L'Épithalame d'Achille et de Déidamie : entre eidyllion et epyllion

Abstract

This study analyses the structure and the intertextual references of the poem known as "the second idyll by Bion of Smyrna, entitled « the Epithalamium of Achilles and Deidameia ». Interpreting this poem is quite a difficult task, given it is fragmentary, spurious, and the manuscripts contain many mistakes. My paper tries to clarify his generic status : epyllia and bucolic poems are traditionally opposed as two distinctive genres by modern philologists, but I try to show that this poem proposes an original way of conciliating these two genres. This interpretation leads me to distinguish three definitions of epyllion : a short epic (general meaning) ; a poem respecting Callimachean aesthetics (alexandrian meaning) ; an epic poem versus a bucolic poem (within the Theocriteum corpus).

Keywords

• bucolic
• idyll
• epyllion
• literary genre
• Bion of Smyrna
• Achilles