ABSTRACT
Writing as he was at the end of antiquity, Dioscoros of Aphrodito’s poems are the last of the poetic flourishing that occurred in Egypt during the 3rd to 6th centuries.1 Accordingly his occasional poetry embodies the finale of classical thought, thoroughly Christian though built upon the foundation of Roman paideia. The encomium on Duke Kallinikos exhibits this synthesis of pagan and Christian traditions, and so reveals the effect of classical education on the aristocratic Roman. In a poem constructed heavily from epic language Dioscoros uses the heroes of ancient mythology together with Christian themes and imagery in an encomiastic petition.2 The pagan decorations reflect the mythological literature familiar to both Dioscoros and his aristocratic addressees.3 Within Dioscoros’ extant poetic oeuvre it is evident that while his use of Greek mythology touches on the formulaic it retains meaning. The heroes are symbols of bravery and virtue.4 These symbols decorate a poem in which the praise of the Duke’s arrival creates a comparison with the advent of Christ. In this chapter I examine the structure of the poem and read the encomium as an excellent example of classicizing Christian poetry of the sixth century, literature that shows a total ease in the interweaving of Christian thought and classical learning. For Dioscoros there is no tension
1 J.-L. Fournet, Hellénisme dans l’Égypte du VIᵉ siècle: la bibliothèque et l’oeuvre de Dioscore d’Aphrodité (Cairo, 1999), poem 18. Fournet has rearranged the poem as it appears on the papyrus by placing the iambic portion at the beginning as a prologue, Hellénisme, 578. However I follow the line numbers according to the texts of Heitsch and MacCoul, E. Heitsch, Die griechischen Dichterfragmente der römischen Kaiserzeit, vol. 1, 2nd edn (1963), and L. MacCoull, Dioscorus of Aphrodito: His Work and His Life (1988). L. Miguél Cavero, Greek Poetry in the Egyptian Thebaid 200-600 AD (New York, 2008), 5.
