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Callimachus: Hymns, Epigrams, Select Fragments Paperback – December 1, 1987

by Callimachus (Author), Stanley Lombardo (Translator), Diane J. Rayor (Translator)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 12 ratings
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Having found his translators, may Callimachus now find the public he deserves. —D.S. Carne-Ross

A Poundian figure who summed up the possibilties of a new era's response to an old and rich poetic tradition, Callimachus (ca. 305 B.C.-ca. 240 B.C.) was the first learned scholar-poet in Western literature.

The leading poet of the Alexandrian school, Callimachus served as a model to Vergil, Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid. With remarkable grace and sensitivity to nuance, Stanley Lombardo and Diane Rayor provide the first translation of Callimachus's works into the American poetic idiom. Lombardo and Rayor translate the six hymns and sixty-one epigrams that are the only complete extant poems of a writer credited with having produces some eight hundred books in his lifetime. In addition, they offer a generous selection from among the surviving fragments, inclduing the prologue and selected passages from the Aetia ("The Origins"), Callimachus's greatest achievement in narrative verse. Theiry annotations elucidate the poet's rich mythological allusions; an introduction places Callimachus within his cultural and poetic contexts.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    152 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Johns Hopkins University Press
  4. Publication date
    December 1, 1987
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.35 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0801832810
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0801832819
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an exceptional translation of the works of an exceptional poet. Though little known in modern times, Callimachus is one of the high-water marks of ancient Greece: a literary giant in the Hellenistic period, leader of the Alexandrian school, model of poetic craft for Virgil, Catullus, Ovid, and others. But up to now the path to his greatness has been hard for Greekless readers to follow. Nourished in a venerated poetic tradition, scholarly and allusive, he preferred "the trickling dew from a mountain's holy spring" to the muddy current down river. This translation―clear-flowing, graceful, witty―revives a fading giant. A literary triumph
―Library Journal

Book Description

Having found his translators, may Callimachus now find the public he deserves. ―D.S. Carne-Ross

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Johns Hopkins University Press (December 1, 1987)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 152 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0801832810
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801832819
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.35 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 12 ratings

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  1. Stanley Lombardo

    Stanley Lombardo

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  2. Diane J. Rayor

    Diane J. Rayor

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    Diane Rayor is Professor Emerita of Classics at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA, where she co-founded the Classics Department in 2000. Her newest Sappho translation (2023) incorporates thirty-two more fragments than in the first edition (2014) and revisions of over seventy fragments. The second edition also includes an audio recording of the poems by Kate Reading.

    Rayor has published six book translations of ancient Greek poetry, mythology, and drama: Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition 2023); Euripides' 'Medea': A New Translation (Cambridge U P, 2013); Sophocles' 'Antigone': A New Translation (Cambridge U P, 2011); Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes (California U P, updated 2014); Sappho's Lyre: Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece (California U P, 1991); and Callimachus (with S. Lombardo, 1988).

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
12 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

G M T Brosius
5.0 out of 5 stars A great Hymnographer of Ancient Greece.
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2019
The hymns of Callimachus are beautifully written with metonymy and metaphors, weaving words of emotion and feeling throughout. The writing allows a reader to dream of imaginary and mythical sites of antiquity as one believes it to be. Callimachus uses names of geography and individual beings simultaneously in a verb tense (which is not used in modern times), while using subjects of ancient deities or graces to evoke the senses. This was his legacy! He is the only poet whom hymns a territory or land, at 326 lines it was his longest. "The lord's tomb could not hold his immortal essence", "..but the spring wind flowers it with dew", and "I dont like highways that are heavily traveled", are just a few stanzas from this captivating poet.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars "... a sudden sweetness, the swan sings in air ... "
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2004
This review relates to the volume, -Callimachus: Hymns,
Epigrams, Select Fragments-, Translated with an Introduction
and Notes by Stanley Lombardo and Diane Rayor. The Johns
Hopkins Univ. Press. 1988. 126 pp.
This volume contains a very good Introduction, 6 Hymns (to
Zeus; Apollo; Artemis, Delos; the Bath of Pallas; Demeter);
64 epigrams (short, succinct poetry bites!); and the
Select Fragments (parts of Callimachus's poetry that are
found in bits and pieces in various places, but which have,
unfortunately, not come down to us complete): there is the
more complete, Prologue to "Aetia"; a short fragment from
"Aetia"- itself; 10 fragments from "Victory of Berenike";
fragments 67 through 75 from "Akontios and Kydippe"; a
longer, more complete piece "The Lock of Berenike",
fragment "Iambics"; fragment 260 from "Hekale"; Lyric
Fragments from "Brankhos"; "The Deification of Arsinoe";
and "The All-Night Festival." There are Notes for the
various poems from p. 93 - 123.
The translators tell us who Callimachus was by quoting
from the -Suda-, a Byzantine encylopedia: "Callimachus,
son of Battos and Mesatma, of Kyrene, a man of letters...
assiduous enough to have written poems in every meter and
a great number of prose works beside, 800 volumes in all [!].
He lived during the reign of [the Greek imposed line of
rulers of Egypt] Ptolemy Philadelphos [285-247 B.C.E.]
Before his introduction to that king he taught grammar in
Eleusis, a suburb of Alexandria [Egypt]. He survived to
the time of Ptolemy Euergetes [Philadelphos's successor]."
The translators further supply, "We learn from another source
(a scholium in a manuscript of Plautus) that Callimachus
held a royal appointment in the great Library of Alexandria.
Whether he was ever head librarian is a disputed point- he
probably never was- but we do know that he produced a
catalogue, the -Pinakes-, of the Library's holdings. His
celebrated maxim...("Big Book, big brother") is probably
to be understood in the context of his work as librarian,
but is in accord with his aesthetic canons as well."
The importance of Callimachus comes not just from what
he himself wrote, and sadly we now have such a small
portion of, but of his important influence on those poets
who came after him, especially among the Romans. In his
own time, Callimachus might be viewed by us as a transitional
figure between the modes and forms of ancient Greek poetry
as they are transformed by a new perspective of the
Hellenistic era (after the death of Alexander the Great,
10 June 323 B.C.) The city of Alexandria, Egypt, founded
by Alexander, became a great center of learning, culture,
literary creativity, trade, and cosmopolitan spirit.
Callimachus is a part of that wondrous mixture. The
poetry of Callimachus presents a delicious mixture of
flavors and tones, from the slightly distant Hymns, to
the more immediate epigram complaints over youthful males he
is attracted to (with his sharp complaints over their ways
and wiles), to the tart comments he places in some of
the poems about his critics and the heavy influence upon
him of his researches and learning retentions.
Callimachus, in the hands of the right translators (and
these two are excellent) "comes alive" for us with
immediacy, wit, tartness, clever irony, and very real
moments of revelation.
Here is their haunting translation of the emanation of
the god Apollo: "Don't you see, the Delian/ palm tree
nodded,/ a sudden sweetness, the swan sings in air,/ bolts
slide from the door, the hinges swing/ The god is no longer
far."
-- Robert Kilgore.
6 people found this helpful
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T Howard
3.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction and Notes, but the English Translation is Uneven
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2020
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I read this edition of Callimachus as part of my journey through the canon of Western Literature. My rating and this review is not of Callimachus himself but of the English edition.

First, Stanley Lombardo's introduction was very helpful to place Callimachus in his historical and literary context. It is clear from Lombardo's introduction that Callimachus had a significant influence on the poetry of future Greek and Roman poets.

Second, Lombardo and Rayor's English translation is uneven and at times tries too hard to be poetic. While their translation of the hymns can be very beautiful, their work on the epigrams is almost tragic. Often they try too hard to make the epigrams rhyme in English, and this badly obscures the original (e.g. epigram 22).

Third, while including the fragments can be helpful for the more academic reader, many are not very readable.

Fourth, the end notes are helpful to the understanding of each hymn and to a lesser extent of each epigram. However, it's a pain to flip back and forth between the text and the notes. I would prefer they turn the end notes into footnotes.

Because of the uneven English translation and end notes, I gave this edition of Callimachus 3-out-of-5 stars.
2 people found this helpful
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Ryan Mease
4.0 out of 5 stars Review of Lombardo's Callimachus
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2010
This set of translations opens with a great introduction to the life of Callimachus, as limited as it must be, given existing evidence. Lombardo is a great poet, and in this sense a great translator. His work is a pleasure to read, even aloud. Occasionally, there are some odd, out-of-context words (shah, for example). Also, this book uses endnotes instead of footnotes.
4 people found this helpful
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Ichabod
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, readable intro
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2022
Verified Purchase
For those eager to know ancient Greek poets, this contains good introductory notes and is a very readable translation of an important poet and assistant in the great library of Alexandria who during his tenure catalogued much of the works there. His topics and styles of poetry were broad and revealing of the knowledge of his time.
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