Anthologies and Anthologists 119epitaph to Homer: AP VII, 3. At Cr. 320, 14 Geometres quotes Menander,
Monostich 231. Geometres’ two poems on Summer (Cr. 316, 3 and 316, 11)
borrow their imagery from epigrams on the beauty of nature (for instance,
APX, 1 and VIII, 129), and his long Ekphrasis of Spring (Cr. 348, 16) has much
in common with a fourth-century ecphrastic poem by a certain author called
Meleager (AP IX, 363)^122. Taking into account the sheer bulk of Geometres’
poems, this list of reminiscences is hardly impressive. Sure enough, if one
continues the search for parallels, the poetry of Geometres may provide more
instances of literary imitation, but for every poem that is vaguely classicizing,
there are dozens of poems that are certainly not. It is beyond doubt that
Geometres was familiar with the anthology of Cephalas, but he had little taste
for it, and the kind of poetry he wrote had little in common with ancient
epigrams. The same is true for later Byzantine poetry in general: except for the
occasional literary borrowing, there is no proof that it was influenced or even
slightly affected by the ancient epigram. Most Byzantine epigrams do not
classicize; they “modernize” (“modern” meaning anything written after c. 600,
that is, “modern from a Byzantine perspective”).
The ancient epigram exercised a strong influence over Byzantine poets only
in the hundred years of classicism that began with Leo the Philosopher and
ended with the compilation of the Palatine Anthology. Before c. 850 and after
c. 950 ancient epigrammatic poetry has no place in the literary universe of the
Byzantines; they may have read and even liked classical epigrams, but they
did not feel the urge to imitate. However, in the hundred-year interval of c.
850–950 classicism is much in vogue. In the sections above, I treated this
classicizing vogue in much detail and presented abundant evidence for it, so
there is no need to discuss it again. It is perhaps worth noticing, however, that
the classicizing vogue does not express itself only in literary epigrams, but also
in verse inscriptions. The first example is the famous inscription in Skripou
(the ancient Orchomenos), which dates from 873–874^123. The poem is written in
almost impeccable hexameters^124 and its language is profoundly Homeric. See,
for instance, ƒ pol7aine L6on formed by analogy with ƒ pol7ain\ \Odyse ̄ (Il. 9.
673); the Homeric construction: participle + per Çmphß (=ka5per + participle);
postponed ™pe5 in Çrga ™pe5... The Holy Virgin is called œói1nassa (!), probably
by analogy with her cult title pant1nassa, but also as a learned allusion to Od.
(^122) For a comparison of these two poems on Spring, see KAMBYLIS 1994–95: 33–40. For the
date of the poem by Meleager (not the famous poet and anthologist of the first century
BC!), see WIFSTRAND 1933: 168–170 and CAMERON 1982: 231–232.
(^123) Ed. OIKONOMIDES 1994: 483–484. Read polycand6ú (v. 2), ™xet6lessaß (v. 4) and ×staton
(v. 7).
(^124) But see the hiatus in v. 3: Çrga ™pe5, and the epic lengthening of a short vowel in v. 7:
Cristo ̄ d\ Škat6rzqen.