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This article is about the poet. For the Athenian polemarch at the Battle of Marathon, see Callimachus (polemarch). Callimachus (Καλλίμαχος was Polemarch in Athens in 490 BC and was one of the commanders at the Battle of Marathon. For the sculptor, see Callimachus (sculptor). For the Alexandrian poet and keeper of the Museum see Callimachus of Cyrene. For the Renaissance scholar, see Filip Callimachus. Filip Callimachus or Callimach ( Latin Philippus Callimachus Experiens, Filip Kallimach born Filippo Buonaccorsi, Bonacursius

Callimachus (Greek: ο Καλλίμαχος, 310 BC/305 BC-240 BC) was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Events By place Seleucid Empire Antigonus orders Nicanor, one of his generals to invade Babylonia from the east and Events By place Seleucid Empire Seleucus establishes Seleucia on the Tigris River as his capital Events By place Carthage Two of Carthage 's Mercenary commanders — Spendius and Mathos — convince the Cyrene (in Greek, Κυρήνη &ndash Kurene) was an ancient Greek Colony in present-day Libya, the oldest and most Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab He was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of ancient Egyptian Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes. The Royal Library of Alexandria or Ancient Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was once the largest library in the ancient world This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions Pharaoh is the title given in modern parlance to the ancient Egyptian kings of all periods Ptolemy II Philadelphus ( Greek:, Ptolemaĩos Philádelphos, 309 BC&ndash246 BC was the king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 283 BC to 246 BC Ptolemy III Euergetes, ( Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Εὐεργέτης, Ptolemaĩos Euergétēs, reigned 246 BC&ndash222 BC was the third ruler Although he was never made chief librarian, he was responsible for producing the catalogue of all the volumes contained in the Library. His Pinakes (tablets), 120 volumes long, provided the complete and chronologically arranged catalogue of the Library, laying the foundation for later work on the history of Greek literature. Greek literature refers to those writings autochthonic to the areas of Greek influence typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects throughout the As one of the earliest critic-poets, he typifies Hellenistic scholarship. This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period.

Contents

Family and early life

Callimachus was a man of Libyan Greek origin. Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions He was born and raised in Cyrene, as member of a distinguised family, his parents being Mesatme (or Mesatma) and Battus, supposed descendant of the first Greek king of Cyrene, Battus I, through whom Callimachus claimed to be a descendant of the Battiad dynasty, the Libyan Greek monarchs that ruled Cyrenaica for eight generations and the first Greek Royal family to have reigned in Africa. Battus I of Cyrene or Battus I (Battus in Greek Βάττος Ἀριστοτέλης) lived in the 7th century BC He was named after his grandfather, an "elder" Callimachus, who was highly regarded by the Cyrenaean citizens and had served as a general.

Callimachus married the daughter of a Greek man called Euphrates who came from Syracuse. Syracuse (Siracusa Sicilian: Sarausa, Classical Greek: / transliterated Syrakousai) is a historic City in However, it is unknown if they had children. He also had a sister called Megatime but very little is known about her: she married a Cyrenaean man called Stasenorus or Stasenor to whom he bore a son, Callimachus, so called "the Younger" as to distinguish him from his maternal uncle, who also became a poet, author of "The Island".

In later years, he was educated in Athens. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's When he returned to North Africa, he moved to Alexandria. North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Alexandria ( Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya; Standard Arabic: ar الإسكندرية Al-Iskandariyya; Ἀλεξάνδρεια

Works

Elitist and erudite, claiming to "abhor all common things," Callimachus is best known for his short poems and epigrams. An epigram is a short Poem, often with a clever twist at the end or a concise and witty statement During the Hellenistic period, a major trend in Greek-language poetry was to reject epics modelled after Homer. An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Instead, Callimachus urged poets to "drive their wagons on untrodden fields," rather than following in the well worn tracks of Homer, idealizing a form of poetry that was brief, yet carefully formed and worded, a style at which he excelled. In the prologue to his Aitia, he claims that Apollo visited him and admonished him to "fatten his flocks, but to keep his muse slender," a clear indication of his choice of carefully crafted and allusive material. "Big book, big evil" (μεγά βιβλίον μεγά κακόν, "mega biblion, mega kakon") is another of his verses, attacking long, old-fashioned poetry using the very style Callimachus proposed to replace it. Callimachus also wrote poems in praise of his royal patron and a wide variety of other poetic styles, as well as prose and criticism. Callimachus' most famous prose work is the Pinakes (Lists), a bibliographical survey of authors of the works held in the Library of Alexandria. It is said to have comprised 120 books.

Due to Callimachus' strong stance against the epic, he and his younger student Apollonius of Rhodes, who favored epic and wrote the Argonautica, had a long and bitter feud, trading barbed comments, insults, and ad hominem attacks for over thirty years. The Argonautica ( Greek:) is a Greek Epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BCE. It is now known, through a papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus listing the earliest chief librarians of the Library of Alexandra, that Ptolemy II never offered the post to Callimachus, but passed him over for Apollonius Rhodius. Oxyrhynchus (Ὀξύρρυγχος "sharp-nosed" ancient Egyptian Pr-Medjed; Coptic Pemdje; modern Egyptian Arabic Some classicists, including Peter Green, speculate that this contributed to the poets' long feud. Peter Green (born 1924 is a British Classical scholar noted for his Alexander to Actium, a general account of the Hellenistic Age

Though Callimachus was an opponent of "big books", the Suda puts his number of works at (a possibly exaggerated) 800, suggesting that he found large quantities of small works more acceptable. The Suda or Souda ( also, Suidas) is a massive 10th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean Of these, only six hymns, sixty-four epigrams, and some fragments are extant; a considerable fragment of the Hecale, one of Callimachus' few longer poems treating epic material, has also been discovered in the Rainer papyri. In Greek mythology, Hecale was an old woman who offered succor to Theseus on his way to capture the Marathonian Bull. Papyrology is the study of ancient literature correspondence legal archives etc His Aitia ("Causes"),[1] another rare longer work surviving only in tattered papyrus fragments and quotations in later authors, was a collection of elegiac poems in four books, dealing with the foundation of cities, obscure religious ceremonies, unique local traditions apparently chosen for their oddity,[2] and other customs, throughout the Hellenic world In the first three books at least, the formula appears to ask a question of the Muse, of the form, "Why, on Paros, do worshippers of the Charites use neither flutes nor crowns?"[3] "Why, at Argos is a month named for 'lambs'?"[4] "Why, at Leucas, does the image of Artemis have a mortar on its head?"[5] A series of questions can be reconstituted from the fragments. The term " elegy " was originally used for a type of poetic meter ( Elegiac metre but is also used for a Poem of mourning from the Greek This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. In Greek mythology, the Muses ( Ancient Greek, hai moũsai: perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root * men- "think" are For the town in Armenia see Nagapetavan. Paros ( Πάρος) is an Island of Greece in the central Aegean In Greek mythology, a Charis (Χάρις is one of several Charites (Χάριτες Greek: " Graces " goddesses of charm beauty Argos ( Greek: Ἄργος, Árgos ˈaɾɣos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplio, which was its historic harbor [6] One passage of the Aitia, the so called Coma Berenices, has been reconstructed from papyrus remains and the celebrated Latin adaptation of Catullus (Catullus 66). For persons with a Cognomen "Catulus" see Lutatius Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca

The extant hymns are extremely learned, and written in a style that some have criticised as labored and artificial. The epigrams are more widely respected, and several have been incorporated into the Greek Anthology. The Greek Anthology (also called Anthologia Graeca or sometimes the Palatine Anthology) is a collection of Poems

According to Quintilian (10. Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (ca 35 – ca 100 was a Roman Rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and 1. 58) he was the chief of the elegiac poets; his elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans (see Neoterics), and imitated by Ovid, Catullus, and especially Sextus Propertius. The Neotericoi (νεωτερικοί Greek for "new poets" Neoterics or the Neoteric period refers to Avant-garde poets and their Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD was a Roman poet known to the English -speaking world as Ovid who wrote on many topics including For persons with a Cognomen "Catulus" see Lutatius Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca Sextus Aurelius Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet born around 50-45 BCE in Mevania (although other cities in the region of Umbria claim Many modern classicists hold Callimachus in high regard for his major influence on Latin poetry.

Bibliography

Commentary

Translations

Criticism and history

External links

References

  1. ^ An aition is a founding myth. A founding myth (Greek aition) is the etiological myth that explains the origins of a Ritual or the founding of a city group belief philosophy discipline
  2. ^ Noel Robertson, "Callimachus' Tale of Sicyon ('SH' 238)" Phoenix 53. 1/2 (Spring 1999:57-79), p. 58
  3. ^ Aitia 1, frag. 3.
  4. ^ Aitia 1, frags. 26-31a.
  5. ^ Aitia 1, frags. 31b-e.
  6. ^ Robertson 1999:58f, note 5.
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