Echoing Hylas : metapoetics in Hellenistic and Roman poetry

Abstract

I have argued in my thesis that poets throughout classical antiquity

used this myth to reflect allegorically on their own poetry. Certain

elements of the myth as well as Hylas himself function as metaphors of

the art of poetry as such. In the Hellenistic age, for example, Theocritus employs the young Hylas as an emblem of his new bucolic poetry, systematically contrasting the boy with the archetypal hero Hercules, who symbolizes the older, heroic-epic tradition that is left behind. The Roman poet Propertius takes Theocritus’ idea further by associating the scene of Hylas going to the well with the poet’s source of inspiration. In this way, the myth of Hylas is used as a platform for a dialogue between the two poets in different periods of time. These are only two examples of the many metapoetical applications of the Hylas myth that I have identified, from the Hellenistic age to the Flavian era. One of the most important results of my thesis is that the individual metapoetical statements in each Hylas poem do not merely stand on their own, but contribute to a diachronic debate that extends and reinforces the metapoetical meaning of each individual poem. Propertius, for example, builds on the metapoetical allegory of Theocritus’ poem. Theocritus, in his turn, reacts to Apollonius’ Argonautica, and so on. With each new poem, the Hylas myth accumulates meaning, and it is therefore essential to study the individual works in their wider diachronic perspective in order to reveal their full metapoetical potential.