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This chapter examines the language of literary criticism. Periergia in particular is a term regularly applied by Greek writers to describe both devotion to wilfully recherché subject matter and the application of an obscure or convoluted style. In both cases it is often associated with the adjective perittos. The key term in Latin usage is curiosus. The chapter examines the application of these terms by censorious critics who would hold writers to a simpler style and to truly useful fields of investigation, but there is also evidence of a contrary aesthetic that positively celebrates extravagant style and obscure or trivial subject matter. This is best seen through examination of the Hellenistic genre of paradoxography.

This chapter discusses the distinctiveness of Herodotus' interest in the wondrous and the peculiarities of the rhetoric he employs in describing wonders, through comparisons with Thucydides and Aristotle. It examines Herodotus' relationship to Hellenistic paradoxography. It also considers evidence that Herodotus influenced both the types of works that came to be included in Hellenistic lists of the Seven Wonders of the World, as well as some of the descriptions of these works. Additionally, it argues that Callimachus and Posidippus sometimes appropriated or rejected Herodotus' rhetoric of wonder to highlight their own aesthetic concerns, such as the relative merits of the small and the large scale, and the appropriate criteria for evaluating the works of humans and gods. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of a possible parallels between Herodotus' attitude towards wonders and wonder as an impulse for Hellenistic scholarly inquiry.

This introductory chapter sketches the historical background against which Hellenistic developments in the natural sciences need to be set. Much of the chapter is devoted to discussing the ambitious intellectual programme sponsored by the Ptolemaic kings in Alexandria, their new royal capital. Several aspects of this programme are highlighted: the collection of books from across the world to stock the famous Library; the persistent concern with cataloguing and classification in Alexandrian scholarship; and the inspiration that the kings and leading intellectuals drew from Aristotle and his followers in the Peripatetic school. Against this backdrop, the chapter turns to consider how the Ptolemaic kings interacted with the animal kingdom, particularly during the third century BC.

This chapter examines the Nile Mosaic at Praeneste, the pièce de résistance at the heart of this study. While the mosaic was laid in Italy during the later second century BC, it is suggested here that it was inspired by an earlier work of art from Ptolemaic Alexandria. Having established this Ptolemaic context, the discussion then turns to the representations of animals accompanied by Greek identifying labels depicted in the upper part of the composition. New suggestions are advanced concerning where and when these animal representations were first formulated, and how they contributed to the message of the composition as a whole. The chapter finishes with a consideration of the semi-precious gemstones depicted in the mosaic. Like the labelled animals, these gems helped to deliver a bold message concerning Ptolemaic authority in north-east Africa.

This chapter concentrates on the so-called Artemidoros Papyrus, a papyrus roll covered in texts and images that was published only in 2008. While discussions of the papyrus have been dominated by a fierce debate concerning its authenticity, this chapter adopts a different approach. Starting from the assumption that the papyrus is ancient, much of the chapter is devoted to discussing the labelled animal drawings on the verso (reverse side) of the roll. It is argued that these drawings provide important new insights into the world of Hellenistic natural science, but that the papyrus itself probably originated in a comparatively modest social milieu. The connections between the animal drawings and the other contents of the papyrus are also examined, with significant results.