Past and Present in Hellenistic Poetry

Edited by M.A. Harder Edited by R.F. Regtuit Edited by G.C. Wakker

Book cover: Past and Present in Hellenistic Poetry

Extent: 293 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Classical Studies, Literary Studies

Series: Hellenistica Groningana

Series volume number: 21

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(March 2017)

ISBN: 9789042933217

Price: $95.00

In stock

The papers in this volume show how the past ‘is present’ in a variety of forms and contexts in the work of the Hellenistic poets and how these poets cannot escape dealing with it in depth, often in a creative and intriguing manner, which may help to give further meaning to the present as well. Some papers discuss the subject of past and present from a general point of view, others deal with issues of literary tradition and intertextuality or discuss the connections between past and present as they are used and established on an ideological level. The papers show that the past, though almost ‘omnipresent’, is never used in a purely antiquarian way. The Hellenistic poets clearly manage to link it to the present in a meaningful way and are able to use it to establish their own position in the literary tradition as well as in issues of ideological importance.


The papers in this volume show how the past ‘is present’ in a variety of forms and contexts in the work of the Hellenistic poets and how these poets cannot escape dealing with it in depth, often in a creative and intriguing manner, which may help to give further meaning to the present as well. Some papers discuss the subject of past and present from a general point of view, others deal with issues of literary tradition and intertextuality or discuss the connections between past and present as they are used and established on an ideological level. The papers show that the past, though almost ‘omnipresent’, is never used in a purely antiquarian way. The Hellenistic poets clearly manage to link it to the present in a meaningful way and are able to use it to establish their own position in the literary tradition as well as in issues of ideological importance.

  • Edited by M.A. Harder
  • Edited by R.F. Regtuit
  • Edited by G.C. Wakker