Arsinoe II as Epic Queen: Encomiastic Allusion in Theocritus, Idyll 15

This paper will illustrate how Idyll 15's intertextual affiliation with the Odyssey and Greek historiography embellishes the poem's explicit encomium of Arsinoe II. By alluding to Arete, Circe, and Helen and augmenting these allusions with reports of Egypt and Egyptian conquerers given by Herodotus and Hecataeus, Theocritus subtly depicts Arsinoe II as a semi-divine Greek and Egyptian queen whose wealth, status, and beneficence exceeds even that of the Homeric women to whom she is compared.