Callimachus quotes

Callimachus was a Greek poet, scholar, and librarian at the Library of Alexandria, renowned for his innovative literary style. His works, especially his short elegies and hymns, influenced generations of writers in antiquity. He is remembered as a leading figure of Hellenistic poetry and a pivotal contributor to the development of literary criticism. Here are 9 of his quotes:

O Charidas, what of the under world? Great darkness. And what of the resurrection? A lie. And Pluto? A fable; we perish utterly.

Callimachus

Set a thief to catch a thief.

Callimachus

Nothing unattested do I sing.

Callimachus

Here sleeps Saon, of Acanthus, son of Dicon, a holy sleep: say not that the good die.

Callimachus

A big book is a big misfortune.

Callimachus

The most outstanding intellect of this generation, the greatest poet that the Hellenistic age produced, and historically one of the most important figures in the development of Graeco-Roman (and hence European) literature.

Callimachus

His blend of sensitivity and detachment, elegance, wit, and learning, had a profound influence on later Roman poets, especially Catullus, Ovid, and Propertius (the last thought of himself as the Roman Callimachus), and through them on the whole European literary tradition.

Callimachus

They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead, They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed. I wept, as I remembered, how often you and I Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.

Callimachus