The Shelves · Epic and hexameter poetry

Hecale

Ἑκάλη

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely class

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Epic and hexameter poetry: “short epic (epyllion)”

Conjecturedvery likely class

Callimachus of Cyrene

c. 305–240 BCE. The great poet of the Ptolemaic court (Aitia, Hymns, Hecale, Iambi, epigrams) and the compiler of the Pinakes, a 120-book bio-bibliography of Greek literature. The papyrus list of heads does not name him, and he was probably never head; the Latin Scholium Plautinum calls him royal librarian.

Hecale

Ἑκάλη

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in fragments

About 1,000-1,500 lines originally; some 300 fragments survive, the longest on a late-antique wooden tablet in Vienna.

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Written in Alexandria.

In the cupboard: written at Alexandria by a scholar or court writer a source places there.

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III · In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this work.

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (2)
  • Suda (many short quotations)
  • Vienna wooden tablet (Rainer collection)
Modern scholarship
  • A. S. Hollis, Callimachus: Hecale, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

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Beside it in the cupboard