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Informationen zum Autor Kathryn Gutzwiller is Professor of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. Her recent publications include Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context (1998) and The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book (edited, 2005). She is the winner of the American Philological Association's Goodwin Award of Merit and has twice won the Gildersleeve Prize for the best article in the American Journal of Philology. Klappentext This book is a guide to Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE to the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE. It demonstrates how, during this period, Greek culture spread to Egypt and the Near East, was adapted and absorbed by the Romans, and produced an extraordinarily diverse literature, ranging from the comedy of Menander to the intricately wrought epigrams of Callimachus, from Apollonius' epic Argonautica to the great historical work of Polybius. The book helps readers to find their way through this remarkable but complex body of work. It situates Hellenistic literature in its historical and cultural contexts, introduces the major writers and genres of the period, and explains the major critical trends in current scholarship on the subject. Information about style, meter, and language aids readers with no prior knowledge in understanding technical aspects of literary Greek. All ancient Greek words are transliterated, and literary passages are quoted in translation. Zusammenfassung This book is a guide to the extraordinarily diverse literature of the Hellenistic period. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Figures ix List of Maps x Preface xi 1 History and Culture 1 1.1 The Successors 2 1.2 Macedonia and Greece 4 1.3 Seleucid Asia 8 1.4 Attalid Pergamum 12 1.5 Ptolemaic Egypt 16 2 Aesthetics and Style 26 2.1 Aesthetic Principles 29 2.2 Meter, Dialect, and Diction 36 2.3 Literature as Artefact 43 3 Authors and Genres 50 3.1 Menander 50 3.2 Callimachus 60 3.3 Apollonius of Rhodes 74 3.4 Theocritus and the Other Bucolic Poets 84 3.5 Didactic Poetry 97 3.6 Epigrams 106 3.7 Dramatic Poetry 120 3.8 Parodic and Philosophical Literature 131 3.9 Polybius 144 3.10 Technical Prose Writing 154 4 Topics in Hellenistic Literature 168 4.1 Learning and Innovation 169 4.2 Book Culture and Performance 178 4.3 Social and Political Background 188 4.4 The Critical Impulse in Literature and Art 202 4.5 Reception in Rome 213 Notes 223 Chronological Tables 228 Suggested Reading 230 Bibliography 239 Index 251 ...
