• 1 For more information about the order of Callimachus’s hymns, see Stephens S. A., Seeing Double: Int (...)
• 2 Cahen E., , París, 1961, p. 207–209.
• 3 Montes Cala J. G., “Afinidades y contrastes de estructura en los himnos V y VI de Calímaco,” Anales (...)
• 4 See Diogenian. 1, 5, 58 and Greg. Cyp. 1, 2, 81 (Leutsch E. L. v., Schneidewin F. W., and Latte K., (...)

1The hymn dedicated to Zeus opens Callimachus’s collection of poetry.1 Fundamentally, this text, as Cahen has shown,2 contains fewer religious elements than the poems dedicated to Apollo, Athena, and Demeter, with their obvious mimetic function, and has no discernable ritual aspect. As Montes Cala has demonstrated, the Hymn to Zeus is a ninety-six-verse poem with a linear structure, relating mythical episodes as a chronological succession of events.3 Much has already been written about the intention of the hymn. Some scholars claim that the poem is an encomium of the Olympian god with philosophical overtones, in the tradition of Cleantes’s Hymn to Zeus, along with many other intertexts that can be traced within the Callimachean verses, for example the Homeric Hymn to Zeus (23), Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, Aratus’s Phaenomena, Antagoras of Rhodes’s Hymn to Eros, Hesiod’s Works and Days (96), and Theocritus’s Encomium of Ptolemy Philadelphus (Id. 17). For Cahen, however, the hymn focuses mainly on a scholarly discussion of the birth of Zeus and on an encomium of the young Ptolemy Philadelphus. He also posits that the poem is ultimately a poetic discussion of the divine right of kings. In any case, what is clear is that the context for the Hymn to Zeus is a private symposium in which the Arcadian version of the birth of the Olympian god is preferred to the Cretan version, as Callimachus himself makes clear in the opening lines of the poem (v. 8: ‘Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται’).4

• 5 Stephens S. A., Callimachus: The Hymns, Oxford, 2015, p. 48.
• 6 I am here using a broad interpretation of the concept of metamorphosis as found in Buxton (Buxton R (...)

2Callimachus, the unrivalled master of Hellenistic poetry, delves into the mythological tradition to unearth different versions of the same story, in this case the birth and upbringing of Zeus. However, as is the Cyrenian poet’s custom, he opts for the more obscure version of the myth.5 Thus, after reminding the reader of the two competing narratives, Callimachus chooses to situate the birth of the god in Arcadia, specifically in the Parrhasian region. After the inuocatio, characteristic of the tripartite structure of hymns from the Homeric Hymns onward, the aretalogy begins. Callimachus narrates how Zeus’s birth took place and how his mother, Rhea, after giving birth, needed a stream of water in order to wash the child and herself. In the absence of any spring or stream, Rhea decided to transform the Parrhasian landscape where she had just given birth to the Olympian god. This is the first metamorphic process6 encountered in Callimachus’s hymnic work (Hy. 1, 29–32), if we accept the hypothesis that this composition is the first of the Cyrenian poet’s career in Alexandria (circa 280 BC):

• 8 It is also noteworthy that in the Orphic Hymns, Rhea is also related to the management of rivers an (...)

3Little scholarly attention seems to have been paid to the appearance of Rhea and the creation of the river Neda,8 at least in terms of connecting both mythical events with other metamorphic legends. It is true that this section derives from the Hesiodic account of the Cretan birth of Zeus (Th. 477–484), but it is also interesting that there is no reference in Hesiod to the river that Rhea creates in the Callimachean hymn. Even though, as McLennan maintains, ‘the sudden appearance of water from the rocky terrain of Arcadia is, and was, a documented phenomenon,’ according to accounts by Pausanias (8, 20, 1) and Strabo (8, 8, 4), here Callimachus opts for a less mundane account: The creation of the river is caused by the presence of a divinity (dea ex machina), as this was the only way for the Cyrenian poet to connect Zeus’s birth with the birth of the river. Callimachus’s foremost priority here is thus the aition relating to nature, Arcadian geography, and the sacred rituals established there.

• 9 Apollonius’s poetic inspiration for this passage may have been Callimachus and his treatment of Rhe (...)
• 10 This type of narrative is not exclusive to the Hymn to Zeus and or this section of the Argonautica: (...)

4This is not a metamorphosis as traditionally conceived, because the goddess does not transform herself or turn into another being. In this instance, Rhea creates or transforms the natural landscape of this particular region of Arcadia. Callimachus’s inclusion of this particular mythical variant is clearly intended to explain the origin and name of the river Neda. His erudite interest is evident here, since he seeks to unite the geographical location, the etiological component, and the mythical element in a single verse. Thus, what is significant here is not only that Rhea is the mother of a god and all this implies in the passage, but also her metamorphic power, because this prodigious capacity results in the rise of the new river from which the consequent cultic aition derives, and which is also related to the nature and geography of Arcadia. Most editors of the Callimachean text have devoted a brief note to the manifest similarity between this passage and the passage concerning Rhea in Apollonius’s Argonautica (1, 1142–1149).9 Rhea, in the presence of the Argonauts, transforms the Dindymon region, bringing forth a new spring called Jasonia, in honor of the Thessalonian hero. The similarities with the Callimachean text are quite noticeable. First, the divinity who accomplishes the metamorphosis is the same (Rhea), in both cases the goddess transforms a natural site (Dindymon or Arcadia), and the reason the goddess creates a new spring (Apollonius) or a new river (Callimachus) is that no water flows in either of these places. Hence the two aitia.10

• 11 Clauss J. J., The Best of the Argonauts: The Redefinition of the Epic Hero in Book 1 of Apollonius’ (...)
• 12 On this matter, it should be remarked that in the Orphic Hymns Rhea is also described as σκηπτοῦχος (...)
• 13 As McLennan (McLennan G. R., Callimachus: Hymn to Zeus, Rome, 1977, p. 64) has noted, this verb is (...)

5In addition, both authors mention another metamorphic episode that takes place in the same region: the zoological metamorphosis of Callisto, Lycaon’s daughter. As Clauss states,11 Apollonius calls the mountains near the spring οὔρεσιν Ἄρκτων (1, 1150), relating the story to the bear Callisto, as does Callimachus with Λυκαονίης ἄρκτοιο (Hy. 1, 41). This justifies the Callimachean fragment’s inclusion alongside typical accounts of metamorphoses, if we consider the constituent elements of the passage, since a divinity appears as the transforming agent and the goddess makes use of an object, the scepter (σκήπτρῳ),12 with which she executes the transformation of the natural landscape, as can also be read in other metamorphic accounts. Relevant examples include the stories of Hermes and Battus (Ant.Lib. 33), Hermes and the Minyades (Ant.Lib. 10), Artemis and the Meleagrids (Ant.Lib. 2), Apollo and Cragaleus (Ant.Lib. 4), and that of Zeus and Periphas (Ant.Lib. 6). All of these legends within Antoninus Liberalis’s collection of metamorphoses have manifest Hellenistic antecedents. Moreover, in terms of the form of the passages, the usual breuitas or the use of the aorist, in the case of the verb ἔχεεν,13 together with the etiological ending support my hypothesis.

• 14 Cf. Hes. Th. 383-403 and 775-856.
• 15 Servius, on the other hand, in his commentary on the Georgics (111, 93) states that it was Philyra (...)

6This transformation of the natural landscape of Arcadia, through which the aition emerges, evinces one of the most significant formal aspects of metamorphosis narratives, namely the blending of genres so prevalent in Hellenistic and Imperial literature. Here, in particular, I would like to focus on the influence of etiology within this metamorphic passage, as occurs in other Callimachean examples within the same collection. It should be noted that Neda was the nymph to whom Rhea entrusts the task of taking Zeus to Crete, explaining how the river got its name, in honor of and in gratitude to the Arcadian nymph (vv. 37-38: ἀλλὰ τὸ χεῦμα / κεῖνο Νέδην ὀνόμηνε). Callimachus, embracing the opportunity offered by locating the story in the Arcadian region, includes other references to metamorphic episodes that occurred there, which simultaneously reinforce the prodigious aura of the fragment. After the mention of Styx, Oceanus’s river nymph daughter—identified by Hesiod with the Stygian lake of Hades itself14—some other mythical references with aquatic connections appear: Philyra and Nereus. As is well known, Philyra was one of Cronus’s lovers, with the god metamorphosing into a horse15 in order to flee after their sexual encounter, and Nereus was a sea god who, like many aquatic divinities, enjoyed metamorphic powers.

• 16 Stephens, op. cit., p. 64.
• 17 If we consider the meaning of ‘sexual encounter’ that the verb has in its passive form in certain c (...)
• 18 Hopkinson N., Callimachus: Hymn to Demeter, Cambridge, 1984, p. 125. As to the legendary character (...)

7According to Stephens,16 in Callimachus the character of Nereus not only functions as a metonymy for the sea, but also shows the god in his anthropomorphic form, which would in turn explain the use of the verbal form συμφέρεται alluding to a possible sexual union between Nereus and Neda.17 Moreover, to further emphasize the metamorphic character of the passage, the Cyrenian poet ends the Arcadian section of the hymn with an allusion to the metamorphosis of Callisto, daughter of the Arcadian king Lycaon, into a constellation of stars. Next, Callimachus continues the narratio with the journey from Tena to Knossos, where the nymph Neda takes Zeus. Hopkinson stresses the intertextual relationship of this passage with the Iliad through the appearance of the homonymous legendary king Lycaon of Arcadia, son of Priam, who dies at the hands of Achilles in the Homeric epic.18 This highlights the erudite compositional approach espoused by the Cyrenian poet since he ‘transforms a typical Homeric moment of war and death into the production of life and water that sustains life.’ It is precisely the idea of producing and sustaining life that once again links this Callimachean passage with the concept of metamorphosis itself, because in many cases the transformation of mythological or legendary characters or even of places and objects—in line with the more comprehensive concept of metamorphosis embraced here—is a form of creation or perpetuation of the world, here of the river Neda and more broadly the origin of the Arcadian people.

• 19 See Ruiz de Elvira A., Mitología Clásica, Madrid, 1982 (p. 53, 93, 98, 112, 249, 330, 447, 470, 473 (...)
• 20 Hesiod, according to Apollodorus, believed Callisto to be a nymph (3, 100, 1–2). Other sources clai (...)
• 21 However, Aratus offers a radically different version in Phaenomena (vv. 30-37). He preserves the tr (...)
• 22 Hesiod (fr. 163 M.-W. [Merkelbach R. and West M. L., Fragmenta Hesioda, Oxford, 1967] = 115 Fernánd (...)

8Therefore, the choice of the Arcadian version of the myth of Zeus’s birth not only allows Callimachus to establish the identity of the Arcadians and eulogise the region in comparison to the traditional Hesiodic account of Crete, but also allows him to weave further mythical episodes related to metamorphosis around this geographical location, in particular that of the bear Callisto. According to the traditional version of the myth,19 Callisto, an Arcadian princess, is part of Artemis’s entourage, but Zeus becomes obsessed with her and, taking the guise of Artemis as a way of getting closer to the young woman, manages to have sex with her.20 Artemis then discovers that Callisto is pregnant and expels her from her entourage. Next, the Arcadian princess is pursued by Hera’s choleric jealousy and ends up transformed into a bear.21 Some versions have Zeus himself perform the zoological metamorphosis in order to hide Callisto from his wife, while others have Artemis initiating this metamorphosis.22 The crucial point here is that the metamorphosis offers Callimachus the opportunity to return to the origins of the Arcadian people, who are, in short, descendants (υἱωνοί) of the literary figures of Lycaon and Callisto. And so, the poet once again constructs a new aition, stemming from the prodigious tale of Callisto’s metamorphosis and explaining the origin of the Arcadian people (Hy., 37-41):

• 23 I refer here to the fact that Callimachus makes an erudite allusion to the transformation of this m (...)
• 24 Sch. Il. 18.487 deserves particular attention as it mentions that Callimachus wrote a story about C (...)
• 25 Henrichs A., “Gods in action: The poetics of divine performance in the Hymns of Callimachus,” in M. (...)
• 26 Sch. Call. Hy. 1, 41: Λυκαονίης ἄρκτοιο τῆς πρῴην λεγομένης Καλλιστοῦς, Λυκάονος θυγατρός· ἐξ ἧς κα (...)

9This implicit reference to Callisto’s zoological metamorphosis (v. 41: Λυκαονίης ἄρκτοιο)23 in the poem not only aligns with the prodigious atmosphere of the passage itself and with the offering of the expected final aition, but, as McLennan argues, Callimachus was presumably referencing the version of the legend in which Callisto is transformed by Zeus24 because it would give more prominence to the Olympian god himself. This notion is perfectly aligned with the function of divinity within the collection. The gods in the hymns, as Henrichs rightly argues,25 are always poised to intervene and participate more actively than divinities in other Greek religious poetry, such as the Homeric hymns, the Pindaric epinicia, or even the tragic texts. This may thus explain why Callimachus chose Zeus as the agent of Callisto’s metamorphosis, one of the few divine exploits mentioned in the poem. As for the participation of Zeus in Callisto’s story, the scholium26 goes even further, completing the Callimachean mythical data by explaining that Zeus takes the form of Artemis (Διὸς μεταβληθέντος εἰς Ἄρτεμιν) in order to convince Callisto to have sex and that, as a result, Arcas, eponymous hero of the Arcadians (γενννᾶται ὁ Ἀρκάς, ἀφ' οὗ οἱ Ἀρκάδες) was born. This is a very appropriate mythological note, in line with Callimachus’s aim in this passage, given the metamorphic story and marked etiological ending.

• 27 Clauss, op. cit., p. 169–172.

11Callimachus’s line (Λυκαονίης ἄρκτοιο) seems natural because the whole narratio is contextualized in the Arcadian region, and so the brief mention of Callisto’s metamorphosis and the resulting aition fit perfectly within the passage. But, in Apollonius’s case, the answer is not that simple. Why did the Rhodian poet introduce the same mythological reference in a totally different geographical context? Clauss has highlighted that Apollonius calls the mountains near the spring Jasonia οὔρεσιν Ἄρκτων (A.Rh. 1, 1150), seemingly following the Callimachean verse that ends the narration of the creation of the river Neda.27 This is the most reasonable explanation, because the episode of the Jasonian spring actually takes place in Dindymon (Asia Minor), far away from the place where Callisto’s metamorphosis into a bear occurred. If this passage is not read in connection with the Callimachean text, it is unclear why this zoological reference is included in the Argonautica, since the locations, Arcadia and Dindymon, are distant from one another.

• 28 D’Alessio, op. cit. On the concepts of etiology and etymology, see Valverde Sánchez M., El aition e (...)

12In addition to what Clauss has already stated about the influence of Callimachus’s version, it is possible that not only is Apollonius alluding here to the Callimachean text, by way of borrowing or even literary homage, but that the combination of a goddess (Rhea/Cybele) with the transformation of a landscape (Arcadia/Dindymon), the resulting aitia, as well as the exhortative function of the goddess can contribute to the reading of both passages in relation to metamorphic literature. In both Callimachus and Apollonius, Rhea offers divine help. In the Apollonian fragment, the desert landscape of Dindymon means the Argonauts are unable to drink or cool themselves down, hence the divine help and the Jasonian spring. The same happens in Callimachus’s text, since the absence of water in Parrhasia provokes the divine intervention and the creation of river Neda, which also offers water to the Apidanei, inhabitants of the Peloponnese. According to D’Alessio, the term Apidanei is etymologically related to the form ἀ-πῖδαξ (deprived of spring) and πίνειν (to drink), recalling the divinity’s generosity to the region.28

• 29 Henrichs, op. cit., p. 132.

13To conclude, all of these arguments support the idea, in line with Henrichs’s reflections,29 that in the Hymn to Zeus Callimachus prioritizes the origin of river Neda —as well as the legendary past and, in particular, the metamorphic past via the figures of Lycaon and Callisto—over the birth of Zeus, which appears to be a mere pretext for Callimachus to focus on what he is really interested in: the combination of diverse literary elements that come from different genres and (micro)genres such as metamorphosis, etiology, geography, and even (pseudo)history.