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6th Trends in Classics

International Conference on Hellenistic Poetry

Hellenistic Studies at a Crossroads: Exploring Texts, Contexts and

Metatexts

25-27 May, 2012

Auditorium I
Aristotle University Research Dissemination Center
(September 3rd Avenue, University Campus)
Organizing committee
Richard Hunter (University of Cambridge)
Franco Montanari (University of Genova)
Antonios Rengakos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Evina Sistakou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Hellenistic poetry and poetics have attracted the attention of scholars such as Wilamowitz,
Powell, Pfeiffer, Frazer and Gow whose editions and studies mark a milestone in the history
of classical scholarship. However, it is only in the last 25 years that Hellenistic studies have
been established as an independent discipline in the field of classics. Numerous editions,
specialized companions and histories of Hellenistic poetry are only some of the tools that
have been developed in recent years. The subject matter of Hellenistic studies is vast and
diverse, since it comprises not only the three major Alexandrians, Callimachus, Apollonius
and Theocritus, but also a huge corpus consisting of fragments, dramatic poets such as
Menander and Lycophron, new genres (the idyll and the epyllion), didactic poetry, as well as
a wide range of epigrammatic and epigraphic material. And although previous scholars have
seen the key to reading Hellenistic poetry in the mastering of the allusion (Pasquali,
Giangrande etc.), contemporary trends from literary theory, narratology, cultural studies and
so on, provide new insights into Hellenistic poetics.
“Texts” views Hellenistic poetry from a textual perspective. What does collection or
poetry book denote for the Hellenistic audience, and on what terms were books compiled and
read during the Hellenistic era? A different problem concerns modern day philology: how to
provide new editions and commentaries for fragmentary works, how to compile anthologies,
and if new editions and translations are still necessary.
Under the title “Contexts” scholars are encouraged to explore Hellenistic poetry
against various backgrounds −the political ideology, the religious framework, the cultural
trends, the progress of science, the establishment of scholarship, the artistic movements and
aesthetics. In most cases, the decisive factor of these contexts is Alexandria and the Ptolemaic
court; however, the exploration of contexts may take account of other factors, such as the
existence of other cultural centers besides Alexandria, the Egyptian background or the rise of
Rome.
Despite the fact that a great part of Hellenistic studies is dedicated to the intertextual
dialogue between Hellenistic poetry on the one hand, and archaic, classical or even Roman
poetry on the other, modern day scholars refine this type of research by placing emphasis on
“Metatexts”. Hellenistic genres and narrative modes thus presuppose archaic literary forms;
Hellenistic poetics may be seen as comments on previous authors and poems; Hellenistic
myth becomes a field of variation and experimentation on archaic and classical mythology.
Moreover, is the old thesis about ‘neoteric poetics’ still valid? In what ways can the analysis
of intertextual and metatextual relations shed light on Hellenistic poetics and aesthetics?
Which aesthetic trends can we distinguish within the corpus of Hellenistic poetry? And
finally: how can modern critical theories (psychoanalysis or linguistics or feminist studies or
narratology) contribute to a better understanding of Hellenistic poetics in the 21st century?
PROGRAM
Friday May 25, 2012, 9.00-12.00
WELCOME SPEECHES
Michail Chrysanthopoulos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Antonios Rengakos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Franco Montanari (University of Genova)
OPENING SPEECH
Richard Hunter (University of Cambridge): “My Back Pages? Theocritus and the Style of
Hellenistic Poetry”
CONTEXTS
Chair: Antonios Rengakos
Annette Harder (University of Groningen): “Between poet and philologist”
Gregory Hutchinson (University of Oxford): “Hellenistic poetry and Hellenistic prose”
Andrew Faulkner (University of Waterloo): “Hellenistic poetry and scripture”
Break
Friday May 25, 2012, 12.30-14.00
AESTHETICS
Chair: Franco Montanari
Marco Fantuzzi (University of Columbia/Macerata): “Hellenistic πρέπον ‘decency’:
character's coherence and author's appropriateness”
Evina Sistakou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) “From emotion to sensation: the
discovery of the senses in Hellenistic poetry”
Filippomaria Pontani (University of Venice) “ ‘Your first commitments tangible again’ -
Alexandrian poetry as an aesthetic category”
Lunch
Saturday May 26, 2012, 9.30-11.30
GENRES
Chair: Theodore Papanghelis
Giulio Massimilla (University of Napoli): “Callimachus and the elegiac tradition”
David Sider (New York University): “Didactic poetry: the invention of a pre-existing genre”
Benjamin Acosta-Hughes (Ohio State University): “Reflections of polyeideia: poets reading
one another”
Evelyne Prioux (Université Paris Ouest): “Ecphrastic epigrams of the 2nd and 1st centuries
BCE”
Break
Saturday May 26, 2012, 12.00-14.00
THE EPIGRAM
Chair: Stephen Harrison
Manuel Baumbach (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): “The spatial turn and Hellenistic Studies: A
Geopoetic Reading of the New Poseidippus”
Ivana Petrovic (Durham University): “Posidippus’ travelling stones”
Silvia Barbantani (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore): “ ‘Déjà la pierre pense où votre nom
s’inscrit’. Identity in context in verse epitaphs for Hellenistic soldiers”
Kathryn Gutzwiller (University of Cincinnati): “Dialect variation in the epigrams of
Meleager”
Lunch
Sunday May 27, 2012, 9.30-12.00
STYLE AND NARRATIVE
Chair: Richard Hunter
Alexander Sens (Georgetown University): “Simile and narrative in the Alexandra”
Christophe Cusset (University of Lyon): “Similes as textual space devoted to metapoetics in
Hellenistic poetry”
Annemarie Ambühl (University of Köln/Mainz): “(Re)constructing myth: elliptical narrative
in Hellenistic and Latin poetry”
Damien Nelis (University of Geneva): “Catullus 64, the Neoterics and Alexandrian poetry”
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Richard Hunter, Franco Montanari and Antonios Rengakos
Lunch