Callimachus and His Critics by Alan Cameron

Callimachus and His Critics by Alan Cameron

Callimachus has usually been seen as the archetypal ivory-tower poet, the epitome if not the inventor of the concept of art for art's sake, author of erudite works written to be read in book form by fellow poets and scholars. Abundant evidence, much of it assembled here for the first time, suggests a very different story: a world of civic festivals rather than books and libraries, a world in which poetry and poets played a central and public role. In the course of the argument, Cameron casts fresh light on the lives, dates, works, and interrelationships of most of the other leading poets of the age. Another axiom of modern scholarship is that the object of Callimachus's literary polemic was epic. Yet Cameron shows that the thriving school of epic poets celebrating the wars of Hellenistic kings that has so dominated modern study simply never existed. Elegy was the fashionable genre of the age, and the bone of contention between Callimachus and his rivals (all fellow elegists) was the nature of elegiac narrative. A final chapter sketches some of the implications of this revised view of Callimachus and his world for the interpretation of Roman, especially Augustan, poetry. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1996

Alan Cameron is Charles Anthon Professor Emeritus of Latin at Columbia University. His previous books include Claudian, Porphyrius the Charioteer, Circus Factions, The Greek Anthology, Callimachus and his Critics, Greek Mythography in the Roman World, and The Last Pagans of Rome. He was awarded the
Kenyon Medal for classical studies and archaeology by the British Academy in 2013.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780691606125
ISBN 10	0691606129
Title	Callimachus and His Critics
Author	Alan Cameron
Series	Princeton Legacy Library
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Princeton University Press
Year published	2017-03-21
Number of pages	548
Prizes	Short-listed for Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 1996
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.