Inszeniertes Lesevergnügen: Das inschriftliche Epigramm und seine Rezeption bei Kallimachos (review)

It is commonly said that Hellenistic book epigrams differ widely from their inscriptional predecessors. While this is certainly true with regard to their level of self-consciousness, allusiveness, and linguistic refinement, one should not simply dismiss stone epigrams as subliterary texts of interest exclusively to epigraphists. In fact, the assumption of a strict separation between inscriptional and so-called literary epigrams does not do justice to the complex dynamics of the genre, as is persuasively demonstrated by Doris Meyer. Her book offers an intriguing study of the communicative strategies evident in inscribed epigrams ("Das griechische Epigramm und seine Leser von der Archaik bis zum Hellenismus," 25–126) and of Callimachus' engagement with the epigraphic tradition in his epigrams ("Autor und Leser in den Epigrammen des Kallimachos," 127–224) and other poems ("Epigrammatische Sprecherrollen in den elegischen und jambischen Gedichten des Kallimachos," 225–63). Meyer's theoretical framework is based on speech-act theory and reader-response criticism ("Griechisches Epigramm und Rezeptionsästhetik," 1–23); she thus regards epigrams as "inszenierte Sprechakte" and analyzes the implications of their "Appellstruktur." This approach proves very fruitful for a better understanding of the epigrammatic genre as a whole. In the first part of her study she examines, among other things, the roles of fictive speakers and readers, and the use of deictic references and performative verbs in inscriptional poetry. Contrary to Burzachechi, who took the occurrence of oggetti parlanti as evidence for an animistic worldview (Epigraphica 24 [1962] 3–54), Meyer convincingly argues "daß das epigraphische 'Ich' des sprechenden Gegenstands sich der ganz selbstverständlichen Inszenierung der Epigramme als mündlicher Sprechakte verdankt" (72).

The shift of epigrams from stone to book undoubtedly brought with it a literarization of the genre, which was now (at least partly) removed from its original setting and deprived of its pragmatic function. Taking Callimachus' epigrammatic corpus as a case study, Meyer illustrates the effects of this literarization by examining how the Alexandrian poet appropriated and played with the generic features of inscribed poetry. Particularly noteworthy is her synoptic survey of Callimachus' funerary and dedicatory poems and the speech-acts represented in them, which are categorized by formal elements, speaker, addressee(s), illocutionary act(s), subject matter, place/time, and inscriptional model (cf. the table on 148–58).

Following this structural analysis, Meyer offers close readings of single poems and traces the various ways in which they engage the reader and thematize the act of reading. One of the most important results of her investigation is that Callimachus personalizes the fictive speakers of his epigrams to a remarkably high degree: he represents them as psychological subjects who express their own thoughts (contrary to the anonymous passerby of stone epigrams), demonstrate a rational detachment from their role, or exhibit a striking self-consciousness. The last part of the book focuses on epigrammatic elements in Callimachus' non-epigrammatic poetry, which may occur either in the form of inserted inscriptions, as in the Victory of Sosibius and the first Iamb, or as speech-acts typical of epigrammatic poetry. The Lock of Berenice, for instance, with its speaking object, could very well be regarded as an extended dedicatory epigram.

All in all, this book stands out for its clarity of argumentation and constitutes a major contribution to the study of ancient epigrams. Despite its formalistic approach Meyer's Inszeniertes Lesevergnügen is a pleasure to read.