Peter Bing | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (original) (raw)
Papers by Peter Bing
Aevum Antiquum N.S. 22 (2022), pp. 13-41
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, XX, 1–11, 2024
The Ptolemies fostered a literature of exquisite polish and slender proportions, most strikingly ... more The Ptolemies fostered a literature of exquisite polish and slender proportions, most strikingly embodied in Callimachus, whose aesthetic principles became synonymous with Alexandrian artistry. At the same time, however, they had a penchant for ostentatious display and gigantism, as evidenced, for example, in Ptolemy Philadelphus' 'Grand Procession'. While these two impulses might appear to be at odds, we argue that Ptolemaic patronage embraced a 'situational aesthetic', accommodating both the grandiose and the diminutive: these rulers understood that different situations (and their respective audiences) call for different aesthetic approaches.
Aevum Antiquum N.S. 22 (2022), pp. 13-41, 2022
"Embedded Epigrams in Callimachus". During its history, epigram spread beyond its original conte... more "Embedded Epigrams in Callimachus".
During its history, epigram spread beyond its original context on monuments in a physical landscape to the bookish territory of the scroll. The Hellenistic poet Callimachus played with the aesthetic possibilities of that shift. On the one hand, writing epigrams for literary collections, he exploited the absence of material context to let readers supplement imaginatively what was no longer physically present («Ergänzungsspiel»). Elsewhere, however, he experimented with embedding verse-inscriptions into longer poems, recontextualizing them through narrative, which could employ them to new ends and shape readers’ understanding, just as their physical circumstances had. Yet examples in Callimachus such as the Sepulcrum Simonidis and Thales’ epigram on the cup of Bathycles in Iambus 1 suggest that a verse-inscription can stay true to its monument or artifact even when embedded in someone else’s story: it remains the product of a (notionally or actually) different author, able to ‘express itself ’ with a voice unlike that of its surrounding narrative, indeed it may even be at odds with, and push back against, the context into which it has been embedded.
Un effet de bizarrerie' ('an effect of strangeness'). That is the sensation, according to Genette... more Un effet de bizarrerie' ('an effect of strangeness'). That is the sensation, according to Genette, produced by metalepsis,1 a transgression across the fixed narrative boundary constituting the 'shifting but sacred frontier between two worlds, the world in which one tells, the world of which one tells' (Genette 1972 = 1980: 236).2 Genette illustrates the metaleptic 'effect of strangeness' through various examples, among them Cortázar's story 'Continuity of Parks'. Here, seated in an armchair covered with green velvet, his back to the door, 'which would otherwise have bothered him as an irritating possibility for intrusions' , a man spends a pleasant evening engrossed in a novel about an unfaithful wife and her lover, who conspire to kill her husband; the lover sets out on his deadly mission, penetrating the house, advancing stealthily from room to room, until finally emerging, knife in hand, behind his target as he sits in an armchair covered in green velvet, reading a novel. .. The story breaks off provocatively at this very moment of metaleptic transgression-or rather, at precisely the moment when the reader feels that 'effect of strangeness' as the boundary dissolves between the different narrative planes. A character's bold intrusion across narrative levels, while certainly more typical in works of the modern era, may occur in ancient literature as well. To cite just one prominent example, Stesichorus' Palinode offers a case that 1 See Genette (1972: 244 = 1980: 234-5) for the definition of metalepsis and this description of its effect. For further discussion, see especially Matzner in this volume, pp. 3-6. 2 Thus the translation of Genette (1972: 245), 'frontière mouvante mais sacrée entre deux mondes: celui où l'on raconte, celui que l'on raconte' .
in Maria Kanellou, Ivana Petrovic and Chris Carey (edd.), Greek Epigram from the Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine Era. Oxford University Press , 2019
Hellenistica Groningana 24 ( Leuven) 27-49 , 2019
Most classicists lead fulfilling scholarly lives without giving much thought to Aristaenetus; ind... more Most classicists lead fulfilling scholarly lives without giving much thought to Aristaenetus; indeed, many may never even have heard of him. Yet this late-antique epistolographer holds a special place in Callimachean studies. As Annette Harder put it almost 25 years ago in an essay for the Festschrift of the Byzantinist, Willem J. Aerts, "Thanks to Aristaenetus … [this is also the title of her paper] two aitia from the third book of Callimachus' Aetia are better known to us than they would have been" (1993: 3). These two aitia-one, among the most celebrated and influential in Callimachus' oeuvre, 1 the tale of Acontius and Cydippe (frs. 67-75e); the other, its romantic doublet, the story of Phrygius and Pieria (frs. 80-83b)-served respectively as the primary models for two of Aristaenetus' erotic epistles (1.10 and 1.15). As Harder points out, Aristaenetus was "following Callimachus very closely" (1993: 3), even as she appreciates that "there are also important differences" (1993: 3). By consequence, according to her, "we are fully justified in using Aristaenetus in an attempt to increase our knowledge of Callimachus' Aetia," yet "we also have to be very careful" (1993: 3-4)-premises that her sensitive and meticulous analysis admirably fulfills. "Using Aristaenetus" to illuminate Callimachus-as if Callimachus were the one who had read Aristaenetus and reflected his influence rather than the other way around-is a peculiar, if hardly surprising, aspect of the symbiotic relationship these two authors enjoy in Callimachean scholarship: students of Hellenistic poetry mostly view the prose epistolographer, who wrote some 700 years later, as a source for reconstructing Callimachus, rather than Callimachus as a source for better understanding Aristaenetus. The latter forms part of the poet's apparatus, as it were; literally so in the editions of Pfeiffer (1949) and Massimilla (2010). Harder goes a step further, lifting those parts of Aristaenetus' letters that 1. All fragments of the Aetia are listed according to their numbers in Harder's edition (2012) unless otherwise mentioned.
Engaging Classical Texts in the Contemporary World, from Narratology to Reception. L. Pratt and C. M. Sampson (eds), 2018
Traditions épiques et poésie épigrammatique, Y. Durbeck & F. Trajber (edd.), 2017
Classical Quarterly, 2016
For a Classical scholar, Mark Auslander's paper "Going by the Trees" inspires strange emotions: O... more For a Classical scholar, Mark Auslander's paper "Going by the Trees" inspires strange emotions: On first reading I was filled with wonder and barely suppressed envy at the very different circumstances under which a contemporary anthropologist operates-above all, at his access to living, breathing human beings from all strata of society. The thought of being on a first name basis with your informant, of going on a hike with him, helping him clear foliage from family graves, is positively mind-boggling. Anyone wishing to look into ancient tree-lore, by contrast, finds himself stuck at the far end of a temporal chasm spanning thousands of years, trying to piece together fragments of speech that happen for whatever reason to have made it across the divide, endeavoring to tease nuance out of languages no one can speak, and constrained to do so through the medium of books, the end-product of that very process (that dubious process) which formed the starting point for many of the reflections at the heart of this paper, the pulping of trees. For classicists, all hikes we can take with our subjects, any foliage we can clear from their graves, are mere metaphors. Our choice of informants, moreover, is severely limited: The voices that reach us across the divide are overwhelmingly male, educated, upper class-if we hope to recoup even the dim echo of other voices we must read against the grain. Still, the very distance and otherness of ancient Greece and Rome can open a space for productive questions. As often, the meaning may lie in the difference. However, since I am responding to a living, breathing scholar, I will at least adopt the anthropologist's prerogative and refer to our author by his first name.
Aevum Antiquum N.S. 22 (2022), pp. 13-41
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, XX, 1–11, 2024
The Ptolemies fostered a literature of exquisite polish and slender proportions, most strikingly ... more The Ptolemies fostered a literature of exquisite polish and slender proportions, most strikingly embodied in Callimachus, whose aesthetic principles became synonymous with Alexandrian artistry. At the same time, however, they had a penchant for ostentatious display and gigantism, as evidenced, for example, in Ptolemy Philadelphus' 'Grand Procession'. While these two impulses might appear to be at odds, we argue that Ptolemaic patronage embraced a 'situational aesthetic', accommodating both the grandiose and the diminutive: these rulers understood that different situations (and their respective audiences) call for different aesthetic approaches.
Aevum Antiquum N.S. 22 (2022), pp. 13-41, 2022
"Embedded Epigrams in Callimachus". During its history, epigram spread beyond its original conte... more "Embedded Epigrams in Callimachus".
During its history, epigram spread beyond its original context on monuments in a physical landscape to the bookish territory of the scroll. The Hellenistic poet Callimachus played with the aesthetic possibilities of that shift. On the one hand, writing epigrams for literary collections, he exploited the absence of material context to let readers supplement imaginatively what was no longer physically present («Ergänzungsspiel»). Elsewhere, however, he experimented with embedding verse-inscriptions into longer poems, recontextualizing them through narrative, which could employ them to new ends and shape readers’ understanding, just as their physical circumstances had. Yet examples in Callimachus such as the Sepulcrum Simonidis and Thales’ epigram on the cup of Bathycles in Iambus 1 suggest that a verse-inscription can stay true to its monument or artifact even when embedded in someone else’s story: it remains the product of a (notionally or actually) different author, able to ‘express itself ’ with a voice unlike that of its surrounding narrative, indeed it may even be at odds with, and push back against, the context into which it has been embedded.
Un effet de bizarrerie' ('an effect of strangeness'). That is the sensation, according to Genette... more Un effet de bizarrerie' ('an effect of strangeness'). That is the sensation, according to Genette, produced by metalepsis,1 a transgression across the fixed narrative boundary constituting the 'shifting but sacred frontier between two worlds, the world in which one tells, the world of which one tells' (Genette 1972 = 1980: 236).2 Genette illustrates the metaleptic 'effect of strangeness' through various examples, among them Cortázar's story 'Continuity of Parks'. Here, seated in an armchair covered with green velvet, his back to the door, 'which would otherwise have bothered him as an irritating possibility for intrusions' , a man spends a pleasant evening engrossed in a novel about an unfaithful wife and her lover, who conspire to kill her husband; the lover sets out on his deadly mission, penetrating the house, advancing stealthily from room to room, until finally emerging, knife in hand, behind his target as he sits in an armchair covered in green velvet, reading a novel. .. The story breaks off provocatively at this very moment of metaleptic transgression-or rather, at precisely the moment when the reader feels that 'effect of strangeness' as the boundary dissolves between the different narrative planes. A character's bold intrusion across narrative levels, while certainly more typical in works of the modern era, may occur in ancient literature as well. To cite just one prominent example, Stesichorus' Palinode offers a case that 1 See Genette (1972: 244 = 1980: 234-5) for the definition of metalepsis and this description of its effect. For further discussion, see especially Matzner in this volume, pp. 3-6. 2 Thus the translation of Genette (1972: 245), 'frontière mouvante mais sacrée entre deux mondes: celui où l'on raconte, celui que l'on raconte' .
in Maria Kanellou, Ivana Petrovic and Chris Carey (edd.), Greek Epigram from the Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine Era. Oxford University Press , 2019
Hellenistica Groningana 24 ( Leuven) 27-49 , 2019
Most classicists lead fulfilling scholarly lives without giving much thought to Aristaenetus; ind... more Most classicists lead fulfilling scholarly lives without giving much thought to Aristaenetus; indeed, many may never even have heard of him. Yet this late-antique epistolographer holds a special place in Callimachean studies. As Annette Harder put it almost 25 years ago in an essay for the Festschrift of the Byzantinist, Willem J. Aerts, "Thanks to Aristaenetus … [this is also the title of her paper] two aitia from the third book of Callimachus' Aetia are better known to us than they would have been" (1993: 3). These two aitia-one, among the most celebrated and influential in Callimachus' oeuvre, 1 the tale of Acontius and Cydippe (frs. 67-75e); the other, its romantic doublet, the story of Phrygius and Pieria (frs. 80-83b)-served respectively as the primary models for two of Aristaenetus' erotic epistles (1.10 and 1.15). As Harder points out, Aristaenetus was "following Callimachus very closely" (1993: 3), even as she appreciates that "there are also important differences" (1993: 3). By consequence, according to her, "we are fully justified in using Aristaenetus in an attempt to increase our knowledge of Callimachus' Aetia," yet "we also have to be very careful" (1993: 3-4)-premises that her sensitive and meticulous analysis admirably fulfills. "Using Aristaenetus" to illuminate Callimachus-as if Callimachus were the one who had read Aristaenetus and reflected his influence rather than the other way around-is a peculiar, if hardly surprising, aspect of the symbiotic relationship these two authors enjoy in Callimachean scholarship: students of Hellenistic poetry mostly view the prose epistolographer, who wrote some 700 years later, as a source for reconstructing Callimachus, rather than Callimachus as a source for better understanding Aristaenetus. The latter forms part of the poet's apparatus, as it were; literally so in the editions of Pfeiffer (1949) and Massimilla (2010). Harder goes a step further, lifting those parts of Aristaenetus' letters that 1. All fragments of the Aetia are listed according to their numbers in Harder's edition (2012) unless otherwise mentioned.
Engaging Classical Texts in the Contemporary World, from Narratology to Reception. L. Pratt and C. M. Sampson (eds), 2018
Traditions épiques et poésie épigrammatique, Y. Durbeck & F. Trajber (edd.), 2017
Classical Quarterly, 2016
For a Classical scholar, Mark Auslander's paper "Going by the Trees" inspires strange emotions: O... more For a Classical scholar, Mark Auslander's paper "Going by the Trees" inspires strange emotions: On first reading I was filled with wonder and barely suppressed envy at the very different circumstances under which a contemporary anthropologist operates-above all, at his access to living, breathing human beings from all strata of society. The thought of being on a first name basis with your informant, of going on a hike with him, helping him clear foliage from family graves, is positively mind-boggling. Anyone wishing to look into ancient tree-lore, by contrast, finds himself stuck at the far end of a temporal chasm spanning thousands of years, trying to piece together fragments of speech that happen for whatever reason to have made it across the divide, endeavoring to tease nuance out of languages no one can speak, and constrained to do so through the medium of books, the end-product of that very process (that dubious process) which formed the starting point for many of the reflections at the heart of this paper, the pulping of trees. For classicists, all hikes we can take with our subjects, any foliage we can clear from their graves, are mere metaphors. Our choice of informants, moreover, is severely limited: The voices that reach us across the divide are overwhelmingly male, educated, upper class-if we hope to recoup even the dim echo of other voices we must read against the grain. Still, the very distance and otherness of ancient Greece and Rome can open a space for productive questions. As often, the meaning may lie in the difference. However, since I am responding to a living, breathing scholar, I will at least adopt the anthropologist's prerogative and refer to our author by his first name.
Aristaenetus: Erotic Letters. Introduced, Translated and Annotated. With Regina Höschele (Society of Biblical Literature) I-XXXVI, 2014
Phoenix, 1990
... The well-read muse: Present and past in Callimachus and the Hellenistic poets. Post a Comment... more ... The well-read muse: Present and past in Callimachus and the Hellenistic poets. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Bing, Peter. PUBLISHER: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Göttingen). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1988. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 3525251890 ). VOLUME/EDITION: ...
The Classical World, 1993
The Classical World, 1985
New York and London: Routledge (The New Ancient World), 1991
A personal memoir of translating Burkert's Homo Necans on the 50th anniversary of its original pu... more A personal memoir of translating Burkert's Homo Necans on the 50th anniversary of its original publication.
English-language version of “La Culture Littéraire d’Alexandrie au IIIe siècle avant J.-C.”, catalogue essay for the exhibition, La Gloire d’Alexandrie, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris (1998) 133-135, 1998
