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Boris Kayachev

Trinity College Dublin, Department of Classics, Post-Doc

University of Oxford, Classics and Wolfson College, Post-Doc

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Richard P Martin

Stanford University

Ucla

Francesco Camia

Università degli Studi "La Sapienza" di Roma

Ioannis Konstantakos

National & Kapodistrian University of Athens

University of Toronto

Francesca Gazzano

University of Genova

Christopher Smith

University of St Andrews

Maria Stamatopoulou

University of Oxford

Nicole Belayche

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Margalit Finkelberg

Tel Aviv University

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Papers by Boris Kayachev

2022, The new Orphic fragments from Mount Sinai: a rereading

Archiv für Papyrusforschung , 2022

The article offers a rereading of recently published fragments of an Orphic poem discovered in a ... more The article offers a rereading of recently published fragments of an Orphic poem discovered in a palimpsest from the library of St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai (Sin. ar. NF 66). In particular, it establishes that fragments 1-2 narrate a scene from Aphrodite's catabasis to the underworld in search for Dionysus, as well as clarifying details of the account of the Titans' attempt to lure Dionysus out in fragments 3-4.

2020, Emendations in the Einsiedeln eclogues

Mnemosyne, 2020

2020, [Tibullus] 3.7.175: an emendation

Classical Quarterly, 2020

2013, Ciris 80: an emendation

Hermathena, 2013

At 66-88 the Ciris recounts several alternative versions of the origin of the Homeric Scylla. The... more At 66-88 the Ciris recounts several alternative versions of the origin of the Homeric Scylla. The last one is that Scylla was a prostitute and was transformed into the sea monster because she offended Venus (77-88). While the text of the concluding five lines (84-8) is corrupt almost beyond the point of intelligibility, the first seven lines of the passage appear generally clear (77-83): seu uero, ut perhibent, forma cum uinceret omnes et cupidos quaestu passim popularet amantes, piscibus et canibusque malis uallata repente est, horribiles circum uidit se sistere formas 80 (heu quotiens mirata nouos expalluit artus, ipsa suos quotiens heu pertimuit latratus), ausa quod est mulier numen fraudare deorum… Or else indeed (or so they say), as she exceeded all women in beauty and plundered her lecherous lovers with fees all over the place, she was suddenly fenced with fishes and violent dogs, she saw terrible figures surround her (oh, how many times she grew pale looking in astonishment at her new body parts, oh, how many times she was scared by her own barking!), for she, a woman, had dared to defraud the mighty gods.

2021, Conjectural emendation in the Appendix Vergiliana: the case of the Moretum

B. Kayachev (ed.), Poems Without Poets: Approaches to Anonymous Ancient Poetry, 2021

In a paper on the text of the Culex Housman (1902: 339) wrote: The authors of the Culex and Ciris... more In a paper on the text of the Culex Housman (1902: 339) wrote: The authors of the Culex and Ciris and Aetna were mediocre poets, and worse; and the gods and men and booksellers whom they affronted by existing allotted them for transcription to worse than mediocre scribes. The Ciris was indited by a twaddler, and the Culex and Aetna by stutterers: but what they stuttered and twaddled was Latin, not double-Dutch; and great part of it is now double-Dutch, and Latin no more. […] Many a time it is impossible to say for certain where the badness of the author ends and the badness of the scribe begins. And many a time, when the guilt is firmly saddled on the copyist, there is no more to be done except sit down and sigh […] Here then, between poets capable of much and copyists capable of anything, is a promising field for the exercise of tact and caution: a prudent editor will be slow to emend the text and slow to defend it, and his page will bristle with the obelus. 1 Note for instance Tarrant 2016: 123, who applies Housman's maxim to the editing of Propertius. 2 I leave the question of the artistic quality of the anonymous poems collected in the Appendix largely outside the current discussion; but I do think that Hunter's (2002: 91) account of the situation in which anonymous texts often find themselves is not inapplicable in the present case: 'The "authorless" text (or that which is judged so) has, on the whole, received a cold reception from classicists; for reasons which lie deep in the heart of the history of the subject, classicists have, on the whole, never been very comfortable with the anonymous, and this anxiety may indeed surface in "aesthetic condemnation".' 3 Note that Housman himself ended up editing Manilius instead of Propertius, and cf. Goold 1988: 29, suggesting that he may have been motivated by 'a growing awareness that further progress with this difficult author [Propertius] would compel him to admit uncertainty where previously he had claimed to have attained finality, whereas in the newly-found Manilius he had discovered a field where he could gain secure triumphs'.

2021, The Royal Mail of the Underworld: notes on two curse tablets from Aquincum

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2021

2020, Moretum 20: an emendation

Prometheus, 2020

I argue that servabat at Moretum 20 quam [sc. tabellam] fixam paries illos servabat in usus canno... more

2020, Apollonius Rhodius 1.103: an emendation

Prometheus, 2020

At A.R. 1.103 the epithet defining ὁδόν is variously transmitted as κοινήν, κεινήν or κείνην; rat... more

2020, Catalepton 9 and Valgius Rufus

T.E. Franklinos, L. Fulkerson (eds.), Constructing Authors and Readers in the Appendices Vergiliana, Tibulliana, and Ovidiana (Oxford, OUP, 2020), 2020

The chapter explores connections between Catalepton 9, an anonymous elegy from the Appendix Vergi... more The chapter explores connections between Catalepton 9, an anonymous elegy from the Appendix Vergiliana, and Valgius Rufus, a poet of the late Republican and early Augustan period, of whose poetic output only a few fragments survive: it is suggested that either Catalepton 9 closely engages with Valgius’ poetry or is possibly a work of his. A date of composition of about 36 BC was tentatively proposed for Catalepton 9 in Kayachev (2016a). In the present chapter, three further lines of argument are developed. First, the Panegyricus Messallae alludes to Catalepton 9 in a context that may imply Valgius’ authorship. Second, a favourable comparison of Messalla with Nestor in Catalepton 9 is related to a Valgius fragment. Third, Catalepton 9 presents itself as a preface poem introducing Latin translations of Messalla’s Greek bucolics. Although none of this amounts to a definitive proof of Valgius’ authorship, the evidence seems to point in that direction.

2020, The poet’s ivy: Nicander, Georgica fr. 74.17–24

Classical Quarterly, 2020

Like most other fragments of Nicander's Georgica, fragment 74 is preserved by Athenaeus, who pres... more Like most other fragments of Nicander's Georgica, fragment 74 is preserved by Athenaeus, who presents it as a catalogue of flowers used for making wreaths (15.683a Νίκανδρος δ' ἐν δευτέρῳ Γεωργικῶν καταλέγων καὶ αὐτὸς στεφανωτικὰ ἄνθη). ¹ Transmitted in the only independent manuscript of the fuller text of Athenaeus (A, cod. Ven. Marc. 447), the fragment's text is extremely corrupt, which, coupled with its technical subject matter and intricate style, renders its restoration an arduous and uncertain job. ² In what follows I challenge the established reconstruction and interpretation of the section dealing with the ivy, and propose my own instead. I begin by printing the whole section in Gow and Scholfield's version, along with their apparatus (slightly adjusted) and translation (fr. 74.17-24): ³ * I should like to thank CQ's anonymous reviewer for their valuable suggestions. ¹ For a general discussion of Nicander's fragment, esp. in its relationship to Meleager, see A. Lai, 'Στεφανωτικὰ ἄνθη in Meleagro e Nicandro' , Lexis 12 (1994), 107-16, though it does not specifically focus on the ivy. ² Cf. in general I. Cazzaniga, 'Osservazioni critico-testuali ad alcuni passi delle Georgiche nicandree' ,

2022, Non-discontinuous adjective-noun phrases in Latin poetry: preliminary observations

Journal of Latin Linguistics , 2022

In many respects Latin poetry deviates from the linguistic norms of prose; such deviations are of... more In many respects Latin poetry deviates from the linguistic norms of prose; such deviations are often attributed to non-linguistic factors, with the result that the language of Latin poetry is more often studied by literary scholars than by linguists. A frequent poetic phenomenon are discontinuous adjectivenoun phrases, which tend to be explained by appeal to various artistic considerations. The present contribution argues that syntactic discontinuity in poetry is not arbitrary, but is subject to linguistic constraints, which are largely the same as in prose. By scrutinising 120 non-discontinuous adjective-noun phrases in the Ciris (out of a total of 531 adjective-noun phrases), it is demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of such phrases fall into a number of specific syntactic and semantic categories, while outside these categories discontinuity appears to be the rule.

2020, Moretum 8: an emendation

Glotta, 2020

The paper argues that Scaliger's widely accepted conjecture fomes for fumus at Moretum 8 produces... more

2018, Moretum 70: an emendation

Symbolae Osloenses, 2018

I argue that Moretum 70 uicinosque apte cura summittere riuos should be restored as uicinosque ap... more

2018, Ciris 478: an emendation

Invigilata Lucernis, 2018

The paper argues that Ciris 478 incertis iactatur ad omnia uentis is corrupt and, building upon B... more

2017, The sphragis of Virgil’s Georgics: constructing identity through intertextuality

Self-Presentation and Identity in the Roman World, 2017

2019, Oceanus and Orphic allusion in Callimachus and Catullus

Classical Philology, 2019

2019, Ciris 156: an emendation

Classical Philology, 2019

2019, Ciris 471: a conjecture

Hermes, 2019

The paper proposes to restore Ciris 471–2 hinc uenus illi | sunius by accepting Heyne’s Sunion fo... more

2018, Ciris 118: an emendation

Eos, 2018

The paper argues that Ciris 118 should be restored as "reicere [heinSiuS: dicere HAR: ducere ρ: d... more

2018, Ciris 265: an emendation

Classical Quarterly, 2018

2022, The new Orphic fragments from Mount Sinai: a rereading

Archiv für Papyrusforschung , 2022

The article offers a rereading of recently published fragments of an Orphic poem discovered in a ... more The article offers a rereading of recently published fragments of an Orphic poem discovered in a palimpsest from the library of St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai (Sin. ar. NF 66). In particular, it establishes that fragments 1-2 narrate a scene from Aphrodite's catabasis to the underworld in search for Dionysus, as well as clarifying details of the account of the Titans' attempt to lure Dionysus out in fragments 3-4.

2020, Emendations in the Einsiedeln eclogues

Mnemosyne, 2020

2020, [Tibullus] 3.7.175: an emendation

Classical Quarterly, 2020

2013, Ciris 80: an emendation

Hermathena, 2013

At 66-88 the Ciris recounts several alternative versions of the origin of the Homeric Scylla. The... more At 66-88 the Ciris recounts several alternative versions of the origin of the Homeric Scylla. The last one is that Scylla was a prostitute and was transformed into the sea monster because she offended Venus (77-88). While the text of the concluding five lines (84-8) is corrupt almost beyond the point of intelligibility, the first seven lines of the passage appear generally clear (77-83): seu uero, ut perhibent, forma cum uinceret omnes et cupidos quaestu passim popularet amantes, piscibus et canibusque malis uallata repente est, horribiles circum uidit se sistere formas 80 (heu quotiens mirata nouos expalluit artus, ipsa suos quotiens heu pertimuit latratus), ausa quod est mulier numen fraudare deorum… Or else indeed (or so they say), as she exceeded all women in beauty and plundered her lecherous lovers with fees all over the place, she was suddenly fenced with fishes and violent dogs, she saw terrible figures surround her (oh, how many times she grew pale looking in astonishment at her new body parts, oh, how many times she was scared by her own barking!), for she, a woman, had dared to defraud the mighty gods.

2021, Conjectural emendation in the Appendix Vergiliana: the case of the Moretum

B. Kayachev (ed.), Poems Without Poets: Approaches to Anonymous Ancient Poetry, 2021

In a paper on the text of the Culex Housman (1902: 339) wrote: The authors of the Culex and Ciris... more In a paper on the text of the Culex Housman (1902: 339) wrote: The authors of the Culex and Ciris and Aetna were mediocre poets, and worse; and the gods and men and booksellers whom they affronted by existing allotted them for transcription to worse than mediocre scribes. The Ciris was indited by a twaddler, and the Culex and Aetna by stutterers: but what they stuttered and twaddled was Latin, not double-Dutch; and great part of it is now double-Dutch, and Latin no more. […] Many a time it is impossible to say for certain where the badness of the author ends and the badness of the scribe begins. And many a time, when the guilt is firmly saddled on the copyist, there is no more to be done except sit down and sigh […] Here then, between poets capable of much and copyists capable of anything, is a promising field for the exercise of tact and caution: a prudent editor will be slow to emend the text and slow to defend it, and his page will bristle with the obelus. 1 Note for instance Tarrant 2016: 123, who applies Housman's maxim to the editing of Propertius. 2 I leave the question of the artistic quality of the anonymous poems collected in the Appendix largely outside the current discussion; but I do think that Hunter's (2002: 91) account of the situation in which anonymous texts often find themselves is not inapplicable in the present case: 'The "authorless" text (or that which is judged so) has, on the whole, received a cold reception from classicists; for reasons which lie deep in the heart of the history of the subject, classicists have, on the whole, never been very comfortable with the anonymous, and this anxiety may indeed surface in "aesthetic condemnation".' 3 Note that Housman himself ended up editing Manilius instead of Propertius, and cf. Goold 1988: 29, suggesting that he may have been motivated by 'a growing awareness that further progress with this difficult author [Propertius] would compel him to admit uncertainty where previously he had claimed to have attained finality, whereas in the newly-found Manilius he had discovered a field where he could gain secure triumphs'.

2021, The Royal Mail of the Underworld: notes on two curse tablets from Aquincum

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2021

2020, Moretum 20: an emendation

Prometheus, 2020

I argue that servabat at Moretum 20 quam [sc. tabellam] fixam paries illos servabat in usus canno... more

2020, Apollonius Rhodius 1.103: an emendation

Prometheus, 2020

At A.R. 1.103 the epithet defining ὁδόν is variously transmitted as κοινήν, κεινήν or κείνην; rat... more

2020, Catalepton 9 and Valgius Rufus

T.E. Franklinos, L. Fulkerson (eds.), Constructing Authors and Readers in the Appendices Vergiliana, Tibulliana, and Ovidiana (Oxford, OUP, 2020), 2020

The chapter explores connections between Catalepton 9, an anonymous elegy from the Appendix Vergi... more The chapter explores connections between Catalepton 9, an anonymous elegy from the Appendix Vergiliana, and Valgius Rufus, a poet of the late Republican and early Augustan period, of whose poetic output only a few fragments survive: it is suggested that either Catalepton 9 closely engages with Valgius’ poetry or is possibly a work of his. A date of composition of about 36 BC was tentatively proposed for Catalepton 9 in Kayachev (2016a). In the present chapter, three further lines of argument are developed. First, the Panegyricus Messallae alludes to Catalepton 9 in a context that may imply Valgius’ authorship. Second, a favourable comparison of Messalla with Nestor in Catalepton 9 is related to a Valgius fragment. Third, Catalepton 9 presents itself as a preface poem introducing Latin translations of Messalla’s Greek bucolics. Although none of this amounts to a definitive proof of Valgius’ authorship, the evidence seems to point in that direction.

2020, The poet’s ivy: Nicander, Georgica fr. 74.17–24

Classical Quarterly, 2020

Like most other fragments of Nicander's Georgica, fragment 74 is preserved by Athenaeus, who pres... more Like most other fragments of Nicander's Georgica, fragment 74 is preserved by Athenaeus, who presents it as a catalogue of flowers used for making wreaths (15.683a Νίκανδρος δ' ἐν δευτέρῳ Γεωργικῶν καταλέγων καὶ αὐτὸς στεφανωτικὰ ἄνθη). ¹ Transmitted in the only independent manuscript of the fuller text of Athenaeus (A, cod. Ven. Marc. 447), the fragment's text is extremely corrupt, which, coupled with its technical subject matter and intricate style, renders its restoration an arduous and uncertain job. ² In what follows I challenge the established reconstruction and interpretation of the section dealing with the ivy, and propose my own instead. I begin by printing the whole section in Gow and Scholfield's version, along with their apparatus (slightly adjusted) and translation (fr. 74.17-24): ³ * I should like to thank CQ's anonymous reviewer for their valuable suggestions. ¹ For a general discussion of Nicander's fragment, esp. in its relationship to Meleager, see A. Lai, 'Στεφανωτικὰ ἄνθη in Meleagro e Nicandro' , Lexis 12 (1994), 107-16, though it does not specifically focus on the ivy. ² Cf. in general I. Cazzaniga, 'Osservazioni critico-testuali ad alcuni passi delle Georgiche nicandree' ,

2022, Non-discontinuous adjective-noun phrases in Latin poetry: preliminary observations

Journal of Latin Linguistics , 2022

In many respects Latin poetry deviates from the linguistic norms of prose; such deviations are of... more In many respects Latin poetry deviates from the linguistic norms of prose; such deviations are often attributed to non-linguistic factors, with the result that the language of Latin poetry is more often studied by literary scholars than by linguists. A frequent poetic phenomenon are discontinuous adjectivenoun phrases, which tend to be explained by appeal to various artistic considerations. The present contribution argues that syntactic discontinuity in poetry is not arbitrary, but is subject to linguistic constraints, which are largely the same as in prose. By scrutinising 120 non-discontinuous adjective-noun phrases in the Ciris (out of a total of 531 adjective-noun phrases), it is demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of such phrases fall into a number of specific syntactic and semantic categories, while outside these categories discontinuity appears to be the rule.

2020, Moretum 8: an emendation

Glotta, 2020

The paper argues that Scaliger's widely accepted conjecture fomes for fumus at Moretum 8 produces... more

2018, Moretum 70: an emendation

Symbolae Osloenses, 2018

I argue that Moretum 70 uicinosque apte cura summittere riuos should be restored as uicinosque ap... more

2018, Ciris 478: an emendation

Invigilata Lucernis, 2018

The paper argues that Ciris 478 incertis iactatur ad omnia uentis is corrupt and, building upon B... more

2017, The sphragis of Virgil’s Georgics: constructing identity through intertextuality

Self-Presentation and Identity in the Roman World, 2017

2019, Oceanus and Orphic allusion in Callimachus and Catullus

Classical Philology, 2019

2019, Ciris 156: an emendation

Classical Philology, 2019

2019, Ciris 471: a conjecture

Hermes, 2019

The paper proposes to restore Ciris 471–2 hinc uenus illi | sunius by accepting Heyne’s Sunion fo... more

2018, Ciris 118: an emendation

Eos, 2018

The paper argues that Ciris 118 should be restored as "reicere [heinSiuS: dicere HAR: ducere ρ: d... more

2018, Ciris 265: an emendation

Classical Quarterly, 2018

Lydia, a Poem from the Appendix Vergiliana: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commentary

Oxford University Press, 2023

This volume offers the first comprehensive literary and philological commentary on the Lydia, in ... more This volume offers the first comprehensive literary and philological commentary on the Lydia, in any language. At its core is a freshly edited Latin text of the poem, which systematically reconsiders the paradosis as well as earlier textual scholarship and endorses numerous improvements against current editions. Besides scrutinizing all the textual problems and adopted solutions, the commentary provides a thorough linguistic exegesis of the text as well as a wide-ranging discussion of the poem's rich intertextuality, both Latin and Greek. The Lydia's literary side is also the main focus in the introduction, which challenges the established communis opinio that views the Lydia as a dateless anonymous imitation of Virgilian bucolic, by situating it in the literary context of the Late Republic: it highlights, for the first time, the centrality of Greek bucolic, in particular of Bion's Lament for Adonis and the anonymous Lament for Bion, in the Lydia's literary genealogy and tentatively revives the old attribution to Valerius Cato, as well as exploring the poem's relationship with its better-known sibling, the Dirae. The work is complete with an English translation, aimed to serve as a guide to the Latin text for readers without a solid background in the ancient language.

2016, Allusion and Allegory: Studies in the Ciris

Poems Without Poets (conference programme)

POEMS WITHOUT POETS (conference poster)

INVIGILATA LVCERNIS 2018 n. 40

by EDIPUGLIA srl, Joop van Waarden, Boris Kayachev, Andrea Favuzzi, and Sara Fascione

INVIGILATA LVCERNIS 2018 n. 40, 2018

DESCRIZIONE Graziana Brescia Oleno e Letea. Destini di pietra nella fabula ovidiana di Orfeo Cl... more DESCRIZIONE

Graziana Brescia
Oleno e Letea. Destini di pietra nella fabula ovidiana di Orfeo

Clotilde Craca
Clitennestra. Clitennestre

Sara Fascione
Retorica e realtà: i barbari di Sidonio Apollinare

Andrea Favuzzi
Dionigi di Alicarnasso nel Lessico Suda: nuovi frammenti

Boris Kayachev
Ciris 478: an emendation

Mario Lentano
Adottare un antenato. Genealogie iconografiche da Roma antica alla prima età moderna

Ana Maria Lóio
Who’s that girl? A matter of gender in Statius’ Silvae 4,8

Grazia Maria Masselli
Leopardi vs Virgilio: il ‘caso’ Enea

Maria Stefania Montecalvo
Percorsi e fortuna della scienza greca nella Roma repubblicana

Alessia Maria Scalera
Il racconto ovidiano e la sua cornice: strategie diegetiche nell’episodio di Filemone e Bauci

Marisa Squillante
Vanescentium litterarum vestigia…

Annick Stoehr-Monjou
Le rôle du poète dans la Gaule du Ve siècle: Sidoine Apollinaire et son public

Luciano Traversa
Nec solum civis sed etiam amici officio revocor. Il dilemma di Brindisi nelle lettere ad Attico del 49

Joop Van Waarden
«Il tempo invecchia in fretta»: la biografia di Sidonio Apollinare nella sua corrispondenza

Étienne Wolff
Martial et les guerres civiles

Étienne Wolff
Qui était André Loyen, l’éditeur français de Sidoine Apollinaire?