- to the Olympic Games in 240, suggesting a long life. Before moving to Alexandria, he
lived in Athens (where his friends included the Stoics Z and K) and in Ko ̄s
(where he met important poets like Philetas, Askle ̄piade ̄s and Theokritos, participated in
heated contemporary cultural debates, and polemicized K).
Only 23 authentic Poseidippean epigrams were preserved until the discovery (in 1990) of
the Milan papyrus Vogliano 1295 dating to the second half of the 3rd c. BCE (nearly con-
temporary with our author). This MS transmits about 100 compositions, nearly 600 new
verses. Among the most interesting elements emerging from this important literary docu-
ment are the thematic distribution of epigrams (not according to an alphabetic order) and
their nature in relation to a specific client’s request. The MS groups epigrams into nine
categories, each with its own subject heading (a tenth section may lurk in the tattered
remains of the end of the roll). Some of these categories are familiar, such as “poems on
tombs” (epitumbia); other sections are more exotic and almost bizarre, e.g., poems about
stones (lithika), omens (oionoskopika), statue-making (andriantopoiika), even a group of funerary
epigrams with the enigmatic title “turnings” (tropoi). The first and longest section of the
papyrus, the lithika, treats gems and other noteworthy stones in a tour de force of
geographical, cultural and literary references. The ecphrastic content has a practical
end, as in the case of an epigram ordered by a suitor to accompany the gift of a precious
stone to his beloved. The entire section reads like a gazetteer of the Hellenistic world:
beginning far in the east with the Indian river Hydaspes, it proceeds through Persia
and Arabia to the island of Euboia, as it details the provenances of the stones and the
distances they have traveled. Women often serve as the final destination, the recipients of
the precious objects. The lithika displays in miniature the ambitious scope of the entire
collection, its ability to weave together literary and material culture, the powerful and the
humble.
Ed.: G. Bastianini et al., Posidippo di Pella Epigrammi (P. Mil. Vogl. VII 309) (2001); C. Austin and
G. Bastianini, Posidippi Pellaei quae supersunt omnia (2002).
RE 22.1 (1953) 428–444, W. Peek; KP 4 (1972) 1075–1076, R. Keydell; K. Niatas, “A poetic gem.
Posidippus on Pegasus,” Pegasus 40 (1997) 16–17; W. Luppe, “Weitere Überlegungen zu Poseidipps
Lithika-Epigramm Kol. III 14ff.,” APF 47 (2001) 250–251; G. Bastianini, ed., Un poeta ritrovato:
Posidippo di Pella. Giornata di studio Milano 23 novembre 2001 (2002); Idem and A. Casanova, edd., Il papiro
di Posidippo un anno dopo. (2002) 1–5; W. Luppe, “Poseidipp, Lithika-Epigramm II 23–28,” Eikasmos 13
(2002) 177–179; Idem, “Zum Lithika Epigramm Kol. III 28–41 Poseidipps (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309),”
AC 71 (2002) 135–153; B. Acosta-Hughes et al., edd., Labored in Papyrus Leaves. Perspectives on an Epigram
Collection Attributed to Posidippus (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309) (2004); R. Casamassa, “Posidippo fra arte e mito.
La gemma di Pegaso (Posidipp. ep. 14 A–B),” Acme 57 (2004) 241–252; E. Lelli, “I gioielli di
Posidippo,” QUCC 76 (2004) 127–138; M. Di Marco et al., edd., Posidippo e gli altri. Il poeta, il genere, il
contesto culturale e letterario. Atti dell’incontro di studio, Roma, 14–15 maggio 2004 (2005); V. Garulli,
“Rassegna di studi sul nuovo Posidippo (1993–2003),” Lexis 22 (2004) 291–340; K.J. Gutzwiller, ed.,
The New Posidippus. A Hellenistic Poetry Book (2005); BNP 11 (2007) 671–672 (#2), M.G. Albiani.
Eugenio Amato
Poseido ̄nios (Med. I) (70 – 30 BCE?)
Student of Z A, along with A K (CMG
11.1.1, p. 12), and co-authored with D P a work on the bubonic
plague in Libya (high fever, terrible pain, widespread buboes): R in O,
Coll. 44.14.2 (CMG 6.2.1, p. 132); compare the similar work by D K.
POSEIDO ̄NIOS (MED. I)