TEACHING, LECTURING,
ADMINISTRATION
Oxford : Undergraduate Teaching (to 2020)
College
Tutorials and Classes. At Corpus I taught
to groups ranging from one to ten virtually all the Latin options in all the
Classical courses, ranging chronologically from Terence to Apuleius. I also
taught some Greek tragedy, esp. Sophocles, and some Homer. I taught Latin and
Greek language (unseens, proses, reading classes), and specialist papers on
Latin textual criticism, the ancient novel and the reception of Greece and Rome
in English 19C and 20C texts and culture.
University
Lectures and Seminars. I gave a wide range of lecture courses on Latin literature
and its reception, covering material from Catullus to 16C neo-Latin and the
reception of Rome and its literature in 19C and 20C UK.. I also gave a range of
graduate classes in the same areas.
Oxford (and elsewhere) : Graduate Supervision
Since 1987 at Oxford I have supervised co-supervised
nineteen completed D.Phil.theses at (one on Lucretius, two on Vergil, one on
Horace, one on Ovid, two on Apuleius, one on Seneca tragicus, one on Dracontius, two on neo-Latin and seven on
classical reception from the 14C to 21C). I have also acted as external adviser
for two successful Princeton theses (on Latin didactic poetry and on Vergil),
and for a Groningen thesis on Apuleius. In 2004-7 I co-supervised two
successful doctoral theses at the University of Bergen, and two at the
University of Trondheim in 2016-21. At Oxford I am currently supervising or
co-supervising six doctoral dissertations, one on Vergil’s language, one on
Boethius, one on Spanish Jesuit Latin poetry and three in classical reception
in English. I am also currently co-supervising students at UNAM (Mexico City)
on closure in Augustan Latin poetry-books, at Stanford on linguistic diversity
in Latin literature, at Princeton on Petronius, and at Trondheim on the
reception of Philaenis. In the past I have been formal part-supervisor to
doctoral students from Madrid, Salerno, Bari, Turin, Campinas (Brazil), Vitória
(Brazil), Pisa and Malta as well as acting informally in many other overseas
cases.
Doctoral theses
supervised, co-supervised or co-advised now published
Oxford
Michael Lipka, Language
in Vergil's Eclogues (De Gruyter, 2001)
Anastasios Nikolopoulos, Ovidius Polytropos: Metanarrative in Ovid's Metamorphoses
(Olms, 2004)
Regine May, Apuleius
and Drama: The Ass on Stage (OUP,
2007)
Heather Ellis, Generational
Conflict and University Reform: Oxford in the Age of Revolution (Brill,
2012)
Alexander Riddiford, Madly
After the Muses: Bengali Poet Michael Madhusudan Datta and His Reception of the
Graeco-Roman Classics (OUP, 2013)
Nora Goldschmidt, Shaggy
Crowns: Ennius' Annales and Virgil's
Aeneid (OUP, 2013)
Henry Stead, A Cockney
Catullus: The Reception of Catullus in Romantic Britain, 1795-1821 (OUP,
2015)
Princeton
Katharina Volk, The
Poetics of Latin Didactic (OUP, 2002)
Bergen
Thea Selliaas Thorsen, Ovid's
Early Poetry: from his single Heroides
to his Remedia amoris (CUP, 2014)
Lecturing outside Oxford
Since 1985 I have given invited lectures or conference
papers at almost all the other universities in the UK which have classical
departments (Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Exeter, Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Lampeter (=Wales Trinity St David), Leeds, Liverpool, KCL, UCL,
Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, the Open University, Reading, Royal
Holloway, St Andrews, Swansea, the Warburg Institute and Warwick). I have
regularly given classical talks to UK schools, sixth-form conferences, local
branches of the Classical Association, and other classical groups.
Since 1990 I have given invited lectures in other parts of
Europe, at the Universities of Aarhus, Amsterdam (and VU), Berlin (Freie),
Bergen, Bern, Bochum, Bologna, Bonn, Crete, Geneva, Genova, Göttingen,
Groningen, Heidelberg, Ioannina, Jena, Krakow, Lausanne, Leiden, Mannheim,
Montpellier-III, Munich, Oslo, Padua, Pisa, Posnań, Rome I and II,
Stockholm, Thessaloniki, Uppsala and Verona.
Outside Europe, in 1990 I was a visiting lecturer in
Australia, speaking at the Universities of Sydney, Melbourne, Monash, Adelaide
and Perth. In 1995 I was a visiting lecturer at the University of Cape Town,
South Africa, and also gave lectures and seminars at the universities of
Stellenbosch, Western Cape, Orange Free State, Witwatersrand, South Africa
(UNISA, Pretoria) and at the Rand Afrikaans University and Rhodes University; I
returned to UCT in 2010 to give a short course and also gave lectures at the
Universities of KwaZulu-Natal and Pretoria. In 1997 I was a visiting lecturer
in the USA, giving invited lectures at Columbia, Princeton, Wesleyan, Yale and
Harvard Universities; I did the same in 1999, giving invited lectures at Emory
and Stanford Universities and at the Universities of Florida, Virginia,
California at Berkeley and Washington (Seattle) and in 2003, giving invited
lectures at Baylor University, the University of Dallas and the University of
Texas at Austin (again at the latter in 2015). In 2002 I gave lectures at
Tel-Aviv University and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 2005 I gave a
course of lectures in Florence for the Istituto dei Studi Classici.
In spring 2006 I was William Evans Fellow at the University
of Otago in Dunedin, NZ, giving a course of lectures, with visiting lectures in
Wellington and Sydney, and was also a visiting lecturer at the Scuola Normale
Superiore in Pisa, where I gave the Lezioni Comparetti (five lectures). In 2010
I gave the keynote lecture at the Australasian Society of Classical Studies
conference in Sydney, and visiting lectures at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and Johns Hopkins, and at the University of Tokyo, Tokyo
Metropolitan University, the International Christian University in Tokyo,
Nagoya University and Kyoto University; I returned to Japan in 2014 and gave
lectures again at the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan University, and
the International Christian University.
In 2011 I gave lectures in South Africa again (UCT, University of
Pretoria, University of Stellenbosch and University of KwaZuluNatal at Durban),
in 2012 and 2014 in Brazil at UNICAMP (Campinas, short lecture courses), UFF
(Rio) and USP (São Paulo), and in 2013 at the University of Malta. In early
2015 I co-taught part of a course on Horace’s Odes with Denis Feeney at Princeton and gave visiting lectures at
Princeton, Columbia, Bryn Mawr, Brown (the inaugural Michael Putnam Lecture),
Harvard and the Universities of Pennsylvania and Virginia; in 2016 I gave a
visiting lecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Carl Schlam
Lecture at Ohio State University. In 2017 I gave lectures or seminars at
Stanford, Berkeley, Bari, Bristol and St Andrews, in 2018 at Vitória (Brazil),
USC, Stanford, Stellenbosch, Aarhus and Bonn, with a series at the Scuola
Normale in Pisa, a talk at NUS-Yale (Singapore) and the Todd Lecture in Sydney.
I was William H. Bonsall Visiting Professor in the Humanities, Stanford
University, Winter Terms 2017, 2018, 2019, Sackler Lecturer, Mortimer
and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Tel-Aviv, Nov-Dec.
2019. I was Erskine Oxford Fellow,
University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Jan-April 2020, Professore visitante,
Sapienza Università di Roma, October 2020, Visiting Professor, Mandel School
for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Nov-Dec
2021, and Professore visitante, Università di Siena, April-June 2022.
I have given many individual conference papers and lectures in
many countries, in Europe, America (North, South and Central), South Africa,
Asia and Australasia.
Media etc
In December 2005 I contributed to the Radio 4 Today programme on the topic of ‘Who
runs Britain?’, on Augustus’ careful concealment of his actual power and some
contemporary analogues, in December 2007 to a programme on Radio 3 on
contemporary receptions of Horace with the poet Maureen Almond, with whom I
have also appeared in Newcastle and Milton Keynes, and in July 2008 to a Radio
4 programme presented by the novelist Tibor Fischer on the ancient novel. In
March 2010 I contributed to a panel on ‘Fighting for the Soul of English’ at
the Oxford Literary Festival chaired by the writer Julie Summers. In May 2015 I
contributed to The World This Week on
the BBC World Service on analogies between Roman emperors and the ruler of
North Korea, followed by a printed piece on the same subject on the programme’s
website (December 2015). In 2019 I co-curated the Bodleian Library exhibition Babel: Adventures in Translation and
contributed two chapters to its catalogue. In March 2020 I was interviewed on
Radio New Zealand ‘Nights’ show about Catullus and his modern reception, and in
December 2020 I took part in a discussion of Horace and his modern reception on
the Irish radio station Newstalk in the ‘Talking History’ strand.
Research-linked administration and service
I have organised or co-organised international conferences
in Oxford on 'Horace' (1992, to mark the retirement of Robin Nisbet),
'Intertextuality and Latin Poetry' (1995) , 'The Prologue to Apuleius' Metamorphoses'
(1997), 'Vergil's Aeneid : Augustan Epic and Political Context' (1996),
'Working Together : Classical Scholarship and Literary Theory' (1997), and
‘Versions of Ovid’ (2003), ‘Living Classics’ (2005), ‘Expurgating the Classics’
(2010), Classics in the Modern World: A ‘Democratic Turn’? (2010), of all of
which the proceedings have been or are being published in volume or special
journal issue form (see my list of publications above), many smaller
day-colloquia and seminar series and visiting lectures. I was a member of the
organising committees for ICAN 3 2000 (the third International Conference on
the Ancient Novel in Groningen, NL), ICAN 4 2008 (Lisbon), ICAN 5 2015
(Houston), and chair of the Oxford Triennial Conference in 2008, and
co-organiser of the Trends in Classics conferences on Genre in Latin Literature
in 2011, Roman Drama in 2014 and Intertextuality in Roman Poetry in 2017. I am a founder member and was in 2009-14
co-co-ordinator of the UK Classical Reception Studies Network. I am on more
than twenty editorial boards of journals and monograph series (see CV).
Other administration and service
Within Oxford. Within Corpus
I have been Tutor for Admissions 1990-3, editor of the College magazine
1994-1998, Senior Tutor 1998-2001, Vice-President 2012-14 and Acting President
in Hilary Term 2014. In 1996-8 and 2004-5 I was the Director of the Corpus
Christi Centre for the Study of Greek and Roman Antiquity, the College's
co-ordinating body for graduate and research activities in Classics. Within the
University I was Secretary of the Senior Tutors’ Committee and of the Academic
Sub-Committee of the Council of Colleges 1999-2001 (acting Chair of both in
Trinity Term 2001), which confers membership of a number of intercollegiate
bodies, and co-organised the Classics submission to and visit of the governmental Subject Review (QAA) in
2000. I have examined or assessed for the University most years at either
undergraduate or graduate level, including M.St., M.Phil., M.Litt. and D.Phil.
dissertations (eleven of the last so far); I was Chair of Examiners for
Lit.Hum. in 2004. I was a founder member of the University's Equal Opportunities
Committee (1990-93), a member of the main University Admissions Committee
(1990-93), and a member of the Crouch Committee (1993-4), whose report led to
major changes in Oxford's admissions procedures. I was secretary of the Oxford
branch of the Classical Association 1987-9 and of the Oxford Philological
Society 1989-91 (of which I was also President, 2004-5). In 2006-9 I was
Director of Graduate Studies for Classical Languages and Literature, and in
2011-14 I was chair of the university’s Graduate Admissions Committee and a
member of its Education Committee and other central bodies. Since 2015 I have
been the Classics Delegate (board member) at OUP.
Outside Oxford. I have been
external examiner at the universities of London (1988-9), Newcastle (1994-6), Swansea
(2011-16) and Cambridge (2012-16). I have examined more than fifty doctoral
dissertations, including at the Universities of Adelaide, Amsterdam (UvA and
VU), Cambridge, Cape Town, Geneva, Göttingen, Groningen, Leeds, London (Kings
and UCL), Newcastle, Open University, Pisa (SNS), Princeton, Salerno, Sassari,
Trinity College Dublin, and the Witwatersrand, and
tenure/promotion/search/prize referee at more than forty institutions across
four continents. I was external reviewer of the School of Classics at Leeds
(2004) and of the Department of Classics at Royal Holloway (2005). I was a
member of the Council of what was then UCCA (now UCAS, the national body on
university admissions) 1990-3, and of the Council of the Roman Society 1991-4.
I was Local Secretary for the 1995 Triennial Conference of the Greek and Roman
Societies (in Oxford), and helped with the JACT Latin Summer School at
Kingswood 1993-6; I was chair of the 2008 Triennial at Oxford. I was a school
governor (girls' independent) 1994-7, and served 2008-2015 on the governing
body at my old school (Christ's Hospital); I have examined school prizes at
Eton and Winchester. I have often acted as referee for book proposals for OUP
and CUP, Brill, Bloomsbury, Routledge and Blackwell/Wiley, and as a referee for
many journals other than those where I am on the advisory board.
Teaching material for Siena 2022 is on the following pages
Latin
Poetry from Vergil’s Eclogues to the death of Ovid
Week 1
A and B: Introduction.
Issues in Augustan literary interpretation (politics, patronage,
intertextuality, genre, career) and directions in Anglophone scholarship since
1945.
Week 2
A and B: Emerging Augustan literature 1: Vergil Eclogues, Gallus
C: Emerging Augustan literature 2: Horace Satires 1 and 2,
Epodes
Week 3
A & B: Emerging Augustan literature 3: Vergil Georgics
C: Elegy before Ovid 1:
Propertius 1-3.
Week 4
A: Elegy before Ovid 2: Tibullus 1; Vergil, Aeneid: preliminaries.
B: Vergil Aeneid Part 1
Week 5
A; Vergil Aeneid Part 2
B: After the Aeneid - Propertius 4
C: After the Aeneid - Horace Odes 4
Week 6
ABC: Ovid: the development of elegy (Amores, Heroides, Fasti),
later work (Metamorphoses, exile poetry)
Course resources
S.J.Harrison, Generic Enrichment in Vergil and Horace (Oxford,
2007) [online at http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/]
OCD 4 www.oxfordreference.com
Loeb online
www.loebclassics.com/
OSEO www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/
This course
looks at the development of Latin poetry in the triumviral and Augustan periods
(40 BCE to 14 CE), the most important half-century in Latin literature. It
covers the principal texts of the period, with the exception of Horace’s Odes
and Epistles. It will be given in English and focuses on Anglophone
perspectives, which I hope will be especially valuable to Italian students as
another point of view. Its primary interests are in the interactions of
different poets and literary genres in the period, which has a key influence on
how poetry develops:, especially the interactions between Horace, Vergil,
Propertius and Ovid. The course begins with a discussion of scholarly
methodology and approaches, and then proceeds chronologically by examining
particular texts in detail (texts examined are provided on handouts via
Moodle).
Its learning
goals are as follows: 1. a deepened understanding of Augustan poetry through
close reading from a nuanced and theoretically informed perspective, 2. an
enhanced appreciation of Augustan literary history through the consideration of
literary interaction between its major poets and genres, 3. a well-developed
idea of the relationship between politics and poetry.
Latin Poetry from Vergil’s Eclogues to the death of Ovid
Week 1: Introduction
Part 1: How does Augustan (or any classical Latin) literature get to
us?
Useful
works
M.L.West, Textual Criticism and
Editorial Technique (1973) [how-to manual]
L. D. Reynolds and N. G. Wilson, Scribes
and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature [4th
ed] (2013) [cultural history of transmission plus practical examples]
L.D.Reynolds, M.D.Reeve et al.,
Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the
Latin Classics (1983)
[standard reference for the textual transmission of all major Latin
authors]
M.D.Reeve, Manuscripts and
Method: Essays on Editing and Transmission (2011)
[collected papers of a modern master, sceptical about overriding
theories, printed editions]
Tasks of an
editor (West)
Collect the material (transcription of manuscripts)
Work out its nature (stemma if possible; open/closed tradition;
elimination? Lachmann model?)
Setting up an apparatus criticus
(positive or negative?)
Diagnosis and correction of problems (emendation)
Apparatus
criticus: Horace Odes 2.1.19-24
Positive
[vulgate and variants]
iam fulgor armorum fugacis
terret equos equitumque uultus. 20
audire
magnos iam uideor duces
non
indecoro puluere sordidos
et cuncta terrarum subacta
praeter atrocem animum Catonis.
20 uultus MSS; pectus Harrison
21 audire MSS; uidere Beroaldus
Negative
[only variants]
iam fulgor armorum fugacis
terret equos equitumque uultus. 20
audire
magnos iam uideor duces
non
indecoro puluere sordidos
et cuncta terrarum subacta
praeter atrocem animum Catonis.
20 pectus Harrison
21 uidere Beroaldus
Issues of clarity?
Considerations
when deciding between readings
E. J. Kenney, The Classical Text
(1974) 142 n. 2: ‘the fallibility of hard-and-fast rules [has been neatly
demonstrated] by reducing the principles guiding choice between variants to the
single tautology lectio melior potior.’
He then asks ‘Is textual criticism an art, τέχνη, or a mere knack, ἐμπειρία?’
(143).
R. Bentley (1711) ad Hor. c.
3.27.15: ‘Nobis et ratio et res ipsa
centum codicibus potiores sunt, praesertim accedente Vaticani veteris suffragio.’
‘If the sense requires it, I am prepared to write Constantinopolitanus
where the manuscripts have the monosyllabic interjection o.’ [Haupt apud
Housman, cited approvingly by West]
A reading which is to be accepted must meet the following requirements
(cf. West (1973) 48):
i)
it must correspond in sense to what the
context demands;
ii)
it must correspond to the language, style, and
other technical requirements (e.g. metre) of the text involved;
iii)
there must be a reasonable explanation of how
it became corrupted.
Recent experience of editing Vergil and Ovid:
G.B.Conte, Ope Ingenii:
Experiences of Textual Criticism (2013) [chapters on punctuation,
interpolation, and conjecture]
G.B.Conte, Critical Notes on
Virgil (2016) [from his Teubner Georgics
and Aeneid]
R.J.Tarrant, Texts, editors, and
readers: Methods and problems in Latin textual criticism (2016)
[from his 2004 OCT of Ovid’s Metamorphoses;
‘heroic’ and modest editing, interpolation, conjecture]
R.J.Tarrant in Hunter (R.), Oakley (S.P.) (edd.) Latin Literature and its Transmission (2016)
[manifesto for new OCT of Horace]
Examples
from Vergil – why was the variant chosen?
Aeneid 10.270-1
(Aeneas’ helmet blazes):
ardet apex
capiti tristisque a uertice flamma 270
funditur et
uastos umbo uomit aureus ignis:
270 tristisque Faernus,
Conte ; cristisque MSS
Aeneid 10.362-8
(Pallas urges on his men):
At parte ex
alia, qua saxa rotantia late
intulerat
torrens arbustaque diruta ripis,
Arcadas
insuetos acies inferre pedestris
ut vidit
Pallas Latio dare terga sequaci,
365
aspera quis
natura loci dimittere quando
suasit equos,
unum quod rebus restat egenis,
nunc prece,
nunc dictis virtutem accendit amaris
366 aspera quis MR; aspera quos P; aspera aquis Madvig
366 quando MSS; tandem Harrison
Aeneid 10.803-10
ac uelut
effusa si quando grandine nimbi
praecipitant,
omnis campis diffugit arator
omnis et
agricola, et tuta latet arce uiator 805
aut amnis
ripis aut alti fornice saxi,
dum pluit
in terris, ut possint sole reducto
exercere
diem: sic obrutus undique telis
Aeneas
nubem belli, dum detonet omnis,
sustinet…
805 arce e; arte other MSS, ancient commentators
Aeneid 6.185-91
atque haec
ipse suo tristi cum corde volutat
185
aspectans
silvam immensam, et sic forte precatur:
'si nunc se
nobis ille aureus arbore ramus
ostendat
nemore in tanto! quando omnia vere
heu nimium
de te vates, Misene, locuta est.'
vix ea
fatus erat, geminae cum forte
columbae 190
ipsa sub
ora viri caelo venere volantes…
Conte defends forte (MP) at 6.186 (but note its repetition at 190 in the same metrical
position) as indicating that Aeneas is ‘subita ac fortuita cogitatione
occupatus’ seems strained – try R’s uoce
(cf. 9.403 sic uoce precatur) or sponte (an instant reaction to the situation)?
Examples
from Horace – are the suggestions better than the transmitted text?
Odes 1.31.1-8
(non-offerings to Apollo):
Quid
dedicatum poscit Apollinem
vates ? quid orat de patera novum
fundens liquorem ? non opimae
Sardiniae segetes feraces,
non
aestuosae grata Calabriae
armenta, non aurum aut ebur Indicum,
non rura quae Liris quieta
mordet aqua taciturnus amnis.
5 grata MSS; Graia Peerlkamp, laeta Harrison
Odes 3.30.10-14
(Horace the bringer of Greek lyric to Italy):
dicar, qua
uiolens obstrepit Aufidus
et qua
pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
regnauit
populorum, ex humili potens
princeps
Aeolium carmen ad Italos
deduxisse
modos.
4-5 Aeolios carmen ad Italum | deduxisse modos Fuss, Aeolium carmen ad Italas | deduxisse
domos Harrison
Epistles 1.2.9-22
(the moral lessons of Homer):
rursus Antenor
censet belli praecidere causam;
quid Paris?
Ut saluus regnet uiuatque beatus 10
cogi posse
negat. Nestor componere litis
inter
Pelidem festinat et inter Atriden;
hunc amor,
ira quidem communiter urit utrumque.
quidquid delirant
reges, plectuntur Achiui.
seditione,
dolis, scelere atque libidine et ira 15
Iliacos
intra muros peccatur et extra.
rursus,
quid uirtus et quid sapientia possit,
utile
proposuit nobis exemplar Ulixen,
qui domitor
Troiae multorum prouidus urbes,
et mores
hominum inspexit, latumque per aequor, 20
dum sibi,
dum sociis reditum parat, aspera multa
pertulit,
aduersis rerum inmersabilis undis.
18 Ulixes Harrison [subject
of proposuit ?]
Odes 2.8.18-24
adde quod
pubes tibi crescit omnis,
seruitus
crescit noua nec priores
impiae
tectum dominae relinquunt
saepe minati. 20
te suis
matres metuunt iuuencis,
te senes
parci miseraeque nuper
uirgines
nuptae, tua ne retardet
aura maritos.
18 crescit MSS; ut sit Lehrs
[cf. 1.19.5-7 urit me Glycera
nitor |…|urit grata proteruitas]
Odes 2.1.19-24
iam fulgor armorum fugacis
terret equos equitumque uultus. 20
audire
magnos iam uideor duces
non
indecoro puluere sordidos
et cuncta terrarum subacta
praeter atrocem animum Catonis.
20 uultus MSS; pectus Harrison
21 audire MSS; uidere Beroaldus
20 terret
equos equitumque uultus: is uultus
(a) nominative singular and a further subject of terret parallel with fulgor
(for the sense-construction see e.g. 1.13.6) or (b) accusative plural and a
further object of terret, parallel
with equos (supported by Enn. Ann.256 Sk. equorum equitumque magister)? Like N-H I find it hard to separate equos equitumque as referring to two different
sides in battle as (a) requires, even if (a) is partly supported by the
terror-inspiring capacity of charging cavalry (cf. e.g. Livy 6.12.10, 8.39.8);
this would indeed be a ‘startling zeugma’ (West), and it is hard to see how the
features of horses (as opposed to those of warriors: cf. 1.2.39-40 acer … | uultus in hostem) can arouse
fear. This leaves (b): the features of soldiers can express terror in battle,
indeed (cf. Silius 8.333 in uultus micat
undique terror), but uultus makes
a somewhat odd object of terret; we
might expect something which is the seat not the vehicle of fear. It is worth
considering whether uultus is a
corruption of a similarly shaped noun. pectus
would give precisely the right sense; for the pectus as the seat of fear see Ep.
2.1.211-12 poeta meum qui pectus inaniter
angit, | inritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet, TLL X.1.914.18-29, and for terreo
with a psychological object in a similar context cf. Livy 8.39.4 clamor … Samnitium terruit animos. The reference here seems to be general
rather than to any particular context of battle.
21 audire … iam uideor: N-H adopt the conjecture uidere (Beroaldus, Bentley
independently) for audire, on the
grounds that uidere … uideor is a much more natural phrase
with magnos duces as object, but cf.
Plaut. Aul. 811 uocem hic loquentis modo mi audire uisus sum. Further, if Pollio’s historical work is to
be imagined as analogous to the performance of his tragedies (17-19), the
difficulty of audire vanishes; the
synaesthesia of sound and vision is of course natural for staged drama.
Part 2: preliminaries to studying Augustan
literature
KEY
LITERARY EVENTS KEY HISTORICAL EVENTS
?38 BCE Virgil’s Eclogues published 35 BCE
Horace Satires 1 published 30 BCE
Horace, Satires 2 and Epodes published 30’s – 9 BCE Livy’s history published 29 BCE Virgil, Georgics published 20’s BC Earliest elegies of Propertius, Tibullus and (later)
Ovid published ?23 BCE Horace Odes 1-3 published ?19BCE Deaths of Virgil and Tibullus ?16 BCE Propertius Book 4 published 13 BCE Horace Odes 4 published 8 BCE Death of Horace 8 CE Ovid banished to Romania |
38-36
Renewed
civil war against S.Pompey 32-30
Caesar fights
and defeats Antony and Cleopatra at Actium and Alexandria 29 Triple triumph of Caesar 27 ‘Restoration of republic’ : Caesar assumes title of ‘Augustus’ 18-17 Moral legislation of Augustus 17
Augustus
celebrates Saecular Games 12 Augustus becomes pontifex maximus (head of state religion) 4 CE Tiberius becomes final heir of Augustus 14 CE Death of
Augustus, succession of Tiberius |
Key issues
emerging from historical context
R.A.Gurval, Actium and Augustus:
The Politics and Emotions of Civil War (1995)
J.F.Miller, Apollo, Augustus and
the Poets (2009)
The role of
Maecenas
How far was he a mediator between princeps and poets?
How far do poets’ work addressed to M reflect his unusual character?
Is he eventually replaced by Augustus’ own presence (NB largely absent
in 20s BCE).
White, P. 1991. ‘Maecenas’ Retirement’, CPh 86: 130–8.
Williams, G. 1990. ‘Did Maecenas “Fall from Favor”? Augustan Literary
Patronage’, in K. Raaflaub and M. Toher (eds.), Between Republic and
Empire.
Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate. Berkeley,
CA/London,
University of California Press: 258–75.
The iceberg
effect of patchy transmission
1.
Clearly we have only a small fraction of
Augustan literature
[for poetic losses see e.g. E.Courtney, Fragmentary Latin Poets, 1993]
2.
particular losses: most prose except a section
of Livy (~35 books of 142), Vitruvius, drama [for history see The Fragments of the Roman Historians,
2015, for drama see e.g. J.Griffin, Latin
Poets and Roman Life, 1985]. Latin intermediaries for Greek tragedy?
3.
Amongst the poets at least we seem to have
most of the leading figures
[cf. Horace Sat.1.10.40-45;
Propertius 2.34.61-94; Ovid Amores
1.15.19-30]
Some important lost texts: Varius, epic (Panegyricus Augusti? Horace Odes
1.6.1, Sat.1.10.43-44), tragedy Thyestes (Odes 1.6.8); Varro Atacinus, Argonautica
(Propertius 2.34.85-6, Ovid Amores
1.15.21-2; fragments cited by Macrobius). Important fragments of lost authors
can turn up in papyri (Gallus in 1978, see later).
20C Scholarship on Augustan
literature: a partial survey
A prophetic
work
W.Kroll, Studien zum Verständnis der romischen
Literatur (1924)
1. Romans and Greeks Williams 1968
2. Poetic creation (including Callimachus) Williams 1968
3. The material of poetry
4. The moralising conception of poetry Williams 1968
5. Grammatical/rhetorical theories
6. Poets and critics
7. Imitation everyone
8. Didactic poetry
9. The crossing of genres Conte,
Harrison
10. The poetic book
11. Poetic language Williams
1968
12. Incapacity in observation [realism] Williams 1968
13. Scholarship and pseudo-scholarship
14. Historiography
Allusion
and intertextuality – the rehabilitation of ‘unoriginality’
G.Pasquali,
‘Arte Allusiva’, L’Italia che scrive,
XXV (1942), pp. 11-20
[republished 1951 in his Stravaganze
quarte e supreme]. Mario Citroni, ‘Arte Allusiva: Pasquali and Onward’
in Brill’s Companion to Callimachus
(2011), 566-86:
‘Pasquali’s “Arte allusiva” presupposes the contemporary philological
debate, especially in Germany, about the originality of Latin poetry. The
theoretical aspect of the question, i.e. that works admittedly modelled on
other works may possess their own artistic quality, had been widely discussed
by the Italian school of aesthetics [Benedetto Croce]. Pasquali’s article
combines these debates in an original approach. He grants to allusion the full
dignity of an artistic process with its own specific prerogatives: allusion
evokes a different, more ancient world in a modern text, and thus confronts
tradition, recovering and reforming it for a contemporary setting. Allusion
appears as peculiar to a production that confronts its own present with a past
of artistic traditions possessing a marked significance for authors and public,
typically the case for Hellenistic poetry and all Latin literature. Recent
theories of intertextuality, and the intertextual analysis conducted today on
ancient texts often make reference to Pasquali, reinterpreting the positions
that he elaborated in different paths, which are here identified and briefly
described.’
Some more key works
E.Fraenkel,
Horace (1957)
Greek influence; Biographical interpretation; dialogue with Wilamowitz
(Sappho und Simonides,
1913).Political admiration for Augustus (contrast Syme, Roman Revolution, 1939).
W.Wimmel, Kallimachos in Rom (1960).
Makes use of the rediscovery of Callimachus in the first half of the
20C via Oxyrynchus papyri (R.Pfeiffer, Callimachus
(1949, 1953). Callimachean aesthetics and poetics moves to the centre of the
study of Augustan literature (big e.g. in Williams 1968).
G.W.Williams,
Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry
(1968)
Dialogue with Fraenkel (e.g. on Horace’s Epistles); close readings of poems.
Key issues at start (29-30):
to supply a dramatic setting
The
literary turn of the 1960s
Rudd, N. ed. (1972), Essays on
Classical Literature, vii-xviii (previous gaps filled by Kenney, Nisbet,
D.West, P.G.Walsh [Livy], J.P.Sullivan). Good examples of this kind of work,
sometimes influenced by New Criticism:
e.g. K.Quinn, Latin Explorations
(1963), N.Rudd, Lines of Enquiry
(1979), J.P.Sullivan (ed.), Critical
Essays on Roman Literature : Elegy and Lyric (1962), D.West, Horace
(1967), The Imagery and Poetry of
Lucretius (1969).
US
contributions
The work of Michael Putnam: ‘to explore the formal perfection and the
anguished humanity of central works of Latin literature’ [MD 52 (2004) 11]: e.g. The
Poetry of the Aeneid (1965), Essays
on Latin Lyric, Elegy and Epic (1982), Virgil’s
Aeneid : Interpretation and Influence (1995).
The work of David O. Ross, Backgrounds
to Augustan Poetry (1975), ‘Augustan poetry as a natural growth in the soil
prepared by Catullus’ (163); transition from neoteric literature and interest
in reconstructing Gallus, particular intensity of the Augustan period.
The ‘Harvard-School’ on Vergil – see Classical World special issue (2017): Putnam, Wendell Clausen, Adam
Parry, others. Anti-imperialistic
pessimism, some politics.
The UK in
the 1970s
R.G.M.Nisbet, Collected Papers
on Latin Literature (1995)
R.O.A.M.Lyne, Collected Papers
on Latin Poetry (2007)
Woodman, A.J. and West. D.A., eds.
Quality and
Pleasure in Latin Poetry (1974) [literary
value Ok to write about]
Creative
Imitation and. Latin Literature (1979) [value
of allusion]
Poetry and
Politics in the Age of Augustus (1984) [political
engagement]
Some New Critical readings, but
predominantly historicist; cast includes Nisbet, Williams, Kenney, Lyne,
Cairns, Du Quesnay as well as the editors.
A bold enterprise: F.Cairns, Generic
Composition in Greek and Roman Poetry (1972; revised edition 2008). ‘Genres
of content’ retrojected from imperial rhetorical handbook (e.g. propemptikon). Some influence, but too
schematic/dogmatic? See e.g. Galinsky, K. ed. The Interpretation of Roman Poetry: Empiricism or Hermeneutics?
(1992) [critical retrospect by several hands on 1970s and 1980s].
Commentaries
Vergil, Aeneid
1,2,4,6 R.G.Austin (Oxford, 1971,1964,1955,1977)
3,5 R.D.Williams (Oxford, 1962,1960)
7&8 C.J.Fordyce
(Oxford,1977)
Horace
Odes Nisbet
and Hubbard 1 (1970), 2 (1978)
Epistles 2 + Ars Brink
(1959-82) [reviving the Berlin of Jaeger and Wilamowitz]
Cambridge ‘Orange’ series [1965-] ‘Green and Yellow’ series [1970-]
Continental examples:
Franz Bömer [austere]
P. Ovidius
Naso, Die Fasten, 1957–1958 [2 vols.]
P. Ovidius
Naso, Metamorphosen [9 vols] 1969–2006
Paolo Fedeli [not austere]
Sesto
Properzio: Il primo libro delle Elegie, 1980
Properzio.
Elegie Libro II. Introduzione, testo e commento, 2005
Sesto Properzio. Il
libro terzo delle
Elegie, 1985
Properzio,
Elegie libro IV [with Rosalba Dimundo, Irma
Ciccarelli], 2015
Metacommentary:
G.W.Most (ed.), Commentaries –
Kommentare (1999)
R.K.Gibson and C.S.Kraus (eds.), The
Classical Commentary (2002)
C.S.Kraus and C.A.Stray (eds.), Classical
Commentaries (2016).
G.B.Conte
and the 1980s (genre, intertextuality; cf. Pasquali, above)
(1974), Memoria dei poeti e
sistema letterario (2nd ed. 1985; largely translated in Conte 1986]
(1980), Virgilio : il genere e i
suoi confini (2nd ed. 1985; largely translated in Conte 1986]
(1986), The Rhetoric of
Imitation : Genre and Poetic Memory in Virgil and Other Latin Poets [tr.
C.P.Segal]
(1994), Latin Literature : A
History [with J.Solodow, G.W.Most, D.P.Fowler; Italian 1987]
(1994), Genres and Readers
[tr. C.P.Segal]
(2007), Virgil: The Poetry of
Pathos [ed. S.J.Harrison, tr. G.W.Most and E.Fantham]
Conte students/associates in 1980s/90s (e.g.):
Alessandro Barchiesi (The Poet
and the Prince 1997, Speaking Volumes
2001, both Ovid)
Alessandro Schiesaro (Simulacrum
et imago 1990 [Lucr.], The Passions
in Play, 2003 [Sen.Trag.]),
Stephen Hinds (Allusion and Intertext, 1998)
Don Fowler (Roman Constructions
2000)
Stephen Harrison (Generic
Enrichment 2007)
Journal: Materiali e discussioni
per l'analisi dei testi classici (1978-)
Zanker,
Galinsky and the generation of Augustan culture
P.Zanker, The Power of Images in
the Age of Augustus (1988; German 1987)
G.K.Galinsky, Augustan Culture:
An Interpretive Introduction (1996)
T.Habinek and A.Schiesaro, eds. The
Roman Cultural Revolution (1997).
Inclusion of archaeological and art-historical material (esp.
buildings – same?)
Influence of Fascism (Zanker b.Konstanz 1937)
Are literary patronage and building design similar?
Does Augustan material move out from the princeps and his circle to wider culture?
Does bottom-up movement combine with top-down?
How does the traditional role of Maecenas (above) fit into this model (not really in Zanker)?
Song,
performance and audience
Thomas Habinek, The World of
Roman Song: From Ritualized Speech to Social Order (2007)
‘for the Romans, "song" encompassed a wide range of
ritualized speech, including elements of poetry, storytelling, and even the
casting of spells’ [publisher’s blurb]
Michèle Lowrie, Writing,
Performance, and Authority in Augustan Rome (2009)
‘Song has links to the divine through prophecy, while writing offers a
more quotidian, but also more realistic way of presenting what a poet does. In
a culture of highly polished book production where recitation was the fashion,
to claim to sing or to write was one means of self-definition. Lowrie assesses
the stakes of poetic claims to one medium or another’ [ditto]. Concern with
posterity and long-term audience.
T.P.Wiseman, The Roman Audience;
Classical Literature as Social History (2015)
‘Who were Roman authors writing for? Only a minority of the population
was fully literate and books were very expensive, individually hand-written on imported
papyrus. So does it follow that great poets and prose authors like Virgil and
Livy, Ovid and Petronius, were writing only for the cultured and the
privileged? It is this modern consensus that is challenged in this volume’
[ditto].
Anglophone
Ovidian renaissance since mid-1980s
3 companions (NB companion/handbook phenomenon generally) and one
anthology:
P.E.Knox, A Companion to Ovid
(2009; Blackwell)
P.Hardie, The Cambridge
Companion to Ovid (2002; Cambridge)
Barbara Weiden Boyd, Brill's
Companion to Ovid. (2002)
Peter E. Knox, Oxford Readings
in Ovid (2006) [NB same for Vergil, Horace, Propertius]
General
A.Barchiesi, Speaking Volumes
(2001)
Katharina Volk, Ovid (2010)
Francesca Martelli, Ovid’s
Revisions; The Editor as Author (2013)
Thea Thorsen, Ovid’s Early
Poetry (2014)
L.Fulkerson, Ovid (2016)
Amores etc
Barbara Weiden Boyd, Ovid's
Literary Loves: Influence and Innovation in the Amores (1997)
Rebecca Armstrong, Ovid and His
Love Poetry (2005)
Victoria Rimell, Ovid's Lovers:
Desire, Difference, and the Poetic Imagination (2006)
[male and female worlds; Medusa and Narcissus as poetic symbols]
Heroides
Florence Verducci, Ovid's
Toyshop of the Heart: Epistulae Heroidum (1985)
Sara H. Lindheim, Mail and
Female: Epistolary Narrative and Desire in Ovid's Heroides (2003).
Efrossini Spentzou, Readers and
Writers in Ovid's Heroides. Transgressions of Genre and Gender (2003).
Laurel Fulkerson, The Ovidian
Heroine as Author. Reading, Writing, and Community in the Heroides (2005)
Fasti
Alessandro Barchiesi, Il poeta e
il principe: Ovidio e il discorso augusteo (1994; Eng.tr 1997)
Geraldine Herbert-Brown, Ovid
and the Fasti: An Historical Study (1994)
Carole Newlands, Playing with
Time: Ovid and the Fasti (1995)
Emma Gee, Ovid, Aratus and Augustus:
Astronomy in Ovid's Fasti (2000)
Metamorphoses
S.E.Hinds, The Metamorphosis of
Persephone (1987)
J.Solodow, The World of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses (1988)
G.Tissol, The Face of Nature: Wit, Narrative, and Cosmic
Origins in Ovid's Metamorphoses (1997)
Alison.M.Keith, Play of Fictions: Studies in Ovid's Metamorphoses Book
2 (1992).
K.Sara Myers, Ovid's Causes: Cosmogony and Aetiology in the
Metamorphoses (1994)
S.Wheeler, A Discourse
of Wonders: Audience and Performance in Ovid's Metamorphoses (1999)
Elaine Fantham, Ovid's
Metamorphoses (2004).
Patricia J. Johnson, Ovid Before
Exile. Art and Punishment in the Metamorphoses (2008)
Micaela Janan, Reflections in a Serpent’s Eye: Thebes and
Rome in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2009)
Barbara Pavlock, The Image of the
Poet in Ovid's Metamorphoses (2009)
Andrew Feldherr, Playing Gods:
Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Politics of Fiction (2010)
Exile
poetry
Williams, G., Banished Voices.
Readings in Ovid’s Exile Poetry (1994)
Claassen, J-M. Ovid Revisited:
The Poet in Exile (2008)
European
Augustan Network and e-journal Dictynna;
trending areas
http://reseau-poesie-augusteenne.univ-lille3.fr/membres-responsables.html
J-P.Schwindt, ed. (2005) La
représentation du temps dans la poésie augustéenne / Zur Poetik der Zeit in
augusteischer Dichtung. [time]
P.Hardie, ed. (2009), Paradox
and the Marvellous in Augustan Literature and Culture
M.Labate and G.Rosati, eds. (2013), La costruzione del mito augusteo.
J. Farrell and D.P. Nelis, eds. (2013), Augustan Poetry and the Roman Republic.
P.Hardie, ed. (2016), Augustan
Poetry and the Irrational
M.Gale and A.Chahoud, eds., The
Augustan Space (2019)
Week 2
Emerging Augustan
literature 1: Vergil Eclogues, Gallus
[READ: Eclogues 1, 2,4,6,7,8,10; SJH Generic Enrichment Ch.2]
Gallus as key figure bridging the late Republican and triumviral
periods.
Author of elegies (Amores)
and learned hexameter poems.
‘Elegiacs by Gallus from Qasr Ibrim’, R. D.
Anderson; P. J. Parsons; R. G. M. Nisbet,
The Journal of Roman Studies 69
(1979) 125-155 (reprinted in Nisbet, Collected
Papers, 1995)
tristia nequit[ia . . .]a, Lycori,
tua.
Fata mihi, Caesar, tum erunt mea dulcia,
quom tu
maxima Romanae pars eris historiae,
postque tuum reditum multorum templa deorum
fixa legam spolieis deivitiora tueis. 5
. . . . .]. . . . . tandem fecerunt
c[ar]mina Musae
quae possem domina deicere digna mea.
. . . . . . . . . . . .]. atur idem tibi,
non ego, Visce,
. . ]. . . . . . . . l . Kato, iudice te vereor.
] . Tyria
sad,
Lycoris, because of your worthlessness.
My fate, Caesar, will then be sweet to me, when you
will be the greatest part
of Roman history
and when after your return I shall see/read that temples of many gods
are richer, hung with your
spoils.
]at last the Muses
have made poems
that I can speak as worthy of
my mistress,
…
I do not fear, Viscus,
Cato,
with you as judge
]Tyrian Which
Caesar? 45 or 30?
Gallus
and the Eclogues
Ecl. 6.64-73
(Silenus’ metapoetic song; Gallus as successor to Hesiod – see below).
Ecl.10.1-15
(Gallus dying of love in Arcadia, the origin of pastoral poetry – see below).
Also linked with land confiscations (see below), the big political
issue of the book.
Contemporary
Politics in the Eclogues
Ecl.1 (Gregson Davis, introduction to Len
Krisak’s translation)
The opening programmatic Eclogue juxtaposes a herdsman who is currently experiencing good fortune (Tityrus) with one who is a recent victim of misfortune
(Meliboeus). The latter is in deep distress after having been dispossessed of
his farm, while the former has had his plot restored following a presumed
dispossession. At the conclusion of their exchange, the fortunate herdsman
offers consolation to his despondent interlocutor in the form of an invitation
to share a meal in his humble abode. Tityrus carefully contextualizes his
present felicity at more than one juncture in the course of the dialogue: he
explains to Meliboeus that it is contingent on the disposition of a divine
benefactor and, more importantly, that his life has in the past been subject to
vicissitude.’
Ecl.9 (ditto)
‘The penultimate Eclogue explores the issue of the efficacy of poetry as consolation
for misfortune. The subject is broached in the opening lines, in which we are
told that the singer, Moeris, has lost his small farm in the land
redistributions in the aftermath of the Civil Wars. Clearly we are meant to
recall the analogous fate of Meliboeus in the first Eclogue, but in this iteration what is foregrounded is the mitigating
role of poetry in the face of catastrophic loss. In the Virgilian dialogue,
Lycidas asks Moeris to verify the rumor that the lands in question had been
preserved through the power of Menalcas' song. Confronted with the brutal
confiscation of their lands, Virgil's singers have recourse to the task of
memory in preserving the transmitted poetic tradition. Verbal art itself
escapes the destruction that is inherent in the material order through the
continual recall and reperformance of bucolic poetry—including examples of
Virgil's own compositions, which are cited in this poem by their first lines.
The function of recollection via poetic performance, however, is not to indulge
in nostalgia for a utopian fantasy, but rather to preserve art as an antidote
to the vagaries of fortune.’
Pollio,
Varus and Gallus and the confiscations – Servius’ evidence
Servius on Ecl. 6.6
fugatoque
Asinio Pollione, ab Augusto Alfenum Varum legatum substitutum, qui transpadanae
provinciae et agris dividendis praeesset: qui curavit ne ager, qui Vergilio
restitutus fuerat, a veteranis auferretur ‘and after the routing of
Asinius Pollio, Alfenus Varus was made his replacement by Augustus, to be in
charge of the Transpadane province and the division of lands; he made sure that
the estate, which had been restored to Vergil, was not removed by the
veterans’.
6.64
[Varus] qui
a triumviris praepositus fuit ad exigendos pecunias ab his municipiis, quorum
agri in transpadana regione non dividebantur. ‘[Varus],
who was put in charge by the triumvirs to extract money from those municipia,
whose territory in the Transpadane area was not being divided up’.
9.10
quod
Mantuanis per iniquitatem Alfeni Vari, qui agros divisit, praeter palustria
nihil relictum sit, sicut ex oratione Cornelii in Alfenum ostenditur "cum
iussus tria milia pas-
sus a muro
in diversa relinquere, vix octingentos passus aquae, quae circumdata est,
admetireris" ‘because nothing but marshland was left to the
Mantuans through the injustice of Alfenus Varus, who divided the lands, as is
shown in the speech of Cornelius against Alfenus: “since though you were
ordered to leave three miles outside the wall in different directions, you
measured out barely 800 paces of the water which surrounds the city”[?]
(lagoon)
Pollio
the Sophoclean tragedian (Ecl.8) and
Sophocles Antenoridai?
Ecl.8.6-13 –
the anonymous object of the poet’s praise:
Tu mihi seu
magni superas iam saxa Timaui,
siue oram
Illyrici legis aequoris, en erit umquam
ille dies,
mihi cum liceat tua dicere facta?
En erit, ut
liceat totum mihi ferre per orbem
sola
Sophocleo tua carmina digna coturno? 10
A te
principium; tibi desinet: accipe iussis
carmina
coepta tuis, atque hanc sine tempora circum
inter
uictricis hederam tibi serpere laurus.
Routes back from Pollio’s campaign against the Parthini in 39
BCE: possibly coastal past river Timavus
(near Padua), especially if laden with much spoil etc?
Aeneid
1.242-9:
Antenor potuit mediis elapsus
Achiuis
Illyricos
penetrare sinus atque intima tutus
regna
Liburnorum et fontem superare Timaui,
unde per
ora nouem uasto cum murmure montis 245
it mare
proruptum et pelago premit arua sonanti.
hic tamen
ille urbem Pataui sedesque locauit
Teucrorum
et genti nomen dedit armaque fixit
Troia, nunc
placida compostus pace quiescit.
Antenor could escape the Achaean host, thread safely the Illyrian
gulfs and inmost realms of the Liburnians, and pass the springs of Timavus,
whence through nine mouths, with a mountain’s mighty roar, it comes a bursting
flood and buries the fields under its sounding sea. 6 Yet here he set Padua’s
town, a home for his Teucrians, gave a name to the race, and hung up the arms
of Troy; now, settled in tranquil peace, he is at rest.
Ecl.4
– the child and politics
Marriage of young Caesar and Scribonia 41, birth of Julia October 39;
marriage of Antony and Julia October 40 at Pact of Brindisi (orchestrated by
Pollio), birth of Antonia Maior August 39.
Antony’s claim to be descended from Hercules and therefore Jupiter:
Plutarch Ant.2
Catullus 64 epithalamium recalled (so wedding context).
Sicelides
Musae, paulo maiora canamus. pastoral/politics/encomium
non omnis arbusta iuvant humilesque myricae:
si canimus silvas, silvae sint consule dignae.
Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas; Sibyl/hexameter
Sibylline oracles
magnus ab
integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.
5 Hor. AP 405
dictae per carmina
sortes
iam redit
et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna,
iam nova
progenies caelo demittitur alto.
tu modo
nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum the child
desinet ac
toto surget gens aurea mundo,
casta fave
Lucina; tuus iam regnat Apollo.
10
Teque adeo
decus hoc aevi, te consule, inibit, 40 BCE
Pollio, et
incipient magni procedere menses;
te duce, si
qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
inrita
perpetua solvent formidine terras.
ille deum
vitam accipiet divisque videbit
15 divine
child of divine parentage?
permixtos
heroas et ipse videbitur illis
pacatumque
reget patriis virtutibus orbem. father or
ancestor as world-pacifier?
At tibi
prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu
errantis
hederas passim cum baccare tellus
mixtaque
ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.
20
ipsae lacte
domum referent distenta capellae pastoral
signs of paradise – cf. Isaiah 11.6
ubera nec
magnos metuent armenta leones; The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb,
ipsa tibi
blandos fundent cunabula flores. and the leopard shall lie down
with the kid;
occidet et
serpens et fallax herba veneni and the calf and the young
lion and the
occidet;
Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum.
25 fatling together; and a little child shall lead.
At simul
heroum laudes et facta parentis them. Link via Jewish Alexandria? See Nisbet
iam legere et quae sit poteris cognoscere
virtus, Collected Papers (1995).
Miraculous fertility, the ceasing of the need for animal husbandry and
the transformation of inter-species predation into peaceful co-existence are
all features specifically found in the third Sibylline oracle (744-50, 788-95).
molli
paulatim flavescet campus arista
incultisque
rubens pendebit sentibus uva
et durae
quercus sudabunt roscida mella.
30
Pauca tamen
suberunt priscae vestigia fraudis,
quae
temptare Thetin ratibus, quae cingere muris
oppida,
quae iubeant telluri infindere sulcos.
alter erit
tum Tiphys et altera quae vehat Argo Eastwards
voyage?
delectos
heroas; erunt etiam altera bella
35
atque
iterum ad Troiam magnus mittetur Achilles. Campaigns
in the East?
Hinc, ubi
iam firmata virum te fecerit aetas,
cedet et
ipse mari vector nec nautica pinus
mutabit
merces; omnis feret omnia tellus.
non rastros
patietur humus, non vinea falcem,
40
robustus
quoque iam tauris iuga solvet arator;
nec varios
discet mentiri lana colores,
ipse sed in
pratis aries iam suave rubenti
murice, iam
croceo mutabit vellera luto,
sponte sua
sandyx pascentis vestiet agnos.
45 Catullus 64.326-7 :
'Talia
saecla' suis dixerunt 'currite' fusis sed vos quae fata sequuntur
concordes
stabili fatorum numine Parcae. currite ducentes subtegmina, currite, fusi.
Adgredere o
magnos—aderit iam tempus—honores, [marriage link of two poems; inversion?]
cara deum
suboles, magnum Iovis incrementum.
aspice
convexo nutantem pondere mundum,
50
terrasque
tractusque maris caelumque profundum;
aspice,
enture laetantur ut omnia saeclo.
O mihi tum
longae maneat pars ultima vitae,
spiritus et
quantum sat erit tua dicere facta:
non me
carminibus vincat nec Thracius Orpheus 55
nec Linus,
huic mater quamvis atque huic pater adsit,
Orphei
Calliopea, Lino formosus Apollo.
Pan etiam,
Arcadia mecum si iudice certet,
Pan etiam
Arcadia dicat se iudice victum.
Incipe,
parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem; 60
matri longa
decem tulerunt fastidia menses.
incipe,
parve puer. qui non risere parenti,
nec deus
hunc mensa dea nec dignata cubili est.
The
‘Neoteric Hexameter’
Hexameter ˉ ˉ | ˉ ˉ| ˉ/ ˉ| ˉ /ˉ|
ˉ ˇ ˇ |ˉ ˉ [all long syllables except final one
resolvable to two short]
‘Neoteric’ features
1 = ‘Catullan molossus’: word
of three long syllables (ˉ ˉ ˉ) before the ‘bucolic diaeresis’
after the fourth foot (i.e. a word-break before the final ˉ ˇ ˇ ˉ ˉ).
2 = ‘spondeiazon’: line-ending of two spondees (ˉ ˉ ˉ ˉ)
rather than the regular dactyl plus spondee (ˉ ˇ ˇ ˉ ˉ).
3 = line-enclosing noun-adjective pairing in agreement
Catullus 64.1-6
Peliaco
quondam prognatae uertice pinus 1
dicuntur
liquidas Neptuni nasse per
undas 1
Phasidos ad
fluctus et fines Aeetaeos, 2
cum lecti
iuuenes, Argiuae robora pubis, 1
auratam
optantes Colchis auertere pellem 3
ausi sunt
uada salsa cita decurrere puppi,
caerula
uerrentes abiegnis aequora palmis. 1
Vergil Ecl.4.4-5:
Ultima Cumaei venit iam carminis aetas; 3
magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo. 3,1
Vergil Ecl.4.28-30
molli paulatim flavescet
campus arista 3,1
incultisque
rubens pendebit sentibus uva 1
et durae
quercus sudabunt roscida mella. 1
Vergil Ecl.4.48-52:
Adgredere o
magnos—aderit iam tempus—honores,
cara deum
suboles, magnum Iovis incrementum. 2
aspice
convexo nutantem pondere mundum… 1
Eclogue 6 – varied poetic traditions
Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere uersu Theocritean
pastoral
nostra
neque erubuit siluas habitare Thalia. later the
comic muse
Cum canerem
reges et proelia, Cynthius aurem pastoralisation of Callimachus Aetia
fr.1
uellit, et
admonuit: "Pastorem, Tityre, pinguis [sacrifice
fat, poem thin]
pascere
oportet ouis, deductum dicere carmen." 5
Nunc ego
(namque super tibi erunt, qui dicere laudes, recusatio
(refusal of epic)
Vare, tuas
cupiant, et tristia condere bella)
agrestem
tenui meditabor harundine musam.
Non iniussa
cano. Si quis tamen haec quoque, si quis
captus
amore leget, te nostrae, Vare, myricae, 10
te nemus
omne canet; nec Phoebo gratior ulla est
quam sibi
quae Vari praescripsit pagina nomen.
Pergite, Pierides.
Chromis et Mnasyllus in antro Silenus as
poet? cf.18 carminis
Silenum
pueri somno uidere iacentem,
inflatum
hesterno uenas, ut semper, Iaccho;
15
serta
procul tantum capiti delapsa iacebant,
et grauis
attrita pendebat cantharus ansa.
Adgressi
(nam saepe senex spe carminis ambo poem or
prophecy?
luserat)
iniciunt ipsis ex uincula sertis.
Addit se
sociam timidisque superuenit Aegle. 20
Aegle,
Naiadum pulcherrima, iamque uidenti
sanguineis
frontem moris et tempora pingit.
Ille dolum
ridens: "Quo uincula nectitis?" inquit.
"Soluite
me, pueri; satis est potuisse uideri.
Carmina
quae uoltis cognoscite; carmina
uobis, 25 poetry
huic aliud
mercedis erit." Simul incipit ipse.
Tum uero in
numerum Faunosque ferasque uideres
ludere, tum
rigidas motare cacumina quercus.
Nec tantum
Phoebo gaudet Parnasia rupes,
nec tantum
Rhodope miratur et Ismarus Orphea.
30 [legendary
divine poets]
Namque
canebat uti magnum per inane coacta = Lucretius 1.1018
semina
terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent Lucretius/cosmogony
et liquidi
simul ignis; ut his exordia primis Lucretius 5.677 exordia prima*
omnia, et
ipse tener mundi concreuerit orbis; verb 19x in
Lucretius
tum durare
solum et discludere Nerea ponto 35
coeperit,
et rerum paulatim sumere formas;
iamque
nouum terrae stupeant lucescere solem,
altius
atque cadant submotis nubibus imbres,
incipiant
siluae cum primum surgere, cumque
rara per
ignaros errent animalia montis. 40 noun 27x in Lucretius
Hinc
lapides Pyrrhae iactos, Saturnia regna, Hesiod/early
history of man
Caucasiasque
refert uolucris, furtumque Promethei.
His
adiungit Hylan nautae quo fonte relictum Hylas:
Apollonius, Theocritus
clamassent,
ut litus Hyla, Hyla, omne sonaret;
et
fortunatam, si numquam armenta fuissent, 45
Pasiphaen niuei solatur amore iuuenci. bucolic and love
A!
uirgo infelix, quae te dementia cepit! Calvus Io (neoteric epyllion)
Proetides
implerunt falsis mugitibus agros; bucolic and
metamorphosis
at non tam
turpis pecudum tamen ulla secuta
concubitus,
quamuis collo timuisset aratrum,
50
et saepe in
leui quaesisset cornua fronte.
A!
uirgo infelix, tu nunc
in montibus erras: Io
again
ille,
latus niueum molli fultus hyacintho, anthropomorphic
ilice sub
nigra pallentis ruminat herbas,
aut aliquam
in magno sequitur grege. "Claudite Nymphae, 55
Dictaeae
Nymphae, nemorum iam claudite saltus,
si qua
forte ferant oculis sese obuia nostris
errabunda
bouis uestigia: forsitan illum
aut herba
captum uiridi aut armenta secutum
perducant
aliquae stabula ad Gortynia uaccae." 60 bucolic
Tum canit
Hesperidum miratam mala puellam; love
tum
Phaethontiadas musco circundat amarae love and
metamorphosis
corticis,
atque solo proceras erigit alnos.
Tum canit,
errantem Permessi ad flumina Gallum Gallus (see
above)
Aonas in
montis ut duxerit una sororum,
65
utque uiro
Phoebi chorus adsurrexerit omnis;
ut Linus haec illi diuino carmine pastor, Linus and
pastoral poetry
floribus
atque apio crinis ornatus amaro,
dixerit:
"Hos tibi dant calamos, en accipe, Musae,
Ascraeo quos ante seni; quibus ille solebat 70 Hesiod
cantando
rigidas deducere montibus ornos.
His tibi Grynei nemoris dicatur origo, learned
aetiological topic
ne quis sit
lucus quo se plus iactet Apollo." Euphorion
Quid loquar
aut Scyllam Nisi, quam fama secuta est Parthenius Metamorphoses
candida
succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris
75
Dulichias
uexasse rates, et gurgite in alto,
a, timidos
nautas canibus lacerasse marinis,
aut ut
mutatos Terei narrauerit artus, love and
metamorphosis
quas illi
Philomela dapes, quae dona pararit,
quo cursu
deserta petiuerit, et quibus ante
80
infelix sua
tecta super uolitauerit alis?
Omnia, quae
Phoebo quondam meditante beatus surprise:
song within a song
audiit
Eurotas iussitque ediscere laurus,
ille canit
(pulsae referunt ad sidera ualles),
cogere
donec ouis stabulis numerumque referre 85
iussit et
inuito processit Vesper Olympo. pastoral
poetics of closure (cf. Ecl.1,10)
Eclogue 10 – pastoral and elegy meet
Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem: poetics of closure: pastoral nymph
pauca meo Gallo,
sed quae legat ipsa Lycoris, Gallus
fr.2.1 Lycori, 2.7 quae possem
carmina
sunt dicenda: neget quis carmina Gallo? domina
deicere digna mea.
Sic tibi,
cum fluctus subterlabere Sicanos,
Doris amara
suam non intermisceat undam;
5 Arethusa =
pastoral, Doris = elegy?
incipe; sollicitos Galli dicamus amores, 1. amores/love 2.Amores/elegies
dum tenera
attondent simae uirgulta capellae. pastoral
context
Non canimus
surdis: respondent omnia siluae.
Quae nemora
aut qui uos saltus habuere, puellae death of Gallus (i) elegy (ii) Theocritus
Naides,
indigno cum Gallus amore peribat?
10
Nam neque
Parnasi uobis iuga, nam neque Pindi
ulla moram
fecere, neque Aonie Aganippe.
Illum etiam
lauri, etiam fleuere myricae;
pinifer illum
etiam sola sub rupe iacentem
Maenalus et
gelidi fleuerunt saxa Lycaei.
15 Arcadian
location (rough not idyllic)
Stant et
oues circum (nostri nec paenitet illas, Arcadian
pastoral: Pan, Polyb.4.20.10
nec te
paeniteat pecoris, diuine poeta: pastoral in
Gallus’ elegies?
et formosus
ouis ad flumina pauit Adonis);
uenit et
upilio; tardi uenere subulci;
uuidus
hiberna uenit de glande Menalcas.
20
Omnes
"Vnde amor iste" rogant "tibi?" Venit Apollo:
"Galle,
quid insanis?" inquit; "tua cura Lycoris
perque
niues alium perque horrida castra secuta est." Elegiac topos: Propertius 1.8
Venit et
agresti capitis Siluanus honore,
florentis
ferulas et grandia lilia quassans.
25
Pan deus
Arcadiae uenit, quem uidimus ipsi
sanguineis
ebuli bacis minioque rubentem:
"Ecquis
erit modus?" inquit "Amor non talia curat,
nec
lacrimis crudelis Amor nec gramina riuis Pastoral
colour
nec cytiso
saturantur apes nec fronde capellae." 30
Tristis at
ille: "Tamen cantabitis, Arcades, inquit, Arcadian
singing – cf. Polybius 4.20.10
montibus
haec uestris, soli cantare periti
Arcades. O
mihi tum quam molliter ossa quiescant,
uestra meos
olim si fistula dicat amores! Pastoral
and elegy: love as shared theme
Atque
utinam ex uobis unus uestrisque fuissem 35
aut custos
gregis aut maturae uinitor uuae!
Certe siue
mihi Phyllis siue esset Amyntas, Phyllis: Ecl.7 Amyntas: Ecl.2,3,5
seu
quicumque furor (quid tum, si fuscus Amyntas?
et nigrae
uiolae sunt et uaccinia nigra),
mecum inter
salices lenta sub uite iaceret:
40
serta mihi
Phyllis legeret, cantaret Amyntas.
"Hic
gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori;
hic nemus;
hic ipso tecum consumerer aeuo.
Nunc
insanus amor duri me Martis in armis
tela inter
media atque aduersos detinet hostis. 45
Tu procul a
patria (nec sit mihi credere tantum)
Alpinas, a,
dura, niues et frigora Rheni Gallic
campaigns
me sine
sola uides. A, te ne frigora laedant!
a, tibi ne
teneras glacies secet aspera plantas!
Ibo et
Chalcidico quae sunt mihi condita uersu 50 elegiac verse
carmina
pastoris Siculi modulabor auena. Sicilian
pastoral.
Certum est
in siluis inter spelaea ferarum
malle pati
tenerisque meos incidere amores almost
unparalleled repetition
arboribus:
crescent illae, crescetis, amores. cf. 6
above: 1. amores/love, Amores/elegies
Interea
mixtis lustrabo Maenala Nymphis,
55
aut acris
uenabor apros; non me ulla uetabunt
frigora
Parthenios canibus circumdare saltus. hunting as
cure for love: Ovid Rem.
Iam mihi
per rupes uideor lucosque sonantis
ire; libet
Partho torquere Cydonia cornu
spicula;
tamquam haec sit nostri medicina furoris, 60
aut deus
ille malis hominum mitescere discat!
Iam
neque Hamadryades rursus nec carmina nobis retreat
from pastoral poetry
ipsa
placent; ipsae rursus concedite, siluae.
Non illum
nostri possunt mutare labores,
nec si
frigoribus mediis Hebrumque bibamus, 65
Sithoniasque
niues hiemis subeamus aquosae,
nec si, cum
moriens alta liber aret in ulmo,
Aethiopum
uersemus ouis sub sidere Cancri.
Omnia
uincit Amor: et nos cedamus Amori." yielding to
elegiac poetry
Haec sat
erit, diuae, uestrum cecinisse poetam, 70 explicit closure and dedication
dum sedet et
gracili fiscellam texit hibisco, basket:
Moschus’ Europa
Pierides:
uos haec facietis maxima Gallo,
Gallo,
cuius amor tantum mihi crescit in horas,
quantum
uere nouo uiridis se subicit alnus.
Surgamus:
solet esse grauis cantantibus umbra,
75 bucolic closure: cf. Ecl.1, 6
iuniperi
grauis umbra; nocent et frugibus umbrae.
Ite domum saturae, uenit Hesperus, ite, capellae. satiety/ending
Book Structure
Poems 1 and 9 can be paired as the two which talk about the land
confiscations of 41 B.C., while poem 10 (as just seen) has many features of an
epilogue. This leaves poem 5 as the centre, appropriately enough given
Menalcas' statement at its end that he is the singer of poems 2 and 3, placing
this quasi-authorial statement in the middle of the collection. This statement
in itself pairs 2 and 3, which can also be linked as strongly Theocritean, and
7 and 8 might be an answering Theocritean pair. This leaves 4 and 6; these are
clearly the least pastoral of all the poems, framing 5 in the centre of the
book. This makes it clear that the least pastoral poems, 4, 6 and 10, are
located in significant positions within the collection (framing the centre and
last), and that 4 and 6 are set in tandem. This is surely not accidental, for
these are the three poems in the collection which specifically mark themselves
out as presenting material which pushes most explicitly at the previously
perceived boundaries of the pastoral genre.
Theocritus and the Eclogues
The Eclogues are clearly
based on some of the Idylls of
Theocritus, a Greek poet of the third century B.C.E., in being relatively short
hexameter poems with pastoral settings and themes, with dialogues and
monologues, and amoebean singing-contests. Characteristically, the poet does
not allude explicitly to his model at the opening of the work, but nevertheless
makes his Theocritean links implicitly clear. The Theocritean collection as
transmitted to us contains the items listed below, and is very mixed in
content, especially in its later parts (it is possible that Vergil knew a
shorter collection of ten poems of clearly bucolic character, containing most
of 1-11, but he clearly knew Theocritus 17 as well). Theocritus’ bucolic poems
do not have political allusions (though his urban mimes do, 14 and 15, and 16
and 17 are addressed to great political figures, like Eclogues 4, 6 and 8); Vergil changes this.
1 Dialogue between
Thyrsis and goatherd, followed by poetic contest of two longer songs; Thyrsis’
song (last) contains a refrain. the goatherd admits defeat. 152 lines.
2 Monologue of the
abandoned Simaetha trying to bring back her lover Delphis by magic means,
containing a refrain. 166 lines.
3 Monologue
serenade of goatherd to Amaryllis. 54 lines.
4 Dialogue between
herdsmen Battus and Corydon, set near Croton. 63 lines.
5 Dialogue of
bickering and poetic contest between Comatas and Lacon, set near Thurii. 150
lines.
6 Poetic contest
between Daphnis and Damoetas with songs on the theme of Polyphemus and Galatea
(cf. Ecl. 7 and 9 for Galatea). 46 lines.
7 Monologue
narrative of poet Simichidas relating his encounter with another poet Lycidas,
set on the island of Cos, with two erotic songs. 157 lines.
8 Singing contest
between Daphnis and Menalcas (with short songs in elegiacs). 93 lines.
9 Another singing
contest between Daphnis and Menalcas. 36 lines.
10 Dialogue and
singing-contest of two reapers, Bucaeus and Milon. 59 lines.
11 Framed address
to doctor Nicias; the monologue of the Cyclops unsuccessfully wooing the
sea-nymph Galatea. 81 lines. Sicilian setting.
12 Monologue by
male welcoming a boy lover. 37 lines.
13 Framed address
to doctor Nicias; narrative of the story of Hercules and Hylas from the
Argonaut saga. 75 lines.
14 Urban mime:
gossipy dialogue between Aeschinas and Thuonyichus, the first having quarrelled
with his wife. Casual praise of Ptolemy. Alexandria? 70 lines.
15 Urban mime:
gossipy dialogue between Gorgo and Praxinoa (women) on the occasion of the
Adoneia festival. Casual praise of Ptolemy and Arsinoe. Alexandria. 149 lines.
16 Appeal for
patronage to Hieron II of Syracuse. 109 lines.
17 Encomium of
Ptolemy II. 137 lines.
[18 epithalamium
for Menelaus and Helen (38 lines), 19 Eros complains of bee-sting to Aphrodite
(8 lines), 20 oxherd relates rejection by urban Eunica (45 lines), 21 dialogue
of two old fishermen in a hut (67 lines), 22 hymn to Dioscuri, incorporating
Polydeuces/Amycus dialogue and fight (223 lines), 23 a locked-out lover laments
and hangs himself outside a cruel boy’s door (63 lines), 24 the birth and
education of the young Hercules (140 lines, incomplete), 25 several more
stories from the career of Hercules including the Nemean lion (281 lines), 26
reduced narrative of the Pentheus story from Euripides’ Bacchae with hymnic close (38 lines), 27 seduction dialogue between
Daphnis and anonymous girl (73 lines), 28 presentation of distaff by Theocritus
to Nicias’ wife (16 syllable metre, 25 lines), 29 man tries to seduce boy
(lyric metre, 40 lines), 30 man tries to dissuade himself from passion for boy
(32 lines), 31 lyric fragment addressed to boy].
Theocritean imitatio also
seems to play a part in the architectonic construction of Virgil's Eclogues as a poetry book, though
Vergil’s collection overall shows strict alternation between dialogue and
monologue poems, and a more even length of poem (all between 63 and 111 lines).
The two pairs of Eclogues 2 and 3 and
7 and 8 present two heavily Theocritean groupings, surrounded by two further
pairs of less Theocritean poems on the confiscations (1 and 9) and of poems
which explicitly attempt more elaborate themes (4 and 6), with 5 as pivot and
10 as epilogue.
Week 2
Emerging
Augustan literature 2: Horace, Satires
1
[READ: Satires 1.1.1-40 1.5, 1.6.45-92, 1.9, 2.1, 2.5, Epodes 1 and 2;
E.Gowers’ CUP comm. on Sat. 1, SJH 2014 on Satires 2, SJH Generic
Enrichment Ch.3; all three ancient books in translation] ‘Publication’
dates: Satires 1 36/35, Satires 2 30, Epodes 30/29 BCE.
Satires 1 (10
poems) likely to be influenced by recent Eclogues
(38).
Satires 1.1.1-40 –
mempsimoiria
Qui fit,
Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem Maecenas as
patron and dedicatee
seu ratio
dederit seu fors obiecerit, illa
contentus
vivat, laudet diversa sequentis?
'o
fortunati mercatores' gravis annis bioi
(various lives – cf. Tibullus 1.1)
miles ait,
multo iam fractus membra labore;
5 soldier
[relevant in 30s?]
contra
mercator navim iactantibus Austris: merchant
'militia
est potior. quid enim? concurritur: horae
momento
cita mors venit aut victoria laeta.'
agricolam
laudat iuris legumque peritus, farmer;
lawyer
sub galli
cantum consultor ubi ostia pulsat;
10
ille, datis
vadibus qui rure extractus in urbem est,
solos
felicis viventis clamat in urbe.
cetera de
genere hoc—adeo sunt multa—loquacem
delassare
valent Fabium. ne te morer, audi, verbose
Stoic moraliser (1.2.134)
quo rem
deducam. si quis deus 'en ego' dicat 15
'iam faciam
quod voltis: eris tu, qui modo miles,
mercator;
tu, consultus modo, rusticus: hinc vos,
vos hinc mutatis
discedite partibus. eia,
quid
statis?' nolint. atqui licet esse beatis.
quid causae
est, merito quin illis Iuppiter ambas 20
iratus
buccas inflet neque se fore posthac
tam facilem
dicat, votis ut praebeat aurem?
praeterea,
ne sic ut qui iocularia ridens
percurram: quamquam ridentem dicere verum
quid
vetat? ut pueris
olim dant crustula blandi
25 cf. Lucr.
1.936-47 = 4.11-22
doctores,
elementa velint ut discere prima: (children,
honey, wormwood)
sed tamen amoto
quaeramus seria ludo:
ille gravem
duro terram qui vertit aratro,
perfidus
hic caupo, miles nautaeque, per omne
audaces
mare qui currunt, hac mente laborem 30
sese ferre,
senes ut in otia tuta recedant,
aiunt, cum
sibi sint congesta cibaria: sicut
parvula—nam
exemplo est—magni formica laboris Aesopic
fable (cf. Lucilius 686-7 W.)
ore trahit
quodcumque potest atque addit acervo
quem
struit, haud ignara ac non incauta futuri. 35
quae, simul
inversum contristat Aquarius annum,
non usquam
prorepit et illis utitur ante
quaesitis
sapiens, cum te neque fervidus aestus
demoveat
lucro neque hiems, ignis mare ferrum,
nil obstet
tibi, dum ne sit te ditior alter.
40
Satires 1.5 –
Lucilius meets the Odyssey?
SJH: ‘The so-called ‘Journey to
Brundisium’ famously reworks a similar southward expedition from Rome narrated
in the third book of Lucilius’ Satires,
the so-called ‘Journey to Sicily’, preserved for us in a number of fragments
(fr.94-148 W.). Both poems involved ferry-crossings, inns and catalogues of
places; Lucilius’ travellers witness a gladiatorial battle at Capua (109-117
W.), echoed in the comic Horatian dispute (1.5.51-70) between the low-lives
Sarmentus and Cicirrus in the same geographical area’.
Egressum magna
me accepit Aricia Roma journey
from great city (Troy II?) – cf.
hospitio
modico; rhetor comes Heliodorus, Od.9.39-40‘the
wind, carrying me from Graecorum longe
doctissimus; inde Forum Appi Troy
brought me to the Cicones, to Ismarus,
differtum
nautis cauponibus atque malignis. then I sacked the city and destroyed the
people’
hoc iter
ignavi divisimus, altius ac nos
5
praecinctis
unum: minus est gravis Appia tardis.
hic ego
propter aquam, quod erat deterrima, ventri
indico
bellum, cenantis haud animo aequo
exspectans
comites. iam nox inducere terris
umbras et
caelo diffundere signa parabat:
10
tum pueri
nautis, pueris convicia nautae
ingerere:
'huc adpelle'; 'trecentos inseris'; 'ohe,
iam satis
est.' dum aes exigitur, dum mula ligatur,
tota abit
hora. mali culices ranaeque palustres
avertunt
somnos; absentem cantat amicam
15
multa
prolutus vappa nauta atque viator
certatim;
tandem fessus dormire viator
incipit ac
missae pastum retinacula mulae
nauta piger
saxo religat stertitque supinus.
iamque dies
aderat, nil cum procedere lintrem
20 boat fails
to advance
sentimus,
donec cerebrosus prosilit unus
ac mulae
nautaeque caput lumbosque saligno
fuste
dolat: quarta vix demum exponimur hora. delayed voyage
ora
manusque tua lavimus, Feronia, lympha.
milia tum
pransi tria repimus atque subimus
25
inpositum
saxis late candentibus Anxur.
huc
venturus erat Maecenas optimus atque Maecenas
and motivation
Cocceius,
missi magnis de rebus uterque
legati,
aversos soliti conponere amicos. political
context (36?)
hic oculis
ego nigra meis collyria lippus
30
inlinere.
interea Maecenas advenit atque
Cocceius
Capitoque simul Fonteius, ad unguem
factus
homo, Antoni, non ut magis alter, amicus.
Fundos
Aufidio Lusco praetore libenter
linquimus,
insani ridentes praemia scribae,
35
praetextam
et latum clavum prunaeque vatillum.
in
Mamurrarum lassi deinde urbe manemus, Formiae
(Catullus)
Murena
praebente domum, Capitone culinam.
postera lux
oritur multo gratissima; namque
Plotius et
Varius Sinuessae Vergiliusque
40 Plotius,
Varius, Vergil (cf. 1.10.81)
occurrunt,
animae, qualis neque candidiores
terra tulit
neque quis me sit devinctior alter.
o qui
conplexus et gaudia quanta fuerunt.
nil
ego contulerim iucundo sanus amico. memorable
one-liner
proxima
Campano ponti quae villula, tectum
45
praebuit et
parochi, quae debent, ligna salemque.
hinc muli
Capuae clitellas tempore ponunt.
lusum it
Maecenas, dormitum ego Vergiliusque;
namque pila
lippis inimicum et ludere crudis.
hinc nos
Coccei recipit plenissima villa,
50 palace of
Alcinous
quae super
est Caudi cauponas. nunc mihi paucis epic battle
parody
Sarmenti scurrae
pugnam Messique Cicirri, Odysseus
and Irus: Od.18
Musa, velim
memores et quo patre natus uterque
contulerit
litis. Messi clarum genus Osci;
Sarmenti
domina exstat: ab his maioribus orti
ad pugnam
venere. prior Sarmentus 'equi te
esse feri
similem dico.' ridemus, et ipse Od.18.11 'laughing sweetly’
Messius
'accipio,' caput et movet. 'o tua cornu
ni foret
exsecto frons,' inquit, 'quid faceres, cum
sic mutilus
minitaris?' at illi foeda cicatrix
60
saetosam
laevi frontem turpaverat oris.
Campanum in
morbum, in faciem permulta iocatus,
pastorem
saltaret uti Cyclopa rogabat: Odyssey
nil illi
larva aut tragicis opus esse cothurnis. Euripides Cyclops?
multa
Cicirrus ad haec: donasset iamne catenam 65
ex voto
Laribus, quaerebat; scriba quod esset,
nilo
deterius dominae ius esse; rogabat
denique,
cur umquam fugisset, cui satis una
farris
libra foret, gracili sic tamque pusillo.
prorsus
iucunde cenam producimus illam.
70
tendimus
hinc recta Beneventum, ubi sedulus hospes
paene
macros arsit dum turdos versat in igni.
nam vaga
per veterem dilapso flamma culinam
Volcano
summum properabat lambere tectum. epic parody
convivas
avidos cenam servosque timentis
75
tum rapere
atque omnis restinguere velle videres.
incipit ex
illo montis Apulia notos returning
home for H.
ostentare
mihi, quos torret Atabulus et quos
nunquam
erepsemus, nisi nos vicina Trivici
villa
recepisset lacrimoso non sine fumo, 80 Od.1.58 (smoke from home)
udos cum
foliis ramos urente camino.
hic ego
mendacem stultissimus usque puellam
ad mediam
noctem exspecto; somnus tamen aufert
intentum
veneri; tum inmundo somnia visu
nocturnam
vestem maculant ventremque supinum. 85 bodily element
quattuor
hinc rapimur viginti et milia raedis,
mansuri
oppidulo, quod versu dicere non est,
signis
perfacile est: venit vilissima rerum
hic aqua,
sed panis longe pulcherrimus, ultra
callidus ut
soleat umeris portare viator.
90
nam Canusi
lapidosus, aquae non ditior urna:
qui locus a
forti Diomede est conditus olim. epic
(Homer)
flentibus
hinc Varius discedit maestus amicis.
inde Rubos
fessi pervenimus, utpote longum
carpentes
iter et factum corruptius imbri.
95
postera
tempestas melior, via peior ad usque
Bari moenia
piscosi; dein Gnatia Lymphis
iratis
exstructa dedit risusque iocosque,
dum flamma
sine tura liquescere limine sacro
persuadere
cupit. credat Iudaeus Apella,
100
non ego;
namque deos didici securum agere aevom Lucr.5.82 nam
bene qui didicere deos
nec, siquid
miri faciat natura, deos id securum
agere aevom
tristis ex
alto caeli demittere tecto. [hexameter
ethics]
Brundisium
longae finis chartaeque viaeque est. double
closure
Satires 1.6.45-92
(H’s autobiography):
nunc ad me
redeo libertino patre natum,
45 unusual
freedman?
quem rodunt
omnes libertino patre natum,
nunc, quia
sim tibi, Maecenas, convictor, at olim, Maecenas
quod mihi pareret
legio Romana tribuno. Philippi
dissimile
hoc illi est, quia non, ut forsit honorem
iure mihi
invideat quivis, ita te quoque amicum, 50 friendship?
praesertim
cautum dignos adsumere, prava
ambitione
procul. felicem dicere non hoc
me possim,
casu quod te sortitus amicum;
nulla
etenim mihi te fors obtulit: optimus olim
Vergilius,
post hunc Varius dixere, quid essem. 55 introduced by poets of 1.5
ut veni
coram, singultim pauca locutus— few words
(Callimachean?)
infans
namque pudor prohibebat plura profari—
non ego me
claro natum patre, non ego circum
me
Satureiano vectari rura caballo,
sed quod
eram narro. respondes, ut tuus est mos, 60 few words again
pauca; abeo, et revocas nono post mense iubesque
esse in
amicorum numero. magnum hoc ego duco,
quod placui
tibi, qui turpi secernis honestum
non
patre praeclaro, sed vita et pectore puro. one-liner
atqui si
vitiis mediocribus ac mea paucis
65
mendosa est
natura, alioqui recta, velut si
egregio
inspersos reprendas corpore naevos,
si neque
avaritiam neque sordes nec mala lustra
obiciet
vere quisquam mihi, purus et insons,
ut me
collaudem, si et vivo carus amicis, 70
causa fuit
pater his; qui macro pauper agello
noluit in
Flavi ludum me mittere, magni
quo pueri
magnis e centurionibus orti
laevo
suspensi loculos tabulamque lacerto
ibant
octonos referentes idibus aeris,
75
sed puerum
est ausus Romam portare docendum
artis quas
doceat quivis eques atque senator elite education
semet
prognatos. vestem servosque sequentis,
in magno ut
populo, siqui vidisset, avita
ex re
praeberi sumptus mihi crederet illos. 80 like old money
ipse mihi
custos incorruptissimus omnis ex-slave in
servile role?
circum
doctores aderat. quid multa? pudicum,
qui primus
virtutis honos, servavit ab omni
non solum
facto, verum opprobrio quoque turpi
nec timuit,
sibi ne vitio quis verteret, olim
85
si praeco
parvas aut, ut fuit ipse, coactor
mercedes
sequerer; neque ego essem questus. at hoc nunc
laus illi
debetur et a me gratia maior.
nil me
paeniteat sanum patris huius, eoque
non, ut
magna dolo factum negat esse suo pars, 90
quod non
ingenuos habeat clarosque parentes,
sic me
defendam.
Satires 1.9 (H.
meets his evil twin? cf. Sat.2, many
H.-like speakers)
Ibam forte
via sacra, sicut meus est mos, Platonic
dialogue parody?
nescio quid
meditans nugarum, totus in illis: poetic
composition?
accurrit
quidam notus mihi nomine tantum unnamed alter ego?
arreptaque
manu 'quid agis, dulcissime rerum?' forced
intimacy (unlike H. and M.)
'suaviter,
ut nunc est,' inquam 'et cupio omnia quae vis.' 5
cum
adsectaretur, 'numquid vis?' occupo. at ille
'noris nos'
inquit; 'docti sumus.' hic ego 'pluris a poet
hoc' inquam
'mihi eris.' misere discedere quaerens
ire modo
ocius, interdum consistere, in aurem
dicere
nescio quid puero, cum sudor ad imos 10
manaret
talos. 'o te, Bolane, cerebri
felicem'
aiebam tacitus, cum quidlibet ille
garriret,
vicos, urbem laudaret. ut illi
nil
respondebam, 'misere cupis' inquit 'abire:
iamdudum
video; sed nil agis: usque tenebo;
15
persequar
hinc quo nunc iter est tibi.' 'nil opus est te
circumagi:
quendam volo visere non tibi notum;
trans
Tiberim longe cubat is prope Caesaris hortos.'
'nil habeo
quod agam et non sum piger: usque sequar te.'
demitto
auriculas, ut iniquae mentis asellus, 20 beast-simile (unepic?)
cum gravius
dorso subiit onus. incipit ille:
'si bene me
novi, non Viscum pluris amicum, literary
friends
non Varium
facies; nam quis me scribere pluris Lucilian
(cf.1.4), unCallimachean
aut citius
possit versus? quis membra movere
mollius?
invideat quod et Hermogenes, ego canto.' 25 Herm. attacked in 1.2
interpellandi
locus hic erat 'est tibi mater,
cognati,
quis te salvo est opus?' 'haud mihi quisquam.
omnis
conposui.' 'felices. nunc ego resto.
confice;
namque instat fatum mihi triste, Sabella
quod puero
cecinit divina mota anus urna:
30
"hunc
neque dira venena nec hosticus auferet
ensis parodic
prophetic hexameters
nec laterum
dolor aut tussis nec tarda podagra:
garrulus
hunc quando consumet cumque: loquaces,
si sapiat,
vitet, simul atque adoleverit aetas."'
ventum erat
ad Vestae, quarta iam parte diei
35
praeterita,
et casu tum respondere vadato
debebat,
quod ni fecisset, perdere litem.
'si me
amas,' inquit 'paulum hic ades.' 'inteream, si
aut valeo
stare aut novi civilia iura;
et propero
quo scis.' 'dubius sum, quid faciam', inquit, 40
'tene
relinquam an rem.' 'me, sodes.' 'non faciam' ille,
et
praecedere coepit; ego, ut contendere durum
cum
victore, sequor. 'Maecenas quomodo
tecum?' the real
point? access to M.?
hinc
repetit. 'paucorum hominum et mentis
bene sanae.
nemo
dexterius fortuna est usus. haberes 45
magnum
adiutorem, posset qui ferre secundas,
hunc
hominem velles si tradere: dispeream, ni
summosses
omnis.' 'non isto vivimus illic,
quo tu
rere, modo; domus hac nec purior ulla
est defends
Maecenas
nec
magis his aliena malis; nil mi officit, inquam, 50
ditior
hic aut est quia doctior; est locus uni
cuique
suus.' 'magnum
narras, vix credibile.' 'atqui
sic habet.'
'accendis quare cupiam magis illi the wrong
approach
proximus
esse.' 'velis tantummodo: quae tua virtus, ironic
expugnabis:
et est qui vinci possit eoque
55
difficilis
aditus primos habet.' 'haud mihi deero:
muneribus
servos corrumpam; non, hodie si the wrong
approach again
exclusus
fuero, desistam; tempora quaeram,
occurram
in triviis, deducam.
nil sine magno as in this
poem!
vita labore
dedit mortalibus.' haec dum agit, ecce 60
Fuscus
Aristius occurrit, mihi carus et illum mischievous
Fuscus
qui pulchre
nosset. consistimus. 'unde venis et
quo
tendis?' rogat et respondet. vellere coepi
et pressare
manu lentissima bracchia, nutans,
distorquens
oculos, ut me eriperet. male salsus 65
ridens
dissimulare; meum iecur urere bilis.
'certe
nescio quid secreto velle loqui te
aiebas
mecum.' 'memini bene, sed meliore
tempore
dicam; hodie tricensima sabbata: vin tu Jewish
festival (joke)
curtis
Iudaeis oppedere?' 'nulla mihi' inquam 70
'religio
est.' 'at mi: sum paulo infirmior, unus
multorum.
ignosces; alias loquar.' huncine solem
tam nigrum
surrexe mihi! fugit inprobus ac me
sub cultro
linquit. casu venit obvius illi
adversarius
et 'quo tu, turpissime?' magna
75
inclamat
voce, et 'licet antestari?' ego vero
oppono
auriculam. rapit in ius; clamor utrimque,
undique concursus. sic me servavit Apollo. Homeric
escape (Iliad 5; maybe Lucilian too,
118 W)
Week 3A
Emerging
Augustan literature 3: Horace, Satires
2 and Epodes
Satires 2.1.1-34 –
consulting Trebatius:
'Sunt quibus
in satura videar nimis acer et ultra response to
Book 1
legem
tendere opus; sine nervis altera quidquid
conposui
pars esse putat similisque meorum
mille die
versus deduci posse. Trebati, lawyer
quid
faciam? praescribe.' 'quiescas.' 'ne faciam, inquis, 5
omnino
versus?' 'aio.' 'peream male, si non ironic
programme
optimum
erat; verum nequeo dormire.' 'ter uncti (i) 12
tables sacer esto (ii) T and
transnanto Tiberim, somno quibus est opus alto, swimming
[Cic.Fam.7.22]
inriguumque
mero sub noctem corpus habento.
aut si
tantus amor scribendi te rapit, aude 10
Caesaris
invicti res dicere, multa laborum post-Actium?
praemia
laturus.' 'cupidum, pater optime, vires
deficiunt;
neque enim quivis horrentia pilis
agmina nec fracta
pereuntis cuspide Gallos expected
targets of the time
aut
labentis equo describit volnera Parthi.' 15 (heritage of J.C.)
'attamen et
iustum poteras et scribere fortem,
Scipiadam
ut sapiens Lucilius.' 'haud mihi dero, Lucilius
and Scipio Aemilianus
cum res
ipsa feret: nisi dextro tempore Flacci
verba per
attentam non ibunt Caesaris aurem:
cui male si
palpere, recalcitrat undique tutus.' 20 issue of addressing Caesar
'quanto
rectius hoc quam tristi laedere versu [Ep.1.13, Ep.2.1]
Pantolabum
scurram Nomentanumque nepotem, 1.8.11 Pantolabo scurrae Nomentanoque nepoti
cum sibi
quisque timet, quamquam est intactus, et odit.'
'quid
faciam? saltat Milonius, ut semel icto
accessit
fervor capiti numerusque lucernis;
25 high and low culture
Castor
gaudet equis, ovo prognatus eodem
pugnis;
quot capitum vivunt, totidem studiorum
milia: me pedibus delectat claudere verba
Lucili
ritu, nostrum melioris utroque. I can only
be a satirist
ille velut fidis
arcana sodalibus olim 30
credebat
libris neque, si male cesserat, usquam autobiographical
Lucilius
decurrens
alio neque, si bene; quo fit ut omnis
votiva
pateat veluti descripta tabella
vita senis.
sequor hunc, Lucanus an Apulus anceps…
Satires 2.5.1-22
(Odysseus consults Tiresias – cf. 2.1 [consultation], 1.5 [Odyssey]):
'Hoc
quoque, Tiresia, praeter narrata petenti sequel to Odyssey 11.98ff (‘Tell me X,Y,Z)
responde,
quibus amissas reparare queam res [T. tells
O. about suitors there]
artibus
atque modis. quid rides?' 'iamne doloso
non satis
est Ithacam revehi patriosque penatis
adspicere?'
'o nulli quicquam mentite, vides ut 5 Problem: Ovid Met.3.323ff
nudus
inopsque domum redeam te vate, neque illic
aut
apotheca procis intacta est aut pecus: atqui
et genus et
virtus, nisi cum re, vilior alga est.'
quando
pauperiem missis ambagibus horres, satiric
advice: captatio
accipe qua
ratione queas ditescere. turdus
10
sive aliud privum
dabitur tibi, devolet illuc,
res ubi
magna nitet domino sene; dulcia poma
et
quoscumque feret cultus tibi fundus honores
ante Larem
gustet venerabilior Lare dives.
qui quamvis
periurus erit, sine gente, cruentus 15 any rich man will do
sanguine
fraterno, fugitivus, ne tamen illi
tu comes
exterior, si postulet, ire recuses.'
'utne tegam
spurco Damae latus? haud ita Troiae epic v.
satire
me gessi,
certans semper melioribus.' 'ergo
pauper
eris.' 'fortem hoc animum tolerare iubebo; 20
et quondam
maiora tuli. tu protinus, unde Od.20.18 ‘Endure, my heart; a worse
divitias
aerisque ruam, dic, augur, acervos.' thing even
than this didst thou once endure
on that day
when the Cyclops, unrestrained
in daring, devoured
my mighty comrades’
Epode 1
Ibis
Liburnis inter alta navium, The Actium
campaign (32-31)
amice, propugnacula, Archilochean
themes: sailing, comrades
paratus
omne Caesaris periculum (fr.24 W.,
fr.105 W.)
subire, Maecenas, tuo:
quid nos,
quibus te vita sit superstite
iucunda, si contra, gravis? parallel
friendships
utrumne
iussi persequemur otium
non dulce, ni tecum simul,
an hunc
laborem mente laturi, decet
qua ferre non mollis viros?
feremus et
te vel per Alpium iuga Catullus 11
(travel + male friendship, lyric)
inhospitalem et Caucasum N, E, W
vel
occidentis usque ad ultimum sinum
forti sequemur pectore.
roges, tuom
labore quid iuvem meo,
inbellis ac firmus parum? H. the
weaker Archilochus
comes
minore sum futurus in metu,
qui maior absentis habet:
ut adsidens
inplumibus pullis avis eagle
chicks destroyed in Archilochus
serpentium adlapsus timet fr.172-181
W
magis
relictis, non, ut adsit, auxili
latura plus praesentibus.
libenter
hoc et omne militabitur
bellum in tuae spem gratiae,
non ut
iuvencis inligata pluribus no desire
for material riches
aratra nitantur meis
pecusve
Calabris ante Sidus fervidum
Lucana mutet pascuis
neque ut
superni villa candens Tusculi Lake Tahoe?
Circaea tangat moenia: epic
ambitions?
satis
superque me benignitas tua
ditavit, haud paravero
quod aut
avarus ut Chremes terra premam, no comic
role
discinctus aut perdam nepos.
Epode 2
Surprise speaker revealed at end: cf. Archilochus fr.19 West (Charon
the carpenter and wealth).
Ironising the non-farmer and non-shepherd Vergil?
Praise of country life: Vergil Eclogues
and esp. Georgics 2.458ff (to come in
29).
'Beatus
ille qui procul negotiis, Georgics
2.458-9 o fortunatos nimium … /
… agricolas
ut prisca gens mortalium,
paterna
rura bubus exercet suis
solutus omni faenore moneylender
speaks!
neque
excitatur classico miles truci Georgics
2.501-4 [avoiding forum and limina regum,
neque horret iratum mare avoiding
the dangers of sea-trading]
forumque
vitat et superba civium
potentiorum limina.
ergo aut
adulta vitium propagine Georgics 2
(viticulture)
altas maritat populos
aut in reducta
valle mugientium Georgics
3 (cattle)
prospectat errantis greges
inutilisque
falce ramos amputans
feliciores inserit
aut pressa
puris mella condit amphoris Georgics 4
(bees/honey)
aut tondet infirmas ovis.
vel cum
decorum mitibus pomis caput
Autumnus agris extulit,
ut gaudet
insitiva decerpens pira Georgics
2 (fruit-growing)
certantem et uvam purpurae,
qua
muneretur te, Priape, et te, pater Priapus: Georgics 4.111
Silvane, tutor finium. Silvanus: Georgics 1.20, 2.494
libet
iacere modo sub antiqua ilice, Ecl.7.1 consederat arguta … sub ilice
modo in tenaci gramine: Ecl.5.46 in gramine
labuntur
altis interim ripis aquae, Ecl.
8.87 propter aquae riuum
queruntur in silvis aves Ecl.1.58 nec
gemere aëria cessabit turtur ab ulmo
frondesque
lymphis obstrepunt manantibus, Ecl.
7.45 Muscosi fontes
somnos quod invitet levis. Ecl.1.55 leui somnum suadebit inire susurro
at cum
tonantis annus hibernus Iovis Georgics
1.307 hunting as winter activity
imbris nivisque conparat,
aut trudit
acris hinc et hinc multa cane
apros in obstantis plagas Georgics 3.44-6
hunting with hounds
aut amite
levi rara tendit retia
turdis edacibus dolos
pavidumque
leporem et advenam laqueo gruem Georgics
1.307 trapping cranes
iucunda captat praemia.
quis non
malarum quas amor curas habet Ecl.10.55-60
hunting as cure for love
haec inter obliviscitur?
quodsi
pudica mulier in partem iuvet
domum atque dulcis liberos, Georgics 2.523-4 chaste home and children
Sabina
qualis aut perusta solibus
pernicis uxor Apuli,
sacrum
vetustis exstruat lignis focum Georgics
1.287ff indoor winter work of wife
lassi sub adventum viri
claudensque
textis cratibus laetum pecus
distenta siccet ubera
et horna
dulci vina promens dolio Georgics
2.89ff wine-making
dapes inemptas adparet:
non me
Lucrina iuverint conchylia Georgics
2.463ff no brand-name/foreign luxury
magisve rhombus aut scari,
siquos Eois
intonata fluctibus
hiems ad hoc vertat mare,
non Afra
avis descendat in ventrem meum,
non attagen Ionicus
iucundior
quam lecta de pinguissimis
oliva ramis arborum Georgics
2.181ff olive oil
aut herba
lapathi prata amantis et gravi
malvae salubres corpori
vel agna
festis caesa Terminalibus pastoral
lambs and kids (Eclogues)
vel haedus ereptus lupo.
has inter
epulas ut iuvat pastas ovis
videre properantis domum,
videre
fessos vomerem inversum boves ploughing
in Georgics 1
collo trahentis languido
positosque
vernas, ditis examen domus, Georgics
2.524 casta domus
circum renidentis Laris.'
haec ubi
locutus faenerator Alfius,
iam iam futurus rusticus, Vergil?
omnem
redegit idibus pecuniam,
quaerit kalendis ponere.
Week 3B
Emerging
Augustan literature 3B: Vergil Georgics
[READ: Georgics 1.1-203, 1.463-515, 2.135-76, 2.458-542, 3.1-48,
4.1-148; SJH Generic Enrichment Ch.4; all of Georgics
in translation]
Georgics
‘published’ first half of 29 (August triumphs of Augustus anticipated, see
below)?
Greek tradition of agricultural hexameter didactic: Hesiod Works and Days.
Roman tradition of agricultural literature in prose: Cato De Agr, Varro Res Rusticae.
Georgics as verse
paraphrase of Varro (Hellenistic didactic trope: Aratus
Phaenomena/Eudoxus,
Nicander Theriaka and Alexipharmaka, and especially Lucretius
and Epicurus). Varro RR
(36/35 BCE): three books, 1.1 begins with the twelve
rustic gods (cf. G.1), and the last major section (3.16) is on bees
(cf. G.4). Nicander’s Georgika
gives its title to Vergil’s poem, but seems to have been about
horticulture, expressly
omitted by Vergil (cf. G.4.116-48, The Old Man of Corycus,
below).
Astronomy – some in Hesiod, but much more in Aratus, Phaenomena (v.popular).
Cicero’s version (80s BCE?) is likely to have been known to Lucretius
and certainly to
Vergil – see Emma Gee, Aratus and the Astronomical Tradition
(2013).
Political allegory in didactic – V’s contribution?(cf. Eclogues, Aeneid?). Aratus’ poem has
received Stoicising allegorical commentary (see Gee), but extensive political
allegory seems to be first found in the Georgics.
Georgics 1.1-42 - programmatic opening of Lucretian
length:
Quid faciat
laetas segetes, quo sidere terram Works and Days
[Hesiod]
uertere,
Maecenas, ulmisque adiungere uitis Book 1
ploughing, Book 2 vines
conueniat,
quae cura boum, qui cultus habendo Book 3
livestock, Book 4 bees
sit pecori,
apibus quanta experientia parcis, [cf.
Lucretius 1.55-61, 127-35]
hinc canere
incipiam. uos, o clarissima mundi
5 Gods/stars
1. Sun 2. Moon
lumina,
labentem caelo quae ducitis annum; [Alexander
Helios/Cleopatra Selene]
Liber et
alma Ceres, uestro si munere tellus 3
Liber 4 Ceres [cf. Lucretius 5.14-15]
Chaoniam
pingui glandem mutauit arista, [Liber/Antony]
poculaque
inuentis Acheloia miscuit uuis;
et uos,
agrestum praesentia numina, Fauni
10 5
Fauni/Dryades
(ferte
simul Faunique pedem Dryadesque puellae:
munera
uestra cano); tuque o, cui prima frementem 6 Neptune
fudit equum
magno tellus percussa tridenti, [Neptune/Sextus
Pompeius]
Neptune; et
cultor nemorum, cui pinguia Ceae 7 Aristaeus
(cf. Book 4 = Caesar?)
ter centum
niuei tondent dumeta iuuenci;
15
ipse nemus
linquens patrium saltusque Lycaei
Pan, ouium
custos, tua si tibi Maenala curae, 8 Pan [Eclogues?]
adsis, o
Tegeaee, fauens, oleaeque Minerua 9 Minerva
inuentrix,
uncique puer monstrator aratri, 10
Triptolemus (Hom.Hymn.Demeter)
et teneram
ab radice ferens, Siluane, cupressum:
20 11 Silvanus
dique
deaeque omnes, studium quibus arua tueri, [Varro’s
12]
quique
nouas alitis non ullo semine fruges
quique
satis largum caelo demittitis imbrem.
tuque adeo,
quem mox quae sint habitura deorum
concilia incertum
est, urbisne inuisere, Caesar, 25 12 Caesar, destined for divinity
terrarumque uelis curam, et te maximus orbis -on land
[divine visitation?]
auctorem
frugum tempestatumque potentem
accipiat
cingens materna tempora myrto; Venus as divine
ancestor
an deus
immensi uenias maris ac tua nautae -in the sea
[Venus link?]
numina sola
colant, tibi seruiat ultima Thule, 30 exaggeration
teque sibi
generum Tethys emat omnibus undis; [S.Pompeius
again]
anne nouum tardis
sidus te mensibus addas, -among the
stars [cf. Julius?]
qua locus
Erigonen inter Chelasque sequentis [astronomical
detail: Aratus]
panditur
(ipse tibi iam bracchia contrahit ardens
Scorpius et
caeli iusta plus parte reliquit);
35
quidquid
eris (nam te nec sperant Tartara regem, -NOT the
underworld and NOT a king
nec tibi
regnandi ueniat tam dira cupido,
quamuis
Elysios miretur Graecia campos [underworld
as Greek poetic theme]
nec
repetita sequi curet Proserpina matrem),
da facilem
cursum atque audacibus adnue coeptis, 40 didactic voyage (NOT
Lucretius)
ignarosque
uiae mecum miseratus agrestis farmers
as citizens
ingredere
et uotis iam nunc adsuesce uocari. be
called upon in prayer (cf. Ecl.1.42-3)
Georgics 1.463-515: ominous celestial signs and Roman
civil wars of 30s
solem quis dicere falsum
audeat?
ille etiam caecos instare tumultus
saepe monet
fraudemque et operta tumescere bella;
465
ille etiam
exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam, 44 BCE [cf.
Suetonius Div.Iul.]
cum caput
obscura nitidum ferrugine texit darkness
impiaque
aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.
tempore
quamquam illo tellus quoque et aequora ponti, signs on land and sea
obscenaeque
canes importunaeque uolucres
470 dogs and birds
[Homeric battle?]
signa
dabant. quotiens Cyclopum efferuere in agros Sicily
[S.Pompeius]
uidimus
undantem ruptis fornacibus Aetnam, Aetna as
poetic topos [Pindar,
flammarumque
globos liquefactaque uoluere saxa! [Aesch.]
PV]
armorum sonitum
toto Germania caelo Germany(border
of Caesar’sGaul)
audiit,
insolitis tremuerunt motibus Alpes. 475 Caesar over the Alps in 49
uox quoque
per lucos uulgo exaudita silentis
ingens, et
simulacra modis pallentia miris =
Lucr.1.123 [but no ghosts!]
uisa sub
obscurum noctis, pecudesque locutae
(infandum!);
sistunt amnes terraeque dehiscunt, pun
et maestum
inlacrimat templis ebur aeraque sudant. 480
proluit
insano contorquens uertice siluas
fluuiorum
rex Eridanus camposque per omnis river Po
(Caesar crosses in 49)
cum
stabulis armenta tulit. nec tempore eodem Caesar as
destructive force?
tristibus
aut extis fibrae apparere minaces
aut puteis
manare cruor cessauit, et altae
485
per noctem
resonare lupis ululantibus urbes. Roman wolf
reversed?
non alias
caelo ceciderunt plura sereno
fulgura nec
diri totiens arsere cometae.
ergo inter
sese paribus concurrere telis civil war x
2
Romanas
acies iterum uidere Philippi; 490 Thessaly = Macedonia!
nec fuit
indignum superis bis sanguine nostro
Emathiam et
latos Haemi pinguescere campos. pun
scilicet et
tempus ueniet, cum finibus illis retrojected
prophecy now fulfilled
agricola
incuruo terram molitus aratro in
ploughing farmer of this book?
exesa inueniet scabra robigine pila, 495 grand word
order (Ecl.4)
aut
grauibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanis
grandiaque
effossis mirabitur ossa sepulcris.
di patrii
Indigetes et Romule Vestaque mater, gods of
Rome
quae Tuscum
Tiberim et Romana Palatia seruas, home of
young Caesar?
hunc saltem euerso iuuenem succurrere
saeclo 500 cf. Ecl.1.42 iuvenem [contrast JC]
ne
prohibete. satis iam pridem sanguine nostro
Laomedonteae luimus periuria Troiae; grand word
order (Ecl.4)
iam pridem
nobis caeli te regia, Caesar, the R word
inuidet
atque hominum queritur curare triumphos,
quippe ubi
fas uersum atque nefas: tot bella per orbem,
505
tam multae
scelerum facies, non ullus aratro
dignus honos,
squalent abductis arua colonis,
et curuae
rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. swords into
ploughshares
hinc mouet
Euphrates, illinc Germania bellum; campaigns
of 30s (Antony etc)
uicinae
ruptis inter se legibus urbes
510 Sicily and
S.Pompeius?
arma
ferunt; saeuit toto Mars impius orbe, father of
Romulus (498)
ut cum
carceribus sese effudere quadrigae, sport to
war? cf. Iliad 22.150
addunt in
spatia, et frustra retinacula tendens chariot:
state and poem?
fertur
equis auriga neque audit currus habenas. young Caesar/Apollo/Phaethon?
[cf.
Lucan 1.48-52]
Georgics
2.135-76 – praise of Italy and
this poem
Sed neque
Medorum siluae, ditissima terra, Medes =
Parthians
nec pulcher
Ganges atque auro turbidus Hermus West and East
laudibus
Italiae certent, non Bactra neque Indi Alexander
locations – new A?
totaque
turiferis Panchaia pinguis harenis.
haec loca non tauri spirantes naribus ignem 140 Italy/Georgics
inuertere
satis immanis dentibus hydri, not the Argonautica
nec galeis
densisque uirum seges horruit hastis;
sed
grauidae fruges et Bacchi Massicus umor Books 1,2,3
of this poem
impleuere;
tenent oleae armentaque laeta.
hinc
bellator equus campo sese arduus infert, 145
hinc albi,
Clitumne, greges et maxima taurus
uictima,
saepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro,
Romanos ad
templa deum duxere triumphos.
hic uer
adsiduum atque alienis mensibus aestas: fantastic:
encomium or otherwise?
bis
grauidae pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbos. 150
at rabidae
tigres absunt et saeua leonum
semina, nec
miseros fallunt aconita legentis,
nec rapit immensos
orbis per humum neque tanto
squameus in
spiram tractu se colligit anguis. snakes or
big snakes?
adde tot egregias
urbes operumque laborem,
155
tot
congesta manu praeruptis oppida saxis Italian
hill-towns
fluminaque
antiquos subter labentia muros. Mantua?
Rome?
an mare
quod supra memorem, quodque adluit infra?
anne lacus
tantos? te, Lari maxime, teque, Italian
Lakes promo (Como, Garda)
fluctibus
et fremitu adsurgens Benace marino? 160
an memorem
portus Lucrinoque addita claustra lacus
Lucrinus and portus Iulius
atque
indignatum magnis stridoribus aequor, [naval wars
of 30s
Iulia qua ponto longe sonat unda refuso
Tyrrhenusque
fretis immittitur aestus Auernis?
haec eadem
argenti riuos aerisque metalla
165 exaggeration
again
ostendit
uenis atque auro plurima fluxit.
haec genus
acre uirum, Marsos pubemque Sabellam
adsuetumque
malo Ligurem Volscosque uerutos
extulit,
haec Decios Marios magnosque Camillos,
Scipiadas
duros bello et te, maxime Caesar, 170 latest great Roman
qui nunc
extremis Asiae iam uictor in oris 30-29
BCE - cf. 4.559-66 below?
imbellem auertis Romanis arcibus Indum. new
Alexander; high word-order
salue,
magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus,
magna
uirum: tibi res antiquae laudis et artem
ingredior
sanctos ausus recludere fontis,
175
Ascraeumque cano Romana per oppida carmen. Hesiod; high word-order
Georgics
2.458-542: praise of farming
life; Lucretian ambitions; country life and the Golden Age
O
fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, Horace Epode 2.1 Beatus ille … [farmer]
agricolas!
quibus ipsa procul discordibus armis poem of peace (land and Eclogues?)
fundit humo
facilem uictum iustissima tellus.
460 rejection
of materialism: Lucr.2 proem
si non
ingentem foribus domus alta superbis Lucr.2.24 si non …
mane
salutantum totis uomit aedibus undam, artificial
materialism of the city
nec uarios
inhiant pulchra testudine postis Lucr.2.27 nec domus argento fulget inlusasque auro uestis Ephyreiaque aera, auroque
renidet [+ other luxuries]
alba neque
Assyrio fucatur lana ueneno, 465 Roman
nostalgia for peasant simplicity
nec casia
liquidi corrumpitur usus oliui;
at secura
quies et nescia fallere uita, the real
riches of country life
diues opum
uariarum, at latis otia fundis,
speluncae
uiuique lacus, at frigida tempe
mugitusque
boum mollesque sub arbore somni 470
non absunt;
illic saltus ac lustra ferarum
et patiens
operum exiguoque adsueta iuuentus,
sacra deum
sanctique patres; extrema per illos
Iustitia
excedens terris uestigia fecit. Dike in Aratus
(end of Golden Age)
Me uero primum dulces ante omnia
Musae, 475 Lucretian ambitions: Lucr.1.923-4
quarum
sacra fero ingenti percussus amore, percussit
thyrso laudis spes magna mi
accipiant
caelique uias et sidera monstrent, meum
cor/et simul incussit suavem
defectus
solis uarios lunaeque
labores; in
pectus amorem Lucr 5.751 Solis
unde tremor
terris, qua ui maria alta tumescent item
quoque defectus lunaeque latebras
obicibus
ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant, 480 Lucretius 5.914 maria alta
quid tantum
Oceano properent se tingere soles
hiberni,
uel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.
sin has ne
possim naturae accedere partis
frigidus
obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis,
rura mihi
et rigui placeant in uallibus amnes,
485
flumina
amem siluasque inglorius. o ubi campi
Spercheosque
et uirginibus bacchata Lacaenis
Taygeta! o
qui me gelidis conuallibus Haemi
sistat, et
ingenti ramorum protegat umbra! Lucretius
3.1072 naturam primum
felix qui potuit
rerum cognoscere causas 490 studeat cognoscere rerum
atque metus
omnis et inexorabile fatum
subiecit
pedibus strepitumque Acherontis auari: Lucretius
1.78 pedibus subiecta
fortunatus
et ille deos qui nouit agrestis
Panaque
Siluanumque senem Nymphasque sorores. Gods of Georgics 1 proem
illum non populi
fasces, non purpura regum
495 Lucr. 3.996 a populo fasces
flexit et
infidos agitans discordia fratres, 2x brothers
in law?
aut
coniurato descendens Dacus ab Histro, mid 30s?
non res
Romanae perituraque regna; neque ille
aut doluit
miserans inopem aut inuidit habenti.
quos rami
fructus, quos ipsa uolentia rura
500
sponte
tulere sua, carpsit, nec ferrea iura
insanumque
forum aut populi tabularia uidit.
sollicitant
alii remis freta caeca, ruuntque sailing and
materialism (Ecl.4)
in ferrum,
penetrant aulas et limina regum; Pompey in
47?
hic petit
excidiis urbem miserosque penatis,
505
ut gemma
bibat et Sarrano dormiat ostro; Lucr.2.35 ostroque rubenti
condit opes
alius defossoque incubat auro; Lucr.2.51 auro
hic stupet
attonitus rostris, hunc plausus hiantem
per cuneos
geminatus enim plebisque patrumque
corripuit; gaudent
perfusi sanguine fratrum,
510 civil wars
exsilioque
domos et dulcia limina mutant
atque alio
patriam quaerunt sub sole iacentem. exile
(common, Ecl.1)
agricola
incuruo terram dimouit aratro:
hic anni
labor, hinc patriam paruosque nepotes
sustinet,
hinc armenta boum meritosque iuuencos.
515
nec requies,
quin aut pomis exuberet annus
aut fetu
pecorum aut Cerealis mergite culmi,
prouentuque
oneret sulcos atque horrea uincat.
uenit
hiems: teritur Sicyonia baca trapetis,
glande sues
laeti redeunt, dant arbuta siluae;
520
et uarios
ponit fetus autumnus, et alte
mitis in
apricis coquitur uindemia saxis.
interea dulces
pendent circum oscula nati, Lucr.3.895 dulces
occurrent oscula nati
casta
pudicitiam seruat domus, ubera uaccae
lactea
demittunt, pinguesque in gramine laeto 525
inter se
aduersis luctantur cornibus haedi.
ipse dies
agitat festos fususque per herbam,
ignis ubi
in medio et socii cratera coronant,
te libans,
Lenaee, uocat pecorisque magistris
uelocis
iaculi certamina ponit in ulmo,
530
corporaque
agresti nudant praedura palaestra.
hanc olim
ueteres uitam coluere Sabini, stages of
Roman history
hanc Remus
et frater; sic fortis Etruria creuit
scilicet et
rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma,
septemque
una sibi muro circumdedit arces.
535
ante etiam
sceptrum Dictaei regis et ante
impia quam
caesis gens est epulata iuuencis,
aureus hanc
uitam in terris Saturnus agebat;
necdum
etiam audierant inflari classica, necdum
impositos
duris crepitare incudibus ensis. 540 no (civil) wars
Sed nos immensum spatiis confecimus
aequor,
et iam
tempus equum fumantia soluere colla. didactic
chariot : Lucr.6.93 spatium
Georgics 3.1-48 – the poet’s future career and
Pindaric links
Te quoque,
magna Pales, et te memorande canemus Book 3: herd
animals Italian deity
pastor ab
Amphryso, uos, siluae amnesque Lycaei. Apollo as
herdsman in Greece
cetera,
quae uacuas tenuissent carmine mentes,
omnia iam
uulgata: quis aut
Eurysthea durum Choerilus SH 317 (already end of 5C)
aut
inlaudati nescit Busiridis aras?
5 story of
Hercules (Panyassis e.g. 5C)
cui non
dictus Hylas puer et Latonia Delos Hylas:
Apollonius, Theocritus
Hippodameque
umeroque Pelops insignis eburno, Delos:
Callimachus H4 Pelops: Pindar
acer equis?
temptanda uia est, qua me quoque possim Ol.1.27 ἐλέφαντι φαίδιμον ὦμον
tollere
humo uictorque uirum uolitare per ora. κεκαδμένον Ennius’
self-epitaph:
primus ego in patriam mecum, modo uita supersit, 10 uolito
uiuu' per ora uirum
Aonio rediens deducam uertice Musas; 1. Hesiod [Ecl.6.65] 2. conquest of primus Idumaeas referam tibi,
Mantua, palmas, Greece
repeatedx2 Idumea: Herod !
et uiridi
in campo templum de marmore ponam Temple: 1.
Pindaric poetics Ol.6, P.6
propter
aquam, tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat 2. Italian
locations: Mantua, but also
Mincius et
tenera praetexit harundine ripas.
15 Rome
(Mausoleum, Herc.Musarum)
in medio
mihi Caesar erit templumque tenebit: divine
occupation
illi uictor
ego et Tyrio conspectus in ostro real and
poetic triumphs; Actian games
centum
quadriiugos agitabo ad flumina currus. chariot:
triumph and racing
cuncta mihi
Alpheum linquens lucosque Molorchi Greek
athletics: Pindar again
cursibus et
crudo decernet Graecia caestu. 20 [Olympia,
Nemea]
ipse caput
tonsae foliis ornatus oliuae peaceful
victory garland
dona feram.
iam nunc sollemnis ducere pompas triumph-style
procession
ad delubra
iuuat caesosque uidere iuuencos, sacrifice
uel scaena
ut uersis discedat frontibus utque drama
(Varius Thyestes)
purpurea
intexti tollant aulaea Britanni.
25 Britain –
future conquest?
in foribus
pugnam ex auro solidoque elephanto India – Alexander again
Gangaridum faciam uictorisque arma Quirini, E and W
juxtaposed
atque hic
undantem bello magnumque fluentem Egypt
30 BCE [rhyme]
Nilum ac
nauali surgentis aere columnas. Actium 31
addam urbes
Asiae domitas pulsumque Niphaten 30 Asia 30-29
fidentemque
fuga Parthum uersisque sagittis; Parthians –
more unfinished business?
et duo
rapta manu diuerso ex hoste tropaea broad
geography – TWO not THREE
bisque triumphatas utroque ab litore gentis. East/West
[Illyricum/Egypt?]
stabunt et
Parii lapides, spirantia signa,
Assaraci proles
demissaeque ab Ioue gentis
35 descent
from Troy – link to Aeneid?
nomina,
Trosque parens et Troiae Cynthius auctor. Forum
Augustum anticipated?
Inuidia
infelix Furias amnemque seuerum Phthonos –
Pindaric (P.1,7 Ol.6)
Cocyti
metuet tortosque Ixionis anguis Underworld
– Pindaric (Ol.2; Ixion P2)
immanemque
rotam et non exsuperabile saxum. Ixion and
Antony: sexual offence?
interea
Dryadum siluas saltusque sequamur 40 Callimachean originality [Aet.1 pref.]
intactos, tua, Maecenas, haud mollia iussa: commissioned?
poem like farming?
te sine nil
altum mens incohat. en age segnis [G.1.121-2 pater ipse colendi
rumpe
moras; uocat ingenti clamore Cithaeron haud
facilem esse uiam uoluit]
Taygetique
canes domitrixque Epidaurus equorum, Greek
animal breeds/Latin poem
et uox
adsensu nemorum ingeminata remugit. 45
mox tamen
ardentis accingar dicere pugnas Future
plans – conventional Roman
Caesaris et
nomen fama tot ferre per annos, praise
epic [Ecl.4, 6, 8], or the Aeneid?
Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine Caesar. [iconic
word order]
Georgics 4: bees and
mock-epic – why a whole book on bees?
4.1-7
Protinus
aerii mellis caelestia dona
exsequar:
hanc etiam, Maecenas, adspice partem.
Admiranda
tibi levium spectacula rerum
magnanimosque
duces totiusque ordine gentis [epic
language]
mores et
studia et populos et proelia dicam. 5 Od.1.3 ’he saw the
cities of many men and got
In tenui
labor; at tenuis
non gloria, si quem to
know their way of thinking’
numina
laeva sinunt auditque vocatus Apollo. [Callimachean
aesthetics]
Link with 3.1-48: the poetic career from didactic to epic via
mock-epic? Battle of Frogs and Mice (Batrachomuomachia),
probably pre-Vergilian, in which the warring ampihibians and rodents are
described like Homeric heroes (cf. Batr.4 ‘a limitless strife, the work of Ares full of
the din of war’).
Cf. Statius, preface to Silvae
1 (80s CE): ‘but we give recognition to both the Culex and the Battle of Frogs,
and there is no famous poet who has not made some sport before his great works
in a more relaxed style’.
Georgics 4.116-24 – nothing on gardens: links to
Nicander’s Georgika?
atque
equidem, extremo ni iam sub fine laborum
vela traham
et terris festinem advertere proram,
forsitan et
pinguis hortos quae cura colendi
ornaret
canerem biferique rosaria Paesti,
quoque modo
potis gauderent intiba rivis
et virides
apio ripae, tortusque per herbam
cresceret
in ventrem cucumis; nec sera comantem
narcissum
aut flexi tacuissem vimen acanthi
pallentisque
hederas et amantis litora myrtos.
The list of horticultural topics which the poet would sing of, had he
time, looks very like the contents of Nicander's Georgika: roses (119) ~ Nicander fr.74, endive (120) ~
Nicander fr.71.3; two of the four
species of flower mentioned in 122-4 occur in fr.74 : the acanthus (74.55-6)
and ivy (74.17-24).
The old man and Nicander (125-29):
namque sub
Oebaliae memini me turribus arcis,
qua niger
umectat flaventia culta Galaesus,
Corycium
vidisse senem, cui pauca relicti
iugera
ruris erant, nec fertilis illa iuvencis
nec pecori
opportuna seges nec commoda Baccho.
Ionian Corycus 50km from Colophon, Nicander's birthplace. A Greek in
Italian exile – like Nicander as appropriated (or not) by Vergil? senex = literary ancestor, cf. Ecl.6.70 Ascraeo … seni (Hesiod)?
For the full argument see SJH, ‘Virgil’s Corycius Senex and Nicander’s
Georgica : Georgics 4.116-48’ in Latin
Epic and Didactic Poetry : Genre, Tradition and Individuality, ed. M.Gale
(2004) 109-23.
SJH: ‘In the long account of bougonia (regeneration of bees through
the slaughter of a bullock) which forms the climax of the didactic information
of the poem (4.281-558), scholars have long acknowledged that the outer frame
of the material on Aristaeus, his encounter with his mother Cyrene and his
discovery of the technique of bougonia is derived from Homeric epic (see
below), while the inner Orpheus narrative
(4.453-527) owes much to the short hexameter narrative poem or
epyllion’.
Callimachean links: bougonia
as aetiological (Call.fr.383), happens in Egypt, Call’s country of residence
(4.285-94), Cyrene Call’s birthplace; Pfeiffer (on Call. fr.471) suggested that
Callimachus narrated the story of Aristaeus in a lost passage which was also
used by Apollonius.
SJH ‘The Homeric texture of the frame-narrative of the story of
Orpheus (4.315-452), in which Aristaeus, seeking a solution to the problem of
regenerating his bees, applies first to his mother Cyrene and then (on her
instructions) to the sea-god Proteus, needs little argument here… The meeting
of the hero with his nymph mother and her sisters reworks the encounter of
Achilles with Thetis and the Nereids in Iliad
18, while his encounter with Proteus looks back to Menelaus’ account of his
own meeting with the same divinity in Odyssey
4’.
Aristaeus as mythical representation of the farmer of the poem
(4.326-32):
‘en etiam
hunc ipsum uitae mortalis honorem,
quem mihi
uix frugum et pecudum custodia sollers G
1 and 3
omnia
temptanti extuderat, te matre relinquo.
quin age et
ipsa manu felicis erue siluas, G
2
fer
stabulis inimicum ignem atque interfice messis, 330
ure sata et
ualidam in uitis molire bipennem, G
2
tanta meae
si te ceperunt taedia laudis.'
SJH: ‘The inserted epyllion in the bougonia-episode, narrated by
Proteus, famously explains that Aristaeus can regenerate his bees only after he
atones for the death of Eurydice and the consequent end of Orpheus (4.453-527).
That the achievements of Aristaeus, with his violent but successful technique
of regenerating the bee-state, explicitly compared with Rome, resembles the
contemporary achievements of Caesar/Augustus in recreating the Roman state after
the violent civil wars, has been several
times suggested by scholars. The parallels between the two figures can be taken
further : both have a divine parent, and both can hope for apotheosis as a
result of their labours on earth. The
conclusion on the metaliterary level could even be that the ultimate victory of
Aristaeus, whose narrative is framed in such strongly Homeric terms, looks
forward to the future triumph of both martial epic and Augustan politics,
combined in the form and content of the Aeneid,
a development already anticipated (as we have seen) at the beginning of
Georgics 3; the ultimate defeat of Orpheus, onn the other hand, would represent
the demise of a past literary form and of another way of viewing the world in
post-Actium Rome’.
Georgics 4.559-66 [ending]:
Haec super arvorum cultu
pecorumque canebam
et super arboribus, Caesar dum magnus ad altum
fulminat Euphraten bello victorque volentes
per populos dat iura viamque adfectat Olympo.
Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat
Parthenope studiis florentem ignobilis oti,
carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa,
Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.
‘This was my song on
the care of fields, flocks and trees, while great Caesar thunders at the Euphrates
in war, and grants laws as victor to willing peoples, and tries his way to
Olympus. At that time sweet Naples nourished me, Vergil, as I flourished in the
pursuits of ignoble leisure, I who played with the songs of herdsmen and bold
in youth sang of you, Tityrus, under the shade of the spreading beech’.
Here the effect of citing the first line of the Eclogues at the end of the Georgics
seems to be that of ending a phase in the Vergilian poetic career, and in the
teleological transition of the Georgics
towards military epic which this chapter has sketched, the target of poetic
ascent and the theme of a full ‘Homeric’ epic is strongly present in the mighty
military achievements of Caesar/Augustus.
Week 3C
Elegy
before Ovid: Propertius 1-3
[READ: Propertius 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.7, 2.10, 3.1, 3.3]
Love-elegy
- some key ideas
servitium
amoris: the (elite male) lover is the devoted slave of the (socially
inferior) puella.
Ancestor of medieval courtly love (via Ovid); startling reversal of
normal Roman social values.
militia
amoris: the idea that love is a form of war, mirroring normal Roman male
elite activity (the mistress is besieged, sex is a battle, consummation is
victory).
Realism: how far
should we take the characterisation of poet and puella as realistic?
(a) realists: Lyne 1980
(emotionally convincing), Griffin 1985 (realistic lifestyle).
(b) constructivists: Veyne
1978 (entertaining fiction), Wyke 2002 (masculine construction of the
feminine, metapoetics and political
subversion)? Need for infidelity and caprice?
How is this any different to any other first-person poetry (e.g.
Shakespeare’s sonnets)?
Are the roles of lover and puella
intrinsically unrealistic for their Roman context?
Puella: name
implies NOT a matrona. The puella sometimes has a vir, but this need not be a husband (the
term can just mean ‘man’); in no case is a puella
clearly married, but her status is usually unclear; this is not much helped by
the general focus of Roman elegy on the male poet’s feelings rather than the
feelings (or even the appearance) of the puella.
The name domina (mistress of slaves)
implies not the head of a household but the ‘owner’ of the lover who is
dependent on her for satisfaction. Recent work has argued that the puella is a professional courtesan and
the poet is trying to persuade her to perform for free through his poems, a
strategy which she can detect (James 2003).
Politics: militia amoris? Wyke 2002 (elegy
presents an alternative and subversive world). Greene 1998: elegy not only objectifies
the puella but also expresses anxiety about the effeminacy of the lover by
Roman standards, though the life of love turns out to be no less defined by
dominance and competition than the life that it claims to avoid.
Contact
with other genres: New Comedy (love plots, dramatic incidents,
meretrices, materialism), Hellenistic epigram (metre, erotic interests, concept
of lament and sadness, structured poetry-collections), epic (inversion and
rejection).
Handbooks
B.K.Gold (ed.), A Companion to
Roman Love Elegy (Chichester, 2012)
T.S.Thorsen (ed.), The Cambridge
Companion to Latin Love Elegy (Cambridge, 2013)
P.Allen Miller, Latin Erotic
Elegy (London, 2002) [reader, notes on some poems]
D.E.McCoskey and Z.M.Torlone, Latin
Love Poetry (London, 2014). [useful
synthesis of recent work]
Other books
Still useful: R.O.A.M. (Oliver) Lyne, The Latin Love Poets (1980) [male romantic perspective]
Deconstruction: P.Veyne, Roman
Erotic Elegy (1988, Fr.1983) [elegy as entertaining fiction]
Feminist/female approaches:
Maria Wyke, The Roman Mistress
(2002; material from 1980s)
Ellen Greene, The Erotics of
Domination: Male Desire and the Mistress in Latin Love Poetry (1998)
Sharon James, Learned Girls and
Male Persuasion: Gender and Reading in Roman Love Elegy, 2003) [working
girls who need to be persuaded]
Ruth Caston, The Elegiac
Passion. Jealousy in Roman Love Elegy (2012) [emotions]
Hunter Gardner, Gendering Time
in Augustan Love Elegy (2013) [poetic deferral and delay]
Emma Scioli, Dream, Fantasy and
Visual Art in Roman Elegy (2015) [dreams/ekphrasis]
Propertius – first book c.28, post-Actium but no Caesar
except 1.21.7 (uncomplimentary).
Maecenas appears in Book 2, which like Book 3 confronts some Augustan
themes.
Propertius
1.1.1-18 – the impact of love
Cynthia prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis, Hostia? militia
amoris
contactum nullis ante cupidinibus. disease
tum mihi
constantis deiecit lumina fastus
et caput impositis pressit Amor pedibus, military
victory
donec me
docuit castas odisse puellas
5
improbus, et nullo vivere consilio. random
alternative lifestyle
ei mihi, iam toto furor hic non deficit
anno, madness
cum tamen adversos cogor habere deos.
Milanion
nullos fugiendo, Tulle, labores Milanion
and Atalanta: need for effort
saevitiam durae contudit Iasidos. 10 cruel mistress
nam modo
Partheniis amens errabat in antris, Gallus in Ecl.10 (57 Parthenios … saltus)
rursus in hirsutas ibat et ille feras;
ille etiam
Hylaei percussus vulnere rami
saucius Arcadiis rupibus ingemuit. Ecl.10.26 Arcadiae 10.58 rupes
ergo
velocem potuit domuisse puellam:
15 subjugation
tantum in amore fides et benefacta valent. erotic
service
in me tardus
Amor non ullas cogitat artes, but I am
not so resourceful…
nec meminit notas, ut prius, ire vias.
Propertius
1.2 – rebuking Cynthia:
Quid iuvat
ornato procedere, vita, capillo elaborate
hairstyle
et tenuis Coa veste movere sinus, luxurious
transparent dress
aut quid
Orontea crines perfundere murra, expensive
hair-oil
teque peregrinis vendere muneribus, foreign
products and girl for sale
naturaeque
decus mercato perdere cultu,
5
nec sinere in propriis membra nitere bonis? why not be
natural?
crede mihi,
non ulla tua est medicina figurae:
nudus Amor formam non amat artificem.
aspice quos
summittat humus non fossa colores,
ut veniant hederae sponte sua melius, 10 ‘behold, the lilies of the field’
surgat et
in solis formosior arbutus antris,
et sciat indocilis currere lympha vias.
litora
nativis praefulgent picta lapillis,
et volucres nulla dulcius arte canunt.
non sic
Leucippis succendit Castora Phoebe, 15 heroines needed no devices
Pollucem cultu non Hilaira soror; heroine =
Cynthia, hero = Prop.
non, Idae
et cupido quondam discordia Phoebo,
Eueni patriis filia litoribus; [Marpessa]
nec
Phrygium falso traxit candore maritum [Pelops]
avecta externis Hippodamia rotis: 20
sed facies
aderat nullis obnoxia gemmis,
qualis Apelleis est color in tabulis.
non illis
studium fuco conquirere amantes:
illis ampla satis forma pudicitia. impossible
for Cynthia?
non ego nunc
vereor ne sis tibi vilior istis:
25
uni si qua placet, culta puella sat
est; monogamy:
realistic?
cum tibi
praesertim Phoebus sua carmina donet performer
on lyre/recipient of poems?
Aoniamque libens Calliopea lyram,
unica nec
desit iucundis gratia verbis,
omnia quaeque Venus, quaeque Minerva
probat. 30
his tu
semper eris nostrae gratissima vitae,
taedia dum miserae sint tibi luxuriae. the key
point
Propertius
1.3.1-10 - the poet returns from a night out
Qualis
Thesea iacuit cedente carina Ariadne
(Prop. as Bacchus; Theseus?)
languida desertis Cnosia litoribus;
qualis et
accubuit primo Cepheia somno
libera iam duris cautibus Andromede; freed from
what?
nec minus assiduis
Edonis fessa choreis 5 exhausted after revelling
qualis in herboso concidit Apidano:
talis visa
mihi mollem spirare quietem
Cynthia consertis nixa caput manibus,
ebria cum
multo traherem vestigia Baccho, drunk
et quaterent sera nocte facem pueri. 10
1.3.35-46 –
Cynthia speaks – but is she lying?
'tandem te
nostro referens iniuria lecto
35 possible reciprocation?
alterius clausis expulit e foribus?
namque ubi
longa meae consumpsti tempora noctis,
languidus exactis, ei mihi,
sideribus? possible
reciprocation?
o utinam
talis perducas, improbe, noctes,
me miseram qualis semper habere iubes! 40 but what really happened?
nam modo
purpureo fallebam stamine somnum, weaving –
but luxury item (1.2)
rursus et Orpheae carmine, fessa, lyrae; lyre –
Orpheus or hetaira?
interdum
leviter mecum deserta querebar by whom?
externo longas saepe in amore moras:
dum me
iucundis lassam Sopor impulit alis. 45
illa fuit lacrimis ultima cura meis.'
2.1 –
Maecenas and Callimachus first appear, and together:
Quaeritis,
unde mihi totiens scribantur amores, second book
unde meus veniat mollis in ore liber.
non haec
Calliope, non haec mihi cantat Apollo: not traditional
inspirations
ingenium nobis ipsa puella facit. but puella herself
sive illam
Cois fulgentem incedere cernis,
hac totum e Coa veste volumen erit;
seu vidi ad
frontem sparsos errare capillos,
gaudet laudatis ire superba comis;
sive lyrae
carmen digitis percussit eburnis,
miramur, facilis ut premat arte manus;
seu cum
poscentis somnum declinat ocellos,
invenio causas mille poeta novas;
seu nuda
erepto mecum luctatur amictu,
tum vero longas condimus Iliadas; militia
amoris
seu
quidquid fecit sive est quodcumque locuta,
maxima de nihilo nascitur historia. history
quod mihi
si tantum, Maecenas, fata dedissent, Maecenas/recusatio
ut possem heroas ducere in arma manus,
non ego
Titanas canerem, non Ossan Olympo epic topics: Titanomachy,
Gigantomachy
impositam, ut caeli Pelion esset iter,
nec veteres
Thebas, nec Pergama nomen Homeri, Thebaid Iliad
Xerxis et imperio bina coisse vada, Choerilus Persica [Verg.G.3.1ff]
regnave
prima Remi aut animos Carthaginis altae, Ennius Naevius
Cimbrorumque minas et bene facta Mari: Cicero Marius
bellaque
resque tui memorarem Caesaris, et tu Augustus
Caesare sub magno cura secunda fores.
nam
quotiens Mutinam aut civilia busta Philippos Mutina (43) Philippi (42)
aut canerem Siculae classica bella fugae, Bellum Siculum (38-36(
eversosque
focos antiquae gentis Etruscae, Perusia
(41)
et Ptolomaeei litora capta Phari, Alexandria
(30)
aut canerem
Aegyptum et Nilum, cum attractus in urbem triumph of
29
septem captivis debilis ibat aquis,
aut regum
auratis circumdata colla catenis,
Actiaque in Sacra currere rostra Via;
…
sed neque
Phlegraeos Iovis Enceladique tumultus recusatio
intonet angusto pectore Callimachus, unepic Callimachus
nec mea
conveniunt duro praecordia versu
Caesaris in Phrygios condere nomen avos. not the Aeneid
… (cf. G.3.48
Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine
Caesar)
Maecenas,
nostrae spes invidiosa iuventae,
et vitae et morti gloria iusta meae,
si te forte
meo ducet via proxima busto, morbidity
[cf.Tibullus]
esseda caelatis siste Britanna iugis, Maecenas’
Mercedes
taliaque
illacrimans mutae iace verba favillae:
'Huic misero fatum dura puella fuit.' epigrammatic
topos: elegiacs
2.7 –
Caesar and Cynthia conflict:
Gavisa est
certe sublatam Cynthia legem, 20s BCE –
failed marriage legislation
qua quondam edicta flemus uterque diu,
ni nos
divideret: quamvis diducere amantis
non queat invitos Iuppiter ipse
duos.
'At magnus
Caesar.' sed magnus Caesar in armis: some encomium?
devictae gentes nil in amore valent.
nam citius
paterer caput hoc discedere collo Cynthia not
marriageable
quam possem nuptae perdere more faces, accendere amore?
aut ego transirem
tua limina clausa maritus,
respiciens udis prodita luminibus.
a mea tum
qualis caneret tibi tibia somnos,
tibia, funesta tristior illa tuba!
unde mihi
Parthis natos praebere triumphis? anti-militarism
nullus de nostro sanguine miles erit.
quod si
vera meae comitarem castra puellae,
non mihi sat magnus Castoris iret equus.
hinc etenim
tantum meruit mea gloria nomen,
gloria ad hibernos lata Borysthenidas.
tu mihi
sola places: placeam tibi, Cynthia, solus:
hic erit et patrio nomine pluris amor.
2.10 –
promise to celebrate Caesar in time
Sed tempus
lustrare aliis Helicona choreis,
et campum Haemonio iam dare tempus equo.
iam libet
et fortis memorare ad proelia turmas
et Romana mei dicere castra ducis. Augustus’
wars
quod si
deficiant vires, audacia certe
laus erit: in magnis et voluisse sat est.
aetas prima
canat Veneres, extrema tumultus:
bella canam, quando scripta puella mea
est. Cynthia
then Caesar
nunc volo
subducto gravior procedere vultu,
nunc aliam citharam me mea Musa docet.
surge,
anima, ex humili, iam, carmine, sumite vires;
Pierides, magni nunc erit oris opus.
iam negat
Euphrates equitem post terga tueri Parthia
(20s)
Parthorum et Crassos se tenuisse dolet:
India quin,
Auguste, tuo dat colla triumpho, India
(Alexander) after 27
et domus intactae te tremit Arabiae; Arabia
(26-25)
et si qua
extremis tellus se subtrahit oris,
sentiat illa tuas postmodo capta manus!
haec ego
castra sequar; vates tua castra canendo
magnus ero: servent hunc mihi fata diem!
at caput in
magnis ubi non est tangere signis,
ponitur hac imos ante corona pedes;
sic nos
nunc, inopes laudis conscendere carmen,
pauperibus sacris vilia tura damus. modest
praise poetry
nondum
etiam Ascraeos norunt mea carmina fontis,
sed modo Permessi flumine lavit Amor. still
love-elegy
Propertius
3.1 – a new poetic programme, reacting to Horace’s Odes (after 23)
Callimachi Manes et Coi sacra Philitae, Hellenistic
Greek elegists
in
vestrum, quaeso, me sinite ire nemus.
primus ego
ingredior puro de fonte sacerdos Hor.Odes
3.1.3 Musarum sacerdos
Itala per Graios orgia ferre choros. cf.
Verg.G.2.176 Ascraeumque cano dicite, quo
pariter carmen tenuastis in antro
Romana per oppida carmen, Hor.Odes
3.30.13-14
quove pede ingressi? quamve bibistis aquam? Aeolium carmen ad Italos /deduxisse modos
a valeat,
Phoebum quicumque moratur in armis!
exactus tenui pumice versus eat, Callimachean
polish
quo me Fama
levat terra sublimis, et a me poetic
triumph: Georgics 3 proem
nata coronatis Musa triumphat equis,
et mecum in
curru parvi vectantur Amores, Gallus?
scriptorumque meas turba secuta rotas.
quid
frustra immissis mecum certatis habenis?
non datur ad Musas currere lata via. Callimachean
originality
multi,
Roma, tuas laudes annalibus addent,
qui finem imperii Bactra futura
canent. Alexander
sed, quod
pace legas, opus hoc de monte Sororum Verg.G.3.11
Aonio rediens deducam
detulit intacta pagina nostra via. uertice
Musas (poetic peaceful plunder)
mollia, Pegasides, date vestro serta poetae: muse and
garland: Odes 3.30.15-16
non faciet capiti dura corona meo. hard/soft =
elegy/epic
at mihi
quod vivo detraxerit invida turba,
post obitum duplici faenore reddet Honos;
omnia post
obitum fingit maiora vetustas:
maius ab exsequiis nomen in ora venit.
nam quis
equo pulsas abiegno nosceret arces, Homer and
the Trojan War
fluminaque Haemonio comminus isse viro,
Idaeum
Simoenta Iovis cum prole Scamandro,
Hectora per campos ter maculasse rotas?
Deiphobumque
Helenumque et Pulydamantis in armis
qualemcumque Parim vix sua nosset humus.
exiguo
sermone fores nunc, Ilion, et tu
Troia bis Oetaei numine capta dei.
nec non
ille tui casus memorator Homerus
posteritate suum crescere sensit opus;
meque inter
seros laudabit Roma nepotes:
illum post cineres auguror ipse diem.
ne mea
contempto lapis indicet ossa sepulcro
provisumst Lycio vota probante deo. Lycian
Apollo: Call.Aet. fr.1/22
Propertius
3.3 – Callimachean poetic vision [cf. Aetia prologue]
Visus eram
molli recubans Heliconis in umbra, Helicon:
Hesiod
Bellerophontei qua fluit umor equi,
reges,
Alba, tuos et regum facta tuorum, Ennian-style
historical epic (Alban kings)
tantum operis, nervis hiscere posse meis;
parvaque
iam magnis admoram fontibus ora
(unde pater sitiens Ennius
ante bibit,
et cecinit
Curios fratres et Horatia pila, early Rome
regiaque Aemilia vecta tropaea rate,
victricisque
moras Fabii pugnamque sinistram Punic Wars
Cannensem et versos ad pia vota deos,
Hannibalemque
Lares Romana sede fugantis,
anseris et tutum voce fuisse Iovem), Gallic
crisis 390
cum me
Castalia speculans ex arbore Phoebus
sic ait aurata nixus ad antra lyra: break
from epic?
'quid tibi
cum tali, demens, est flumine? quis te river of
epic (Callimachus H.2)
carminis heroi tangere iussit opus?
non hinc
ulla tibi sperandast fama, Properti:
mollia sunt parvis prata terenda
rotis; elegy
ut tuus in
scamno iactetur saepe libellus,
quem legat exspectans sola puella virum.
cur tua
praescriptos evectast pagina gyros?
non est ingenii cumba gravanda tui.
alter remus
aquas alter tibi radat harenas, elegy not
epic?
tutus eris: medio maxima turba marist.'
…
[Calliope speaks – cf. 2.1.3 non
haec Calliope, non haec mihi cantat Apollo!]
'contentus
niveis semper vectabere cycnis,
nec te fortis equi ducet ad arma sonus.
nil tibi sit
rauco praeconia classica cornu
flare, nec Aonium tingere Marte nemus;
aut quibus
in campis Mariano proelia signo Marius:
Cicero
stent et Teutonicas Roma refringat opes,
barbarus
aut Suebo perfusus sanguine Rhenus Suebi:
Caesar
saucia maerenti corpora vectet aqua.
quippe
coronatos alienum ad limen amantes
nocturnaeque canes ebria signa morae,
ut per te
clausas sciat excantare puellas,
qui volet austeros arte ferire viros.'
talia
Calliope, lymphisque a fonte petitis
ora Philitea nostra rigavit aqua. cf.3.1.1
[programmatic sequence]
Week 4A
Elegy
before Ovid: Tibullus
Vergil Aeneid [preliminaries]
[
Tibullus
Book 1
Published after 27 BCE (after Georgics
and Propertius 1)
No mention of Caesar, old or young – Messalla the dedicatee
(aristocrat, general, orator, now Caesarian) – a literary patron like Maecenas
(friend of Horace, early patron of Ovid).
Tibullus
1.1.1-28 – programmatic poem
Divitias
alius fulvo sibi congerat auro bioi as opening
[cf. Horace Satires 1, 30 BCE]
Et teneat culti iugera multa soli, large
extent – large poetry?
Quem labor
adsiduus vicino terreat hoste, much labour
– much poetry? battle – epic?
Martia cui somnos classica pulsa fugent:
Me mea
paupertas vita traducat inerti, 5 quiet life
and peaceful elegy
Dum meus adsiduo luceat igne focus.
Ipse seram
teneras maturo tempore vites vines: Georgics 2? rustic element
Rusticus et facili grandia poma manu; (cf. Gallus
Ecl.10, contrast Propertius 1)
Nec spes destituat,
sed frugum semper acervos
Praebeat et pleno pinguia musta lacu. 10
Nam
veneror, seu stipes habet desertus in agris rustic
religion: G.1 338 in primis venerare deos
Seu vetus in trivio florida serta lapis, 2.394-6
Et quodcumque
mihi pomum novus educat annus,
Libatum agricolae ponitur ante deo. gods of
agriculture: G.1 proem
Flava
Ceres, tibi sit nostro de rure corona 15 G.1.96 flava Ceres landowner
Spicea, quae templi pendeat ante fores,
Pomosisque
ruber custos ponatur in hortis,
Terreat ut saeva falce Priapus aves.
Vos quoque,
felicis quondam, nunc pauperis agri confiscations of 41? cf. Eclogue
1
Custodes, fertis munera vestra,
Lares. 20
Tunc vitula
innumeros lustrabat caesa iuvencos,
Nunc agna exigui est hostia parva soli. small
sacrifice = small poem: Callimachean
Agna cadet
vobis, quam circum rustica pubes (cf. Horace
Odes 4.2 end)
Clamet 'io messes et bona vina date'.
Iam modo
iam possim contentus vivere parvo
25
Nec semper longae deditus esse viae, 1. military
career (cf. 1.7) 2.epic?
Sed Canis
aestivos ortus vitare sub umbra Ecl.7.10 5.46-7
8.87
Arboris ad rivos praetereuntis aquae. Eclogues
1.1.57-62 make love not war – and the poet’s
morbidity:
Non ego
laudari curo, mea Delia; tecum ‘inactive’
poetry and lifestyle
Dum modo sim, quaeso segnis inersque
vocer.
Te spectem,
suprema mihi cum venerit hora, death in
love not battle
Te teneam moriens deficiente manu. 60
Flebis et
arsuro positum me, Delia, lecto,
Tristibus et lacrimis oscula mixta dabis. Achilles
and Patroclus?
1.3.1-10 - Tibullus fails to go to war with Messalla
in the East:
Ibitis
Aegaeas sine me, Messalla, per undas,
O
utinam memores ipse cohorsque mei.
Me tenet
ignotis aegrum Phaeacia terris, ?Corfu (on
eastern route)
Abstineas avidas, Mors, modo, nigra,
manus. the poet’s
death as theme
Abstineas,
Mors atra, precor: non hic mihi mater 5 Roman funerary practice
Quae legat in maestos ossa perusta sinus,
Non soror,
Assyrios cineri quae dedat odores
Et fleat effusis ante sepulcra comis,
Delia non
usquam; quae me cum mitteret urbe, not a
normal elegy?
Dicitur ante omnes consuluisse deos. 10 no funeral possible like 1.1
1.3.53-64 – the poet’s potential death and visit to the
Underworld:
Quodsi
fatales iam nunc explevimus annos,
Fac lapis inscriptis stet super ossa
notis:
'Hic iacet
inmiti consumptus morte Tibullus,
55 embedded
epigram
Messallam terra dum sequiturque mari.'
Sed me,
quod facilis tenero sum semper Amori,
Ipsa Venus campos ducet in Elysios. erotic
Underworld – like Tibullus’
Hic choreae
cantusque vigent, passimque vagantes world
above?
Dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen
aves, 60
Fert casiam
non culta seges, totosque per agros country
(cf. 1.1)
Floret odoratis terra benigna rosis;
Ac iuvenum
series teneris inmixta puellis life of
love there
Ludit, et adsidue proelia miscet Amor. (opposes
Virgil G.4?)
1.7 –
Messalla’s triumph of 27 BCE (epic topic in elegy – problem?)
Hunc
cecinere diem Parcae fatalia nentes birthday
poem/ genethliakon
Stamina, non ulli dissoluenda deo, [Gk epigrams: Crinagoras AP 6.227, 262]
Hunc fore,
Aquitanas posset qui fundere gentes, Aquitanian
triumph
Quem tremeret forti milite victus Atax. [traditional
Roman epic subject]
Evenere:
novos pubes Romana triumphos
5
Vidit et evinctos bracchia capta duces;
At te
victrices lauros, Messalla, gerentem
Portabat nitidis currus eburnus equis.
Non sine me
est tibi partus honos: Tarbella
Pyrene unlike the
East – 1.3?
Testis et Oceani litora Santonici, 10
Testis Arar
Rhodanusque celer magnusque Garunna, rivers of
Gaul
Carnutis et flavi caerula lympha Liger.
An te,
Cydne, canam, tacitis qui leniter undis learned
discourse on rivers:
Caeruleus placidis per vada serpis aquis, Callimachus
Rivers of the World
Quantus et
aetherio contingens vertice nubes
15
Frigidus intonsos Taurus alat Cilicas?
Quid
referam, ut volitet crebras intacta per urbes
Alba Palaestino sancta columba Syro,
Utque maris
vastum prospectet turribus aequor
Prima ratem ventis credere docta
Tyros, 20
Qualis et,
arentes cum findit Sirius agros,
Fertilis aestiva Nilus abundet aqua?
Nile pater,
quanam possim te dicere causa the Nile:
Call.H.4.208 (source)
Aut quibus in terris occuluisse caput?
Te propter
nullos tellus tua postulat imbres,
25
Arida nec pluvio supplicat herba Iovi.
Te canit
atque suum pubes miratur Osirim
Barbara, Memphiten plangere docta bovem. learned
Egyptian lore
[29-48 : Osiris and Dionysus]
Huc ades et
Genium ludis Geniumque choreis return to
Roman culture
Concelebra et multo tempora funde
mero: 50
Illius et
nitido stillent unguenta capillo,
Et capite et collo mollia serta gerat.
Sic venias
hodierne: tibi dem turis honores, metapoetic
gift?
Liba et Mopsopio dulcia melle feram. Greek/Roman Mopsopia:
Call.fr.351
At tibi
succrescat proles, quae facta parentis 55 back to Messalla
Augeat et circa stet veneranda senem.
Nec taceat monumenta
viae, quem Tuscula tellus very Roman!
Candidaque antiquo detinet Alba Lare. via Latina
Namque
opibus congesta tuis hic glarea dura
Sternitur, hic apta iungitur arte
silex. 60
Te canit
agricola, a magna cum venerit urbe
Serus inoffensum rettuleritque pedem.
At tu,
Natalis multos celebrande per annos,
Candidior semper candidiorque veni.
Vergil Aeneid – preliminaries
Aeneid 1.1-7 (proem):
arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Iliad
and Odyssey (NB no naming of Aeneas)
Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit
litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram; divine
opposition and ‘homeward’ voyage: Odyssey
multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, sufferings in war:
Iliad
inferretque deos Latio, genus
unde Latinum,
Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae. positional
and ideological climax
Aeneid
1.92-101 (the hero appears):
Extemplo
Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra: first
naming: ainos, ‘man of sorrow’?
unusual?
ingemit,
et duplicis tendens ad sidera palmas
talia
voce refert: 'O terque quaterque beati,
quis
ante ora patrum Troiae sub moenibus altis 95 nostalgia and burial; Iliadic
back-story
contigit
oppetere! O Danaum fortissime gentis
Tydide!
Mene Iliacis occumbere campis NB
Diomedes in Book 11
non
potuisse, tuaque animam hanc effundere dextra,
saevus
ubi Aeacidae telo iacet Hector, ubi ingens
Sarpedon,
ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis
100
scuta
virum galeasque et fortia corpora volvit?'
Aeneid
1.148-56 (Neptune calms the storm) :
Ac
veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est popular riot in
urban location (Rome, civil war?)
seditio,
saevitque animis ignobile vulgus,
iamque
faces et saxa volant—furor arma ministrat; 150
tum,
pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem intervention
of authoritative leader
conspexere,
silent, arrectisque auribus adstant;
ille regit dictis animos, et
pectora mulcet,— diplomatic
skills
sic
cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam reverse
simile (nature to culture)
prospiciens
genitor caeloque invectus aperto
155
flectit
equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo.
Aeneid
1.197-209 (Aeneas encourages his men) :
dictis maerentia pectora mulcet: diplomatic
skills
'O
socii—neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum—
O
passi graviora, dabit deus his quoque finem.
Vos
et Scyllaeam rabiem penitusque sonantis 200
accestis
scopulos, vos et Cyclopea saxa
experti:
revocate animos, maestumque timorem
mittite:
forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.
Per
varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum
tendimus
in Latium; sedes ubi fata quietas
205
ostendunt;
illic fas regna resurgere Troiae.
Durate,
et vosmet rebus servate secundis.'
Talia
voce refert, curisque ingentibus aeger
spem
voltu simulat, premit altum corde dolorem. diplomatic
self-repression (admirable for Romans)
Aeneid 1.286-96 (the
coming of Caesar):
nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar,
imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris,—
Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo. why
not ‘Augustus’? Prophetic ambiguity? Date?
Hunc tu olim caelo, spoliis Orientis onustum, East:
post 31
accipies secura; vocabitur hic quoque
votis. as well as
Aeneas? or as well as JC as well?
Aspera tum positis mitescent saecula bellis; age
of peace (must be post 31?)
cana Fides, et Vesta, Remo cum fratre Quirinus,
iura dabunt; dirae ferro et compagibus artis
claudentur Belli portae; Furor impius intus,
saeva sedens super arma, et centum vinctus aenis civil war symbolism; ekphrasis of
picture
post tergum nodis, fremet horridus ore cruento. in Forum
Augustum? Pliny NH 35.93-4
Vergil Aeneid – some
considerations Weeks 4B and 5A
Augustus, Aeneas and encomium (laudare
Augustum a parentibus [Servius])
Aeneid 6.791-801 (Augustus in the Underworld – the new
Alexander and Hercules):
hic uir, hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis,
Augustus Caesar, diui genus,
aurea condet
saecula qui rursus Latio regnata per arua
Saturno quondam, super et Garamantas et Indos
proferet imperium; iacet extra sidera
tellus,
extra anni solisque uias, ubi caelifer Atlas
axem umero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum.
huius in aduentum iam nunc et Caspia regna
responsis horrent diuum et Maeotia tellus,
et septemgemini turbant trepida ostia
Nili.
nec uero Alcides tantum telluris obiuit …
This is the man, this
is him, whom you so often hear
promised you, Augustus
Caesar, son of the Deified,
who will make a Golden
Age again in the fields
where Saturn once
reigned, and extend the empire beyond
the Libyans and the
Indians (to a land that lies outside the zodiac’s belt,
beyond the sun’s
ecliptic and the year’s, where sky-carrying Atlas
turns the sphere, inset
with gleaming stars, on his shoulders):
Even now the Caspian
realms, and Maeotian earth,
tremble at divine
prophecies of his coming, and
the restless mouths of
the seven-branched Nile are troubled.
Truly, Hercules never crossed
so much of the earth..
Aeneid 8.678-81
(Augustus on shipboard on the Shield of Aeneas – symbolic prophecy)
hinc Augustus agens Italos in
proelia Caesar
cum patribus populoque, penatibus et magnis dis,
stans celsa in puppi, geminas cui tempora flammas
laeta uomunt patriumque aperitur uertice sidus.
On one side Augustus
Caesar stands on the high stern,
leading the Italians to
the conflict, with him the Senate,
the People, the
household gods, the great gods, his happy brow
shoots out twin flames,
and his father’s star is shown on his head.
Aeneid
10.260-4 (Aeneas on shipboard as he returns to his men):
Iamque in conspectu Teucros habet et sua
castra
stans celsa in puppi, clipeum cum deinde sinistra
extulit ardentem. clamorem ad sidera tollunt
Dardanidae e muris, spes addita suscitat iras…
Now, he stood on the
high stern, with the Trojans and his fort
in view, and at once
lifted high the blazing shield, in his left hand.
The Trojans on the
walls raised a shout to the sky, new hope
freshened their fury…
Aeneid 10.270-1 (fire
from his head):
ardet apex capiti tristisque a uertice flamma
funditur
et uastos umbo uomit aureus ignis:
Aeneas’s crest blazed,
and a dark flame streamed from the top,
and the shield’s gold
boss spouted floods of fire:
Aeneid 8.362-5 (Aeneas and
Hercules – cf. Augustus and Hercules in Book 6):
ut uentum ad sedes, 'haec' inquit 'limina uictor
Alcides subiit, haec illum regia cepit.
aude, hospes, contemnere opes et te quoque dignum
finge deo, rebusque ueni non asper egenis.'
When they reached the
house, Evander said: ‘Victorious Hercules
stooped to entering
this doorway, this palace charmed him.
My guest, dare to scorn
wealth, and make yourself worthy too
to be a god: don’t be
scathing about the lack of possessions’.
The darker side
of recent history?
Aeneid 12.503-4
(narratorial comment: civil war?):
tanton placuit concurrere motu,
Iuppiter, aeterna gentis in pace futuras?
Jupiter, was it your will
that races who would live
together in everlasting
peace should meet in so great a conflict?
Aeneid
7.313-17 (Juno’s viciousness and 49 BCE):
non dabitur regnis, esto, prohibere Latinis,
atque immota manet fatis Lauinia coniunx:
at trahere atque moras tantis licet addere
rebus,
at licet amborum populos exscindere regum.
hac gener atque socer coeant mercede suorum …
I accept it’s not
granted to me to withhold the Latin kingdom,
and by destiny Lavinia
will still, unalterably, be his bride:
but I can draw such
things out and add delays,
and I can destroy the
people of these two kings.
Let father and
son-in-law unite at the cost of their nations’ lives:
Aeneid 6.830-4 (Caesar
and Pompey, 49 BCE, no names):
aggeribus
socer Alpinis atque arce
Monoeci
descendens, gener aduersis instructus Eois!
ne, pueri, ne tanta animis adsuescite bella
neu patriae ualidas in uiscera uertite uiris …
Julius Caesar, the father-in-law, down from the
Alpine ramparts, from the fortress of Monoecus: Pompey, the son-in-law,
opposing with Eastern forces.
My sons, don’t inure your spirits to such wars,
never turn the powerful forces of your country
on itself.
cf. Catullus 29.23-4 (Caesar and Pompey in 50s BCE,
no names)
eone
nomine, urbis o piissimi,
socer
generque,
perdidistis omnia?
By that name, you most dutiful of citizens,
Have you destroyed everything, father-in-law and
son-in-law?
Aeneid 2.554-8 (death
of Priam; Pompey in 48?):
haec finis Priami fatorum, hic exitus illum
sorte tulit Troiam incensam et prolapsa
uidentem
Pergama, tot quondam populis terrisque superbum
regnatorem Asiae. iacet ingens litore truncus,
auulsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus.
Death and decapitation
of Pompey on the shore of Egypt:
Lucan Bellum Civile 8.663-711, Plutarch Pompeius 79-80,
HBO Rome series 1 episode 8 (2005).
This was the end of
Priam’s life: this was the death that fell to him
by lot, seeing Troy
ablaze and its citadel toppled, he who was
once the magnificent
ruler of so many Asian lands and peoples.
A once mighty body lies
on the shore, the head
shorn from its
shoulders, a corpse without a name.
Priam
killed by Neoptolemus
detail
of an Attic black-figure amphora, ca. 520–510 BC
Head
of Pompey, Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen Kenneth
Cranham as Pompey in Rome.
Dido and Cleopatra:
some political parallels
Both (non-African) queens in African
countries who are disastrously involved with Roman leaders (Aeneas, Antony) and
kill themselves as a consequence (30 BCE). Both represent serious political
opposition to Rome (the Antonian side against Augustus in the civil war of
Actium, Carthage and the Punic wars), but also receive something of a sympathetic
treatment (cf. e.g. 4.653-58 [obituary], 8.711-13 [return to the Nile]). Antony
has a wife in Italy (Octavia, Augustus’ sister) but chooses to stay with his
Eastern lover; Aeneas leaves his Eastern lover for his future wife in Italy
(Lavinia), showing his greater sense of duty (pietas).
Dido’s perspective in Book 4 – the inside view?
The beginning (4.1-5):
at regina gravi iamdudum saucia cura
vulnus alit venis et caeco carpitur igni. from
metaphor to literality in this book
multa viri virtus animo multusque recursat
gentis honos; haerent infixi pectore vultus
verbaque nec placidam membris dat cura quietem.
'But the queen, already for some time
wounded with deep feeling, nourished a wound in her veins and was consumed by
an unseen fire. The great manly courage of the hero came back to her mind, and
the great prestige of his people; his features and words stayed fixed in her
heart, and her passion denied peaceful sleep to her limbs'.
Dido as powerful woman from Greek tragedy (as well as Cleopatra, above)
The two-sister dialogue at the start of the
book (tough and soft) recalls the opening of Sophocles’ Antigone [defier of male order]: also echoed are Euripides’
Alcestis, who dies for love of her husband, and the dangerous Euripidean Medea,
user of curses and magic and avenger of a lover’s ingratitude (how far is
Aeneas a Jason who abandons the woman to whom he owes so much?).
The poet’s [rare] comment – poet as tragic chorus (4. 65-73):
heu, vatum ignarae mentes ! quid vota furentem,
quid delubra iuvant ? est mollis flamma
medullas fire
interea et tacitum vivit sub pectore vulnus. wound
uritur infelix Dido totaque vagatur
urbe furens, qualis coniecta cerva sagitta, hind – sympathy?
quam procul incautam nemora inter Cresia fixit
pastor agens telis liquitque volatile ferrum Paris or commander?
nescius : illa fuga silvas saltusque peragrat ignorance
Dictaeos, haeret lateri letalis harundo.
'Alas, ignorant minds of prophets ! What
help are prayers or shrines to one who is raging ? Meanwhile the soft flame
consumes her very marrow, and an undetected wound lives beneath her breast.
Unhappy Dido is on fire and wanders raging over the whole city, just like a
deer after the shooting of an arrow, transfixed unawares from some way off
amongst the woods of Crete by a shepherd, who drives her away with his weapons
and leaves his flying metal behind, all ignorant; she in flight passes through
the forests and glades of Mt.Dicte, but the deadly arrow stays embedded in her
side'.
The cave-scene – no sex please, I’m an epic poet? (4. 165-72):
speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem
deveniunt. prima et Tellus et pronuba Iuno
dant signum; fulsere ignes et conscius aether
conubiis summoque ulularunt vertice Nymphae. marriage?
ille dies primus leti primusque malorum
causa fuit; neque enim specie famave movetur
nec iam furtivum Dido meditatur amorem:
coniugium vocat, hoc praetexit nomine culpam. whose view? tragic excess?
'Dido and the Trojan leader arrived at the same
cave. First Earth and then Juno, goddess of weddings, gave their sign; fires
flashed and the heaven was witness to the marriage, and the Nymphs wailed from
the mountain top. That day was the beginning of her death, the earliest cause
of her sufferings; for Dido is not moved by appearances or rumour, and does not
any longer plan a secret passion; she calls it a marriage, and conceals her
blame with this title'.
Founding the wrong city – Aeneas gets his marching orders from Mercury
(4.265-7):
continuo invadit : 'tu nunc Carthaginis altae
fundamenta locas pulchramque uxorius urbem Antony in 30s?
exstruis ? heu regni rerumque oblite tuarum !
'Immediately he attacked : 'So now you're
setting the foundations of lofty Carthage, and constructing a beautiful city in
fondness for your 'wife' ? Shame on your forgetting your kingdom and your own
business !'
Aeneas on breaking the news –emotional cowardice? Or humane distress?
(4.283-4):
heu, quid agat ? quo nunc reginam ambire furentem
audeat adfatu ? quae prima exordia sumat ?
'Alas, what was he to do ? With what kind
of address would he dare to try to win round the raging queen ? Where should he
make his beginning?' Unfortunately for Aeneas, Dido finds out through Fama (a
major feature of Book 4). Cf. Twitter. But note that we are now moving towards
seeing things from Aeneas’ perspective.
Aeneas with Dido: self-repression in community interest? Or callousness?
(4.393-6):
At pius Aeneas, quamquam lenire dolentem
solando cupit et dictis avertere curas,
multa gemens magnoque animum labefactus amore
iussa tamen divum exsequitur classemque revisit.
'But dutiful Aeneas, although he wished to
soothe her grief with consolation and remove her cares with speech,
nevertheless, with many a groan and shaken in his spirit with a mighty love,
followed the bidding of the gods and went back to his fleet'.
cf. 1.208-9
Talia voce refert, curisque ingentibus aeger
spem voltu simulat, premit altum corde dolorem.
Aeneas under pressure from Anna – shaken but not stirred (4.441-449):
ac velut annoso validam cum robore quercum
Alpini Boreae nunc hinc nunc flatibus illinc multiple-correspondence
eruere inter se certant; it stridor, et altae
consternunt terram concusso stipite frondes;
ipsa haeret scopulis et quantum vertice ad auras
aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit:
haud secus adsiduis hinc atque hinc vocibus heros
tunditur, et magno persentit pectore curas;
mens immota manet, lacrimae volvuntur inanes. whose
tears?
‘And as when the Alpine north winds strive
amongst themselves to uproot a mighty oak tree with ancient timber, with blasts
now on this side, now on that: the roar goes on, and the high branches strew
the ground as the trunk is shaken, while the tree itself sticks fast to the
rocks and stretches as far down to the Underworld with its roots as it extends
up to the breezes of heaven: just so was the hero pounded with cries on this
side and on that, and felt distress in his mighty heart: his mind remained
unmoved, the tears fell to no avail’.
Dido’s tragic distress –madmen from the tragic stage [Greek/Roman]
(4.469-73):
Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus Pentheus:DOOMED? [Accius Pentheus
?]
et solem geminum et duplices se ostendere Thebas, [Euripides Bacchae]
aut Agamemnonius scaenis agitatus Orestes, Orestes:SAVED? Divine role?
armatam facibus matrem et serpentibus atris
cum fugit ultricesque sedent in limine Dirae. [Aeschylus Oresteia/Euripides Orestes]
'Just as Pentheus sees the forces of the
Furies and a double sun and two cities of Thebes, or Agamemnon's son Orestes,
hounded on the stage, sees his mother armed with torches and dark serpents, as
he flees the avenging Furies who sit on the threshold'
Note the gender-bending here: Dido from the
start takes on a traditional man’s role in the ancient world – cf. 1.364 dux femina facti, ‘a woman was leader of
the enterprise’. Note how women who try to take on political or military
leadership in the Aeneid generally
come to grief in this man’s world – the manipulative queen Amata (Book 12) and
the warrior-maiden Camilla (Book 11) as well as Dido. Here Dido suffers the
madness of male kings and princes in tragic circumstances.
Dido’s curse speech – mad, bad and dangerous to know (4.590-629)?
Here Dido threatens to burn Aeneas' ships,
says she should have fought him and massacred his family rather than offering
him a share in her kingdom, and finally launches a double curse, praying first
that Aeneas will have troubles in Italy and die prematurely, and then that an
avenger will arise from her bones to attack the Trojans. Both these predictions
come true, which is why we should regard them as curses; Aeneas will die
prematurely but will also be turned into a god, while the avenger that will
arise from her bones is generally taken to be Hannibal, the great leader of her
city of Carthage who so nearly defeated the Romans. This last element will have
been important for Roman readers in making their assessment of Dido, since it
reminds them and us that Dido is the founder of Carthage, Rome's greatest and
most dangerous enemy until its systematic destruction by the Romans in 146
B.C. Dido's death and curse is represented
as the historical reason for the emnity between Rome and Carthage, but it also
puts Dido in something of an unfavourable light for the Roman reader, brought
up on tales of the vicious and devious Carthaginians such as we find in Livy's
history. We also remember that contemporary Romans would link her with
Cleopatra (see above), often demonised in the propaganda of the period (e.g.
Horace Epodes).
Dido’s suicide and self-obituary – both tragic and Roman?
Address to the ‘marriage-bed’: Alcestis in
Euripides’ Alcestis (self-sacrificing
wife).
Death on the pyre: suttee of Evadne in
Euripides’ Suppliants
Self-obituary (4.653-6):
vixi et quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi,
et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago.
urbem praeclaram statui, mea moenia vidi,
ulta virum poenas inimico a fratre recepi ...
'I have lived my life and passed through
the course which fortune had given me, and now my mighty ghost will pass
beneath the earth. I set up a glorious city, I saw my own walls, I avenged my
husband and exacted the penalty from my brother, who was my enemy ...'
Cf. epigraphic obituary of M.Cornelius
Scipio Hispanus, praetor 139 B.C.:
Virtutes generis mieis moribus accumulavi,
progeniem genui, facta patris petiei.
maiorum optenui
laudem, ut sibei me esse creatum
laetentur ; stirpem nobilitavit honor.
'I added to the virtues of my family with
my own character, I fathered offspring and sought to emulate the deeds of my
father. I gained praise from my ancestors, so that they should rejoice that I
was born from them; my honour ennobled my stock'.
Dido by her death is something of a rich
and contradictory mixture - abandoned lover, noble and self-sacrificing wife,
angry and proud heroine, cursing witch, ancestor of the enemy power of
Carthage, high achiever with a first-class C.V. which reads in a very Roman
way. She is to be pitied (cf. Greek tragedy according to Aristotle) as the tool
of the gods and as one who tries to do the best she can in the circumstances;
Dido and Aeneas might well have fallen in love in the natural course of events,
but it is the pressure placed on both parties from the gods which leads to the
tragic outcome.
She receives much
more focus than Aeneas: in the 705 lines of Book 4 Aeneas speaks fewer than 40,
in only two speeches, whereas Dido speaks about 180, in seven speeches, and he
is virtually absent after line 450. In the end, Aeneas must lose Dido and what
she stands for, his chance for personal fulfilment, on the long road to Italy,
and it is clear that he feels deeply for her, though circumstances prevent him
telling her; he is certainly not untouched by her fate, as their encounter in
Book 6 in the Underworld shows (she there rejects him, and has some consolation
in returning to her first husband Sychaeus in death: 6.450-76). But Aeneas is
the classic Roman hero, ‘born not for himself but for his country’ (Cicero).
Dido and Aeneas: Low Ham mosaic, UK, 4C
CE. Joshua Reynolds, The Death of Dido (1781)
Aeneid 12 – some key passages
Turnus returns nobly to the battle (12.676-80) :
'iam iam fata, soror, superant, absiste morari;
quo deus et quo dura uocat Fortuna sequamur.
stat conferre manum Aeneae, stat, quidquid acerbi est,
morte pati, neque me indecorem, germana, uidebis positive
presentation (cf. Dido)
amplius. hunc, oro, sine me furere ante furorem.'
Aeneas and the Italian landscape (12.701-3):
quantus Athos aut quantus Eryx aut ipse coruscis Greece/Sicily/Italy
cum fremit ilicibus quantus gaudetque niuali
uertice se attollens pater Appenninus ad auras.
Italian fight for passion (12.715-24) :
ac uelut ingenti Sila summoue Taburno 715 Italy
cum duo conuersis inimica in proelia tauri Georgics 3 and battling bulls
frontibus incurrunt, pauidi cessere magistri,
stat pecus omne metu mutum, mussantque iuuencae
quis nemori imperitet, quem tota armenta sequantur; battle for rule
illi inter sese multa ui uulnera miscent 720
cornuaque obnixi infigunt et sanguine largo
colla armosque lauant, gemitu nemus omne remugit:
non aliter Tros Aeneas et Daunius heros
concurrunt clipeis, ingens fragor aethera complet.
Divine endgame (12.791-802) :
Iunonem interea rex omnipotentis Olympi
adloquitur fulua pugnas de nube tuentem:
'quae iam finis erit, coniunx? quid denique restat? closural
questions
indigetem Aenean scis ipsa et scire fateris
deberi caelo fatisque ad sidera tolli. 795
quid struis? aut qua spe gelidis in nubibus haeres? Hera/aer
mortalin decuit uiolari uulnere diuum?
aut ensem (quid enim sine te Iuturna ualeret?)
ereptum reddi Turno et uim crescere uictis?
desine iam tandem precibusque inflectere nostris, 800
ne te tantus edit tacitam dolor et mihi curae
saepe tuo dulci tristes ex ore recursent.
Juno’s (temporary?) settlement (Punic Wars?) (12.830-40):
'es germana Iouis Saturnique altera proles, 830
irarum tantos uoluis sub pectore fluctus.
uerum age et inceptum frustra summitte furorem:
do quod uis, et me uictusque uolensque remitto.
sermonem Ausonii patrium moresque tenebunt, Latin
language and culture
utque est nomen erit; commixti corpore tantum 835
subsident Teucri. morem ritusque sacrorum
adiciam faciamque omnis uno ore Latinos.
hinc genus Ausonio mixtum quod sanguine surget,
supra homines, supra ire deos pietate uidebis, Roman piety and rule
nec gens ulla tuos aeque celebrabit honores.' Juno from Veii 396 BCE
The end of the poem – political issues (12.930-52):
ille humilis supplex oculos dextramque precantem 930
protendens 'equidem merui nec deprecor' inquit;
'utere sorte tua. miseri te si qua parentis should
work on Aeneas?
tangere cura potest, oro (fuit et tibi talis
Anchises genitor) Dauni miserere senectae even more so?
et me, seu corpus spoliatum lumine mauis, 935
redde meis. uicisti et uictum tendere palmas
Ausonii uidere; tua est Lauinia coniunx, full concession
ulterius ne tende odiis.' stetit acer in armis
Aeneas uoluens oculos dextramque repressit;
et iam iamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo 940 real hesitation
coeperat, infelix umero cum apparuit alto
balteus et notis fulserunt cingula bullis crucial object
Pallantis pueri, uictum quem uulnere Turnus balance
strauerat atque umeris inimicum insigne gerebat.
ille, oculis postquam saeui monimenta doloris 945
exuuiasque hausit, furiis accensus et ira rage
–necessary?
terribilis: 'tune hinc spoliis indute meorum
eripiare mihi? Pallas te hoc uulnere, Pallas
immolat et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit.' sacrifice/punishment
hoc dicens ferrum aduerso sub pectore condit 950
feruidus; ast illi soluuntur frigore membra
uitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.
What happens. Turnus is
disablingly wounded. Aeneas stands over him, debating whether to finish him
off. Turnus asks for mercy or at least for burial, evoking his aged father
Daunus and Aeneas’ father Anchises, and concedes Lavinia and the war to Aeneas.
Aeneas hesitates but then sees the belt of Pallas, his young friend and
quasi-son whom Turnus has killed in Book 10, and kills Turnus in angry revenge.
Turnus’ soul goes down to the shades complaining. CUT! cf. end of Book 10.
Real politics. In having Aeneas kill Turnus Vergil achieves a politically sensible
move of Roman realism; the unstable Turnus would be a hostage to fortune in the
new state, and Romans commonly killed defeated barbarian generals – e.g.
Jugurtha, Vercingetorix.
Complexities.
But he also shows Aeneas humanely hesitating between two virtuous courses of
action in Roman terms: sparing Turnus (clementia)
and taking revenge for his dead friend Pallas (ultio). Both these are Augustan values: clementia (along with virtus,
pietas, and iustitia) was one of
the virtues ascribed to Augustus on the presentation shield of 27 BC (see Res Gestae 34.2), while in Res Gestae 2 Augustus proudly points to
his avenging of Caesar’s assassination (pietas).
These two values are famously encapsulated in Aeneid 6.853 (Anchises on the mission of Rome) Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos, ‘To spare the conquered and to war down the proud’.
The victim’s perspective. The poem ends in a brilliantly ambivalent moment : the death of Turnus
is a victory for Aeneas, but the last voice is not that of the triumphant
victor but the complaining victim, and the Latin line describing Turnus’ death
(952 illi soluuntur frigore membra, ‘his
limbs are loosed in the chill’) splendidly echoes Aeneas’ own first despairing
appearance in the storm of Book 1 (1.92) extemplo
Aeneae solvuntur frigore membra. Hero and victim are alike and neither is a
wholly simple character.
Vergil and Homer : Some Points
1. Rivalry or Homage ? Note Propertius
2.34.65-6 (20's B.C.) : cedite Romani
scriptores, cedite Grai ! / nescioquid maius nascitur Iliade. The Aeneid does not explicitly claim to
outdo the Homeric poems, but it does not defer to them either (contrast Statius
Thebaid 12.816-9). Implicitly, Vergil
surely sets out to rival Homer, as Ennius had done.
2. The Aeneid as both Iliad and Odyssey. The poem encapsulates
the two Homeric epics : arma virumque cano suggests that Aeneas is both an
Odyssean wanderer, searching to return to his 'home' in Italy through the
Dardanus connection (cf. Aeneid
3.167-8), and an Achillean warrior, fighting in a foreign land for the sake of
a woman. Aeneid 1-6 are largely
Odyssean (wandering), with an Iliadic panel in Book 5, where the funeral games
primarily imitate those of Iliad 23; Aeneid 7-12 are largely Iliadic
(fighting), with an Odyssean panel in Book 8, where the voyage up the Tiber
recalls the journeys of Telemachus in Odyssey
3-4. There are also major insertions from Greek epic outside Odyssey and Iliad: Aeneid 2 replays
the Iliou Persis, the lost archaic
epic on the sack of Troy, while Aeneid
4 owes much to the depiction of Jason and Medea in Apollonius' Hellenstic Argonautica (though Dido the erotic
delayer is also a version of Circe, Calypso and Nausicaa).
Aeneid 7-12 in particular presents much
complex Homeric role-playing. The war in Latium is proclaimed as a re-run of
the Trojan war (6.86-94), but who is playing which part ? Aeneas is Trojan, but
he is also by the end the new Achilles; Turnus is Greek by descent (Aeneid 7.382, 409-10) and is the new
Achilles against the Trojans (6.88-89), but is by the end the new Hector. The
death of Pallas clearly plays the same pivotal role as the death of Patroclus
in the Iliad, provoking fatal
revenge, but note that Aeneas does not sulk in his tent. Lavinia is in a sense
another Helen (6.93-4, 7.322): who is Paris the 'wrong' husband, and Menelaus
the 'right' one ? Aeneas is compared to Paris by Juno (7.321), but Turnus, who
at least according to the poet is not the husband intended for Lavinia by
Latinus (note 7.54-80, 268-73), has more similarity; note how the Aeneas/Turnus
duel in Aeneid 12 recalls that of
Paris and Menelaus in Iliad 3.
Remember too that Odysseus on arriving in his homeland has to face rival
suitors (cf. Turnus) in a battle to claim the wife he is entitled to (cf.
Lavinia).
3 : The Aeneid as Homeric
reception. As with Homeric theology, many other
Homeric elements are modified in the light of subsequent cultural changes. The Aeneid is providentially teleological
(looking forward to a future historical objective) and aetiological (explaining
how the present emerged from the past), both elements absent from Homer; the
first of these owes much to Stoic theology, the second to Hellenistic poetry
(esp. Callimachus' Aetia) and to
Roman antiquarianism (Varro). Ideas about virtue are clearly different
(collective and self-sacrificing pietas, not competitive individualism), owing
something to the Roman national ethos (non
sibi sed patriae natus) as well as to philosophical ideas about endurance
and emotional restraint (primarily Stoic). Both poems have a sense of the tragedy
of history, and in both heroic achievement is costly but glorious, though for
rather different reasons.
4 : Recasting Homeric episodes. Relocation adds a
new edge : the funeral games in Vergil come before and not after the war
(training, not relaxation). Ideology transforms : the contact with the
Underworld and the provision of new armour for the hero become political
showpieces about Rome and Augustus. Intertextuality complicates : Aeneas is
most disturbing when he is most like Achilles (e.g. 10.513-7, 12.940-7), though
the element of pietas extenuates. Style remodelled : denser and more emotional
rewriting show how poetic style has developed through Hellenistic and neoteric
influence - see e.g. Austin's notes on 1.498ff and 6.309ff.
The Gods of the Aeneid
1. Homeric Background. The theology of
the Homeric poems presents a group of anthropomorphic gods who behave with
'sublime frivolity', aiding their individual mortal favourites but able to
distance themselves from mortal sufferings at any moment, being capricious,
selfish and unreliable. Zeus is the chief god and has an overall plan which is
fulfilled (the fall of Troy, the return of Odysseus), but its intermediate
stages can be influenced by the interventions of other gods. These basic
elements all reappear to some degree in Vergil.
2. Criticism of Homer. Reaction against
Homeric theology begins as early as Xenophanes (6th C. B.C.), who attacked the
immorality of Homer's gods. In the 5th century it is particularly notable in
the plays of Euripides (e.g. Bacchae
1348 'Gods should not be like mortals in their passions', Heracles 1340-46).
The philosophies influential in Vergil's day, Stoicism and Epicureanism, both
believed in gods but not in anthropomorphic deities who intervene personally in
human affairs, and followed the Platonic tradition (Republic 2) in criticising
the Olympian theology of Homer and other poets.
3. Philosophical Theologies. Plato's Socrates
describes the gods as wholly good and the source of all good (Euthyphro). Epicurus rejected stories of
divine intervention and placed the gods in a distant paradise undisturbed by
human affairs (cf. Lucretius 2.646-51). The Stoics allegorised Olympian myths
as ethical exempla (cf. Horace Epistles
1.2) but emphasised fate and Zeus as its controller, working with a fixed and
beneficent purpose. In these terms, the theology of the Aeneid has Stoic as well as Homeric overtones, though the Epicurean
idea of the gods is famously mentioned by Dido (Aeneid 4.379-80).
4. Roman Views. The gods of the Aeneid would be viewed as literary
fictions by the poem’s original readers, but were still objects of cult at
Rome, especially Augustan gods such as Venus and Apollo; the gods of the poets,
gods of the state and gods of the philosophers were distinguished by
contemporary writers such as Varro.. The depiction of religious cult (rather
than the divine characters) in the Aeneid
is serious and realistic, no doubt related to the religious revivalism of
Augustus (Res Gestae 20-21). Cultic
ritual rather than theological belief is the basis of Roman religion; divine
cult was politically and historically important, and seen as the cause and
justification of Roman greatness (cf. Aeneid
12.839). The idea that men can posthumously become gods through service to
mankind is also important for Roman life as for the Aeneid (Anchises, Aeneas and Hercules achieve this, just like
Julius Caesar and Augustus).
5. Literary Presentation.
(i) Levels of Explanation. Dryden noted
in 1697 (Dedication of the Aeneis,
p.246 in Everyman ed.) that the gods of the Aeneid
largely performed actions that could also be explained in purely human
psychological terms; the same is true of passages in Homer (e.g. Athena's
intervention to stop Achilles killing Agamemnon in Iliad 1). This is the basis of Lyne's 'working with' (Further Voices 67-71), and the more
extreme allegorism of Gordon Williams (Technique
and Ideas 17-39).
(ii) Sources of Tension. Fom its
beginning, the Aeneid highlights the
tension between Homeric amoral frivolity and moralising philosophical theology
: Aeneid 1.11 tantaene animis caelestibus irae ?. This issue is perhaps most
prominent in the case of Jupiter, both Stoic-type arbiter of fate (Aeneid 1.261-2) and mythological
philanderer and rapist (Aeneid 4.198,
12.878-9); cf. Lyne Further Voices
75-99. As often, no easy answer is suggested.
Important theological passages : 1.1-80,
223-417, 2.589-623, 4.90-128, 4.693-705, 5.779-818, 7.286-474, 9.184-5,
10.464-73, 12.791-842.
Vergilian Narrative Technique : Some Aspects
1 : SIMILES
(a) Subject-matter
and functions. Usually from the natural world or from artefacts or
buildings (for the latter cf. e.g. Aeneid
8.18-25, 10.134-7, 12.473-480), the former Homeric, the latter also partly
reflecting a later and more sophisticated material culture; Aeneid 1.148-53 famously raises a Roman
political dimension. Comparisons are used to characterise individuals in
particular ways : Turnus is often compared to wild animals, Aeneas rarely
(Pöschl [trans.] 98-99), while the precious young Ascanius is compared to a
jewel (10.134-7). This is partly Homeric: compare Iliad 6.506ff (the vain and womanising Paris compared to a magnificent
and randy stallion). Note the use of repeated imagistic elements to create
atmosphere and continuity of imagery, a sort of sub-narrative (the serpent and
the flame) : B.M.W.Knox, AJP 71
(1950) 379-400; similes can also fill narrative gaps, and are generally more
closely linked with narrative than in Homer (Lyne, Words and The Poet 63-99). Similes tend to be most dense and
frequent in dramatic narrative (lots in Aeneid
2 and Aeneid 12), and least
frequent when many events need to be narrated swiftly (only one in Aeneid 3). Their deployment is one of
many ways of heightening the narrative at crucial points.
(b) Multiple-correspondence
(D.A.West, JRS 59 (1969) 40-9 = OR).
E.g. 4.441-49 :
ac velut
annoso validam cum robore quercum
Alpini Boreae
nunc hinc nunc flatibus illinc
eruere
inter se certant; it stridor, et altae
consternunt
terram concusso stipite frondes;
ipsa haeret
scopulis et quantum vertice ad auras
aetherias,
tantum radice in Tartara tendit:
haud secus
adsiduis hinc atque hinc vocibus heros
tunditur,
et magno persentit pectore curas :
mens immota
manet, lacrimae volvuntur inanes.
Even as when northern Alpine winds, blowing
now hence, now thence, emulously strive to uproot an oak strong with the
strength of years, there comes a roar, the trunk quivers and the high leafage
thickly strews the ground, but the oak clings to the crag, and as far as it
lifts its top to the airs of heaven, so far it strikes its roots down towards
hell—even so with ceaseless appeals, from this side and from that, the hero is
buffeted, and in his mighty heart feels agony: his mind stands steadfast; his
tears fall without effect.
Clear correspondences, stressed by verbal similarities: Aeneas/tree (annoso ... robore, magno ... pectore),
Anna's tears and protests/winds (flatibus
/ vocibus), Aeneas' firmness/tree's firmness (haeret/manet). These are helpful in interpretation (clearly Anna's
tears, not Aeneas'; Aeneas is shaken,
not stirred ). Note how tunditur (‘is
buffeted’) fits the simile better than the narrative (transfusion or 'trespass'
of metaphor - Lyne Words and The Poet
92-99).
(c) Point of view/focalization
(D.P.Fowler, PCPS n.s. 36 (1990)
42-63).
E.g. 10.565-70 (Aeneas in battle, compared to Aegaeon) :
Aegaeon
qualis, centum cui bracchia dicunt
centenasque
manus, quinquaginta oribus ignem
pectoribusque
arsisse, Iovis cum fulimna contra
tot paribus
streperet clipeis, tot stringeret ensis:
sic toto
Aeneas desaevit in aequore victor
ut semel
intepuit mucro.
Just like Aegaeon, who (they say) had a hundred arms and a hundred
hands, and fire flaming from his fifty mouths and chests, when, against the
thunderbolts of Jupiter, he was making such a din with so many identical
shields, drawing so many swords: just so Aeneas followed his rage to the end
over the whole plain in victory, once his sword-point had warmed up.
Aeneas is described as an impious giant - but from whose point of view ?
Perhaps that of the enemy, rather than the view of the poet/narrator (though
Fowler disagrees).
2 : INTERVENTION
IN PROPRIA PERSONA [Heinze 295-6]
The Homeric epic
narrator is largely recessive; only the sympathetic characters Menelaus and
Patroclus are addressed by the poet in the Iliad,
and Eumaeus in the Odyssey, and other
first-person appearances are restricted (cf. M.W.Edwards, Homer : Poet of the Iliad, 29-41).Vergil follows this by using such
devices sparingly, particularly (like similes) at crucial or heightened moments
of the narrative; in the Dido-episode such comments are particularly common,
and may recall the choric comments of Greek tragedy. Apart from the regulation
first-person announcements of themes at the beginning of the two halves of the
poem (1.1-11, 7.37-45), note the following : Aeneid 2.402 heu nihil invitis fas quemquam fidere divis
! [rape of Cassandra], 4.65 heu vatum
ignarae mentes !, 4.296 quis fallere
possit amantem ?, 4.408ff quis tibi
tum, Dido ... ? [Dido as sympathetic character - cf. similarly 7.733,
10.185, 10.507, 10.791] Aeneid 9.446 fortunati ambo, si quid mea carmina possunt [Nisus
and Euryalus, sympathetic characters, celebrated at death - the poet comes out
?], Aeneid 10.501 nescia mens hominum
fati sortisque futurae [a crucial moment, when Turnus seals his fate, but
also expressing some sympathy ?].
3 : 'SUBJECTIVE
STYLE' [Heinze 286-314, Otis 41-96]
Injection of emotional
colour and sympathy into the narrative; a restricted amount of this in Homer,
but much more in Vergil, aided by the neoteric sensibility (e.g. Catullus 64)
and the emotional colour of Roman rhetoric (e.g. Cicero).
E.g. 2.403-6 (pathos - Vergilian speciality):
ecce trahebatur passis Priameia virgo
crinibus a templo Cassandra adytisque
Minervae
ad caelum
tendens ardentia lumina frustra,
lumina, nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas.
Lo!
Priam’s daughter, the maiden Cassandra, was being dragged with streaming hair from the temple and shrine of Minerva, vainly uplifting to heaven her blazing eyes—her eyes, for bonds confined her tender
hands.
6.305-14 (pathos again, more
subjective than Homeric model):
huc
omnis turba ad ripas effusa ruebat,
matres atque viri defunctaque corpora
vita
magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
impositique
rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum.
Hither rushed all the throng, streaming to the banks;
mothers and husbands and bodies of high-souled heroes, their life now done, boys and unwedded girls, and sons placed on the pyre before their
fathers’ eyes.
9.698-701 (violence - like Homer, Vergil is not averse
to this):
volat
Itala cornus
aera per tenerum stomachoque infixa sub altum
pectus
abit; reddit specus atri vulneris undam
spumantem, et fixo ferrum in pulmone
tepescit.
Through the yielding
air flies the Italian cornel shaft and,
lodging in the gullet, runs deep
into the breast; the wound’s dark chasm
gives back a foaming tide, and the steel
grows warm in the pierced lung.
Week 5B
After the Aeneid: Propertius
4
Aeneid as
watershed in Latin (and world) literature? c.19 BCE. How to react?
Propertius 4:
Structure and Themes
[after 16 BCE: 4.11]
4.1
Confrontation : new nationalist aetiology (Aeneid) and old erotic themes.
Clear interaction with Aeneid
8.
4.2
Vertumnus : aetiology but also genre/gender bending
4.3
Arethusa and Lycotas : erotic epistle (cf. Ovid Heroides 1-15), but explicitly set in a contemporary nationalist
context rather than a mythological one.
4.4
Tarpeia : nationalist aetiology AND erotic themes (and interest in
early Rome – Livy?)
4.5
The lena (female pimp) :
standard erotic theme (cf. Ovid Amores
1.8)
4.6
Palatine Apollo : nationalist-aetiological centrepiece of the book
4.7
Cynthia returns as a ghost : erotic themes revived (echoes of Iliad)
4.8
Cynthia returns as a living character : erotic themes revived (echoes
of Odyssey)
4.9
Hercules and the Ara Maxima
: nationalist aetiology (links with Augustus/Aeneid 8)
4.10
Jupiter Feretrius : nationalist aetiology (links with Augustus)
4.11
Cornelia : the ultimate matrona
and anti-puella (links with Augustus)
Date :
After Aeneid
: 4.1, 4.4, 4.6, 4.9.
After Ovid, Heroides
and e
Propertius
4.1 – integration achieved?
1-12 – replaying Evander’s tour of Rome in Aeneid 8 (306-69)?
Hoc
quodcumque vides, hospes, qua maxima Romast, 3x Pallas/Evander to Aeneas
ante Phrygem Aenean collis et herba fuit;
atque ubi
Navali stant sacra Palatia Phoebo, 4.6
[programme]
Euandri profugae procubuere boves.
fictilibus
crevere deis haec aurea templa, 5 aurea [temples]
8.348
nec fuit opprobrio facta sine arte casa;
Tarpeiusque
Pater nuda de rupe tonabat, Tarpeiam
8.346 rupem 8.190
et Tiberis nostris advena murus erat.
qua
gradibus domus ista, Remi se sustulit olim:
unus erat fratrum maxima regna focus. 10
Curia, praetexto
quae nunc nitet alta senatu,
pellitos habuit, rustica corda, Patres. 8.105 pauperque senatus
57-70 – the
Roman Callimachus (Aetia especially):
moenia
namque pio coner disponere uersu: nationalism
as antiquarianism
ei mihi, quod nostro est paruus in ore
sonus! Callimachean
aesthetics
sed tamen exiguo
quodcumque e pectore riui small
size and stream
fluxerit, hoc patriae seruiet omne meae.
Ennius
hirsuta cingat sua dicta corona: Ennian epic
mi folia ex hedera porrige, Bacche, tua, Bacchus to
inspire (Horace Odes 2.19, 3.25?)
ut nostris
tumefacta superbiat Vmbria libris,
Vmbria Romani patria Callimachi! Roman Callimachus
scandentis
quisquis cernit de uallibus arces, Umbrian
hill-towns
ingenio muros aestimet ille meo!
Roma, faue,
tibi surgit opus, date candida ciues
omina, et inceptis dextera cantet auis!
sacra
diesque canam et cognomina prisca locorum:
has meus ad metas sudet oportet equus.
137-46 -
intervention of Horos (cf. Apollo in Callimachus): still a love-poet!
'at tu
finge elegos, fallax opus (haec tua castra),
scribat ut exemplo cetera turba tuo.
militiam
Veneris blandis
patiere sub armis, militia
amoris
et Veneris pueris utilis hostis eris.
nam tibi
uictrices quascumque labore parasti,
eludit palmas una puella tuas:
et bene cum
fixum mento discusseris uncum,
nil erit hoc: rostro te premet ansa tuo.
illius
arbitrio noctem lucemque uidebis:
gutta quoque ex oculis non nisi iussa cadet. servitium
amoris
nec mille excubiae
nec te signata iuuabunt
limina: persuasae fallere rima sat est.’
4.6 –
Actium, but not as we know it, Jim (cf. Aeneid
8):
1-14 – the vates of Odes 3.1, but also the speaker-actor of Call.Hymns:
sacra facit
uates: sint ora fauentia sacris,
et cadat ante meos icta iuuenca focos.
serta
Philiteis certet Romana corymbis, Philetas
and Callimachus again (3.1, 3.3)
et Cyrenaeas urna ministret aquas.
costum
molle date et blandi mihi turis honores,
terque focum circa laneus orbis eat.
spargite me
lymphis, carmenque recentibus aris
tibia Mygdoniis libet eburna cadis.
ite procul
fraudes, alio sint aere noxae: Odes 3.1.2 favete linguis
pura nouum uati laurea mollit iter. Callimachean
aesthetics
Musa,
Palatini referemus Apollinis aedem:
res est, Calliope, digna fauore tuo.
Caesaris in
nomen ducuntur carmina: Caesar aetiological
encomium
dum canitur, quaeso, Iuppiter ipse uaces!
Apollo
during the battle (55-68):
dixerat, et
pharetrae pondus consumit in arcus:
proxima post arcus Caesaris hasta fuit.
uincit Roma
fide Phoebi: dat femina poenas:
sceptra per Ionias fracta uehuntur aquas.
at pater
Idalio miratur Caesar ab astro: reversal of
divi filius?
"sum deus; est nostri sanguinis ista
fides."
prosequitur
cantu Triton, omnesque marinae
plauserunt circa libera signa deae.
illa petit
Nilum cumba male nixa fugaci,
hoc unum, iusso non moritura die. Odes 1.37
di melius!
quantus mulier foret una triumphus,
ductus erat per quas ante Iugurtha uias!
Actius hinc
traxit Phoebus monumenta, quod eius aetiology
of temple
una decem uicit missa sagitta ratis.
Horatian
sympotic celebration (69- 86;
cf. Odes 3.14.17 –victory followed by
party):
bella satis
cecini: citharam iam poscit Apollo 1.temple
statue 2.lyric theme
uictor et ad placidos exuit arma choros. from epic
to lyric topic (in elegy)
candida
nunc molli subeant conuiuia luco;
blanditiaeque fluant per mea colla rosae,
uinaque
fundantur prelis elisa Falernis,
terque lauet nostras spica Cilissa comas.
ingenium
positis irritet Musa poetis:
Bacche, soles Phoebo fertilis esse tuo.
ille
paludosos memoret seruire Sygambros, 16 BCE
Cepheam hic Meroen fuscaque regna canat, Egypt 15 years on
hic referat
sero confessum foedere Parthum: 19 BCE
"reddat signa Remi, mox dabit ipse
sua:
siue
aliquid pharetris Augustus parcet Eois,
differat in pueros ista tropaea suos. Gaius/Lucius
(grandsons, adopted 17)
gaude,
Crasse, nigras si quid sapis inter harenas: Crassus and
Parthia: Odes 3.5
ire per Euphraten ad tua busta licet."
sic noctem
patera, sic ducam carmine, donec
iniciat radios in mea uina dies!
4.11 –
Cornelia, ideal Augustan woman (and final anti-Cynthia)
[wife of L. Aemilius Paullus, cos.34, censor 22, daughter of Scribonia,
ex-wife of Augustus and of a Cornelius Scipio, granddaughter of triumvir
Lepidus, still alive, but not mentioned; brother consul 16 BCE, terminus post quem for this poem]
1-6 – dead
woman speaks (sepulchral epigram?):
Desine,
Paulle, meum lacrimis urgere sepulcrum:
panditur ad nullas ianua nigra preces;
cum semel
infernas intrarunt funera leges,
non exorato stant adamante uiae.
te licet
orantem fuscae deus audiat aulae:
nempe tuas lacrimas litora surda bibent.
17-20 - defence plea before the infernal court (male
role?):
immatura
licet, tamen huc non noxia ueni:
det Pater hic umbrae mollia iura meae.
aut si quis
posita iudex sedet Aeacus urna,
in mea sortita uindicet ossa pila.
35-6 –
sepulchral inscription:
iungor,
Paulle, tuo sic discessura cubili,
ut lapide hoc uni nupta fuisse legar.
41-2 – no
marital offence (adultery?): Lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis 17 BCE
me neque
censurae legem mollisse neque ulla
labe mea nostros erubuisse focos.
67-8 –
three children:
et tamen
emerui generosae vestis honores, Lex
Iulia de maritandis ordinibus 18 BCE
nec mea de sterili facta rapina domo.
55-8 –
distinguished mourners:
nec te,
dulce caput, mater Scribonia, laesi:
in me mutatum quid nisi fata uelis?
maternis laudor
lacrimis urbisque querelis,
defensa et gemitu Caesaris ossa mea. [distinguished supporters in
oratory]
99-102 –
end of plea
causa
perorata est. flentes
me surgite, testes, Cic.Cael.70
Dicta est a me causa, iudices, et
perorata
dum pretium uitae grata rependit humus.
moribus et
caelum patuit: sim digna merendo,
cuius honoratis ossa uehantur auis.
Long inscriptions to dead women: Laudatio
Turiae (ILS 8393, 1C BCE, 2nd person), Allia Potestas (CIL VI.37965, 50+ verse lines, most hexameters, 3rd
person, 3/4C CE). First-person statements in epitaphs: usually men (cf. e.g. ILS
6, epigraphic obituary of M.Cornelius Scipio Hispanus, praetor 139 B.C, but see e.g. CIL VI.12652 (80 BCE, elegiacs in the
mouth of a dead wife) and Dido at Aeneid
4.653-6 [week 6]). Cornelia a reaction to Dido as well as Cynthia? Grand male
relatives, speaks in the Underworld where Dido refuses to speak, has the same
ideal of univiratus (4.11.67-72)more
conventionally virtuous?
Week 5C
After the Aeneid: Horace Odes 4 and Epistles 2.
Horace Odes 4 – return to lyric after a decade
(c.13BCE, Odes 1-3 c.23)
4.1 –
return to love poetry (NOT symposium or Lesbian lyric):
Intermissa, Venus, diu Ov.Am.1.1.1-2 (from war to love)
rursus
bella moves? Parce precor, precor. Arma
gravi numero violentaque bella parabam
Non sum qualis eram bonae edere, materia conveniente modis.
sub regno
Cinarae. Desine, dulcium Cinara in Epistles 1 but not Odes
mater saeva Cupidinum, 5 Odes 1.19.1 mater
saeva Cupidinum
circa
lustra decem flectere mollibus
iam durum imperiis: abi, H.50 = 15
BCE
quo blandae
iuvenum te revocant preces. Elegy: the young Ovid?
Tempestiuius in domum
Pauli
purpureis ales oloribus 10
comissabere Maximi, Maximus as
patron of young Ovid who wrote a
si torrere
iecur quaeris idoneum; wedding
song for him: Ov.Pont.1.2.131-2
namque et nobilis et decens marries
Augustus’ cousin Marcia about this time
et pro
sollicitis non tacitus reis
et centum puer artium 15
late signa
feret militiae tuae, militia amoris: Ov. Am.1.9.1 Militat omnis amans
et, quandoque potentior
largi
muneribus riserit aemuli, rich rival:
Ov. Am.1.8.31
Albanos prope te lacus
ponet
marmoream sub trabe citrea.
20
Illic plurima naribus
duces tura,
lyraque et Berecyntia
delectabere tibia
mixtis
carminibus non sine fistula;
illic bis pueri die
numen cum
teneris virginibus tuum 25
laudantes pede candido
in morem
Salium ter quatient humum.
Me nec femina nec puer cf. Ov.Am.1.1.19-20:
iam nec
spes animi credula mutui 30 nec mihi materia est numeris levioribus apta,
nec certare iuvat mero aut puer aut longas compta puella
comas.'
nec vincire
novis tempora floribus.
Sed cur heu, Ligurine, cur cf. Ov.Am.1.1.25-6:
manat rara
meas lacrima per genas? Me
miserum! certas habuit puer ille sagittas.
Cur facunda parvm decoro 35 uror, et in vacuo pectore regnat Amor.
inter verba
cadit lingua silentio?
Nocturnis ego somniis
iam captum
teneo, iam volucrem sequor
te per gramina Martii
campi, te
per aquas, dure, volubilis.
Odes 4 and the
rising generation of aristocrats: Syme, The
Augustan Aristocracy (1986):
4.2 (Iullus Antonius, cos. 10 BCE), 4.4, 4.14 (the young princes
Drusus and Tiberius), 4.7 (a Manlius Torquatus, possibly in his 30s), 4.8 (the
young Censorinus, cos. 8 BCE).
4.2 (Pindar
and praising Augustus) – cf. SJH 1995
and 4.8
Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari,
Iulle, ceratis ope Daedalea imitating Pindar (updated Roman epinician?)
nititur pinnis, vitreo daturus how relevant to Iullus the addressee?
nomina ponto.
Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres 5 Pindaric impetus
quem super notas aluere ripas,
fervet inmensusque ruit profundo
Pindarus ore,
laurea donandus Apollinari, (like Horace: Odes 3.30.15-16)
seu per audacis nova dithyrambos 10
verba devoluit numerisque fertur Pindaric
metre not understood until 20C
lege solutis,
seu deos regesque canit, deorum
sanguinem, per quos cecidere iusta
morte Centauri, cecidit tremendae 15 Augustus and civil wars (cf. Odes
3)
flamma
Chimaerae,
sive quos Elea domum reducit epinician (imitated by Horace in 4.4 and 4.14)
palma caelestis pugilemve equomve
dicit et centum potiore signis
munere donat, 20
flebili sponsae iuvenemue raptum threnoi
[lyric laments]
plorat et viris animumque moresque
aureos educit in astra nigroque
invidet Orco.
Multa Dircaeum levat aura cycnum, 25 (Horace as swan: Odes 2.20)
tendit, Antoni, quotiens in altos grand and dangerous name (cf. 2 BCE)?
nubium tractus; ego apis Matinae poet as bee: Pindar P.10.53-4
more modoque
grata carpentis thyma per laborem
plurimum circa nemus uvidique 30
Tiburis ripas operosa parvus
carmina fingo.
Concines maiore poeta plectro epic
poem (author of 12-book Diomedea)
Caesarem, quandoque trahet ferocis
per sacrum clivum merita decorus 35 typical epic topic
at Rome
fronde Sygambros;
quo nihil maius meliusve terris
fata donavere bonique divi
nec dabunt, quamvis redeant in aurum
tempora priscum. 40
Concines laetosque dies et Urbis Iullus as aedile 16 BCE
publicum ludum super impetrato return
of Augustus (expected, happens in 13 BCE)
fortis Augusti reditu forumque
litibus orbum.
Tum meae, si quid loquar audiendum, 45
vocis accedet bona pars, et: 'O sol
pulcher, o laudande!' canam recepto
Caesare felix;
teque, dum procedis, io Triumphe!
non semel dicemus, io Triumphe! 50
civitas omnis, dabimusque divis
tura benignis.
Te decem tauri totidemque vaccae, symbolic gifts: epic scale v. Callimachean craft (this poem)
me tener soluet vitulus, relicta
matre qui largis iuvenescit herbis 55
in mea vota,
fronte curuatos imitatus ignis
tertius lunae referentis ortum,
qua notam duxit niveus videri,
cetera fuluus. 60
4.7 (spring
ode, cf. 1.4):
Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis
arboribus comae; [human]
mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas
flumina praetereunt;
Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque
sororibus audet
ducere nuda chorus.
Inmortalia ne speres, monet annus et almum
quae rapit hora diem.
Frigora mitescunt Zephyris, ver proterit aestas,
interitura simul
pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit, et mox
bruma recurrit iners.
Damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae:
nos ubi decidimus
quo pater Aeneas, quo dives
Tullus et Ancus,
puluis
et umbra sumus.
Quis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae
tempora di superi?
Cuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico
quae dederis animo.
Cum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos
fecerit arbitria, [lawyer:
non, Torquate, genus, non
te facundia, non te Ep.1.5]
restituet pietas;
infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum
liberat Hippolytum,
nec Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro
vincula Pirithoo.
tr. A.E.Housman (1897):
The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws
And grasses in the mead renew their birth,
The river to the river-bed withdraws,
And altered is the fashion of the earth.
The Nymphs and Graces three put off their fear
And unapparelled in the woodland play.
The swift hour and the brief prime of the year
Say to the soul, Thou wast not born for aye.
Thaw follows frost; hard on the heel of spring
Treads summer sure to die, for hard on hers
Comes autumn with his apples scattering;
Then back to wintertide, when nothing stirs.
But oh, whate’'er the sky-led seasons mar,
Moon upon moon rebuilds it with her beams;
Come we where Tullus and where Ancus are
And good Aeneas, we are dust and dreams.
Torquatus, if the gods in heaven shall add
The morrow to the day, what tongue has told?
Feast then thy heart, for what thy heart has
had
The fingers of no heir will ever hold.
When thou descendest once the shades among,
The stern assize and equal judgment o'er,
Not thy long lineage nor thy golden tongue,
No, nor thy righteousness, shall friend thee
more.
Night holds Hippolytus the pure of stain,
Diana steads him nothing, he must stay;
And Theseus leaves Pirithous in the chain
The love of comrades cannot take away.
[Walt Whitman]
Expanded epigram? Epodic metre recalls elegiac couplets? First line =
very close to hexameter
Leonidas of Tarentum (pre-Cicero) AP
10.1 (cf. also AP
10.2,4,5,6,14,15,16)
Ὁ
πλόος
ὡραῖος·
καὶ γὰρ
λαλαγεῦσα χελιδὼν
ἤδη μέμβλωκεν,
χὠ
χαρίεις
Ζέφυρος·
λειμῶνες δ᾿ ἀνθεῦσι,
σεσίγηκεν
δὲ θάλασσα
κύμασι
καὶ
τρηχεῖ
πνεύματι
βρασσομένη.
ἀγκύρας ἀνέλοιο,
καὶ ἐκλύσαιο
γύαια,
ναυτίλε, καὶ πλώοις πᾶσαν ἐφεὶς ὀθόνην.
ταῦθ᾿ ὁ Πρίηπος ἐγὼν ἐπιτέλλομαι
ὁ
λιμενίτας,
ὤνθρωφ᾿, ὡς πλώοις πᾶσαν ἐπ᾿ ἐμπορίην.
It is the season for sailing; already the
chattering swallow has come, and the pleasant Zephyr, and the meadows bloom,
and the sea with its boiling waves lashed by the rough winds has sunk to silence.
Weigh the anchors and loose the hawsers, mariner, and sail with every stitch of
canvas set. This, O man, I, Priapus, the god of the harbour, bid thee do that
thou mayst sail for all kinds of merchandise.
4.15 – the Odes and the Aeneid
Phoebus
volentem proelia me loqui
victas et
urbes increpuit lyra,
ne parva Tyrrhenum per aequor modest lyric v. Vergilian
sea of epic
vela darem. Tua, Caesar, aetas
fruges et
agris rettulit uberes 5 What has
Augustus ever done for us?
et signa
nostro restituit Iovi fertility
derepta Parthorum superbis victory
postibus et vacuum duellis peace
Ianum
Quirini clausit et ordinem moral
reform
rectum
evaganti frena licentiae 10 ancestral values
iniecit emovitque culpas
et veteres revocavit artes
per quas
Latinum nomen et Italae
crevere
vires famaque et imperi
porrecta maiestas ad ortus 15
solis ab Hesperio cubili.
Custode
rerum Caesare non furor
civilis aut
vis exiget otium,
non ira, quae procudit enses
et miseras inimicat urbes. 20
Non qui
profundum Danuvium bibunt
edicta
rumpent Iulia, non
Getae,
non Seres infidique Persae,
non Tanain prope flumen orti.
Nosque et
profestis lucibus et sacris
25
inter
iocosi munera Liberi sympotic
lyric?
cum prole matronisque nostris
rite deos prius adprecati,
virtute
functos more patrum duces
Lydis
remixto carmine tibiis 30 mixed with Etruscan Vergil?
Troiamque et Anchisen et almae
progeniem Veneris canemus. subject of Aeneid
SJH GE 2007:
‘The poem has successfully incorporated epic material into a lyric
framework, and though canemus, a verb highly appropriate to lyric song, appears
in the future tense and as the last word of the poem, it can be referred to the
present performance, a Pindaric usage.
This is emblematised by the allusion to ‘song mixed with Lydian pipes’,
a metapoetical statement of the blending of lyric and epic elements. The tibia is non-epic and an instrument of
Horatian lyric (cf. Odes 3.4.1), but
‘Lydian’, though it suggests the soft and erotic Lydian musical mode suitable
for lyric (Plato Rep.2.398e), also looks back to the poem’s initial
allusion in Tyrrhenum … aequor to the
Etruscan ethnicity of Vergil, who in the Aeneid
had lost few opportunities of referring to the supposed Lydian origin of the
Etruscans, even referring to the Etruscans straightforwardly as Lydi (9.11). Epic material thus enters lyric song in this
poem, but that ‘guest’ material is carefully accommodated in modal form to the
‘host’ generic framework.’
Epistles
2: Horace’s last work (after 12 BCE, perhaps including Ars Poetica)
sermo: more colloquial in approach and style – is it
‘poetry’?
Epistles 2.1.1-22 – addressing Augustus:
Cum tot
sustineas et tanta negotia solus, after death
of Agrippa in 12 BCE?
res Italas
armis tuteris, moribus ornes, moral
legislation of 18-17
legibus
emendes, in publica commoda peccem
si longo sermone
morer tua tempora, Caesar.
Romulus et
Liber pater et cum Castore Pollux,
5 mortal to
immortal
post
ingentia facta deorum in templa recepti,
dum terras
hominumque colunt genus, aspera bella
componunt,
agros adsignant, oppida condunt,
plorauere
suis non respondere fauorem great
heroes not always suitably honoured
speratum
meritis. Diram qui contudit hydram
10 Hercules:
mortal to immortal.
notaque
fatali portenta labore subegit,
comperit
inuidiam supremo fine domari. dangers of invidia
Vrit enim
fulgore suo qui praegrauat artes
infra se
positas; extinctus amabitur idem.
Praesenti
tibi maturos largimur honores
15
iurandasque
tuom per numen ponimus aras, divine
honours
nil
oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes.
Sed tuus
hic populus sapiens et iustus in uno
te nostris
ducibus, te Grais anteferendo
cetera
nequaquam simili ratione modoque
20
aestimat
et, nisi quae terris semota suisque
temporibus
defuncta uidet, fastidit et odit … right about
Caesar, wrong about literature…
Epistles 2.2.41-60 – some autobiography:
Romae
nutriri mihi contigit atque doceri
iratus
Grais quantum nocuisset Achilles. Liceo
classico
Adiecere
bonae paulo plus artis Athenae, Scuola
Normale
scilicet ut
uellem curuo dinoscere rectum Masters in
philosophy
atque inter
siluas Academi quaerere uerum. 45
Dura sed
emouere loco me tempora grato
ciuilisque
rudem belli tulit aestus in arma civil war
Caesaris
Augusti non responsura lacertis. on wrong side
(knows it now!)
Vnde simul
primum me dimisere Philippi,
decisis
humilem pinnis inopemque paterni 50 wings clipped: cf. Odes 2.20?
et laris et
fundi paupertas impulit audax real
poverty?
ut uersus
facerem; sed quod non desit habentem
quae poterunt
umquam satis expurgare cicutae,
ni melius
dormire putem quam scribere uersus?
Singula de
nobis anni praedantur euntes;
55
eripuere
iocos, uenerem, conuiuia, ludum;
tendunt
extorquere poemata; quid faciam uis? issue of
writing poetry in late sermones
Denique non
omnes eadem mirantur amantque;
carmine tu
gaudes, hic delectatur iambis, Florus
and lyric: Ep.1.3.20-22 (Pindaric
bee)
ille
Bioneis sermonibus et sale nigro. 60 Career review: Odes, Epodes, Satires.
Week 6
Ovid: early
work (Amores/Heroides) the development of elegy (Ars to Fasti), later work (Metamorphoses,
exile poetry)
Ovid – the
new kid on the block?
Ovid Amores (revised edition after 16 BCE,
possibly c. year 0)
1.1
Ovid is
interrupted by Cupid while writing Vergil-style epic (version of Apollo
in
Callimachus’ Aetia):
Arma gravi numero violentaque bella parabam arma virumque
(recent?)
edere, materia conveniente modis. war/hexameter
par erat
inferior versus—risisse Cupido
dicitur atque unum surripuisse pedem.
'Quis tibi,
saeve puer, dedit hoc in carmina iuris? 5 divine provinciae
disturbed
Pieridum vates, non tua turba sumus. (cf. storm
in Aeneid 1?)
quid? si
praeripiat flavae Venus arma Minervae,
ventilet accensas flava Minerva faces?
quis probet
in silvis Cererem regnare iugosis,
lege pharetratae Virginis arva coli? 10
crinibus
insignem quis acuta cuspide Phoebum Palatine
Apollo (citharode)
instruat, Aoniam Marte movente lyram?
sunt tibi
magna, puer, nimiumque potentia regna;
cur opus adfectas, ambitiose, novum? claim
of innovation
an, quod
ubique, tuum est? tua sunt Heliconia tempe? 15
vix etiam Phoebo iam lyra tuta sua est?
cum bene
surrexit versu nova pagina primo,
attenuat nervos proximus ille meos;
nec mihi
materia est numeris levioribus apta, not like Propertius/Tibullus
aut puer aut longas compta puella comas.' 20
Questus
eram, pharetra cum protinus ille soluta
legit
in exitium spicula facta meum,
lunavitque
genu sinuosum fortiter arcum,
'quod' que 'canas, vates, accipe' dixit
'opus!'
Me miserum!
certas habuit puer ille sagittas.
25
uror, et in vacuo pectore regnat Amor.
Sex mihi surgat
opus numeris, in quinque residat:
ferrea cum vestris bella valete modis!
cingere
litorea flaventia tempora myrto,
Musa, per undenos emodulanda pedes! 30
Narrative
sequence of opening
Love-poetry precedes love 1.1
Love precedes love-object 1.2
then 1.3
Immediate quasi-adulterous set-up
1.4
Corinna’s physical charms enumerated in detail, contra Cynthia, Delia,
Lesbia (1.5)
(but imitating an epigram of Philodemus, AP 5.132 = Sider 12)
No mystery about love (1.5.25 cetera
quis nescit?)
Heroides – innovatory feminine rhetoric? [cf. Theocr. Id.2; Ovid 7x in Seneca the Elder]
Single
letters (three books?)
I. Penelope Ulixi, II. Phyllis Demophoonti,
III. Briseis Achilli, IV. Phaedra Hippolyto, V. Oenone Paridi
VI. Hypsipyle Iasoni, VII. Dido Aeneae, VIII.
Hermione Oresti, IX. Deianira Herculi, X. Ariadne Theseo
XI. Canace Macareo, XII. Medea Iasoni, XIII.
Laodamia Protesilao, XIV. Hypermestra Lynceo, XV. Sappho Phaoni [ Heroides 1-5 has 752 lines, 6-10 802,
11-15 858 – cf. Amores 1 774, 2 812,
3 870 lines]
Double
letters (probably
post-exilic):
XVI. Paris Helenae, XVII. Helene Paridi;
XVIII. Leander Heroni, XIX. Hero Leandro; XX. Acontius Cydippae, XXI. Cydippe
Acontio. [1564 lines, a very long book
for Ovid (no others over 1000 lines), but cf. Lucretius 5
(1500+), and three books would probably be too
short].
Heroines from epic and tragedy, including
recent Roman epic (Vergil, Catullus, perhaps others). Erotic slant on
great mythological stories in epistolary/rhetorical
form – original: Ars 3.346 Ignotum hoc aliis ille novavit opus.
Important impact on renaissance literature and proto-novels (cf. e.g.
Richardson, Clarissa [1748]):
M.S.Brownlee, The Severed Word: Ovid's 'Heroides' and the Novela Sentimental (1990).
7.1-42
(Dido to Aeneas, not yet on his ship):
Accipe, Dardanide, moriturae carmen Elissae; [epistolary form]
quae legis a nobis ultima
verba legi.
Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis
ad vada Maeandri concinit
albus olor.
Nec quia te nostra sperem prece posse moveri, [tried that in Aeneid 4]
alloquor: adverso movimus
ista deo!
sed meriti famam corpusque animumque pudicum
cum male perdiderim,
perdere verba leve est. [Aeneid
and immorality: Tristia 2.536
Certus es ire tamen miseramque relinquere Didon non legitimo foedere iunctus amor ]
atque idem venti vela
fidemque ferent. 4.554 iam certus eundi
certus es, Aenea, cum foedere solvere naves 4.339 [non] haec in foedera venis
quaeque ubi sint nescis,
Itala regna sequi. 4.361 Italiam non sponte sequor
nec nova Karthago, nec te crescentia tangunt pun (2 x Aeneid 1)
moenia nec sceptro
tradita summa tuo. abl or dat?
facta fugis, facienda petis; quaerenda per orbem
altera, quaesita est altera
terra tibi.
ut terram invenias, quis eam tibi tradet habendam?
quis sua non notis arva
tenenda dabit? good
point: war in Italy
alter habendus amor tibi restat et altera Dido foreign princess: Aeneid 1.783 regia coniunx
quamque iterum fallas,
altera danda fides.
quando erit, ut condas instar Karthaginis urbem 4.259-64 (Aeneas
helps to found Carthage)
et videas populos altus
ab arce tuos?
omnia ut eveniant, nec di tua vota morentur,
unde tibi, quae te sic
amet, uxor erit?
Uror ut inducto ceratae sulpure taedae,
ut pia fumosis addita
tura rogis. Dido’s suicide (sword and fire)
[Aeneas oculis vigilantis semper inhaeret; 4.465-8 (Dido’s
visions of Aeneas)
Aenean animo noxque diesque
refert. possible interpolation here? likely context?
ille quidem male gratus et ad mea munera surdus major textual problems in Heroides (no OCT!)
et quo, si non sim stulta,
carere velim. 3rd person difficult here?
non tamen Aenean, quamvis male cogitat, odi,
sed queror infidum
questaque peius amo.]
parce, Venus, nurui, durumque amplectere fratrem, marriage
frater Amor; castris
militet ille tuis.
aut ego quem coepi—neque enim dedignor—amare, aut: et?
materiam curae praebeat
ille meae.
Fallor et ista mihi falso iactatur imago:
matris ab ingenio dissidet
ille suae.
te lapis et montes innataque rupibus altis 4.365-7 (stones,
tiger)
robora, te saevae
progenuere ferae
aut mare, quale vides agitari nunc quoque ventis:
qua tamen adversis fluctibus
ire paras?
Ars
Amatoria 1.1-34
(from elegy to erotodidaxis, not far - programme for the poem):
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi, civic elegy? cf. Solon etc.
Hoc legat et lecto carmine
doctus amet. didactic in tradition of Lucretius and Vergil
Arte citae veloque rates remoque moventur, didactic
metaphors from Georgics
Arte leves currus: arte
regendus amor.
Curribus Automedon lentisque erat aptus habenis, 5 Iliad
Tiphys in Haemonia puppe
magister erat: Argonautica
Me Venus artificem tenero praefecit Amori;
Tiphys et Automedon dicar
Amoris ego.
Ille quidem ferus est et qui mihi saepe repugnet:
Sed puer est, aetas mollis
et apta regi. 10
Phillyrides puerum cithara perfecit Achillem, Achilleid
Atque animos placida
contudit arte feros.
Qui totiens socios, totiens exterruit hostes,
Creditur annosum
pertimuisse senem.
Quas Hector sensurus erat, poscente magistro 15
Verberibus iussas praebuit ille manus.
Aeacidae Chiron, ego sum praeceptor Amoris: schoolmaster
Saevus uterque puer, natus
uterque dea.
Sed tamen et tauri cervix oneratur aratro, Georgics 3
Frenaque magnanimi dente
teruntur equi; 20
Et mihi cedet Amor, quamvis mea vulneret arcu
Pectora, iactatas
excutiatque faces.
Quo me fixit Amor, quo me violentius ussit, Amores 1.1 (poetic material)
Hoc melior facti vulneris
ultor ero:
Non ego, Phoebe, datas a te mihi mentiar artes, 25 Callimachus Aetia proem
Nec nos aeriae voce monemur
avis, Alcman ?proem (partridges: Ath. 9. 390a)
Nec mihi sunt visae Clio Cliusque sorores Hesiod Theogony proem
Servanti pecudes vallibus,
Ascra, tuis:
Usus opus movet hoc: vati parete perito; Cic. De Or.1.69 (Aratus,
Nicander ignorant)
Vera canam: coeptis, mater
Amoris, ades! 30 a true prophet
Este procul, vittae tenues, insigne pudoris, health warning to matronae
after Lex Iulia
Quaeque tegis medios,
instita longa, pedes.
Nos venerem tutam concessaque furta canemus,
Inque meo nullum carmine
crimen erit. [but Tr.2.207 duo crimina, carmen et error]
3.101-28
(praise of modern Roman smartness and sophistication):
Ordior a cultu; cultis bene Liber ab uvis
Provenit, et culto stat
seges alta solo. Georgics
applied to personal appearance
Forma dei munus: forma quota quaeque superbit?
Pars vestrum tali munere
magna caret.
Cura dabit faciem; facies neglecta peribit, 105 (cf. Ovid’s Medicamina)
Idaliae similis sit licet
illa deae.
Corpora si veteres non sic coluere puellae,
Nec veteres cultos sic
habuere viros;
Si fuit Andromache tunicas induta valentes, rigentes?
Quid mirum? duri militis
uxor erat. 110
Scilicet Aiaci coniunx ornata venires,
Cui tegumen septem terga
fuere boum?
Simplicitas rudis ante fuit: nunc aurea Roma est, inversion
of normal conquest = decline?
Et domiti magnas possidet
orbis opes.
Aspice quae nunc sunt Capitolia, quaeque fuerunt: 115 Res Gestae 19 (Capitol,
Curia, Palatine)
Alterius dices illa fuisse
Iovis.
Curia, concilio quae nunc dignissima tanto,
De stipula Tatio regna
tenente fuit.
Quae nunc sub Phoebo ducibusque Palatia fulgent,
Quid nisi araturis
pascua bubus erant? 120 now the cows of Myron (Prop.2.31.7-8)
Prisca iuvent alios: ego me nunc denique natum
Gratulor: haec aetas
moribus apta meis. Ovid and the present
Non quia nunc terrae lentum subducitur aurum, moralising of
Roman Odes of Horace
Lectaque diverso litore
concha venit:
Nec quia decrescunt effosso marmore montes, 125
Nec quia caeruleae mole
fugantur aquae:
Sed quia cultus adest, nec nostros mansit in annos the
Roman myth subverted?
Rusticitas, priscis illa
superstes avis.
3.311-48
(the seductive uses of music):
Monstra maris Sirenes erant, quae voce canora Odysseus and the
Sirens
Quamlibet admissas
detinuere rates. [= moral temptations , e,g, Hor.Ep.1.2]
His sua Sisyphides auditis paene resolvit [even the son of the arch-rogue]
Corpora, nam sociis inlita
cera fuit.
Res est blanda canor: discant cantare puellae: 315
Pro facie multis vox sua
lena fuit.
Et modo marmoreis referant audita theatris, current
hits
Et modo Niliacis carmina
lusa modis.
Nec plectrum dextra, citharam tenuisse sinistra lyre-playing
Nesciat arbitrio femina
docta meo. 320
Saxa ferasque lyra movit Rhodopeius Orpheus, Orpheus (Georgics 4)
Tartareosque lacus
tergeminumque canem.
Saxa tuo cantu, vindex iustissime matris, Amphion
Fecerunt muros officiosa
novos.
Quamvis mutus erat, voci favisse putatur 325 Arion
Piscis, Arioniae fabula
nota lyrae.
Disce etiam duplici genialia nablia palma
Verrere: conveniunt
dulcibus illa iocis.
Sit tibi Callimachi, sit Coi nota poetae, Callimachus and Philetas (Prop.3.1)
Sit quoque vinosi Teia Musa
senis; 330 Anacreon
Nota sit et Sappho (quid enim lascivius illa?), Sappho
Cuive pater vafri luditur
arte Getae. Terence
Et teneri possis carmen legisse Properti, Gallus, Propertius, Tibullus
Sive aliquid Galli, sive,
Tibulle, tuum:
Dictaque Varroni fulvis insignia villis 335 Varro Argonautica
Vellera, germanae, Phrixe,
querenda tuae:
Et profugum Aenean, altae primordia Romae,
Quo nullum Latio clarius
extat opus. Aeneid
(Book 4?)
Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis,
Nec mea Lethaeis scripta
dabuntur aquis: 340
Atque aliquis dicet 'nostri lege culta magistri
Carmina, quis partes
instruit ille duas: Ars
1 and 2
Deve tribus libris, titulus quos signat Amorum,
Elige, quod docili molliter
ore legas: Amores
1-3
Vel tibi composita cantetur Epistola voce: 345 Heroides
Ignotum hoc aliis ille
novavit opus.'
O ita, Phoebe, velis! ita vos, pia numina vatum,
Insignis cornu Bacche,
novemque deae! fame but also erotic function?
Remedia
Amoris 357-96
(antidote to Ars; reply to critics):
Nunc tibi, quae medio veneris praestemus in usu,
Eloquar: ex omni est parte
fugandus amor.
Multa quidem ex illis pudor est mihi dicere; sed tu nasty but
necessary
Ingenio verbis concipe
plura meis. 360
Nuper enim nostros quidam carpsere libellos, recent criticism (Ars?)
Quorum censura Musa
proterva mea est.
Dummodo sic placeam, dum toto
canter in orbe, Cic.Tusc.5.77 pueri Spartiatae non ingemescunt
Quamlibet impugnent unus et alter opus. verberum
dolore laniati.
Ingenium magni livor detractat Homeri: 365 Homer criticised Homeromastix
Quisquis es, ex illo,
Zoile, nomen habes.
Et tua sacrilegae laniarunt carmina linguae, and Vergil Vergiliomastix
Pertulit huc victos quo
duce Troia deos.
Summa petit livor; perflant altissima venti:
Summa petunt dextra fulmina
missa Iovis. 370
At tu, quicumque es, quem nostra licentia laedit,
Si sapis, ad numeros exige
quidque suos. generic
appropriateness
Fortia Maeonio gaudent pede bella referri; epic: war, not
love
Deliciis illic quis locus
esse potest?
Grande sonant tragici; tragicos decet ira cothurnos: 375 tragedy: passions
Usibus e mediis soccus
habendus erit. comedy: everyday life
Liber in adversos hostes stringatur iambus, iambus: invective
Seu celer, extremum seu
trahat ille pedem.
Blanda pharetratos Elegia cantet Amores, elegy: light love
Et levis arbitrio ludat
amica suo. 380
Callimachi numeris non est dicendus Achilles, elegy is not epic
Cydippe non est oris,
Homere, tui.
Quis feret Andromaches peragentem Thaida partes? a queen is not a meretrix
Peccet, in Andromache
Thaida quisquis agat.
Thais in arte mea est; lascivia libera nostra est; 385
Nil mihi cum vitta; Thais
in arte mea est. my work concerns the latter
Si mea materiae respondet Musa iocosae,
Vicimus, et falsi criminis
acta rea est. and is therefore not to be criticised for morals
Rumpere, Livor edax: magnum iam nomen habemus; Am.1.15.1 quid mihi, Livor edax, ignavos obicis annos
Maius erit, tantum quo
pede coepit eat. 390 more elegiacs – or
hexameters?
Sed nimium properas: vivam modo, plura dolebis;
Et capiunt animi carmina
multa mei.
Nam iuvat et studium famae mihi crevit honore;
Principio clivi noster
anhelat equus. Vergilian didactic metaphor – Fasti
next?
Tantum se nobis elegi debere fatentur, 395
Quantum Vergilio nobile
debet epos. the Vergil of elegy – 11 books?
Amores 1-3, Heroides
1-15 [3 books], Ars 1-3, the Medicamina and the Remedia: collected carmina
amatoria?
Turning in mid-career to higher elegy (Fasti), to tragedy (Medea, cf. Am.3.1), and
to epic (Metamorphoses).
Fasti 1.1-44 (Ovid’s new calendar poem):
Tempora cum causis Latium digesta per annum prose Fasti meets
Callimachus Aetia?[
lapsaque sub terras ortaque
signa canam stars: popularity at Rome of Aratus Phaenomena.
excipe pacato, Caesar Germanice, voltu prince & poet (Aratus translation; cf. Ovid/Cicero)
hoc opus et timidae derige
navis iter, didactic vessel (Georgics)
officioque, levem non aversatus honorem, 5
en tibi devoto numine
dexter ades. likely post-exilic rededication (Augustus/Book 2)
sacra recognosces annalibus eruta priscis antiquarian
research (Varro persona?)
et quo sit merito quaeque
notata dies.
invenies illic et festa domestica vobis; Augustan
revision of the calendar 9-8 BCE
saepe tibi pater est, saepe
legendus avus, 10 many family dates
quaeque ferunt illi, pictos signantia fastos,
tu quoque cum Druso praemia
fratre feres. the two imperial heirs 14-19 CE
Caesaris arma canant alii: nos Caesaris aras
et quoscumque sacris
addidit ille dies. recusatio
adnue conanti per laudes ire tuorum 15
deque meo pavidos excute
corde metus.
da mihi te placidum, dederis in carmina vires:
ingenium voltu statque
caditque tuo.
pagina iudicium docti subitura movetur sent
from exile
principis, ut Clario missa legenda
deo. 20
quae sit enim culti facundia sensimus oris,
civica pro trepidis cum
tulit arma reis.
scimus et, ad nostras cum se tulit impetus artes, G’s poetry
ingenii currant flumina
quanta tui.
si licet et fas est, vates rege vatis habenas, 25
auspice te felix totus ut
annus eat.
Tempora digereret cum conditor Urbis, in anno antiquarian information
constituit menses quinque
bis esse suo.
scilicet arma magis quam sidera, Romule, noras, unlike Augustus in 9-8 (solar
meridian in Campus)
curaque finitimos vincere
maior erat. 30
est tamen et ratio, Caesar, quae moverit illum,
erroremque suum quo tueatur habet.
quod satis est, utero matris dum prodeat infans,
hoc anno statuit temporis
esse satis;
per totidem menses a funere coniugis uxor 35
sustinet in vidua tristia
signa domo.
haec igitur vidit trabeati cura Quirini,
cum rudibus populis annua
iura daret.
Martis erat primus mensis, Venerisque secundus; March, April
haec generis princeps,
ipsius ille pater: 40
tertius a senibus, iuvenum de nomine quartus, May (maiores), June
quae sequitur, numero turba notata fuit.
at Numa nec Ianum nec avitas praeterit umbras, January, February (Parentalia, 13-22).
mensibus antiquis
praeposuitque duos.
3.459-516
(constellation of the Crown of Ariadne – Hellenistic aition/catasterism):
Protinus aspicies venienti nocte Coronam astronomical
observation
Cnosida: Theseo crimine
facta dea est.
iam bene periuro mutarat coniuge Bacchum sequel to Catullus
64 (Bacchus rescues Ariadne)
quae dedit ingrato fila
legenda viro;
sorte tori gaudens 'quid flebam rustica?' dixit;
'utiliter nobis perfidus
ille fuit.' a better man
interea Liber depexos crinibus Indos 465
vicit, et Eoo dives ab orbe
redit.
inter captivas facie praestante puellas Bacchus/Eastern
prncess: Agamemnon/Cassandra
grata nimis Baccho filia
regis erat.
flebat amans coniunx, spatiataque litore curvo
edidit incultis talia verba
comis: 470
'en iterum, fluctus, similes audite querellas. repeat of lamentation at Catullus 64.52-201
en iterum lacrimas
accipe, harena, meas.
dicebam, memini, "periure et perfide Theseu!" poetic memory (Conte)
ille abiit, eadem crimina
Bacchus habet.
nunc quoque "nulla viro" clamabo "femina credat";
475
nomine mutato causa relata
mea est.
o utinam mea sors qua primum coeperat isset,
iamque ego praesenti
tempore nulla forem.
quid me desertis morituram, Liber, harenis
servabas? potui dedoluisse
semel. 480
Bacche levis leviorque tuis, quae tempora cingunt,
frondibus, in lacrimas
cognite Bacche meas,
ausus es ante oculos adducta paelice nostros
tam bene compositum
sollicitare torum? reverse of elegiac situation (puella
and new lover)?
heu ubi pacta fides? ubi quae iurare solebas? 485 but evokes world of love-elegy as well as myth
me miseram, quotiens haec
ego verba loquar?
Thesea culpabas fallacemque ipse vocabas:
iudicio peccas turpius ipse
tuo.
ne sciat haec quisquam tacitisque doloribus urar,
ne totiens falli digna
fuisse puter. 490
praecipue cupiam celari Thesea, ne te
consortem culpae gaudeat
esse suae.
at, puto, praeposita est fuscae mihi candida paelex!
eveniat nostris hostibus
ille color.
quid tamen hoc refert? vitio tibi gratior ipso est. 495
quid facis? amplexus
inquinat illa tuos.
Bacche, fidem praesta, nec praefer amoribus ullam
coniugis: adsuevi semper
amare virum.
ceperunt matrem formosi cornua tauri, joke
me tua; at hic laudi est,
ille pudendus amor. 500
ne noceat quod amo: neque enim tibi, Bacche, nocebat
quod flammas nobis fassus
es ipse tuas.
nec, quod nos uris, mirum facis: ortus in igne
diceris, et patria raptus
ab igne manu.
illa ego sum cui tu solitus promittere caelum. 505
ei mihi, pro caelo qualia
dona fero!'
dixerat; audibat iamdudum verba querentis
Liber, ut a tergo forte
secutus erat.
occupat amplexu lacrimasque per oscula siccat,
et 'pariter caeli summa
petamus' ait: 510
'tu mihi iuncta toro mihi iuncta vocabula sumes, Liber and Libera in Roman cult (Aventine/Ceres)
nam tibi mutatae Libera
nomen erit,
sintque tuae tecum faciam monimenta coronae,
Volcanus Veneri quam dedit,
illa tibi.' interesting history?
dicta facit, gemmasque novem transformat in ignes: 515
aurea per stellas nunc
micat illa novem.
4.1-18
(Ovid re-encounters Venus at the start of her month):
'Alma, fave', dixi 'geminorum mater Amorum'; 2 editions of Amores
ad vatem voltus rettulit
illa suos;
'quid tibi' ait 'mecum? certe maiora canebas. poetic ascent
num vetus in molli pectore
volnus habes?' wound of lover
'scis, dea', respondi 'de volnere.' risit, et aether 5 Iliad
5
protinus ex illa parte
serenus erat.
'saucius an sanus numquid tua signa reliqui?
tu mihi propositum, tu mihi
semper opus. always love/elegy
quae decuit primis sine crimine lusimus annis; carmina amatoria
nunc teritur nostris area
maior equis. 10 Fasti and poetic ambition
tempora cum causis, annalibus eruta priscis, AAA: aetiology,
antiquarianism, astronomy
lapsaque sub terras ortaque
signa cano.
venimus ad quartum, quo tu celeberrima mense:
et vatem et mensem scis,
Venus, esse tuos.' Still her poet
mota Cytheriaca leviter mea tempora myrto 15 Still erotic (divine loves: Attis, Proserpina)
contigit et 'coeptum
perfice' dixit 'opus'.
sensimus, et causae subito patuere dierum:
dum licet et spirant
flamina, navis eat. Vergilian didactic voyage
The later Ovid (Metamorphoses,
exile poetry)
[READ: Ovid Met.1.1-31,
1.452-567, 8.183-235, 345-525, 611-78; Tristia
1.6, 2.529-62, 4.10.33-54]
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
: a brief guide
Ovid (43 BCE – 18 CE) writes (most of) the Metamorphoses in the first decade of our era, a generation after
the death of Vergil. His first major venture into epic hexameters after a
career as
The structure of
the Metamorphoses
Book 1 1-415 –
creation of the world and early man [Lucretius 2.0: misleading!]
416-779 – divine love affairs
Book 2 More
divine love affairs
Book 3- 4.606 Theban
Cycle : Cadmus and his descendants
Book 4.607-5.249 Argive
Cycle : Perseus and his adventures
Book 5.250-6.412 Divine
vengeance stories
Book 6.413-721 Athenian
Cycle : Pandion and his descendants
Book 7.1-403 Medea
story (including Argonauts)
Book 7.404-8.884 Theseus
Cycle (including Meleager)
Book 9.1-449 -Hercules
Cycle
450-797 -Bizarre love affairs
Book 10.1-11.66 Orpheus
cycle
Book 11.67-193 Divine
vengeance stories
Book 11.193-795 Preliminaries
to Trojan War
Book 12 Trojan
Cycle (to death of Achilles)
Book 13.1-622 Trojan
Cycle (from death of Achilles)
Book 13.623-14.608 Aeneas
Cycle (Ovid’s Aeneid)
Book 14.609-851 Early
Book 15.1-744 Early
Book 15.745-879 Modern
Rome : apotheosis of Julius Caesar,
Future apotheosis of Augustus – and
of Ovid.
Met.1.1-31 (proem and cosmogony):
In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas meta
- morphoses
corpora; di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illa) illa corr. in U, modern eds.; illas
most MSS
adspirate meis primaque ab origine mundi aetiology?
ad mea perpetuum deducite tempora carmen!
Ante mare et terras et quod
tegit omnia caelum 5 caelum/celare Varro LL 5.18
unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe,
quem dixere chaos: rudis indigestaque moles
nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem
non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum. 17x in Lucretian
line-ends
nullus adhuc mundo praebebat lumina Titan, 10
nec nova crescendo reparabat cornua Phoebe,
nec circumfuso pendebat in aere tellus
ponderibus librata suis, nec bracchia longo
margine terrarum porrexerat Amphitrite;
utque erat et tellus illic et pontus et aer, 15
sic erat instabilis tellus, innabilis unda,
lucis egens aer; nulli sua forma
manebat, continuous metamorphosis
obstabatque aliis aliud, quia corpore in uno
frigida pugnabant calidis, umentia siccis,
mollia cum duris, sine pondere, habentia pondus. 20
Hanc deus et melior
litem natura diremit. Stoic and Epicurean?
nam caelo terras et terris abscidit undas
et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aere caelum.
quae postquam evolvit caecoque exemit acervo,
dissociata locis concordi pace ligavit: 25
ignea convexi vis et sine pondere caeli
emicuit summaque locum sibi fecit in arce;
proximus est aer illi levitate locoque;
densior his tellus elementaque grandia traxit
et pressa est gravitate sua; circumfluus umor 30
ultima possedit solidumque coercuit orbem. demiurgic
metamorphosis of chaos
1.452-65 – Apollo v. Cupid: elegy meets epic (cf. W.M.Nicoll, CQ 30 (1980):
Primus amor Phoebi Daphne Peneia, quem non for lover and poem
fors ignara dedit, sed saeva Cupidinis ira. epic plot-motor (Iliad, Aeneid)
Delius hunc nuper, victa serpente superbus,
viderat adducto flectentem cornua nervo 455
'quid' que 'tibi, lascive puer, cum fortibus armis?' epic?
dixerat: 'ista decent umeros gestamina nostros,
qui dare certa ferae, dare vulnera possumus hosti,
qui modo pestifero tot iugera ventre prementem epic monster and story
stravimus innumeris tumidum Pythona sagittis. 460 unCallimachean
(Catullus 95.10)
tu face nescio quos esto contentus amores Amores?
inritare tua, nec laudes adsere nostras!'
filius huic Veneris 'figat tuus omnia, Phoebe, Amores 1.1 and the
redirecting arrow of Cupid
te meus arcus' ait; 'quantoque animalia cedunt
cuncta deo, tanto minor est tua gloria nostra.' 465
1.481-524 – Apollo’s pursuit of Daphne (elegiac lover):
saepe pater dixit: 'generum mihi, filia, debes,' parental hopes (plausible psychology)
saepe pater dixit: 'debes mihi, nata, nepotes'; [couplet?]
illa velut crimen taedas exosa iugales
pulchra verecundo suffuderat ora rubore contra
Lavinia’s blush in Aeneid 12.64-9?
inque patris blandis haerens cervice lacertis 485
'da mihi perpetua, genitor carissime,' dixit
'virginitate frui! dedit hoc pater ante Dianae.'
ille quidem obsequitur, sed te decor iste quod optas
esse vetat, votoque tuo tua forma repugnat:
Phoebus amat visaeque cupit conubia Daphnes, 490
quodque cupit, sperat, suaque illum oracula fallunt,
utque leves stipulae demptis adolentur aristis, rapid double
simile (epic feature)
ut facibus saepes ardent, quas forte viator
vel nimis admovit vel iam sub luce reliquit,
sic deus in flammas abiit, sic pectore toto 495
uritur et sterilem sperando nutrit amorem.
spectat inornatos collo pendere capillos elegiac hair
obsession (Amores 1.14)
et 'quid, si comantur?' ait. videt igne micantes
sideribus similes oculos, videt oscula, quae non
est vidisse satis; laudat digitosque manusque 500
bracchiaque et nudos media plus parte lacertos; praise of (other) body parts: Amores 1.5.19-24
si qua latent, meliora putat. fugit ocior aura
illa levi neque ad haec revocantis verba resistit:
'nympha, precor, Penei, mane! non insequor hostis;
nympha, mane! sic agna lupum, sic cerva leonem, 505 Ecl.8.52 nunc et ouis ultro fugiat lupus
sic aquilam penna fugiunt trepidante columbae,
hostes quaeque suos: amor est mihi causa sequendi!
me miserum! ne prona cadas indignave laedi Fear that puella will be hurt: Prop.1.8
crura notent sentes et sim tibi causa doloris!
aspera, qua properas, loca sunt: moderatius, oro, 510 slow flight, slow pursuit!
curre fugamque inhibe, moderatius insequar ipse.
cui placeas, inquire tamen: non incola montis,
non ego sum pastor, non hic armenta gregesque this
is not pastoral despite setting and later
horridus observo. nescis, temeraria, nescis, Theoritean quotation (523)
quem fugias, ideoque fugis: mihi Delphica tellus 515 self-praise in hymnic language
et Claros et Tenedos Patareaque regia servit;
Iuppiter est genitor; per me, quod eritque fuitque
estque, patet; per me concordant carmina nervis.
certa quidem nostra est, nostra tamen una sagitta
certior, in vacuo quae vulnera pectore fecit! 520
inventum medicina meum est, opiferque per orbem
dicor, et herbarum subiecta potentia nobis.
ei mihi, quod nullis amor est sanabilis herbis
nec prosunt domino, quae prosunt omnibus, artes!'
Theocritus 11.1-3 (addressed to a doctor):
‘There is
no remedy for love, Nicias—neither an
ointment,
I believe, nor a powder—other than the Pierian
Muses’.
1.525-67 – Apollo’s pursuit, Daphne’s metamorphosis:
Plura locuturum timido Peneia cursu 525
fugit cumque ipso verba inperfecta reliquit,
tum quoque visa decens; nudabant corpora venti, 1.titillation
2.ekphrastic
obviaque adversas vibrabant flamina vestes,
et levis inpulsos retro dabat aura capillos,
auctaque forma fuga est. sed enim non sustinet ultra 530
perdere blanditias iuvenis deus, utque monebat
ipse Amor, admisso sequitur vestigia passu.
ut canis in vacuo leporem cum Gallicus arvo Simile of
chasing hound: Aeneid 12.749-57
vidit, et hic praedam pedibus petit, ille salutem; (hind, woodland
setting, specified breed)
alter inhaesuro similis iam iamque tenere 535
sperat et extento stringit vestigia rostro,
alter in ambiguo est, an sit conprensus, et ipsis Aeneid
12.753-5 at uiuidus Vmber
morsibus eripitur tangentiaque ora relinquit: haeret hians, iam iamque tenet similisque
tenenti
sic deus et virgo est hic spe celer, illa timore. increpuit malis morsuque elusus inani est;
qui tamen insequitur pennis adiutus Amoris, 540
ocior est requiemque negat tergoque fugacis
inminet et crinem sparsum cervicibus adflat.
viribus absumptis expalluit illa citaeque
victa labore fugae spectans Peneidas undas
'fer, pater,' inquit 'opem! si flumina numen habetis, 545
qua nimium placui, mutando perde figuram!'
[quae facit ut laedar mutando perde figuram.] possible authorial
variants (Tarrant OCT)
vix prece finita torpor gravis occupat artus,
mollia cinguntur tenui praecordia libro, Callimachean
book?
in frondem crines, in ramos bracchia crescunt, 550
pes modo tam velox pigris radicibus haeret,
ora cacumen habet: remanet nitor unus in illa. grammar of metamorphosis (change/continuity)
Hanc quoque Phoebus amat positaque
in stipite dextra
sentit adhuc trepidare novo sub cortice pectus
conplexusque suis ramos ut membra lacertis 555 unwanted embrace
oscula dat ligno; refugit tamen oscula lignum.
cui deus 'at, quoniam coniunx mea non potes esse,
arbor eris certe' dixit 'mea! semper habebunt
te coma, te citharae, te nostrae, laure, pharetrae; Apollo
Palatine?
tu ducibus Latiis aderis, cum laeta Triumphum 560 Roman triumph – imperial preserve by this time
vox canet et visent longas Capitolia pompas;
postibus Augustis eadem fidissima custos Res Gestae 34 [27 BCE] Augustus appellatus
sum
ante fores stabis mediamque tuebere quercum, et laureis postes aedium mearum vestiti publice
utque meum intonsis caput est iuvenale capillis, coronaque civica super ianuam
meam fixa est
tu quoque perpetuos semper gere frondis honores!' 565
finierat Paean: factis modo laurea ramis pun
adnuit utque caput visa est agitasse cacumen. assent – or only
in male minds?
8.183-235 – Daedalus and Icarus:
Daedalus interea Creten longumque perosus great
artist in long exile wishes to go home
exilium tactusque loci natalis amore
clausus erat pelago. 'terras licet' inquit 'et undas
185 Minos’ thalassocracy (Thuc.1)
obstruat: at caelum certe patet; ibimus illac:
omnia possideat, non possidet aera Minos.' the only way is up
dixit et ignotas animum dimittit in artes
naturamque novat. nam ponit in ordine pennas para-metamorphosis (man to bird)?
a minima coeptas, longam
breviore sequenti, 190
ut clivo crevisse putes: sic rustica quondam
fistula disparibus paulatim surgit avenis;
tum lino medias et ceris alligat imas
atque ita conpositas parvo curvamine flectit,
ut veras imitetur aves. puer Icarus una
195
stabat et, ignarus sua se tractare pericla,
ore renidenti modo, quas vaga moverat aura,
captabat plumas, flavam modo pollice ceram children
and DIY
mollibat lusuque suo mirabile patris family
pathos 1
impediebat opus. postquam manus ultima coepto
200
inposita est, geminas opifex libravit in alas
ipse suum corpus motaque pependit in aura;
instruit et natum 'medio' que 'ut limite curras, moderation
Icare,' ait 'moneo, ne, si demissior ibis,
unda gravet pennas, si celsior, ignis adurat: 205
inter utrumque vola. nec te spectare Booten
aut Helicen iubeo strictumque Orionis ensem:
me duce carpe viam!' pariter praecepta volandi
tradit et ignotas umeris accommodat alas.
inter opus monitusque genae maduere seniles, 210 family pathos 2
et patriae tremuere manus; dedit oscula nato
non iterum repetenda suo pennisque levatus
ante volat comitique timet, velut ales, ab alto bird-simile
quae teneram prolem produxit in aera nido,
hortaturque sequi damnosasque erudit artes 215 Tristia 1.9.57-8 [on Ars Amatoria]
et movet ipse suas et nati respicit alas. utque tibi prosunt artes,
facunde, severae,
hos aliquis tremula dum captat harundine pisces, dissimiles illis sic nocuere mihi.
aut pastor baculo stivave innixus arator
vidit et obstipuit, quique aethera carpere possent,
credidit esse deos. et iam Iunonia laeva 220
parte Samos (fuerant Delosque Parosque relictae)
dextra Lebinthos erat fecundaque melle Calymne,
cum puer audaci coepit gaudere volatu
deseruitque ducem caelique cupidine tractus
altius egit iter. rapidi vicinia solis 225
mollit odoratas, pennarum vincula, ceras;
tabuerant cerae: nudos quatit ille lacertos,
remigioque carens non ullas percipit auras,
oraque caerulea patrium clamantia nomen
excipiuntur aqua, quae nomen traxit ab illo. 230
at pater infelix, nec iam pater, 'Icare,' dixit,
'Icare,' dixit 'ubi es? qua te regione requiram?'
'Icare' dicebat: pennas aspexit in undis
devovitque suas artes corpusque sepulcro
condidit,
et tellus a nomine dicta sepulti.
235 aition of island of Icaria: consolation?
8.345-424 –
The Calydonian boar hunt (pre-Iliadic epic subject [Iliad 9: Meleager; Aeneid
7.306-7], middle of poem). A test case – humorous (Horsfall, CJ 74 (1979) 319-32) or inadequate
(Hollis, commentary)? Star Wars-style prequel to Homeric world?
cuspis Echionio primum contorta lacerto 345 Echion: Argonaut
vana fuit truncoque dedit leve vulnus acerno; spear wide
proxima, si nimiis mittentis viribus usa spear too
long
non foret, in tergo visa est haesura petito:
longius it; auctor teli Pagasaeus Iason. Jason:
Argonaut leader (and low-grade hero)
'Phoebe,' ait Ampycides, 'si te coluique coloque, 350 Mopsus: Argonaut seer
da mihi, quod petitur, certo contingere telo!'
qua potuit, precibus deus adnuit: ictus ab illo est, hits boar but no damage
sed sine vulnere aper: ferrum Diana volante Diana (boar’s
divine sponsor)
abstulerat iaculo; lignum sine acumine venit.
ira feri mota est, nec fulmine lenius arsit: 355
emicat ex oculis, spirat quoque pectore flamma,
utque volat moles adducto concita nervo, ballista: anachronistic simile
cum petit aut muros aut plenas milite turres,
in iuvenes certo sic impete vulnificus sus sus = ‘pig’
fertur …
forsitan et Pylius citra Troiana perisset 365 Nestor’s stories (Iliad
1. 259-73)
tempora, sed sumpto posita conamine ab hasta
arboris insiluit, quae stabat proxima, ramis pole-vaulting into
tree
despexitque, loco tutus, quem fugerat, hostem.
…
at gemini, nondum caelestia sidera, fratres, Castor and Pollux
(Argonauts)
ambo conspicui, nive candidioribus ambo
vectabantur equis, ambo vibrata per auras
hastarum tremulo quatiebant spicula motu. 375
vulnera fecissent, nisi saetiger inter opacas
nec iaculis isset nec equo loca pervia silvas. boar takes evasive
action
persequitur Telamon studioque incautus eundi
pronus ab arborea cecidit radice retentus. Telamon/Ajax,
Peleus/Achilles
dum levat hunc Peleus, celerem Tegeaea sagittam 380
inposuit nervo sinuatoque expulit arcu:
fixa sub aure feri summum destrinxit harundo
corpus et exiguo rubefecit sanguine saetas; Atalanta takes
first blood
nec tamen illa sui successu laetior ictus
quam Meleagros erat: primus vidisse putatur 385
et primus sociis visum ostendisse cruorem
et 'meritum' dixisse 'feres virtutis honorem.' gender!
erubuere viri seque exhortantur et addunt
cum clamore animos iaciuntque sine ordine tela: embarrassment of heroes
(psychology)
turba nocet iactis et, quos petit, impedit ictus. 390
ecce furens contra sua fata bipennifer Arcas
'discite, femineis quid tela virilia praestent, telum = phallus (Adams LSV 17-20)
o iuvenes, operique meo concedite!' dixit. opus = phallus
(Adams LSV 57)
'ipsa suis licet hunc Latonia protegat armis,
invita tamen hunc perimet mea dextra Diana.' 395
talia magniloquo tumidus memoraverat ore tumere of erection (Adams
LSV 159)
ancipitemque manu tollens utraque securim
institerat digitis pronos suspensus in ictus:
occupat audentem, quaque est via proxima leto,
summa ferus geminos derexit ad inguina dentes. 400 groin wound!
concidit Ancaeus glomerataque sanguine multo
viscera lapsa fluunt: madefacta est terra cruore.
ibat in adversum proles Ixionis hostem
Pirithous valida quatiens venabula dextra;
cui 'procul' Aegides 'o me mihi carior' inquit 405 friendship or more?
'pars animae consiste meae! licet eminus esse
fortibus: Ancaeo nocuit temeraria virtus.' got it in the groin …
dixit et aerata torsit grave cuspide cornum;
quo bene librato votique potente futuro
obstitit aesculea frondosus ab arbore ramus. 410
misit et Aesonides iaculum: quod casus ab illo
vertit in inmeriti fatum latrantis et inter
ilia coniectum tellure per ilia fixum est. Jason kills
a hound
at manus Oenidae variat, missisque duabus Meleager hits home
at last
hasta prior terra, medio stetit altera tergo. 415
nec mora, dum saevit, dum corpora versat in orbem
stridentemque novo spumam cum sanguine fundit,
vulneris auctor adest hostemque inritat ad iram
splendidaque adversos venabula condit in armos.
gaudia testantur socii clamore secundo 420
victricemque petunt dextrae coniungere dextram
inmanemque ferum multa tellure iacentem
mirantes spectant neque adhuc contingere tutum
esse putant, sed tela tamen sua quisque cruentat. psychology/Julius Caesar (Suet Div.Jul.82:
23)
8.611-78 –
Baucis and Philemon entertain the gods:
Amnis ab his tacuit. factum mirabile cunctos
moverat: inridet credentes, utque deorum
spretor erat mentisque ferox, Ixione natus Pirithous
– famous immoral hero
'ficta refers nimiumque putas, Acheloe, potentes
esse deos,' dixit 'si dant adimuntque figuras.' 615 challenge to the whole poem as well as to
piety
obstipuere omnes nec talia dicta probarunt,
ante omnesque Lelex animo maturus et aevo, Lelex – virtuous
senior
sic ait: 'inmensa est finemque potentia caeli
non habet, et quicquid superi voluere, peractum est,
quoque minus dubites, tiliae contermina quercus 620
collibus est Phrygiis modico circumdata muro;
ipse locum vidi; nam me Pelopeia Pittheus
misit in arva suo quondam regnata parenti.
haud procul hinc stagnum est, tellus habitabilis olim,
nunc celebres mergis fulicisque palustribus undae; 625
aetiological tale
Iuppiter huc specie mortali cumque parente humble hospitality motif - e.g.
Genesis 18.2
venit Atlantiades positis caducifer alis.
[possible channel via Hellenistic Alexandria]
mille domos adiere locum requiemque petentes, Callimachus Hecale (Theseus,
listening!)
mille domos clausere serae; tamen una recepit, Callimachus Aetia:Molorchus/Hercules/Nemea
parva quidem, stipulis et canna tecta palustri, 630
sed pia Baucis anus parilique aetate Philemon [like Hecale]
illa sunt annis iuncti iuvenalibus, illa
consenuere casa paupertatemque fatendo
effecere levem nec iniqua mente ferendo; balance and sense
nec refert, dominos illic famulosne requiras: 635
tota domus duo sunt, idem parentque iubentque.
ergo ubi caelicolae parvos tetigere penates
summissoque humiles intrarunt vertice postes, [cf. Aeneas and the house of Evander, Aen.8]
membra senex posito iussit relevare sedili;
cui superiniecit textum rude sedula Baucis 640
inque foco tepidum cinerem dimovit et ignes
suscitat hesternos foliisque et cortice sicco
[low details of meal: Hecale; cf. 660-78]
nutrit et ad flammas anima producit anili
multifidasque faces ramaliaque arida tecto
detulit et minuit parvoque admovit aeno, 645
quodque suus coniunx riguo conlegerat horto,
truncat holus foliis; furca levat ille bicorni
sordida terga suis nigro pendentia tigno
servatoque diu resecat de tergore partem generous – or not?
exiguam sectamque domat ferventibus undis. mock-epic
Callimachus Hecale fragments (Pfeiffer)
240
. . . she made him sit on the humble couch.
241
. . . having at once snatched a small tattered
garment from the bed.
242
. . . and (she) took down wood stored away a
long time ago.
244
. . . (she) swiftly took off the hollow,
boiling pot.
248
. . . olives which grew ripe on the tree, and
wild olives, and the light-coloured ones, which in autumn shea had to put to
swim in brine. (cf. 8.664).
251
. . . and from the bread-box she took and
served loaves in abundance, such as women put away for herdsmen.
8.703-724 - the end of the story, metamorphosis, moral:
talia tum placido Saturnius edidit ore:
"dicite, iuste senex et femina coniuge iusto
digna, quid optetis." cum Baucide pauca locutus 705 conjugal consultations
iudicium superis aperit commune Philemon:
"esse sacerdotes delubraque vestra tueri
poscimus, et quoniam concordes egimus annos,
auferat hora duos eadem, nec coniugis umquam
busta meae videam, neu sim tumulandus ab illa." 710
vota fides sequitur: templi tutela fuere,
donec vita data est; annis aevoque soluti
ante gradus sacros cum starent forte locique
narrarent casus, frondere Philemona Baucis,
Baucida conspexit senior frondere Philemon. 715
iamque super geminos crescente cacumine vultus
mutua, dum licuit, reddebant dicta "vale" que
"o coniunx" dixere simul, simul abdita texit
ora frutex: ostendit adhuc Thyneius illic
incola de gemino vicinos corpore truncos. 720 aetiology (Ov. and
Bithynia: Tr.1.10?)
haec mihi non vani (neque erat, cur fallere vellent)
narravere senes; equidem pendentia vidi
serta super ramos ponensque recentia dixi
"cura deum di sint, et, qui coluere, colantur."' moral: character only?
Book
13.623-14.608 Aeneas Cycle (Ovid’s Aeneid)
Book 13.623-end
Aeneas escapes from Troy and sails off, but
stops to see Anius, king and priest of Apollo. Anius says his daughters were stolen by Agamemnon because they can turn
everything to grain, wine, and oil. When his daughters could no longer endure
the servitude, they fled and became doves. The narrator tells of Galatea’s love
for Acis, the son of Faunus and a nymph. Polyphemus, who is also in love with
Galatea, tries unsuccessfully to woo her. When Polyphemus sees Galatea and Acis
together, he rages and throws a side of a mountain at them. Acis is killed, and
Galatea is heartbroken.
Book 14 (to 608)
Glaucus asks Circe to help him win Scylla’s affections. But Circe is
in love with Glaucus, so she refuses to help. Instead, she transforms Scylla
into a monster by causing dogs to grow from her waist. Scylla rages at Circe
and kills several of Ulysses’ men. Before she can destroy Aeneas’s fleet, she
is turned into a crag. After a short stay in Dido’s
kingdom, Aeneas goes to Sicily, where the Sibyl tells him he will find success.
She also tells him that Apollo offered her anything she wanted in exchange for
sex. She asked for longevity of life and he granted her this wish, but without
the essential component of youth.
The narrative shifts to two
Greek companions, Achaemenides and Macareus, who were separated after the
Trojan War. Ulysses accidentally leaves Achaemenides behind on the island of
Polyphemus. Achaemenides could not cry out for help for fear of Polyphemus
detecting him. A ship rescues him. Meanwhile, Macareus and Ulysses barely
escape Antiphates, the ruler of Lamos. They find Circe, who transforms the
scouting party into pigs through a magical drink. One man manages to escape and
call for Ulysses’ help. With Mercury, who offers protection from Circe’s magic,
Ulysses rescues the men. They stay on the island for a year, hearing many
interesting stories. Macareus learns the story of Picus, a son of Saturn, who
is in love with Canens, a beautiful and musical nymph. Circe falls in love with
Picus, who is faithful to Canens. Circe creates a phantom boar to entice Picus
on a hunting trip. Still he denies her, so she changes him into a woodpecker.
Aeneas arrives on the shores of Latium. King
Latinus welcomes Aeneas and offers his daughter in marriage. Turnus is
outraged, because Latinus’s daughter has been promised to him. Turnus asks
Diomedes, the famed Greek warrior, for support, but Diomedes turns him down.
Turnus decides to attack anyway. His plans to burn Aeneas’s ships, but they
miraculously turn into nymphs. He continues to fight and eventually dies.
Aeneas fights so valiantly that he is made into a god. Ascanius, Aeneas’s son,
rules over the Latin kingdom.
How to cope with the Aeneid?
Aeneid 2 = Met.13.623-8:
[6 lines]
‘And yet the fates did not permit Troy’s hopes
to perish with her walls. The heroic son1 of Cytherea bore away upon his
shoulders her sacred images and, another sacred thing, his father, a venerable
burden. Of all his great possessions, he dutifully chose that portion, and his
son, Ascanius. Then with his fleet of refugees he set sail from Antandro’.
Aeneid 4 = Met.14.78-81:
[4 lines]
‘There the Sidonian queen received Aeneas
hospitably in heart and home, doomed ill to endure her Phrygian lord’s
departure. On a pyre, built under pretence of sacred rites, she fell upon his
sword; and so, herself disappointed, she disappointed all’
Aeneid 6 = Met.14.101-118
[18 lines]
‘When he had passed these by and left the
walled city of Parthenope upon the right, he came upon the left to the
mound-tomb of the tuneful son of Aeolus and the marshy shores of Cumae, and,
entering the grotto of the long-lived sibyl, prayed that he might pass down
through Avernus’ realm and see his father’s shade. The sibyl held her eyes long
fixed upon theearth, then lifted them at last and, full of mad inspiration from
her god, replied: “Great things do you ask, you man of mighty deeds, whose
hand, by sword, whose piety, by fire, has been well tried. But have no fear,
Trojan; you shall have your wish, and with my guidance you shall see the
dwellings of Elysium and the latest kingdom of the universe; and you shall see
your dear father’s shade. There is no way denied to virtue.” She spoke and
showed him, deep in Averna, Juno’s forest, a bough gleaming with gold, and bade
him pluck it from its trunk. Aeneas obeyed; then saw grim Orcus’ possessions,
and his own ancestral shades, and the aged spirit of the great-souled Anchises.
He learned also the laws of those places, and what perils he himself must
undergo in new wars’.
The end of
the Metamorphoses – exilic sign-off?
Met.15.871-9:
Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis
ira nec ignis Horace Odes 3.30.1 exegi monumentum aere perennius
nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas.
cum volet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius Tristia 1.5.78 me Iovis ira permit,
3.11.61-2:
ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi: crede mihi, si sit nobis collatus Vlixes,
parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis
Neptuni levior quam Iovis ira fuit.
astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum, damnatio memoriae [Flower, The Art of Forgetting,
2011]
quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris,
ore legar populi, perque omnia saecula fama,
siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam.
And now my work is done, which neither the
wrath of Jove, nor fire, nor sword, nor the gnawing tooth of time shall ever be
able to undo. When it will, let that day come which has no power save over this
mortal frame, and end the span of my uncertain years. Still in my better part I
shall be borne immortal far beyond the lofty stars and I shall have an undying
name. Wherever Rome’s power extends over the conquered world, I shall have
mention on men’s lips, and, if the prophecies of bards have any truth, through
all the ages shall I live in fame.
Ovid writes
to his wife in exile – Tristia 1.6:
Nec tantum Clario est Lyde dilecta poetae, Antimachus/Lyde
nec tantum Coo Bittis amata
suo est, Philetas/Bittis Greek
elegists
pectoribus quantum tu nostris, uxor, inhaeres, [anonymous!]
digna minus misero, non
meliore uiro.
te mea supposita ueluti trabe fulta ruina est:
siquid adhuc ego sum,
muneris omne tui est.
tu facis, ut spolium non sim, nec nuder ab illis, [cf. Terentia and Cicero in 58-7 BCE]
naufragii tabulas qui
petiere mei.
utque rapax stimulante fame cupidusque cruoris
incustoditum captat ouile
lupus, epic images
aut ut edax uultur corpus circumspicit ecquod
sub nulla positum cernere
possit humo,
sic mea nescioquis, rebus male fidus acerbis
in bona uenturus, si
paterere, fuit.
hunc tua per fortis uirtus summouit amicos,
nulla quibus reddi gratia
digna potest.
ergo quam misero, tam uero teste probaris,
hic aliquod pondus si modo
testis habet.
nec probitate tua prior est aut Hectoris uxor, Andromache (Iliad)
aut comes extincto Laodamia
uiro. Laodamia (Epic Cycle, Catullus 68]
tu si Maeonium uatem sortita fuisses,
Penelopes esset fama
secunda tuae: Penelope (Odyssey)
siue tibi hoc debes, nullo pia facta magistro,
cumque noua mores sunt tibi
luce dati,
femina seu princeps omnes tibi culta per annos Livia connection
te docet exemplum coniugis
esse bonae,
adsimilemque sui longa adsuetudine fecit,
grandia si paruis
adsimilare licet.
ei mihi, non magnas quod habent mea carmina uires,
nostraque sunt meritis ora
minora tuis,
siquid et in nobis uiui fuit ante uigoris,
exstinctum longis occidit
omne malis!
prima locum sanctas heroidas inter haberes, Heroides (Penelope = Heroides 1)
prima bonis animi
conspicerere tui.
quantumcumque tamen praeconia nostra ualebunt,
carminibus uiues tempus in
omne meis. ironic!
Tristia 2.529-62 – self-defence epistle to Augustus:
Bella sonant alii telis instructa cruentis, I’m not an epic
poet
parsque tui generis, pars
tua facta canunt.
Inuida me spatio natura coercuit arto,
ingenio uires exiguasque
dedit
et tamen ille tuae felix Aeneidos auctor Aeneid as Augustan
contulit in Tyrios arma
uirumque toros,
nec legitur pars ulla magis de corpore toto,
quam non legitimo
foedere iunctus amor. but also an adultery manual (cf. Ars)
Phyllidis hic idem teneraeque Amaryllidis ignes
bucolicis iuuenis luserat
ante modis.
….
Ergo quae iuuenis mihi non nocitura putaui
scripta parum prudens, nunc
nocuere seni. only ten years ago aged 40 (now 50)
Sera redundauit ueteris uindicta libelli,
distat et a meriti tempore
poena sui.
Ne tamen omne meum credas opus esse remissum,
saepe dedi nostrae grandia
uela rati. look at my more elevated works
Sex ego Fastorum scripsi totidemque libellos, 12 (yes!) books of
Fasti
cumque suo finem mense
uolumen habet,
idque tuo nuper scriptum sub nomine, Caesar,
et tibi sacratum sors
mea rupit opus; so 6 to come?
et dedimus tragicis scriptum regale coturnis,
quaeque grauis debet uerba
coturnus habet; Medea
dictaque sunt nobis, quamuis manus ultima coeptis
defuit, in facies corpora
uersa nouas. Metamorphoses
Atque utinam reuoces animum paulisper ab ira,
et uacuo iubeas hinc tibi
pauca legi,
pauca, quibus prima surgens ab origine mundi
in tua deduxi tempora,
Caesar, opus:
aspicies, quantum dederis mihi pectoris ipse,
quoque fauore animi teque
tuosque canam. praise of royal family (Book 15, but not the end!)
Tristia 4.10.41-62 – the poet’s early career (for list of poets cf. Ex Ponto 4.16):
temporis illius colui fovique poetas,
quotque aderant vates,
rebar adesse deos.
saepe suas volucres legit mihi grandior aevo,
quaeque necet serpens, quae
iuvet herba, Macer.
saepe suos solitus recitare Propertius ignes 45 Propertius (fellow
elegist)
iure sodalicii, quo mihi
iunctus erat.
Ponticus heroo, Bassus quoque clarus iambis
dulcia convictus membra
fuere mei.
et tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius aures,
dum ferit Ausonia carmina
culta lyra. 50 Horace and lyric
Vergilium vidi tantum, nec avara Tibullo Vergil and
Tibullus
tempus amicitiae fata
dedere meae.
successor fuit hic tibi, Galle, Propertius illi; four-poet elegiac canon
quartus ab his serie
temporis ipse fui.
utque ego maiores, sic me coluere minores, 55
notaque non tarde facta
Thalia mea est. early fame
carmina cum primum populo iuvenilia legi,
barba resecta mihi bisve
semelve fuit.
moverat ingenium totam cantata per Vrbem
nomine non vero dicta
Corinna mihi. 60 Corinna’s identity
multa quidem scripsi, sed, quae vitiosa putavi,
emendaturis ignibus ipse
dedi. second edition of Amores?