The Lock of Berenice

Abstract

The third chapter discusses a moment of profound crisis in Seleucid history: the dynastic strife between the two wives of Antiochus II resulting in the Third Syrian War. It argues that Callimachus’ Lock of Berenice can be read as a poetic commentary on a key moment of crisis for the Seleucid Empire, in that it subtly contrasts the failure of a Seleucid dynastic marriage with the success of the Ptolemaic royal couple, which is placed in an unbroken tradition that reaches back via Arsinoe II and Ptolemy II to Berenice I and Ptolemy I. In the second part of the chapter, it is argued that Callimachus exploits Ptolemaic royal propaganda to cast the Seleucids as the heirs of the Persians and other Eastern empires, rather than a Greek kingdom. The final part of the chapter draws out the broader poetic implications of anti-Seleucid polemic by looking at the Aetia and the Hymn to Apollo.