Format:
1 Online-Ressource (VII, 368 Seiten)
ISBN:
9783110615272
Series Statement:
Trends in Classics 71
Content:
Hellenistic poets opted and were very likely expected to deal meaningfully, and perhaps competitively, with the tradition they inherited. They also needed to secure the goodwill of actual or potential patrons. Apollonius, the author of a novel heroic epic, eschews references to literary polemics and patronage. Callimachus often adopts a polemical stance against some colleagues in order to suggest his poetic excellence. Theocritus chooses a third way, which has not been investigated adequately. He avoids antagonism but ironizes the theme of poetic excellence and distances himself from the tradition of competitive success. He does not cast his narrators as superior to predecessors and contemporaries but stresses the advantages and merits of colleagues. This rejection of conceit is connected with a major strand in Theocritean poetry: the power of word, including song, to provide assistance to characters in distress is a major open issue. Language is versatile and potent but not all-powerful. Song gives pleasure but is not a panacea while instruction and advice are never helpful and may even prove harmful. Most genuine pieces are ambiguous and open-ended so that the aspirations of characters are not presented as doomed to failure.
Note:
Frontmatter -- -- Contents -- -- Acknowledgments -- -- Introduction -- -- I. Lovers and friends: lovesickness, advice and illusion -- -- II. Success and failure in love and song -- -- III. Chambers of echoes: bucolic song and little epics -- -- IV. Once upon a time and nowadays: song and patronage -- -- V. Masters and colleagues: epigrams on poets old and new -- -- Bibliography -- -- Index of passages -- -- Index of names
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9783110614794
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9783110614602
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe Kyriaku, Pulcheria Theocritus and his native Muse Berlin : De Gruyter, 2018 ISBN 9783110614602
Additional Edition:
ISBN 311061460X
Language:
English
Keywords:
Theocritus
DOI:
10.1515/9783110615272
URL:
Volltext
(lizenzpflichtig)
Author information:
Kyriaku, Pulcheria
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