1. For a general survey of Greek patronage, see Gold, Literary Patronage , 15-37.

2. Strabo 17.793-94. On the institutionalized system of Ptolemaic patronage, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:305-35 (with attention to the connection, through Demetrius of Phaleron, with the Lyceums Mouseion, 314-15).

For a general discussion of royal patronage in the Hellenistic period, see Klaus Bringmann, "The King as Benefactor: Some Remarks on Ideal Kingship in the Age of Hellenism," in Bulloch et al., Images and Ideologies , 7-24.

3. P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:307-8.

4. Ael. VH 3.17.

5. P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:65, calls Theocritus (and his fellow countryman Archimedes) "Syracusan birds of passage."

6. On the availability of formal schooling for Greek females from the fourth century (and on the limited introduction of coeducation), see Pomeroy, "Technikai kai Mousikai," 51-68, and Cole, "Greek Women," esp. 227-33.

7. On the royal tutors, see, e.g., Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship , 92, 154-55; P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:309, 311, 322-23; Thomas Gelzer, "Transformations," in Bulloch et al., Images and Ideologies , 142.

8. The second generation of Ptolemies continued the tradition of cultivated tutors by appointing Apollonius Rhodius to teach Ptolemy Ill (P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:309, 322-23).

9. See Macurdy, Hellenistic Queens , esp. 31-52; Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt , 6-11; Carney, "Olympias; esp. 51-62; Elizabeth D. Carney, "The Career of Adea-Eurydice," Historia: Zeitschrift für alte Geschichte 36 (1987), 496-502.

10. See, e.g., Theoc. Id . 17.34-39, for praise of Berenice's intelligence and passion. See also Asclepiades 39 Gow and Page, which compares a Berenice with Aphrodite (although note uncertainties about its authorship and the identity of Berenice: Gow and Page, Greek Anthology 2:143).

11. Both Theoc. Id . 24 and Herod. Mime 3 represent women taking strong roles in their children's education: Id . 24's Alcmene selects Heracles' tutors and Mime 3's Metrotime tells the schoolmaster how to discipline her son.

12. For discussion (with references), see Stanley Mayer Burstein, Outpost of Hellenism: The Emergence of Heraclea on the Black Sea (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976), 86-87; idem, "Arsinoe II," 199.

13. On Arsinoe's rotunda, see James R. McCredie et al., The Rotunda of Arsinoe , vol. 7 of Samothrace: Excavations Concluded by the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University , ed. Karl Lehmann and Phyllis Williams Lehmann (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). On the dedicatory inscription of Arsinoe's Rotunda, see also P. M. Fraser, The Inscriptions on Stone , vol. 2.1 of Samothrace: Excavations Conducted by the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University , ed. Karl Lehmann (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960), 48-50 (no. 10).

14. Frazer bases his proposal on similarities in style between Ptolemy's Pro-pylon and Arsinoe's Rotunda (Alfred Frazer, The Propylon of Ptolemy II , vol. 10 of Samothrace: Excavations Conducted by the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University , ed. Karl Lehmann and Phyllis Williams Lehmann [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990], 225, 232). Georges Roux suggests that Arsinoe may have been Ptolemy's wife when she dedicated the Rotunda (McCredie et al., Rotunda of Arsinoe , esp. 231-39). On the dating of the Rotunda and Propylon, see also P. M. Fraser, Inscriptions on Stone , 5-6; Frazer, Propylon of Ptolemy II , 232-33 (with comment on Roux's suggestion).

15. Arsinoe helped sponsor worship at Samothrace, where Lysimachus was granted divine honors, and she also sought refuge after Lysimachus's death in two places which granted Lysimachus divine honors while he was alive, Cassandreia and Samothrace. (Perhaps her familiarity with the notion of a deified king also led her later to encourage her brother's projects of serf-deification.)

16. For the suggestion that Arsinoe's wealth enabled her to hire a mercenary force at Cassandreia, see Macurdy, Hellenistic Queens , 114-15.

17. See Rudolf Pfeiffer, "Arsinoe Philadelphos in der Dichtung," Die Antike 2 (1926), 161-74.

18. Theoc. Id . 15, esp. 23-24, 109-11.

19. P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:207. See also Callim. Lyrica fr. 228 (with dieg .), in which the Dioskouroi carry off dead Arsinoe.

20. For translation of the Pithom stele, the evidence of this visit, see Édouard Naville, "La stèle de Pithom," Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 40 (1902), 71-72, lines 12-16. See also, e.g., Macurdy, Hellenistic Queens , 119; Gow, Theocritus 2:339-40 nn. 86-90.

21. On the significance of the Decree of Chremonides, see Burstein, "Arsihoe II," 207-10 (a cautious approach, with useful summary of previous scholarship); Hauben, "Arsinoé II," 114-17; Christian Habicht, "Athens and the Ptolemies," Classical Antiquity 11 (1992), 72-73 (with attention to the redating of Arsinoe's death to 268).

22. The elite Alexandrian taste for the miniature shows a turning away not only from the spectacular displays of the Ptolemies (Schwinge, Künstlichkeit von Kunst , 40; Green, Alexander to Actium , 158, 183), but also from the monumental Egyptian world to which they had come, a world of, e.g., gigantic pyramids and temples and colossal statues. For a Greek perspective on Egypt's monumentality, see Hdt. 2.124-38, 148, 155, 175-76, etc. Thus Hdt. 2.148 (on a great Egyptian labyrinth): ("Were all that Greeks have builded and wrought added together the whole would be seen to be a matter of less labour and cost than was this labyrinth"; trans. A. D. Godley, Herodotus , vol. 1, Books I-II , rev. ed. [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926], 455-57; Greek text O.C.T. ).

23. On Alexandria's population to 215, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:38-75.

24. See, e.g., Callim. Iambus 13, fr. 203, with dieg . (for discussion of variety in Callimachus's iambi, see D. L. Clayman, Callimachus' Iambi [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980], 48-51). On the Alexandrian fashion for mixing genres, see Kroll, "Kreuzung der Gattungen," 202-24; L. E. Rossi, "I generi letterari e le loro leggi scritte e non scritte nelle letterature classiche," Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (University of London) 18 (1971), esp. 83-84. On Theocritus's mixing of genres and styles (e.g., bucolic poems written in hexameter verse and including Homeric diction), see Fabiano, "Fluctuation in Theocritus' Style," esp. 526-37. On mixing of genres in Hellenistic poetry (and on Theocritus's bucolic poetry as refashioned epic), see Halperin, Before Pastoral , esp. 193-266.

25. On streets named after Arsinoe, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:35-36, 2:110 n. 276. On the joint temple of the Theoi Sotores (built by Ptolemy II), see Theoc. Id . 17.123-27. On the Alexandrian Arsinoeum (temple of Arsinoe, left-incomplete when Ptolemy II and the architect died) and its wondrous statuary and obelisk, see Plìny HN 34.148 (an iron statue of Arsinoe planned for suspension from lodestone temple-vaulting), 36.69 (a 120-foot obelisk), 37.108 (a 6-foot topaz statue of Arsinoc); for discussion, set P. M. Frascr, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:25. On the royal palaces, see Strab. 17.793-94.

26. Ath. 5.197c-202a (for discussion, set E. E. Rice, The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus [London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1983]).

27. On Hellenistic ruler cults, set, e.g., Nock, "Notes on Ruler-Cult," 21-48; idem, " ," 1-62; Tondriau, "Princesses"; P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:213-46; Price, "Hellenistic Cities,' 23-52. For the suggestion that redating Arsinoe's death to 268 makes it more possible that she helped set up her own cult, see Gutzwiller, "Callimachus' Lock ,'' 365 n. 22; see also D. B. Thompson, Ptolemaic Oinochoai , 120 (cited by Gutzwiller, ''Callimachus' Lock ," 366 n. 25). On redating Arsinoe's death to 268, see Grzybek, "Mort," 103-12.

28. On dedicatory plaques and oinochoai, set Louis Robert, "Sur un décret d'Ilion et sur un papyrus concernant des cultes royaux," in Essays in Honor of C. Bradford Welles (New Haven: American Society of Papyrologists, 1966), 202-10; P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:190-91, 226-28, 240-43; D. B. Thompson, Ptolemaic Oinochoai , esp. 16-17, 76, 96, 117.

29. On the advantages of mercenary service under the Ptolemies, set, for example, E.G. Turner, "Ptolemaic Egypt," in Walbank et al., Hellenistic World , 124-25.

30. On the encomium as the purpose of the poem, set, e.g., Lawall, Theocritus' Coan Pastorals , 122; on the encomium as a digression, see, e.g., Legrand, Étude sur Théocrite , 139. Schwinge, Künstlichkeit von Kunst , 64-65, also separates the encomium from the fictive story. Stern, "Theocritus' Idyll 14," 58, and Griffiths, Theocritus at Court , 110-12, both approach the encomium from within the fictive story, but with a focus on the "historical reality of Ptolemy" (phrase taken from Griffiths, Theocritus at Court , 110).

31. Gow, Theocritus 2:259 n. 60. A person interested in enlisting (with the expectation of pay and land grants) could find more useful information in Idyll 17's descriptions of Ptolemy's soldierly record, vast military force, surplus wealth, and fertile and abundant lands.

32. Cf. Id . 16.27-28 (a poem directed toward Hieron II), where a value is set on being a good host, even to a stranger.

33. Aeschinas's failure to investigate a rumor of Cynisca's unfaithfulness (27-28) underscores his persistent obliviousness to signs of eros.

34. Cf. the contrast between Catullus's and Propertius's poetry's obsessive fixation on a single love-object and Horace's poetry's less romanticized approach to love.

35. The weight of the description (63-64, half the encomium) and the inclusion of a prescriptive clause ( , "as befits a king," 64) place special emphasis on the quality of generosity, critical to successful relationships between patron and poet, paymaster and mercenary. Cf. Id . 17.106-16, 123-27. On Ptolemy II's sponsorship of Dionysiac artists, set Id . 17.112-16; P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria , 1:618-19, 2:870-71 n. 2 (on the exemption of Dionysiac artists and other members of the cultural community from the salt tax).

36. Euergetes II, in his Memoirs, FGrH 234 F4 (= Ath. 13.576e-f), describes several of Ptolemy's mistresses (cf. Plut. Mor . 753e). Euergetes sums up Ptolemy's sexual character as ("very inclined toward sexual pleasures"). On the deification of another mistress, Bilistiche, see Plut. Mor . 753e. See Cameron, "Two Mistresses," 287-304 (on Didyme and Bilistiche).

37. See Ath. 13.576f, 10.425e-f. So too Polyb. 14.11 At Theoc. Id . 4.31, Corydon mentions Glauce, a famous musician and possibly another of Ptolemy's favorites (for discussion, see Bulloch, "Hellenistic Poetry," 572).

38. Twice earlier, Thyonichus focuses attention on Aeschinas's immoderate desires (11, 57). These two passages are linked with Thyonichus's exhortation through the use of the vocative form of Aeschinas's name (only occurring at 10, 58, and 65), and lines 11 and 64 are further joined by the repetition of forms of the (immoderate) adjective .

39. On how Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II exploited this appeal, see, e.g., Erich S. Gruen, The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome , 2 vols. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1984), 1:138 (with notes 37 and 38).

40. Cf. Herodas Mime 1.26-35, which places a description of Alexandria's glittery attractions in the mouth of a bawd. For an example of Ptolemy's playfulness, see Ath. 11.493e-494b.

41. Ptolemy himself blurred the boundary between private and public friendships and interests insofar as he treated Egypt as a royal possession and rewarded his designated friends by appointing them to high administrative of-rices (see, e.g., Green, Alexander to Actium , 192).

42. Euhemerus's travel novel offered opportune precedent for the Hellenistic practice of deifying mortal rulers: for instance, Zeus was originally a mortal king who, having set up cult worship for his grandfather Uranus, was also himself proclaimed a living god. On Euhemerus's work and its reception, see, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria , 1:289-95; see also Green, Alexander to Actium , esp. 55, 398-99.

43. I draw here on Kermode's useful distinction between myths and fictions: "Myths call for absolute, fictions for conditional assent" ( Sense of an Ending , 39).

44. Idyll 14, which includes an encomium of Ptolemy, is Theocritus's only poem that does not refer to deities. By not referring here to gods, Theocritus also avoids the topic of the Ptolemies' possible deification.

45. Praxinoa justifies leaving her son at home by exclaiming ("the horse bites," 40); later she explains her fixation: ("From childhood on I've been most fearful of horses and cold snakes," 58). An underlying theme here is related to the Adonis story: if Praxinoa keeps her son away from horses and cold snakes, she can prevent him from becoming a man (and leaving her); Aphrodite has a similar thought about Adonis and wild beasts, esp. boars (see, e.g., Or. Met . 10.539-52, cf. 708-16).

46. Gow, Theocritus 1:xxviii, points out that "some or all of the bucolic poems may well have been composed in Alexandria." On the dialogic possibilities available in presenting rural fictions to city folks, see, e.g., Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1964); Raymond Williams, The Country and the City (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975); Annabel Patterson, Pastoral and Ideology: Virgil to Valéry (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987).

47. Cameron, "Two Mistresses," 287-95. For the connection between Ptolemy's and Asclepiades' Didyme, see also Pomeroy, Women , 55.

48. These lines, in conjunction with the two lines that follow, stress Bombyca's dark color: ("Dark is the violet and the lettered hyacinth, / yet in garlands these are accounted first"; trans. Gow, Theocritus 1:85; Id . 10.28-29). By having Bucaeus underscore society's inconsistency in mocking a woman's dark hues but not a flower's, the poet draws attention to the theme of ethnic prejudice. Also, through Bucaeus's oppositional fondness for the slender Bombyca, Theocritus can approach the issue of his own "unpopular" predilection for "slender," Callimachean values in art (e.g., small-scale poetic projects). Cf. Callim. fr. 398: (''The Lyde is a fat and inelegant book," trans. Trypanis, "Callimachus,'' 247). On public partiality for grand Homeric epic, see Theoc. Id . 16.20. For a statement of Callimachean poetic values (through the fictive Lycidas), see Theoc. Id . 7.45-48.

49. Ath. 10.425e-f, 13.576f; Polyb. 14.11.

50. See, e.g., Theoc. Id . 17.95: ("In riches he could outweigh all other kings"; trans. Gow, Theocritus 1:137).

51. Id . 17 praises Ptolemy's riches (95-97, 106-15), which enabled him to set golden and ivory representations of his mother and father in shrines (121-25). Ptolemy's Pompe also included statues and representations of gold, some sponsored by Ptolemy, e.g., a golden statue of Alexander (Ath. 5.202a); some financed by others, e.g., two golden portrait-statues of Ptolemy II on golden chariots (Ath. 5.203b). On Ptolemy's wealth, see also, e.g., Ath. 5.203b-c.

52. See discussion below.

53. Gow, Theocritus 2:199 n. 26.

54. On the indeterminacy of Bombyca's status and relation to Polybotas, see Gow, Theocritus 2:196-97 n. 15; Dover, Theocritus , 166-67. If Polybotas (man of many grazing animals) were wealthy, a flute girl's relation to him would probably be as slave or employee; but if not wealthy, she might be a daughter, whom he hires out.

55. Gow, Theocritus 2:196 n. 15; Strab. 10.489.

56. Callim. Hymn 1 is commonly dated early in Ptolemy's career. On the dating of Hymn x to a celebration of Ptolemy's accession to the throne (and birthday), see James J. Clams, "Lies and Allusions: The Addressee and Date of Callimachus' Hymn to Zeus," Classical Antiquity 5 (1986), 155-70.

57. Cf. Id . 17.13-15 (on Ptolemy I).

58. For discussion of the panhellenic audience's effect on song, see G. Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press; 1990), esp. 37-47.

59. Their recruits included such outsiders as prostitutes, slaves, and freed persons. On the Epicureans' appeal to such persons, see Frischer, Sculpted Word , 206.

60. See Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults , 40-41, 149 n. 67 (who cites Hdt. 2.171 for the claim that the Thesmophoria came to Greece from Egypt); Green, Alexander to Actium , 586-601. On the topic of religion in Alexandria, P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:189-301 (ch. 5: "Religious Life") is fundamental (on the cult of Cybele and Attis in Alexandria, see 1:277-78). See too, e.g., Callim. Ep . 40, Ep . 47, Ep . 57, Iambus 3, fr. 193.54-38; Dioscorides Ep. 3 Gow and Page (= A.P . 5.53), Ep . 4 Gow and Page (= A.P . 5.193), Ep . 16 Gow and Page (= A.P . 6.220), Ep . 56 Gow and Page (= A.P . 11.195); Sotades fr. 3 Powell, Coll. Alex .

61. On the development of Hellenistic ruler cults, see, e.g., Green, Alexander to Actium , 396-406. On worship of the Olympian deities in Alexandria, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:193212.

62. On the Ptolemies' cultivation of a connection with Dionysus, see Walter Burkert, "Bacchic Teletai in the Hellenistic Age," in Masks of Dionysus , ed. Thomas H. Carpenter and Christopher A. Faraone (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), esp. 262-64. On how state support of Dionysus worship might heighten a Ptolemy's status and strengthen his genealogical claims, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria , esp. 1:202-3. On the connection of Alexander and Dionysus, see, e.g., Nock, "Notes on Ruler-Cult," 21-30. On how worship of Aphrodite began to coincide with Arsinoe's own, see Tondriau, ''Princesses," 16-18; Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:239-40; Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt , esp. 30-38.

63. Rice, Grand Procession , 83-86. On Ptolemy II's extension of the empire, see also Theoc. 17.86-92 (with discussion in Gow, Theocritus 2:339-40 nn. 86-90); Polyb. 5.34.5-9 (with comment in Gruen, Hellenistic World 2 :672).

64. See Theoc. Id . 17.112-14. For discussion of the Dionysiac guild in Ptolemaic Egypt, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:203; Rice, Grand Procession , 52-58.

65. Thus P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:197; Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt , 30-31.

66. On Aphrodite as patroness of marriage (with references for cult titles such as Aphrodite Thalamon, "of the bridal chamber," Aphrodite Hanna, "who yokes together," Aphrodite Nymphia, "the bridal Aphrodite"), see Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States , vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896), 656-57. On Aphrodite as goddess of "passionate sex in marriage," see Paul Friedrich, The Meaning of Aphrodite (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 142-43. See also Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt , 31-38. For the important argument that the emergence of the Aphrodite cult in Alexandria and the emphasis in Alexandrian poetry on reciprocal passion in marriage reflected Ptolemaic policy to justify ''the sharing of monarchic power by husband and wife," see Gutzwiller, "Callimachus' Lock ," esp. 363-68 (quote taken from 364). On the importance of love in Ptolemaic ideology, see also Koenen, "Adaptation ägyp-fischer Königsideologie," esp. 157-68; idem, "Ptolemaic King," esp. 62. On the effect of powerful female patronage on courtly discourse during the Renaissance, see, e.g., Leonard Tennenhouse, "Sir Walter Raleigh and Clientage," in Lytle and Orgel, Patronage in the Renaissance , 246: "By encouraging her courtiers to make suit to her in the poetic language of love, Elizabeth had institutionalized her personal metaphor of rule."

67. Poetry identifying Arsinoe with Aphrodite includes the anonymous hymn in Powell, Coll. Alex ., pp. 82-89. See also the epigrams connected with Arsinoe-Aphrodite's temple at Zephyrium: Callim. Ep . 5; Posidippus Ep . 12, 13 Gow and Page; Hedylus Ep . 4 Gow and Page (also available in Ath. 7.318b-d; 11.497d-e), with useful commentary in Gow and Page, Greek Anthology , vol. 2.

68. Gutzwiller, "Callimachus' Lock ," 364-68. See also Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt , 31-38.

69. Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt , 36, suggests that "Theocritus has given the festival a domestic context and has described only the wedding night of Aphrodite and Adonis, because he is celebrating Aphrodite as goddess of marriage."

70. Strab. 17.789.

71. See, e.g., Paus. 1.6.8. Detienne, Gardens of Adonis , 66, emphasizes the Adonia's linkage with extramarital affairs: "The couple formed by Adonis and Aphrodite epitomized the type of relations that exist between a lover and his mistress."

72. On Idyll 15's reflection of cult practice, see Gow, " Adoniazusae of Theocritus," 180-204; Gow, Theocritus 2:262-304. See also Atallah, Adonis , 105-35; G. Glotz, "Les fêtes d'Adonis sous Ptolémée II," Revue des études grecques 33 (1920), 169-222.

73. E.g., Dioscorides Ep . 3 Gow and Page (= A.P . 5.53), Ep . 4 Gow and Page (= A.P . 5.193); Callim. Iambus 3, ft. 193.34-38. Sotades, a poet notorious for scurrilous verses against the Hellenistic courts, also wrote a poem called Adonis (fr. 3 Powell, Coll. Alex .). But cf. Nossis Ep . 5 Gow and Page (= A.P . 6.275), an epigram on the dedication of a perfumed headdress to Aphrodite (see discussion in Skinner, "Nossis," 24-25); and we also have evidence that Philicus, a member of Ptolemy II's tragic Pleiad, wrote a tragedy called Adonis , presumably elevated in tone (see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:198; 2:333 n. 62). For the observation that Callim. Iambus 3, fr. 193.34ff., which links Cybele and Adonis, treats contemptuously a cult sponsored by Arsinoe, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:786.

74. E.g., Gow, " Adoniazusae of Theocritus," 202; Griffiths, "Home before Lunch," 256. W. C. Helmbold, "The Song of the Argive Woman's Daughter," Classical Philology 46 (1951), 17, asks "why is the song so long, so tedious, and so dull?" and suggests it may be a parody. Dover, Theocritus , 210, remarks: ''I should have expected Theokritos to take the opportunity of showing how well he could write a hymn, not the opportunity of showing how badly most people wrote them; but this expectation founders on the hymn we have before us." Robert Wells, Theocritus: The Idylls (1988; reprint, London and New York: Penguin Books, 1989), 34, agrees that the hymn is probably a parody.

75. Dover, Theocritus , 209. See too Gow, " Adoniazusae of Theocritus," 202: "The extravagant commendations of 'the incorrigible Gorgo' are more amusing and more in keeping with her character if they are bestowed upon a work which, to a more cultivated taste, does not deserve them"; and Griffiths, "Home before Lunch," 249: "Yet this mawkish spectacle, gotten up for the consumption of the masses, parallels the Gothic novels and soap operas of our own day in symbolizing the housewife's failure of imagination."

76. Bulloch, "Hellenistic Poetry," 580: "A truly grand and rather exotic festival hymn." So too Hutchinson, Hellenistic Poetry , 150 ("It is elevated and lavish in its language and feeling, and depicts the visual beauty and extravagance of the tableau created by the Queen"); Zanker, Realism in Alexandrian Poetry , 13 ("he has tried to invest the Adonis-rite at Alexandria with all the sensuousness, eroticism and pathos it will have held"). Before Bulloch, a favorable judgment of the hymn was rare. See, e.g., E. M. Forster, Alexandria: A History and a Guide (1922; reprint, with new introduction by Forster, Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1961), 37: ''a beautiful hymn."

77. Goldhill, Poet's Voice , 276-77; idem, "Naive and Knowing Eye," 219-21.

78. See Walter Burkert, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979), 107, on the Adonia's "independence from and virtual antagonism to the established state cults." See also discussion in Detienne, Gardens of Adonis , esp. 79-82 and 99-131; and response by John J. Winkler, "The Laughter of the Oppressed: Demeter and the Gardens of Adonis," in The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece (New York: Routledge, 1990), 188-209. Cf. Eva Stehle, "Sappho's Gaze: Fantasies of a Goddess and Young Man," differences 2 (1990), 103-7.

79. Men were probably used to a low level of involvement in celebrations of the Adonia: in literary representations of the Adonia of the fourth century B.C. , men watch women celebrate and sometimes women invite them to private parties as "Adonis substitutes" (e.g., Men. Sam . 35-50; Ath. 13.579e-580a; Alciphron Epist. Meret . 14.8; cf. Lucian Dial. Meret . 17.297; Dioscorides Epigrams 3 and 4 Gow and Page = A.P . 5.53 and 5.193). For discussion of courtesans celebrating the Adonia, see Detienne, Gardens of Adonis , 64-66.

80. Ar. Lys . 378-98: a commissioner describes how private celebrations of the Adonia in 415 B.C. disturbed an assembly meeting (cf. scholia on Ar. Lys . 389). For discussion, see Detienne, Gardens of Adonis , esp. 65-66. For a link-age of the Adonia and the mutilation of Athens's herms, see Keuls, Reign of the Phallus , 23-32.

81. See T. W. Allen, W. R. Halliday, and E. E. Sikes, eds., The Homeric Hymns , 2d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936).

82. See Tondriau, "Princesses," 16-18; P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1: 197, 239-40; Pomeroy, Women of Hellenistic Egypt , 30-38.

83. For Ovid's version of Adonis's unhappy tale, see Met . 10.298-739.

84. Sotades was not known for his courtly tact. We have one line left of another poem, which addresses Ptolemy II (on his marriage to Arsinoe II): ("you are thrusting your prick into an unclean hole"; Sotades ft. 1 Powell, Coll. Alex . [Ath. 14.621a]). The one line we have left from a poem by Callimachus on the wedding of Arsinoe and Ptolemy, on the other hand, suggests a celebratory tone: ("I begin, stranger, my song of Arsinoe's wedding"; fr. 392, which Pfeiffer titles "In Arsinoes Nuptias?").

85. See Detienne, Gardens of Adonis , esp. 67-68.

86. For a fundamental discussion of strategies of praise in Theocritus's work, see Griffiths, Theocritus at Court , although he judges that "The Adonis hymn . . . conspicuously lacks the wit and evasiveness of the other courtly poems (apart from the Ptolemy )" (58).

87. See, e.g., Dover, Theocritus , 209-10; see also Goldhill, "Naive and Knowing Eye," 220-21.

88. On sexual ambiguity in Theocritus's representation of Adonis, see chapter 2.

89. Thus Forster, Alexandria , 37: "In this Hymn Theocritus displays the other side of his genius—the 'Alexandrian' side. He is no longer the amusing realist, but an erudite poet, whose chief theme is love." See also Zanker, Realism in Alexandrian Poetry , 14, who privileges love in Alexandrian poetry, but connects the emphasis on love with realism.

90. Although the verb is traditional in descriptions of an immortal's relationship to a mortal (e.g., Il . 2.197, Il . 9.117; cf. Od . 15.245, Il . 16.94, Il . 7.204), still it is not typically used to describe a god's relation to cult sites. Instead the verbs (e.g., Hom. H . 22.3), (e.g., Il . 1.38), and (e.g., Hom. H . 6.2) customarily appear. For example, in Theocritus's Id . 17, the more typical verb describes Aphrodite's connection with Cyprus: (36).

91. Although the gold has been variously interpreted (as jewelry, toys, money, etc.; for discussion, see, e.g., White, "Theocritus' 'Adonis Song,'" 192-94; W. Geoffrey Arnott, "The Stream and the Gold: Two Notes on Theocritus," in Filologia e for, letterarie, Studi offerti a Francesco Della Corte , vol. 1, Letteratura greca , ed. Sandro Boldrini et al. [Urbino: Università degli studi di Urbino, 1987], 343-46), scholars generally agree that a description of Aphrodite "playing" (particularly in the context of an Adonia) has an implicitly sensual resonance (see, e.g., Dover, Theocritus , 210 n. 101: "she also because the enjoyment of sex belongs to ''; White, "Theocritus' 'Adonis Song,'" 193; Arnott, ''Stream and the Gold," 344-46).

92. As suggested earlier, a mother can fear that her zopyrion might one day develop into a pyrros like Adonis, and try to lock her boy away from danger (as Aphrodite tries to preserve Adonis): ("I will not take you, child. Mormo, the horse bites. / Cry however much you like, but I won't have you maimed"; 40-41).

93. Cf. a woman's derisive use of the term Adonis to refer to a weak, skinny boy, too short for his age (Ath. 13.580e-f: one of Machon's anecdotes of prostitutes).

94. Cf. Idyll 16's use of vulnerable young warriors (who die at Troy) to illustrate a poet's power to confer fame: especially the feminized Cycnus ( , "maidenlike of skin"; trans. Gow, Theocritus 1:125; 49), but also Priam's long-haired sore (49), and Lycian princes (48; e.g., Glaucus and Sarpedon, doomed friends). Thus in Idyll 15, which represents a female festival sponsored by a female patron, Theocritus identifies a Trojan prince by his mother; but in Idyll 16, which asks for patronage from Hieron, king of Syracuse, the poet identifies the Trojan princes in the traditional (male) manner: by their father.

95. For Achilles' son as Neoptolemus, see, e.g., Hom. Il . and Od. ; Soph. Phil. ; Eur. Andr .

96. The hymnist's catalogue of warrior-heroes thus may suggest a feminine vantage on epics of war like the Iliad . Cf. Idyll 16, which, looking toward Hieron II, a commander who seized power in Syracuse through military force, also suggests oppositional readings of Homer's epics (e.g., Id . 16.48-49, 54-56). Both Idylls 15 and 16 open a dialogue between cultures definition of masculinity as aggression and literature's capacity to redefine that ideal. Idyll 16 includes the famous pacifistic lines: ("May spiders spin their delicate webs over armour, and the cry of onset be no more even named"; trans. Gow, Theocritus 1:129; 96-97). On female reception of male-generated epics, see, e.g., John J. Winkler, "Public and Private in Sappho's Lyrics," in Foley, Reflections of Women , esp. 66-77; Lillian Eileen Doherty, ''Gender and Internal Audiences in the Odyssey ," American Journal of Philology 113 (1992), 161-77.

97. For the story of Hecuba's revenge on King Polymestor for murdering her son (Polydorus), see Euripides' Hecuba .

98. Just. Epit . 24.3.

99. Cf. Theoc. Id . 16.74, which offers Achilles and Ajax as models for Hieron. For the story of how later Alexandrians mocked Antoninus for imitating Alexander and Achilles, who were strong and tall whereas he was small (not unlike sickly Ptolemy II), see Herodian 4.9.3.

100. See Gow, Theocritus 2:335 nn. 53-57. A weak man physically (Strab. 17.789), Ptolemy II might have felt somewhat uneasy about meeting the expectations of leadership set by his father, a powerful general and shrewd politician. On the controversy concerning Ptolemy II's military prowess (and Arsinoe's influence), see, e.g., Burstein, "Arsinoe II," esp. 205 (who cites Ptolemy's accomplishments before marrying Arsinoe); Hauben, "Arsinoé II," 107-27 (who puts more emphasis on Arsinoe's political role).

101. On the political implications of Alexandrian poetry's rejection of epic, see Schwinge, Künstlichkeit yon Kunst , esp. 40-43 (who cites Callim. Aet . 1, fr. 1.3-5 on 41: ; "[The Telchines blame me because] I did not accomplish one continuous poem of many thousands of lines on . . . kings or . . . heroes, but like a child I roll forth a short tale"; trans. Trypanis, "Callimachus," 5).

102. Pollock raises pertinent questions: "But what is the meaning of the equation of women's art with femininity and femininity with bad art? And, more significantly, why does the point have to be stressed so frequently?" (Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism, and the Histories of Art [London and New York: Routledge, 1988], 24).

103. Griffiths, "Home before Lunch," 256.

104. For an interesting parallel, see Livy 41.20 (on the generosity of the Seleucid King Antiochus IV).

105. E.g., the reunion feast in Euripides' Ion includes gold bowls (1165-66), gold and silver cups (1175, 1181-82), abundant food (1169), and a tent (1129) shaded by embroidered tapestries (1132-66). In Latin literature, e.g., Peleus's wedding feast in Catullus's Poem 64 includes gold and silver (44), ivory thrones and bright cups (45), a couch of Indian tusk and a purple coverlet embroidered with figures (47-51), a doorway covered with soft green foliage (292-93; cf. the green bower laden with tender dill at Id . 15.119), and tables laden with food (304). So too Dido's banquet welcoming Aeneas in Vergil's Aen . 1 includes a quantity of silver and golden embossed plates, a golden couch, golden tapestries (697-98), and purple coverlets, some embroidered. Both Peleus's and Dido's displays exemplify regal splendor, not "vulgarity": "tota domus gaudet regali splendida gaza" (Catull. Poem 64.46); ''at domus interior regali splendida luxu" (Verg. Aen . 1.637). Further, poets customarily praise the generosity of rulers and patrons and thereby encourage "appropriate'' expenditures (e.g., Bacchyl. Ode 3.11-22, 63-66; Pind. Nem . 1.19-33; Pind. Isthm . 1.60-68). Thus Theocritus's Idyll 17 praises Ptolemy for using his Wealth to honor gods (106-9) and also describes the system of benefactions in regard to poets (115-17).

106. On the Ptolemies' wealth, see, e.g., M. Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World , 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941), 1: 407-11; Préaux, Monde hellénistique , esp. 1:208-9. Ath. 5.197c-202a provides a detailed account of a lavish ceremonial procession sponsored by Ptolemy II (for discussion, see Rice, Grand Procession ).

107. The Petrie papyrus, dated not later than 250 B.C. , indicates that private individuals (this one probably a man since the expenditures include bath and barber) continued to contribute to celebrations of the Adonia in Ptolemaic Egypt (J. P. Mahaffy and J. G. Smyly, eds., The Flinders Petrie Papyri , vol. 3, [Dublin: Academy House, 1905], no. 142). For discussion, see Glotz, "Fêtes," 169-222 (for a summary of Glotz's commentary, see Gow, " Adoniazusae of Theocritus," 180-83 [available again in Gow, Theocritus 2:262-63]). See also Atallah, Adonis , 136-40.

108. Gow, Theocritus 2:296 n. 118, footnote 1: "Shaped cakes as offerings were sometimes at any rate merely cheap substitutes for the animals they represented (Hdt. 2.47, Suid. s.v. ), and these would find no place in Arsinoe's celebrations." Yet shaped cakes need not be cheap; see, e.g., the pastry eggs (33.6), cake piglets (40.4), and pastry thrushes (69.6) featured at Trimalchio's luxurious dinner in Petronius's Satyricon . In the Satyricon , food allusions are part of the iconography representing the crossing of boundaries and instability of categories and meaning. In Idyll 15, in which the crossing of boundaries (life and death, mortal and immortal, male and female, royalty and commoner, house and palace) is also an important theme, food allusions would not be out of place. The poetic structure and grammar of the passage in Idyll 15 that lists offerings strengthen an identification of the creatures of line 118 as shaped cakes. If line 118 is taken in association with the cakes, a single sentence encompasses all the offerings, a sentence gracefully structured in a chiastic ring (location, offering, offering, location), with the of line 118 recalling the of line 112. The heavy alliteration of in lines 117 and 118, compared with the previous five lines, further encourages the reader to associate line 118 (the creatures) with line 117 (the cakes).

109. E.g., Barriss Mills, The Idylls of Theocritus (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1963), 59; Daryl Hine, Theocritus: Idylls and Epigrams (New York: Atheneum, 1982), 58; Anna Rist, The Poems of Theocritus (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978), 141; Thelma Sargent, The Idylls of Theocritus: A Verse Translation (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), 61; Wells, Theocritus , 105; Zanker, Realism in Alexandrian Poetry , 13. But while most of the British and Americans require "meat" (e.g., Dover, Theocritus , 118: "If this line referred to cakes of different shapes, there would be no reference to meat"), the French prefer "cake" (see Atallah, Adonis , 123, followed by Monteil, Théocrite , 164). See also White, "Theocritus' 'Adonis Song,'" 197-98, who posits both shaped cakes and wax fruits among the offerings.

110. Gow, Theocritus 1:118, transfers the strong stop from line 118 to line 117, which supports his interpretation of 118 as referring to "meats" not "shaped cakes" (for discussion, see 2:296 n. 118).

111. Griffiths, "Home before Lunch," 256.

112. I have followed Ahrens's reading of in 127 (so too Monteil, Théocrite , 165 n. 127: "une couche qui est nôtre"). Gow, Theocritus 2:300-1 nn. 126f., prefers to Ahrens's . Dover, Theocritus , 213 n. 127, reads (with the mss., except K) (so too R. J. Cholmeley, The Idylls of Theocritus [London: George Bell and Sons, 1906], 301), but also approves : "Confusion between LL and M was easy in ancient texts, since the midpoint of M was lower than in a modern M."' White, "Theocritus' 'Adonis Song,'" 203-5, reads (with K ) and so does not place a full stop afterwards.

113. A repetition of the verb links the creative activity of making cakes with weaving tapestries ( , 80; cf. , 115), and among the modern Hellenistic writers, the verb can represent poetic craftsmanship. Rosenmeyer, Green Cabinet , 22, defines Callimachean as "the careful and self-denying labor that goes into the making of the good poem." In Theocritus's Idyll 7, the verb describes making poetry (51) and the noun is associated with the cicadas' song (139); for discussion, see Harry Berger Jr., "The Origins of Bucolic Representation: Disenchantment and Revision in Theocritus' Seventh Idyll," Classical Antiquity 3 (1984), 16-20.

114. On Ptolemy II's acquisition of Samos, see M. Cary, A History of the Greek World: 323 to 146 BC , 2d ed., rev. (1951; reprint, London: Methuen, 1978), 104; Graham Shipley, A History of Samos: 800-188 BC (Oxford: Clarendon; New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 182-83; on Ptolemy II's acquisition of Miletus, see, e.g., Cary, History , 104 (with app. 5, 387-89).

115. Idyll 115's spatial and temporal movement highlights the issue of how a public Adonia might attract marginal viewers by moving outlanders—Syra-cusan, Doric-speaking women—from Alexandria's suburbs through crowded streets to the palace grounds to view an Adonia, a celebration of an exotic marginal god (who has himself been moved from the cultish margins to the ideological center of the state).

116. The implied audience of Id . 15's Adonia, for a brief moment, includes a hypothetical Samian shepherd. The actual audience could have included Samians as well. On the presence of Samians in Egypt, especially Alexandria, during the Hellenistic period, see Shipley, History of Samos , 225-26. See also Callim. Ep . 37 Gow and Page ( A.P . 7.459), an epitaph for Crethis, a working-class Samian girl (for discussion, see Gow and Page, Greek Anthology 2:194; P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:577).

117. So Bulloch, "Hellenistic Poetry," 541: "The new regime determined to build for themselves in Africa a way of life which was powerfully and essentially Greek." See also Zanker, Realism in Alexandrian Poetry , 19-22.

118. See, e.g., W. W. Tam, Hellenistic Civilisation , rev. author and G. T. Griffith, 3d ed. (1952; reprint, Cleveland: World Publishing, 1961), 196-97; P.M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:106-15; Préaux, Monde hellénistique 2:587-601; Koenen, "Ptolemaic King," 40 (on possible influences between the Greek and Egyptian legal systems, see ibid., esp. 40-43, with references).

119. By bringing a private ritual into the public arena, Arsinoe's Adonia blurred the boundaries between public and private life. That this was part of the program is suggested by how the Arsinoe cult also emphasized the association of public and private rites of worship, as shown by an Alexandrian decree regulating the festival of Arsinoe, which approved private sacrifices along the public procession route (on this decree, see Robert, "Sur un décret," esp. 192-210; P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:229-30, 2:378 n. 315; D. B. Thompson, Ptolemaic Oinochoai , 71-73).

120. Examples of local pride in Idyll 15: Syracusans vaunting their ethnic origin (90-93) and hypothetical islanders praising their own work (126-27).

121. See discussion in Burkert, Structure and History , esp. 102-11. See also Griffin, "Theocritus," 203. The name Adonis recalls adon , a Semitic word meaning Lord (Burkert, Structure and History , 105). Cow, Theocritus 2:264, suggests that the Adonia in the Fayyûm, as analyzed by Glotz, "Fêes; has an Egyptian flavor that makes it differ from worship in Alexandria (as represented by Theocritus). So too the cult of Sarapis, also supported by the Ptolemies, seems to have eventually transcended cultural difference (see, e.g., P. M. Fraser, "Two Studies on the Cult of Sarapis in the Hellenistic World," Opuscula Atheniensia 3 [1960], 8-9, 15-17). On the cult of Sarapis, see also, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1: 24-6-76; John E. Stambaugh, Sarapis under the Early Ptolemies (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972).

122. See, e.g., A. Rosalie David, The Ancient Egyptians: Religious Beliefs and Practices (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 107-8.

123. P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:206, 255; Dorothy J. Thompson, Memphis under the Ptolemies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 28-29, 212-13. See also Hdt. 2.48's description of Egyptian "Dionysus-processions" featuring women carrying puppets with immense phalluses made erect by pulling strings (for discussion of the link between the Egyptian ithyphallic Osiris, Herodotus's Egyptian "Dionysus," and the Greek Dionysus [with refs.], see Alan B. Lloyd, Herodotus: Book II: Commentary 1-98 [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976], 220-24 [on Hdt. 2.48]; cf. the 180-foot golden phallus displayed in Ptolemy's Procession of Dionysus, Ath. 5.201c).

124. D. J. Thompson, Memphis under the Ptolemies , 202-3.

125. See, e.g., Hdt. 2.112; D. J. Thompson, Memphis under the Ptolemies , 88 -90.

126. On how the Egyptianization of oinochoai (wine jugs) made for the Ptolemaic ruler-cult helped draw in non-Greeks as well as Greeks, see D. B. Thompson, Ptolemaic Oinochoai , esp. 119-21. See also Callim. fr. 383.14 for a possible representation of a collaboration between Egyptian and Colchian women in weaving a celebratory cloth for Berenice (for discussion, see Thomas, "Callimachus," esp. 106-8). For a discussion of how the Ptolemies contrived to appeal to both Greeks and Egyptians, see Koenen, "Ptolemaic King."

127. J. B. Miller, New Psychology , 113.

128. On the importance of Argos in Ptolemaic propaganda and the political suggestiveness of references to Argos in Alexandrian poetry, see Bulloch, Callimachus , 12-13 (with attention to Callim. Hymn 5's setting in Argos), who accounts for the link between the Macedonian and Peloponnesian towns called Argos: "Although the town of Argos with which the Argeads were connected was actually situated in northern Macedonia, it was the practice even in the fifth century to give them a more romantic and flattering origin by making Peloponnesian Argos their homeland and thus giving them an ancient and impeccable Dorian descent, through Temenus, from Heracles and Dionysus." On the Ptolemies' interest in publicizing their connection with the Argead dynasty, see also W. S. Greenwalt, "Argaeus, Ptolemy II, and Alexander's Corpse," The History Bulletin 2 (1988), 39-41.

129. See discussion in chapter 2.

130. Pace Gow, " Adoniazusae of Theocritus," 202: "The extravagant commendations of 'the incorrigible Gorgo' are more amusing and more in keeping with her character if they are bestowed upon a work which, to a more cultivated taste, does not deserve them." So too Griffiths, "Home before Lunch," 249: "the housewife's failure of imagination." See also Miles, "Characterization,'' 156; Motto and Clark, ''Idyllic Slumming," 41; Walker, Theocritus , 94.

131. For evidence, see Gow, Theocritus 2:83 (on Id . 4.31). On the possible impact at court of a reference to Glauce, see Bulloch, "Helenistic Poetry," 572.

132. Bakhtin and Lyotard both emphasize the oppositional value of little voices/stories to monologic or grand narratives (on correspondences between Bakhtin's and Lyotard's theories, see David Carroll, "Narrative, Heterogeneity, and the Question of the Political: Bakhtin and Lyotard," in The Aims of Representation: Subject/Text/History , ed. Murray Krieger [New York: Columbia University Press, 1987], 69-106; see also Bruce Henricksen's summary in Nomadic Voices: Conrad and the Subject of Narrative [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992], esp. 11-14).

133. On the Samothracian gods as saviors at sea, see Burkert, Greek Religion , 284. Although the Samothracian gods are unknown, the central deities may well be a female (probably a Cybele-type) attended by two males comparable to the Dioskouroi (Susan Guettel Cole, Theoi Megaloi: The Cult of the Great Gods at Samothrace [Leiden: B. J. Brill, 1984], 3). Burkert, Greek Religion , 283-84, in-dudes among the deifies featured at Samothrace the Cybele-type deity prominent in Samothracian coinage and a young, subordinated male god (who acts as a servant), which would correspond to the gender dynamics of Aphrodite and Adonis. Cf. also Theoc. Id . 1's cup decoration of a woman flanked by two males, and the triad composed of Helen and the Dioskouroi, important figures in Ptolemaic propaganda and Theocritus's poetry as well (e.g., Idylls 18 and 22).

134. P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1: 207. On the Dioskouroi as saviors at sea, see Burkert, Greek Religion , 213. Thus Theoc. Id . 22 (on the Dioskouroi), with its emphasis on the Dioskouroi's status as saviors at sea (6-22), may look toward Arsinoe. On Arsinoe's connection with Helen and the Dioskouroi, see Giuseppina Basta Donzelli, "Arsinoe simile ad Elena (Theocritus Id. 15.110)," Hermes: Zeitschrift für klassische Philologie 112 (1984), 306-16. The Dioskouroi also offered attractions to royals moving toward self-deification, as Burkert's description suggests: "The Dioskouroi, like Heracles [also favored at Alexandria], . . . were seen as guiding lights for those hoping to break out of the mortal sphere into the realm of the gods" (Burkert, Greek Religion , 213). Callim. Lyrica fr. 228 (see dieg .) has the Dioskouroi carry dead Arsinoe to the sky.

135. On Arsinoe's assimilation with Aphrodite as protector of the maritime empire, see, e.g., Robert, "Sur un déret," 198-202; Hauben, "Arsinoé II," III-14. See too the epigrams on the temple of Aphrodite at Cape Zephyrium, dedicated by an admiral: Callim. Ep . 5; Posidippus Ep . 12, 13 Gow and Page; Hedylus Ep . 4 Gow and Page (also available in Ath. 7.318b-d; 11.497d-c).

136. On the connection of savior gods with Alexandria's lighthouse, see Sostratus's dedicatory inscription as reported in Lucian Hist. Conscr . 62: these gods have been understood to refer to Berenice and Ptolemy I or to the Dioskouroi. See Gow and Page, Greek Anthology 2:490 (on Posidippus Ep . 11): "It is difficult to believe that such a dedication at Alexandria [Sostratus's] was not intended at least to include them [Ptolemy I and Berenice]." See too P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:19, who remarks in a discussion on the uncertainties of the inscription's authenticity (and the savior gods' identity) that perhaps the inscriptions "savior gods" refer to "all those deities who protect seafarers'' (for discussion, see 1:18-19).

137. On temples and shrines of Bilistiche-Aphrodite, see, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:239-40. Harpalus, a Macedonian who embezzled Alexander's funds, also set up a temple and altar of Pythionice-Aphrodite when his Athenian courtesan Pythionice died (Ath. 13.595c). On the shrine of Arsinoe-Aphrodite at Zephyrium, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:239-40; Posidippus's Epigrams 12 and 13 Gow and Page; Strab. 17.800.

138. A. Bouché-Ledercq, Histoire des Lagides , vol. 1, Les cinq premicers Ptolé-mées (323-181 avant J.-C.) (1903; reprint, Brussels: Culture et civilisation, 1963), 185 n. 1 (cited by Macurdy, Hellenistic Queens , 124; Tondriau, "Princesses," 31). On public honors for Ptolemy's mistresses, see too Edwyn R. Bevan, The House of Ptolemy: A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty (1927; rev. reissue, Chicago: Argonaut, 1968), 77-78.

139. See chapter 2.

140. Gow, Theocritus 2: 346 n. 130 (on Id . 17); followed by Schwinge, Künstlichkeit von Kunst , 61.

141. Griffiths, Theocritus at Court , 61. Greek text taken from F. H. Sandbach's Loeb edition ( Plutarch's Moralia , vol. 9, trans. Edwin L. Minar Jr., F. H. Sandbach, and W. C. Helmbold [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969]).

142. Griffiths, Theocritus at Court , 61. On the association of Arsinoe with Hera, see, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:35, 237-38; McCredie et al., Rotunda of Arsinoe , 238 n. 26 (Georges Roux). On the association of Ptolemy II with Zeus, see, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1: 666-67, 194-95.

143. Callimachus's hymns do not feature Aphrodite and Dionysus (the Ptolemies' most favored deifies), but they do feature Zeus and Hera. Aphrodite only briefly enters Hymn 5 (to Athena) in a contrast between her intensive beauty ritual and Athena's simpler self-care (21-22).

144. See, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 2:915 n. 284; Griffiths, Theocritus at Court , 62-63; Clauss, "Lies and Allusions." See also Green, Alexander to Actium , 172. But cf. Thomas Gelzer, "Kallimachos und das Zeremoniell des Ptolemäischen Königshauses," in Aspckte der Kultursoziologie: Aufsätze zur Soziologie, Philosophic, Anthropologie und Geschichte der Kultur: Zum 60. Geburtstag von Mohammed Rassem , ed. Justin Stagl (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1982), 22. For a judicious warning against over-imaginative historical references, see F. Williams, Callimachus , 1 (on Callim. Hymn 2 [to Apollo]).

145. See, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:652, 2:915 n. 284 (who dates Hymn 1 between 280 and 275); Clauss, "Lies and Allusions," esp. 158-59 (who suggests the date of Ptolemy II's accession to the throne in 285/284 or its anniversary in 284/283).

146. See, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:652, 657-58 (who suggests 271/270 as a probable date for Hymn 4); W. H. Mineur, Callimachus: Hymn to Delos (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1984), 16-18 (who suggests the date 274).

147. See P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:652, 2: 915 n. 287.

148. On Greek reactions to the incestuous Ptolemaic marriage, see, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 1:117-18. See also Carney, "Reappearance of Sibling Marriage," 420-21, 428-29, who cautions against "overestimat[ing] Hellenic disapproval" and cites Sotades' remark, which "rather than manifesting moral outrage, seems intended to make fun'' (428).

149. Scholia Theoc. Id . 17.128 (Wendel, Scholia , 325). See also Macurdy, Hellenistic Queens , 120-21; Burstein, "Arsinoe II," 205-7.

150. Mineur also suggests a possible reference to Ptolemy II in Callim. Hymn 4.240-43 ( Callimachus , 203 n. 240f: "The Alexandrian audience may have thought here of Philadelphus, who (Athen. Deipn . 13.576e, f.).' On Ptolemy's mistresses, see also Plut. Mor . 753e; Cameron, "Two Mistresses," 287- 304.

151. Because Asteria refused the amorous Zeus, Hera forgives her here for helping Leto, Zeus's pregnant mistress. Cf. Ap. Rhod. Argon . 4.790-94, where Hera reminds Thetis that she earned her favor by refusing Zeus's lovemaking.

152. See, e.g., Palls. 1.10.3-5; Burstein, "Arsinoe II," 199-200 (with references in n. 11).

153. Gercke also suggests this allusion in Callim. Hymn 3.134-35 to Arsinoes I and II (Alfred Gercke, "Alexandrinische Studien," Rheinisches Museum füur Philologie , n.s., 42 [1887], 273-75).

154. Any reservations about court ideology that Callimachus's references to Zeus and Hera's marriage may suggest, however, are indirect, available for cynical (and informed) audience members, but not necessary for enjoyment of the poems. Callimachus also wrote more directly (and in a more courtly manner) of Arsinoe and other Ptolemaic women. See, e.g., Callim. fr. 392, which Pfeiffer titles "In Arsinoes Nuptias?" (we have only one line left); fr. 228, on Arsinoe's death (the least fragmentary section, 40-75, approaches the death from her sister Philotera's vantage); Lock of Berenice (to Berenice II, wife of Ptolemy III). See Schwinge, "Gedichte auf Frauen des Königshauses," in Künstlichkeit von Kunst , 67-72. On Callim. Lock of Berenice , see Gutzwiller, "Callimachus' Lock ,"; Koenen, "Ptolemaic King,'' 89-113.

155. Idyll 18 ironizes the theme of mutual passion by having its maiden's chorus sing a wedding song mocking Menelaus's early slumber on his wedding night and exalting Helen's beauty and talents. On the disparity between "the divine stature of Helen" and "the rather hapless figure which Menelaus cuts," see David Konstan, "A Note on Theocritus Idyll 18," Classical Philology 74 [1979], 233-34.

156. Theoc. Id . 12.10-11 includes a wish for mutuality in a homoerotic context. See also Alcaeus of Messene Ep . 9 Gow and Page (= A.P . 12.64), which presents a prayer to Zeus for (like-mindedness) between erastes and eromenos (6). On the rarity of "erotic reciprocity" between ancient Greek males (outside Plato), due to the problematic nature of the passive sexual role for males, see David M. Halperin, "Why is Diotima a Woman," ch. 6 in One Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Other Essays on Greek Love (New York: Rout-ledge, 1990), 129-37 (but see also 225, addendum). See too Dover, Greek Homosexuality , 52.

157. On Hellenistic poetry's emphasis on passion without reciprocity and marriage without passion, see Vatin, Recherches sur le mariage , esp. 46, 53-54, 56.

158. See also Mastromarco, Public of Heron , 93.

159. On the importance of imagery of mutual married love in the Ptolemies'. project of self-legitimation, see Gutzwiller, "Callimachus' Lock," esp. 363-68. See too Koenen, "Adaptation ägyptischer Königsideologie," 157-68; Mary Ann Rossi, Theocritus' Idyll XVII: A Stylistic Commentary (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1989), esp. 188-89; Koenen, "Ptolemaic King," 62. On the theme of reciprocal love in Hellenistic poetry, see M. A. Rossi, Theocritus' Idyll XVII , 79, with references.

160. This term comes from Sir John Vanbrugh's The Provok'd Wife (1697), 1.1 (cited by Spacks, Gossip , 122). On the later Alexandrian fashion for defamatory jokes against authority, see Herodian 4.9.2-3: ("To a certain extent it was a natural feature of the people to indulge in lampoons and repetition of many pungent caricatures and jokes belittling the authorities, since they are considered very witty by the Alexandrians"; trans. C. R. Whittaker, Herodian , vol. 1, Books I-IV [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969], 413). Thus later Alexandrians reportedly considered such jokes as calling Antoninus's mother Jocasta (and thus hinting at incest) (playing), although Antoninus did not (Herodian 4.9.3).

161. Griffiths, Theocritus at Court .

162. See Schwinge, Künstlichkeit von Kunst , 66.

163. Gow, Theocritus 2:331 n. 26.

164. Cunningham, Herodas , 66 n. 30, reads line 30's "good king" as Ptolemy Philadelphus: " [of the brother-sister gods] is an attribute to distinguish this [shrine] from all others, and does not necessitate understanding of a different king" (see also idem, "Herodas 1.26ff.," 7-9). On the possibility that line 30's ''good king" might also refer to Ptolemy III, see, e.g., P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 2:878 n. 30; Sherwin-White Ancient Cos , 95 n. 60. For a brief history of scholarly opinion, see Mastromarco, Public of Herondas , 3-4 (who supports the identification with Ptolemy Philadelphus).

165. The self-proclaimed brother-sister gods are Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II.

166. Headlam and Knox, Herodas , 23-24 n. 26; followed by Cunningham, Herodas , 65 n. 26. On the title for Arsinoe, see P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria 2: 567 n. 228.

167. See Griffiths, Theocritus at Court .

168. Marylin B. Arthur, "Early Greece: The Origins of the Western Attitude toward Women," in Peradotto and Sullivan, Women , 50.