Poets and places: sites of literary memory in the Hellenistic world

Abstract

This dissertation argues for the existence of a widespread yet underexplored Hellenistic habit of linking the memory of archaic and classical Greek poets to specific places. Through a combination of in-depth case studies and a panoramic overview of Hellenistic sites of literary memory, the dissertation establishes the significance of literary geographies and explores the means through which they were established. The first chapter focuses on the house of Pindar and its alleged treatment on the part of Alexander the Great. The second chapter investigates the memorialisation of Homer in Alexandria, showing that the desire to shape literary geographies fundamentally shapes the identity of the new Egyptian city. The third chapter moves from the centre to the periphery of the Hellenistic world and focuses on the best documented case of a site of memory dedicated to an ancient poet: the Archilocheion on Paros. The fourth and last chapter offers an overview of the evidence for Hellenistic sites dedicated to the memory of archaic and classical poets in the Hellenistic age. By demonstrating that sites of literary of memory are an important Hellenistic aspect of the reception of poetry, this dissertation hopes to open the way to further studies about both the Hellenistic and later literary geographies.