The Teaching Poet

Leonardo Cazzadori presents the first comprehensive and comparative study of Greek didactic poetry from the Hellenistic period (ca. 350-30 B.C.). He traces the intellectual history of didactic poetry, analysing ancient and modern implications of this literary category. The author further investigates the rhetorical and stylistic features of Hellenistic didactic poetry, shedding light on the textual strategies that shape and define its instructional and explanatory function. He argues that Hellenistic didactic poetry played a crucial role in establishing a new poetic domain - one that enabled the popularization of scientific discourse and fostered imaginative and insightful descriptions. By examining this innovative poetic form, Leonardo Cazzadori offers fresh perspectives on ancient Greek literary culture, and, more broadly, the interactions between science, the natural world, and literature.