The Hellenistic Poets as Historians

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which Hellenistic poets handled lived events of the human past, and it argues that they functioned as in some sense what we would recognize as historians. They used four main devices to do so, which are examined in turn: Hellenistic historical epics (a genre whose very existence has been challenged); tragic messenger speeches (‘Ezekiel’; Lykophron’s Alexandra); aitia (Kallimachos); prophecy i.e. pseudo-prophecy or prophecy after the event (Ezekiel again; the Third Sibylline Oracle; Lykophron again. Apollonios usually refuses to make use of prophecy in this way). It is argued that Lykophron, who is here dated to the 190s BCE, shows awareness of the then recent trauma of the Hannibalic War. Finally, the poets are tested against ancient and modern definitions of ‘history’ and ‘historian’.