CALLIMACHUS (THIRD CENTURY B. C.) ALLIMACHUS, the most learned of poets, was the son of Battus and Mesatme of Cyrene, and a disciple of Hermocrates, who like his more celebrated pupil was a grammarian, or a follower of belles-lettres, says Suidas. It is in this calling that we first hear of Callimachus, when he was a teacher at Alexandria. Here he counted among his pupils Apollonius Rhodius, author of the Argonautica,' and Eratosthenes, famous for his wisdom in science, who knew geography and geometry so well that he measured the circumference of the earth. Callimachus was in fact one of those erudite poets and wise men of letters whom the gay Alexandrians who thronged the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus called "The Pleiades." Apollonius Rhodius, Aratus, Theocritus, Lycophron, Nicander, and Homer son of Macro, were the other six. From his circle of clever people, the king, with whom he had become a prime favorite, called him to be chief custodian over the stores of precious books at Alexandria. These libraries, we may recall, were the ones Julius Cæsar partially burned by accident a century later, and Bishop Theophilus and his mob of Christian zealots finished destroying as repositories of paganism some three centuries later still. The collections said to have been destroyed by Caliph Omar when Amru took Alexandria in 640 A. D., on the ground that if they agreed with the Koran they were superfluous and if they contradicted it they were blasphemous, were later ones; but the whole story is discredited by modern scholarship. The world has not ceased mourning for this untold and irreparable loss of the choicest fruits of the human spirit. Of all these precious manuscripts and parchments, then, Callimachus was made curator about the year B. C. 260. Aulus Gellius computes the time in this wise:-"Four-hundred-ninety years after the founding of Rome, the first Punic war was begun, and not long after, Callimachus, the poet of Cyrene in Alexandria, flourished at the court of King Ptolemy." At this time he must have been already married to the wife of whom Suidas speaks in his 'Lexicon,' a daughter of a Syracusan gentleman. The number of Callimachus's works, which are reported to have reached eight hundred, testifies to his popularity in the Alexandrian period of Greek literature. It contradicts also the maxim ascribed to him, that "a great book is a great evil." Among the prose works 3102 which would have enriched our knowledge of literature and history was his history of Greek literature in one hundred and twenty books, classifying the Greek writers and naming them chronologically. These were the results of his long labors in the libraries. Among them was a book on the Museum and the schools connected with it, with records of illustrious educators and of the books they had written. It is his poetry that has in the main survived, and yet as Ovid says-calling him Battiades, either from his father's name or from the illustrious founder of his native Cyrene — "Battiades semper toto cantabitur orbe: Quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet.» (Even throughout all lands Battiades's name will be famous; Quintilian, however, says he was the prince of Greek elegiac poets. Of his elegies we have a few fragments, and also the Latin translation by Catullus of the 'Lock of Berenice.' Berenice, the sister and wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, who succeeded his father Philadelphus in B. C. 245, had sacrificed some of her hair, laying it on the altar of a temple, from which it was subsequently stolen. In his poem, Callimachus as the court poet sang how the gods had taken the tresses and placed them among the stars. The delicate and humorous 'Rape of the Lock' of Alexander Pope is a rather remote repetition of the same fancy. We have also from Callimachus's hand six hymns to the gods and many epigrams, the latter of which, as will be seen by the quotations given below, are models of their kind. His lyric hymns are, in reality, rather epics in little. They are full of recondite information, overloaded indeed with learning; elegant, nervous, and elaborate, rather than easy-flowing, simple, and warm, like a genuine product of the muse. Many of his epigrams grace the Greek Anthology.' Among the best editions of Callimachus is that of Ernesti (1761). The extant poems and fragments have been in part translated by William Dodd (1755) and H. W. Tytler (1856). His scattered epigrams have incited many to attempt their perfect phrasing. A HYMN TO JUPITER T JOVE's high festival, what song of praise To whom may we our pæans rather raise But whether Crete first saw the Father spring, My soul is much in doubt, for both that praise essay. Some say that thou, O Jove, first saw the morn Declare, Almighty Father-which have lied? As if the King of Gods and men had died, No! thou hast ever been, and art, and aye shalt be. Thy mother bore thee on Arcadian ground, Old Goddess Rhea, on a mountain's height; The hallowed spot was curiously dight; May dare approach that consecrated steep, Whose name of Rhea's birth-bed still Arcadians keep. Fair was the promise of thy childhood's prime, That of thy peers or elders none appeared To claim his birthright; —heaven was all thine own, Nor dared fell Envy point her arrows at thy throne. Poets of old do sometimes lack of truth; For Saturn's ancient kingdom, as they tell, Into three parts was split, as if forsooth There were a doubtful choice 'twixt Heaven and Hell To one not fairly mad; --- we know right well That lots are cast for more equality; But these against proportion so rebel No chance gave thee the sovranty of heaven; But to the deeds thy good right hand had done, And thine own strength and courage, was it given; These placed thee first, still keep thee on thy throne. Thou took'st the goodly eagle for thine own, Through whom to men thy wonders are declared; To me and mine propitious be they shown! Through thee by youth's best flower is heaven sharedSeamen and warriors heed'st thou not, nor e'en the bard: These be the lesser gods' divided care But kings, great Jove, are thine especial dow'r; New blessings on her favored hunter throng- But monarchs spring from Jove-nor is there aught Therefore, O Father, kings are thine of right, To rule their people in iniquity, Or by sound government to raise their name on high. Thou hast bestowed on all kings wealth and power, From knowledge of our own great Governor, Who stands supreme of kings on earth below. His morning thoughts his nights in actions show; His less achievements when designed are done While others squander years in counsels slow; Not rarely when the mighty seeds are sown, Are all their air-built hopes by thee, great Jove, o'erthrown. All hail, Almighty Jove! who givest to men All good, and wardest off each evil thing. Oh, who can hymn thy praise? he hath not been, For virtue's naught, mere virtue's no defense; Translation of Fitzjames T. Price. H EPITAPH Is little son of twelve years old Philippus here has laid, EPIGRAM (Admired and Paraphrased by Horace) HE hunter in the mountains every roe THE And every hare pursues through frost and snow, T EPITAPH ON HERACLEITUS HEY told me, Heracleitus, they told me you were dead; I wept, as I remembered how often you and I Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky. And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest, Translation of William Johnson. |