Editing Callimachus (section)

===''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}}