Leanna Boychenko (Loyola University Chicago)
An Anecdote About Ptolemy III: Reconsidering Euphantus FHG III 19 in light of the Odyssey and Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis
This paper reexamines Euphantus FHG III 19, which has long been interpreted as commentary on the paternity of Ptolemy I. Instead, I argue this anecdote is about Ptolemy III (as in the preserved Greek) and is illustrative of Ptolemy’s self-presentation and political program, which simultaneously emphasized Ptolemy III as a legitimate king of Egypt, while also linking Ptolemaic Egypt to broader Greek culture and heritage. I further connect this anecdote to an insufficiently understood reference in Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis, arguing that Callimachus’ Hymns are part of the broader Ptolemaic political program.
As part of a long list of flatterers in Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae, a certain Callicrates is mentioned: “Euphantus, in the fourth book of his histories, says that Callicrates was a flatterer of Ptolemy III, king of Egypt. Callicrates was so clever that he not only carried around an image of Odysseus on his seal, but he also named his children Telegonus and Anticleia.” (Ath.59.6.4-5)
Tarn (1933) emended Ptolemy III to Ptolemy I and this story has since been interpreted as Callicrates’ implication that Philip II fathered Ptolemy I before Ptolemy’s mother married Lagos in much the same way that Sisyphus was sometimes the father of Odysseus (Collins 1997 objects to this interpretation). I argue that this anecdote has nothing to do with paternity or Ptolemy I, but instead reveals an association of Ptolemy III with Odysseus that illuminates the appearance of Anticleia in Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis. To make this claim, I first examine the role of Egypt in the Odyssey, arguing for its political importance to the Ptolemies, before turning to Callimachus’ hymn.
Egypt’s depiction in the Odyssey was more important to the Ptolemies and Ptolemaic poetry than has previously been acknowledged, especially in Odysseus’ Cretan Lies when the Egyptian king saves the Cretan stranger (Hom.Od.14.278-284). The characterization of the king would have been important to Ptolemy III, not only since he himself was king of Egypt, but also since the inclusion of Egypt in the epic pulled the land into the Homeric world, linking past and present, and showing the long importance of Egypt to Greece, now even more relevant with the recentering of the Hellenistic world and the rise of Alexandria as a cultural center.
In Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis, the narrator gives a list of Artemis’ favorite nymphs. Most of these figures are unsurprising, until we reach Anticleia (Callim.Dian.210-211), whose name in known myth only belongs to Odysseus’ mother (Stevens 2015; Adorjáni 2021). If Ptolemy III styled himself as a new Odysseus, however, the presence of Anticleia would be a nod to this association and fitting to mention the mother of Odysseus (and so the mother of Ptolemy) as the goddess’ companion.
Considering this anecdote alongside the Hymn to Artemis and the Odyssey not only shows us that the Greek preserved in Athenaeus is correct, but also gives us broader insight into the political styling of Ptolemy III and clarifies the presence of Anticleia in Callimachus’ hymn.