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Dreams of Mount Helicon: Callimachus and Oneiric Inspiration

Hattori, Austin A
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4964-4053
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613732017667735

Abstract Details

2020, MA, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Classics.
I begin this thesis by overviewing the papyri and testimonia for Callimachus’ dream in Aetia. Callimachus relates that in this dream, he was transported to Mount Helicon and encountered the Muses, who granted him a poetic initiation in the manner of Hesiod’s Theogony. The first chapter looks back to the potential sources from which Callimachus drew for his dream, finding that lyric and philosophical sources provide the closest parallels. My research also indicates that there is no unambiguous source preceding Callimachus in which a poet describes, in their own poem, their poetic initiation as having occurred in a dream. The reason for this innovation is found in Callimachus’ desire to be a new Hesiod: the dream allows him access to the Muses on Helicon while grounded in his Alexandrian context. Moreover, the dream allows him to be both a young and old man in his poem, both the old man of in Telchinas and the youth “with his beard just sprouting” in his somnium. In this way he is able to navigate the competing pressures of poetic senescence and juvenescence found in the ancient traditions surrounding Hesiod. The second chapter raises some problems that remain unanswered. Hesiod does not portray his poetic initiation as having occurred in a dream, and it does not appear that Callimachus must utilize an oneiric Dichterweihe since he does not use a dream for his poetic instruction by Apollo in fr. 1. I therefore suggest that Callimachus’ desire to be a Novus Hesiodus does not in itself fully explain his choice of a dream to portray his poetic initiation. To find further insights, I contextualize Aetia within contemporary Alexandrian discourse on dreams. The Ptolemies, including Ptolemy II who reigned for most of Callimachus’ career, spent many resources on temples associated with incubation, and Demotic texts indicate that the Ptolemies asserted access to the gods through dreams. I suggest that Posidippus 36, in which Arsinoe II appears as Isis-Aphrodite to a devotee in a dream, is a parallel to Arsinoe’s appearance as a tenth Muse in Callimachus’ dream. Another motivation for Callimachus’ somnium, therefore, is to pay homage to his Ptolemaic patrons by deifying the queen and including her among those providing him the inspiration for the poem. In my concluding section, I bridge the gap between Callimachus’ desire to be a new Hesiod on one hand, and his motivation to advance Ptolemaic propaganda on the other. I return to the urtext, Hesiod’s Theogony, and outline how the relationships between poets, lords, and gods in Hesiod are closely paralleled and adapted in Callimachus’ poem. Callimachus praises his rulers as part of an exchange in the patron-client relationship, but I emphasize that he does so also because Hesiod himself praises his rulers. Moreover, while his dream deified Arsinoe, Callimachus also positions himself as the semi-divine Hesiodus Redivivus, hearkening back to Hesiod’s aude thespis. His Ptolemaic ideology is not merely Ptolemaic: ultimately, he manipulates the propaganda to bolster his own poetic persona.
Daniel Markovic, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Mirjam Kotwick, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
65 p.
Classical Studies
Callimachus; Aetia; Dream; Hesiod; Poetic inspiration; Ptolemies

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Citations

  • Hattori, A. A. (2020). Dreams of Mount Helicon: Callimachus and Oneiric Inspiration [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613732017667735

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hattori, Austin. Dreams of Mount Helicon: Callimachus and Oneiric Inspiration. 2020. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613732017667735.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hattori, Austin. "Dreams of Mount Helicon: Callimachus and Oneiric Inspiration." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613732017667735

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1613732017667735
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