The poems are especially significant as examples of cultural memory since they are composed both as an act of commemorating earlier poetry and as a manipulation of traditional features of iambic poetry to refashion the iambic genre. This book fills a significant gap by providing the first complete translation of several of these fragmentary poems in English, along with line-by-line commentary notes and literary analysis.".

Preliminary Material /D. L. Clayman -- History of the Text /D. L. Clayman -- The Iambi Individually and Together /D. L. Clayman -- Callimachus and Early Iambi /D. L. Clayman -- Callimachus and Other Hellenistic Iambi /D. L. Clayman -- The Influence of the Iambi at Rome /D. L. Clayman -- Bibliography /D. L. Clayman -- General Index /D. L. Clayman -- Passages cited /D. L. Clayman.

This book offers a detailed discussion of Callimachus' collection of Iambi, arguably one of the earliest surviving Greek 'books of poetry'. There are chapters on individual poems which examine the evidence for the text, and address questions of linguistic and antiquarian detail. Each chapter attempts an interpretation of each poem as a whole, and considers the arrangement of the poems within the book.

A new, provocative treatment of the Alexandrian poet Callimachus and his reception, approaching his work from four varied yet complementary angles.