Ancient Epic
BLACKWELL INTRODUCTIONS TO THE CLASSICAL WORLD
This series will provide concise introductions to classical culture in the broadest sense. Written by the most distinguished scholars in the field, these books survey key authors, periods and topics for students and scholars alike.
Published
Greek Tragedy
Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz
Roman Satire
Daniel Hooley
Ancient History
Charles W. Hedrick, Jr.
Homer, second edition
Barry B. Powell
Classical Literature
Richard Rutherford
Ancient Rhetoric
and Oratory Thomas Habinek
Ancient Epic
Katherine Callen King
Catullus
Julia Haig Gaisser
Virgil
R. Alden Smith
Ovid
Katharina Volk
Roman Historiography
Andreas Mehl, translated by Hans-Friedrich Mueller
This paperback edition first published 2012
2012 Katherine Callen King
Edition history: Blackwell Publishing Ltd (hardback, 2009)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
King, Katherine Callen.
Ancient epic / Katherine Callen King.
p. cm. (Blackwell introductions to the classical world) Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4051-5947-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-118-25534-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Epic poetryHistory and criticism. 2. Poetry, AncientHistory and criticism. 3. Heroes in literature. I. Title.
PN1307.K56 2009
809.132 dc22
2008036233
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
To Esther and Wallis Pereira for their unfailing support, to the many graduate and undergraduate students from whom I have learned so much, and to research assistant extraordinaire, Catharine Platt McGraw
Chronologies
[most dates are approximate]
GILGAMESH |
2700 BCE | Gilgamesh King in Uruk |
21002000 | Summerian Gilgamesh epics composed in writing |
1800 | Earliest tablets of Summerian epics (Gilgamesh & Agga ; Gilgamesh & Huwawa ; Gilgamesh & Bull of Heaven ; Death of Gilgamesh or Gilgamesh in the Netherworld) |
1700 s | Akkadian epic composed = Old Babylonian Version |
15001100 | Middle Babylonian Versions (Hurrian and Hittite translations) |
1200 | Sin-leqe-unninni creates Standard Version |
700 | Oldest extant tablets of Standard Version |
GREEK AND ROMAN EPIC |
14001200 | Bronze Age Greece |
1184 | Traditional date of Trojan War |
750 | Writing reintroduced to Greece |
Traditional date for founding of Rome by Romulus |
725625 | Iliad and Odyssey composed |
600500 | Epic Cycle poems composed |
400 | Antimakhos of Kolophon composes the lost Thebaid and Lyde |
33523 | Aristotle writes and lectures at the Lyceum in Athens |
331 | Alexander the Great founds Alexandria on the coast of |
Egypt |
323 | Alexander the Great dies |
305283 | Founding of the Museum and Library at Alexandria under kingship of Ptolemy I (Soter). Alexandria is now the royal capital of Egypt. |
284270 | Zenodotos, first Director of the Library at Alexandria, categorizes epic and edits the texts of the Iliad and Odyssey |
285? | Kallimakhos catalogues the collection and writes poetry |
at the Library of Alexandria |
282246 | Reign of Ptolemy II (Philadelphos) at Alexandria |
270245 | Apollonios of Rhodes composes the Argonautika while working as Director of the Library of Alexandria |
264241 | First Punic War |
235204 | Naevius composes Poem of the Punic War in Saturnian verse |
218202 | Second Punic War |
169 | Ennius completes the Annales, composed in dactylic hexameter |
1496 | Third Punic War, destruction of Carthage |
132121 | The Gracchi brothers trouble the Roman Senate and are assassinated |
107100 | Marius elected Consul six times |
831 | Sullas dictatorship |
70 | Virgil is born |
63 | Octavian (later Caesar Augustus) is born |
51 | Cicero writes The Dream of Scipio |
49 | Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon and marches on Rome |
44 | Julius Caesar elected dictator and assassinated |
43 | Ovid is born |
3835 | Virgil completes the Eclogues |
31 | Octavian defeats Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium |
29 | Virgil completes the Georgics, begins the Aeneid |
27 | Octavian becomes Augustus |
23 | Ovid publishes the Amores, the first of many elegiac works |
| Virgil dies leaving manuscript of the Aeneid |
CE | Ovids Metamorphoses published when he is exiled |
17 CE | Ovid dies |
Map prepared by Cat Buckles