Annette Harder

The article discusses the relationship between Apollonius Rhodius and Callimachus. After a brief survey of the ancient biographical evidence I argue that it can be more profitable to look at what the actual texts tell us about the ways in which these two Hellenistic poets carried on a metapoetic dialogue in which claims of divine protection, aspects of structure and chronology, genre and (ideological) contents as well as a certain need for poetic ‘sobriety’ were important issues...