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4. Kallimachos and His Lists of Greek Authors and Their Works 4.1 The Life and Work of Kallimachos. His Work as a Librarian. His Scholarly Works- (Except Lists ofAuthors) ACCOUNTS of the life and work of Kallimachos are neither particularly extensive nor are they particularly sparse. Our main source is the article "Kallimachos" in the Suda which contains some biographical data and a selective bibliography of his works. The article is based on an epitome of the Onomatologos (Nomenclator), a lost bibliographic lexicon compiled from older reference books by Hesychios of Miletos in the 6th century AD.1 The abridgment of the Onomatologos affected also the article "Kallimachos". This explains some of its defects. Thus, we learn from it, for example, what was the name of Kallimachos's father-in-law, but we do not know what position he himself occupied at the court of the Ptolemies in Alexandria. Nevertheless, this article supplies interesting information not contained in any other source. The data of Hesychios which were incorporated in the Suda are corroborated and augmented only by some scattered notes of other ancient scholars. Kallimachos himself inserted into his extant works only a few personal remarks; the most important ones relate to the criticism to which his poetic works had been subjected. The following is a translation of the article in the Suda \necessary or probable corrections suggested by earlier researchers are in brackets). 124 Kallimachos, son of Battos and Mesatma [Megatima), from Kyrene, grammarian, pupil of the grammarian Hermokrates of Iasos, married the daughter of Euphrates [Euphraios) of Syracuse. His sister's son was the younger Kallimachos who wrote about islands in verse. He was so zealous that he wrote poems in every meter and many books in prose. And he wrote more than eight hundred books. He lived in the time of Ptolemaios Philadelphos. Before he was introduced to the king, he was a teacher in an elementary school in Eleusis, a suburb of Alexandria. And he lived until the time of Ptolemaios Euergetes, the 127th [133rd) Olympiad, in the second year of which Ptolemaios Euergetes began his reign.3 Among his books are the following: The arrival of 10; Semele; The colony[?] of the Argonauts; Arcadia; Glaukos; Hopes; satyr plays; tragedies; comedies; songs; Ibis (a poem on obscurity and slander against a certain Ibis, who had become the enemy of Kallimachos; that was Apollonios, the author of the Argonautika); Museion; Lists of those who distinguished themselves in aU branches of learning, and their writings, in 120 books; Table and register ofplaywrights, arranged chronologically from the beginning; A list ofglosses and writin&, by Demokrates [Demokritos]; The names of months according to peoples and cities; Foundation of isIonds and cities, and changes of their names; On the riven of Europe; On marvels and natural curioBities in the Peloponnesos and in Italy; On changes of names [rather: naming] offishes; On winds; On birds; On the rivers of the world; Collection ofthe marvels of the world appearing in certain places. According to this article, Kallimachos is classified as a grammarian (i.e. a philologist) who wrote more than eight hundred works in verse and prose. The selective bibliography lists, however, only a few poetic writings, in part even only the kinds of such writings (which may have been headings of sections in the original) and a few scholarly works;4 none of his known poetic works is listed, except his abusive poem against Apollonios Rhodios, Ibis. All other listed poems are unknown. The first ones were perhaps parts of the famousAitia (Causes), narrative elegies on the mythical origin of worship rites and other customs. On the other hand, the scholarly works of Kallimachos named in the list are sometimes also mentioned by other authors. They begin with three pinakes: first, there are the pinakes of Greek authors and their works.s The arrangement of the other titles is mixed up. AJilong others there are collective titles and partial titles of two works, and two partial titles of one work whose collective title is not mentioned, all of which are separated from each other by other titles. Only some of his poetic works have been preserved. Six hymns and 63 epigrams have come down to us in manuscripts from the 14th and 15th century. Fragments of other poetic works by Kallimachos were found on papyri which were discovered during the past decades in Egypt, among them fragments of his Aitia. His scholarly works, however, which were used by several later authors are lost...

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