Bionis Smyrnaei Adonidis Epitaphium.
Testo critico e commento

Marco Fantuzzi

ARCA 18. ISBN 978-0-905205-27-4. Cloth, 165 pp. Publ. 1986. 

In this volume (in Italian), Professor Marco Fantuzzi presents a critical text of the Adonidis Epitaphium by the Hellenistic Greek poet Bion of Smyrna, who worked between 130-120 BC and 57-55 BC. The text is accompanied by the first major commentary on this poet. The Adonidis Epitaphium, a lament for the 'dying god' Adonis, exercised literary influence both in its own time and during the Renaissance and later.

In his detailed line-by-line commentary and three Appendixes Marco Fantuzzi examines Bion's language, metrics, literary antecedents (which range from Homer and the lyric poets through tragedy to Callimachus, Apollonius and the epigrammatists), and finally 'generic' aspirations.

MARCO FANTUZZI is currently Professor of Greek Literature at Columbia University, NY, and at the University of Macerata, Italy. Since the publication of his Bionis Smyrnaei Adonidis Epitaphium he has written and co-edited important works on Hellenistic and earlier Greek Literature. Two new books, Achilles in Love (OUP), and a major commentary on Euripides’ Rhesus (CUP), are nearing completion.

Reviews

Eirene 27 (1990) 125-6 (Ursula Treu)

Classical Review 38 (1988) 217-19 (Richard Matthews): "The book is visually attractive, and for those ready for a gruelling read, is doubtless a major contribution to exegetical literature in the field of Minor Bucolic."

Athenaeum 66 (1988) 645-7 (Fabio Gasti)

Journal of Hellenic Studies 108 (1988) (W. Geoffrey Arnott): " ... it is ... very useful to have this new edition with an independent text, informed and informative commentary, and three postludes discussing various aspects of the poem."

Aevum 61 (1987) 252-4 (Giovanni Tarditi)

Les Etudes Classiques 55 (1987) 103 (Corinne Bonnet)

Classical World 82 (1988-1989) 208-9 (D. Thomas Benediktson): "rich in useful information and exemplary in format".