Callimachus. - Callimachus: the hymns

My goal in writing this commentary is to provide readers with a convenient and accessible edition of all six of Callimachus hymns in one volume, accompanied by notes sufficient for ease of reading. That such an edition does not already exist is my justification for undertaking the task, especially given the importance of this poet and the fact that the hymns and epigrams are his only complete works. In keeping with Callimachus own stated poetic practice this is not a ; thus constraints of space have required a certain amount of triage: the linguistic, metrical, historical, geographic, and cultic material I provide will necessarily lack the wealth of scholarly detail provided by those commentaries on individual hymns produced mainly in the 1970s and 1980s. Like all writers of commentaries I have depended heavily on my predecessors, though experience in teaching and in writing on the hymns has led me considerably to reduce the amount of linguistic detail (particularly about Homeric usage) and commensurately to increase parallels from tragedy and lyric. Also I situate Callimachus divinities as much as possible within the context of cult practices relevant to early Ptolemaic Alexandria and Cyrene. I have tried to keep always before the reader the fact that Callimachus was a poet; thus literary parallels are selected in the main for their allusive potential and references kept, when possible, to easily accessed secondary materials. The translations do no more than aim for clarity and are intended to provide the reader with my understanding of the text.

It is my pleasure to acknowledge the colleagues who have offered encouragement, advice, and the generous donation of their time in reading various versions of this manuscript. Richard Martin has patiently enlightened me about many Homeric minutiae. Jim Clauss and Alex Sens have provided comments on individual hymns, but I am especially grateful for their perceptive advice about rethinking the shape of the whole. Keyne Cheshire, Ivana Petrovic, and Massimo Giuseppetti read and commented on individual hymns, and in addition provided me with their own work in advance of publication, from which I learned more than I can say. Flora Manakidou has very generously provided me with her forthcoming work on the Hymn to Athena and with a copy of her 2013 commentary. Dirk Obbink and Daniela Colomo very kindly facilitated my examination of hymns papyri. Israel McMullin has given me the students perspective on what is useful (or more often, not); Jon Weiland has drawn the maps. Aaron Palmore and John Richards have helped with the proof reading. Andrew Dyck has done an exemplary job of editing and indexing (what errors remain are my own). Mark Edwards has read and commented on the whole and been particularly helpful with the metrical sections and in providing Homeric parallels. All of these individuals have facilitated the process of writing this commentary. However, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Marco Fantuzzi and Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, who have read through the whole manuscript more than once. Their learned advice has considerably improved what I now present, and I hope that in some measure it repays their efforts. Last but not least, I would like to thank the Press for their patience and support.