 previous article in this issue | next article in this issue  |
|
Document Details : Title: The Lesbou Ktisis Subtitle: The Story of Peisidice Author(s): MOLENKAMP, Marieke Journal: Caeculus Volume: 6 Date: 2005 Pages: 76-87 DOI: 10.2143/CAE.6.0.2004668 Abstract : The name Peisidice did not sound familiar to the Alexandrian public. Achilles, however, was a household name. This combination of something old and famous and something obscure was exactly what the Hellenistic audience loved. Achilles and Peisidice play the leading parts in the surviving 21 lines of a poem called the Λέσβου Κτίσις. These lines contain part of the story of Achilles’ siege of the Lesbian city of Methymna and the assistance he receives from the maiden Peisidice. They are listed as fr.12 of Apollonius Rhodius in Powell’s Collectanea Alexandrina (1925: 7). I shall discuss several problems relating to this fragment. How does the narrative flow in the preserved fragment, which consists of two discontinuous excerpts? (This is less than clear: editors have transposed lines and proposed a lacuna in the first section.) How does the poet characterize Peisidice and Achilles? Which sources did he use? What can the fragment tell us about the poem as a whole? How does it fit into the genre of foundation poetry? Can we confidently attribute the Λέσβου Κτίσις to Apollonius? |
|
