Abstract
AbstractIdylls on mythological themes portray heroes who were important to the Ptolemies’ self-representation, Herakles and the Dioskouroi. Idyll 13 condenses epic treatments of the Argonautic myth to focus on a single place and on Herakles not as a warrior but as a lover who loses his beloved. Idyll 24 treats an episode from his infancy within domestic space, and correspondingly a woman, his mother, takes a commanding role. The spatial contrast between the two narratives of Idyll 22 underpins the moral contrast. Space is the vehicle for praise of rulers in the encomiastic poem. Bucolic space provides a vision of peace and prosperity under Hieron II, the extensive space of empire and the vertical relations between earth and Olympos depict the Ptolemies’ wealth and power, and Alexandria is shown drawing into itself people from elsewhere who would otherwise be rootless.
Publisher
Oxford University PressNew York
Reference211 articles.
1. Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin. 2006. “Bucolic Singers of the Short Song: Lyric and Elegiac Resonances in Theocritus’ Bucolic Idylls.” In Fantuzzi and Papanghelis, 25–52.
2. Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin. 2012a. “Miniaturizing the Huge: Hercules on a Small Scale (Theocritus Idylls 13 and 24).” In Brill’s Companion to Greek and Latin Epyllion and Its Reception, edited by Manuel Baumbach and Silvio Bär, 245–257. Leiden: Brill.
3. Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin. 2012b. “Les Dioscures dans la poésie Alexandrine: Caractère et symbolique.” In Mythe et pouvoir à l’époque hellenistique, edited by C. Cusset, N. Le Meur-Weissman, and F. Levin, 155–169. Leuven: Peeters.
4. Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin. 2012c. “‘Nor When a Man Goes to Dionysus’ Holy Contests’ ” (Theocritus 17.112): Outlines of Theatrical Performance in Theocritus.” In Theater outside Athens: Drama in Greek Sicily and South Italy, edited by Kathryn Bosher, 391–408. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.