Description
Alexandria was the greatest of the new cities founded by Alexander the Great as his armies swept eastward. It was ruled by his successors, the Ptolemies, who presided over one of the richest and most productive periods in the whole of Greek literature. Susan A Stephens here reveals a cultural world in transition: reverential of the compositions of the past (especially after construction of the great library, repository for all previous Greek oeuvres), but at the same time forward-looking and experimental, willing to make use of previous forms of writing in exciting new ways. The author examines Alexandria's poets in turn. She discusses the strikingly avant-garde Aetia of Callimachus; the idealized pastoral forms of Theocritus (which anticipated the invention of fiction); and the neo-Homerian epic of Apollonius, the Argonautica, with its impressive combination of narrative grandeur and psychological acuity. She shows that all three poets were innovators, even while they looked to the past for inspiration: drawing upon Homer, Hesiod, Pindar and the lyric poets, they emphasized stories and material that were entirely relevant to their own progressive cosmopolitan environment.
About the Author
Susan A Stephens is Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics at Stanford University. Her books include Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexandria (2003), Callimachus in Context: From Plato to the Augustan Poets (with Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, 2012) and Callimachus: The Hymns (2015).
Reviews
Intended primarily as an introduction for undergraduates, but can be read with profit by more advanced students, and indeed by generalists interested in the classical world ... An ideal introduction for anyone wanting to find out and think about Hellenistic poetry. The chapter on Posidippus is alone worth the book's modest price. * Classics for All *
Book Information
ISBN 9781848858800
Author Susan A. Stephens
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint I.B. Tauris
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 267g
About the Author
Susan A Stephens is Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics at Stanford University. Her books include Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexandria (2003), Callimachus in Context: From Plato to the Augustan Poets (with Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, 2012) and Callimachus: The Hymns (2015).
Reviews
Intended primarily as an introduction for undergraduates, but can be read with profit by more advanced students, and indeed by generalists interested in the classical world ... An ideal introduction for anyone wanting to find out and think about Hellenistic poetry. The chapter on Posidippus is alone worth the book's modest price. * Classics for All *
Book Information
ISBN 9781848858800
Author Susan A. Stephens
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint I.B. Tauris
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 267g
