Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context.

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Bleached spine on jacket, otherwise very good and clean. / Verblichener R�cken am Umschlag, sonst sehr gut und sauber. - Epigrams, although the briefest of Greek poetic forms, clearly had a strong appeal for readers of the Hellenistic period (323-31 B.C.). One of the most characteristic forms of that era, epigrams appear not only as inscriptions on funerary monuments or on votive objects but also as book poetry. The epigram, unlike any other archaic or classical type of poetry, was originally intended not for public recitation but for private reading by casual observers of monuments or dedications. While earlier commemorative poems had a status like that of craft to art, epigrams emerged in the Hellenistic period as a sophisticated literary form. Brief and concise, concerned with the personal and the particular, the epigram evinces the period�s aesthetic preference for the miniature, the intricate, and the fragmented. Some epigrams of this period developed erotic or sympotic themes, derived from the elegies traditionally performed at symposia. Like elegies, epigrams were soon collected into scrolls, so that the development of the literary art of the Hellenistic epigram is directly connected to the advent of the poetry book. Kathryn Gutzwiller has produced the first full-length literary study of these important poems, which have been preserved for us in the Greek Anthology, a compilation of the Byzantine era. The Anthology descends from poetry books and selected collections that were formed in the Hellenistic period. Drawing upon both ancient sources and recent papyrological discoveries, Gutzwiller reconstructs the nature of Hellenistic epigram books and then interprets individual poems in light of their original status as book poetry. She argues that even the briefest of poems gained broader meaning when gathered into a collection. Gutzwiller�s innovative approach produces original and illuminating readings, and it also demonstrates that the collections issued by the major epigrammatists�Anyte, Nossis, Leonidas, Asclepiades, Posidippus, Hedylus, Callimachus, and Antipater of Sidon�-were differentiated by the gender, ethnicity, class, and philosophical views of the individual poets. In the final chapter, Gutzwiller offers a reconstruction of Meleager�s Garland, an ancient anthology of Hellenistic epigrams that supplemented the best of the earlier tradition with the editor�s own erotic poetry. This new reading demonstrates both the high quality of the epigrams anthologized and the significance of Meleager�s editorial skill in thematically arranging collected poetry. Gutzwiller�s study will appeal to classical scholars and others interested in the development of the genre, poetry books, or poetic voice. She offers new access to the Greek Anthology, the famous collection that stands at the beginning of the epigrammatic tradition in western literature. - Kathryn I. Gutzwiller is Professor of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of Studies in the Hellenistic Epyllion (1981) and Theocritus� Pastoral Analogies: The Formation of a Genre (1991). ISBN 9780520208575