The Paradigm of Simias: Essays on Poetic Eccentricity

Jan Kwapisz

Published by De Gruyter 2019

The Paradigm of Simias

Essays on Poetic Eccentricity

Jan Kwapisz

Volume 75 in the series Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110640106

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book’s concern is with notoriously obscure ancient poets-riddlers, whom it argues to have been an essential, albeit necessarily marginal, element of the literary landscape of Antiquity, which, in addition, exerted subtle yet lasting influence on European culture. The three first essays in this book trace a direct line of influence between the early Hellenistic scholar-poet Simias of Rhodes, the late Republican Roman experimentalist Laevius and Constantine the Great’s virtuoso panegyrist Optatian Porfyry, whereas the fourth essay discusses the preservation and transformation of the model invented by Simias in Byzantium. The Appendix reflects on the triumph of this intellectual paradigm in Neo-Latin Jesuit education by investigating the case of a peripheral yet highly influential Central European college at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This book is at once a contribution to the scholarship on the reception of Hellenistic poetry and to the study of ancient ‘technopaegnia’ (i.e. playful poetry) and their cultural influence in Antiquity, Byzantium and post-mediaeval Europe.

Author / Editor information

Jan Kwapisz, University of Warsaw, Poland.

Reviews

"K.s Studie, die von einer Einleitung (1–
16) sowie einer Bibliographie (167–180)
und nützlichen Indices (181–193) flankiert
wird, ist für ihren weit ausgreifenden
Ansatz bei gleichzeitiger Konzentration
auf das Wesentliche sowie philologischer
und textkritischer Liebe zum Detail zu
loben. Dass es sich um ein weniger als
zweihundert Seiten langes Buch handelt,
trägt in positiver Weise dazu bei, dass eine
Von-vorne-bis-hinten-Lektüre problemlos
möglich ist." Silvio Bär in: Gnomon 7/2021, 654-656.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Introduction: The Paradigm of Simias Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Three Preoccupations of Simias of Rhodes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2. Laevius’ Broken Wing and the Banquet of Riddlers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
3. Optatian Porfyry and the Order of Court Riddlers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
4. The Invention of the Figure Poem in Byzantium Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
Appendix: A New Alexandria and its Little Museum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Index of Sources and Passages Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of Classical Studies, Byzantinology, Neo-Latin.
Pages
- Front matter: 10
- Main content: 193
Keywords: Technopaegnia; Hellenistic poetry; Reception of Hellenistic poetry

eBook

Published: February 19, 2019
ISBN: 9783110640106

Hardcover

Published: February 19, 2019
ISBN: 9783110635935