Immanent Genre Theory in Greek and Roman Epigram

Abstract

Ancient literary theorists rarely included epigrammatic poetry in their discussions. Epigrammatic poets themselves, however, show a high degree of literary self-awareness and repeatedly reflect on various aspects of their chosen genre: the length, language, and content of their poems, the inscriptional origin of epigram, the role of literary predecessors, the interaction with other genres, the act of reading and writing, and the problem of status within a literary hierarchy.