Inscribing Song: Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry

To convince the Athenians to launch the Sicilian Expedition against the Syracusans, Thucydides’ Alcibiades describes the would-be enemy as a mixed group that easily accepts changes and new citizens:

ὄχλοις τε γὰρ ξυμμείκτοις πολυανδροῦσιν αἱ πόλεις καὶ ῥᾳδίας ἔχουσι τῶν πολιτῶν τὰς μεταβολὰς καὶ ἐπιδοχάς. καὶ οὐδεὶς δι’ αὐτὸ ὡς περὶ οἰκείας πατρίδος οὔτε τὰ περὶ τὸ σῶμα ὅπλοις ἐξήρτυται οὔτε τὰ ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ νομίμοις κατασκευαῖς·

Perses, among the very first hellenistic epigrammatists, is easily overlooked. Eclipsed by later generations of poets, he has spurred interest over only one issue: were his epigrams, early as they are, intended for the stone or the scroll? Even this question now seems settled in favor of the latter (Bruss 2005: 117–119; Tueller 2008: 58–59; Bruss 2010: 121–122). Michael Tueller (2008: 61) connected Perses’ pioneering role to his unremarkableness: “he was careful to use recognizable patterns, so that his readers could imagine a stone where there was none.”

Inscribed epigram has recently attracted considerable attention, particularly with regard to its ritual and material context (Day; Baumbach, Petrovic, & Petrovic). Yet, while epigram has often been used as a comparison point for epic and lyric (Scodel; Irwin; Elmer), the place of inscribed epigram in archaic literary culture has not been fully considered since Friedländer & Hoffleit’s commentary on archaic epigram and Di Tillio’s catalogue of formulae shared between epigram and epic.

A Winter’s Paian: Generic Interdependence and Autonomy in Bacchylides 16

This paper examines the Nautilia from Hesiod’s Works and Days (lines 618–693), and specifically the digression on Hesiod’s victory at the funeral games for Amphidamas at 646–62, within the context of ‘biographical digressions’ in Hesiodic poetry and their poetic function.

Pindar’s First Pythian Ode, written for Hieron of Syracuse in 470 BC, is not only one of the greatest extant Greek lyric poems, but also a priceless historical document because it provides a unique perspective on the Sicilian victories over the Carthaginians and Etruscans in 480 and 474 BC. This paper explores the relationship between Pyth.