Theocrite

2003 · rif. 201820 — California University Press 2003. Hardcover. New/New. Black cloth on boards with gilt lettering to spine in a new dust jacket. 8vo. 5.5 x 0.1 x 8.25 inches Clean text free of marks or underlining. Includes conventions and abbreviations commentary references general index index of Greek Words and an Index Locorum. 244 pp. Fast shipping in a secure book box mailer with tracking. Under Ptolemy II Philadelphus who ruled Egypt in the middle of the third century B.C.E. Alexandria became the brilliant multicultural capital of the Greek world. Theocritus's poem in praise of Philadelphus―at once a Greek king and an Egyptian pharaoh―is the only extended poetic tribute to this extraordinary ruler that survives. Combining the Greek text an English translation a full line-by-line commentary and extensive introductory studies of the poem's historical and literary context this volume also offers a wide-ranging and far-reaching consideration of the workings and representation of poetic patronage in the Ptolemaic age. In particular the book explores the subtle and complex links among Theocritus's poem modes of praise drawn from both Greek and Egyptian traditions and the subsequent flowering of Latin poetry in the Augustan age. As the first detailed account of this important poem to show how Theocritus might have drawn on the pharaonic traditions of Egypt as well as earlier Greek poetry this book affords unique insight into how praise poetry for Ptolemy and his wife may have helped to negotiate the adaptation of Greek culture that changed conditions of the new Hellenistic world. Invaluable for its clear translation and its commentary on genre dialect diction and historical reference in relation to Theocritus's Encomium the book is also significant for what it reveals about the poem's cultural and social contexts and about Theocritus' devices for addressing his several readerships. COVER IMAGE: The image on the front cover of this book is incorrectly identified on the jacket flap. The correct caption is: Gold Oktadrachm depicting Ptolemy II and Arsinoe mid-third century BCE; by permission of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. California University Press hardcover