Hipponax the Poet

Examines the archaic Greek iambist Hipponax as a poet, focusing on what makes his poetry unique in antiquity.

The first book-length literary study of Hipponax for almost half a century. It is written by an international team of scholars, who tackle various topics such as his relationship with social mores, performance practices, earlier and later poetry, and the visual arts.'Hipponax the poet' is an elusive figure. Stories about him abounded already in antiquity, at least in part extrapolated from the stories about himself that abounded in his poems. But what distinguishes him from other Greek lyric poets is the manner in which his corpus suggests a strategy of mischievousness around self-presentation: a deliberate confounding of expectations, the projecting of a pointedly strange and untrustworthy authorial persona. This is the first book-length literary study of Hipponax for almost half a century. It is written by an international team of scholars, who tackle various topics such as his relationship with social mores, performance practices, earlier and later poetry, and the visual arts. Contributors apply a range of perspectives for a richer understanding of Hipponax's poetics and provide close readings of several key texts. The volume is suitable for scholars and students of literature and all the Greek is translated.