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This paper contributes evidence to support the widely accepted view that Lucretius may justly be regarded by the reader as a Callimachean poet by synthesizing and analyzing Lucretius' use of the so-called 'Alexandrian footnote' in the DRN. Although most scholars have come to agree with Kenney that Lucretius embraces many of the same poetic ideals as his contemporaries, there are still some who remain skeptical of Kenney's thesis, and, while Kenney adduces the most prominent parts of the DRN that show signs of Alexandrianism, in fact he only scratches the surface of the extent to which Lucretius practices his own version of Roman neo-Callimacheanism. Moreover, very few of those who accept Kenney's results have followed his lead by adding corroborating evidence. It is still very much worthwhile, therefore, to explore this aspect of Lucretius' poetic artistry; this paper's analysis of the Alexandrian footnote provides further proof that Kenney's argument is correct, and it expands on his thesis by showing how integral Alexandrian poetic techniques are to Lucretius' philosophical purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from a broad ancient definition of 'epigrams' which includes poems which are not in elegiacs, and Martial's use of Catullus 2 (written in hendecasyllables) as a model for his own epigrams (Mart. 4.14.13-4), my paper examines epigrammatic features in Catullus 2 and 3, as well as other literary affinities that can be traced in these poems. AP 7.195 and 196 (by Meleager) are important epigrammatic models for Catullus 2, and I identify major correspondences and differences between these poems, before considering another important model for Catullus 2: Sappho fr. 1. From examination of Sapphic features in Catullus 2 and 2b, my paper moves to Catullus 3, and explores its affinities with Greek epigram (in particular the epitaphs found in AP 7 and Hellenistic curse poetry). In the final section of the paper, working from Martial's references to Catullus' passer and Catullus' use of Sappho fr. 1 in Catullus 2, I consider Catullus 2 as the opening poem of a Catullan collection, and the implications that this has for our interpretation of his poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores what the most substantial remnant of Sappho's poetry could have meant to its first audiences. Scholars often approach fr. 44 as a response to the Homeric Iliad, but for Sappho's contemporaries the Iliad would not have constituted the sole horizon for intertextual engagement. I suggest that the description of the wedding of Hector and Andromache would have brought to mind the wedding of Paris and Helen, a parallel traditional episode that was well-known in Sappho's day. Section 1 describes how our knowledge of mythical discourse on archaic Lesbos may guide the interpretation of fr. 44. Section 2 argues for the relevance of the wedding of Paris and Helen and sketches some interpretive implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first stasimon of Pindar Isthmian 2 has long been problematic: it appears to privilege past over present poetry and to stigmatise contemporary poets, including Pindar himself, as mercenary. This paper summarises previous solutions to this problem, none fully satisfactory, and, after modifying the logic of the first stasimon, proposes the following new solution. Pindar's 'past poetry' (contrary to the view of earlier scholarship) does not consist of monodic love songs but of choric paidikal enkômia performed at low cost by amateur choruses of fellow paides, whereas his 'present poetry' is performed by professional choruses and musicians who were expensively costumed and trained and highly paid. The issue, then, is not the poets' fees (for poets were always remunerated) but the high costs of contemporary choric performance. Those costs do not stigmatise Pindar as greedy, but they do further emphasise the patron's generosity in funding Isthmian 2 and its performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Orphic Lithica is often considered an incoherent hodge-podge of teachings on magical stones. This paper, however, argues that the polyphony of voices (human, semidivine, and divine), as well as the amalgam of various subtypes of the hexametric super-genre (didactic epic, narrative epic, bucolic, hymn, oracle), contribute to the ultimate goal of the Lithica: to overwhelm the reader with authorities for the hermetic truth that the poem preaches. The poem further accomplishes this by appealing to the poetic tradition, so as to make the subject matter more recognizable and enjoyable to the audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on Sappho's use of epic models focuses primarily on her incorporation and rewriting of motifs and characters from the Iliadic cycle. This paper rather turns to the Odyssey's Penelope as exemplar for Sappho fragment 94, also known as Sappho's 'Confession'. The author argues that fragment 94 alludes to Penelope and her situation through a series of associative, lexical and narrative points, particularly through the unique adverb αδoλως; and the symbolic image of the soft bed as a locus for desire. At the same time, Sappho can be seen to subvert aspects of Penelope's fictional story, thereby more poignantly highlighting the focus on separation and change in the poem. Reading Sappho 94 through the Odyssey's Penelope also supports ascribing the first extant line of the poem to the departing girl and bolsters arguments for a marriage context for the fragment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses two deer similes by Simias and Theocritus that depend directly on a simile found in the New Sappho. Both passages confirm the interpretation of Sappho's simile as a case of so-called 'compendious comparison'. In turn, the New Sappho sheds new light on the texts of Simias and Theocritus. Simias' simile finds also resonances in two short similes in Id. 13.62-3 and Id. 18.41-2. This is possibly a literary tribute of Theocritus to Simias as his 'bucolic' predecessor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A text linguistic analysis of the narrative structure of Catullus 63 attempts, in the first half of this paper, to provide a better insight into the extraordinary nature of this poem as a narrative. On the basis of this analysis it is observed that the 'narrative event structure' is in fact subservient to what is called the 'thematic structure' of the poem, in which the devices of contrast and repetition play an essential role. The second half of the article elaborates on the all-pervasive use of repetition in the poem and the implications of this observation for its interpretation, leading up to the conclusion that in Catullus 63 repetition is a theme (or aim) in itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an alternative interpretation and reconstruction of ensemble a from the Strasbourg papyrus of Empedocles, P. Strasb. gr. Inv. 1665-1666 , first published by A. Martin and O. Primavesi in 1999. I claim that Martin and Primavesi's working hypothesis for the reconstruction of lines a (ii) 3-17, upon which most of their individual supplements rely, is wrong, and that the doctrinal implications they draw from it are unfounded. Against them, I propose an alternate reconstruction of the text. If correct, two consequences follow from my alternative. First, it presents further reasons to reject a controversial variant reading revealed by the papyrus, retained by the editors, and the "we" of my title. Second, it provides new support for the role of chance in Empedocles' cosmic cycle, a theme largely ignored in modern scholarship on Empedocles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although aging is not a metamorphosis stricto sensu, it is a process that affects the shape of the body. This paper explores the ambivalent representation of old age and its interplay with the ostensible theme of Ovid's encyclopedic poem on bodies changing shapes. Aging in the Metamorphoses is mainly a physiological process, which affects men and women alike, but may be reversed by means of magic. It is also one of the trappings of divinity: gods and goddesses often disguise themselves as old women, in order to deceive or advise humans. Even the poem's narrator, 'Ovid', frequently assumes the persona of the elderly in an act of self-transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Herondas' mimiamb 8, a poem particularly concerned with questions of generic identity and reception, the poet defends his work and puts forward his literary program by means of a dream dominated by images related to Dionysiac myth and cult. The interpretation of the dream at ll. 66-79 is seen in terms of the generic affinities between Herondas' mimiambs, the iambographic tradition of Hipponax and the mime. In this paper the Dionysiac character of those images is not considered as an indication of a hypothetically dramatic nature of Herondas' work. It is argued, by contrast, that the poem's Dionysiac imagery and its subsequent interpretation are linked with the associations of Herondas' work with the mime and, more specifically, with the non-literary mime. Mimiamb 8 is considered as part of a long process through which the latter was eventually regarded as a dramatic genre. Herondas seems to be conscious of the disreputable character of that part of his sources, but attempts by means of a masterful use of images pertaining to Dionysiac myth and ritual to persuade his critics of the dramatic nature of the mimic origins of his work so as to invest his poetry with the authority and prestige of dramatic poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the literary affiliations of the phrase cacata carta in the poem "Carmen 36." Views of poet Catullus on the phrase; Arguments raised on the scatological recycling proposition of cacata carta; Explanation on the literary background of the phrase.

This note details correspondences between Sappho fr. 16 (V.) and the proem to Book 2 of Lucretius' De rerum natura. The author argues that Lucretius polemically alludes to Sappho. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

P.Oxy. 2288, a 2nd-century fragment containing Sappho's Ode to Aphrodite , has an underlying layer of papyrus that has intrigued scholars for decades. X-ray tomography of the papyrus and a study of the ink under the scanning electron microscope allow us to establish that the underlying layer most likely does not contain more of Sappho's poetry. Rather, it appears that P.Oxy. 2288 is what remains of a much-used roll of Sappho book 1, reinforced at its beginning. In order to put this case in its historical context, the second part of the article contains a new examination of the literary, documentary, and papyrological evidence for ancient repairs and reinforcements of bookrolls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses text of the so-called Einsiedeln Abbey eclogues, which survive on two pages of a miscellaneous manuscript from Einsiedeln Abbey is badly damaged. It mentions that Thamyras retorts that no matter what Ladas stakes, he will lose; and the implication apparently is that Ladas will be unable to produce music if he stakes his own instrument.

The article presents information about professor J.J. Hartman, who was credited as the first scholar to suggest that Ovid's exile to Tomi was completely fictional. It mentions that Modern scholars who mention Hartman's thesis, rarely do so by quoting him directly: they appear to take notices from earlier sources; and Ovid's choice for a location close to the Black Sea, according to Hartman, is only an allusion to the Medea storyline.

The article examines old and new problems in the text of a passage from a poem by the ancient Roman poet Afranius. It explores the contradiction between the Afranian quotation and an interpretation of the quotation by grammarian Iulius Romanus. A corrected text of the quotation by the author is presented.

In what follows I shall analyse funerary epigrams in which the wayfarer is invited to abstain from violating the tomb. I will deal first with inscriptional epigrams, in order to survey motifs and language of the so called arai epitymbioi. I will then analyse the same theme in literary poems, focussing in particular on Gregory of Nazianzus' treatment of the topos, in order to illuminate the differences and especially the similarities between the use of this motif in both inscriptional and literary epigrams. I will try to argue that Gregory consciously plays not only with the Greek literary tradition--which is hardly surprising, considering what a cultivated poet he was--but also that he is well acquainted with epigraphic habits, images, and language. He adapts them, and introduces original twists, which are not purely ornamental, but which help to convey new meanings: in particular, the poet puts his versificatory competence to use in a social and moral cause, in a time and in a geographical area in which the desecration of tombs was felt as a matter of topical interest, as is shown by the many preserved arai epitymbioi of the Imperial period coming from the Near East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of a poem by Sappho published as part of The Cologne papyrus (lines 9-20) is presented. The author analyzes the poem's language, focusing on a metaphor that compares the movements of the chorus of young girls that Sappho is addressing to that of a deer. Previous interpretations of the line in question are addressed and the author considers Sappho's use of an adjective meaning "nimble," classically used to describe men running in battle, to describe her female subjects.

The article presents a criticism and interpretation of Plautus "Bacchides" 884-9, in which the slave Chrysalus threatens to fetch a kitchen utensil to stab the soldier and make him more severely wounded than soricina nenia. The article discusses the articles written to unravel the mystery of confossiorem soricina nenia.

Focuses on two epigrams, AP 10.21, 5.107, of Philodemus and their implications for his literary method. Manner in which the first half of epigram AP 5.107 is presented; Emotions highlighted in both poems that guide the narrator to punish the offensive behavior of his wife; Considerations which support the conclusion that both the first and second part of epigram AP 5.107 relate strongly to AP 10.21.

Focuses on the four interrelated facets in the concepts of light and dark and the adjective candidus, which had special significance in the elegies of Albius Tibullus. Play involving Tibullus' own nomen Albius; Play on Corvinus, the cognomen of Messalla; Pattern of the concepts and vocabulary of light and dark to reflect Tibullus' changing vision of elegaic existence.

Presents an overview on the articles published in the September 2004 issue of "Mnemosyne." Information on Catullus 63 poem; Aim of the issue; Different point of views in which the poem are discussed in the issue.