Philodemus of Gadara

The new edition of The Epigrams of Philodemos collects all the epigrams attributed to the Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemos of Gadara (c.110-c.40 B.C.), and is the first to receive separate publication since the brief - and incomplete - Programmschrift of George Kaibel in 1885. The heart of this book consists of a newly edited text, the result of a reexamination of several manuscripts of the Greek Anthology. Thirty-eight epigrams (two only doubtfully Philodemean, and two spurious) are printed in the original Greek and in English translation, with full critical apparatus and commentary. Sider also includes the text of a recently edited papyrus containing fragments of many previously known and newly discovered epigrams by Philodemos. In addition to the usual issues involved in editing a classical poet - i.e. the poet's life, his use of meter, the epigrammatic tradition, and the place of the epigrams in the Greek Anthology - Sider's introduction considers the relationship between Philodemos' philosophy and poetry. He explains how the epigrams fit into the literary views expressed in Philodemos' On Poems and how they accord with the Epicurean stance against the writing of poetry. This edition is far more comprehensive than any other text and commentary on Philodemos' epigrams, and is the only one to assess his poetry in the light of his poetic theory. It will be of great use to students of Greek and Latin poetry, where echoes of Philodemos are found in works of Vergil, Catullus, Horace, Ovid, Marital, and Propertius.

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"The On Poems by Philodemus (c. 110-35 BC), the Epicurean philosopher and poet who taught Vergil and influenced Horace, is our main source for Hellenistic literary theory. In Book 1 Philodemus summarizes a survey of previously unknown poetic and aesthetic theories. Compiled by Crates of Mallos, this survey reviews the critical theories of earlier Epicureans, Peripatetics, and Stoics, who had argued that sound is the source of poetic excellence, and that the ear, unaided by the mind, can judge it. Philodemus led the reaction against this invasion of literary criticism by musical theory, arguing that form and content are interrelated, and that substantive content, not pretty sound, is what makes poetry worthwhile." "The 200 fragments of Book 1, carbonized in the eruption of Vesuvius, were entirely jumbled after their discovery at Herculaneum. This edition reconstitutes their original sequence according to a new method, while exploiting previously unknown manuscript sources and new techniques for reading the extant pieces. In thus restoring this important aesthetic treatise from antiquity, it makes a major addition to the corpus of classical literature" --Book Jacket.