The Epigrams of Philodemos: Introduction, Text, and Commentary

by Philodemus, David Sider

This edition collects all the epigrams attributed to Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemos of Gadara (ca. 110-40 BC). In editing these epigrams, Sider has reexamined several manuscripts of the Greek Anthology. Thirty-eight epigrams (three 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 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 clashed with the Epicurean stance against the writing of poetry.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Leonardo Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very erudite edition of Philodemus of Gadara's epigrams, with fundamental solutions to problems that have become traditional in these texts. It has been much criticized for trying to see a biographical and Epicurean background in these poems, a criticism I generally agree with, but I must say that these conjectures are well identified in the author's analyses, not mixing with the fundamental data about the poetry that was transmitted to us. In the end, I think the real problem with these conjectures is that, even if they were true, they prove to be of little relevance to the texts at hand: while interesting to some extent, it doesn't seem necessary to take Epicurean ethics into account, much less as if it were part of an active intertextuality, to understand the struggle between the lover and Eros' attacks on his mental faculties, since this imagery has much more pertinent representations in the poetic tradition itself, in which Philodemus is situated in a much more significant and original way. In any case, this work cites primary references broad enough to serve as a reference also to the poetic tradition and, with its insights, should remain relevant for these texts for a long time to come.