Percorsi d’autore. Autorialità nella letteratura popolare di età ellenistica. Il panorama epigrafico dei “poeti vaganti”

The itinerant intellectuals and professionals of literature and music contributed to shape a “popular culture” shared by communities and their artistic contribution significantly impacted city life in the Hellenistic period. Inscriptions are the primary sources attesting to this phenomenon and, depending on chronological, geographical or thematic investigations, various approaches can be used in order to effectively reconstruct the “poeti vaganti” cultural movement. A productive key of interpretation lies in the analysis of professional profiles as it allows speculating on the interaction of the itinerant artist with socio-cultural environment. Particularly, literary production was one main aspect of this cultural expression and epigraphy provides us with a large spectrum of valuable elements that aid in focusing on the itinerant poet’s identity and role. Thus, by means of data categorization, the investigation on authorship allows placing the author and his product in the proper context and reconstructing the profiles of “poeti vaganti” in relation to performative occasions and audiences.