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The New Politics of Olympos - Kingship in Kallimachos' Hymns (Hardcover)
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The New Politics of Olympos - Kingship in Kallimachos' Hymns (Hardcover)
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The New Politics of Olympos explores the dynamics of praise, power,
and persuasion in Kallimachos' hymns, detailing how they
simultaneously substantiate and interrogate the radically new
phenomenon of Hellenistic kingship taking shape during Kallimachos'
lifetime. Long before the Ptolemies invested vast treasure in
establishing Alexandria as the center of Hellenic culture and
learning, tyrants such as Peisistratos and Hieron recognized the
value of poetry in advancing their political agendas. Plato, too,
saw the vast power inherent in poetry, and famously advocated
either censoring it (Republic) or harnessing it (Laws) for the good
of the political community. As Xenophon notes in his Hieron and
Pindar demonstrates in his politically charged epinikian hymns,
wielding poetry's power entails a complex negotiation between the
poet, the audience, and political leaders. Kallimachos' poetic
medium for engaging in this dynamic, the hymn, had for centuries
served as an unparalleled vehicle for negotiating with the
super-powerful. The New Politics of Olympos offers the first
in-depth analysis of Kallimachos' only fully extant poetry book,
the Hymns, by examining its contemporary political setting,
engagement with a tradition of political thought stretching back to
Homer, and portrayal of the poet as an image-maker for the king. In
addition to investigating the political dynamics in the individual
hymns, this book details how the poet's six hymns, once juxtaposed
within a single bookroll, constitute a macro-narrative on the
prerogatives of Ptolemaic kingship. Throughout the collection
Kallimachos refigures the infamously factious divine family as a
paradigm of stability and good governance in concert with the
self-fashioning of the Ptolemaic dynasty. At the same time, the
poet defines the characteristics and behaviors worthy of praise,
effectively shaping contemporary political ethics. Thus, for a
Ptolemaic reader, this poetry book may have served as an education
in and inducement to good kingship.
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