In Chapter One, “Leonidas on Poverty”, Solitario examines the theme of poverty in the epigrams in relation to (a) Cynic writings on the topic and (b) the “poetical” function of the elaborate diction used to articulate this theme. In addition to a summary introduction, the monograph consists of two chapters and two appendices, followed by a bibliography and three indices. While Solitario is correct to stress the need for continued critical study of Leonidas’ poetics, starting with a new edition of and commentary on the epigrams, his own contribution is limited by the questions he asks and the approaches he employs. Despite these advances in criticism, Solitario believes that significant “preoccupations or simple evaluations” remain concerning Leonidas’ Cynical outlook and poetic style, “which have hampered the possibility of capturing the cultural richness contained in his epigrams” (1).
Once characterized as a strict adherent of Cynicism and dismissed for his baroque style, Leonidas has emerged in recent literature as an assured and self-conscious poet, who thoughtfully (and sometimes humorously) engaged with contemporary intellectual and cultural concerns and contributed meaningfully to the aesthetics of Hellenistic poetry.
Michele Solitario’s Leonidas of Tarentum: between Cynical polemic and poetic refinement, a revised and translated version of the author’s tesi di laurea magistrale at La Sapienza – Università di Roma, examines, as his title suggests, the two most well-known aspects of the early Hellenistic epigrammatist’s surviving oeuvre, namely his engagement with Cynic thought and use of elaborate diction in epigrams with humble subject matter.
0 kommentar(er)
