Reading the Octopus: Authorship, Intertexts, and A Hellenistic Anecdote (Machon Fr. 9 Gow)

As oral, unowned and unfixed bits of narrative, anecdotes are unlikely candidates for being read intertextually. Yet the Hellenistic poet Machon’s chreiae offer an ideal place to challenge this assumption. A case study shows how a chreia can productively be read in two ways: one, the formal approach, considers the fragment (9 Gow) as a fixed text, and studies the allusions and intertexts it relies on. The other, the socio-cultural approach, examines the dialogue this chreia establishes with authorless, informal narratives, and the scholarly practices of contemporary Alexandrian scholars. Both are complementary, especially for our appreciation of the anecdote’s aesthetics.