Callimachus – Select Longer Fragments

This edition of Callimachus’ select larger fragments offers an indispensable guide for properly appreciating his poetic art. By also discussing important but lesser-known pieces, it sheds light on Callimachus’ varied activity. Finally, it offers an up-to-date introduction to his life, career, and aesthetics.

Few among the surviving Hellenistic poets can rival the fame of Callimachus of Cyrene (approximately 320–240 BCE). Active as a poet and scholar in Ptolemaic Alexandria, Callimachus associated his name with a new set of aesthetic principles that proved influential for such poets as Vergil, Horace, and Ovid. Even so, except for six Hymns and several epigrams, most of his work survives in fragments. Offering a selection of longer fragments, this edition provides a rounded view of Callimachus’ literary output. It also sheds light on lesser-studied aspects of Callimachus’ activity at the Ptolemaic court in Alexandria. For the first time in an English volume, a commentary explores and elucidates the occasional and lyric pieces Callimachus composed for the Ptolemies and their officials (such as the Elegy for Sosibius and the Ektheosis of Arsinoe). By focusing on Callimachus’ longer fragments (e.g., Aetia, Iambs, and Hecale), this edition offers an indispensable tool that guides the reader through the intricacies of his poetic art. It also includes an exhaustive introduction to Callimachus’ life, professional activity, and aesthetics.