Embedded Epigrams in Epigrams. Inscriptional Voices in Erotic and Scoptic Poems

digital

Articolo

Rivista

AEVUM ANTIQUUM

Fascicolo

AEVUM ANTIQUUM - 2022 - 22

Titolo

Embedded Epigrams in Epigrams. Inscriptional Voices in Erotic and Scoptic Poems

Autore

Lucia Floridi

Editore

Vita e Pensiero

Formato

Articolo |

Pdf

Pagine

Online da

12-2022

Doi

10.26350/020747_000094

Issn

1121-8932 (stampa) | 1827-7861 (digitale)

€ 6,00

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Descrizione

In this paper, as a minor complement to Bing’s analysis of Callimachus’ embedding of inscribed poems into narratives, I will discuss some examples of embedded inscriptional voices in literary epigrams. I will first analyse some Hellenistic erotic poems; I will then concentrate on certain imperial epigrams preserved in book XI of the Greek Anthology. All the examples I will consider share a common feature: they embed an epigraphic voice into a bookish epigram of the sort that most departs from inscriptional subgenres. While Hellenistic poets, however, manipulate the inscriptional voice in subtle ways, imagining surprising mediums and messages for their inscriptions, the scoptic poets of the early imperial age place their epigraphic statements in traditional contexts, and adapt them to standard messages and phraseology. As I will show, this different choice serves different purposes, connected to the evolution of epigrammatic poetry as a genre.