Description
Book SynopsisA delightful look at the epic literary history of the short, poetic genre of the epigram From Nestor's inscribed cup to tombstones, bathroom walls, and Twitter tweets, the ability to express oneself concisely and elegantly, continues to be an important part of literary history unlike any other. This book examines the entire history of the epigram, from its beginnings as a purely epigraphic phenomenon in the Greek world, where it moved from being just a note attached to physical objects to an actual literary form of expression, to its zenith in late 1st century Rome, and further through a period of stagnation up to its last blooming, just before the beginning of the Dark Ages. A Companion to Ancient Epigram offers the first ever full-scale treatment of the genre from a broad international perspective. The book is divided into six parts, the first of which covers certain typical characteristics of the genre, examines aspects that are central to our understanding of epigram, and discus
Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors ix
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction 1
Christer Henriksén
PART I Epigram: Features and Definitions 19
1 What Is an Epigram?: Defining a Genre 21
Mario Citroni
2 A Gallery of Characters: Real Persons and Fictitious Types in Epigram 43
Patricia Watson
3 Epigram, Society, and Political Power 59
Kathleen M. Coleman
4 Hidden Figures: The Women Who Wrote Epigrams 77
Laurel Bowman
5 The Masculine and the Feminine in Epigram 93
Lindsay Watson
6 Obscenity in Epigram 111
Bret Mulligan
7 The Meters of Epigram: Elegy and Its Rivals 127
Llewelyn Morgan
8 Epigram in Epic and Greek Tragedy: Generic Interactions 145
Martin T. Dinter
9 Epigram and Satire 163
Rosario Cortés Tovar
10 Immanent Genre Theory in Greek and Roman Epigram 179
Margot Neger
11 Epigram and Rhetoric 195
Nina Mindt
12 Greek Anthologies from the Hellenistic Age to the Byzantine Era: A Survey 211
Francesca Maltomini
PART II Epigram in Pre‐Hellenistic Greece 229
13 The Origins of Greek Epigram: The Unity of Inscription and Object 231
Joseph W. Day
14 Simonides of Ceos and Epigram in Classical Greece 24
Luigi Bravi
PART III Epigram in the Hellenistic World 265
15 The Development of Epigram into a Literary Genre 267
Valentina Garulli
16 Anyte’s Feminine Voice: Tradition and Innovation 287
Ellen Greene
17 Leonidas of Tarentum 303
Jacqueline Klooster
18 Callimachus on the Death of a Friend: A Short Study of Callimachean Epigram 319
Benjamin Acosta‐Hughes
19 Asclepiades of Samos 337
Alexander Sens
20 Posidippus and Ancient Epigram Books 351
Kathryn Gutzwiller
21 Taking Position: Later Hellenistic Epigrammatists 371
Annette Harder
22 Meleager of Gadara 389
Évelyne Prioux
23 Moving to Rome: Antipater of Sidon, Archias of Antiocheia, Philodemus, and Others 407
Annemarie Ambühl
PART IV Latin and Greek Epigram at Rome 423
24 The Beginnings of Roman Epigram and Its Relationship with Hellenistic Poetry 425
Alfredo Mario Morelli
25 Catullus as Epigrammatist 441
Niklas Holzberg
26 Latin Epigram in the Early Empire 459
Christer Henriksén
27 Greek Epigram in Rome in the First Century ce 475
Regina Höschele
28 Epigrams in the Graffiti of Pompeii 491
Kristina Milnor
29 Martial’s Early Works: The Liber Spectaculorum, Xenia, and Apophoreta 505
T. J. Leary
30 Micro to Macro: Martial’s Twelve Books of Epigrams 521
Sven Lorenz
31 Carminis Incompti Lusus: The Carmina Priapea 541
Eugene O’Connor
32 Pseudo‐Senecan Epigrams 557
Alfred Breitenbach
PART V Epigram in Late Antiquity 575
33 The Late Latin Literary Epigram (Third to Fifth Centuries ce) 577
Luca Mondin
34 Greek Epigram in Late Antiquity 597
Gianfranco Agosti
35 Damasus and the Christian Epigram in the West 615
Dennis Trout
36 Gregory of Nazianzus and the Christian Epigram in the East 633
Christos Simelidis
37 Inter Romulidas et Tyrias Manus: Luxorius and Epigram in Vandal Africa 649
Anna Maria Wasyl
PART VI The Fortleben of Ancient Epigram 665
38 Epigram in the Later Western Literary Tradition 667
Peter Howell
39 The Epigram in Byzantium and Beyond 679
Andreas Rhoby
Index 695
