THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE General Editors P. E. EASTERLING Regius Professor ofGnck in the Unnmny ofCambridge E. J. KENNEY Emeritus Kennedy Professor of Latin in the University of Cambridge Advisory Editors B. M. W. KNOX Formerly Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington W. V. CLAUSEN Formerly Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, Harvard University Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE
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General Editors
E. J. KENNEY
Emeritus Kennedy Professor of Latin in the University of Cambridge
Advisory Editors
W. V. CLAUSEN
Formerly Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, Harvard University
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
P.E.EASTERLING Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge
and
B.M.W.KNOX Formerly Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
PUBUSHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011^1211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, Vic 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain
Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa
http://www.cambridge.org
© Cambridge University Press 1985
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First Published 1985 Eighth printing 2003
Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Library of Congress catalogue card number: 82-22048
British Library cataloguing in publication data
The Cambridge history of classical literature. Vol. 1: Greek literature
1. Classical literature-History and criticism I. Easterling, P. E. II. Knox, Bernard M. W.
880.09 PA 3001
CONTENTS
List of plates page x Preface xi Abbreviations xiii
1 Books and readers in the Greek world i 1 From the beginnings to Alexandria i
by B. M. W. KNOX, Formerly Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington
2 The Hellenistic and Imperial periods 16 by P. E. EASTERLING, Professor of Greek, University College London
2 Homer 42 by G. S. KlRK, Regius Professor Emeritus of Greek, University of Cambridge 1 The poet and the oral tradition 42 2 The Iliad J2 3 The Odyssey 74
3 Hesiod 92 by J. P. BARRON, Professor of Greek Language and Literature in the University of London, at King's College, London, and P. E. EASTERLING
4 The epic tradition after Homer and Hesiod 106 1 The cyclic epics 106
by J. P. BARRON and P. E. EASTERLING
2 The Homeric Hymns 1 IO by G. S. KIRK
J Elegy and iambus 117 1 Archilochus 117 2 Early Greek elegy: Callinus, Tyrtaeus, Mimnermus 128
by J. P. BARRON and P. E. EASTERLING
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
C O N T E N T S
3 Theognis I 3 6 4 Solon 146
by B. M. W. KNOX
5 Semonides j 53 by P. E. EASTERLING
6 Hipponax 158 by B. M. W. KNOX
6 Archaic choral lyric 165 by CHARLES SEGAL, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Princeton University 1 The nature of early choral poetry 165 2 Alcman 168 3 Stesichorus 186
7 Monody 202 by DAVID A. CAMPBELL, Professor of Classics, University of Victoria, British Columbia 1 Sappho 203 2 Alcaeus 209 3 Ibycus 214 4 Anacreon 216 5 Skolia 220
8 Choral lyric in the fifth century 222 by CHARLES SEGAL
1 Introduction 222 2 Simonides 223 3 . Pindar 226 4 Bacchylides 235 5 Women poets: Corinna, Myrtis, Telesilla, Praxilla 239 6 Choral lyric to the end of the fifth century 242
9 Early Greek philosophy 245 by A. A. LONG, Professor of Classics at the University of California, Berkeley 1 Philosophical poets and Heraclitus 245 2 Anaxagoras, Democritus and other prose philosophers 253
10 Tragedy 258 1 The origins of tragedy 258
by R. P. WINNINGTON-INGRAM, Emeritus Professor of Greek Language and Literature in the University of London, at King's College, London
vi
CONTENTS
2 Tragedy in performance 163 by JOHN GOULD, Professor of Greek, University of Bristol
3 Aeschylus 281 by R. P. WlNNINGTON-lNGRAM
4 Sophocles 295 by P. E. EASTERLING
5 Euripides 316 6 Minor tragedians 339
by B. M. W. KNOX
11 The satyr play 346 by DANA F. SUTTON, Professor of Classics, University of California, Irvine
12 Comedy 355 by E. W. HANDLEY, Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge 1 Introduction 355 2 Structural patterns in Old Comedy 358 3 The earliest comic drama 362 4 Epicharmus and others 367 5 Myths and myth-making 370 6 Political comedy 374 7 Adventure and fantasy 379 8 The life of the mind 384 9 The social scene 391 10 From Aristophanes to Menander 398 11 Menander and the New Comedy 414
13 Historiography 426 1 Herodotus 426 2 Thucydides 441 3 Common elements of fifth-century historiography 456
by HENRY R. IMMERWAHR, Distinguished Alumni Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
4 Historical writing in the fourth century B.C. and in the 458 Hellenistic period by W. R. CONNOR, Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics, Princeton University
14 Sophists and physicians of the Greek enlightenment 472 by GEORGE A. KENNEDY, Paddison Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
vii
C O N T E N T S
15 Plato and the Socratic work of Xenophon 478 by F. H. SANDBACH, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Cambridge
1 Xenophon 478 2 Plato 480
16 Oratory 498 by GEORGE A. KENNEDY
1 The beginnings of literary oratory 498 2 Oratory in the fourth century 50J
17 Aristotle 527 by A. A. LONG
1 His life and writings 527 2 Rhetoric 533 3 Poetics 534
18 Hellenistic poetry 541 by A. W. BULLOCH, Professor of Classics at the University of California, Berkeley 1 Introduction 541 2 Philetas and others 544 3 Callimachus 549 4 Theocritus 570 5 Apollonius Rhodius 586 6 Minor figures 598
19 Post-Aristotelian philosophy 622
by A. A. LONG
1 The Later Academy and the Peripatos (Lyceum) 622 2 Epicurus and Philodemus 625 3 The Stoa and Stoic writers 631 4 Sceptics, Cynics, and other post-Aristotelian philosophers 636
20 The literature of the Empire 642 1 The early Empire 642
Strabo 642 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 643 by G. W. BOWEBSOCK, Professor of Ancient History, Institute
for Advanced Study {Princeton) 'Longinus' and others 646 by D . C. INNES, Fellow ofSt Hilda's College, Oxford
viii
21
CONTENTS
2 Poetry Poetic miniatures The hexameter poems ascribed to Oppian
3 Philostratus and the Second Sophistic Aelius Arisudes
4 Science and superstition Galen Artemidorus by G. W. BOWERSOCK
5 Between philosophy and rhetoric Plutarch by G. W. BOWERSOCK
Dio of Prusa Maximus Lucian Alciphron Aelian Athenaeus by E. L. BOWIE, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
6 The Greek novel The genre The surviving texts by E. L. BOWIE
7 The fable b y P. E. EASTERLING
8 Historical writing o f the High Empire Arrian Appian by E. L. B O W I E
Pausanias Cassius D i o and Herodian by G. W . BOWERSOCK
Epilogue by B. M. W . K N O X
Appendix o f authors and works edited b y M A R T I N D R U R Y
Metrical appendix by M A R T I N D R U R Y
Works cited in the text
Index
665
665
PLATES {between pages 272 and 273)
la Boy reading from a papyrus roll. Fragment of a red-figure cup by the Akestorides Painter, about 460 B.C. Greenwich, Connecticut. Walter Bareiss 63. Photo: Courtesy of Alexander Cambitoglou.
Ib Girl reading. Marble funerary relief. British Museum Catalogue of Sculpture 649. Photo: Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.
II Part of a papyrus roll. British Museum Papyrus 115, cols. 27-34. Reproduced by permission of the British Library. Photo: British Library.
III Leaf of an open papyrus codex. British Museum. Reproduced by courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society. Photo: Egypt Exploration Society.
IVa Epidaurus: the theatre from the air. Photo: R. V. Schoder, SJ. IVb Auletes and figures in oriental costume. Fragments of a hydria found in
Corinth. Corinth T 1144. Photo: American School of Classical Studies. Va Actors dressing and rehearsing. Red-figure pelike from Cervetri, c. 430
B.C. H. L. Pierce Fund 98.883. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photo: Museum.
Vb Actors dressing and rehearsing. Red-figure bell-krater, from Valle Pega, c. 460 B.C. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Ferrara T 173c (V.P.). Photo: Biancolli.
Via Painted backdrop for a play. Fragment of a polychrome vase from Tarentum, c. 350 B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv. H 4696 and H 4701. Photo: Museum.
VIb An actor and his mask. Wall-painting from Herculaneum. Naples, National Museum no. 9019. Photo: Anderson no. 23415, courtesy of The Mansell Collection.
Vila Mask of a tragic heroine. Fragment of a red-figure jug from Athens, c. 470-460 B.C. Agora Museum inv. P 11810. Photo: American School of Classical Studies.
Vllb Female tragic mask. Fragment of a red-figure vase from Athens, c. 400 B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv. H 4781. Photo: Museum.
VIIc Actor holding his mask. Fragment of a polychrome vase from Tarentum, c. 340 B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv. H 4600. Photo: Museum.
VIII Actors, satyr chorus, auletes, playwright and lyre-player. The Pronomos Vase: red-figure volute-krater from Athens, c. 400 B.C. Furtwangler- Reichhold (1921).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
PREFACE
'Ancient Greek literature' is not easily defined. There is no difficulty in placing its starting point in the archaic period, but the choice of closing date is bound to be arbitrary, since literary production in Greek continued for centuries after the ancient world ceased to be in any sense classical. No attempt is made here to deal with Christian literature, which would warrant a volume of its own, or with the classicizing works of early Byzantine authors; it has seemed best to close the volume with the end of the period of stable Graeco-Roman civilization in the third century A.D. Even with this comparatively early ter- minal date the period covered is a very long one - over a thousand years - and there is a wealth both of surviving material and of information about the much larger body of literature now lost. The emphasis of the present survey is mainly on works that are still extant, have intrinsic literary interest, or have exercised an influence on later literature. Within this general scheme particular attention has been paid to texts discovered in recent years: it is an important feature of ancient Greek literature that it is growing all the time. Quotations in the original are unevenly distributed: more extensive samples are given of texts not yet widely available, and more poetry than prose is cited in Greek. The background of historical events and the development of ideas over so long and diverse a period have had to be treated only incidentally, in order to keep the volume within bounds, but the reader who follows its roughly chronological thread should gain some sense of the changing tastes and literary values of educated Greeks over the centuries.
Fuller documentation of the lives and works of the authors discussed is to be found in the Appendices, where details are given of editions, collections of fragments, translations and critical studies. The List of Works Cited in the Text and List of Abbreviations together supply in full the references cited in abbreviated form in the footnotes.
The spelling of Greek names is an intractable problem, since current English practice is to use a mixture of transliterated Greek, latinized and anglicized forms. Latin and English have generally been preferred on grounds of fami- liarity, but some inconsistency has been unavoidable.
xi
PREFACE
A collaborative enterprise of this kind owes much to a large number of people. The Publishers and Editors would like to make special acknowledge- ment for help, on behalf of the contributors to be mentioned, to Professor Christian Habicht, Professor C. P. Jones (G. W. Bowersock); Mr E. L. Bowie, Miss J. M. Reynolds, Professor R. P. Winnington-Ingram (P. E. Easterling); Professor B. R. Rees (A. A. Long); Professor Hugh Lloyd-Jones (R. P. Winnington-Ingram). Mr Martin Drury deserves particular appreciation for his work as editor of the Appendix of Authors and Works and author of the Metrical Appendix. Jenny Morris compiled the index.
The Editors wish to thank the contributors most warmly for their patience in the face of frustrating delays, which bedevilled the production of this volume, and the Publishers for their constant and imaginative support.
P.E.E. B.M.W.K.
ABBREVIATIONS
BT
Bud(E
Bursian
CAF
Bibliotlieca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana (Leipzig & Stuttgart)
Collection des University de France, publi6e sous le patronage de 1'Association Guillaume Bude1 (Paris)
Bursian's Jahresbericht uber die Fortschritte der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft (Berlin, 1873-1945)
T. Kock, Comiconim Atticorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1880-8)
The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge, 1923-39) 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1961- ) Cambridge History of Classical Literature (Cambridge,
1982-5) G. Kaibel, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Berlin, 1899) C. F. L. Austin, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta in
papyris reperta (Berlin, 1973) Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin, 1863— ) Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Paris & elsewhere, 1925- ) W. von Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur,
rev. W. Schmid and O. Stahlin (Munich, 1920-24) 6th ed. (Cf. Schmid-Stahlin)
E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca I (2nd ed. 1936); n (3rd ed. 1949-52)
A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, tragedy and comedy. 2nd ed., rev. T. B. L. Webster (Oxford, 1962)
A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, The dramatic festivals oj Athens. 2nd ed., rev. J. Gould-D. M. Lewis (Oxford, 1968)
H. Diels-W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokradker. 6th ed. (Berlin, 1951-2)
G. Kinkel, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1877) F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Berlin,
1923-)
xm
ABBREVIATIONS
FHG
FYAT
Gow-Page, Garland
C. Mtiller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (Berlin, 1841-70)
(ed.) M. Platnauer, Fifty years {and twelve) of classical scholarship (Oxford, 1968)
H. Keil, Grammatici Latini (Leip2ig, 1855-1923) C. M. Bowra, Greek lyric poetry, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1961) A. S. F. Gow-D. L. Page, The Greek Anthology: Hellen-
istic Epigrams (Cambridge, 1965) A. S. F. Gow-D. L. Page, The Greek Anthology: The
Garland of Philip (Cambridge, 1968) W. K. C. Guthrie, A history of Greek philosophy
(Cambridge, 1965-81) M. L. West, Iambi et Elegi Graeci (Oxford, 1971-2) Inscriptions Graecae (Berlin, 1873-) G. Kaibel, Comicorum graecorum fragmenta, 1 fasc. 1
Doriensium comoedia mimi phylaces (Berlin, 1899) R. Kiihner—B. Gerth, Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der
griechischen Sprache: Sattfehre. 4th ed. (Hannover,
19*5) A. Lesky, A history of Greek literature, tr. J. Willis-
C. de Heer (London, 1966) A. Lesky, Die tragische Dichtung der Hellenen, 3rd ed.
(Gottingen, 1972) Liddell-Scott-Jones, Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed.
(Oxford, 1925-40) Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass. & London) Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1970) Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford) A. Olivieri, Frammenti della commedia greca e del mimo
nella Sicilia e nella Magna Grecia (Naples, 1930) Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum (Turin) E. Lobel-D. Page, Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta
(Oxford, 1963) D. L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford, 1962) H. Diels, Poetarum Philosophorum Graecorum Fragmenta
(Berlin, 1901) R. Pfeiffer, A history of classical scholarship (Oxford, 1968) J. U. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford, 1925) J. U. Powell-E. A. Barber, New chapters in the history of
Greek Literature (Oxford, 1921), 2nd ser. (1929), 3rd ser. (Powell alone) (1933)
L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie, 4th ed., rev. C. Robert (Berlin, 1894)
xiv
RAC RE
klassischen Alttrtumswissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1893—) W. H. Roscher, Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und
romischen Mythologie (Leipzig, 1884- ) Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (Leyden, 1923—71;
Alphen aan den Rijn, 1979- ) P. J. Parsons and H. Lloyd-Jones, Supplementum Hel-
lenisticum (Berlin & New York, 1983) D. L. Page, Supplementum Lyricis Graecis (Oxford, 1974) H. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Leipzig,
1903-) B. Snell, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Gottingen,
1971-)
W. Schmid-O. Stahlin, Geschichte der griechischen Litera- tur (Munich, 1929-48)
L. Spengel, Rhetores Graeci(1853-6);' '• r e v- C. Hammer (Leipzig, 1894)
A. Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1889)
C. Walz, Rhetores Graeci (Stuttgart, 1832-6)
XV
1
I. FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO ALEXANDRIA
The Greeks, who gave us the names, forms and classic models of tragedy, comedy, epic, lyric and pastoral poetry, and, in fact, of almost every literary genre known to the West, did not develop a system of writing adequate for the recording of literature until late in their history. When, towards the end of the eighth century B.C., they finally did so, Egyptian literature, religious and secular, had been transmitted on papyrus scrolls for over two millennia; the literature of the Mesopotamian civilizations, inscribed on clay tablets, went back to a similarly remote antiquity. There had, of course, been a period of literacy, of a very restricted nature, in the great centres of Mycenaean civiliza- tion; inscribed clay tablets, dating from the last half of the second millennium, have been found at Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae on the mainland and at Cnossus in Crete. The script - known as Linear B - seems to have been a rough and ready adaptation for Mycenaean Greek of the Cretan Linear A script (still undeciphered but almost certainly non-Greek); the new writing system was used, as far as our evidence goes, mainly for lists of property and simple bureaucratic and legal records - ' long lists of names, records of livestock, grain and other produce, the account books of anonymous clerks'.1 No text of an even faintly literary quality survives. In any case the script's inefficiency as an instrument for literary purposes is clear at first glance: it lacks both economy and clarity. Since it is a syllabary, not an alphabet, the number of signs to be memorized - eighty-seven - is burdensome. And the script does not distinguish between the sounds we represent by r and /, it omits initial s and / as well as m, n, r and s at the end of a syllable - and so on. The signs for pa-ka-na, for example, represent what in later Greek is phasgana, ka-ko is chalkos, ku-ru-so chrusos, pe-ma sperma; pa-te may be either pater or pantes. Obviously, it would be almost impossible to interpret the script without the possibility of error unless the meaning were indicated by the context, as, in this case, it is - by easily recognizable ideograms for sword, bronze, gold, etc.
1 Chadwick (1976) ix.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
BOOKS AND READERS IN THE GREEK WORLD
Even so, modern scholarly disagreement over interpretation of the signs is far from rare. When, towards the very end of the second millennium B.C. the Mycenaean palaces were destroyed by fire, the clay tablets with their strange markings were buried in the ruins; baked to brick-like hardness by the fire, they remained hidden until the excavator's spade uncovered them in the twen- tieth century. In Greece all memory of this earlier literacy was lost, unless Homer's 'baleful signs' (the message carried by Bellerophon which said 'Kill the bearer' in Iliad 6.168) are a faint reminiscence of it, preserved uncom- prehendingly by the oral tradition.
When, many centuries later, the Greeks learned how to write again, they did so by adapting, as before, a script designed for a foreign language: a Phoenician (North Semitic) system in use in Syria. But this time the adaptation was a brilliant success: not only did it produce a sign system fully adequate for Greek sounds, it also improved on the original. The Semitic script did not indicate vowels; this left much room for misunderstanding and, in any but the most obvious context, demanded skilled readers and interpreters. To represent their vowels the Greek adaptors assigned some of the Semitic consonantal symbols which were, for them, redundant and thus created the first genuine alphabet: a system of writing which, because of its economy and clarity, could become a popular medium of communication rather than, what it had always been in the Near-Eastern civilizations (and almost certainly in Mycenaean Greece), the exclusive province of trained…
E. J. KENNEY
Emeritus Kennedy Professor of Latin in the University of Cambridge
Advisory Editors
W. V. CLAUSEN
Formerly Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, Harvard University
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
P.E.EASTERLING Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge
and
B.M.W.KNOX Formerly Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
PUBUSHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011^1211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, Vic 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain
Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa
http://www.cambridge.org
© Cambridge University Press 1985
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First Published 1985 Eighth printing 2003
Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Library of Congress catalogue card number: 82-22048
British Library cataloguing in publication data
The Cambridge history of classical literature. Vol. 1: Greek literature
1. Classical literature-History and criticism I. Easterling, P. E. II. Knox, Bernard M. W.
880.09 PA 3001
CONTENTS
List of plates page x Preface xi Abbreviations xiii
1 Books and readers in the Greek world i 1 From the beginnings to Alexandria i
by B. M. W. KNOX, Formerly Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington
2 The Hellenistic and Imperial periods 16 by P. E. EASTERLING, Professor of Greek, University College London
2 Homer 42 by G. S. KlRK, Regius Professor Emeritus of Greek, University of Cambridge 1 The poet and the oral tradition 42 2 The Iliad J2 3 The Odyssey 74
3 Hesiod 92 by J. P. BARRON, Professor of Greek Language and Literature in the University of London, at King's College, London, and P. E. EASTERLING
4 The epic tradition after Homer and Hesiod 106 1 The cyclic epics 106
by J. P. BARRON and P. E. EASTERLING
2 The Homeric Hymns 1 IO by G. S. KIRK
J Elegy and iambus 117 1 Archilochus 117 2 Early Greek elegy: Callinus, Tyrtaeus, Mimnermus 128
by J. P. BARRON and P. E. EASTERLING
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
C O N T E N T S
3 Theognis I 3 6 4 Solon 146
by B. M. W. KNOX
5 Semonides j 53 by P. E. EASTERLING
6 Hipponax 158 by B. M. W. KNOX
6 Archaic choral lyric 165 by CHARLES SEGAL, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Princeton University 1 The nature of early choral poetry 165 2 Alcman 168 3 Stesichorus 186
7 Monody 202 by DAVID A. CAMPBELL, Professor of Classics, University of Victoria, British Columbia 1 Sappho 203 2 Alcaeus 209 3 Ibycus 214 4 Anacreon 216 5 Skolia 220
8 Choral lyric in the fifth century 222 by CHARLES SEGAL
1 Introduction 222 2 Simonides 223 3 . Pindar 226 4 Bacchylides 235 5 Women poets: Corinna, Myrtis, Telesilla, Praxilla 239 6 Choral lyric to the end of the fifth century 242
9 Early Greek philosophy 245 by A. A. LONG, Professor of Classics at the University of California, Berkeley 1 Philosophical poets and Heraclitus 245 2 Anaxagoras, Democritus and other prose philosophers 253
10 Tragedy 258 1 The origins of tragedy 258
by R. P. WINNINGTON-INGRAM, Emeritus Professor of Greek Language and Literature in the University of London, at King's College, London
vi
CONTENTS
2 Tragedy in performance 163 by JOHN GOULD, Professor of Greek, University of Bristol
3 Aeschylus 281 by R. P. WlNNINGTON-lNGRAM
4 Sophocles 295 by P. E. EASTERLING
5 Euripides 316 6 Minor tragedians 339
by B. M. W. KNOX
11 The satyr play 346 by DANA F. SUTTON, Professor of Classics, University of California, Irvine
12 Comedy 355 by E. W. HANDLEY, Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge 1 Introduction 355 2 Structural patterns in Old Comedy 358 3 The earliest comic drama 362 4 Epicharmus and others 367 5 Myths and myth-making 370 6 Political comedy 374 7 Adventure and fantasy 379 8 The life of the mind 384 9 The social scene 391 10 From Aristophanes to Menander 398 11 Menander and the New Comedy 414
13 Historiography 426 1 Herodotus 426 2 Thucydides 441 3 Common elements of fifth-century historiography 456
by HENRY R. IMMERWAHR, Distinguished Alumni Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
4 Historical writing in the fourth century B.C. and in the 458 Hellenistic period by W. R. CONNOR, Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics, Princeton University
14 Sophists and physicians of the Greek enlightenment 472 by GEORGE A. KENNEDY, Paddison Professor of Classics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
vii
C O N T E N T S
15 Plato and the Socratic work of Xenophon 478 by F. H. SANDBACH, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Cambridge
1 Xenophon 478 2 Plato 480
16 Oratory 498 by GEORGE A. KENNEDY
1 The beginnings of literary oratory 498 2 Oratory in the fourth century 50J
17 Aristotle 527 by A. A. LONG
1 His life and writings 527 2 Rhetoric 533 3 Poetics 534
18 Hellenistic poetry 541 by A. W. BULLOCH, Professor of Classics at the University of California, Berkeley 1 Introduction 541 2 Philetas and others 544 3 Callimachus 549 4 Theocritus 570 5 Apollonius Rhodius 586 6 Minor figures 598
19 Post-Aristotelian philosophy 622
by A. A. LONG
1 The Later Academy and the Peripatos (Lyceum) 622 2 Epicurus and Philodemus 625 3 The Stoa and Stoic writers 631 4 Sceptics, Cynics, and other post-Aristotelian philosophers 636
20 The literature of the Empire 642 1 The early Empire 642
Strabo 642 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 643 by G. W. BOWEBSOCK, Professor of Ancient History, Institute
for Advanced Study {Princeton) 'Longinus' and others 646 by D . C. INNES, Fellow ofSt Hilda's College, Oxford
viii
21
CONTENTS
2 Poetry Poetic miniatures The hexameter poems ascribed to Oppian
3 Philostratus and the Second Sophistic Aelius Arisudes
4 Science and superstition Galen Artemidorus by G. W. BOWERSOCK
5 Between philosophy and rhetoric Plutarch by G. W. BOWERSOCK
Dio of Prusa Maximus Lucian Alciphron Aelian Athenaeus by E. L. BOWIE, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
6 The Greek novel The genre The surviving texts by E. L. BOWIE
7 The fable b y P. E. EASTERLING
8 Historical writing o f the High Empire Arrian Appian by E. L. B O W I E
Pausanias Cassius D i o and Herodian by G. W . BOWERSOCK
Epilogue by B. M. W . K N O X
Appendix o f authors and works edited b y M A R T I N D R U R Y
Metrical appendix by M A R T I N D R U R Y
Works cited in the text
Index
665
665
PLATES {between pages 272 and 273)
la Boy reading from a papyrus roll. Fragment of a red-figure cup by the Akestorides Painter, about 460 B.C. Greenwich, Connecticut. Walter Bareiss 63. Photo: Courtesy of Alexander Cambitoglou.
Ib Girl reading. Marble funerary relief. British Museum Catalogue of Sculpture 649. Photo: Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.
II Part of a papyrus roll. British Museum Papyrus 115, cols. 27-34. Reproduced by permission of the British Library. Photo: British Library.
III Leaf of an open papyrus codex. British Museum. Reproduced by courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society. Photo: Egypt Exploration Society.
IVa Epidaurus: the theatre from the air. Photo: R. V. Schoder, SJ. IVb Auletes and figures in oriental costume. Fragments of a hydria found in
Corinth. Corinth T 1144. Photo: American School of Classical Studies. Va Actors dressing and rehearsing. Red-figure pelike from Cervetri, c. 430
B.C. H. L. Pierce Fund 98.883. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photo: Museum.
Vb Actors dressing and rehearsing. Red-figure bell-krater, from Valle Pega, c. 460 B.C. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Ferrara T 173c (V.P.). Photo: Biancolli.
Via Painted backdrop for a play. Fragment of a polychrome vase from Tarentum, c. 350 B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv. H 4696 and H 4701. Photo: Museum.
VIb An actor and his mask. Wall-painting from Herculaneum. Naples, National Museum no. 9019. Photo: Anderson no. 23415, courtesy of The Mansell Collection.
Vila Mask of a tragic heroine. Fragment of a red-figure jug from Athens, c. 470-460 B.C. Agora Museum inv. P 11810. Photo: American School of Classical Studies.
Vllb Female tragic mask. Fragment of a red-figure vase from Athens, c. 400 B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv. H 4781. Photo: Museum.
VIIc Actor holding his mask. Fragment of a polychrome vase from Tarentum, c. 340 B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv. H 4600. Photo: Museum.
VIII Actors, satyr chorus, auletes, playwright and lyre-player. The Pronomos Vase: red-figure volute-krater from Athens, c. 400 B.C. Furtwangler- Reichhold (1921).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
PREFACE
'Ancient Greek literature' is not easily defined. There is no difficulty in placing its starting point in the archaic period, but the choice of closing date is bound to be arbitrary, since literary production in Greek continued for centuries after the ancient world ceased to be in any sense classical. No attempt is made here to deal with Christian literature, which would warrant a volume of its own, or with the classicizing works of early Byzantine authors; it has seemed best to close the volume with the end of the period of stable Graeco-Roman civilization in the third century A.D. Even with this comparatively early ter- minal date the period covered is a very long one - over a thousand years - and there is a wealth both of surviving material and of information about the much larger body of literature now lost. The emphasis of the present survey is mainly on works that are still extant, have intrinsic literary interest, or have exercised an influence on later literature. Within this general scheme particular attention has been paid to texts discovered in recent years: it is an important feature of ancient Greek literature that it is growing all the time. Quotations in the original are unevenly distributed: more extensive samples are given of texts not yet widely available, and more poetry than prose is cited in Greek. The background of historical events and the development of ideas over so long and diverse a period have had to be treated only incidentally, in order to keep the volume within bounds, but the reader who follows its roughly chronological thread should gain some sense of the changing tastes and literary values of educated Greeks over the centuries.
Fuller documentation of the lives and works of the authors discussed is to be found in the Appendices, where details are given of editions, collections of fragments, translations and critical studies. The List of Works Cited in the Text and List of Abbreviations together supply in full the references cited in abbreviated form in the footnotes.
The spelling of Greek names is an intractable problem, since current English practice is to use a mixture of transliterated Greek, latinized and anglicized forms. Latin and English have generally been preferred on grounds of fami- liarity, but some inconsistency has been unavoidable.
xi
PREFACE
A collaborative enterprise of this kind owes much to a large number of people. The Publishers and Editors would like to make special acknowledge- ment for help, on behalf of the contributors to be mentioned, to Professor Christian Habicht, Professor C. P. Jones (G. W. Bowersock); Mr E. L. Bowie, Miss J. M. Reynolds, Professor R. P. Winnington-Ingram (P. E. Easterling); Professor B. R. Rees (A. A. Long); Professor Hugh Lloyd-Jones (R. P. Winnington-Ingram). Mr Martin Drury deserves particular appreciation for his work as editor of the Appendix of Authors and Works and author of the Metrical Appendix. Jenny Morris compiled the index.
The Editors wish to thank the contributors most warmly for their patience in the face of frustrating delays, which bedevilled the production of this volume, and the Publishers for their constant and imaginative support.
P.E.E. B.M.W.K.
ABBREVIATIONS
BT
Bud(E
Bursian
CAF
Bibliotlieca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana (Leipzig & Stuttgart)
Collection des University de France, publi6e sous le patronage de 1'Association Guillaume Bude1 (Paris)
Bursian's Jahresbericht uber die Fortschritte der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft (Berlin, 1873-1945)
T. Kock, Comiconim Atticorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1880-8)
The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge, 1923-39) 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1961- ) Cambridge History of Classical Literature (Cambridge,
1982-5) G. Kaibel, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Berlin, 1899) C. F. L. Austin, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta in
papyris reperta (Berlin, 1973) Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin, 1863— ) Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Paris & elsewhere, 1925- ) W. von Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur,
rev. W. Schmid and O. Stahlin (Munich, 1920-24) 6th ed. (Cf. Schmid-Stahlin)
E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca I (2nd ed. 1936); n (3rd ed. 1949-52)
A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, tragedy and comedy. 2nd ed., rev. T. B. L. Webster (Oxford, 1962)
A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, The dramatic festivals oj Athens. 2nd ed., rev. J. Gould-D. M. Lewis (Oxford, 1968)
H. Diels-W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokradker. 6th ed. (Berlin, 1951-2)
G. Kinkel, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1877) F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Berlin,
1923-)
xm
ABBREVIATIONS
FHG
FYAT
Gow-Page, Garland
C. Mtiller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (Berlin, 1841-70)
(ed.) M. Platnauer, Fifty years {and twelve) of classical scholarship (Oxford, 1968)
H. Keil, Grammatici Latini (Leip2ig, 1855-1923) C. M. Bowra, Greek lyric poetry, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1961) A. S. F. Gow-D. L. Page, The Greek Anthology: Hellen-
istic Epigrams (Cambridge, 1965) A. S. F. Gow-D. L. Page, The Greek Anthology: The
Garland of Philip (Cambridge, 1968) W. K. C. Guthrie, A history of Greek philosophy
(Cambridge, 1965-81) M. L. West, Iambi et Elegi Graeci (Oxford, 1971-2) Inscriptions Graecae (Berlin, 1873-) G. Kaibel, Comicorum graecorum fragmenta, 1 fasc. 1
Doriensium comoedia mimi phylaces (Berlin, 1899) R. Kiihner—B. Gerth, Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der
griechischen Sprache: Sattfehre. 4th ed. (Hannover,
19*5) A. Lesky, A history of Greek literature, tr. J. Willis-
C. de Heer (London, 1966) A. Lesky, Die tragische Dichtung der Hellenen, 3rd ed.
(Gottingen, 1972) Liddell-Scott-Jones, Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed.
(Oxford, 1925-40) Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass. & London) Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1970) Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford) A. Olivieri, Frammenti della commedia greca e del mimo
nella Sicilia e nella Magna Grecia (Naples, 1930) Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum (Turin) E. Lobel-D. Page, Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta
(Oxford, 1963) D. L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford, 1962) H. Diels, Poetarum Philosophorum Graecorum Fragmenta
(Berlin, 1901) R. Pfeiffer, A history of classical scholarship (Oxford, 1968) J. U. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford, 1925) J. U. Powell-E. A. Barber, New chapters in the history of
Greek Literature (Oxford, 1921), 2nd ser. (1929), 3rd ser. (Powell alone) (1933)
L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie, 4th ed., rev. C. Robert (Berlin, 1894)
xiv
RAC RE
klassischen Alttrtumswissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1893—) W. H. Roscher, Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und
romischen Mythologie (Leipzig, 1884- ) Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (Leyden, 1923—71;
Alphen aan den Rijn, 1979- ) P. J. Parsons and H. Lloyd-Jones, Supplementum Hel-
lenisticum (Berlin & New York, 1983) D. L. Page, Supplementum Lyricis Graecis (Oxford, 1974) H. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Leipzig,
1903-) B. Snell, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Gottingen,
1971-)
W. Schmid-O. Stahlin, Geschichte der griechischen Litera- tur (Munich, 1929-48)
L. Spengel, Rhetores Graeci(1853-6);' '• r e v- C. Hammer (Leipzig, 1894)
A. Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1889)
C. Walz, Rhetores Graeci (Stuttgart, 1832-6)
XV
1
I. FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO ALEXANDRIA
The Greeks, who gave us the names, forms and classic models of tragedy, comedy, epic, lyric and pastoral poetry, and, in fact, of almost every literary genre known to the West, did not develop a system of writing adequate for the recording of literature until late in their history. When, towards the end of the eighth century B.C., they finally did so, Egyptian literature, religious and secular, had been transmitted on papyrus scrolls for over two millennia; the literature of the Mesopotamian civilizations, inscribed on clay tablets, went back to a similarly remote antiquity. There had, of course, been a period of literacy, of a very restricted nature, in the great centres of Mycenaean civiliza- tion; inscribed clay tablets, dating from the last half of the second millennium, have been found at Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae on the mainland and at Cnossus in Crete. The script - known as Linear B - seems to have been a rough and ready adaptation for Mycenaean Greek of the Cretan Linear A script (still undeciphered but almost certainly non-Greek); the new writing system was used, as far as our evidence goes, mainly for lists of property and simple bureaucratic and legal records - ' long lists of names, records of livestock, grain and other produce, the account books of anonymous clerks'.1 No text of an even faintly literary quality survives. In any case the script's inefficiency as an instrument for literary purposes is clear at first glance: it lacks both economy and clarity. Since it is a syllabary, not an alphabet, the number of signs to be memorized - eighty-seven - is burdensome. And the script does not distinguish between the sounds we represent by r and /, it omits initial s and / as well as m, n, r and s at the end of a syllable - and so on. The signs for pa-ka-na, for example, represent what in later Greek is phasgana, ka-ko is chalkos, ku-ru-so chrusos, pe-ma sperma; pa-te may be either pater or pantes. Obviously, it would be almost impossible to interpret the script without the possibility of error unless the meaning were indicated by the context, as, in this case, it is - by easily recognizable ideograms for sword, bronze, gold, etc.
1 Chadwick (1976) ix.
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
BOOKS AND READERS IN THE GREEK WORLD
Even so, modern scholarly disagreement over interpretation of the signs is far from rare. When, towards the very end of the second millennium B.C. the Mycenaean palaces were destroyed by fire, the clay tablets with their strange markings were buried in the ruins; baked to brick-like hardness by the fire, they remained hidden until the excavator's spade uncovered them in the twen- tieth century. In Greece all memory of this earlier literacy was lost, unless Homer's 'baleful signs' (the message carried by Bellerophon which said 'Kill the bearer' in Iliad 6.168) are a faint reminiscence of it, preserved uncom- prehendingly by the oral tradition.
When, many centuries later, the Greeks learned how to write again, they did so by adapting, as before, a script designed for a foreign language: a Phoenician (North Semitic) system in use in Syria. But this time the adaptation was a brilliant success: not only did it produce a sign system fully adequate for Greek sounds, it also improved on the original. The Semitic script did not indicate vowels; this left much room for misunderstanding and, in any but the most obvious context, demanded skilled readers and interpreters. To represent their vowels the Greek adaptors assigned some of the Semitic consonantal symbols which were, for them, redundant and thus created the first genuine alphabet: a system of writing which, because of its economy and clarity, could become a popular medium of communication rather than, what it had always been in the Near-Eastern civilizations (and almost certainly in Mycenaean Greece), the exclusive province of trained…
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