Author: CALLIMACHUS
Biography:
CALLIMACHUS (fl 285-245 BCE: ODC)
In a preface to W. H. Tytler’s (q.v.) verse translation of the works of Callimachus, the Earl of Buchan expresses sympathy for the “unfortunate Author,” approves his translation, and declares it superior to the 1755 version of William Dodd (q.v.). The reviewers concurred and published ample extracts. Tytler’s work, which secured a quite substantial list of subscribers, is a scholarly dual-language text with extensive footnotes, covering the known works of the Greek poet, namely his six hymns and about sixty epigrams in Greek, and the ”Lock of Berenice” from a Latin translation by Catullus, q.v. (In the late nineteenth century the discovery of many more fragmentary copies of his works revealed other significant compositions, including a short epic, a long elegiac poem, and various shorter ones.) Callimachus also wrote learned works in prose. He was born in the Greek colony of Cyrene (in present-day Libya) about 310 BCE and spent his life in Alexandria, Egypt, during the reigns of Ptolemy II and III. He was attached both to the court and to the Alexandrian Library, where he may have been one of the keepers. The latest historical event alluded to in his work happened in 245 BCE, and the presumption is that he died or retired shortly after then. (OCD 26 Feb. 2025; Harvey; MR 11 [1793], 138-44) HJ