Johannes Wietzke, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
The Periodos to King Nicomedes of Pseudo-Scymnus (to follow the conventional attribution) has received increased attention in recent decades (Marcotte 2000, Korenjak 2003, Hunter 2006, Lightfoot 2020), but the significance of its most striking feature, its iambic trimeter form, has not been fully appreciated. This paper argues that by claiming to have epitomized the entire oikoumenē (73-74: τὸν πάντα τῆς οἰκουμένης…περιορισμὸν ἐπιτετμημένον) for King Nicomedes of Bithynia, in a meter remarkable for its “shortness” (3: βραχέως) and “in just a few lines” (91: ἐν ὀλίγοις στίχοις), Pseudo-Scymnus showcases a ludic fascination with scale that locates the work at the intersection of Hellenistic scientific and poetic cultures.
Moving beyond analyses of the poet’s own reflections on the utility and charm of iambic trimeter, I first show that the flexibility of the iambic line is specifically useful and charming for a geography characterized by toponyms, ethnonyms, and other proper names, as it facilitates a higher density and greater variety of names than does dactylic hexameter. For example, the Periodos averages 1 name per 10 syllables and freely includes toponyms like Μηκύβερνα (641) that incorporate a cretic foot, whereas Dionysius Periegetes’ hexameter geography averages 1 name per 16 syllables and cannot readily accommodate the same diction. Thus, in practice, Pseudo-Scymnus successfully compresses more of the world—“as many places as can be reached by sail and on foot” (68: ὅσ’ ἐστὶ πλωτὰ καὶ πορευτά)—into a compact form that is itself easy to carry in memory (lines 36-44 draw a comparison between metered speech and sticks tied in a portable bundle). This miniaturization of the whole oikoumenē distinguishes Pseudo-Scymnus’ project conceptually from other geographical poetry, such as Dionysius Calliphontos’ Anagraphē and Dionysius Periegetes’ Periegesis, as well as from iambic didactic poems such as the pharmacological recipes of Servilius Damocrates (Vogt 2005). In unique fashion, then, Pseudo-Scymnus effects a drastic transformation of the world that exemplifies the ludic fascination with scale elsewhere current in Hellenistic science, poetry, and visual culture (Netz 2009, Porter 2011, Squire 2011).
Yet there are limits to the ludic in Pseudo-Scymnus’ poem. Though composed in a short meter, the Periodos is not an attempt at miniaturized writing (micrographia), like the copy of the Iliad that Pliny the Elder reports was written on a parchment so small that it could fit inside a nutshell (HN 7.85). Rather, the poem, estimated to be an overall length of 1,000-2,000 lines (Korenjak 2003), would have fit on a single papyrus roll (847 lines are extant). Composed in comic meter, the poem is itself scaled to the length of a drama. Importantly, then, for Pseudo-Scymnus, the miniaturization of the world is conceptual rather than material. The Periodos is not a “toy” (Stewart 1993), but a work that in its comic form is to be taken seriously, measured to the standards of textual culture.