1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910159458903321

Autore

Cairns Francis

Titolo

Hellenistic epigram : contexts of exploration / / Francis Cairns [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2016

ISBN

1-316-73372-6

1-316-73179-0

1-316-74530-9

1-316-74723-9

1-316-74916-9

1-316-61787-4

1-316-71747-X

1-316-75495-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xviii, 516 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Classificazione

HIS002000

Disciplina

888/.00209

Soggetti

Epigrams, Greek - History and criticism

Greek poetry, Hellenistic - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Oct 2016).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introductory : contexts and their loss -- Afterlives -- Philosophical matters -- Temples and shrines -- Literary polemics -- Literary polemics continue -- Poetry, sex, the countryside -- Medical connections -- Epitaphs : epigraphic or epideictic? -- Local interests -- Speakers, addressee, antecedents -- The erotic -- Generic innovation -- Learning.

Sommario/riassunto

This book offers scholars and students of Hellenistic and Roman literature an overview of Hellenistic epigram, a field closely related to other Hellenistic poetry and highly influential upon Roman poetry. In fourteen themed chapters, it foregrounds the literary, linguistic, historical, epigraphic, social, political, ethnic, cultic, onomastic, local, topographical and patronage contexts within which Hellenistic epigrams were composed. Many epigrams are analysed in detail and new interpretations of them proposed. Throughout, the question is



asked whether epigrams are literary jeux d'esprit (as is often assumed without proper discussion) or whether they relate to real people and real events and have a function in the real world. That function may be epigraphic, for example an epigram can be the epitymbion for inscription at someone's grave, or the anathematikon for inscription on or beside a dedicated object, or a picture-label - an ekphrasis to accompany a painting or mosaic.