Antimachus and his Critic: The Aetia Prologue

Jackie Murray (Temple University)

According to Callimachus the Telchines grumble at him because he refuses to compose “a continuous poem in many verses on the deeds of kings and heroes of old,” and that he has instead has composed the Aetia which to them is an achievement fitting for a child not a poet of advanced years. Before Cameron’s provocative study (1995), most scholars have taken the prologue to set forth Callimachus’ opposition to writing epic poetry. Cameron, however, by mustering a wealth of arguments has attempted to overturn this view. He argues that Callimachus’ hostility to epic is a modern invention and posits instead that the issue in the prologue is not Callimachus’ refusal to write epic, but his desire to supplant Antimachus’ Lyde as the model for narrative elegy. However, Cameron’s claim that “a continuous poem in many verses on the deeds of kings and heroes of old” does not refer to epic poetry has not gained wide acceptance among scholars of Hellenistic poetry, nor has his suggestion that elegy is the issue. Krevans (1993) and Matthews (1996) have convincingly shown that Callimachus’ style is too similar for his disapproval to be completely genuine. This paper proposes to offer a middle ground position between the traditional reading and Cameron’s view, by putting the Aetia prologue in the context of Callimachus’ rhetoric of self-aggrandizement. I argue that in the Aetia the Telchines represent contemporary elegists, such as, but not necessarily, Asclepiades and Posidippos, who looked to Antimachus as the model for their elegaic poetry. Callimachus is attacking them as part of his attempt to supplant Antimachus and his Lyde. Against Cameron, however, I argue that epic is in fact what the Telchines are urging Callimachus to compose. The grumbling of the Telchines is focalized through Callimachus’ hyper-confident, hyper-critical, self-aggrandizing persona. The rhetorical function of saying that they urge him to write epic is to demonstrate their lack of poetic intelligence. Callimachus is representing the Telchines as fearful of his entrance into the field of elegaic poets; he represents them as terrified that his superior poetic skill will expose them and their model, Antimachus, as clumsy noisy charlatans. So they urge him to write epic, not so much because they prefer epic or even that it is the thing to do, but because they do not want him to compose elegy.