Classics@19: Conversations on Hellenism; Sharing insights on the Poeti Vaganti project

Edited by Francesco Camia and Angela Cinalli

The cultural landscape of the Hellenistic period is many-sided and, in order to obtain a good vision of its shadowed angles, we need to look past the literature flourishing in the court and focus on the arts performed in the city. In the frame of popular literature and entertainment, we acknowledge the poeti vaganti movement, a massive turnout of artists travelling throughout the main cultural centers of the Greek world. These professionals of literature and music—whose careers and stories are mainly documented by epigraphy—used to perform their forte or re-perform renowned masterpieces at the ἀγῶνες or at extra-agonistic occasions and built their careers showing off at the most prestigious displays. The idea of the arts on-the-move that finds ratio in the travel and in the hic et nuncperformance is the very center of a cultural phenomenon that deeply impacted the history, culture, and society of Hellenism.

In this issue of Classic@, we focus on selected themes that revolve around the phenomenon of the itinerant professionals of performing arts and run along it, in a way that shows the osmotic levels set in motion by such research. This issue is the result of a dynamic process: two workshops, as a twofold thematic series, were held at the Department of Classics, “La Sapienza” University, between the Fall and the Spring Term 2020/2021, with MA students in Greek Epigraphy and with doctoral students in History and Philology of the Ancient World. The outcomes of the conversations and brainstorming engaged in during the meetings worked as a starting point for this select group of young scholars to conduct an in-depth analysis on thematic ramifications arising from the topics proposed.

– From the Introduction

Visit the Poeti Vaganti Database.

Contents

Section 1. Friends of the Kings

Francesco Camia and Angela Cinalli, Introduction.

Eleonora Berti, Alessandro Di Marzio, Dorina Lustri, Chiara Martina Papa, Antonio Romano, “Prytanis di Caristo.”

Filomena Angellotti, Riccardo Biagiucci, Jorge Cocquyt, Sophia De Gaetano, Giada Di Giuseppe, Salvatore Luigi Guglielmino, Sara Mancini, Giulia Nafissi, Giulia Nardone, Elisabetta Pinto, Rossano Ricciutelli, Lavinia Tutino, “Kraton di Calcedonia e gli Attalidi.”

Section 2. Authorial poetry on Stone

Francesco Camia and Angela Cinalli, Introduction.

Cecilia Bongarzone, “Luoghi di incontro a Delo: l’importanza delle agorai nel traffico commerciale del II secolo a.C.”

Marta Marucci, “Celebratory epigrams from Hellenistic Delos: a first survey of the epigraphic testimonies.”

Claudia Di Cave, “La presenza giudaica e samaritana a Delo: i documenti e il dibattito storico.”

Lorenzo Cuppi, “I culti di origine egiziana a Delo: Installazione, permanenza durante la dominazione ateniese (166–69 a.C.) e caratteri peculiari.”

Antonella Palombi, “Alcuni aspetti cultuali dell’aretalogia di Sarapide del poeta Maiistas.”

Jacopo Khalil, “The Aretalogy of Sarapis by Maiistas: Some Literary Remarks.”

Simone Fiori, “Gli inni epigrafici delfici e il teatro classico: un’interazione complessa.”

Davide Massimo, “The Hellenistic hymns to Apollo with musical notation from Delphi.”

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