• hellenistic poetry
• hymn
• Demeter
• edition
• fragments
• Philicus of Corcyra

This work provides a new edition of Philicus’ fragments with introduction and detailed commentary. The aim of this research was to reconsider some aspects of Hellenistic lyric poetry: the introduction to the text of the fragments examines the sources about the life of the author and provides a new analysis of the context of his works. A new arrangement of Philicus’ fragments has been proposed in this edition. In particular, only the first verse quoted by Hephaestion (SH 676) and the verses transmitted by PSI 1282 have been attributed to the hymn to Demeter (PSI 1282). The second verse (SH 677) quoted by Hephaestion have been instead combined with a papyrus published in 1974, which contains parts of some choriambic verses (SH 993). This work offers a new critical edition of the fragments with a detailed philological and, where necessary, papyrological apparatus. This edition is based also on a new inspection of the papyrus (PSI 1282), which is preserved at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, where I could see it on 29 June 2020. This commentary is not complete, but it concerns only frr. A, B1, B2, B3, B4 vv. 1-28. In the commentary to the text I have addressed not only its philological and linguistic issues but also the many and complex references to religion and, in particular, to the cult of Demeter.