Callimăchus
(
Καλλίμαχος).
1.
A Greek artist, who flourished in the second half of the fifth century B.C. He was the
inventor of the Corinthian order of pillar; and the art of boring marble is also attributed
to him, though perhaps he did no more than bring it to perfection. The ancient critics
represent him as unwearied in polishing and perfecting his work; indeed, they allege that his
productions lost something through their excessive refinement and purity. One of his
celebrated works was the golden chandelier in the Erechtheum at Athens.
2.
A Greek scholar and poet, the chief representative of the Alexandrian School. He was the
son of Battus, and thus sprung from the noble family of the Battiadae. He at first gave his
lectures in a suburb of Alexandria; but was afterwards summoned by Ptolemy Philadelphus to
the Museum there, and in about B.C. 260 was made curator of the library. He held this office
till his death, which took place about B.C. 240. He did a great service to literature by
sifting and cataloguing the numerous books collected at Alexandria. The results of his
labours were published in his great work, called
Πίνακες,
or “Tablets.” This contained 120 books, and was a catalogue, arranged in
chronological order, of the works contained in the library, with observations on their
genuineness, an indication of the first and last word in each book, and a note of its bulk.
This work laid the foundation of a critical study of Greek literature. Eight hundred works,
partly in prose and partly in verse, were attributed altogether to Callimachus; but it is to
be observed that he avoided, on principle, the composition of long poems, so as to be able to
give more thought to the artistic elaboration of details. The essence of Callimachus's verse
is art and learning, not poetic genius in the real sense. Indeed, some of his compositions
had a directly learned object—the
Αἴτια, or
“Causes,” for instance. This was a collection of elegiac poems in four
books, treating, with great erudition, of the foundation of cities, the origin of religious
ceremonies, and the like.
Through his writings, as well as through his oral instruction, Callimachus exercised an
immense influence, not only on the course of learning, but on the poetical tendencies of the
Alexandrian School (q.v.). Among his
pupils were the most celebrated savants of the time, Eratosthenes, Aristophanes of Byzantium, Apollonius of Rhodes, and others. Of his writings only a very few have
survived in a complete state. These are: six hymns, five of which are in epic and one in
elegiac form, and sixty-four epigrams. The hymns, both in their language and their matter,
attest the learned taste of their author. His elegy, entitled the
Coma
Berenices, or “Lock of Berenice,” is imitated by Catullus in one
of his remaining pieces. Ovid, in the twentieth of his
Heroides, as well as in
his
Ibis, took poems of Callimachus for his models. Indeed, the Romans
generally set a very high value on his elegies, and liked to imitate them. Of his other works
in prose and poetry—among the latter may be mentioned a very popular epic called
Hecaté—only fragments have survived. A good edition of
the remains is that of Schneider, 2 vols.
(1870-73); and of the Hymns and
Epigrams those of Meineke
(1861) and Wilamowitz
(1882). See Couat,
La Poésie Alexandrine (Paris, 1882).