Archaic and Classical Greek Epigram

Cambridge University Press, 12/2/2010
EAN 9780521118057, ISBN10: 0521118050

Hardcover, 454 pages, 23.5 x 16 x 2.5 cm
Language: English

With contributions written by leading experts in the field, this volume explores the dialogue between Archaic and Classical Greek epigrams and their readers. The authors examine questions surrounding the identity of the speakers and the addressees. They also discuss the spatial, religious, historical and political contexts of epigram, as well as aspects of intertextuality, poetic variation and the creation of epigrammatic sub-genres. Collectively the volume demonstrates that the dominant view of epigram as a genre that became literary and artistic only in the Hellenistic period has to be revised. Archaic and Classical Greek epigrams did not simply serve the objects they describe but also demonstrate a high degree of aesthetic and literary achievement. This volume breaks new ground in the study of the genre and is important for scholars of classics, archaeology, epigraphy and papyrology.

Introduction Manuel Baumbach, Andrej Petrovic and Ivana Petrovic
Part I. Contextualisation
Section 1. Speaking and Reading
The Dialogue between Epigram and Passerby
1. Speaker and addressee in early Greek epigram and lyric Thomas A. Schmitz
2. The passerby in Archaic and Classical epigram Michael A. Tueller
3. Voice in sepulchral epigrams
some remarks on the use of first and second person in sepulchral epigrams and a comparison with lyric poetry Gert Vestrheim
Section 2. Art and Viewing
The Spatial Context
4. Epigrams in Archaic art
the 'Chest of Kypselos' Barbara E. Borg
5. The Callimachus monument on the Athenian Acropolis (CEG 256) and Athenian commemoration of the Persian Wars Catherine M. Keesling
6. 'Dialectics at a Standstill'
Archaic kouroi-cum-epigram as I-Box Katharina Lorenz
Section 3. Epigram and Performance
The Religious Context
7. Life in a line. A reading of dedicatory epigrams from the Archaic and Classical periods William D. Furley
8. Observations on the dedicatory and sepulchral epigrams and their early history Catherine Trümpy
Section 4. Propaganda and Memorial
The Historical and Political Context
9. Epigrams on the Persian Wars
monuments, memory and politics Carolyn Higbie
10. True lies of public epigrams Andrej Petrovic
Section 5. Generic and Literary Contexts
The Rise and Reception of Epigramatic Subgenera
11. Heroic epitaphs of the Classical age. The Aristotelian Peplos and beyond Kathryn Gutzwiller
12. The origin of epigrams on 'Speaking Objects' Rudolf Wachter
Part II. Literarization – From Stone to Book
Section 1. Losing Context
Intertextuality and Poetic Variation
13. Language and interpretation in Greek epigram Richard Hunter
14. Typologies of variation on a theme in Archaic and Classical metrical inscriptions Marco Fantuzzi
Section 2. Inventing Contexts
Ecphrasis and Narration
15. Epigram as narration Ewen Bowie
16. Ecphrasis in fits and starts? Down to 300 BC Jon Steffen Bruss
Bibliography
Indices.