Xenophanes im Zeus-Hymnos des Kallimachos

The following analysis is motivated by the new observation that the epilogue of Callimachus’s Hymn to Zeus (91f.) contains an allusion to a fragment of the archaic poet-philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon (fr. 34.1f.). That this connection went unnoticed, may be explained by the fact that the fragment of Xenophanes was preserved by several authors as a quotation with some verbal variations. Callimachus avails himself not of the version which could be considered the vulgata, but of the one preserved by Plutarch (De audiendis poetis 2.17e). This observation having been made we can set out to scrutinize the function of the allusion which seems to activate some generic conventions of hymnic poetry.