Tim Stover
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644087
- eISBN:
- 9780191741951
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644087.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, European History: BCE to 500CE
This book offers a new reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, a poem which is here dated to Vespasian's regime (70–79 ce). Its primary purpose is to show that Valerius' epic reflects the ...
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This book offers a new reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, a poem which is here dated to Vespasian's regime (70–79 ce). Its primary purpose is to show that Valerius' epic reflects the restorative ideals of Vespasianic Rome, a thesis that sets it apart from the largely ‘pessimistic’ readings of other scholars. An important element of Valerius' poetics of recovery is an engagement with Lucan's iconoclastic Bellum Civile, a poem whose deconstructive tendencies offered Valerius a poetic point of departure for his attempt to renew the epic genre in the context of the political renewal triggered by Vespasian's accession to power. Thus, a secondary purpose of this study is to examine Valerius' response to his most recent epic predecessor, Lucan, a topic that has been woefully understudied. Accordingly, this work interprets Valerius' Argonauticaas a reaction to two primary stimuli, one poetic — Lucan's deconstructive epic of civil war — and one political — Vespasian's restoration of order following the destructive civil war of 68–69. The approach is thus both formalist and historicist: the book seeks not only to elucidate Valerius' dynamic appropriation of Lucan but also to associate the Argonautica's formal gestures with a specific socio-political context.Less
This book offers a new reading of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, a poem which is here dated to Vespasian's regime (70–79 ce). Its primary purpose is to show that Valerius' epic reflects the restorative ideals of Vespasianic Rome, a thesis that sets it apart from the largely ‘pessimistic’ readings of other scholars. An important element of Valerius' poetics of recovery is an engagement with Lucan's iconoclastic Bellum Civile, a poem whose deconstructive tendencies offered Valerius a poetic point of departure for his attempt to renew the epic genre in the context of the political renewal triggered by Vespasian's accession to power. Thus, a secondary purpose of this study is to examine Valerius' response to his most recent epic predecessor, Lucan, a topic that has been woefully understudied. Accordingly, this work interprets Valerius' Argonauticaas a reaction to two primary stimuli, one poetic — Lucan's deconstructive epic of civil war — and one political — Vespasian's restoration of order following the destructive civil war of 68–69. The approach is thus both formalist and historicist: the book seeks not only to elucidate Valerius' dynamic appropriation of Lucan but also to associate the Argonautica's formal gestures with a specific socio-political context.
Micaela Janan
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199556922
- eISBN:
- 9780191721021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556922.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Ovid's epic response to Vergil gives body to what the Aeneid already shadows forth: the intractable paradoxes undermining epic dreams of a harmonious, organically united polity. But the intertextual ...
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Ovid's epic response to Vergil gives body to what the Aeneid already shadows forth: the intractable paradoxes undermining epic dreams of a harmonious, organically united polity. But the intertextual conversation among Latin epics did not stop with the Metamorphoses. This chapter examines briefly how Ovid crucially and fundamentally shaped his epic successors' civic visions, sketching the parameters of generic re‐vision from Lucan to Silius Italicus. The intrafamilial civil war regularly dramatized by Vergil's successors moulds their epic cities around political desperation and gendered conflict. Vergil shaped the beginnings of the urbs aeterna into a providential narrative whose logical telos was Augustan Rome, bequeathing to later epic intense engagement with the nature and limitations of the polity. But Ovid shared that engagement; what the post‐Augustan epicists read in Vergil they read in part through the lens Ovid had provided them. His Thebes particularizes just how the providential city comes to grief.Less
Ovid's epic response to Vergil gives body to what the Aeneid already shadows forth: the intractable paradoxes undermining epic dreams of a harmonious, organically united polity. But the intertextual conversation among Latin epics did not stop with the Metamorphoses. This chapter examines briefly how Ovid crucially and fundamentally shaped his epic successors' civic visions, sketching the parameters of generic re‐vision from Lucan to Silius Italicus. The intrafamilial civil war regularly dramatized by Vergil's successors moulds their epic cities around political desperation and gendered conflict. Vergil shaped the beginnings of the urbs aeterna into a providential narrative whose logical telos was Augustan Rome, bequeathing to later epic intense engagement with the nature and limitations of the polity. But Ovid shared that engagement; what the post‐Augustan epicists read in Vergil they read in part through the lens Ovid had provided them. His Thebes particularizes just how the providential city comes to grief.
G. O. Hutchinson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199279418
- eISBN:
- 9780191707322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279418.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The chapter looks at the relation of Homeric structures to Callimachus' Hecale and Apollonius' Argonautica. It starts from criticism of the time, and from the ideas of Aristotle on Homer and unity. ...
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The chapter looks at the relation of Homeric structures to Callimachus' Hecale and Apollonius' Argonautica. It starts from criticism of the time, and from the ideas of Aristotle on Homer and unity. These ideas present a point of reference for Hellenistic poets; but they also obscure the importance in Homer and these poets of ‘parataxis’, of expressive sequences of parallel items. Apollonius' work, forcefully articulated into books, creates a paratactic combination of one and many, complicated by a single ‘trial’ in Colchis. Book-structure and other structuring highlights multiple perspectives. The Hecale plays with ‘one’, ‘two’, and double perspectives in a single work. The poets diverge from Homer and match Homer's depth; they are both experimental and ethically searching.Less
The chapter looks at the relation of Homeric structures to Callimachus' Hecale and Apollonius' Argonautica. It starts from criticism of the time, and from the ideas of Aristotle on Homer and unity. These ideas present a point of reference for Hellenistic poets; but they also obscure the importance in Homer and these poets of ‘parataxis’, of expressive sequences of parallel items. Apollonius' work, forcefully articulated into books, creates a paratactic combination of one and many, complicated by a single ‘trial’ in Colchis. Book-structure and other structuring highlights multiple perspectives. The Hecale plays with ‘one’, ‘two’, and double perspectives in a single work. The poets diverge from Homer and match Homer's depth; they are both experimental and ethically searching.
Tim Stover
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644087
- eISBN:
- 9780191741951
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644087.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, European History: BCE to 500CE
This introductory chapter explains the need for the present study by contrasting its aims with recent approaches to Valerius' Argonautica. Of particular importance is this book's attempt to ...
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This introductory chapter explains the need for the present study by contrasting its aims with recent approaches to Valerius' Argonautica. Of particular importance is this book's attempt to historicize the poem by arguing that it reflects the restorative ideals of Vespasianic Rome, a moment characterized by political renewal following the civil wars of 68–69. In order to carry out this poetics of renewal, it is argued that Valerius had to confront the iconoclastic rhetoric of his most recent epic predecessor, Lucan. It is suggested that Valerius construes the refoundation of the imperial project and the rehabilitation of the epic genre as mutually reinforcing acts of renewal and rebirth. The remainder of the chapter outlines the most salient features of the chapters that follow.Less
This introductory chapter explains the need for the present study by contrasting its aims with recent approaches to Valerius' Argonautica. Of particular importance is this book's attempt to historicize the poem by arguing that it reflects the restorative ideals of Vespasianic Rome, a moment characterized by political renewal following the civil wars of 68–69. In order to carry out this poetics of renewal, it is argued that Valerius had to confront the iconoclastic rhetoric of his most recent epic predecessor, Lucan. It is suggested that Valerius construes the refoundation of the imperial project and the rehabilitation of the epic genre as mutually reinforcing acts of renewal and rebirth. The remainder of the chapter outlines the most salient features of the chapters that follow.
Tim Stover
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644087
- eISBN:
- 9780191741951
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644087.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter examines the evidence for dating Valerius' Argonautica, one of the most vexed and contested issues in criticism of the poem. Barring the appearance of new evidence, a complete and ...
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This chapter examines the evidence for dating Valerius' Argonautica, one of the most vexed and contested issues in criticism of the poem. Barring the appearance of new evidence, a complete and incontestable solution to this difficult issue will remain elusive. However, since this study regards the epic as a product of Vespasianic Rome a reexamination of the evidence is in order. This is made all the more pressing in light of the positions adopted by several of Valerius' most recent and influential commentators, who suggest that composition of the poem extended well into the reign of Domitian. An analysis of both the external and internal evidence shows that there is no compelling reason to assign to Valerius' poem a period of composition extending beyond the 70s, that is, that the Argonautica was composed almost entirely within the reign of Vespasian.Less
This chapter examines the evidence for dating Valerius' Argonautica, one of the most vexed and contested issues in criticism of the poem. Barring the appearance of new evidence, a complete and incontestable solution to this difficult issue will remain elusive. However, since this study regards the epic as a product of Vespasianic Rome a reexamination of the evidence is in order. This is made all the more pressing in light of the positions adopted by several of Valerius' most recent and influential commentators, who suggest that composition of the poem extended well into the reign of Domitian. An analysis of both the external and internal evidence shows that there is no compelling reason to assign to Valerius' poem a period of composition extending beyond the 70s, that is, that the Argonautica was composed almost entirely within the reign of Vespasian.
William G. Thalmann
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199731572
- eISBN:
- 9780199896752
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731572.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
This book draws on theories of space in cultural geography and anthropology to study the representation of space in Apollonius of Rhodes’ epic poem, the Argonautika. In Apollonius’s narrative, the ...
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This book draws on theories of space in cultural geography and anthropology to study the representation of space in Apollonius of Rhodes’ epic poem, the Argonautika. In Apollonius’s narrative, the voyage of the Argo in quest of the Golden Fleece defines a space with mainland Greece as its center, and Greek culture provides the perspective through which the Argonauts’ experiences are principally portrayed. At the same time, the poem shows clearly the limits of Greek mastery of space. Some areas cannot be incorporated into Greek space, and in some episodes space is marked with signs that preserve narratives in which the perspectives of the non-Greek peoples whom the Argonauts encounter are preserved. Thus the poem both affirms the centrality of Hellenism and questions it at the same time; it implies the traditional Greek division of the world into themselves and “barbarians” and simultaneously destabilizes it through the Argonauts’ experiences of others as an interplay of similarity and difference. Ethnic boundaries and cultural identity are thus shown to be uncertain and open to negotiation. This sense of the blurring of boundaries speaks to the experiences of Greeks in the early Ptolemaic period in Alexandria, where they lived among and ruled Egyptians in a multicultural city at a time when the conquests of Alexander had expanded Greek cultural horizons. The poem uses the Argonautic myth to explore the anxieties about identity and the sense of new possibilities arising from this experience of cultural contact.Less
This book draws on theories of space in cultural geography and anthropology to study the representation of space in Apollonius of Rhodes’ epic poem, the Argonautika. In Apollonius’s narrative, the voyage of the Argo in quest of the Golden Fleece defines a space with mainland Greece as its center, and Greek culture provides the perspective through which the Argonauts’ experiences are principally portrayed. At the same time, the poem shows clearly the limits of Greek mastery of space. Some areas cannot be incorporated into Greek space, and in some episodes space is marked with signs that preserve narratives in which the perspectives of the non-Greek peoples whom the Argonauts encounter are preserved. Thus the poem both affirms the centrality of Hellenism and questions it at the same time; it implies the traditional Greek division of the world into themselves and “barbarians” and simultaneously destabilizes it through the Argonauts’ experiences of others as an interplay of similarity and difference. Ethnic boundaries and cultural identity are thus shown to be uncertain and open to negotiation. This sense of the blurring of boundaries speaks to the experiences of Greeks in the early Ptolemaic period in Alexandria, where they lived among and ruled Egyptians in a multicultural city at a time when the conquests of Alexander had expanded Greek cultural horizons. The poem uses the Argonautic myth to explore the anxieties about identity and the sense of new possibilities arising from this experience of cultural contact.
Gregory Hutchinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199276301
- eISBN:
- 9780191706011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199276301.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter seeks to illuminate Hellenistic poems by pursuing what they did with some aspects of Homer and with some ideas that were connected with Homer in the Hellenistic period. Accordingly, the ...
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This chapter seeks to illuminate Hellenistic poems by pursuing what they did with some aspects of Homer and with some ideas that were connected with Homer in the Hellenistic period. Accordingly, the inquiry will not consider the abundant and important evidence for poems that have been more or less lost; it will concentrate on one surviving epic, the Argonautica, and one partially surviving epic, the Hecale.Less
This chapter seeks to illuminate Hellenistic poems by pursuing what they did with some aspects of Homer and with some ideas that were connected with Homer in the Hellenistic period. Accordingly, the inquiry will not consider the abundant and important evidence for poems that have been more or less lost; it will concentrate on one surviving epic, the Argonautica, and one partially surviving epic, the Hecale.
Tom Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- June 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198848561
- eISBN:
- 9780191883019
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198848561.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica is a voyage across time as well as space. The Argonauts encounter monsters, nymphs, shepherds, and kings who represent earlier stages of the cosmos or human society; ...
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Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica is a voyage across time as well as space. The Argonauts encounter monsters, nymphs, shepherds, and kings who represent earlier stages of the cosmos or human society; they are given glimpses into the future, and themselves effect changes in the world through which they travel. Readers undergo a still more complex form of temporal transport, enabled not just to imagine themselves into the deep past, but to examine the layers of poetic and intellectual history from which Apollonius crafts his poem. Taking its lead from ancient critical preoccupations with poetry’s ethical significance, this book argues that the Argonautica produces an understanding of time and temporal experience which ramifies variously in readers’ lives. When describing the people and creatures who occupied the past, Apollonius extends readers’ capacity for empathetic response to the worlds inhabited by others. In the ecphrasis of Jason’s cloak and the account of Jason’s conversations with Medea, readers are invited to scrutinize the relationship between exempla and temporal change, while climactic episodes such as Jason’s battle with the Earthborn and the taking of the Golden Fleece explore links between perceptions and their temporal situation. Running through the poem, and through the readings that comprise this book, is an attention to the intellectual potential of the ‘untimely’, objects, experience, and language which do not belong straightforwardly to a particular time. Treatment of such phenomena is crucial to the poem’s aspiration to inform and expand readers’ understanding of themselves as subjects in and of history.Less
Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica is a voyage across time as well as space. The Argonauts encounter monsters, nymphs, shepherds, and kings who represent earlier stages of the cosmos or human society; they are given glimpses into the future, and themselves effect changes in the world through which they travel. Readers undergo a still more complex form of temporal transport, enabled not just to imagine themselves into the deep past, but to examine the layers of poetic and intellectual history from which Apollonius crafts his poem. Taking its lead from ancient critical preoccupations with poetry’s ethical significance, this book argues that the Argonautica produces an understanding of time and temporal experience which ramifies variously in readers’ lives. When describing the people and creatures who occupied the past, Apollonius extends readers’ capacity for empathetic response to the worlds inhabited by others. In the ecphrasis of Jason’s cloak and the account of Jason’s conversations with Medea, readers are invited to scrutinize the relationship between exempla and temporal change, while climactic episodes such as Jason’s battle with the Earthborn and the taking of the Golden Fleece explore links between perceptions and their temporal situation. Running through the poem, and through the readings that comprise this book, is an attention to the intellectual potential of the ‘untimely’, objects, experience, and language which do not belong straightforwardly to a particular time. Treatment of such phenomena is crucial to the poem’s aspiration to inform and expand readers’ understanding of themselves as subjects in and of history.
Howard Pollack
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199791590
- eISBN:
- 9780199949625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199791590.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Popular
This chapter discusses Blitzstein’s work from 1929-1931, including his first E. E. Cummings song cycle, is 5; the symbolist opera Parabola and Circula, the ballet Cain; the score to Ralph Steiner’s ...
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This chapter discusses Blitzstein’s work from 1929-1931, including his first E. E. Cummings song cycle, is 5; the symbolist opera Parabola and Circula, the ballet Cain; the score to Ralph Steiner’s abstract film, Surf and Seaweed; the opera The Harpies (after the Argonautica); and the Piano Concerto.Less
This chapter discusses Blitzstein’s work from 1929-1931, including his first E. E. Cummings song cycle, is 5; the symbolist opera Parabola and Circula, the ballet Cain; the score to Ralph Steiner’s abstract film, Surf and Seaweed; the opera The Harpies (after the Argonautica); and the Piano Concerto.
Joanna Paul
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199542925
- eISBN:
- 9780191745881
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542925.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The myth of Jason and the Argonauts, preserved in two extant epics by Apollonius and Valerius Flaccus, has inspired a number of films. This chapter builds on the discussion of Homer by exploring how ...
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The myth of Jason and the Argonauts, preserved in two extant epics by Apollonius and Valerius Flaccus, has inspired a number of films. This chapter builds on the discussion of Homer by exploring how two Jason and the Argonauts films engage with the Argonautica epics, and key themes such as narrative structure (the distinction between epic, romance, tragedy, and adventure) and the depiction of the Olympian gods. These epic narratives, in both literature and film, question and reassess epic conventions in important ways, as the chapter's discussion of Jason's heroism shows.Less
The myth of Jason and the Argonauts, preserved in two extant epics by Apollonius and Valerius Flaccus, has inspired a number of films. This chapter builds on the discussion of Homer by exploring how two Jason and the Argonauts films engage with the Argonautica epics, and key themes such as narrative structure (the distinction between epic, romance, tragedy, and adventure) and the depiction of the Olympian gods. These epic narratives, in both literature and film, question and reassess epic conventions in important ways, as the chapter's discussion of Jason's heroism shows.
J. Mira Seo
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199734283
- eISBN:
- 9780199344963
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199734283.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The introduction defines characterization in Roman poetry as a form of allusion, and establishes its basis in Stoic philosophy, rhetorical practice, and mechanisms of exemplarity. Repetition and ...
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The introduction defines characterization in Roman poetry as a form of allusion, and establishes its basis in Stoic philosophy, rhetorical practice, and mechanisms of exemplarity. Repetition and emulation of models rather than uniqueness and Cartesian interiority better define Roman approaches to literary character. Pervasive referentiality in Roman poetry is explained through an articulation of Ovidian poetics, an “Ovid code”. The introduction also contains a summary of each of the chapters. A case study of Apollonius’ Thetis as a composite of the Iliadic Achilles and the hymnic Demeter illustrates poetic genealogy and allusion through characterization.Less
The introduction defines characterization in Roman poetry as a form of allusion, and establishes its basis in Stoic philosophy, rhetorical practice, and mechanisms of exemplarity. Repetition and emulation of models rather than uniqueness and Cartesian interiority better define Roman approaches to literary character. Pervasive referentiality in Roman poetry is explained through an articulation of Ovidian poetics, an “Ovid code”. The introduction also contains a summary of each of the chapters. A case study of Apollonius’ Thetis as a composite of the Iliadic Achilles and the hymnic Demeter illustrates poetic genealogy and allusion through characterization.
Gianfranco Agosti
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198728788
- eISBN:
- 9780191795510
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198728788.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This paper studies the reception of the Homeric Hymns in some pagan and Christian poets of Late Antiquity. It offers some methodological remarks on ‘quotations’ or ‘allusions’ and re-use of epic ...
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This paper studies the reception of the Homeric Hymns in some pagan and Christian poets of Late Antiquity. It offers some methodological remarks on ‘quotations’ or ‘allusions’ and re-use of epic code; and on the need to distinguish between instances of epic language reused by Late Antique poets and actual quotations or borrowings from the Homeric Hymns. After an overall view on the presence of the Hymns in some major poets of Late Antiquity (especially Nonnus of Panopolis, Proclus, the Orphic Argonautica), I deal with the reception of the Hymns to Hermes, whose presence can be detected in papyri, inscriptions and highbrow poems (either pagans or Christians) from the second century until the fifth century AD. I argue that in Late Antiquity the concept of epic code was extended to the whole Homeric corpus, probably by the influence of school education.Less
This paper studies the reception of the Homeric Hymns in some pagan and Christian poets of Late Antiquity. It offers some methodological remarks on ‘quotations’ or ‘allusions’ and re-use of epic code; and on the need to distinguish between instances of epic language reused by Late Antique poets and actual quotations or borrowings from the Homeric Hymns. After an overall view on the presence of the Hymns in some major poets of Late Antiquity (especially Nonnus of Panopolis, Proclus, the Orphic Argonautica), I deal with the reception of the Hymns to Hermes, whose presence can be detected in papyri, inscriptions and highbrow poems (either pagans or Christians) from the second century until the fifth century AD. I argue that in Late Antiquity the concept of epic code was extended to the whole Homeric corpus, probably by the influence of school education.