The Epics in the Late Antiquities

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The epic poetry in the broader sense, by which is meant all the poetry written in the dactylic hexameter, is the mainstream throughout the Classic literature, both in Greek and Latin. However the poems in the late antiquities are not widely read nor necessarily investigated. This project is a survey of these poems with a historical perspective.We are accustomed to classify the epic poems into three genres : the epic in the narrower sense like Iliad or Aeneid, the didactic poetry like Work and Days, and the bucolics. This classification goes back to a comment of Servius. It is basically reasonable, but at the same time should be carefully treated. Whether the classical poets themselves were conscious of the classification and, if so, to what extent, must be asked afresh.The didactic poetry is the most difficult genre to appreciate of the three classes. It does not seem to have the rigid principle about how to construct the whole poem, and even worse, it does not seem to intend to teach something seriously in spite of its pretension. The Phenomena of Aratus is crucial for the development of the didactic poetry afterwards. Some characteristics of Hesiod, for example, catalogs or maxims, are intentionally modified by Aratus. All the followers, Nicander, Virgil, Lucretius and Manilius, are under influence of him, positively or negatively. The same is true about the epic (in the narrower sense) poems too, like Lucan.All the hexametric lines are calculated in number, and some minor works are described for the first time in Japanese in this report.