Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/590

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572
CALLIMACHUS.
CALLIMACHUS.

Theseus hospitably when he went out to fight against the Marathonian bull. This work was likewise paraphrased by Marianus, and we still possess some fragments of the original. The works entitled Γαλάτεια and Γλαῦκος were in all probability likewise epic poems. It appears that there was scarcely any kind of poetry in which Callimachus did not try his strength, for he is said to have written comedies, tragedies, iambic, and choliambic poems. Respecting his poem Ibis see Apollonius Rhodius.

Of his numerous prose works not one is extant entire, though there were among them some of the highest importance. The one of which the loss is most to be lamented was entitled Πίναξ παντοδαπῶν συγγραμμάτων, or πίνακες τῶν ἐν πάσῃ παιδείᾳ διαλαμψάντων καὶ ὧν συνέγραψαν, in 120 books. This work was the first comprehensive history of Greek literature. It contained, systematically arranged, lists of the authors and their works. The various departments of literature appear to have been classified, so that Callimachus spoke of the comic and tragic poets, of the orators, law-givers, philosophers, &c., in separate books, in which the authors were enumerated in their chronological succession. (Athen. ii.p. 70, vi. p.252, xiii. p, 585, xv. p. 669; Diog. Laërt. iv, 23, viii. 86.) It is natural to suppose that this work was the fruit of his studies in the libraries of Alexandria, and that it mainly recorded such authors as were contained in those libraries. His pupil Aristophanes of Byzantium wrote a commentary upon it. (Athen. ix. p. 408, viii. 336; Etym. Mag. s. v. Πίναξ.) Among his other prose works we find mentioned the following:—1. Μουσεῖον, which is usually supposed to have treated of the Museum of Alexandria and the scholars connected with it. 2. Περὶ ἀγωνων. 3. Ἐθνικαὶ ὀνομασίαι. 3. Θαυμάσια or Θαυμάτων τῶν εἰς ἅπασαν τὴν γῆν καὶ τόπους ὄντων συναγωγή, a work similar, though probably much superior, to the one still extant by Antigonus Carystius. 4. Ὑπομνήματα ἱστορικά. 5. Νόμιμα βαρϐαρικά. 6. Κτίσεις νήσων καὶ πόλεων. 7. Ἄργους οἰκισμοί. 8. Περὶ ἀνέμων. 9. Περὶ ὅρνεων. 10. Συναγωγὴ ποταμὼν, or περὶ τῶν ἐν οἰκουμένῃ ποταμῶν, &c., &c. A list of his works is given by Suidas, and a more complete one by Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. iii. p. 815, &c.)

The first edition of the six hymns of Callimachus appeared at Florence in 4to., probably between 1494 and 1500. It was followed by the Aldine, Venice, 1513, 8vo., but a better edition, in which some gaps are filled up and the Greek scholia are added, is that of S. Gelenius, Basel, 1532, 4to., reprinted at Paris, 1549, 4to. A more complete edition than any of the preceding ones is that of H. Stephanus, Paris, 1566, fol. in the collection of "Poetae principes Heroici Carminis." This edition is the basis of the text which from that time has been regarded as the vulgate. A second edition by H. Stephanus (Geneva, 1577, 4to.) is greatly improved: it contains the Greek scholia, a Latin translation, thirty-three epigrams of Callimachus, and a few fragments of his other works. Henceforth scarcely anything was done for the text, until Th. Graevius undertook a new and comprehensive edition, which was completed by his father J. G. Graevius. It appeared at Utrecht, 1697, 2 vols. 8vo. It contains the notes of the previous editors, of R. Bentley, and the famous commentary of Ez. Spanheim. This edition is the basis of the one edited by J. A. Ernesti at Leiden, 1761, 2 vols. 8vo., which contains the whole of the commentary of Graevius' edition, a much improved text, a more complete collection of the fragments, and additional notes by Hemsterhuis and Ruhnken. Among the subsequent editions we need only mention those of Ch. F. Loesner (Leipzig, 1774, 8vo.), H. F. M. Volzer (Leipzig, 1817, 8vo.), and C. F. Blomfield (London, 1815, 8vo.). [L. S.]

CALLI′MACHUS, a physician, who was one of the followers of Herophilus, and who must have lived about the second century B. C., as he is mentioned by Zeuxis. (Galen, Comment. in Hippocr. "Epid. VI." i. 5. vol. xvii. pt. i. p. 827.) He wrote a work in explanation of the obsolete words used by Hippocrates, which is not now extant, but which is quoted by Erotianus. (Gloss. Hippocr. praef.) He may perhaps be the same person who is mentioned by Pliny as having written a work De Coronis. (H. N. xxi. 9.) [W. A. G.]

CALLI′MACHUS (Καλλίμαχος), an artist of uncertain country, who is said to have invented the Corinthian column. (Vitruv. iv. 1. § 10.) As Scopas built a temple of Athene at Tegea with Corinthian columns in B. C. 396, Callimachus must have lived before that time. Pausanias (i. 26. § 7) calls him the inventor of the art of boring marble (τοὺς λίθους πρῶτος ἐτρύπησε), which Thiersch (Epoch. Anm. p. 60) thinks is to be understood of a mere perfection of that art, which could not have been entirely unknown to so late a period. By these inventions as well as by his other productions, Callimachus stood in good reputation with his contemporaries, although he did not belong to the first-rate artists. He was so anxious to give his works the last touch of perfection, by elaborating the details with too much care, that he lost the grand and sublime. Dionysius therefore compares him and Calamis to the orator Lysias (τῆς λεπτότητος ἕνεκα καὶ τῆς χάριτος), whilst he draws a parallel between Polycletus and Phidias and Isocrates, on account of the σεμνὸν καὶ μεγαλότεχνον καὶ ἀξιωματικόν. (Judic. Isocr. c. 3.) Callimachus was never satisfied with himself, and therefore received the epithet κακιζότεχνος. (Paus. i. 26. § 7.) Pliny (H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19) says the same, and gives an exact interpretation of the surname: "Semper calumniator sui nec finem habens diligentiae; ob id κακιζότεχνος appellatus." Vitruvius says, that Callimachus "propter elegantiam et subtilitatem artis marmoreae ab Atheniensibus κατάτεχνος fuerat nominatus." Sillig (Cat. Art. p. 125) conjectures, after some MSS., that κατατηξίτεχνος must be read instead of κακιζότεχνος; but this is quite improbable on account of Pliny's translation, "calumniator sui." Whether the κατάτεχνος of Vitruvius is corrupt or a second surname (as Siebelis supposes, ad Paus. i. 26. § 7), cannot be decided. So much is certain, that Callimachus' style was too artificial. Pliny (l. c.), speaking of a work representing some dancing Lacedaemonian women, says, that his excessive elaboration of the work had destroyed all its beauty. Pausanias (i. 26 § 7) describes a golden lamp, a work of Callimachus dedicated to Athene, which if filled with oil, burnt precisely one whole year without ever going out. It is scarcely probable that the painter Callimachus, mentioned by Pliny (l. c.), should be our statuary, although he is generally identified with him. [W. I.]