ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to combine the fragments in a single poem, and to locate the poem within Callimachus' works. Victoria Berenices is an impressive piece, carefully set in an impressive position: not simply the first poem, but the proem and the dedication. Victoria Berenices and Coma Berenices are sister poems: Callimachus has deliberately placed them, one at the beginning, one at the end, so as to frame, unite and dedicate Aetia lll-IV. Callimachus composed oetiologicol poems from time to time throughout his life. Hecker's law states that all such fragments derive from Callimochus, Hecale. Callimachus invented (or discovered) Molorchus; his was the first and only full-scale treatment. The coincidences are not large enough to be decisive: Callimochus may be allowed to use the same word twice. In some sense, Callimochus’ normal manner is Pindaric: allusiveness, uneven tempo, mannerist distortions.
