¹ Here is Schubart's list; the fragments of Posidippus are cited from the edition contained in the Berlin dissertation of P. M. Schott, 1905. 6 σελίσιν: cf. fr. 6 = Athenaeus 596 C 7 σκοπιάς: cf. fr. 1 = D. L. Page, Greek Literary Papyri (Loeb Classical Library) no. 104 a, 1.3 σκοπαί. 8 βαίνετε: cf. fr. 2 = Page, op. cit., no. 104 b, 8 (we may also compare Page, op. cit., no. 105 a, 15 … (the poem may be by Posidippus). 14 ἐπὶ ν[ήσων cf. fr. 1.3 (see also fr. 21 = AP ix 359.4; fr. 26 = AP v 209.5). 15 ἠϊόνος: cf. fr. 26.1.8. 17 εἰν ἀγορ[ῆι cf. fr. 21.1. 18 ἀηδόνι: cf. fr. 15 = AP xii 98 τὸν Μονσέων τέττιγα. Schubart also compares the optatives at ll. 12, 16, 21 and 22 with those at fr. 8 = AP v 134, 4; fr. 17 = AP xii 131.3; fr. 25 = AP v 202.3. We may add that ὦ ἄνα, restored with certainty at l. 13, occurs at fr. 1.1. ναί in l. 20, compared by Schubart with fr. 14 = AP xii 45.1, is an impossible reading.

All this amounts to very little; in some cases, for instance that of ἠϊόνος at the end of the pentameter in l. 15, the ‘parallels’ are of little significance. The style of the poem does not resemble that of the epigrams in general; no wonder, in view of the different nature of its content. It does to a certain degree resemble that of the epigrams on the Pharos and the Arsinoe temple (frs. 1–2 + Page, op. cit., 104 a, b); R. Reitzenstein wrote of ‘Posidipp, welcher … in den eigendichen Aufschriften … prunkvolle Sprache durchaus nicht verschmäht’; but that might be due to the comparative similarity of their subject-matter.

² Posidippus is called ὁ ἐπιγραμματογράφος by Σ on Apollonius i 1290, p. 116 Wendel (= fr. 4 Schott, p. 106). See Peek, p. 429.

^2a But see p. 99 n. 38.

³ Cf. Bailey, D. R. Shackleton, Propertiana 284 Google Scholar (though the quotation from Achilles Tatius is not an instance of this usage). We may compare the use of ‘naris emunclae’, applied to Lucilius by Horace (Sat. i 4.8) and to Aesop by Phaedrus (3 3.14).

⁴ See Frei, J., De certaminibus thymelicis (Diss. Basle, 1900) 14f.Google Scholar

⁵ See Feyel, M., Contribution a l'épigraphie béotienne (Le Puy, 1942) 88 f., 113 f.Google Scholar; and, for the most up-to-date text of the important Amphictyonic decree, see Bousquet, J., BCH lxxxv (1961) 78 f.Google Scholar Usener, H.'s remarks at Rh. Mus. xxix (1874) 37 f.Google Scholar = Kl. Sehr. iii 389 f., are still useful.

^5a We have scraps of what is probably a Hellenistic poem which seems to allude to these festivals in P. Heidelberg 189 ( Siegmann, E., Literaische Griechische Texte der Heidelberger Papyrussammlung (1956) 25 Google Scholar). Note l. 4 Ἀρσινόη[: l. 11 Ἑλικώνιον: l. 13 ἤρισα Θεσπιάδαις: l. 17 χάριτες: l. 18 κ]οίρανος Ὀρχομενοῦ. In l. 11, we must surely read πενθερὸν. See Gnomon xxix (1957) 426.

⁶ On the ὕμνος κλητικός in general, see Fraenkel, Eduard, Philologus 86 (1931) 3 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ In his article ‘Sphragis’ in Rh. Mus. 104 (1961) 3 f. and 97 f., esp. p. 4 f. See also Otto, W. F., Die Musen und der göttliche Ursprung des Singens und Sagens (Düsseldorf, 1955)Google Scholar, and Curtius, E. R., Europäische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter, 235 f.Google Scholar; Jacoby, F., S.B. Berlin 1931, 102 f.Google Scholar = Kleine Philologische Schriften i 360 f. For the appeal to the Muse to come bringing a particular song, cf. Cratinus fr. 222.1 Ar., Ach. 665 f. See Fraenkel loc. cit., p. 6.

⁸ On this connexion, see Maass, E., Hermes 31 (1896) 375 f.Google Scholar

⁹ Aristophanes, Eq. 9 uses in a trimeter the epic form of the name: Why? ‘Because the rhythm and tone are tragic’, says R. A. Neil in his commentary (Cambridge, 1901; a book that deserves to be better known outside England than it is). But even in a tragic trimeter one would not expect this epic form. Was the epic form of this name regularly used during the fifth century, perhaps because the person in question was best known from epic verse of some sort? In the Euripidean passage just quoted, Heath's conjecture Ο<ὐ>λυμπου may be correct.

On Olympus, see further Hecker, A., Commentatio critica de Anth. Gr. i (1852) 60 f.Google Scholar; Preller-Robert, , Griechische Mythologie i 732 Google Scholar; Weizsäcker in Roscher's Lexikon, s.v.; Wegner, in R.-E. xviii 1 321 Google Scholar s.v. ‘Olympos’ (26).

Dionysiac music is regularly played by Phrygian flutes. See Euripides, , Bacch. 126 f.Google Scholar, with Dodds's note. Cf. 159 f.

Dodds, ad loc., says, ‘ἐνοπαί are always loud or excited cries’. Not always; like βοή (Il. xviii 495; Pindar, , Ol. iii 8 Google Scholar; and Pyth. x 39), ἐνοπή can be used of the sound of musical instruments (Il. × 13 and now Pindar, , P. Oxy. 2451 Google Scholar, fr. 14, i 9 (see Lobel, ad loc., Pt. xxvi 171). I think it likelier than not that the sound of the pipes, and not human cries, is referred to by here. Cf. Euripides, , Tro. 544–5Google Scholar

¹⁰ The middle of this verb is far commoner than the active in the sense of ‘help’; but cf. Dio Cassius 55.66; id., 46.3; Philoponus in Procl. 2. In this instance the active would present no particular difficulty.

¹¹ See Bie, O., Die Musen in der griechischen Kunst (Berlin, 1887) 15 f., 69 f.Google Scholar; id. in Roscher's Lexikon, s.v. ‘Musen’ (especially the vase Berlin 2388, reproduced on p. 3246); Mayer, Maximilian, in R.-E. xvi (1935) 692 f.Google Scholar (s.v. ‘Musen’). Cf. Beazley, J. D., AJA lii (1948) 337 f.Google Scholar

¹² See Jacobsthal, P. ap. Dodds on Euripides, Bacch. 553–5Google Scholar; Shackleton Bailey, op. cit., p. 296 (add to his instances Ovid, , Ars. Am. ii 493–4Google Scholar).

¹³ Schubart thought it necessary to read Page and Heitsch have done likewise. But it looks as if the form without μ were possible; cf. Hesychius Πιπλιαι · αἱ Μοῦσαι ἐν τῶι Μακεδονικῶι Ὀλύμπωι, and the Piplei or Piplea of the manuscripts at Horace, , Od. i 26.9.Google Scholar

¹⁴ The nymph Pimpleis is the mother of the Muses according to Epicharmus fr. 41 Kaibel. But ‘you that were born in’ is likelier. The Muses are at home on Helicon, but they were born, according to the best authorities, in Pieria; cf. Jacoby, F., S.B. Berlin 1931, 96 Google Scholar = Kleine Philologische Schriften i 353 n. 4. See Callimachus, , Hy. 4.7–8.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Although I think Κασταλίοες an unlikely conjecture, I do not share Peek's view that this word is ‘nicht akzeptabel’ as a designation of the Muses. Schmidt, J., Rh. Mus. xlv (1890) 148 Google Scholar made it probable that at Theocritus 7.148 refers to the Muses; see Gow, ad loc., who quotes Martial iv 14 Sili, Castalidum decus sororum.

¹⁶ IG ix 1.17. The second of the lists recorded is dated i.e. in 263/2 B.C.; so that the first list, the one that includes Posidippus, will belong in 264/3 or a little earlier.

¹⁷ Archilochus fr. 51 Diehl³: see literature there quoted.

¹⁸ L. 14 f. = Archiloque, ed. F. Lasserre, fr. 11 A:

¹⁹ See Kühner-Blass, , Gr. Gr. i 602 n. 2Google Scholar; Schwyzer, ii 203 n. 1.

²⁰ For νᾶμα of a flood of tears, see Sophocles, , Trach. 919 Google Scholar; Euripides, , Heracles 625.Google Scholar With the whole sentence, cf. Peek, W., Griechische Versinschriften 1540 2–3Google Scholar: (Smyrna, second century); cf. id. 1552.2 1873.13 δάκρυα λυγρά, etc.

²¹ Loc. cit. on p. 83, p. 121; cf. pp. 11, 16.

²² On Rhadamanthys, see Jessen in Roscher's Lexikon, s.v. 75; Rohde, E., Psyche (English edition) 55 f., 247Google Scholar; Dodds, E. R., Plato, Gorgias 374 f.Google Scholar

²³ See Rohde, op. cit., 536 f.; cf. Lattimore, R., Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, xxviii, 1942) 40 n. 154.Google Scholar

²⁴ Aristophanes, , Ran. 356–7Google Scholar is an early instance of a way of speaking that in Hellenistic poetry became a commonplace. See the passages cited by Shackleton Bailey, op. cit., 141 (on Propertius iii 3.29), and add Meleager, AP iv 1.57 (poets as μύσται); Himerius 16.6, p. 489 (τελεταί of the Muses); Christodorus, , AP ii 133 Google Scholar (ὄργια of the Muses).

²⁵ Cf. IG i² 54 (= Tod, M. N., Greek Historical Inscriptions i ² 59 Google Scholar), l. 1: cf. Simonides, fr. 137.2 Diehl, Anacreon fr. 100.1–2 Diehl, etc. Such language is used of a poet (Phaenocritus) by Dionysius of Rhodes, , AP vii 716 Google Scholar cf. the epitaph on the comedian Euthias, Peek, 1495:

²⁶ Ll. 1–4 of the first of these epigrams appear in our texts as follows:

L. 3 corr. Blass: σκοπαιουρησοιεπει Π.

L. 4 is rendered by Page as follows: ‘but low lies the breakwater where ships may harbour’. The use of χαμαί, properly ‘on the ground’, to mean ‘low’ is unusual; and we expect not to be told that the breakwater is low, but that the harbour as a whole is. Mr E. Lobel has pointed out to me that χαμαὶ χηλὴ is a misreading of the papyrus, which in fact has χαμαιζηλη: the squashed appearance of the ζ makes it look like χ: see the photograph published by H. Weil in the editio princeps. Apart from being in the manuscript, this gives far better sense. For χαμαίζηλος in verse, cf. Nicander, , Ther. 70 Google Scholar; usually it has two terminations, but cf. Hippocrates, , Art. 13.Google Scholar

²⁷ Leo, F., G.G.N. (1898) 469 f.Google Scholar = Ausgewählte Kleine Schriften ii 169 f.; cf. Wilamowitz, , Sappho und Simonides 296 f.Google Scholar; Fraenkel, , Horace 305 f.Google Scholar

²⁸ See Schott, op. cit., p. 105 f; Peek, p. 431.

²⁹ Reitzenstein, R., Epigram und Skolion (1893) 100–2.Google Scholar

³⁰ E.g. by Knaack, G. ap. Susemihl, F., Geschichte der griechischen Literatur in der Alexandriner zeit ii 531 n. 66Google Scholar; cf. Wilamowitz, , Hellenistiche Dichtung (1924) i 148.Google Scholar

³¹ Pohlenz, M., Χάριτες Fr. Leo zum sechzigsten Geburtstag dargebracht (1911) 93 Google Scholar; cf. Pasquali, G., Hermes xlviii (1913) 207 n. 6Google Scholar; Peek, p. 429 f.; Gow, A. S. F., CO n. s. 4 (1954) 200.Google Scholar

Schott (p. 45) finds it odd that Posidippus should describe Zeno and Cleanthes in terms properly applicable only to poets, since though Cleanthes wrote verse, Zeno is not known to have done so. The use of Μοῦσα need not imply poetry, but that of κύκνος seems to; cf. Leonidas fr. 25 Geffcken, = AP vii 19 Google Scholar (of Alcman); Antipater, of Sidon, , AP vii 30.1 Google Scholar (of Anacreon); Horace, , Od. iv 2.25 Google Scholar (of Pindar); Christodorus, , AP ii 382 Google Scholar (of Pindar); ibid., 414 (of Virgil); for the swan's song, see Wilamowitz, on Euripides, , Heracles 100 Google Scholar and Fraenkel, on Aeschylus, , Agam. 1444.Google Scholar But in applying to the prosy philosophers language appropriate to poets, Posidippus was surely aiming at a humorous effect.

³²

In l.3, the manuscript has is the emendation of C. A. Trypanis, who also pointed out the relevance of the proverb ἀκάνθιος τέττιζ (Κρητικὰ Χρονικά, 1953 296–7).

³³

The manuscript has παραταξάμενον in l. 4; but surely a future is required.

³⁴ See Wilamowitz, , Hellenistische Dichtung i 36 fGoogle Scholar; Tarn, W. W., Antigonus Gonatas (1913) ch. viii ‘Antigonus and his Circle’, 223 f.Google Scholar

³⁵ See Peek, loc. cit.

³⁶ For a bibliography of the discussion, see Herter, H., Bursians Jahresbericht 255 (1937) 109 f.Google Scholar

³⁷ Asclepiades fr. 30 Knauer, = AP ix 63 Google Scholar; Posidippus fr. 18 Schott, = AP xii 168.Google Scholar Both are reprinted by Wyss, B., Antimachi Colophonii reliquiae lxvii.Google Scholar

³⁸ When the first draft of this article was complete, Mr E. A. Barber told me that in 1951 he had been prompted by the observation of Professor Trypanis mentioned on p. 76 above to make a study of this poem; and with great kindness he and Professor D. L. Page allowed me to read a correspondence on the subject which at that time passed between them. To my great satisfaction, I learned that Mr Barber had anticipated some of my own remarks. In l. 3 he preceded me in conjecturing Ὀλύμπου and in referring it to the aulete of that name. He also divined the reference to Archilochus in l. 11; but as Kondoleon's important article had not yet appeared, he was unable to give a satisfactory explanation of Posidippus' claim to be honoured as Archilochus was honoured.

My great obligation to Dr J. W. B. Barns has already been mentioned (p. 77). I would also like to thank Sir Maurice Bowra, Professor R. Kassel and Professor G. W. Williams for valuable comments on the first draft of my paper, and Sir John Beazley and Mr D. M. Lewis for helpful information.