The Narrator in Archaic Greek and Hellenistic Poetry

371 Pages·2007·1.55 MB·English

by  A. D. Morrison

THE NARRATOR IN ARCHAIC GREEK
AND HELLENISTIC POETRY
This book re-examines the relationship of Hellenistic poetry to
Archaic poetry. It demonstrates how Callimachus, Theocritus and
Apolloniusdeveloptheirprimarynarratorsormainnarrativevoices–
acentralfeatureoftheirpoeticmanner–byexploitingandadapting
models from a wide range of Archaic poets and genres, including
Homer,Hesiod,theHomericHymns,Pindar,Sappho,Archaiciambos
andearlyelegy.Itgoesbeyondpreviousworkbybringingtogethera
closestudyoftheHellenisticremakingofthepoeticformsofthepast
withthefirstcomprehensiveexaminationoftheprimarynarratorsof
the major poems and fragments of Archaic and Hellenistic poetry.
Building on narratological approaches to literary texts, it explores
the ways in which Archaic poets create their narrators and develop
personas across their different works. The Hellenistic engagement
withtheseArchaicpersonas,andthetechniquesforcreatingthem,is
in part a way of saving Archaic poetic voices for the very different
Hellenisticworld.But,asthisstudyshows,poetssuchasPindarand
Hesiod provided an invaluable narrative ‘pattern book’ for
Hellenisticpoetstoadaptandexperimentwith.
A.D. MORRISON is Lecturer in Classics at the University of
Manchester,havingstudiedatOxfordandLondon.Hispublications
include Performances and Audiences in Pindar’s Sicilian Victory Odes
(2007)and,co-editedwithR.Morello,AncientLetters:Classicaland
LateAntiqueEpistolography(2007).

THE NARRATOR IN ARCHAIC
GREEK AND HELLENISTIC
POETRY
A.D. MORRISON
UniversityofManchester
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Contents
Preface pageix
Listofabbreviations xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Archaicnarrativeandnarrators 36
3 Callimacheannarrators 103
4 ThenarratorsofTheocritus 221
5 Confidenceandcrisis:thenarratorintheArgonautica 271
6 Contextsandconclusions 312
Bibliography 322
Indexofpassages 340
Generalindex 352
vii

Preface
Ihaveanumberofpeopletothankfortheirhelpintheproductionofthis
book. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors,
Herwig Maehler, Richard Janko and Alan Griffiths, for their help, guid-
anceandadvicethroughoutmytimeatUCL.InparticularIwouldliketo
thankAlan,whowasmyprincipalsupervisorforthreeyears,forhispatient
and helpful criticism of my ideas about Hellenistic poetry, and his sage
advice.IwouldalsoliketothankAngusBowie,whofirsttaughtmeabout
Greekpoetry(andmuchelsebesides),andPaulFentem,whofirstsetme
onthehappyroadwhichledtoPindarandCallimachus.
I would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Board of the
BritishAcademyforprovidingmewithaPostgraduateStudentshipwhich
enabledmetocarryoutthethesiswhicheventuallygaverisetothisbook,
andtoallmycolleaguesintheDepartmentofClassicsandAncientHistory
atManchesterforgivingmethechancetoteachandfinishfirstmythesis
andnowthisbookinsuchafriendlyandstimulatingenvironment.
From my time in London there are various people to whom I am very
grateful for a variety of things – five (then) fellow UCL Ph.D. students,
AndrewBevan,LeightonPugh,MarielleSutherland,WillBroadheadand
Yumna Khan, as well as Matthew Entwistle, Anna Pearce and, of course,
Eric Blaum. Thanks also to my Ph.D. examiners Richard Hunter and
Chris Carey for extremely insightful and perceptive comments on the
thesis.RichardHunterfirstcommended an earlierversionof thebookto
thePress,forwhichIamalsoverygrateful.Theanonymousreadersforthe
Press, who improved this book immeasurably, also deserve my thanks, as
doJoBreeze,SarahParkerandMichaelSharpatthePress,andmyhawk-eyed
copyeditor,IvetaAdams,whosavedmefrommanyerrors.Thankstooto
BICS and its editors for allowing me to adapt parts of my article ‘Sexual
ambiguityandtheidentityofthenarratorinCallimachus’HymntoAthena’
inthisbook.
ix