This paper examines the implications of the opposition ‘Athenian sun’ versus ‘Pontic fog’ for a better understanding of Menander’s dramatic art in Samia. The secret intrigues orchestrated inside the houses of Demeas and Nikeratos obscure the luminous, open spaces of Athens for the two uninformed or misinformed returnees from the dark regions, leading to complete confusion and near misfortune. Ironically, the fog that plagued the two men in Pontos now shrouds the brilliant Athenian sky. Thus, the climatic descriptions, introduced in one early scene, transcend the limits of their literal sense and acquire a metaphorical meaning which can be traced in most of the play.

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First, this paper will analyse the information given by the ancient literary sources – from the Greek tragedians to the Orphic Argonautica – on the outrageous murder of Apsyrtus. The main goal of the paper, however, is to investigate the outset and the dissemination of the toponomastic traditions which are inspired in antiquity by that cruel delict, namely the so called Apsyrtides islands in Northern Adriatic and the towns Apsaros and Tomi at the Pontus Euxinus. My research shows that only from the fourth century BC onwards the bloody event left traces in the toponomastic tradition, which is mostly concerned with the representation of Apsyrtus in his adult age. Moreover, the different locations of the murder are of course connected with some return routes of the Argonauts. Finally, it is noteworthy that there are also cases of contaminations between different traditions, as usual in ancient mythology.

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In this paper I identify both Hipponax and Diogenes as models for Cercidas’ fr. 1 Lom.

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This paper focuses on a largely neglected aspect of the literary background of Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe, namely the genre of satyr play and more specifically the hellenistic satyr drama Daphnis or Lityerses of Sositheus. Such intertextual connection not only provides additional evidence for the major impact of Sositheus and for the survival of the Hellenistic drama in the Roman period but also sheds new light on the plot of the novel, on the actions of its main characters and not least on the much discussed issue of the Dionysiac element of this work.

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The article pleads the authenticity of three Catalepton poems. At the beginning arguments against two schools of criticism are submitted. Substantial evidence is available neither for the older one which regarded most of the poems as un-Virgilian on the basis of the poet’s presumed character (cherry-picking a few pieces as Virgilian), nor for the newer one, which declares the unauthenticity of all the poems on the basis of the existence of pseudepigraphic literature. Both schools support their cause by the alleged occurrence of post- Horatian and post-Virgilian features (quotations and allusions to Horace and Virgil and metrical dependence). Then the three poems are translated, analysed and interpreted, their quality, originality, and specific interest demonstrated and their proximity to Catullus and transformation of Catullan motifs are given prominence. From all the philological procedures of the article the conclusion to be drawn is that the most plausible candidate for the poems' author is the young Virgil himself. – An old crux in Catalepton 13, 6 is healed: et lingua qua mas sim tibi.

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This article is an addendum to the book Die Ciris im Kontext der augusteischen Dichtung, Vienna 2018 (Wiener Studien, Beiheft 39) and presents some of the author’s afterthoughts. On the basis of the chronology established in that monograph it is argued that the poems Catalepton 9 and Ciris, both addressed to M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus, are modelled on Catullus’ carmina 65 and 66, the poet’s homage to Hortensius Hortalus. The key to this is the fact that both the Ciris and Catullus’ translation from Callimachus - his c. 66 - have the same basic motif in common, viz. the cutting off of a person’s hair, albeit for different reasons and with a dramatically different outcome. Furthermore, the author makes a point for Callimachus being at least one of the sources for the Ciris and deals with the muchdiscussed crucial verses Catalepton 9, 59-63.

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This study aims to analyze and answer three interrelated questions: (1) Is it likely, that for many, even most members of the reading community Horatius' Carmina were destined for, these poems entailed a first encounter with lyric poetry tout court in any language? (2) Assuming that contemporary readers of Horatius' Carmina knew how to read everyday literary genres, but not how to respond to lyric poetry: in what way could such an audience learn how to understand lyric poetry, or at least Horatian lyrics, from reading the first poems of Carmina Book 1, the so-called ‚Parade-Odes‘? (3) Is it possible, that the latter provide an exceedingly well-orchestrated and effective introductory course in reading lyric poetry, making it likely that their positioning and arrangement at the opening of Book 1 was – if only one among other goals – intended as some kind of lyrical διδαχή?

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In his ‘Ars Poetica’ Horace proposes the composition of dramatic poetry that, on the basis of exemplaria Graeca, should serve the intellectual, moral and aesthetic education of a wider public. Indeed, this poetry could well be seen as correcting some of the serious weaknesses that same public seems to suffer from in various places in the poet’s oeuvre. Besides, Horace envisions dramaturgists as exemplary vates who can assume a historically significant sociopolitical role.

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Two particularly violent episodes of Ovid’s Metamorphoses should be added among the classical sources of Prudentius’ Psychomachia. The links can be made not only because of verbal correspondences but also because of some narrative details of the two poems.

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