Posidippus and the Admiral: Kallikrates of Samos in the Milan epigrams

Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies

Volumn 43, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 243-266

  Bing, Peter ^a  

^a EMORY UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 60950179174     PISSN: 00173916     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (40)

1. The editio princeps with commentary: G. Bastianini and C. Gallazzi, P. Mil. Vogl. VIII Posidippo di Pella: Epigrammi (Milan 2001),
2. hereafter B.-G. It is now supplemented by the editio minor of C. Austin and G. Bastianini, Posidippi Pellaei quae supersunt omnia (Milan 2002), hereafter A.-B. I cite the epigrams by both column number and line, as in the editio princeps, and by the number in A.-B. Among initial assessments,
3. cf. G. Bastianini et al., edd., Un poeta ritrovato Posidippo di Pella, Giornata di studio, Milano 23 novembre 2001 (Milan 2002);
4. G. Bastianini and A. Casanova, edd., Il papiro di Posidippo un anno dopo. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Firenze, 13-14 giugno 2002) (Florence 2002);
5. B. Acosta-Hughes, E. Kosmetatou, and M. Baumbach, edd., Labored in Papyrus Leaves. Perspectives on an Epigram Collection Attributed to Posidippus (Cambridge [Mass.] 2003);
6. K. Gutzwiller, ed., The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book (Oxford, forthcoming).
7. Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexandria (Berkeley 2003).
8. In the following I rely on the compilation of sources in L. Mooren, The Aulic Titulature in Ptolemaic Egypt: Introduction and Prosopography (Brussels 1975) 58-60 no. 010.
9. Cf H. Hauben, Callicrates of Samos: A Contribution to the Study of the Ptolemaic Admiralty (Studia Hellenistica 18 [Leuven 1970]) 69. He appears as during Arsinoe's lifetime (i.e. before 268) in a Samian dedication OGIS 29, and in his own foundation on behalf of Ptolemy and Arsinoe of a temple of Isis and Anubis at Canopus (SB I 429). In about 257 he was probably still nauarch as he had his agent Zoilos write to Apollonios, Philadelphus' chief financial officer, to collect a tax for the upkeep of the navy (P. Mich. I 100).
10. I am persuaded by the dating of Arsinoe's death to 268 proposed by E. Grzybek, Du calendrier macédonien au calendrier ptolémaique (Basel 1990) 103-112,
11. R. A. Hazzard, "The Regnal Years of Ptolemy II Philadelphos," Phoenix 41 (1987) 140-158,
12. and Imagination of a Monarchy: Studies in Ptolemaic Propaganda (Toronto 2000) 31, rather than the previously held 270.
13. See the discussion of their findings in H. Hauben, "La chronologie macédonienne et ptolémaique mise à l'épreuve," ChrEg 67 (1992) 143-171, esp. 160ff.
14. The previously-known epigrams are Posidippus 12 G.-P. = P. Firmin-Didot, and 13 G.-P. = Ath. 7.318D; Callimachus Ep. 14 G.-P. = 5 Pf. = Ath. 7.318B; Hedylus 4 G.-P. = Ath. 11.497D. Among the new poems of the Milan papyrus, cf. VI.30-37 = 39 A.-B., and possibly VI.10-17 = 36 A.-B., VI.18-25 = 37 A.-B., all of which I discuss below. Cf. H. von Hesberg, "Bemerkungen zu Architekturepigrammen des 3. Jahrhunderts v. Chr.," JdI 96 (1981) 55-119, at 63.
15. L. Robert, "Sur un décret d'Ilion et sur un papyrus concernant des cultes royaux," in Essays in Honor of C. Bradford Welles (AmerStudPap 1 [New Haven 1966]) 175-211, at 201-202 (= Opera min. sel. VII 625-626).
16. SB I 429. Following P. Fraser, OpAth 7 (1967) 40, Hauben (supra n.4: 40 with n.7) believes that Pasis "usurped the proprietary rights to this temple," at a later time.
17. Cf. L. Moretti, Iscrizioni agonistiche greche (Rome 1953) 201.
18. J. Ebert, Griechische Epigramme auf Sieger an gymnischen und hippischen Agonen (Berlin 1972) ad no. 38.4, cf. ad no. 26.1/2: "Die historisch auswertende Interpretation von H. T. Wade-Gery (JHS 53, 1933, 71ff.), der vielfach aus schliesst, dass jeweils zwischen dem im Epigramm angezeigten Ereignis und der Abfassung des Epigramms geraume Zeit verflossen sei, erscheint mir sehr fragwürdig.,"
19. Cf. W. Burkert, Greek Religion, transl. J. Raffan (Cambridge [Mass.] 1985) 116.
20. Certainly the Hellenistic poets heard that meaning in the name. Cf. Cuypers' comment on the use of the verb in connection with the seer Phineus at Ap. Rh. 2.302:, 'having cleansed (the old man's skin) all around' - but also 'Phoebused,' appropriate treatment for a seer There may be some truth lurking behind our scholiasts": M. P. Cuypers, Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica 2.1-310: A Commentary (diss. Leiden 1997). For this verb in a similar sense elsewhere in Hellenistic poetry, cf. Callim. Hymn. 5.11, Theoc. 17.134, Lycoph. 6 and 1166.
21. Differently J. Bingen, "La victoire pythique de Callicratès de Samos," ChrEg 77 (2002) 185-190, who argues that in the phrase does not mean that the judges threw their rods to the ground "at once," "in no time" as the original editors and Austin suppose, but means "too few": "Trop peu de ceux-ci [scil. the judges] jetèrent à terre leur bâton pour que ce fût par tirage au sort que les cochers emportent la couronne de la victoire" (186). Though Bingen's interpretation of is syntactically and lexically possible (cf. = "too few," at Thuc. 1.50.5, Hdt. 6.109), its meaning in the context is implausible. For on his view, the dramatic core of the poem embodied in the extraordinary act of the colt, which is taken as a sign by all present, is in fact superfluous: a sufficient number of judges was sure enough of the outcome that no decision by lot was actually necessary. Once the tumult died down - we infer from Bingen's argument - the ordinary human decision-making process would have arrived at the right conclusion. This, however, is to make the sign, together with the poet's implication that the god was responsible for it, quite pointless.
22. Ptolemaic Alexandria (Oxford 1972) I 214.
23. Cf. particularly M. Fantuzzi, "Posidippus at Court: On the Contribution of the Hippika of P. Mil. Vogl. VIII 309 to the Ideology of Ptolemaic Kingship," forthcoming in Gutzwiller (supra n.1).
24. For the dimensions and reconstruction I rely on B. Hintzen-Bohlen, Herrscherrepräsentation im Hellenismus (Cologne 1992) 77-78,
25. following W. Hoepfner, Zwei Ptolemaierbauten. Das Ptolemaierweihgeschenk in Olympia und ein Bauvorhaben in Alexandria (A M Beih. 1 [Berlin 1971]: hereafter HOEPFNER).
26. On this topic see most recently W. Huss, Ägypten in hellenistischer Zeit (Munich 2001) 307-309, 325.
27. On the latter poem see P. Bing, "Between Literature and the Monuments," Genre in Hellenistic Poetry. Hellenistica Groningana 3 (Groningen 1998) 21-43. Similarly absent is Posidippus' scoptic epigram (143 A.-B.= Suppl. Hellenisticum 702) referred to in Ath. 10.415 A-B and Ael. VH 1.26 about Aglais, daughter of Megakles, who blew the trumpet in the first great Ptolemaia.
28. See the similar insistence on the part of Apollonios, one of the Macedonian brothers connected with the Memphite Serapeum in the mid-second century B.C., as described by D. J. Thompson, Memphis under the Ptolemies (Princeton 1988) 261.
29. Cf. W. H. D. Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings (Cambridge 1902) 274-277.
30. A point convincingly demonstrated by K. Gutzwiller with reference to Callimachus' epigram on the offering of the nautilus shell at the shrine of Aphrodite Zephyritis: "The Nautilus, the Halcyon, and Selenaia: Callimachus's Epigram 5 Pf. = 14 G.-P.," CA 11 (1992) 194-209, esp. 198-202. Thus in the closing words of Posidippus 12 G.-P., (10), the qualification refers not just to a haven from every wave in a literal sense, but also from every erotic wave, cf. Theogn. 459-460 and 1273-1274
31. 3 490 n.7, who cites the temple of Aphrodite Areia, Paus. 3.17.5; Plut. Mor. 239A; IG V.1 602 Aphrodite(early III A.D.); there was an armed xoanon of Aphrodite Ourania on Kythera, Paus. 3.23.1. Cf. E. Magnelli, Alexandri Aetoli Testimonia et Fragmenta (Florence 1999) ad fr.9 (= 8 Powell),
32. and J. Flemberg, Venus Armata: Studien zur bewaffneten Aphrodite in der griechisch-römischen Kunst (Stockholm/Göteborg 1991) 29-42. For the armed Aphrodite in art cf. LIMC II 243-245.
33. BMC Cat. Troas, Aeolis, and Lesbos 179 no. 16 (note also the lyre and dolphin on no. 14), 180 no. 27, 181 no. 35. Cf. H. G. Buchholz, Methymna: Archäologische Beiträge zur Topographie und Geschichte von Nordlesbos (Mainz 1975) plate 12 nos. 16, 17, 38, 39.
34. See generally P. Brun, "Les Lagides à Lesbos: essai de chronologie," ZPE 85 (1991) 99-113,
35. and G. Labarre, Les cités de Lesbos aux époques hellénistique et impériale (Lyon 1996) 54-56,
36. 2 (Munich 1970) 109,
37. and R. S. Bagnall, The Administration of the Ptolemaic Posssessions Outside Egypt (Leiden 1976) 162 - in the reign of Philopator. The month name Ptolemaion is plausibly conjectured at IG XII Suppl. p.30, cf. Buchholz (supra n.41) 230;
38. C. Trümpy, Untersuchungen zu den altgriechischen Monatsnamen und Monatsfolgen (Heidelberg 1997) 247.
39. It has been observed that the nearby Kean town of Koresia became an important Ptolemaic port in the mid-third century, which (significantly) was renamed Arsinoe following the queen's death, cf. L. Robert, "Sur un décret des Korésiens au musée de Smyrne," Hellenica 11-12 (1960) 132-176. It is probably also important that Keos has literary significance as the birthplace of Simonides and Bacchylides.
40. D. Selden, "Alibis," CA 17 (1998) 290-412, at 309, with his illuminating discussion of the Selenaia epigram, 309-313.