Poetry and Number in Graeco-Roman Antiquity

Max Leventhal (Downing College, Cambridge)

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English

Cambridge University Press
26 May 2022

Poetry; Literary studies: classical, early & medieval; Classical history & classical civilisation; Philosophy; History of mathematics

Series: Cambridge Classical Studies

Poetry and mathematics might seem to be worlds apart. Nevertheless, a number of Greek and Roman poets incorporated counting and calculation within their verses. Setting the work of authors such as Callimachus, Catullus and Archimedes in dialogue with the less well-known isopsephic epigrams of Leonides of Alexandria and the anonymous arithmetical poems preserved in the Palatine Anthology, the book reveals the various roles that number played in ancient poetry. Focussing especially on counting and arithmetic, Max Leventhal demonstrates how the discussion, rejection or enacting of these two operations was bound up with wider conceptions of the nature of poetry. Practices of composing, reading, interpreting and critiquing poetry emerge in these texts as having a numerical component. The result is an illuminating new way of approaching Greek and Latin poetry - and one that reaches across modern disciplinary divisions.

By: Max Leventhal (Downing College Cambridge)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 145mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 400g
ISBN: 9781009123044
ISBN 10: 1009123041
Series: Cambridge Classical Studies
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 26 May 2022
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: Numbers Up; Part I. Counting and Criticism: 1. Callimachus and his Legacy; 2. Leonides of Alexandria's Isopsephic Epigrams; Part II. Arithmetic and Aesthetics: 3. Archimedes' Cattle Problem; 4. The Arithmetical Poems in A.P. 14; Conclusion: Summing Up Poetry.

Max Leventhal is Bye Fellow and College Lecturer in Classics at Downing College, Cambridge. He was previously the Thole Research Fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Classics.