THE NEW ALEXANDRIANS - T-Space - University of Toronto

359 Pages·1998·22.35 MB·English

THE NEW ALEXANDRIANS:
THE MODERNIST REVIVAL OF HELLENISTIC POETlCS
IN THE POETRY OF T.S. ELIOT AND EZRA POUND
Anita Christina George
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate Department of Comparative Literature
University of Toronto
@Copyright by Anita Christina George (19 97)
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The New Alexandrians: The Modernist Revival of Hellenistic Poetics in the Poetry of
T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Doctor of Philosophy, 1997. Anita Christina George.
Graduate Department of Comparative Literature, University of Toronto.
The thesis examines the modernist revival of a poetic revolution begun in Alexandria
in third century B.C. by the Greek poet Callimachus and his circle, and revived in first
century B.C. by the Roman poets Catullus, Ovid, Propertius, and Virgil. After examining
Eliot's and Pound's knowledge of the Alexandrian poetic movement and the possible
roads of influence, Chapter 1 focuses on the differences between Alexandrian and
non-Alexandrian poetics in respect to their approach to allusion. obscurity, and genre.
Chapter 2 concentrates on the question of genre: what is epic and what is its
relationship to lyric? I examine Callimachus' Hecale, Ovid's Metamorphoses and
Pound's Cantos as attempts to create a new form of epic which fuses the large-scale
epic form with the small-scale lyric style. This new Alexandrian epic arises from the
Hesiodic, as opposed to Homeric, tradition of epic. Each of these three poets was
concernecl with finding a viable alternative to traditional Homeric unity; each arrived at
the same solution in the creation of overall associative unity by linking disjunctive
elements one to the other. The means of doing this I cal1 the "associative technique."
The second half of the thesis examines the fusion of lyric with epic in the poetry
books of Theocritus, Virgil, and Eliot. Chapter 3 begins by looking at the poetry book
as genre: what is the difference between a poetry book and a poetry collection and
what is the relation of the former to epic? While Theocritus' Idylis, Virgil's Eclogues,
and Eliot's Prufrock and Other Observations, on the forrnal level, present themselves
generically as collections of individual poems, on the stylistic level, they enact also the
generic codes of greater epic. Each of these three poets uses the associative
technique to instil unity in the poetry book as a whole. This chapter discusses the
relationship of the poetry book to the epic genre and the implications of that
relationship for how these poetry books are to be read. Finally, Chapter 4 provides an
in-depth exegesis of how the associative technique works to create epic unity in the
Idyiis, the Eclogues and Prufrock and Other Observations.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My first thanks must go my parents for their loving support throughout the course
of my studies. I am grateful to my Cornmittee for their excellent advice and
encouragement: rny supervisor, Ted Chamberlin, helped me to form the theoretical
basis for the dissertation and was always there when I needed him to act as a
sounding board; as a representative of the rigorous discipline of Classics. Emmet
Robbins assisted me with the Greek and kept me honest; Fred Flahiff provided
extensive feedback on the work in progress and often challenged me by playing
Devil's advocate. Many of the ideas contained within the thesis first twk root in
Professor Flahiff's undergraduate Modem Poetry course and were further developed
when he generously agreed to supervise me in a year-long independent study on
Ezra Pound and the epic tradition. I also owe specU thanks to Alison M. Keith, whose
undergraduate course in Latin elegy provided my first iwdepth introduction to the
Roman Alexandrians, and who generousiy supervised me in a one-year independent
study on the Greek Alexandrians. Dr. Keith helped me to formulate my ideas as we
debated them over endless cups of coffee, and made many helpful bibliographical
suggestions. My gratitude also goes out to Princes Mary de Rachewiltz, the daughter
of Ezra Pound, who on two occasions allowed me access to her private collection at
Brunnenburg Castle. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the
Social Sciences and Hurnanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Graduate
Scholarship program, the Connaught Foundation, the Harcourt Brown Foundation.
and the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies.
Table of Contents
Introduction. .
Chapter 1. Alexandrian and Modernist Poetics
The Background: Eliot and Pound's Knowledge of Alexandrian
Poetics. ........................................................................................................... -16
Alexandrian Allusion: What it is and How it Functions. ........................... 41
Ob scurity and Difficulty in Alexandrian Poetry. ........................................ -62
The Deferral of Meaning : The Function of Notes and Epigraphs. ........ -71
Foreign Languages as a Lrterary Device. .................................................. 88
lntertextwl Allusion: Poe& at Play. ............................................................ -96
Summary ........................................................................................................ 105
Chapter 2. The Cantos of Ezra Pound and The Alexandrian Epic Tradition
The Generic Question. ................................................................................. 107
Callimachus and the New Epic: The Alexandrian Revolution. ............. 113
The Associative Technique in the Cantos and the Metamorphoses ... 14 0
Chapter 3. The Alexandrian Poetry Book: A Case for the Idyk. the Eclogues.
and Prufrock and Other Observations
The Poetry Book as Genre. ......................................................................... -165
Ancient Relations: The Poetry Book and the Epic Genre ....................... 198
Chapter 4. Unity Within the Poetry Book
The Traditions of Epic Unity. ....................................................................... 216
Associative Unity in Theocritus' Idy/Is. ................................................... 235
Associative Unity in Virgi 1's Eclogues ....................................................... 258
Associative Unity in T.S. Eliot's Prufrock and Other Observations. ....- 2%
Appendix A . Repeated Story Elements in Ovid's Metamorphoses. .................3 17
Appendix B. Repeated Characters in the Eclogues. ........................................... 318
l ntroduction
When Callimachus (c.305-c.240B .C.) left Cyrene to come to Alexandria, he
entered a city which was born only 26 years before him. Created frorn the remains of a
lonely outpost, what becarne the political centre of Egypt and the cultural hub of the
Greek world had been mere villages and twelve rivers rushing down to the sea.1 The
most important of these little villages was Rhacotis, a guard post which the Pharaohs
used to keep al1 foreign influence-both goods and peoples--out of Egypt. In 331 B.C.,
Alexander chose this site for his new city, presumably because of its easy sea access
to Europe. Ptolemy Soter made it his home in 323 B.C. Villages were levelled, rivers
filled in to form main streets and city squares, and exclusionary doors were flung open
with a beckoning gesture. Foreigners, once so zealously kept back, now poured in
from al1 over the Greek world.
When one considers that prior to 331 B.C. there was virtually nothing and no
one on the site of Alexandria, it is remarkable that the city was fully functional very
shortly after its foundation (Fraser 6). Where did al1 the people corne from? Scholars
continue to be baffled as to the source of the original population (Fraser 63). Greeks
who immigrated to Alexandria lived in the city as foreign nationals (Xenoi), maintaining
their Greek ethnics and civic links to their cities of orïgin. With perhaps the exception of
Apollonius of Rhodes. al1 of the great narnes in scholarship, literature and science
were from this group (Fraser 50). Still, they were greatly outnumbered by the non-
Greek population.2 The latter consisted of two groups: Egyptians, who had no
recognised civic status. and Jews, who, protected by their own constitution, kept
separate from both Egyptians and Greeks.
1 For the foundation and history of Alexandria. see P.M. Fraser. Ptolemaic Alexandria, 3 vol., Oxford:
Clarendon P, 1972: 1: Sff.
2 Neil Hopkinson estimates the Greek population at 100.000. the Egyptian at 7 million. A Hellenistic
Anthology, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988: 3.
1
Ptolemy Soter found himself the ruler of a city with no roots, with no culture. in a
city with no past. His response was to acquire one. His first step was to seek out the
brightest intellectual lights in the entire Greek world and set them within the Museum
he had created for them. The Museum (literally "shrine of the Muses") was established
as a place where al1 of the Greek literature of the past could be compiled, studied,
explained. and revivified in the verse of the poet-scholars who lived and worked there.
The idea of a Museum was not new in itself. Many Greek cities had buildings called
Museums which functioned as cult centres for the worship of the Muses (Fraser 305).
What was new was Ptolemy's vision of the Museum as a place of scholarship. His
concept was as new as his city: for the first time in history the creations of the past
would be objects of study (Fraser 305). Ironically, then, this city with no past became
the first to appropriate and objectify the past.
Ptolemy attracted intellectuals to Alexandria with the promise of patronage.
Another attraction was the chance to live and work in close proximity with others of
intellect and accomplishment in a place where everything was fresh and new and
anything seemed possible. But perhaps the strongest attraction was the opportunity to
read and ponder al1 the great works of the Greek world. The importance of this factor
cannot be over-stated: because of the difficulties and expense involved in producing
books, iibraries (if they even existed in the modern sense of the word) were rare and
their holdings meagre. In the fourth century, some tyrants had book collections and
Aristotle had considerable holdings at the Lyceum, but there was nothing on the scale
of the library at Alexandria (Fraser 324). The acquisition of books for the library was
even more aggressive than the campaign to acquire intellectuals. Crown agents were
regularly sent to Athens and Rhodes (the two main book markets) to purchase new
holdings. Books not on the market for sale were gotten by other means, often
underhanded. For example, in the reign of Euergetes. an order was issued to search
ail ships unloading in Alexandria, confiscate any books, and copy them. The copies
were then returned to the sMps and the prized originals found a new home in the
Alexandrian library (Fraser 325). It is said that Ptolemy went so far as to trick the
Athenians out of their priceless original manuscripts by ostensibly borrowing their
official copies of the works of the three great tragedians (leaving a large deposit as
security). He had handsorne copies made on the best papyri and returned the copies
to Athens. forfeiting his deposit. The originals stayed in Alexandria.
The concept of the poet-scholar begins with Antimachus of Colophon (born c.
440 B.C.), the author of the Lyde, a long elegiac poem much admired by many
Hellenistic writers (but not Callimachus)3 and the Thebaid, an epic poem which was
still read and enjoyed 500 years after Antirnachus' death.4 Antirnachus produced an
edition of Homer which scholars continued to use for centuries. He was the first poet
whose scholarly interest in philology influenced his work: his verse abounds in rare
Homeric "glosses" (words of doubtful meaning), archaisms and neologisms, and was
famed for its obscurity.
The first major writer who was both poet and scholar was Philetas of Cos (born
c. 320 B.C.). the precursor of the Alexandrian poetic movement. While there is no
direct evidence that Philetas was ever in Alexandria, he was tutor to Ptolemy Soter's
3 Callimachus' disdain is apparent in fr. 398. which I translate: "The Lyde isa gross [pachus] and obscure
poem." As I will discuss in Chapter 1, Callimachus prized poetry that was leptos (slender, elegant) and
rejected the pachus (fat, gross). Unles otherwise stated, al1 references to Callimachus are to R. Pfeiffer's
2 vol. edition, Callimachus, Oxford: Clarendon. 19 49.19 53:t ranslations of the Hymns and Epigrams are
from A.W. Mair's, Callimachus, Lycophron, Aratus, London and Cambridge: William Heinemann and
Harvard UP, 1921, revised 1955; and translations of the Aetia, lambi, Hecale, and uncertain fragments are
from C.A. Trypanis, Callimachus. Fragments. London and Cambridge: William Heinemann and Harvard UP,
1958.
4 E.F.M. Benecke, Antimachus of Colophon, London: 1896: 107. Benecke is now superceded by Victor
J. Matthews' excellent, comprehensive edition, Antimachus of Colophon. Text and Comrnentary, Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1996. Unfortunately, this work appeared too tate for me to make use of it.
heir (the future Philadelphus) and thus likely followed Ptolemy to Alexandria at some
point. Philetas' schoiarship includes a standard reference book on rare words and
dialect forms in Homer as well as interpretations of Homer. His pupil Zenodotus
succeeded him as regal tutor and was appointed as the first Librarian of the newly
established library in 284 B.C. While al1 sources agree that Zenodotus was the first
Librarian and there is evidence that Apollonius of Rhodes and Eratosthenes followed
him, it is not known in what order. There is no evidence (though much dispute
remains) that Callimachus himself was ever Librarian, although he was certainly very
active in the library.5
It is thought that the poets who were supported by Ptolemy in the Museum also
worked in the library sorting, cataloguing, and editing the ever-increasing bulk of new
acquisitions. The fruits of their labour were diverse and, particularly in the case of
Callimachus. copious. Zenodotus was the first to take on the task of producing a critical
edition of Homer and is considered reçponsible for the division into twenty-four books
of the lliad and the Odyssey (Hopkinson 9). He also wrote monographs on Homer and
a glossography of epic and lyric poetic language.6 Apollonius of Rhodes performed
textual work on Homer and wrote an attack on Zenodotus. He also worked on Hesiod's
Works and Days and on the poems of Archilochus. Lycophron (the author of the
extraordinarily obscure and pedantic hexameter poem Alexandra) was an expert on
comedy, producing a treatise on the subject as well as the earliest attesteci compilation
of anagrams (Bulloch 548). Callimachus' scholarship was prodigious. varied. and
ambitious.7 His major work was the Pinakes ("Tables"), a highly influential work in one
5 The only ancient source that suggests Callimachus was a Librarian is the "LatinT zetzesnw hich calls him
" aulicus regius bibliothecarius" (Fraser3 30).
6 A. W. Bulloch, " Hellenistic Poetry." Cambridge Hiçtory of C/assical Literature. Vol. 7 :G reek Lïferature.
Eds. P.E . Easterling and B. M.W . Knox. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989:5 47.
7 Details of Callimachus' scholarly works are drawn from Fraser 452-456 and Bulloch 550.