Callimachus of Cyrene

Markus Asper (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Ed. by Thomas Habinek, University of Southern California
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool)

Dates

Born c. -310
Died c. -246
Activity c. -290-c. -246

Places

Born in Egypt
Active in Ancient Greece

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Callimachus' Works

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Callimachus belongs among those ancient Greek authors who, although their impact was conspicuous on later, especially Roman, culture, are known today only to experts: most of their works are lost and only fragments survive which are scattered, often hardly intelligible, and difficult for a lay readership to access.

Callimachus lived and worked in 3rd century BCE Alexandria. The earliest of his extant writings, the first hymn, is datable to c. 282 BCE. Some words in his Pinakes about a certain Lysimachos who wrote about Attalos II of Pergamon must have been written after 240 BCE. Callimachus was closely acquainted with the royal dynasty of the Ptolemies, the Macedonian successor kings who had established a Macedonian-Greek empire in Egypt after Alexander the Great had conquered Egypt from

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2606 words

Citation: Asper, Markus. "Callimachus of Cyrene". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=701, accessed 21 November 2024.]