ヘシオドス、カリマコスとウェルギリウス : 創作理念の系譜

Abstract

In the introduction to the Theogony, Hesiod speaks of the sweetness of the words of the aoidos, by which the audience, even if grieved, is cheered up. This function of poetry is derived from the universal knowledge of the aoidos, who sings of the origins of the Olympian gods, esp.Zeus, and glorifies their mastery over the Titans and sovereignty in the world, with the concluding remarks on the unions of god and man, by which the royal families are to be begotten (see e.g.the marriage of Zeus and Alcmene, 943f.) . The audience, which would be generally the king, gets comfort from the glorification and assurance of his own divine authority. At the same time, the king is admonished that his rule should be righteous and deserve the claim of the divine honour. Callimachus' poetics is essentially aesthetic. His evaluation of the sweetness of Hesiod's works (epigram XXVII) is based upon the artistic perspective of the Hellenistic poet, who has looked upon originality as the supreme object of his art. To be compared is his epigram XXVIII. Virgil in the Eclogues and the Georgics is a Callimachean poet. In the proem to the third book of the latter work, he declares his intention of writing a Hesiodic poem, where Caesar should be glorified as Zeus in the Theogony. But this project of incorporating Hesiodic poetry conforming to the Callimachean poetics has been abandoned at the composition itself of the work, which has finally appeared as the Homeric Aeneid.