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Callinus and militia amoris in Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Cleitophon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

David Christenson
David Christenson
Affiliation:
University of Arizona, [email protected]
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Extract

Right so far as Homer is concerned, and Paulus, a poet of Justinian's court best known for his epic poem (modelled after Homer) composed on the occasion of the rededication of the Church of St Sophia, clearly evokes Callinus. But the commentators have overlooked the pointed use of μχρι(ς) τυος + the present indicative in Achilles Tatius’ τᾰ κατᾰ Λευκππην κα κλειοøντα. Examination of the examples there suggests that Achilles Tatius could make greater demands on his readers than is sometimes generally assumed for the Greek novelists.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , December 2000 , pp. 631 - 632
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2000

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References

1 Campbell, D. A., Greek Lyric Poetry (London, 1967), 162–3.Google Scholar Campbell follows closely the note of Hudson-Williams, T., Early Greek Elegy (Cardiff, 1926)Google Scholar, ad loc.

2 Cf.Lyne, R. O. A. M., The Latin Love Poets (Oxford, 1980), 71–8.Google Scholar

3 Specifically, the υοι (2); some critics, e.g.Bowra, C. M., Early Greek Elegists (Cambridge, MA, 1938), 14CrossRefGoogle Scholar, have suggested the exhortation was to be delivered at a symposium (cf. κατκεισθε), but a more public setting is easily imaginable.

4 Whether against the Magnesians (cf. Strabo 14.647), invading Cimmerians, or some other foe is uncertain.

5 In the opening book he conceives of himself as love's δολος (1.7.3), and the victim of love's all-out assault (λος γρ μοι προσπ∊σ∊υ༐ρως, 1.9.1). He in fact passively endures several physical assaults in the novel, in one instance ridiculously claiming victory when his assailant injures his hand on Cleitophon's teeth (κα ρως μνουσι τν τν ῥινν ὑβριν, 8.1.4).Anderson, G., Ancient Fiction: The Novel in the Greco-Roman World (London and Sydney, 1984), 63–4Google Scholar, captures his essential character: ‘… Clitophon is indeed cast as a refined and slightly cynical opportunist…. He has some of the ineptitudes, and some of the duplicity, of the exquisitely over-educated, a pepaideumenos in love’.

6 Of which, according to ancient tradition, Callinus was sometimes considered to be the ‘father’: cf. Hudson-Williams (n. 1), 9–12.

7 Erotic elements are present already in the elegiacs of Mimnermus (fr. 1 W).

8 See, for example, S. Stephens, ‘Who read ancient novels?’ and Bowie, E., ‘The readership of Greek novels in the ancient world’, in Tatum, J. (ed.), The Search for the Ancient Novel (Baltimore and London, 1994), 405–18Google Scholar and 435–59, respectively.