Kalimah kao (anti)erotski pesnik
Callimachus as an (anti)erotic poet

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I aim to determine how Callimachus relates to the love poetry of his time, why he adopts a critical stance toward it, and on which poetic principles he builds his own love poetry. It seems that in some of his epigrams (Anth. Pal. 12.43, 12.102, 12.139, 12.134), Callimachus comments on the love poetry of the Alexandrian period of Hellenistic literature through metaphorical poetic imagery. I will seek to show how Callimachus as an epigrammatist transfers his critical stance toward love poetry from his elegiac poem Aetia to the fragment about Acontius and Cydippe. Furthermore, I will attempt to shed new light on the function of Callimachus’ Telchines and Apollo Lycius, who appear in the proem of the Aetia. These mythical figures, as I will argue, materialize to Callimachus’ attititude toward love poetry. Finally, it seems that the concluding verses of Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo give us reason to read this passage of the hymn precisely as Callimachus’ critique of love poetry.

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