An up-to-date, comprehensive commentary on Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis is long past due. Many years have passed since the publication of the last commentary dedicated exclusively to this hymn (F. Bornmann's 1968 commentary – now out of print and difficult to find), making A.'s recent commentary a most welcome addition to Callimachean studies. The recent past has seen a surge of interest in Callimachus’ hymns, but the Hymn to Artemis – arguably the most charming of Callimachus’ hymns – has been relatively neglected.
A. begins with a lengthy introduction, broken into six sections. The first section, ‘Der Hymnos auf Artemis innerhalb des Hymnenbuchs’, looks at the hymn in the context of the other five hymns and is mostly a review of previous scholarship. A. follows the widely accepted view that the hymns are interconnected and comprise a Hellenistic poetry book, perhaps even edited by Callimachus himself. The second section, ‘Die poetische Einheit des Hymnos’, deals with the fraught issue of the hymn's unity, which has historically dominated scholarship on the hymn. A. points out parallels in different sections of the hymn, building on the previous models of P. Bing and V. Uhrmeister (JHS 114 [1994]) and A. Köhnken (Callimachus II [2004]), and describes the hymn as a ‘literary fugue’ (p. 24) with several themes that return and repeat. The argument is persuasive, but the accompanying table is difficult to decipher (p. 25). The list of invocations to the goddess (p. 31) is much clearer and more useful.
The introduction's third section, ‘Gestalt und kultischer Aufgabenberich der Artemis’, examines the figure of the goddess, especially viewing her form, function and cultic scope in the hymn as well as her two contrasting roles as urban and rural goddess. A. resists I. Petrovic's work (Von den Toren des Hades [2007]; ‘Gods in Callimachus’ Hymns’, in: J.J. Clauss et al. [edd.], The Gods of Greek Hexameter Poetry [2016]), which connects contemporary Hellenistic religious practice to the hymn and argues that the hymn reflects long established, cultic reality. Instead, A. explains Artemis’ duality through links to other Callimachean gods, and especially to the repeated theme of sibling rivalry, through which A. correctly sees a relationship to the importance of siblings in the Ptolemaic court. This need not exclude Petrovic's interpretation, which adds much to our understanding of the nature and purpose of Callimachus’ hymns by placing them in context. Indeed, A. purposefully focuses on literary allusion and philology throughout, perhaps a necessary limit in an already long commentary, but at times this comes across as limiting and somewhat old-fashioned.
The fourth section of the introduction, ‘Datierung und Sitz im Leben’, uses connections to the Hymn to Delos and the Aetia to place the hymn's date between 274 and 267 bce. The fifth section, ‘Artemis und Arsinoe’, follows A.'s earlier article (Hermes 145 [2017]), arguing for an identification of the goddess with Arsinoë II. This argument is primarily based on the relationship between the Hymn to Artemis and the Hymn to Delos and the fact that Apollo and Artemis are siblings. A.'s view is that, since the Hymn to Delos was written for Ptolemy II and associates the king with Apollo, the Hymn to Artemis, honouring Apollo's sister, must have been written for Arsinoë II, Ptolemy's sister. Additionally, he argues that the hymn's focus on Ephesus, once renamed for Arsinoë, also points to the Ptolemaic queen. I find the latter argument more compelling than the first, which, while possible, is somewhat circular and depends on the view that the Hymn to Delos and the Hymn to Artemis must be read as a pair, privileging their connection over the many other connections between various hymns. This is all the more problematic since the Hymn to Delos is not primarily a hymn to Apollo. Finally, the last section, ‘Metrische Analyse’, is a close examination of the poem's metrics.
The introduction is followed by a text, translation and commentary. The text is R. Pfeiffer's with six fairly minor differences; perhaps the most important is the restoration of the manuscript's ὄλβος (‘prosperity’) for A. Meineke's conjecture οἶκος (‘household’; line 131). A remarkable result of this restoration goes unmentioned: ὄλβος connects the poem more closely to the Hymn to Zeus’ closing prayer, whose very last word is ὄλβον (line 96). The passage containing the restoration describes Artemis’ remuneration of just and unjust cities, that is, her acting as a goddess of the city, which is one of the controversial features of the hymn, since Artemis is usually a goddess of the countryside. This restoration highlights the close bond of Artemis with her father (most explicit in the poem's opening scene) and could contribute to clarifying her dual depiction in the hymn.
The commentary is encyclopaedic and guides readers to both ancient parallels and primary sources as well as modern scholarship. A. makes clear that this volume is not intended to be a replacement of earlier commentaries. Regrettably, this makes the volume less useful without Bornmann's volume at hand, which is frequently cited. A. breaks down the commentary into four sections: ‘Prooimion’ (1–3), ‘Diegesis’ (4–109), ‘Aretalogia’ (110–258) and ‘Epilog’ (259–68). The first of these, the proem, is cut off mid-sentence, which demonstrates the synthetic nature of these boundaries and, in turn, leads back to the question of the hymn's structure and unity. There are further subsections (e.g. ‘Artemis at the Cyclopes’, ‘Artemis on Olympus’ etc.) within the larger segments, which allows for specific passages and scenes to be consulted with ease.
Finally, the commentary is followed by a bibliography, index locorum, index rerum notabilium, index nominum and index vocabulorum Graecorum, focused on technical terms and words given special attention and explanation in the commentary.
This is an impressive and important book, especially useful for doctoral students and scholars of Callimachus and Hellenistic poetry. It belongs in every library. Although the scope of the volume is generally advanced, the side-by-side translation adds accessibility for Germanophone readers, contributing to the book's value as a resource for students. Besides filling the great need for a commentary that takes into account recent (and even not-so-recent) scholarship, the material and arguments in the introduction add much to the study of this hymn, particularly A.'s discussion of the hymn's unity and thematic cohesion.
