CALLIMACO E L'EGITTO. TESTI E INTERPRETAZIONI

My Ph.D. dissertation, entitled Callimachus and Egypt. Texts and interpretations, combines philology and history of classical scholarship. In the second half of the XIX century, the relationship between Callimachus and Egypt was investigated by a critical current, the so called current of the “Egyptianizers”, whose contributions the dissertation considers in details. R. Merkelbach, L. Koenen, P. Bing and W.H. Mineur tried to prove that the Ptolemaic king intended to explain to his Greek subjects his role of Pharaoh, urging Callimachus to translate some aspects of pharaonic kingship in his works. A second “generation” of “Egyptianizers”, represented by D. Selden and above all by S. Stephens, expanded the scope of similar affirmations. They saw in the members of the Ptolemaic courts and in Callimachus a clear interest, not only for pharaonic kingship, but also for Egyptian realia. Therefore they maintained that some Callimachean works should be read taking into account two points of view, Greek and Egyptian (“seeing double”). The opponents of this critical current (G. Zanker, G. Weber, M. Asper and R. Hunter) objected that, under Ptolemy II and Ptolemy III, the Greeks created a sort of “apartheid” towards the Egyptians. By examinig Callimachean works, they reduced the importance of explicit mentions of aegyptiaca, which, in any case, are very few. Then, my dissertation deals with three still open issues: the look of the city of Alexandria in the third century, the worship of the Ptolemaic king, the sibling wedding between Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II. I analyse the presence of pharaonic kingship in Hymn to Delos, the work more frequently read under an “Egyptianizing” perspective. I devote a chapter to the potential Callimachean sources concerning Egypt, namely Hecataeus of Abdera and Manetho. Hecataeus of Abdera, author of Aigyptiaka, also wrote a work About the Hyperboreans, which Callimachus used for his Hymn to Delos and, maybe, for fr. inc. lib. Aet. 186 Pf. (=fr. 97 Massimilla), for which I suggest an emendation at line 2. In the second part of the dissertation, I offer text and commentary of Callimachean passages in which aegyptiaca are mentioned: four epigrams (epp. XXXVII Pf.=17 G.-P., XLIX Pf.=27 G.P., LV Pf.=16 G.P., LVII Pf.=18 G.-P.) in which we find references to Isis and Serapis, whose cult is object of a closer examination. Then, I analyse some frr. incertae sedis, which are especially interesting because very little studied until now. In particular, I suggest a collocation or I discuss the attribution to Callimachus: fr. 655 concerning the Persea tree, fr. 715 concerning Anubi’s dromos in Heliopolis, the Ious afixis quoted by Suida, fr. 811 inc. auct. concerning an alleged De Iside et Osiride, some mirabilia referable to Egypt. In conclusion, I remark that Egyptianizers‘ assumptions, though fascinating and stimulating, nonetheless have weak basis: Egypt appears in Callimachus in an erratic way and always subjected to an interpretatio Graeca, although the poet spended almost his entire life in Alexandria. Nonetheless in his court poems Callimachus probably made allusions to pharaonic kingship, acknowledging impulses that came to him from the Ptolemaic court. In appendix, because of its only partial connection to Egypt, I analyse the aition Busiris-Phalaris (frr. 44-47 Pf.+SH. 252=frr. 51-54 Massimilla), of which I offer text and commentary, with considerations about the figure of Busiris in Callimachus.