This book is a guide to the extraordinarily diverse literature of the Hellenistic period.

• A guide to the literature of the Hellenistic age, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE to the Battle of Actium in 31 BC
• Provides overviews of the social, political, intellectual and literary historical contexts in which Hellenistic literature was produced
• Introduces the major writers and genres of the period
• Provides information about style, meter and languages to aid readers with no prior knowledge of the language in understanding technical aspects of literary Greek
• Distinctive in its coverage of current issues in Hellenistic criticism, including audience reception, the political and social background, and Hellenistic theories of literature

Kathryn Gutzwiller is Professor of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. Her recent publications include Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context (1998) and The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book (edited, 2005). She is the winner of the American Philological Association's Goodwin Award of Merit and has twice won the Gildersleeve Prize for the best article in the American Journal of Philology.

List of Figures ix

List of Maps x

Preface xi

1 History and Culture 1

1.1 The Successors 2

1.2 Macedonia and Greece 4

1.3 Seleucid Asia 8

1.4 Attalid Pergamum 12

1.5 Ptolemaic Egypt 16

2 Aesthetics and Style 26

2.1 Aesthetic Principles 29

2.2 Meter, Dialect, and Diction 36

2.3 Literature as Artefact 43

3 Authors and Genres 50

3.1 Menander 50

3.2 Callimachus 60

3.3 Apollonius of Rhodes 74

3.4 Theocritus and the Other Bucolic Poets 84

3.5 Didactic Poetry 97

3.6 Epigrams 106

3.7 Dramatic Poetry 120

3.8 Parodic and Philosophical Literature 131

3.9 Polybius 144

3.10 Technical Prose Writing 154

4 Topics in Hellenistic Literature 168

4.1 Learning and Innovation 169

4.2 Book Culture and Performance 178

4.3 Social and Political Background 188

4.4 The Critical Impulse in Literature and Art 202

4.5 Reception in Rome 213

Notes 223

Chronological Tables 228

Suggested Reading 230

Bibliography 239

Index 251