Internationale Tagung:
Quintus Smyrnaeus - ein kaiserzeitlicher Sophist im homerischen Gewand

Quintus of Smyrna's Greek epic the Posthomerica, now datable in the late 3rd century A.D., was designed to replace that part of the early Epic Cycle which told the story of the Trojan War from the point at which the Iliad ends. The question whether he made creative use of Latin poetry, especially whether he was indebted to Virgil's Aeneid, has been debated ever since the rediscovery of his work, more intensively during the past century. Three main factors have contributed to disagreement. First, relative chronology was uncertain as long as his own date remained unknown. Secondly, the rarity of influence from Latin poetry to Greek made this hypothesis for Quintus an exception that some scholars were reluctant to accept. Thirdly, the success with which he imitated the language and style of the Homeric epics encouraged the opinion that he lacked sufficient originality to do more than simply reproduce material from his sources!
The lecture will first outline the history of this debate with special attention to the contributions of Frederick Paley, Richard Heinze, Rudolph Keydell and Francis Vian. Then it will review the most crucially relevant passages in the following books of the Posthomerica: book 12 the wooden horse, book 13 the sack of Troy, book 14 (466-496) Aeolus and the winds, book 11 (358-473) Aeneas versus the testudo, book 4 (423-429) the poppy simile, book 12 (503-520) the list of portents. Finally, the lecture will consider the relevance of Lessing's Laokoon, which compares Quintus' version of the Laocoon episode with Virgil's (chapter 5) as well as two other episodes with their counterparts in the Iliad (chapters 12 and 23). This will be used to demonstrate Quintus' originality.

Dass Quintus Smyrnaeus sich in seiner Darstellung göttlicher Gestalten deutlich von Homer unterscheidet, ist offensichtlich. Gleichzeitig ist eine deutliche Zunahme von allegorischen Gestalten und Personifikationen zu vermerken. Ziel des Vortrags ist es, Rolle, Funktion und Eigenart dieser Figuren in den Posthomerica zu untersuchen, wobei die auffällig häufigen Auftritte von Gestalten des Schicksals und Tods im Mittelpunkt stehen werden. Insbesondere eingegangen wird auf die eigenwillige Ausgestaltung der Keren. Am Ende wird auch die Frage nach der Selbstverantwortung des Menschen und dem Weltbild bei Quintus Smyrnaeus zu stellen sein.

The last book of Quintus' Posthomerica covers Helen's return to Menelaus, the sacrifice of Polyxena, and the divinely caused storm in the homeward journey of the Greeks. In this paper I shall focus on the last of these three episodes to offer a close reading of the destructive storm, drawing attention to Quintus' adoption and adaptation of the earlier literary tradition in terms of plot, style and narrative techniques. I shall argue that the end of the Posthomerica - especially Quintus' presentation of divine interaction between Zeus, Athena and Aeolus, the description of the tempest and the death of Ajax - is pointedly set within a larger framework of cosmic order and disorder, and I shall further explore the dynamics therein. Given this context of struggles of gods, men and natural elements in a section that is generally taken as a bridge concluding the Trojan War and paving the way to Odysseus' adventures, I shall finally address the question of closure for the Posthomerica.

Cette contribution est une analyse du livre II des Posthomerica de Quintus de Smyrne par le prisme de la lumière et de l'obscurité, un binôme central pour la structure du livre, dont le protagoniste est Memnon, le pendant masculin de Penthésilée, l'héroïne du livre I. La geste du fils de l'Aurore est un des plus réussis épisodes qui montre que la grandeur du poète de Smyrne est surtout à chercher au niveau des chants individuels. C'est aussi l'occasion pour une discussion sur la relation entre Virgile et Homère chez Quintus à propos du passage II 471-476.

I propose to re-examine the central image on the shield of Achilles - the Mountain of Arete, with special emphasis on Posthomeric interpretation of Homer. While Vian (1966) and James & Lee (2000), together with Byre (1982) in particular, have devoted a considerable amount of attention to this scene, such attention has been focused too exclusively on Quellenforschung, in my opinion. Chiefly, I shall discuss the image's function, that is, the implications of it for the rest of the text (something only hinted at by Vian (1966) and James & Lee (2000)). The image, and in particular, the exposition of it by Achilles (in gnomic speech to his son) at 14.185-222, sets forward an ethic, namely, that "kudos is achievable for the few through ponos." This "ethic" is reflected throughout the text, both in gnomai, and in characterization generally, especially in the way characters die, and the ways in which others react to those deaths. What is new (pace Koechly (1850), who does not build on his passing comments) and vital in my discussion is that Stoic interpretations of Homer in Late Antiquity, and especially of allegory, is the essential literary context in which the image on the shield must be read: I shall briefly highlight such a context. I shall argue that Stoicism has a greater influence in the epic than previously supposed, simply on the basis of this image and correspondences with it in the text. I shall conclude by emphasising the image's centrality both in the shield, and, in meaning, for the whole poem, and therefore of the Stoic nature both of the image on the shield, and of the poem as a whole.

Der Beitrag untersucht Form und narrative Funktion von Ekphraseis in den Posthomerica, wobei die beiden Schildbeschreibungen in 5.6-101 (Schild des Achilles) und 6.198-293 (Schild des Eurypylos) im Mittelpunkt stehen. Beide Ekphraseis stehen nicht nur in einem engen Dialog zueinander, was bereits rein äusserlich durch die gleiche Verszahl angedeutet wird, sondern wollen und müssen intertextuell auf der Folie von Homers Ilias (18.478-613) sowie Ps.-Hesiods Aspis (vv. 139-318) gelesen werden. Gefragt wird nach dem agonalen Charakter von Quintus' Bildbeschreibungen, nach ihrem Verhältnis zur Praxis und Verselbständigung der Ekphrasis in der Zweiten Sophistik, nach den spannungserzeugenden vs retardierenden Funktionen innerhalb der Posthomerica sowie den poetologischen Implikationen.

Quintus Smyrnaeus eröffnet sein Epos nicht, wie dies die Gattungstradition eigentlich vorschreibt, mit einem aus Musenanruf und Themenangabe bestehenden Proömium, sondern er steigt in - mehr oder weniger - direktem Anschluss an die Ilias in die Erzählung der weiteren Ereignisse vor Troja ein. Erst im zwölften Buch der Posthomerica findet sich vor dem Katalog der Helden, welche das hölzerne Pferd besteigen, der erste und einzige Musenanruf des ganzen Werks. Darin sind Elemente homerischer, hesiodeischer und kallimacheischer Prägung verarbeitet. Die daselbst anzutreffende Aussage des epischen 'Ichs', "in Smyrnas Landen" die Musenweihe empfangen zu haben, wird in der Regel biographisch aufgefasst. Ziel des papers ist es, sowohl das Fehlen des Initialproömiums als auch das Binnenproömium mit seinen einzelnen Elementen in einem ganzheitlichen Sinne als gezielte, ämulative Auseinandersetzung des Quintus mit seinen literarischen Vorbildern auf einer poetologischen Ebene zu deuten. Der Vorwurf des Epigonentums, welches sich gemäss älteren Forschungsmeinungen nicht zuletzt aufgrund des fehlenden Initialproömiums zeige, wird dabei zu revidieren, der genannte 'biographische' Passus des Binnenproömiums poetologisch neu zu bewerten sein.

Die Posthomerica, die von der Forschung lange Zeit hindurch stiefmütterlich behandelt und häufig negativ als "Pasticcio" von Stellen und Episoden der älteren Dichtung bewertet worden sind, übernehmen aus der Ilias die Totenklagen. Sie werden in den Posthomerica nach der Tötung von Helden zum festen Bestandteil der Dichtung. In meinem Vortrag werde ich mich auf die Totenklagen dreier Frauen in den Posthomerica beschränken: Briseis klagt um den toten Achilleus (PH 3,551-581), Tekmessa um Aias (PH 5,521-558) und Oinone um Paris (PH 10,411-431). Während im Fall der Klage Oinones Quintus auf Odyssee-Stellen verweist, enthalten die Klagen von Briseis und Tekmessa Züge aus verschiedenen Totenklagen der Ilias. Rechtfertigen diese Ilias- bzw. Odyssee-Reminiszenzen die Ansicht, es handele sich dabei um eine Nachahmung? Weisen diese Allusionen auf aemulatio mit Homer hin? Kann man hier von Originalität unseres Dichters sprechen? Ein tieferes Verständnis wird erst durch Erfassung der inter- und intratextuellen Beziehungen und Erforschung ihrer Funktionen gewonnen. Durch die Text- und Strukturanalyse der drei Reden werde ich in vergleichender Betrachtung aufzuzeigen versuchen, dass diese Reden nach einem eigenständigen Plan verfasst worden sind und eine kompositorische Einheit miteinander bilden.

What was it like to be an epic poet in the third century C.E.? What did Homer's shadow and the long epic tradition mean for Quintus, and how could he come to grips with his subject matter? Unlike most of his Hellenistic predecessors, Quintus chose to treat a decidedly Homeric subject, in a decidedly Homeric manner. One of the main challenges of his project was the constant necessity to place his narrator in this tradition. My paper wants to explore the ways in which Quintus achieved this aim. I want to argue that narrative analepses and prolepses are an important device by which Quintus allows his readers to encompass this tradition at a single glance. In particular, Quintus made his characters anticipate traditional developments of the story line, thus giving them an unusually high degree of literary self-awareness. All these devices, it will be argued, demonstrate that Quintus's continuation and rewriting of Homeric epic is far more sophisticated than is generally assumed.

The aim of this paper will be to explore one aspect of the relationship between two very important elements of Greek literature of the Empire, which are on the one hand the influence of Athens, expressed in different ways but mainly through rhetoric, and on the other a tradition which can be associated with the flourishing practice of epic poetry. A description of epic poetry in the Roman Empire shall be provided in outline, before we recall Panteleus' famous short poem on the battle of Marathon (fr. 23 Heitsch); the latter will show how rhetoric and epic can mix in an Athenian setting. Moving to Quintus, we shall examine the narrative on Aethra's rescue by her grandsons Acamas and Demophon at the fall of Troy (13,496-543). A comparison between Aethra and Hecuba will highlight the role of Athens as opposed to Troy. Finally, the question of Rome's position in such a context will be raised.

Quintus Smyrnaeus nicht als epigonalen oder einfach nur als den "schlechtesten" Dichter zu verstehen heißt, ihn erneut im literarischen Raum des 3. Jh., in der Zweiten Sophistik und im Vorfeld spätantiker Literatur zu entdecken. Für ein modernes, angemessenes Verständnis der Posthomerica ist es dabei hilfreich, Wege und Formen, Umwege und Umformungen literarischen Schaffens in dieser Zeit zu beleuchten: In welchem literarischem Raum bewegt sich Quintus Smyrnaeus? Welche Einblicke in diesen Raum erlaubt sein Werk en detail?
In einem ersten Schritt werde ich Wege und Formen, Umwege und Umformungen der Stoffrezeption aufzuzeigen versuchen (Lebensbereiche wie etwa die Schule oder sogar die Medizin; sodann natürlich die Literatur: Diktys, Dares und deren lateinische Fassungen; spätantike Dichter wie Claudian und Ausonius, Sidonius und Fulgentius und deren jeweilige literarische Voraussetzungen).
In einem zweiten Schritt werden Wege und Formen, Umwege und Umformungen der Motivverwendung bei Quintus Smyrnaeus nachzuzeichnen sein (an drei Beispielen).

In Book 40 of the Dionysiaca, Nonnus brings his detailed and imaginative rescripting of the Trojan War to an end. Given the expansive nature of Nonnus' narrative, one might have expected a detailed imitation of the Posthomeric tradition to have followed on from his replay of the 'death of Hector'. In fact, Nonnus devotes little more than 100 lines to the period from the death of the enemy hero to the end of the war - supplying neither a wooden horse nor a gory description of the sack of the city.
On the face of it, Nonnus' decision to downsize the Posthomeric tradition looks like a conscious and aggressively hostile reply to Quintus. Nonnus seems to return directly to Homer whose narrative had frequently hinted that the death of Hector spelled the end of the Trojan War. Not only has Nonnus all but erased the Posthomerica, but in setting his own narrative at time chronologically anterior to the Trojan War, he has produced a "Prehomerica" - a narrative that anticipates that of Homer, rather than one that follows it.
In fact, the relationship between Nonnus and Quintus is more nuanced than this act of downsizing implies. As will be shown, Posthomeric elements are woven into Nonnus' narrative at a number of different points in the epic (featuring allusions to Penthesilea, the Wooden Horse and the Sack of Troy). In order to shed further light on the relationship between Nonnus and Quintus, this paper will consider the way that the same Homeric scenes are used by the two poets as inspiration for their own, quite different, narrative ends. Specific attention will be paid to the way that the two poets use surrogate versions of Achilles and Hector, in their own attempts to restage Homer.

The son of Achilleus is a far more amiable fellow in Quintus than other mythological accounts would have us believe. In fact, the prevalent tendency in the Posthomerica is for Neoptolemos to be portrayed in a positive light. Quintus manipulates the traditional narrative and the characterization of Neoptolemos, and those involved with him in some way, to achieve this effect. Furthermore, Neoptolemos is not the typical pre-eminent hero we would have expected in Quintus' epic. Though frequently associated with Achilleus (e.g., 'son of ...'), and, it seems, equally adroit in battle, Neoptolemos is more complex than his Posthomerican father; more than a super-charged combatant. The young hero also expresses a number of other qualities (e.g., awareness of others, sensitivity and wisdom), that set him apart from his Posthomerican peers, Homeric heroes, and his own traditional portrayal in ancient epic (Greek and Roman).
Initially, I will consider this tendency (positive portrayal), as it applies to Neoptolemos throughout the Posthomerica in general. Then, I will focus on a specific episode which highlights this point; the killing of Priam. In both instances, I hope to extend the scope of studies by I. Calero Secall, on Quintus' Neoptolemos, and U. Gärtner, on Priam's death.