Epilogue | Dickinson College Commentaries

Fr. 112

. . .]. .ιν ὅτ' ἐμὴ μοῦσα τ[. . . . .]άσεται

. . .]του καὶ Χαρίτων [. . . . . .]ρια μοιαδ' ἀνάσσης

. . .]τερης οὔ σε ψευδον[. . . . . .]ματι

πάντ' ἀγαθὴν καὶ πάντα τ[ελ]εσφόρον εἶπέν. . .[. .].[

5 κείν. . τῷ Μοῦσαι πολλὰ νέμοντι βοτά

σὺν μύθους ἐβάλοντο παρ' ἴχν[ι]ον ὀξέος ἵππου·

χαῖρε, σὺν εὐεστοῖ δ' ἔρχεο λωϊτέρῃ.

χαῖρε, Ζεῦ, μέγα καὶ σύ, σάω δ' [ἐμὸ]ν οἶκον ἀνάκτων·

αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ Μουσέων πεζὸν [ἔ]πειμι νομόν.

10 ΚΑΛΛΙΜΑΧΟΥ [ΑΙΤΙ]ΩΝ Δ'

notes

Fr. 112 Harder (= 112 Pf., = 112 Mass.) P.Oxy. 1011 fol. II
verso, 1-10 [image], Trismegistos 59415

P.Oxy. 7.1011 is a papyrus codex that contains the end of the Aetia and the beginning of the Iambi. The last five lines of the Aetia recall the opening (frag 2): "When a swarm of Muses met the shepherd Hesiod, grazing his flocks by the footprint of the fiery horse," see 112.5-6, "to whom the Muses told many stories as he tended his sheep by the footprint of the fiery horse." This is generally taken to have been the Epilogue to the collected four books of Aetia, and to have functioned as an introduction to the Iambi, which in the codex immediately follows. At the time Callimachus wrote, of course, these lines could only have stood at the end of a roll, and thus could only have signaled a change in poetic interests. Only with the later introduction of the codex could the lines have served as a transition between two different generic collections. Moreover, the whole of the Aetia must have belonged to the end of Callimachus’ very long career (about 245 BC), while the Iambi are likely to have been written earlier.

line 2: Platt's conjecture of μαῖα δ’ ἀνάσσης ("nurse of my mistress") is very attractive, especially when coupled with the fact that Κυρήνη | μαῖα occurs in a funerary epigram of Eratosthenes of Cyrene composed by Dionysius of Cyzicus (AP 7.78.3). This is discussed in Massimilla 2010.2.514.

Bibliography

Knox, P. 1985. “The Epilogue to the Aetia.” Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 26:59-65.

———. 1993. “The Epilogue to the Aetia: An Epilogue.” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 96:175-78.

Massimilla, Giulio (ed.). 2010. Callimaco. Aitia: libri terzo e quarto. Pisa/Roma: Fabrizio Serra.

vocabulary

Fr. 112

τελεσφόρος -ον: able to fulfil or accomplish, all-powerful; fruitful, bearing fruit in due season

Μοῦσα -ης, ἡ: one of the Muses, the inspiring goddesses of song and poetry 5

βοτόν -οῦ, τό: a (grazing) beast, animal, sheep

νέμω: distribute, allot; (of a shepherd) pasture, graze (a flock)

μῦθος -ου , ὁ: story

ἴχνιον -ου, τό: track, footprint

ὀξύς -εῖα -ύ: sharp, keen, swift

εὐεστώ -οῦς, ἡ: well-being, prosperity

λωΐτερος ον: more desirable, more agreeable, better

Ζεύς, gen. Διός or Ζηνός, dat. Διί or Ζηνί, acc. Δία or Ζῆνα: Zeus

πεζός -ή -όν: on foot, on land; prose (as opposed to poetry)

ἔπειμι: go over, traverse, visit

νομός -οῦ, ὁ: pasture

translation

Fr. 112

. . . when my Muse

. . . and of the Graces and the nurse (?) of my mistress

. . . you not falsely?

. . . in all things good and in all things accomplished spoke of . . .

to whom, while tending his many sheep, the Muses5

told stories near the footprint of the fiery horse.

Fare well, and return with greater prosperity;

And hail greatly to you too, Zeus, and may you preserve the whole house of our masters.

But I shall go on to the pedestrian pasture of the Muses.

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