Tragic Failures: Alexandrian Responses to Tragedy and the Tragic (Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes) (Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes, 38)

This is the first study considering the reception of Greek tragedy and the transformation of the tragic idea in Hellenistic poetry. The focus is on third-century Alexandria, where the Ptolemies fostered tragedy as a theatrical form for public entertainment and as an official genre cultivated by the Pleiad, whereas the scholars of the Museum were commissioned to edit and comment on the classical tragic texts. More importantly, the notion of the tragic was adapted to the literary trends of the era. Released from the strict rules established by Aristotle about what makes a good tragedy, the major poets of the Alexandrian avant-garde struggled to transform the tragic idea and integrate it into non-dramatic genres. __Tragic Failures__ traces the incorporation of the tragic idea in the poetry of Callimachus and Theocritus, in Apollonius’ epic __Argonautica__, in the iambic __Alexandra__, in late Hellenistic poetry and in Parthenius’ __Erotika Pathemata__. It offers a fascinating insight into the new conception of the tragic dilemmas in the context of Alexandrian aesthetics. Contents 7 Preface 9 Introduction: From Tragedy to the Tragic 13 1. Tragedy, from Athens to Alexandria 23 The contexts of Hellenistic tragedy 23 Ptolemaic cultural politics and tragedy 27 Performing, reciting or reading tragedy? 32 Tragedy enters the Library 37 2. The Metaclassical Tragic 43 Tragedy as philosophy and its Hellenistic reworking 43 The impossibility of Aristotelian tragedy 50 Callimachus on (not) writing tragedy 56 Establishing tragedy and the tragic in Alexandria 64 3. Alexandrian Tragedy 75 The star system of the Alexandrian tragedians 75 Rupture and revival of tragic myth 81 Historical tragedy makes a comeback 89 Generic divergences and tragic crossovers 94 4. Callimachus Displaces the Tragic 101 Transcending the tragic in the Hymns 101 Tragic fragmentariness in the Aetia 110 Hecale, a mundane tragedy 117 5. Redefining the Tragic in the Idylls of Theocritus 127 A messenger speech without a messenger 127 The bucolic world’s a stage 134 Simaetha’s tragic failures 143 6. Tragedy into Epic in Apollonius’ Argonautica 153 Distilling Attic tragedy into the Argonautica 153 Epic teleologies and tragic modalities 165 An Alexandrian epic on tragic passions 173 7. In the Metatragic Cosmos of the Alexandra 180 The Alexandra, a metatragic play 180 From the tragedy of Cassandra to ‘becoming Alexandra’ 188 Tragedy as textual unconscious 197 8. The Romantic Tragic 205 Domesticizing tragedy 205 The tragedy of love 214 Parthenius, from tragedy to melodrama 223 Conclusion: Tragic Failures and Hellenistic Challenges 233 Bibliography 239 Abbreviations 239 Editions 239 Translations 239 Bibliography 240 Index 255 This study focuses on the reception of tragedy and the tragic in Hellenistic poetry. It illustrates how classical tragedy and the tragic idea were incorporated in the poems of Callimachus and Theocritus, Apollonius 'Argonautica', the iambic 'Alexandra' and late Hellenistic poetry. It demonstrates that the tragic was not doomed to failure in the postclassical world but lived on through the works of the great Alexandrian poets and their followers Tragedy, From Athens To Alexandria -- The Metaclassical Tragic -- Alexandrian Tragedy -- Callimachus Displaces The Tragic -- Redefining The Tragic In The Idylls Of Theocritus -- Tragedy Into Epic In Apollonius' Argonautica -- In The Metatragic Cosmos Of The Alexandra -- The Romantic Tragic -- Conclusions: Tragic Failures And Hellenistic Challenges. Evina Sistakou. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. A study that focuses on the reception of tragedy and the tragic in Hellenistic poetry. It illustrates how classical tragedy and the tragic idea were incorporated in the poems of Callimachus and Theocritus, Apollonius' Argonautica, the iambic Alexandra and late Hellenistic poetry.