Philitas of Cos
Philitas of Cos | |
---|---|
Native name | Φιλίτας ὁ Κῷος |
Born | c. 340 BC[2] |
Died | c. 285 BC (age 55)[3] |
Occupation | Scholar and poet |
Nationality | Ptolemaic Kingdom |
Genre | Elegiac, epigram, epyllion |
Subject | Glossary, Homer |
Literary movement | Alexandrian school of poetry |
Notable works | Demeter Disorderly Words |
Literature portal |
Philitas of Cos (
Philitas was the first major Greek writer who was both a scholar and a poet.[4] His reputation continued for centuries, based on both his pioneering study of words and his verse in elegiac meter. His vocabulary Disorderly Words described the meanings of rare literary words, including those used by Homer. His poetry, notably his elegiac poem Demeter, was highly respected by later ancient poets. However, almost all his work has since been lost.[7]
Life
Little is known of Philitas' life. Ancient sources refer to him as a Coan, a native or long-time inhabitant of Cos,[3] one of the Dodecanese islands in the Aegean Sea just off the coast of Asia. His student Theocritus wrote that Philetas' father was Telephos (Τήλεφος, Tḗlephos) and his mother, assuming the manuscript is supplemented correctly, Euctione (Εὐκτιόνη, Euktiónē).[8] From a comment about Philitas in the Suda, a 10th-century AD historical encyclopedia, it is estimated he was born c. 340 BC, and that he might have established a reputation in Cos by c. 309/8 BC. During the Wars of the Diadochi that followed the death of Alexander the Great and divided Alexander's empire, Ptolemy had captured Cos from his rival successor, Antigonus, in 310 BC; his son, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, was born there in 308 BC. It was a favorite retreat for men of letters weary of Alexandria.[9]
Philetas was appointed Philadelphus' tutor, which suggests he moved to
Hermesianax wrote of "Philitas, singing of nimble Bittis", and Ovid twice calls her "Battis". It is commonly thought that Bittis or Battis was Philitas' mistress, and that Hermesianax referred to love poetry; another possibility is that her name connoted "chatterbox", and that she was a humorous personification of Philitas' passion for words.[7]
Philitas was thin and frail, and may have suffered and died from a
Original | Transliterated |
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ξεῖνε, Φιλίτας εἰμί· λόγων ὁ ψευδόμενός με ὥλεσε καὶ νυκτῶν φροντίδες ἑσπέριοι
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Xeîne, Philítas eimí. Lógōn ho pseudómenós me hṓlese kaì nyktôn phrontídes hespérioi
|
St. George Stock analyzed the story as saying Philitas studied the
A more literal translation suggests that the invented epitaph pokes fun at Philitas' focus on using the right words:
Stranger, I am Philitas. The lying word and nights' evening cares destroyed me.[13]
Works
Philitas wrote a vocabulary explaining the meanings of rare literary words, words from local dialects, and technical terms; it probably took the form of a lexicon.[6][11] The vocabulary, called Disorderly Words (Ἄτακτοι γλῶσσαι, Átaktoi glôssai), has been lost, with only a few fragments quoted by later authors.[7] One example, quoted in Athenaeus, is that the word πέλλα (pélla) meant "wine cup" in the ancient Greek region of Boeotia;[20] this was evidently contrasted to the same word meaning "milk pail" in Homer's Iliad.[7] Hermeneia, another scholarly work, probably contained Philitas' versions and critical interpretations of Homer and other authors.[11]
About thirty fragments of Philitas' poetry are known, along with four definite titles:[6][11]
- Demeter, Philitas' most famous work, consisted of founding myth of a local cult of Demeter on Cos.[11]
- Hermes was an epyllion, or brief mythological narrative, written in hexameter. It had the structure of a hymn, with a central narrative telling of Odysseus' visit to the island of the king Aeolus, keeper of the winds, and of Odysseus' secret affair with the king's daughter Polymele. It is also possible that Hermes was a collection of such stories, with the patronage of Hermes himself as the common thread.[11]
- Playthings (Παίγνια, Paígnia) had two shorter collections. These poems had the structure of epigrams and their themes may have included erotica. The only surviving poem contains two elegiac couplets and has a puzzle or riddle structure characteristic of some ancient Greek drinking-party songs.[11]
- Only one of the Epigrams has been fully reconstructed.[11]
Another possible poem is Telephus, which may have been a companion to Demeter.[11]
At most fifty verses of Philitas survive.[7] Below is an example fragment of two verses, which was quoted in the Collection of Paradoxical Stories, whose putative author Antigonus (often identified with Antigonus of Carystus,[23] a near-contemporary) does not specify which work they came from; indirect evidence suggests Demeter.[24] These two verses show the confluence of Philitas' interests in poetry and obscure words:
Original | Transliterated |
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γηρύσαιτο δὲ νεβρὸς ἀπὸ ζωὴν ὀλέσασα ὀξείης κάκτου τύμμα φυλαξαμένη
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Gērýsaito dè nebròs apò zōḕn olésasa oxeíēs káktou týmma phylaxaménē
|
According to Antigonus, the "cactus" (κάκτος, káktos) was a thorny plant from Sicily, and "When a deer steps on it and is pricked, its bones remain soundless and unusable for flutes. For that reason Philitas spoke of it."[7] Antigonus quotes one more passage, and the 5th century AD anthologist Stobaeus quotes eleven passages from Philitas; the remaining fragments are derived from ancient commentators who quoted Philitas when discussing rare words or names used by other authors.[25]
Influence
Philitas was the most important intellectual figure in the early years of
His reputation for scholarship endured for at least a century. In Athens, the comic playwright Strato made jokes that assumed audiences knew about Philitas' vocabulary, and the vocabulary was criticized more than a century later by the influential Homeric scholar Aristarchus of Samothrace in his Against Philitas (Πρὸς Φιλίταν, Pròs Philítan). The geographer Strabo described him three centuries later as "simultaneously a poet and a critic".[7][29]
Philitas was the first writer whose works represent the combination of qualities now regarded as
Callimachi Manes et Coi sacra Philetae, |
Shade of Callimachus and shrine of Coan Philitas, |
Ovid also linked the two poets, urging women who wished to capture a man to read Callimachus and Philitas, and conversely advising people wishing to fall out of love to avoid these two.[32] The 1st-century AD rhetorician Quintilian ranked Philitas second only to Callimachus among the elegiac poets.[33] Philitas' influence has been found or suspected in a wide range of ancient writing;[21] Longus' 2nd century AD novel Daphnis and Chloe contains a character likely named after him.[34] Almost all that he wrote seems to have disappeared within two centuries, though, so it is unlikely that any writer later than the 2nd century BC read any but a few of his lines.[25]
Bibliography
Ancient sources spell his name in different ways. The correct form Φιλίτας (Philítas) is ancient and was common in Cos but the Doric Greek color Φιλήτας (Philḗtas) is also ancient; the accentuation Φιλητᾶς (Philētâs) did not exist before Imperial times.
Philitas' fragments were edited by Spanoudakis with commentary in English:
- Konstantinos Spanoudakis (2002). Philitas of Cos.
and also by Dettori (for vocabulary) and by Sbardella (for poetry) with commentary in Italian:
- Emanuele Dettori (2000). Filita grammatico: Testimonianze e frammenti: introduzione, edizione e commento (in Italian). Rome: Quasar. ISBN 88-7140-185-9.
- Livio Sbardella (2000). Filita: Testimonianze e frammenti poetici: introduzione, edizione e commento (in Italian). Rome: Quasar. ISBN 88-7140-182-4.
Earlier editions of the fragments include Kayser,[37] Bach,[38] Nowacki,[39] and Kuchenmüller;[40] see also Maass.[41]
Notes
- ^ a b Andrew Stewart (2005). "Posidippus and the truth in sculpture". In Gutzwiller (ed.). The New Posidippus. pp. 183–205.
- ^ a b Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. p. 23.
- ^ a b c d Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. p. 24.
- ^ a b c d Bulloch, "Hellenistic poetry", p. 4.
- ^ Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911.
- ^ S2CID 162304317.
- ^ Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. p. 26.
- ^ OCLC 2759759.
- ^ a b Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. p. 29.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-14216-9.
- S2CID 170699258.
- ^ a b Alexander Sens (2005). "The art of poetry and the poetry of art: the unity and poetics of Posidippus' statue-poems". In Gutzwiller (ed.). The New Posidippus. pp. 206–28. • An earlier version appeared in: Alexander Sens (2002). "The new Posidippus, Asclepiades, and Hecataeus' Philitas-statue" (PDF). The Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-07-09.
- ^ An alternate translation of Posidippus' poem is on p. 31 of Frank Nisetich (2005). "The poems of Posidippus". In Gutzwiller (ed.). The New Posidippus. pp. 17–66.
- ^ Aelian (tr. Thomas Stanley). Various History, 9.14. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
- ^ Athenaeus (tr. C.D. Yonge). The Gastronomers, 9.401e. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
- ^ Paul Vincent Spade (2009). "Insolubles". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
- OCLC 1201330.
- ^ Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. pp. 215–7.
- ^ Athenaeus (tr. C.D. Yonge). The Gastronomers, 11.495e. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
- ^ .
- ISBN 90-429-1403-3.
- ISBN 978-0-631-23321-3.
- ^ Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. pp. 209–13.
- ^ a b c d e Bulloch, "Hellenistic poetry", p. 5.
- ^ Bulloch, "Hellenistic poetry", p. 4. "The most important intellectual figure in the early years of the new Hellenistic world was Philetas from the east Greek island of Cos."
- S2CID 163687758.
- ^ Alex Hardie (1997). "Philitas and the plane tree" (PDF). Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 119: 21–36.
- ^ Strabo. Geography, 14.2.19 (in Greek). A. Meineke (ed.). Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Retrieved 2010-02-23.
- ^ Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. pp. 85–346.
- .
- ^ Ovid, Ars Amatoria 3.329–330 and Remedia Amoris 759-760; see Damer, E. Z. (2014). "Gender Reversals and Intertextuality in Tibullus". Classical World, 493–514; page 500.
- ^ Quintilian (tr. John Selby Watson). Institutes of Oratory, 10.1.58 Archived 2008-08-06 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 2009-08-26.
- ISBN 90-04-09630-2.
- ^ Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. pp. 19–22.
- ^ Alexander Sens (2003). "Review of K. Spanoudakis (ed.), Philitas of Cos". Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2003.02.38). • Konstantinos Spanoudakis (2003). "Author's response". Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2003.03.32).
- OCLC 79432710.
- OCLC 165342613.
- OCLC 68721017.
- OCLC 65409641.
- OCLC 9861455.
References
- A. W. Bulloch (1985). "Hellenistic poetry". In ISBN 0-521-35984-8.
- Kathryn Gutzwiller, ed. (2005). The New Posidippus: A Hellenistic Poetry Book. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926781-2.
- Spanoudakis. Philitas of Cos. (See Bibliography.)
Attribution
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Philetas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 375–376. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. XVIII (9th ed.). 1885. p. 742. .