Arion's Lyre: Archaic Lyric into Hellenistic Poetry

Hardback

Main Details

Title Arion's Lyre: Archaic Lyric into Hellenistic Poetry
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Benjamin Acosta-Hughes
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:248
Dimensions(mm): Height 235,Width 152
Category/GenreGeography
ISBN/Barcode 9780691095257
ClassificationsDewey:884.0109
Audience
Undergraduate
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Professional & Vocational

Publishing Details

Publisher Princeton University Press
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publication Date 24 January 2010
Publication Country United States

Description

Arion's Lyre examines how Hellenistic poetic culture adapted, reinterpreted, and transformed Archaic Greek lyric through a complex process of textual, cultural, and creative reception. Looking at the ways in which the poetry of Sappho, Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon, and Simonides was preserved, edited, and read by Hellenistic scholars and poets, the book shows that Archaic poets often look very different in the new social, cultural, and political setting of Hellenistic Alexandria. For example, the Alexandrian Sappho evolves from the singer of Archaic Lesbos but has distinct associations and contexts, from Ptolemaic politics and Macedonian queens to the new phenomenon of the poetry book and an Alexandrian scholarship intent on preservation and codification. A study of Hellenistic poetic culture and an interpretation of some of the Archaic poets it so lovingly preserved, Arion's Lyre is also an examination of how one poetic culture reads another--and how modern readings of ancient poetry are filtered and shaped by earlier readings.

Author Biography

Benjamin Acosta-Hughes is professor of Greek and Latin at Ohio State University. He is the author of "Polyeideia: The Iambi of Callimachus and the Archaic Iambic Tradition".

Reviews

"[T]his is a very important contribution to both Hellenistic poetry and archaic lyric. It offers copious material for further discussion on textual problems and interpretative approaches."--Flora P. Manakidou, European Legacy