Fr. 1
πολλάκ]ι μοι Τελχῖνες ἐπιτρύζουσιν ἀοιδῇ,
νήιδες οἳ Μούσης οὐκ ἐγένοντο φίλοι,
εἵνεκεν οὐχ ἓν ἄεισμα διηνεκὲς ἢ βασιλ[η
. . . . . .]ας ἐν πολλαῖς ἤνυσα χιλιάσιν
5 ἢ . . . . .] . ους ἥρωας, ἔπος δ' ἐπὶ τυτθὸν ελ[
παῖς ἅτε, τῶν δ' ἐτέων ἡ δεκὰς οὐκ ὀλίγη.
. . . . . .].[.]και Τε[λ]χῖσιν ἐγὼ τόδε· ‘φῦλον α[
. . . . . . .] τήκ[ειν] ἧπαρ ἐπιστάμενον,
. . . . . .]. . ρεην [ὀλ]ιγόστιχος· ἀλλὰ καθέλκει,
10 . . . . πολὺ τὴν μακρὴν ὄμπνια Θεσμοφόρο[ς·
τοῖν δὲ] δυοῖν Μίμνερμος ὅτι γλυκύς, αἱ γ' ἁπαλαὶ [
. . . . . .] ἡ μεγάλη δ' οὐκ ἐδίδαξε γυνή.
. . . . .]ον ἐπὶ Θρήϊκας ἀπ' Αἰγύπτοιο [πέτοιτο
αἵματ]ι Πυγμαίων ἡδομένη [γ]έρα[νος,
15 Μασσαγέται καὶ μακρὸν ὀϊστεύοιεν ἐπ' ἄνδρα
Μῆδον]· ἀη[δονίδες] δ' ὧδε μελιχρ[ό]τεραι.
ἔλλετε Βασκανίης ὀλοὸν γένος· αὖθι δὲ τέχνῃ
κρίνετε,] μὴ σχοίνῳ Περσίδι τὴν σοφίην·
μηδ' ἀπ' ἐμεῦ διφᾶτε μέγα ψοφέουσαν ἀοιδήν
20 τίκτεσθαι· βροντᾶν οὐκ ἐμόν, ἀλλὰ Διός.’
καὶ γὰρ ὅτε πρώτιστον ἐμοῖς ἐπὶ δέλτον ἔθηκα
γούνασιν, Ἀπ[ό]λλων εἶπεν ὅ μοι Λύκιος·
ʿ. . . . . . .]. . . ἀοιδέ, τὸ μὲν θύος ὅττι πάχιστον
θρέψαι, τὴ]ν Μοῦσαν δ' ὠγαθὲ λεπταλέην·
25 πρὸς δέ σε] καὶ τόδ' ἄνωγα, τὰ μὴ πατέουσιν ἅμαξαι
τὰ στείβειν, ἑτέρων ἴχνια μὴ καθ' ὁμά
δίφρον ἐλ]ᾶν μηδ' οἷμον ἀνὰ πλατύν, ἀλλὰ κελεύθους
ἀτρίπτο]υς, εἰ καὶ στεινοτέρην ἐλάσεις.’
τῷ πιθόμη]ν· ἐνὶ τοῖς γὰρ ἀείδομεν οἳ λιγὺν ἦχον
30 τέττιγος, θ]όρυβον δ' οὐκ ἐφίλησαν ὄνων.
θηρὶ μὲν οὐατόεντι πανείκελον ὀγκήσαιτο
ἄλλος ἐγ]ὼ δ' εἴην οὑλ[α]χύς, ὁ πτερόεις,
ἆ πάντως, ἵνα γῆρας ἵνα δρόσον ἣν μὲν ἀείδω
προίκιον ἐκ δίης ἠέρος εἶδαρ ἔδων,
35 αὖθι τὸ δ' ἐκδύοιμι, τό μοι βάρος ὅσσον ἔπεστι
τριγλώχιν ὀλοῷ νῆσος ἐπ' Ἐγκελάδῳ.
. . . . . . . Μοῦσαι γὰρ ὅσους ἴδον ὄθματι παῖδας
μὴ λοξῷ, πολιοὺς οὐκ ἀπέθεντο φίλους.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .]σε[. .] πτερὸν οὐκέτι κινεῖν
40 . . . . . . . . . . . . .]η τ[ῆ]μος ἐνεργότατος.
notes
Fr.1 Harder (= 1 Pf., = 1 Mass.)
1-40 P.Oxy. 2079 fr. 1, add. P.Oxy. 2167 fr. 1 ad. vv. 14-21,
[image], Trismegistos 59397
1 PSI 1219 fr. 1, 1 (= Σ 1b, 1) [image] Trismegistos 59399
6 Heph. 52.10 sqq.
11-12 see Σ 1d, 11-13
14 see Julianus Anticensor, AP 11.369
15 Σ D.T. 460.7 sqq.
17 Eust. ad Il. 9.364
18 Plu. De Exil. 10.602f
19 EtGen. AB s.v. διφῶ
20 Heph. 52.13 sq.
21-22 A.D. Synt. 441.3 sqq.
34 Σ Theoc. 4.16a
35 EtGud. 232.22 sqq
36 Σ CDEH Pi. O. 4.11c
37-38 Σ Hes. Th. 82
1-8. Callimachus begins by defending himself against his critics, whom he labels "Telchines." The Telchines were mythological figures, sorcerers or magicians, who became hateful to the gods, and whom Zeus or Apollo obliterated. The Florentine Scholia (lines 3–8) identify the Telchines with a few of Callimachus' contemporaries, most notably the epigrammatists Asclepiades and Posidippus. But despite ancient and modern speculation, it is not certain if Telchines refers to real individuals or is a fictional adversary.
2. This line has been understood in two ways: (1) νήιδες stands alone (= ignoramuses) and Μούσης is taken with φίλοι, or (2) Μούσης is taken with both, i.e., Harder's translation: "ignorant of the Muse, they were not born her friend."
5. ελ[: see Recreating the Aetia, Example 7 for a discussion of the proposed restorations.
9-12. In this section Callimachus mentions the elegist, Mimnermus (line 11) and refers to a number of contemporary poems, e.g., “Bountiful Thesmophoros” and the “Fat Lady.” There have been various attempts to identify them: Pfeiffer, on the basis of the Florentine Scholia (lines 12–5) identified the first with the Demeter of Philitas of Cos, the second with Mimnermus' Nanno. Another contender for the “Fat Lady” is Antimachus of Colophon's Lyde. Since none of these poems survive intact, it is impossible to determine which suggestion is correct. Further, it is important to realize that each conjecture is based on a priori assumptions about the exact nature of the poetic dispute. Is Callimachus expressing an anti-Homeric, or at least an anti-epic, bias (as is generally taken to be the case) by opposing epic poems (e.g., of Antimachus) to elegies (of Mimnermus)? Or is the prologue, as A. Cameron (1995) has recently argued, a stylistic debate about the composition of elegiac poetry? In the latter case the contrast will be between poems of differing length and/or quality written by the same poet (that is, two by Philitas and two of Mimnermus).
13-20. This section contrasts long (Massagetae shooting arrows, Persian schoenus) vs. short (Pygmies) and loud (cranes, thunder) vs. clear-sounding and delicate. The child may also serve as an image of the small.
16. See Recreating the Aetia, Example 6 for a discussion of this restoration.
21-34. These lines have often been imitated by Roman poets: Callimachus articulates the privileged status of the poet as one who is favored by Apollo and the Muses. He claims that Apollo came to him when he first began to write. The god set out guidelines for the composition of poetry in a series of oppositions that are related to the oppositions of the previous section: the untrodden path vs. the public thoroughfare, delicacy vs. bombast, thin Muse vs. fat sheep, the cicada vs. the braying ass. The fragment ends with the poet wishing for immortality and likening himself to the cicada who feeds only on dew, and probably also to the dying swan who sings sweetest just before its death (lines 39-40).
31. Note the effect of the spondaic ending, mimicking the sound of a braying ass: ὀγκήσαιτο.
33-36. The syntax of these lines is convoluted, probably to simulate ecstatic speech. It is arranged chiastically with ἵνα γῆρας...τὸ δ’ ἐκδύοιμι as the outer elements, ἵνα δρόσον ἣν μὲν ἀείδω the inner.
Bibliography
Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin. 2012. “The Cicada's Song: Plato in the Aetia.” In Callimachea II. Seconda Giornata di Studi su Callimaco (Roma, 12 maggio 2005), edited by Antonio Martina, Adele-Teresa Cozzoli and Massimo Giuseppetti, 17-34. Rome: Scienze e Lettere.
Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin, and Susan A. Stephens. 2001. "Aetia Fr. 1.5: I Told My Story Like a Child." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 136:214-16.
———. 2002. "Rereading Callimachus' Aetia fragment 1." Classical Philology 97:238-255.
Ambühl, Annemarie. 2004. “Entertaining Theseus and Heracles: the Hecale and the Victoria Berenices as a Diptych.” Callimachus II, Hellenistica Groningana 7, edited by M. Annette Harder, Remco F. Regtuit & Gerry C. Wakker, 23-48. Dudley, MA: Peeters.
Asper, Markus. 1997. Onomata allotria: zur Genese, Struktur und Funktion poetologischer Metaphern bei Kallimachos (Hermes Einzelschriften 75). Stuttgart: F. Steiner.
Cameron, Allen. 1995. Callimachus and his Critics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Clayman, Dee. 1977. ‘The origins of Greek literary criticism and the Aitia prologue.’ Wiener Studien 11:27-34.
Crane, Gregory. 1986. "Tithonus and the Prologue to Callimachus' Aetia." Zeitschift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 66:269-278.
Hunter, Richard L. 1989. "Winged Callimachus." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 76:1-2.
Kerkhecker, Arnd.1988. "Ein Musenanruf am Anfang der Aitia des Kallimachos." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 71:16-24.
Krevans, Nita. 1991. " 'Invocation' at the end of then Aetia Prologue." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 89:19–23
———. 1993. ‘Fighting against Antimachus. The Lyde and the Aetia reconsidered.’ In Callimachus (Hellenistica Groningana 1), edited by M. Annette Harder, Remco F. Regtuit & Gerry C. Wakker, 149-60. Groningen: Egbert Forsten.
Luppe, Wolfgang. 1997. "Kallimachos, Aetien-Prolog V. 7-12." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 115:50-54.
Magnelli, Enrico. 1999. ‘Quelle Bestie dei Telchini (sul v. 2 del prologo degli Aitia.’ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 127:52-8.
Pontani, Filippomaria. 1999. ‘The first Word of Callimachus’ Aitia.’ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 128:57-9
———. 2011. “Callimachus Cited.” In Brill’s Companion to Callimachus, edited by Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, Luig Lehnus, and Susan Stephens, 93-117. Leiden: Brill.
Spanoudakis, Konstantinos. 2001. ‘Poets and Telchines in Callimachus’ Aetia-Prologue.’ Mnemosyne 54:425-41.
Wimmel, Walter. 1975. ‘Philitas im Aitienprolog des Kallimachos.’ In Kallimachos (Wege der Forschung 296), edited by A.D. Skiadas, 70-80. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.