Maria Kanellou studied at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and at UCL. She is currently Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Greek and Latin Literature of the Academy of Athens, and she has previously worked at UCL, KCL, the University of Kent, and OUC. She has co-organized three international conferences on Greek epigram and on Theocritus, and she has co-edited two collective volumes: one on Greek epigram published by OUP, and one on Palladas and the Yale Papyrus Codex (P. CtYBR inv. 4000) published by Brill. Another volume on Theocritus is forthcoming in the series Hellenistica Groningana.

• Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Why Write a Book on the Diachronic Study of Erotic Epigram? 2. The Contents of the Book 1: The Lamp as a Vehicle for Exploring the Lover's Emotions 1. First Appearances of the Lamp Motif in Asclepiades 2. The Development of the Motif in the Meleagrian Epigrams 3. Outside the Melegrian Garland: Philodemus and Statyllius Flaccus 4. Marcus Argentarius and the Lamp's Prophetic Abilities 5. The Survival of the Lamp in the Cycle of Agathias 6. Conclusions 2: Unboxing Sea and Nautical Metaphors 1.1 The ShipDLProstitute Epigrams and Their Intertextual Background 1.2 Alcaeus and the ShipDLProstitute 1.3 Theognis and Aristophanes: Ship Imagery and the Ambiguities of Control 2.1 The ShipDLProstitute in Epigram: Hetaerae Described as Ships 2.2 Ships Described in Language Applicable to Hetaerae 3.1 Hellenistic Epigram and the Sea of Love 3.2 The Heterosexual Epigrams 3.3 The Homoerotic Epigrams 4.1 The Survival of Sea and Nautical Metaphors after Meleager's Garland 4.2 Sea Metaphors in Their Sexual Form: The Case Study of Automedon AP 11.29 4.3 Further Examples of Sexual Sea Metaphors: The Anonymous AP 11.220 and Rufinus AP 5.35 4.4 The Sea of Love in Macedonius Consul AP 5.235 5. Conclusions 3: Comparing the Beloved with the Supreme Goddess of Beauty 1. The Beloved's Praise in the Poetic Tradition: The Limitations of Hyperbole 2. Implied Comparison with Aphrodite: Nossis' Dedicatory Epigrams 3. Hellenistic Queens and Aphrodite: Three Posidippean Epigrams and Asclepiades or Posidippus APl (A) 68 4. Asclepiades or Posidippus AP 5.194: Indirect Links Between a Non-Royal Woman and Aphrodite 5.1 Antipater of Sidon: Staying within Limits (AP 9.567 and 7.14) 5.2 Antipater of Sidon: Stretching the Boundaries (AP 7.218) 6. The 'Apotheosis' of the Motif in the Meleagrian Epigrams 7. Comparing the Male Beloved with Eros 8.1 The Motif after Meleager: Marcus Argentarius and Rufinus 8.2 The Motif in the Cycle of Agathias 9. Conclusions 4: Eros and the Erotes: The Tormentors of Humans 1.1 Eros' Disguises: Recollections of Lyric Poetry 1.2 Eros the Crawling Creature 2. Amalgamation of Different Portrayals of Eros in the Same Epigram 3.1 From the Single Eros to the Erotes: The Motif's Literary Roots 3.2 Multiple Erotes for Multiple Effects 4. Conclusions Epilogue Bibliography General Index Index Locorum

This book presents a useful panorama of ancient literary sources, and its readings of Greek erotic epigrams offer context which is essential in order to fully understand their literary depths and subtle meanings.