SOURCE: Tarán, Sonya Lida. “Erotic Epigrams: The KΩMOΣ and the ΠAPAKΛAYΣITYPON.” In The Art of Variation in the Heroic Epigram, pp. 52, 92-114. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1979.

In the following excerpt, Tarán provides a close reading of several of Meleager's epigrams, focusing on his unique combination of traditional Greek motifs. Tarán also traces the influence of preceding epigrammatists on the author.

In his commentary on Herodas 2.34, Walter Headlam¹ describes in these words the Greek and Roman custom of the κῶμος: “The practice of young men in the evening after their wine (when sufficiently drunk) sallying forth alone or in bands ἐπì κώμων, comissatum, accompanied sometimes with flute-girls, to the house of friends, usually of women, with the garlands they had worn already at dessert, and pipes, and torches. They would beg to be admitted, singing a serenade παρακλαυσίθυρον, a form of αὔλησις accompanied by a dance”. This serenade...