CALLIMACHUS, Greek poet and grammarian, a native of Cyrene and a descendant of the illustrious house of the Battiadae, flourished about 250 b.c. He opened a school in the suburbs of Alexandria, and some of the most distinguished grammarians and poets were his pupils. He was subsequently appointed by Ptolemy Philadelphus chief librarian of the Alexandrian library, which office he held till his death (about 240). His Pinakes (tablets), in 120 books, a critical and chronologically arranged catalogue of the library, laid the foundation of a history of Greek literature. According to Suidas, he wrote about 800 works, in verse and prose; of these only six hymns, sixty-four epigrams and some fragments are extant; a considerable fragment of the Hecale, an idyllic epic, has also been discovered in the Rainer papyri (see Kenyon in Classical Review, November 1893). His Coma Berenices is only known from the celebrated imitation of Catullus. His Aitia (causes) was a collection of elegiac poems in four books, dealing with the foundation of cities, religious ceremonies and other customs. According to Quintilian (Instit. x. i. 58) he was the chief of the elegiac poets; his elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans, and imitated by Ovid, Catullus and especially Propertius. The extant hymns are extremely learned, and written in a laboured and artificial style. The epigrams, some of the best specimens of their kind, have been incorporated in the Greek Anthology. Art and learning are his chief characteristics, unrelieved by any real poetic genius; in the words of Ovid (Amores, i. 15)—
“Quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet.”
Editions.—Hymns, epigrams and fragments (the last collected by Bentley) by J.A. Ernesti (1761), and O. Schneider (1870-1873) (with elaborate indices and excursuses); hymns and epigrams, by A. Meineke (1861), and U. Wilamowitz-Möllendorff (1897). See Neue Bruchstücke aus der Hekale des Kallimachus, by T. Gomperz (1893); also G. Knaack, Callimachea (1896); A. Bertrami, Gl’ Inni di Callimacho e il Nomo di Terpandro (1896); K. Kuiper, Studia Callimachea (1896); A. Hamette, Les Épigrammes de Callimaque: étude critique et litteraire (Paris, 1907). There are English translations (verse) by W. Dodd (1755) and H.W. Tytler (1793); (prose) by J. Banks (1856). See also Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol. i. (ed. 1906), p. 122.
CALLINUS of Ephesus, the oldest of the Greek elegiac poets and the creator of the political and warlike elegy. He is supposed to have flourished between the invasion of Asia Minor by the Cimmerii and their expulsion by Alyattes (630-560 b.c.). During his lifetime his own countrymen were also engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Magnesians. These two events give the key to his poetry, in which he endeavours to rouse the indolent Ionians to a sense of patriotism. Only scanty fiagments of his poems remain; the longest of these (preserved in Stobaeus, Florilegium, li. 19) has even been ascribed to Tyrtaeus.
Edition of the fragments by N. Bach (1831), and in Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci (1882). On the date of Callinus, see the histories of Greek literature by Mure and Müller; G.H. Bode, Geschichte der hellenischen Dichtkunst, ii. pt. i. (1838); and G. Geiger, De Callini Aetate (1877), who places him earlier, about 642.
CALLIOPE, the muse of epic poetry, so named from the sweetness of her vioce (Gr. κάλλος, beauty; ὄψ, voice). In Hesiod she was the last of the nine sisters, but yet enjoyed a supremacy over the others. (See also [Muses, The].)
CALLIRRHOE, in Greek legend, second daughter of the river-god Achelous and wife of Alcmaeon (q.v.). At her earnest request her husband induced Phegeus, king of Psophis in Arcadia, and the father of his first wife Arsinoë (or Alphesiboea), to hand over to him the necklace and peplus (robe) of Harmonia (q.v.), that he might dedicate them at Delphi to complete the cure of his madness. When Phegeus discovered that they were really meant for Callirrhoe, he gave orders for Alcmaeon to be waylaid and killed (Apollodorus iii. 7, 2. 5-7; Thucydides ii. 102). Callirrhoe now implored the gods that her two young sons might grow to manhood at once and avenge their father’s death. This was granted, and her sons Amphoterus and Acarnan slew Phegeus with his two sons, and returning with the necklace and peplus dedicated them at Delphi (Ovid, Metam. ix. 413).