroic age of myth. In
the major genres of epic and tragedy, however, important female characters must
make their marks in a man's world.
Q.E.D. We have as unmistakable sub-genre of poetic narrative deserving a
name not recorded in ancient literature, but for which "epyllion" is available, and
well established in modem usage. In this poetic tradition, Merriam finds "women
with a strong domestic base, taking action on their own initiative which strongly
affects this domestic milieu and the characters therein." Such women tell their
stories, while the traditional male characters become "furniture."
Among the defining elements borrowed by the epyllion from epic, for
example, is the "prophecy" -- hopeful or ominous. (Prophecies in the lliad, for