The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: P. E. Easterling

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF
CLASSICAL LITERATURE
General Editors
P. E. EASTERLING
Regius Professor ofGnck in the Unnmny ofCambridge
E. J. KENNEY
Emeritus Kennedy Professor of Latin in the University of Cambridge
Advisory Editors
B. M. W. KNOX
Formerly Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington
W. V. CLAUSEN
Formerly Pope Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, Harvard University
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https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521210423.001
THE
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY
OF
CLASSICAL LITERATURE
i
GREEK LITERATURE
Edited by
P.E.EASTERLING
Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge
and
B.M.W.KNOX
Formerly Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBUSHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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© Cambridge University Press 1985
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First Published 1985

Eighth printing 2003
Printed in Great Britain by

Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Library of Congress catalogue card number: 82-22048

British Library cataloguing in publication data
The Cambridge history of classical literature.

Vol. 1: Greek literature
1. Classical literature-History and criticism
I. Easterling, P. E. II. Knox, Bernard M. W.
880.09 PA 3001
ISBN0 521 21042 9
CONTENTS
List ofplates page x

Preface xi
Abbreviations xiii
1 Books and readers in the Greek world i
1 From the beginnings to Alexandria i
by B. M. W. KNOX, Formerly Director of the Center for Hellenic
Studies, Washington
2 The Hellenistic and Imperial periods 16
by P. E. EASTERLING, Professor of Greek, University College
London
2 Homer 42
by G. S. KlRK, Regius Professor Emeritus of Greek, University of
Cambridge
1 The poet and the oral tradition 42
2 The Iliad J2
3 The Odyssey 74
3 Hesiod 92
by J. P. BARRON, Professor of Greek Language and Literature in
the University of London, at King's College, London, and
P. E. EASTERLING
4 The epic tradition after Homer and Hesiod 106

1 The cyclic epics 106
by J. P. BARRON and P. E. EASTERLING
2 The Homeric Hymns 1 IO
by G. S. KIRK
J Elegy and iambus 117

1 Archilochus 117
2 Early Greek elegy: Callinus, Tyrtaeus, Mimnermus 128
by J. P. BARRON and P. E. EASTERLING
CONTENTS
3 Theognis I36
4 Solon 146
by B. M. W. KNOX
5 Semonides j 53
by P. E. EASTERLING
6 Hipponax 158
by B. M. W. KNOX
6 Archaic choral lyric 165

by CHARLES SEGAL, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature,
Princeton University
1 The nature of early choral poetry 165
2 Alcman 168
3 Stesichorus 186
7 Monody 202
by DAVID A. CAMPBELL, Professor of Classics, University of
Victoria, British Columbia
1 Sappho 203
2 Alcaeus 209
3 Ibycus 214
4 Anacreon 216
5 Skolia 220
8 Choral lyric in the fifth century 222
by CHARLES SEGAL
1 Introduction 222
2 Simonides 223
3 . Pindar 226
4 Bacchylides 235
5 Women poets: Corinna, Myrtis, Telesilla, Praxilla 239
6 Choral lyric to the end of the fifth century 242
9 Early Greek philosophy 245
by A. A. LONG, Professor of Classics at the University of
California, Berkeley
1 Philosophical poets and Heraclitus 245
2 Anaxagoras, Democritus and other prose philosophers 253
10 Tragedy 258
1 The origins of tragedy 258
by R. P. WINNINGTON-INGRAM, Emeritus Professor of Greek
Language and Literature in the University of London, at King's
College, London
vi
CONTENTS
2 Tragedy in performance 163
by JOHN GOULD, Professor of Greek, University of Bristol
3 Aeschylus 281
by R. P. WlNNINGTON-lNGRAM
4 Sophocles 295
by P. E. EASTERLING
5 Euripides 316
6 Minor tragedians 339
by B. M. W. KNOX
11 The satyr play 346

by DANA F. SUTTON, Professor of Classics, University of California,
Irvine
12 Comedy 355
by E. W. HANDLEY, Regius Professor of Greek, University of
Cambridge
1 Introduction 355
2 Structural patterns in Old Comedy 358
3 The earliest comic drama 362
4 Epicharmus and others 367
5 Myths and myth-making 370
6 Political comedy 374
7 Adventure and fantasy 379
8 The life of the mind 384
9 The social scene 391
10 From Aristophanes to Menander 398
11 Menander and the New Comedy 414
13 Historiography 426
1 Herodotus 426
2 Thucydides 441
3 Common elements of fifth-century historiography 456
by HENRY R. IMMERWAHR, Distinguished Alumni Professor
Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
4 Historical writing in the fourth century B.C. and in the 458
Hellenistic period
by W. R. CONNOR, Andrew Fleming West Professor of Classics,
Princeton University
14 Sophists and physicians of the Greek enlightenment 472
by GEORGE A. KENNEDY, Paddison Professor of Classics,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
vii
CONTENTS
15 Plato and the Socratic work o f Xenophon 478

by F. H. SANDBACH, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of
Cambridge
1 Xenophon 478
2 Plato 480
16 Oratory 498
by GEORGE A. KENNEDY
1 The beginnings of literary oratory 498
2 Oratory in the fourth century 50J
17 Aristotle 527
by A. A. LONG
1 His life and writings 527
2 Rhetoric 533
3 Poetics 534
18 Hellenistic poetry 541

by A. W. BULLOCH, Professor of Classics at the University of
California, Berkeley
1 Introduction 541
2 Philetas and others 544
3 Callimachus 549
4 Theocritus 570
5 Apollonius Rhodius 586
6 Minor figures 598
19 Post-Aristotelian philosophy 622

by A. A. LONG
1 The Later Academy and the Peripatos (Lyceum) 622
2 Epicurus and Philodemus 625
3 The Stoa and Stoic writers 631
4 Sceptics, Cynics, and other post-Aristotelian philosophers 636
20 The literature of the Empire 642

1 The early Empire 642
Strabo 642
Dionysius of Halicarnassus 643
by G. W . BOWEBSOCK, Professor of Ancient History, Institute
for Advanced Study {Princeton)
'Longinus' and others 646
by D . C. INNES, Fellow ofSt Hilda's College, Oxford
viii
CONTENTS
2Poetry 649
Poetic miniatures 649
The hexameter poems ascribed to Oppian
3 Philostratus and the Second Sophistic <$$5
Aelius Arisudes 658
4 Science and superstition 662
Galen 661
Artemidorus 663
by G. W. BOWERSOCK
5 Between philosophy and rhetoric 665
Plutarch 665
by G. W. BOWERSOCK
Dio of Prusa 669
Maximus 672
Lucian 673
Alciphron <>79
Aelian 680
Athenaeus 682
by E. L. BOWIE, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
6 The Greek novel 683
The genre 683
The surviving texts 688
by E. L. BOWIE
7 The fable 699
b y P. E. EASTERLING
8 Historical writing o f the High Empire 703
Arrian 703
Appian 707
b y E. L. B O W I E
Pausanias 709
Cassius D i o and Herodian 710
b y G. W . BOWERSOCK
21 Epilogue 7'4
b y B. M. W . K N O X
Appendix o f authors and works 719
edited b y MARTIN D R U R Y
Metrical appendix 893
by MARTIN DRURY
Works cited in the text 900
Index 919
IX
PLATES
{between pages 272 and 273)
la Boy reading from a papyrus roll. Fragment of a red-figure cup by the
Akestorides Painter, about 460 B.C. Greenwich, Connecticut. Walter
Bareiss 63. Photo: Courtesy of Alexander Cambitoglou.
Ib Girl reading. Marble funerary relief. British Museum Catalogue of
Sculpture 649. Photo: Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.
II Part of a papyrus roll. British Museum Papyrus 115, cols. 27-34.
Reproduced by permission of the British Library. Photo: British
Library.
III Leaf of an open papyrus codex. British Museum. Reproduced by
courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society. Photo: Egypt Exploration
Society.
IVa Epidaurus: the theatre from the air. Photo: R. V. Schoder, SJ.
IVb Auletes and figures in oriental costume. Fragments of a hydria found in
Corinth. Corinth T 1144. Photo: American School of Classical Studies.
Va Actors dressing and rehearsing. Red-figure pelike from Cervetri, c. 430
B.C. H. L. Pierce Fund 98.883. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston. Photo: Museum.
Vb Actors dressing and rehearsing. Red-figure bell-krater, from Valle Pega,
c. 460 B.C. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Ferrara T 173c (V.P.).
Photo: Biancolli.
Via Painted backdrop for a play. Fragment of a polychrome vase from
Tarentum, c. 350 B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv.
H 4696 and H 4701. Photo: Museum.
VIb An actor and his mask. Wall-painting from Herculaneum. Naples,
National Museum no. 9019. Photo: Anderson no. 23415, courtesy of
The Mansell Collection.
Vila Mask of a tragic heroine. Fragment of a red-figure jug from Athens, c.
470-460 B.C. Agora Museum inv. P 11810. Photo: American School of
Classical Studies.
Vllb Female tragic mask. Fragment of a red-figure vase from Athens, c. 400
B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv. H 4781. Photo:
Museum.
VIIc Actor holding his mask. Fragment of a polychrome vase from Tarentum,
c. 340 B.C. Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum inv. H 4600. Photo:
Museum.
VIII Actors, satyr chorus, auletes, playwright and lyre-player. The Pronomos
Vase: red-figure volute-krater from Athens, c. 400 B.C. Furtwangler-
Reichhold (1921).
PREFACE
'Ancient Greek literature' is not easily defined. There is no difficulty in placing

its starting point in the archaic period, but the choice of closing date is bound
to be arbitrary, since literary production in Greek continued for centuries
after the ancient world ceased to be in any sense classical. No attempt is made
here to deal with Christian literature, which would warrant a volume of its
own, or with the classicizing works of early Byzantine authors; it has seemed
best to close the volume with the end of the period of stable Graeco-Roman
civilization in the third century A.D. Even with this comparatively early ter-
minal date the period covered is a very long one - over a thousand years -
and there is a wealth both of surviving material and of information about the
much larger body of literature now lost. The emphasis of the present survey is
mainly on works that are still extant, have intrinsic literary interest, or have
exercised an influence on later literature. Within this general scheme particular
attention has been paid to texts discovered in recent years: it is an important
feature of ancient Greek literature that it is growing all the time. Quotations in
the original are unevenly distributed: more extensive samples are given of texts
not yet widely available, and more poetry than prose is cited in Greek. The
background of historical events and the development of ideas over so long and
diverse a period have had to be treated only incidentally, in order to keep the
volume within bounds, but the reader who follows its roughly chronological
thread should gain some sense of the changing tastes and literary values of
educated Greeks over the centuries.
Fuller documentation of the lives and works of the authors discussed is to be
found in the Appendices, where details are given of editions, collections of
fragments, translations and critical studies. The List of Works Cited in the
Text and List of Abbreviations together supply in full the references cited in
abbreviated form in the footnotes.
The spelling of Greek names is an intractable problem, since current English
practice is to use a mixture of transliterated Greek, latinized and anglicized
forms. Latin and English have generally been preferred on grounds of fami-
liarity, but some inconsistency has been unavoidable.
xi
PREFACE
A collaborative enterprise of this kind owes much to a large number of
people. The Publishers and Editors would like to make special acknowledge-
ment for help, on behalf of the contributors to be mentioned, to Professor
Christian Habicht, Professor C. P. Jones (G. W. Bowersock); Mr E. L. Bowie,
Miss J. M. Reynolds, Professor R. P. Winnington-Ingram (P. E. Easterling);
Professor B. R. Rees (A. A. Long); Professor Hugh Lloyd-Jones (R. P.
Winnington-Ingram). Mr Martin Drury deserves particular appreciation for his
work as editor of the Appendix of Authors and Works and author of the
Metrical Appendix. Jenny Morris compiled the index.
The Editors wish to thank the contributors most warmly for their patience
in the face of frustrating delays, which bedevilled the production of this volume,
and the Publishers for their constant and imaginative support.
P.E.E.
B.M.W.K.
xti
ABBREVIATIONS
BT Bibliotlieca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum

Teubneriana (Leipzig & Stuttgart)
Bud(E Collection des University de France, publi6e sous le
patronage de 1'Association Guillaume Bude1 (Paris)
Bursian Bursian's Jahresbericht uber die Fortschritte der klassischen
Altertumswissenschaft (Berlin, 1873-1945)
CAF T. Kock, Comiconim Atticorum Fragmenta (Leipzig,
1880-8)
CAH The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge, 1923-39)
CAH* 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1961- )
CHCL Cambridge History of Classical Literature (Cambridge,
1982-5)
CGF G. Kaibel, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Berlin, 1899)
CGFP C. F. L. Austin, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta in
papyris reperta (Berlin, 1973)
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin, 1863— )
CVA Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Paris & elsewhere, 1925- )
Christ-Schmid-Stahlin W. von Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur,
rev. W. Schmid and O. Stahlin (Munich, 1920-24) 6th
ed. (Cf. Schmid-Stahlin)
Diehl E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca I (2nd ed. 1936);
n (3rd ed. 1949-52)
DTC A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, tragedy and
comedy. 2nd ed., rev. T. B. L. Webster (Oxford, 1962)
DFA A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, The dramatic festivals oj
Athens. 2nd ed., rev. J. Gould-D. M. Lewis (Oxford,
1968)
DK H. Diels-W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokradker.
6th ed. (Berlin, 1951-2)
EGF G. Kinkel, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1877)
FGrH F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Berlin,
1923-)
xm
ABBREVIATIONS
FHG C. Mtiller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (Berlin,
1841-70)
FYAT (ed.) M. Platnauer, Fifty years {and twelve) of classical
scholarship (Oxford, 1968)
GLK H. Keil, Grammatici Latini (Leip2ig, 1855-1923)
GLP C. M. Bowra, Greek lyric poetry, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1961)
Gow-Page, Hell. Ep. A. S. F. Gow-D. L. Page, The Greek Anthology: Hellen-
istic Epigrams (Cambridge, 1965)
Gow-Page, Garland A. S. F. Gow-D. L. Page, The Greek Anthology: The
Garland of Philip (Cambridge, 1968)
Guthrie W. K. C. Guthrie, A history of Greek philosophy
(Cambridge, 1965-81)
IEG M. L. West, Iambi et Elegi Graeci (Oxford, 1971-2)
IG Inscriptions Graecae (Berlin, 1873-)
Kai G. Kaibel, Comicorum graecorum fragmenta, 1 fasc. 1
Doriensium comoedia mimi phylaces (Berlin, 1899)
KG R. Kiihner—B. Gerth, Ausfuhrliche Grammatik der
griechischen Sprache: Sattfehre. 4th ed. (Hannover,
19*5)
Lesky A. Lesky, A history of Greek literature, tr. J. Willis-
C. de Heer (London, 1966)
Lesky, TDH A. Lesky, Die tragische Dichtung der Hellenen, 3rd ed.
(Gottingen, 1972)
LSJ Liddell-Scott-Jones, Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed.
(Oxford, 1925-40)
Loeb Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass. & London)
OCD2 Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1970)
OCT Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford)
Ol A. Olivieri, Frammenti della commedia greca e del mimo
nella Sicilia e nella Magna Grecia (Naples, 1930)
Paravia Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum (Turin)
PLF E. Lobel-D. Page, Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta
(Oxford, 1963)
PMG D. L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci (Oxford, 1962)
PPF H. Diels, Poetarum Philosophorum Graecorum Fragmenta
(Berlin, 1901)
Pfeiffer R. Pfeiffer, A history ofclassical scholarship (Oxford, 1968)
Powell J. U. Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford, 1925)
Powell-Barber J. U. Powell-E. A. Barber, New chapters in the history of
Greek Literature (Oxford, 1921), 2nd ser. (1929), 3rd
ser. (Powell alone) (1933)
Preller-Robert L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie, 4th ed., rev. C. Robert
(Berlin, 1894)
xiv
ABBREVIATIONS
RAC ReaUexikonfur Antike und Christentum (Stuttgart, 1941- )
RE A. Pauly-G. Wissowa-W. Kroll, Real-Encyclopadie der
klassischen Alttrtumswissenschaft (Stuttgart, 1893—)
Roscher W. H. Roscher, Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und
romischen Mythologie (Leipzig, 1884- )
SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (Leyden, 1923—71;
Alphen aan den Rijn, 1979- )
SH P. J. Parsons and H. Lloyd-Jones, Supplementum Hel-
lenisticum (Berlin & New York, 1983)
SLG D. L. Page, Supplementum Lyricis Graecis (Oxford, 1974)
SVF H. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Leipzig,
1903-)
Snell B. Snell, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Gottingen,
1971-)
Schmid-Stahlin W. Schmid-O. Stahlin, Geschichte der griechischen Litera-
tur (Munich, 1929-48)
Spengel L. Spengel, Rhetores Graeci(1853-6);' '• r e v - C. Hammer
(Leipzig, 1894)
TGF A. Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, 2nd ed.
(Leipzig, 1889)
Walz C. Walz, Rhetores Graeci (Stuttgart, 1832-6)
XV

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THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

© Cambridge University Press 1985

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

First Published 1985

Printed in Great Britain by

Library of Congress catalogue card number: 82-22048

The Cambridge history of classical literature.

List ofplates page x

4 The epic tradition after Homer and Hesiod 106

J Elegy and iambus 117

6 Archaic choral lyric 165

11 The satyr play 346

15 Plato and the Socratic work o f Xenophon 478

18 Hellenistic poetry 541

19 Post-Aristotelian philosophy 622

20 The literature of the Empire 642

'Ancient Greek literature' is not easily defined. There is no difficulty in placing

BT Bibliotlieca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum

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