
Simonides the Poet
Intertextuality and Reception
Richard Rawles(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 19. April 2018
Book
Hardback
318 pages
978-1-107-14170-4 (ISBN)
Description
Simonides is tantalising and enigmatic, known both from fragments and from an extensive tradition of anecdotes. This monograph, the first in English for a generation, employs a two-part diachronic approach: Richard Rawles first reads Simonidean fragments with attention to their intertextual relationship with earlier works and traditions, and then explores Simonides through his ancient reception. In the first part, interactions between Simonides' own poems and earlier traditions, both epic and lyric, are studied in his melic fragments and then in his elegies. The second part focuses on an important strand in Simonides' ancient reception, concerning his supposed meanness and interest in remuneration. This is examined in Pindar's Isthmian 2, and then in Simonides' reception up to the Hellenistic period. The book concludes with a full re-interpretation of Theocritus 16, a poem which engages both with Simonides' poems and with traditions about his life.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
2 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 250 mm
Width: 175 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
737 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-14170-4 (9781107141704)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2018
Cambridge University Press
€73.99
Available for download

E-Book
03/2018
Cambridge University Press
€88.99
Available for download
Person
Richard Rawles is Lecturer in Greek at the University of Edinburgh, and has previously taught at the University of St Andrews, University College London and the University of Nottingham. With Peter Agocs and Chris Carey he has co-edited two volumes on epinician poetry, and his other publications include articles on Aeschylus, Simonides, Sappho and Theocritus.
Content
Introduction; Part I. Simonides and the Poets of the Past: 1. Epic traditions in lyric songs; 2. The 'new Simonides': Homeric and Elegiac transformations; Part II. Simonidea: Simonides Through Ancient Receptions: 3. Pindar, Simonides and money: Pindar's Isthmian 2; 4. Simonides and wealth: a critical description of the tradition; 5. From stories to songs: Simonides essiaei in the fragments; 6. Simonides, history and eeYio: Theocritus' Charites or Hieron. Conclusion.