Quintus Smyrnaeus
Quintus Smyrnaeus (or
Quintus of Smyrna) was a
Greek epic poet; his date is controversial, but traditionally placed in the latter part of the
4th century AD, though some suggest an earlier date in the
3rd century AD or even
2nd century AD, arguing that his
Posthomerica shows an influence from the
Second Sophistic. He is sometimes called
Quintus Calaber, because the only known manuscript of his poem was discovered at
Otranto in
Calabria by
Cardinal Bessarion in
1450.
According to his own account (xii. 310), he began composing poetry in his early youth while tending sheep near Smyrna (present-day
Izmir). His epic in fourteen books, known as the
Posthomerica, covers the period between the end of
Homer's
Iliad and the end of the
Trojan War. Its primary importance is as the earliest surviving work to cover this period.
His work is closely modelled on Homer, though Quintus is almost universally considered an inferior poet and a clumsy imitator of the Homeric style. His materials are borrowed from the cyclic poems from which
Virgil (with whose works he was probably acquainted) also drew, in particular the
Aethiopis (
Coming of Memnon) and the
Iliupersis (
Destruction of Troy) of
Arctinus of Miletus and the
Ilias Mikra (
Little Iliad) of
Lesches.
There has been a renewed interest in the poet and his poem in the last several decades, with a new edition of the text with partial commentary and French translation done by
Francis Vian (published by Bude);
Combellack's publication of an English translation (now in print only through
Barnes and Noble);
Alan James and
Kevin Lee's detailed commentary on book 5; and Alan James's well-regarded English translation, with newly edited text and commentary.
The first four books, covering the same ground as the
Coming of Memnon of
Arctinus of Miletus, describe the doughty deeds and deaths of
Penthesileia the
Amazon, of
Memnon, son of the Morning, and of
Achilles; and the funeral games in honour of Achilles.
Books five through twelve, covering the same ground as the
Little Iliad of
Lesches, span from the contest between
Aias and
Odysseus for the arms of Achilles, the death of Aias of suicide after his loss, the exploits of
Neoptolemus,
Eurypylus and
Deiphobus, the deaths of
Paris and
Oenone,, to the building of the
wooden horse.
The remaining books, covering the same ground as Arctinus'
Destruction of Troy, relate the capture of Troy by means of the wooden horse, the sacrifice of
Polyxena at the grave of Achilles, the departure of the Greeks, and their dispersal by the storm.
Editio princeps by
Aldus Manutius (1504)
*
Hermann Kochly (ed. major with elaborate prolegomena, 1850; ed. minor, 1853)
*
Z. Zimmermann (author of other valuable articles on the poet), (1891)
*
Franz Kehmptzow,
De Quinti Smyrnaei fontibus ac mythopoeia (1889)
*
CA Sainte-Beuve,
Etude sur . . . Quinte de Smyrne (1857)
*
FA Paley,
Quintus Smyrnaeus and the "Homer" of the tragic Poets (1879)
*
G. W. Paschal,
A Study of Quintus Smyrnaeus (Chicago, 1904).
*
*
Free ebook of Quintus Smyrnaeus at
Project Gutenberg*
The Fall of Troy at OMACL
