Fr. 178

      ἠὼς οὐδὲ πιθοιγὶς ἐλάνθανεν οὐδ' ὅτε δούλοις

           ἦμαρ Ὀρέστειοι λευκὸν ἄγουσι χόες·

      Ἰκαρίου καὶ παιδὸς ἄγων ἐπέτειον ἁγιστύν,

           Ἀτθίσιν οἰκτίστη, σὸν φάος, Ἠριγόνη,  

5    ἐς δαίτην ἐκάλεσσεν ὁμηθέας, ἐν δέ νυ τοῖσι 

          ξεῖνον ὃς Α[]γύπτῳ καινὸς ἀνεστρέφετο

      μεμβλωκὼς ἴδιόν τι κατὰ χρέος· ἦν δὲ γενέθλην

           Ἴκιος, ᾧ ξυνὴν εἶχον ἐγὼ κλισίην

      οὐκ ἐπιτάξ, ἀλλ' αἶνος Ὁμηρικός, αἰὲν ὁμοῖον

10       ὡς θεός, οὐ ψευδής, ἐς τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει.

      καὶ γὰρ ὁ Θρηϊκίην μὲν ἀπέστυγε χανδὸν ἄμυστιν

           ζωροποτεῖν, ὀλίγῳ δ' ἥδετο κισσυβίῳ.

      τῷ μὲν ἐγὼ τάδ' ἔλεξα περιστείχοντος ἀλείσου

           τὸ τρίτον, εὖτ' ἐδάην οὔνομα καὶ γενεήν·

15  ʿἦ μάλ' ἔπος τόδ' ἀληθές, ὅ τ' οὐ μόνον ὕδατος αἶσαν,

           ἀλλ' ἔτι καὶ λέσχης οἶνος ἔχειν ἐθέλει.  

      τὴν ἡμεῖς— οὐκ ἐν γ[]ρ ἀρυστήρεσσι φορεῖται

           οὐδέ μιν εἰς ἀτ[ενεῖ]ς ὀφρύας οἰνοχόων

      αἰτήσεις ὁρόω[ν] ὅτ' ἐλεύθερος ἀτμένα σαίνει—   

20       βάλλωμεν χαλεπῷ φάρμακον ἐν πόματι,

      Θεύγενες· ὅσσ[α] δ' ἐμεῖο σ[έ]θεν πάρα θυμὸς ἀκοῦσαι 

           ἰχαίνει, τάδε μοι λ[έ]ξον [ἀνειρομέν]ῳ·

      Μυρμιδόνων ἑσσῆνα τ[ί πάτριον ὔ]μμι σέβεσθαι

           Πηλέα, κῶς Ἴκῳ ξυν[ὰ τὰ Θεσσαλι]κά,

25  τεῦ δ' ἕνεκεν γήτειον ιδ[. .]υτ[. . . .]ρτον ἔχουσα

           ἥρωος κα[θ]όδου πα[ῖς  

      εἰδότες ὡς ἐνέπου[σιν

           κείνην ἣ περὶ σὴν [

      οὔθ' ἑτέρην ἔγνωκα· τ[

30       οὔατα μυθεῖσθαι βουλομέν[οις ἀνέχων.

      τ[αῦτ'] ἐμέθεν λέξαντο[ς

           ‘τρις μάκαρ, ἦ παύρων ὄλβιός ἐσσι μέτα,

      ναυτιλίης εἰ νῆιν ἔχεις βίον· ἀλλ' ἐμὸς αἰών

           κύμασιν αἰθυίης μᾶλλον ἐσῳκίσατο

 

Fragment 178 Harder (= 178 Pf., = 89 Mass.)
  1-34 P.Oxy. 1362, fr. 1 col. 1 (1-25) and col. II (26-34)
  [image], Trismegistos 59367

  11-14 Ath. 11.477c
  11-12 Ath. 10.442f
  12 Σ Theoc. 1.27a
  15-16 Ath. 1.32b-c
  23 Hdn. Π.μον.λεξ 2.923.5 sqq
  30 Str. 9.5.17, 438C
  32-34 Stob. 4.17.11
  33-34 Σ Arat. 299

This unplaced fragment contains a description of a symposium held at the house of an Athenian named Pollis, who was a resident in Egypt (presumably Alexandria), but who nevertheless celebrated Attic festivals. The occasion was the festival of the Aiora. In the course of the party Callimachus asked his neighbor, a visitor to Egypt from Icus, to tell him about a cult of Peleus that the Icians celebrated. There is a growing consensus that this fragment belongs at the beginning of Book 2. This fragment has been used to argue that the three events mentioned—the Pithoigia, the Choes, and the Aiora—are separate days of the Anthesteria (see Burkert 1985: 237-42, and for a different opinion Hamilton 1992: 48-9). For various interpretations of the fragment see Fantuzzi-Hunter (2004, 76 ff.), and Stephens (2013).

2. The Choes supposedly commemorated Orestes as an exile in Athens after killing Clytemnestra. Because of his pollution he could not be accepted as a guest, but was compelled to sit alone and drink in silence. 

3-4. In Attica, Dionysus taught Icarius to make wine; when he demonstrated his new product to the locals, they thought they had been poisoned and killed him and buried his body. His daughter Erigone with her dog Maera searched for him and when she found him, hanged herself on a nearby tree. Dionysus punished them by driving Attic women to hang themselves. The festival of the Aiora is both an expiation and a remembrance of these events. Erigone and her dog were subsequently turned into constellations. 

9-20. The details of eschewing deep drinking and preferring conversation recall Plato's Symposium, but the passage also has many recollections of Homer (e.g., Od 4.220-21 and 17.217-8).

24. At the end of Peleus' life he sails out to meet his grandson Neoptolemus, who is coming from Troy. The former is shipwrecked on Icus, received by Molon, but dies there. Nothing further is known about the rites for Peleus on Icus.

 

Bibliography

Burkert, W. 1985. Greek Religion. Translated by John Raffan. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Fabian, Klaus. 1991. ‘Il banchetto di Pollis. Callimachi fr. 178-185 Pf. (Icus).’ In “Oinera Teuche.” Studi triestini di poesia conviviale, edited by Klaus Fabian, Ezio Pellizer, and Gennaro Tedeschi, 131-66.  Alessandria: Ed. dell'Orso. 

Fantuzzi, Marco and Richard Hunter, 2004. Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hamilton, R. 1992. Choes and Anthesteria: Athenian Iconography and Ritual. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Hunter, Richard L. 1996. "Callimachus Swings (frr. 178 and 43 Pf.)." Ramus 25:18-26.

Scandroglio, Laura. 2003. 'Callimaco e Teogene di Ico.' Sungraphe 5:181-9.

Scodel, Ruth. 1980. ‘Wine, Water, and the Anthesteria in Callimachus Fr. 178 Pf.’ Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 39:37-40.

Stephens, Susan A. 2013. "Deregulating Poetry." In Performance and Culture in Plato's Laws, edited by A. Peponi, 371-91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Suggested Citation

Susan Stephens, Callimachus: Aetia. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-947822-07-8.https://dcc.dickinson.edu/tr/callimachus-aetia/uf/icus