OUP (2018) h/b 578pp £100.00 (ISBN 9780199565825)
Crinagoras (Cr.) was a poet and diplomat whose very long life spanned much of the first century BC and the early years AD. Gow and Page (hereafter G-P.), in The Greek Anthology, Volume II, 1968, p. 210, describe him as ‘one of the most interesting authors in The Anthology’; he certainly moved in high circles in Rome, as is evidenced by the lofty—indeed, imperial—status of some of his recipients. A feature of his work, as Y. points out, is a preference for personal experience and current events over the ‘traditional topoi of the genre’: certainly, it is hard to sum up an epigrammatist whose subjects ranged widely from giving a toothpick to a friend to the saving of the legionary Eagle at (conceivably) the clades Variana and the fame of Augustus, via the death by drowning of a washerwoman and the composition of a pantomime to be enacted by Bathyllus. Y. has produced a formidable work of scholarship (developed from an earlier PhD thesis) to cover Cr.’s 51 epigrams (of which perhaps only one or two have been ascribed to him in error).
In the Introduction, Y. discusses Cr.’s Life and Work (inscriptions show him to have been on missions to Julius Caesar); his Language and Style, including Dialect, Latinisms, hapax legomena (17 of them) and rare words, Homericisms, Enjambments (by which she means nouns separated from adjective or participle), Structure, and Brevity. Cr.’s Metre is then discussed in detail: here one need say only that the poet takes a decidedly cavalier approach to the ‘Laws’ of elegiac verse as listed by Meyer and others, especially where correption and hiatus are involved: this aspect of Cr.’s versification was also noted by G-P. (Cr. does, incidentally, recognise the skill of Callimachus, whose Hecale he describes as ‘well-chiselled’—toreuton).
Y. next gives a laudably detailed account over 16 pages of the far from straightforward Manuscript Tradition: although the Codex Palatinus is the main source, the Codex Marcianus (the Planudean) also contributes four epigrams. This is followed by Testimonia (rather thin) and the Inscriptions, discovered in 1888, which reveal that Cr. had diplomatic contact more than once with Julius Caesar. Finally, in Matters of Ascription, Y. considers only epigram no. 24 (about a squawking parrot) to be more than likely written by Philippus rather than Cr.; G-P. tentatively came to the same conclusion.
The Commentary follows (Y.’s order is the same as that of G-P.), and is on a truly heroic scale. Her 450 pages of commentary (which include texts and translations) contrast sharply with G-P.’s 50 pages (and Y.’s 50 page Index of Ancient Authors, which follows, must total the best part of 5,000 references). Of course, thoroughgoing though it is, not all problems are solved. One of the most intractable comes at Epigram 26, in praise of Germanicus: but which Germanicus? And when and where did the action take place to justify the praise? There is agreement between G-P. and Y. that the reference must be to the popular hero, son of Drusus and Antonia Minor; but whereas Y. comes down on the side of a victory over Germans in AD 15-16, with Mommsen and others, G-P. go for Gaul and the quiet year AD 13. In both cases, it has to be assumed that Cr.’s knowledge of the geography of continental Europe was highly sketchy. (A rather similar historical problem occurs at Epigram 21, where G-P. and Y. again disagree).
A problem of a totally different nature appears at Epigram 7, where of its six lines the central couplet may be in iambics (but the unmetrical MS does not fully support it, unless a major correction is made). G-P. regard the problem as intractable, and the proposed solutions unsatisfactory at best: Y., who looks at a number of implausible solutions, including a choliamb or lyric metre, finally comes up with a sensible, metrically sound, suggestion proposed by Boissonade (not noted by G-P), replacing two spondees with an iambus: all the same, it must be observed that there is no other ‘mixed-metre’ epigram in the Garland of Philip. The reviewer emphasises that, wherever a problem or a topic presents itself, Y. goes into exemplary detail: indeed, sometimes one has a sense of overkill. A Bibliography and an Index of Greek words also follow the Commentary.
This work is of course designed for the professional scholar: if Paton’s old Loeb volumes are to be replaced (as is mooted), Y.’s work will be of the greatest value to the editor. Production by OUP is of high quality, but cross-referencing went astray, by mischance, in the first two checks on it which your reviewer made, which suggests a need for caution. Y. is to be warmly congratulated on bringing so majestic a vessel safely to harbour.
Colin Leach
THE EPIGRAMS OF CRINAGORAS of MYTILENE: Introduction, Text, Commentary
OUP (2018) h/b 578pp £100.00 (ISBN 9780199565825)
Crinagoras (Cr.) was a poet and diplomat whose very long life spanned much of the first century BC and the early years AD. Gow and Page (hereafter G-P.), in The Greek Anthology, Volume II, 1968, p. 210, describe him as ‘one of the most interesting authors in The Anthology’; he certainly moved in high circles in Rome, as is evidenced by the lofty—indeed, imperial—status of some of his recipients. A feature of his work, as Y. points out, is a preference for personal experience and current events over the ‘traditional topoi of the genre’: certainly, it is hard to sum up an epigrammatist whose subjects ranged widely from giving a toothpick to a friend to the saving of the legionary Eagle at (conceivably) the clades Variana and the fame of Augustus, via the death by drowning of a washerwoman and the composition of a pantomime to be enacted by Bathyllus. Y. has produced a formidable work of scholarship (developed from an earlier PhD thesis) to cover Cr.’s 51 epigrams (of which perhaps only one or two have been ascribed to him in error).
In the Introduction, Y. discusses Cr.’s Life and Work (inscriptions show him to have been on missions to Julius Caesar); his Language and Style, including Dialect, Latinisms, hapax legomena (17 of them) and rare words, Homericisms, Enjambments (by which she means nouns separated from adjective or participle), Structure, and Brevity. Cr.’s Metre is then discussed in detail: here one need say only that the poet takes a decidedly cavalier approach to the ‘Laws’ of elegiac verse as listed by Meyer and others, especially where correption and hiatus are involved: this aspect of Cr.’s versification was also noted by G-P. (Cr. does, incidentally, recognise the skill of Callimachus, whose Hecale he describes as ‘well-chiselled’—toreuton).
Y. next gives a laudably detailed account over 16 pages of the far from straightforward Manuscript Tradition: although the Codex Palatinus is the main source, the Codex Marcianus (the Planudean) also contributes four epigrams. This is followed by Testimonia (rather thin) and the Inscriptions, discovered in 1888, which reveal that Cr. had diplomatic contact more than once with Julius Caesar. Finally, in Matters of Ascription, Y. considers only epigram no. 24 (about a squawking parrot) to be more than likely written by Philippus rather than Cr.; G-P. tentatively came to the same conclusion.
The Commentary follows (Y.’s order is the same as that of G-P.), and is on a truly heroic scale. Her 450 pages of commentary (which include texts and translations) contrast sharply with G-P.’s 50 pages (and Y.’s 50 page Index of Ancient Authors, which follows, must total the best part of 5,000 references). Of course, thoroughgoing though it is, not all problems are solved. One of the most intractable comes at Epigram 26, in praise of Germanicus: but which Germanicus? And when and where did the action take place to justify the praise? There is agreement between G-P. and Y. that the reference must be to the popular hero, son of Drusus and Antonia Minor; but whereas Y. comes down on the side of a victory over Germans in AD 15-16, with Mommsen and others, G-P. go for Gaul and the quiet year AD 13. In both cases, it has to be assumed that Cr.’s knowledge of the geography of continental Europe was highly sketchy. (A rather similar historical problem occurs at Epigram 21, where G-P. and Y. again disagree).
A problem of a totally different nature appears at Epigram 7, where of its six lines the central couplet may be in iambics (but the unmetrical MS does not fully support it, unless a major correction is made). G-P. regard the problem as intractable, and the proposed solutions unsatisfactory at best: Y., who looks at a number of implausible solutions, including a choliamb or lyric metre, finally comes up with a sensible, metrically sound, suggestion proposed by Boissonade (not noted by G-P), replacing two spondees with an iambus: all the same, it must be observed that there is no other ‘mixed-metre’ epigram in the Garland of Philip. The reviewer emphasises that, wherever a problem or a topic presents itself, Y. goes into exemplary detail: indeed, sometimes one has a sense of overkill. A Bibliography and an Index of Greek words also follow the Commentary.
This work is of course designed for the professional scholar: if Paton’s old Loeb volumes are to be replaced (as is mooted), Y.’s work will be of the greatest value to the editor. Production by OUP is of high quality, but cross-referencing went astray, by mischance, in the first two checks on it which your reviewer made, which suggests a need for caution. Y. is to be warmly congratulated on bringing so majestic a vessel safely to harbour.
Colin Leach