American Journal of Philology

Abstract:

This article aims to demonstrate that the extant fragment from De piscibus (101 hexameters, Heitsch, Griechischen Dichterfragmente der römischen Kaiserzeit 63), which was part of the medical corpus of the Greek physician Marcellus of Side (second century c.e.), should not be considered merely pedagogical, as has been the prevailing view so far. In his approach, structure, lexical originality and style Marcellus strives to be a true didactic epicist, in the vein of his Hellenistic model Nicander of Colophon, and in acknowledgement of Hesiod, the fountainhead of didactic epic. The view that Marcellus should be considered an artful poet, concerned with literary aesthetics, is corroborated by an allusion to Hes. Op. 519, which has thus far gone unnoticed.