Deixis and Frames of Reference in Hellenistic Dedicatory Epigrams

Flavia Licciardello

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9783110681598
• eBook ISBN: 9783110681857
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: Literature

The book presents an analysis of communicative structures and deictic elements in Hellenistic dedicatory epigrams. Moving from the most recent linguistic theories on pragmatics and considering together both Stein- and Buchepigramme, this study investigates the linguistic means that are employed in texts transmitted on different media (the stone and the book) to point to and describe their spatial and temporal context. The research is based on the collection of a new corpus of Hellenistic book and inscribed dedicatory epigrams, which were compared to pre-Hellenistic dedicatory epigrams in order to highlight the crucial changes that characterise the development of the epigrammatic genre in the Hellenistic era. By demonstrating that the evolution of the epigrammatic genre moved on the same track for book and stone epigrams, this work offers an important contribution to the ongoing debate on the history of the epigrammatic genre and aims to stimulate further reflection on a poetic genre, which, since its origins in the Greek world, has been successful both in ancient and modern literary traditions.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Communication in Pre-Hellenistic Dedicatory Epigrams
• 3 Dialogic Epigrams in the Hellenistic Age
• 4 Speaking Objects in the Hellenistic Age
• 5 New Frames of Reference
• 6 Conclusion
• Contents of the Appendix
• Appendix: Hellenistic Dedicatory Epigrams
• Figures
• List of Incipits
• List of Epigrams and Comparatio Numerorum
• Index Rerum et Nominum
• Index Locorum