Der Tod des Zauberers: Die Orpheus-epigramme in der Anthologia Palatina

The article deals with three epigrams found in the Anthologia Palatina relating to the Orpheus myth. The historical and literary development of the topoi and motifs of the Orpheus myth up to the Hellenistic period are critically assessed and the poems are contextually interpreted. Starting with other Hellenistic treatments of the Orpheus myth (Phanocles, Apollonios of Rhodes), a selected interpretative commentary to each of the poems by Damagetos (AP 7, 9), Antipatros of Sidon (AP 7, 8) and the anonymous AP 7, 10 is given, followed by conclusions for the literary and mythographical development of the Orpheus myth. The anonymous epigram AP 7, 10 is then shown to be very likely another work by Antipatros of Sidon. An Appendix critically examines the complicated literary transmission of another Orpheus epigram, AP 7, 671; it is suggested that AP 7, 671 constitutes a hybrid quotation from memory by Diogenes Laertius, combining two earlier epigrams.