Callimachus (Greek: ο Καλλίμαχος, 310 BC/305 BC-240 BC) was a native of Cyrene, Libya. Callimachus was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of Egyptian Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes. Although he was never made chief librarian, he was responsible for producing the catalogue of all the volumes contained in the Library. His Pinakes (tablets), 120 volumes long, provided the complete and chronologically arranged catalogue of the Library, laying the foundation for later work on the history of Greek literature. As one of the earliest critic-poets, he typifies Hellenistic scholarship. Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC Years: 315 BC 314 BC 313 BC 312 BC 311 BC _ 310 BC _ 309 BC... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 310 BC 309 BC 308 BC 307 BC 306 BC 305 BC 304 BC 303 BC 302... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 290s BC 280s BC 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC - 240s BC - 230s BC 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC Years: 245 BC 244 BC 243 BC 242 BC 241 BC - 240 BC - 239 BC 238 BC... Cyrene can refer to: The USS Cyrene (AGP-13), a motor torpedo boat tender Cyrene, a figure from Greek mythology Cyrene, a Greek colony in Libya (north Africa) 133 Cyrene, an asteroid Cyrene, fictional character who is the mother of Xena in the series Xena: Warrior Princess See also: Cyrenaica... Inscription regarding Tiberius Claudius Balbilus of Rome (d. ... 309–246 BC), with Arsinoë II. Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Greek: , 309 BC–246 BC), was the king of Ptolemaic Egypt from 281 BC to 246 BC. He was the son of the founder of the Ptolemaic kingdom Ptolemy I Soter and Berenice. ... Ptolemy III Euergetes, (Ptolemaeus III) (Evergetes, Euergetes) (reigned 246 BC-222 BC) is sometimes called Ptolemy III Euergetes I. (Ptolemy VIII also titled himself Euergetes: the Beneficent; but he is usually known, then and since, as Ptolemy Physcon: Belly. ... // Main article: Ancient Greek literature Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in Ancient Greek from the oldest surviving written works in the Greek language until the 4th century and the rise of the Byzantine Empire. ... The term Hellenistic (derived from HéllÄ“n, the Greeks traditional self-described ethnic name) was established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to refer to the spreading of Greek culture over the non-Greek people that were conquered by Alexander the Great. ...

Family and early life

Callimachus was a man of Libyan Greek origin. He was born and raised in Cyrene. Callimachus was a member of a distinguished family in Cyrenaica. His father was a Greek Cyrenaean man called Battus while his mother was a Greek Cyrenaean woman called Mesatme or Mesatma. Little is known on his parents. Callimachus was named after his grandfather, an elder Callimachus, who was highly regarded by the Greek Cyrenaean citizens and had served as a general for the Cyrenaeans.

Through his paternal descent, he claims to be a descendant of The Battiads dynasty, the Libyan Greek monarchs that ruled Cyrenaica for eight generations and the first Greek Royal family to have reigned in Africa. Callimachus claims his descent from the last Greek Cyrenaean prince Battus V of Cyrene, who was the son of the last Greek Cyrenaean king Arcesilaus IV, who was a direct descendant of the first Greek Cyrenaean king and founder of Cyrene Battus I. The Roman Empire ca. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... Arcesilaus IV of Cyrene or Arcesilaus IV (Greek:ο Αρκεσίλαος, flourished 5th century BC) was the eighth and last Greek Cyrenaean King and last Greek Cyrenaean King to serve as a client king under Persian rule. ... Battus I of Cyrene or Battus I (Battus in Greek: ο Βάττος, flourished 7th century BC) was the legendary Greek from the island of Thera, (modern Santorini, Greece) who foundered the colony of Cyrenaica and its capital Cyrene. ...

Callimachus married the daughter of a Greek man called Euphrates who came from Syracuse. However, it is unknown if they had children. Callimachus had a sister called Megatime and very little is known on her. All is known on her is that she married a very little known Greek Cyrenaean man called Stasenorus or Stasenor. Megatime and Stasenorus had a son called Callimachus. This Callimachus was called Callimachus the Younger and was called the younger to distinguish him from his maternal uncle. The younger Callimachus became an epic poet and was the author of the poem The Island. Callimachus in later years was educated in Athens Greece. When he returned to North Africa, he moved to Alexandria, Egypt. Clinton Square in Downtown Syracuse Syracuse is an American city in Central New York. ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ...  Northern Africa (UN subregion)  geographic, including above North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa. ... This article is about the city in Egypt. ...

Works

Elitist and erudite, claiming to "abhor all common things," Callimachus is best known for his short poems and epigrams. During the Hellenistic period, a major trend in Greek-language poetry was to reject epics modelled after Homer. Instead, Callimachus urged poets to "drive their wagons on untrodden fields," rather than following in the well worn tracks of Homer, idealizing a form of poetry that was brief, yet carefully formed and worded, a style at which he excelled. In the prologue to his Aitia, he claims that Apollo visited him and admonished him to "fatten his flocks, but to keep his muse slender," a clear indication of his choice of carefully crafted and allusive material. "Big book, big evil" (mega biblion, mega kakon) is another of his verses, attacking long, old-fashioned poetry using the very style Callimachus proposed to replace it. Callimachus also wrote poems in praise of his royal patron and a wide variety of other poetic styles, as well as prose and criticism. Callimachus' most famous prose work is the Pinakes (Lists), a bibliographical survey of authors of the works held in the Library of Alexandria. It is said to have comprised 120 books. An epigram is a short poem with a clever twist at the end or a concise and witty statement. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of narrative poetry, characterized by great length, multiple settings, large numbers of characters, or long span of time involved. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ...

Due to Callimachus' strong stance against the epic, he and his younger student Apollonius of Rhodes, who favored epic and wrote the Argonautica, had a long and bitter feud, trading barbed comments, insults, and ad hominem attacks for over thirty years. It is now known, through a papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus listing the earliest chief librarians of the Library of Alexandra, that Ptolemy II never offered the post to Callimachus, but passed him over for Apollonius Rhodius. Some classicists, including Peter Green, speculate that this contributed to the poets' long feud. Apollonius of Rhodes, also known as Apollonius Rhodius (Latin; Greek Apollōnios Rhodios), early 3rd century BC - after 246 BC, was an epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of Alexandria. ... The Argonautica (Greek: ) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. ... Oxyrhynchus (Greek: Οξύρυγχος; sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian Per-Medjed; modern Egyptian Arabic el-Bahnasa) is an archaeological site in Egypt, considered one of the most important ever discovered. ... At least two notable persons have been named Peter Green: Peter Green (musician), founder of Fleetwod Mac Peter Green (historian) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Though Callimachus was an opponent of "big books ("μεγά βιβλίον μεγά κακόν")," the Suda puts his number of works at (a possibly exaggerated) 800, suggesting that he found large quantities of small works more acceptable. Of these, only six hymns, sixty-four epigrams, and some fragments are extant; a considerable fragment of the Hecale, one of Callimachus' few longer poems treating epic material, has also been discovered in the Rainer papyri. His Aitia ("Causes"), another rare longer work surviving only in tattered papyri and quotations in later authors, was a collection of elegiac poems in four books, dealing with the foundation of cities, religious ceremonies, local traditions, and other customs. One passage of the Aitia, the so called Coma Berenices, has been reconstructed from papyrus remains and the celebrated Latin adaptation of Catullus (Catullus 66). Suda (Σουδα or alternatively Suidas) is a massive 10th century Byzantine Greek historical encyclopædia of the ancient Mediterranean world. ... In Greek mythology, Hecale was an old woman who offered succor to Theseus on his way to capture the Marathonian Bull. ... Papyrology is the study of ancient literature as preserved in manuscripts written on papyrus, the most common form of paper in the Egyptian, Greek and Roman worlds. ... For other uses, see Elegy (disambiguation). ... Fresco from Herculaneum, presumably showing a love couple. ...

The extant hymns are extremely learned, and written in a style that some have criticised as labored and artificial. The epigrams are more widely respected, and several have been incorporated into the Greek Anthology. He is also known for his pederastic verses, which survive in the erotic epigrams of the Greek anthology as well as in his fragments, such as Fr. 571: Greek Anthology (also Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Ancient and Byzantine periods of Greek Literature. ...

May you, who upon youngsters carry greedy gaze,

Love boys as Erchius bids you:

Thus fall in love with the young,

That the city with worthy men you fill.

According to Quintilian (10.1.58) he was the chief of the elegiac poets; his elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans (see Neoterics), and imitated by Ovid, Catullus, and especially Sextus Propertius. Many modern classicists hold Callimachus in high regard for his major influence on Latin poetry. Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. ... Neoteric Poets A slightly vague term, the neoteroi were a group of Latin poets of the 1st century BC who were much influenced by Alexandrian Greek authors such as Callimachus and Theocritus. ... For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Fresco from Herculaneum, presumably showing a love couple. ... Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet born about 50 BC in or near Bevagna, who died between 15 BC and 2 BC. Propertius was a post-neoteric era Roman poet. ...

Bibliography

• Pfeiffer, Rudolf. Callimachus. V. 1, Fragmenta. (Oxford 1949, repr. 1965); V. 2, Hymni et epigrammata (Oxford 1953). (in classical Greek)
• Source for family information
• http://www.livius.org/caa-can/callimachus/callimachus.html
• Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia - 2002

Commentary

• Bing, Peter. Callimachus’ Hymn to Delos 1-99: Introduction and Commentary (U. Michigan Ann Arbor, 1981).
• Bulloch, A. W. Callimachus: The Fifth Hymn (Cambridge 1985).
• Hollis, Adrian Swayne. Callimachus: Hecale (Oxford 1990).
• Hopkinson, Neil. Callimachus: Hymn to Demeter (Cambridge 1984).
• Kerkhecker, Arnd. Callimachus' Book of Iambi (Oxford 1999).
• McKay, K. J. Erysichthon: A Callimachean Comedy (Brill 1962).
• McKay, K. J. The Poet at Play: Kallimachus, The Bath of Pallas (Brill 1962).
• McLennan, G. R. Callimachus: Hymn to Zeus (Edizioni dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri 1977).
• Williams, Frederick. Callimachus: Hymn to Apollo (Oxford 1978).

Translations

• Nisetich, Frank. The Poems of Callimachus (Oxford 2001). ISBN 0-19-814760-0
• Lombardo, Stanley and Diane Rayor. Callimachus: Hymns, Epigrams, Select Fragments (Johns Hopkins 1988). ISBN 0-8018-3281-0

Criticism and history

• Bing, Peter. The Well-Read Muse: Present and Past in Callimachus and the Hellenistic Poets (Göttingen 1988).
• Cameron, Alan. Callimachus and his Critics (Princeton 1995).
• Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age Ch. 11: The Critic as Poet: Callimachus, Aratus of Soli, Lycophron and Ch. 13: Armchair Epic: Apollonius Rhodius and the Voyage of Argo.
• Selden, Daniel. "Alibis," Classical Antiquity 17 (1998), 289-411.

External links

• Online Text: Callimachus, Hymns translated by A. W. Mair
• Greek Text: Hymns & Epigrams, Perseus

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.