Editing Callimachus (section)

==Literary work==
According to the ''Suda'', Callimachus wrote more than 800{{Sfn|Parsons|2015}} individual works in prose and poetry.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=60}} The vast majority of his literary production, including all prose output, has been lost with the exception of his ''Epigrams'' and ''Hymns''. All other works mentioned below have been preserved in [[Fragmentology (manuscripts)|fragments]].{{Sfn|Parsons|2015}} Callimachus was an admirer of [[Homer]], whom he regarded as impossible to imitate. This could be the reason why he focused on short poems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arkins |first=Brian |date=1988 |title=The Freedom of Influence: Callimachus and Latin Poetry |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41540879 |journal=Latomus |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=285–293 |jstor=41540879 |issn=0023-8856}}</ref>

===''Epigrams''===
[[Epigrams]], brief, forceful poems originally written on stone and on [[votive offerings]], were already established as a form of literature by the 3rd century BC.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|pp=136–7}} Callimachus wrote at least 60 individual epigrams on a wide range of topics. While some of them are [[dedication (art)|dedicatory]] or [[headstone#inscriptions|sepulchral]], others touch on [[erotic]] and purely literary themes.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|1998|p=188}} Most of them were transmitted in the ''[[Palatine Anthology]]'', a 10th-century [[manuscript]] discovered in 1606 at [[Heidelberg]] containing a collection of Greek epigrams and poems.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=138}} Often written from a first-person perspective, the ''Epigrams'' offer a great variety of styles and draw on different branches of the epigrammatic tradition.{{Sfn|Acosta-Hughes|2019|pp=319–320}} According to the Callimachus scholar Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, "[t]heir intelligent play on language, meter, and word placement" have placed the poems among the most prominent works of the [[Hellenistic period]].{{Sfn|Acosta-Hughes|2019|p=319}}

===''Hymns''===
[[File:Zeus Camiros Rhodes black background.jpg|thumb|alt=Damaged marble statue of a man with following hair and beard with naked torso|Callimachus wrote six [[hymns]] to gods of the [[Greek Pantheon]], including one to [[Zeus]]. This statue of the god was found at [[Camirus]] and is housed at the [[Archaeological Museum of Rhodes]].]]
Among the oldest forms of religious writing, [[hymns]] were "formal addresses to a god or group of gods on behalf of a community".{{Sfn|Stephens|2015|p=9}} Cultic hymns were written and performed in honour of a particular god; examples of this genre can be found in most [[Greek lyric|Greek lyric poets]]. A typical hymn would contain an [[invocation]] of the god, praise of his or her attributes, and a concluding prayer with a request for a favour.{{Sfn|Stephens|2015|pp=9–10}} Callimachus wrote six such hymns,{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=62}} which can be divided into two groups: his ''Hymn to Apollo'', ''to Demeter'' and ''to Athena'' are considered [[mimetic]] because they present themselves as live re-enactments of a religious ritual in which both the speaker and the audience are imagined to take part. The ''Hymn to Zeus'', ''to Demeter'', and ''to Delos'' are viewed as non-mimetic since they do not re-create a ritual situation.{{Sfn|Stephens|2015|p=11}}

It is contested among scholars of ancient literature whether Callimachus's hymns had any real religious significance. The dominant view holds that they were literary creations to be read exclusively as poetry, though some scholars have linked individual elements to contemporary ritual practice. This issue is further complicated by Callimachus's purposeful amalgamation of fiction and potential real-world performance.{{Sfn|Stephens|2015|pp=11–12}}

===''Aetia''===
{{Main|Aetia (Callimachus)}}
The Greek word {{lang|grc|αἴτιον}} ({{Transliteration|grc|aition}}, 'cause')<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=αἴτιος II 2|date=1940|encyclopedia=[[LSJ]]|location=Oxford}}</ref> means an attempt to explain contemporary phenomena with a story from the [[myth|mythical past]]. The title of Callimachus's work can be roughly translated into English as "origins".{{Sfn|Fantuzzi|2006}} The ''Aetia'' contains a collection of origin stories. Ranging in size from a few lines to extensive narratives, they are unified by a common metre—the [[elegiac couplet]]. With few exceptions, the collection is the earliest extant source for most of the myths it presents.{{Sfn|Fantuzzi|2006}} Throughout the work, the poet's voice repeatedly intrudes into his narratives to offer comments on the dramatic situation. This pattern is described by the [[Hellenist]] [[Kathryn Gutzwiller]] as one of the poem's most influential features.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=65}}

The poem is thought to have had about 4,000 lines and is organised into four individual books, which are divided in halves on stylistic grounds.{{Sfn|Parsons|2015}} In the first book, Callimachus describes a dream in which, as a young man, he was transported by the [[Muses]] to [[Mount Helicon]] in [[Boeotia]]. The young poet interrogates the goddesses about the origins of unusual present day customs. This dialogue frames all aetiologies presented in the first book.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=63}} The stories in the book include those of [[Coroebus (Argos)|Linus and Coroebus]],<ref>Callim. ''Aet.'' fr. 26–8</ref> Theiodamas, king of the [[Dryopes]]<ref>Callim. ''Aet.'' fr. 24–5.</ref> and the voyage of the [[Argonauts]].<ref>Callim. ''Aet.'' fr. 7.19–21.</ref> The second book continues the first's dialectic structure. It may have been set at a [[symposium]] at [[Alexandria]], where Callimachus worked as a [[librarian]] and [[scholar]].{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=63}} Since most of its content has been lost, little is known about Book 2.{{sfn|Harder|2012|p=10}} The only aetiology commonly assumed to have been placed in the book are the stories [[Busiris (king of Egypt)|Busiris]], king of [[ancient Egypt|Egypt]], and [[Phalaris]], the tyrant of [[Akragas]], who were known for their excessive cruelty.<ref>Callim. ''Aet.'' fr. 44–6.</ref>

The second half of the ''Aetia'' does not follow the pattern established in Books 1 and 2. Instead, individual aetiologies are set in a variety of dramatic situations and do not form a contiguous narrative.{{Sfn|Hutchinson|1997|p=45}} The books are framed by two well known narratives: Book 3 opens with the ''Victory of Berenice''. Composed in the style of a [[Pindaric Ode]], the self-contained poem celebrates queen Berenice's victory in the [[Nemean Games]].{{Sfn|Harder|2012|p=11}} Enveloped within the [[epinician]] narrative is an aetiology of the games themselves.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=66}} The end of Book 4 and the ''Aetia'' as a whole is marked by another court poem, the ''Lock of Berenice''. In it, Callimachus relates how the queen gave a lock of her hair as a [[votive offering]] which later became a constellation, the [[Coma Berenices]] ("Hair of Berenice").{{Sfn|Clayman|2011|pp=229–30}}
Another notable story from the second half of the work is the love story of [[Acontius|Acontius and Cydippe]].{{Sfn|Hutchinson|1997|pp=47–8}}

===''Iambs''===
At the close of his ''Aetia'', Callimachus wrote that he would proceed to a more pedestrian field of poetry.<ref>Callim. ''Aet.'' fr. 112.</ref> By this, he referred to his collection of 13 ''Iambs'', drawing on an established tradition of [[iambic poetry]] whose defining feature was their aggressive, satirical tone. Although the poems are poorly preserved, their content is known from a set of ancient summaries (''diegeseis''). In the ''Iambs'', Callimachus critically comments on issues of interest, revolving mostly around [[aesthetics]] and personal relationships.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=67}} He uses the polemical tone of the genre to defend himself against critics of his poetic style and his tendency to write in a variety of genres. This is made explicit in the final poem of the collection, where the poet compares himself to a [[carpenter]] who is praised for crafting many different objects.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=68}}

The ''Iambs'' are notable for their vivid language. Callimachus couches his aesthetic criticism in vivid imagery taken from the natural and social world: rival scholars are compared to wasps swarming from the ground and to flies resting on a goatherd. He often mixes different metaphors to create effects of "wit and incongruity", such as when a laurel tree is described as "glaring like a wild bull".{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=73}} Ferguson also notes the poems' witty use of proverbs in dialectic passages of dialogue.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=73}}

===''Hecale''===
{{Main|Hecale (poem)}}
Callimachus made only one attempt at writing a narrative poem, a mythological [[epic poetry|epic]] entitled ''[[Hecale (poem)|Hecale]]''. Since the poem is estimated to run to have had around 1000 lines, it constitutes an [[epyllion]], a shorter form of epic poetry dealing with topics not traditionally present in larger-scale works.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=68}} It recounts a story about the Greek hero [[Theseus]], who, after liberating the city of [[Marathon, Greece|Marathon]] from a destructive bull, was hosted by a poor but kindly old woman named [[Hecale]]. They form a friendship as she recounts her former life as a member of the [[upper class]]. At the end of the poem, Theseus establishes an annual feast and a sanctuary to [[Zeus]] in honour of his host.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|p=69}}

Since most of Callimachus's poetry is critical of epic as a genre, there has been some speculation about why he chose to write an epic poem after all. The author of a [[scholium]], an ancient commentary on the work of Callimachus, stated that Callimachus abandoned his reluctance after being ridiculed for not writing lengthy poems. This explanation was probably derived from the poet's own intimation at the start of the ''Aetia'' and is therefore of limited authority.{{Sfn|Cameron|1995|p=137}} According to Cameron, Callimachus may have conceived the ''Hecale'' as a model epic according to his own tastes.{{Sfn|Cameron|1995|pp=137–138}}