Archaic and Classical Greek Epigram

by Edited by Manuel Baumbach , Andrej Petrovic , Ivana Petrovic

• ISBN13: 9780521118057
• ISBN10: 0521118050
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-01-17
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

With contributions written by leading experts in the field, this volume explores the dialogue between Archaic and Classical Greek epigrams and their readers. The authors examine questions surrounding the identity of the speakers and the addressees. They also discuss the spatial, religious, historical and political contexts of epigram, as well as aspects of intertextuality, poetic variation and the creation of epigrammatic sub-genres. Collectively the volume demonstrates that the dominant view of epigram as a genre that became literary and artistic only in the Hellenistic period has to be revised. Archaic and Classical Greek epigrams did not simply serve the objects they describe but also demonstrate a high degree of aesthetic and literary achievement. This volume breaks new ground in the study of the genre and is important for scholars of classics, archaeology, epigraphy and papyrology.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. viii
List of contributors	p. x
Acknowledgements	p. xii
List of abbreviations	p. xiii
Archaic and classical Greek epigram: an introduction	p. 1
Contextualisation	p. 21
Speaking and reading: the dialogue between epigram and passer-by	p. 23
Speaker and addressee in early Greek epigram and Lyric	p. 25
The passer-by in archaic and classical epigram	p. 42
Voice in sepulchral epigrams: some remarks on the use of first and second person in sepulchral epigrams, and a comparison with lyric poetry	p. 61
Art and viewing: the spatial context	p. 79
Epigrams in archaic art: the 'Chest of Kypselos'	p. 81
The Callimachus monument on the Athenian Acropolis (CEG 256) and Athenian commemoration of the Persian Wars	p. 100
'Dialectics at a standstill': archaic kouroi-cum-epigram as I-Box	p. 131
Epigram and performance: the religious context	p. 149
Life in a line: a reading of dedicatory epigrams from the archaic and classical period	p. 151
Observations on the dedicatory and sepulchral epigrams, and their early history	p. 167
Propaganda and memorial: the historical and political context	p. 181
Epigrams on the Persian Wars: monuments, memory and politics	p. 183
True lies of Athenian public epigrams	p. 202
Generic and literary contexts: the rise and reception of epigrammatic subgenera	p. 217
Heroic epitaphs of the classical age: the Aristotelian Peplos and beyond	p. 219
The origin of epigrams on 'speaking objects'	p. 250
Literarisation: 'From Stone to Book'	p. 261
Losing context: intertextuality and poetic variation	p. 263
Language and interpretation in Greek epigram	p. 265
Typologies of variation on a theme in archaic and classical metrical inscriptions	p. 289
Inventing contexts: ecphrasis and narration	p. 311
Epigram as narration	p. 313
Appendix: Lengths of verse inscriptions 750-400 BC	p. 378
Ecphrasis in fits and starts? Down to 300 BC	p. 385
Bibliography	p. 404
Index	p. 428
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.