#kallimachos

Hymn to Artemis by Kallimachos

„Already in antiquity, her [Artemis'] simultaneous association with both virginity and childbirth was regarded as striking and in need of an explanation. Callimachus devoted an aition to this very issue in the Aetia, although this section of the poem is unfortunately known to us only in the fragmentary and summarized form of the Diegesis: (Diegesis I 27-36 = FF 79-79a Pfeiffer / Harder = 182 Massimilla). Why do they call…Next he says that women who are having difficulty in giving birth invoke Artemis, although she is a virgin, because she was born …,13 or because Eileithyia allowed her to have this privilege because of an order from Zeus, or because she relieved her own mother from pain when she bore Apollo. 14 This is a case where Callimachus gives competing aetiologies. As Fantuzzi-Hunter remarked: The wording of the summary suggests that the poet himself did not choose between these explanations, each of which is of itself perfectly sensible. This passage has been interpreted as offering a complex ‘three-part’ aetiology covering Artemis’ own birth, prerogatives, and paradigmatic intervention, but it would at least be surprising to find Callimachus concerned to provide a complete and internally consistent account.(Fantuzzi-Hunter 2004: 57) That Callimachus did not commit to a specific explanation might be further evidenced by the fact that all three reasons given in the aition find a parallel in other Callimachean texts: 15 for the idea that Artemis does not cause pain to the mother during childbirth (if the hypothesis on the lacuna is correct), cf. Hymn 3.22-25; 16 the link between Eileithyia and Artemis seems to be suggested by Callim. Ia. F 202.1 Pfeiffer; 17 and the suggestion that Artemis relieved the pain of Leto during Apollo’s birth is compatible with the version of this episode narrated in Callimachus’Hymn 4, where Artemis is born before her brother.”

I know we laugh about the mention in Kallimachos' Hymn to Delos of Iris sleeping beside Hera's throne and never loosening her boots or girdle in case Hera has need to send her somewhere, but honestly it's pretty disturbing (she is literally compared to one of Artemis' dogs!) and it's definitely meant to be a detail that reflects badly on Hera's character in this poem.

"“Thessalian nymphs, race of the river, tell your father (110) to calm his great flood. Entwine yourselves in his beard, praying that the children of Zeus be born in his waters. Phthiotian Peneius, why do you now contend with the winds? O father, you are not mounted on a racehorse. Indeed are your feet always this swift, or (115) are they only nimble in my case and suddenly today you made them fly? But he does not hear. O my burden, where shall I carry you? My unhappy ankles refuse. Pelion, O bridal chamber of Philyra, but you, stay, stay, since in your mountains even wild beasts, lionesses, in labor often (120) drop the raw fruits of their labor.” Then Peneius answered her pouring forth his tears: “Leto, Necessity is a mighty goddess. For it is not I, mistress, who refuse your birth pangs. (I know that others, too, have washed the afterbirth in my waters.) But Hera has (125) threatened me abundantly. Look who keeps watch, seated on the mountaintop, who would easily drag me down from the depths. What shall I do? Or is Peneius being destroyed a pleasant thing for you? Let my day of destiny come; I shall risk it for your sake, even if I shouldwander for eternity, (130) ebbing and thirsty, and alone among the rivers should be called the least honorable. Here I am. What more can I say? Only call upon Eileithyia.” He spoke and halted his great flood. But Ares, having lifted the peaks of Pangaeum from their base, was going (135) to hurl them into his eddies and cover up his streams. On high he crashed and struck his shield with the point of his spear, and made it quiver with a warlike beat. The mountains of Ossa trembled and the plain of Crannon and the windswept heights of the Pindus, and all of Thessaly danced in fear. (140) Such a noise rang from his shield. Just as, when the whole interior of Mt. Etna, smoldering with fire, is shaken because the Giant Briareos under the earth moves onto his other shoulder, the furnaces roar under Hephaestus’ tongs (145) and likewise his implements; the fire-wrought basins and tripods ring out as they fall upon each other. Just as loud as this then was the clash of his well-rounded shield. Peneius did not draw back, but remained steadfast as before, and stopped his rapid eddies, (150) until the daughter of Coeus called to him: “Farewell, save yourself, save yourself. Do not suffer evil for my sake as a recompense for your pity. Your favor will be rewarded.” She spoke and after much effort came to the islands of the sea."

„Twenty five years ago all that was known of Sotades’ notorious poem was a single line. This is a very infamous and highly offensive comment on Ptolemy’s marriage with his sister (fr. 1 Powell = Athen. 14.621a, [Plut.] De lib. ed. 11a; the translation of the following three fragments of Sotades and Callimachus is by Alan Cameron): εἰς οὐχ ὁσίην τρυµαλιὴν τὸ κέντρον ὤθει. partim ὤθει partim ὠθεῖ codd. Athen. ὠθεῖς De lib. ed. It’s an unholy hole he’s shoving his prick in. However, in 1984 Roberto Pretagostini came out with a proposal to see in this line a surprising ending of the poem which would begin with the verse in Sotadean metre that he found anonymously preserved in Hephaestion (fr. 16 Powell = Hephaest., p. 36.12 Consbruch): Ἥρην ποτέ φασιν ∆ία τὸν τερπικέραυνον… They say that once upon a time Zeus who delights in thunder and Hera… This line sounds like extracted from a fine encomium of the Ptolemies. One finds the same comparison of their marriage to the ἱερὸς γάµος of Zeus and Hera in Theocritus’ Encomium of Philadelphus (Id. 17.131–4), and we are told by Plutarch (Quaest. conv. 736f) that such was the beginning of an epithalamium sung by a certain rhapsode at the Ptolemies’ wedding. So, too, Sotades’ poem surely proceeded safely and predictably as a conventional wedding poem, until at the end the reader was unexpectedly attacked with the insult clearly addressed to the king.