Taking Position

• Published in: A Companion to Ancient Epigram pp. 371 - 387
• Main Author: Harder, Annette
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 16.01.2019
• Subjects: Alcaeus; Damagetus; Dioscorides; Nicaenetus; politics in epigram; reception of early Hellenistic poetry; reception of Greek archaic lyric; reception of Greek drama; reception of Greek epic; war in epigram
• ISBN: 9781118841723; 1118841727
• DOI: 10.1002/9781118841709.ch21

This chapter focuses on the epigrammatists of the late third and early second century bce and position they hold in the Greek literary tradition in general, in the tradition of epigram, and in the contemporary world. It appears these poets were well acquainted with Greek literature of the archaic and classical periods and used it in a creative way. Their reception of Hellenistic poetry also suggests an active engagement with their immediate predecessors in the third century bce . An important new aspect of this generation of epigrammatists is the way in which they relate to the contemporary world at a social as well as a political level, reflecting the cruder aspects of life in the city and in the country as well as the turbulent events in the world at large, particularly the frequent wars.