Latin Elegy

In Virgil’s Eclogues, beside the main model of Theocritus, there is a strong influence of the new Latin love elegy by Gallus. This is particularly evident in the ecll. 2, 8 and 10, Theocritean in form, but marked by a new vision of love and poetry.

La questione della genesi e dell’evoluzione dell’elegia latina è uno dei temi più interessanti e maggiormente affrontati dagli studiosi di ogni epoca, in quanto pare di ritrovarsi dinnanzi ad una forma letteraria che non ha alcun riscontro preciso nella letteratura greca, soprattutto per quanto riguarda uno dei suoi caratteri distintivi: quello erotico soggettivo. A tal proposito, nell’ambito della poesia neoterica, il carme 68 di Catullo occupa un ruolo di primo piano assoluto e potrebbe, pertanto, considerarsi «the prototype of the Latin erotic elegy», ovvero la prima grande elegia latina, derivata dall’applicazione dei canoni alessandrini alla mentalità propria del mondo romano, per la funzione archetipica svolta per la restante produzione elegiaca. Oggetto privilegiato di questo saggio, tuttavia, sono i versi 1- 20 del carme 68, facenti parte della sezione dell’opera dedicata a Manlius. Dopo aver ricevuto da lui una lettera compassionevole, infatti, Catullo risponde che, a causa della difficile situazione in cui si trovava, non possedeva uno stato d’animo adatto né per affrontare discorsi inerenti all’amore, né per dedicarsi alla composizione di poesia amorosa.

My PhD Thesis scrutinized with the symbolic aspects of space in Latin Augustan love elegy and particularly with two main topics: urban space, related with 'urbanitas' as a cultural and literary model, and travel, often related to warfare and greed for money.

This paper is a translation, and reworking, of an excerpt from my article entitled “Le quatrième livre de Properce, ou le Prince contre le Poète”, RBPh 79 (2001), pp. 69-118, where I propose to see in Prop. 4.7 and 4.8 the barely concealed confession of the murder of Propertius by the (imperial) forger of the fourth book.

In this paper I suggest that at the beginning of the Metamorphoses through narrative techniques and the structure of the verses, in particular lines 1.10-14, the poet claims to be a fabricator mundi and that his text exists before the creation of the world, becoming the model for its formation. In the epilogue, the poet also declares his certainty that his work will be eternal; it will live, that is, sine fine as he states at Tristia 2.63-4. This reading of sine fine actually alludes to the prophecy of Jupiter in the first book of the Aeneid where the phrase meant the eternity of the Roman dominion. The perpetuum carmen, as the poet characterised the Metamorphoses at 1.4, refers not only to the time-span of the work through to the poet's own time but more importantly to the eternal character of his poetry. It is the poetic genius which cannot be trapped in a specific time frame. There is a consensus among Ovidian scholars that in writing the Metamorphoses Ovid had Virgil and his work firmly in mind. In striving for originality, he also had to emulate almost the entire Greek and Roman literary tradition. In his perpetuum carmen, therefore, he was confronted with the task of composing an all-inclusive work with regard to time, subject-matter and literary genre. The purpose of this paper is to show how Ovid exploited certain methods and techniques in order to imply, through the narrative, the omnipotence of the poetic genius through the creation of his text.

On a toujours soupçonné que Gallus avait fourni le modèle dont s’inspiraient conjointement le propemptikòn Lycoridis de Virgile (ecl. 10, 46-49) et Prop. 1, 8, si proches. Faut-il trouver dans ce réseaux textual des traits polémiques, comme on l’a souvent dit? On peut plutôt penser que Virgilie évoquaitsimplement la fin de l’activité poétique de Gallus, tandis que Properce, utilisant le propemptikòn Lycoridis comme un pivot, inversait l’orientation propre à Gallus pour restaurer une vision positive de la poésie.

Le evidenti somiglianze tra Virg. ecl. 10, 46-49 (il cosiddetto propemptikòn Lycoridis) e Prop. 1, 8 hanno sempre lasciato sospettare un modello comune nella poesia di Gallo Il rapporto di Virgilio e di Properzio con esso non è però necessariamente polemico, come spesso si è sostenuto, ma forse l’ecloga allude alla cessazione dell’attività letteraria di Gallo, mentre l’elegia properziana potrebbe indicare il propemptikòn come momento conclusivo della produzione galliana da cui il successore riparte invertendo l’esito della vicenda e recuperando una considerazione positiva della poesia.

(a. a. 2018-2019), sotto la supervisione del Professor Carrai, che ringrazio sentitamente per la pazienza, l'interesse e la generosa disponibilità con cui ha seguito e letto il presente lavoro. Esprimo anche la mia gratitudine al Dottor D'Amanti per i preziosi consigli circa il testo di Massimiano. 1 Il nome del poeta compare all'interno del testo stesso:

The use of the word cura in its erotic meaning in the Augustan poets can be traced back to the poetry of Cornelius Gallus; beginning from Virg. ecl. 10 and then in Propertius and Ovid, a series of references to the Gallan elegy can be reconstructed, showing the continuity of a poetic dialogue between authors and genres.

It is well known by critics that in Ovid’s Metamorphoses a crucial aspect of the narrative is represented by the narrator’s tendency to mark the miraculous, astonishing, and thus incredible side of the stories he tells: the infinite number of tales narrated through the poem sets the reader in front of a series of miracula, whose unbelievable character is constantly emphasized. It is worth noticing that in his elegies from exile Ovid does not seem to lose his interest in the mirum: in the Tristia and the Epistulae ex Ponto, the descriptions of Tomis and its surroundings (the remote Pontic locality where the poet was banished) concentrate upon those elements which cannot but sound incredible to the Roman audience. The exile’s purpose, in fact, is that of making his readers sensible to his bad condition, so that they can decide to bring him their help; this practical aim, which lies at the heart of Ovid’s exilic output as a whole, finds expression in a hyperbolical and ‘spectacular’ representation of the Pontic reality: in Tomis the exiled poet faces risks rare to find elsewhere and experiences phenomena that seem quite unnatural – and difficult to believe. Through such a representation the poet wants to show his friends and readers (not least, the emperor) that the place where he now lives is the ‘worst of all possible worlds’, a place where adynata become real and the standard laws of nature are not followed; but such an account of the Pontic reality can easily lack credibility, thus invalidating the poet’s persuasive efforts – something Ovid is well aware of. It is therefore interesting to see how the poet faces the problem of his own truthfulness (fides), an issue that is taken into consideration up to the last of Ovid’s collections.

La questione della damnatio memoriae di Cornelio Gallo a seguito del processo, posta e discussa dai moderni nel secolo scorso, è stata ripresa in anni recenti con argomenti a volte nuovi che stimolano una riflessione accurata e un riesame dei diversi aspetti del problema.

The character of Orpheus as unhappy lover is in the Hellenistic love elegy, but it appears in Latin poetry only with the Virgilian epyllion at the end of the Georgics. The scrutiny of several texts (Virgil's ecll. 2, 6, 8 and 10; the anonymous Lament for Bion; Hor. carm. 1, 24; Prop. 2, 34, 90 – 91; Ov. amor. 3, 9, 63 – 64) allows to assume the presence of Orpheus in Gallus' elegy and to guess his figure behind the Virgilian Orpheus.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the occurrences of the name Phyllis in the Latin literature. In the Augustan age, a very important cultural period, Phyllis is mentioned by several authors. She is the author of one of the letters from Ovid’s Heroides, but is also mentioned by the poet in other works as exemplum. In addition, she is a courtesan for Propertius. She is also in the center of various dibates among pastors in the Virgilian Eclouges. Moreover, she appears in Oratius’s Odes in symposial contexts. In imperial age, Martial and Ausonius mention her as courtesan. Is this Phyllis the same or is it only a case this continuous mentioning in different, but not totally extraneous, works? There exists Phyllis in the myth, but may there exist also Phyllis as courtesan, intentionally used by authors in erotic contexts? In this paper, we are going to analyze the different cases in which Phyllis was cited, from Phyllis as suicidal heroin for love, to Phyllis as the drunk courtesan and then to Phyllis as a slave that paradoxically becomes daughter of a king.

Il quarto libro delle elegie di Properzio si apre con un lungo componimento a due voci, nel quale una solenne dichiarazione programmatica del poeta, intenzionato a farsi cantore della romanità, viene ribaltata dal severo intervento dell'astrologo Horos, un esuberante personaggio che si professa conoscitore del volere divino e richiama Properzio alla sola missione che Apollo in persona ha stabilito per lui: comporre poesia d'amore. La trasmissione tarda e controversa del testo di Properzio, la complessità della struttura e l'oscurità di un linguaggio talvolta profetico rendono l'elegia 4, 1 un terreno particolarmente delicato per la critica testuale. Nel corso del carme, infatti, numerosi sono i passi di difficile interpretazione, sui quali l'attenzione dei filologi si è concentrata in secoli di studi: enorme è la quantità degli interventi sul testo properziano, suscitati da una tradizione manoscritta discordante o poco convincente. La stessa figura di Horos non è di facile comprensione: in passato si è visto in lui un individuo presuntuoso e inaffidabile, forse concepito per incarnare i reali detrattori di Properzio; negli ultimi decenni, tuttavia, gli studiosi si sono orientati prevalentemente verso un'interpretazione seria del personaggio, alle cui parole il poeta affiderebbe la sua ispirazione più sincera e profonda di poeta innamorato 1 .

Lucan's epic depicts the displacement of the elegiac notion of militia amoris by bellum civile through his use of elegiac allusions and topoi. Specifically, Julia's ghost is parallel to Cynthia's ghost in Propertius 4.7; the description of Erictho draws on the thumbnail sketches of witches in elegy; Cleopatra is portrayed as a meretrix who follows Ovid's advice in Ars Amatoria 3; Cornelia is depicted as one of the abandoned heroines; and Pompey is cast as an elegiac lover. In each case, however, Lucan frustrates expectations by negating or inverting the elegiac passage or topos: the civil war thus disturbs even the apolitical world of elegy. * My deepest thanks are due to

The episode of Paris, Helen and Menelaus in the second book of the Ars amatoria (ll. 357-372) seems to justify Ovid’s relegatio in Tomis better than other controversial and deplored passages of the poem. The Ovidian episode, in fact, is very likely to underlie the defence of Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus, who in 2 B.C was banished from Rome officially for indecent behaviour, but unofficially for political motives since she joined an opposition filo-oriental movement. The connection between the historical event and the poetic fiction lies chiefly in Helen, evoked in the Ars , in the Remedia (ll. 773-776), and in the Heroides (16, 299-316). A further evidence of this connection may lie in the Augustan order to expunge the episode of Helen from the second book of the Aeneid (ll. 567-588) to avoid any parallel between the Ovidian Helen/Julia the Elder and the Virgilian heroine. The order of expunction (in about 9 A.D.) was probably a precaution taken after a challenging “grassing” of Ovid on Vergilius. In fact, just in 9 A.D. the banished poet sent to Augustus his libellus of auto-defence where he polemically offered an irreverent interpretation of the Virgilian episode, not without blame, to exculpate himself and to hint to Augustus’ actual or pretended disregard of the Virgilian immoral lines in contrast with the law.

Manilius Cabacius Rhallus (Mystras 1447 - Rome 1523) was still very young, when he knew the fate of exile shortly after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Moving to Italy, he settled in Rome and became known among the Italian humanists as a fine poet with a fortunate collection of poems, which was also edited in print shortly before his death (Manilii Cabacii Rhalli Iuveniles ingenii lusus, Naples 1520). Among the various motives that we find in his poetry it is very important the erotic one, which takes on from time to time the tones of the lyric or of the elegy, and in which the images and the allusions are drawn from a rare and sophisticated wealth of classical knowledge and culture. This essay aims to provide a critical examination of the third elegy of the collection, entitled Non esse deserendos amores, focusing the attention above all on its relationship with the classical models and in particular with a passage of the Metamorphoses of Ovid (Ov., Met. 14, 698-764). It also demonstrates that despite the reliance on its classical models,
this elegy preserves originality and creative autonomy.

Abstract. In Amor. 1.2 Ovid creates a poetic dialogue not only with Tibullus and Propertius on the theme of the triumph, but also with crucial topics of the Augustan propaganda and with important poems like the Aeneid. The phrase felicia arma, in particular, shows a new reading of the puzzling Virgilian point of view about the princeps and his new regime.

Key words: Ovidian elegy; Augustan propaganda; triumph; ending of the Aeneid.

abstract: Since Lachmann's edition (1816), there have been many discussions on the extent of Propertius' second book of Elegies. Fundamentally, nowadays, we observe two trends in this respect: one that understands that Propertius' elegies must be divided only into four books; and another, less conservative, which argues that the second book is too long, and for this reason this book would be a conflation of 2A and 2B. In this paper, I support the presupposition of the division of Book 2 into two books, by arguing that Lyne's (1998a) thesis on it is very appropriate. I understand that the elegies in Books 1 and 2 are marked by a narratio a persona, Cynthia. I consider the initial elegy of Propertius' Book 2B, 2.12, as a digression, which both recapitulates the central theme of the first two books and presents a broader poetic program than that which is presented in the previous elegies. Furthermore, I intend to observe the ekphrastic features of this digression in order to support Lyne's thesis by adding a new argument. Thus, 2.12, besides being a programmatic elegy, is also a highly innovative piece in terms of argumentation, since it presents two rhetorical mechanisms: digressio and ekphrasis.

Abstract. The so called “inserted apposition” seems to be a typical word order of Latin poetry, which first appears in Virgil’s eclogues. Its origin was placed in the neoteric poetry and has been attributed to Gallus. An analysis of the verses in which it appears in the Bucolics seems to confirm his relationship with the first Latin elegist.

Abstract. The two couplets of Prop. 2, 34, 91-92 and Ov. amor. 3, 9, 63-64 can be read as important testimonies in the complex debate on the Virgilian laudes Galli. At the end of the Georgics. Both are related to the death of Gallus and allow to understand the reactions of the contemporaries to the suicide of the elegist and the emotional context of that moment. On this basis even the supposed elimination of the laudes Galli by Virgil can be explained in a new perspective.
Key words: Virgil’s laudes Galli; Prop. 2, 34, 91-92; Ov. amor. 3, 9, 63-64; Gallus’ trial and death.

RESUMO: Para verter a parelha elegíaca latina, algumas traduções poéticas metrificadas de obras ovidianas em língua portuguesa têm demonstrado certa preferência pelo dístico vernáculo, engendrado por Péricles Eugênio da Silva Ramos (1964), composto por verso alexandrino sucedido de decassílabo heroico. Seguindo esse modelo, apresentamos nossa proposta de transposição criativa para a carta de Penélope a Ulisses, das Heroides, elaborada com base nas considerações de alguns tradutores-poetas que se serviram desse mesmo arranjo e nos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos norteadores da prática da tradução poética, segundo Roman Jakobson (1969), Samuel Levin (1978) e José Paulo Paes (2008).
Palavras-chave: Ovídio, Heroides, Penélope a Ulisses, Transposição criativa

CREATIVE TRANSPOSITION PROPOSAL FOR THE EPISTLE PENELOPE VLIXI FROM OVID’S HEROIDES

Abstract: Some Ovidian’s works poetical translations in Portuguese language manifest preference for the vernacular couplet, created by Péricles Eugênio da Silva Ramos (1964), composed of an alexandrian verse and a decasyllabic verse. In this paper, we present our creative transposition proposal of the epistle Penelope Vlixi, based on the considerations of some translators who have used this same model, as well as on the theoretical and methodological assumptions of poetical translation, according to Roman Jakobson (1969), Samuel Levin (1978) and José Paulo Paes (2008).

Keywords: Ovid, Heroides, Epistle 1, Creative transposition

In his epicedion on the death of Tibullus, amor. 3, 9, Ovid has a dialogue not only with the obvious model of Tibullan poetry, but aso with Propertius. He chooses Prop. 2, 13b, that contains the broadest foreshadowing of Propertius' death and burial. In this way Ovid can riflettere su important themes like death, burial, underworld and literary glory, assumendo a different point of view in comparison with his elegiac predecessors. A great importance in this poetic dialogue has the figure of Venus, that Ovid presents in a very different way from Tibullus and Propertius. In this perspective amor. 3, 9 becomes a reconsideration by Ovid of all the tradition of Latin love elegy on pivotal topics of this literary genre.

For the students of late antique poetry, in particular those who focus on the so-called Romano-Barbaric period, Maximianus the elegist (6th cent. A.D.) is not an unknown figure. Yet most non-specialists have simply never heard of him, which is a pity as he is a truly intriguing, brilliantly intelligent and subtle poet, even if (at times) quite provocative. Unfortunately, also in the contemporary classical scholarship he is too often considered a marginal, late Latin author, which stands in sharp contrast to his relative popularity among medieval and early-modern readers. Various allusions and paraphrases of his expressions and motifs he explored point to this quite clearly. The medieval readership was particularly fond of his vivid descriptions of the afflictions of old age. In the early-modern age his reception took a different stance as his elegies were falsely attributed to Cornelius Gallus and usually printed collectively with the books by other Roman love poets, Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.
Another aspect of his reception is the fact that in the Middle Ages his text was often recommended as a reader at schools. In the Kraków Academy (established in 1364 and in 1817 renamed as the Jagiellonian University) he was on the reading list throughout the 15th century. Hence, it might be considered a happy coincidence that it is his sentence, Plus ratio quam vis, that is used as the motto of the University.
The present edition offers the first Polish translation of Maximianus’s elegies with introduction and ample commentary. In addition, it provides a transcription of Maximianus’s text as transmitted in two 15th-century Cracovian manuscripts, Cr (BJ 1954) and Cv (BJ 2141). The latter, erroneously classified as containing only an excerpt of Maximianus’s work, has never been studied so far and, interestingly, it conveys a distich interpolation unknown from other manuscripts.

Dla badaczy zajmujących się poezją późnego antyku, zwłaszcza tzw. okresu rzymsko-barbarzyńskiego, elegik Maksymian nie jest postacią zupełnie anonimową. Większość miłośników kultury klasycznej nie zna jednak jego twórczości, a szkoda, gdyż jest to poeta nader intrygujący, subtelny i błyskotliwie inteligentny, choć czasem również prowokacyjny. Rozmaite nawiązania do motywów i wyrażeń zaczerpniętych z jego elegii świadczą o niemałym zainteresowaniu tym autorem, choć warto wiedzieć, że późniejsze epoki nie zawsze znały go właśnie pod imieniem Maksymiana. Co więcej, utwór, o którym mowa, należał przez pewien czas do kanonu średniowiecznych lektur szkolnych jako tekst odpowiedni zwłaszcza dla młodszych uczniów. Zalecano go szczególnie z uwagi na specyficzny walor edukacyjny: w sposób dokładny, nawet przejmujący opisuje bowiem udręki i nieszczęścia starości. W Akademii Krakowskiej był Maksymian czytany jeszcze w XV wieku. Co zaś najbardziej niezwykłe – gdyż zadecydował o tym zbieg okoliczności – to on właśnie jest autorem dewizy Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Plus ratio quam vis.
Wydany właśnie przez IBL PAN pierwszy w języku polskim przekład elegii Maksymiana ze wstępem i obszernym komentarzem uwzględnia również kwestię recepcji tego utworu, także w średniowiecznej praktyce dydaktycznej Akademii Krakowskiej. Zawiera bowiem transkrypcję tekstu elegii z dwóch krakowskich piętnastowiecznych rękopisów, nr. sygn. BJ 1954 oraz 2141. Istotne są zwłaszcza studia nad drugim z tych manuskryptów, ponieważ w dotychczasowych badaniach był on zupełnie pomijany. Błędnie uważano, iż zawiera jedynie krótki fragment utworu, podczas gdy można tam znaleźć tekst kompletny, co więcej, wzbogacony o dwuwersową interpolację niepoświadczoną w innych źródłach.

SVMMARIVM – Hic tractantur tres quaestiones Maximianeae, de quibus docti uiri disseruerunt: qua aetate poeta uixerit, paganusne fuerit an Christianus, denique elegi eius carmen
continuum sint necne.
ABSTRACT – This article discusses three significant problems in the study of Maximian: the
most likely dating of this author, his religious views and the unity or fragmentation of his
corpus

In Prop. 2, 1, 3-4 a reply to the verses 6-7 of Gallus can be recognized: in the Propertian text the poetic inspiration comes to the love elegist not from the Muses, but from the puella. The polemical attitude of Propertius towards Gallus is not only here, but also at 2, 13, on the theme of the domina iudex. Ovid will follow Propertius in making the puella the only inspiration for the poetry.

The participation of the poet to the triumph and the reading of the tituli, a theme present in vv. 2-5 of the Gallus papyrus from Qaṣr Ibrîm, is polemically transformed by Prop. 3,4, where it is employed to express the indifference of the poet to war and laudatory poetry, and his elegiac choice of life is reaffirmed. Ovid in ars 1,177-228 changes it further, so that the triumph becomes an occasion for amorous encounters, but in the elegies from exile he proposes the topos in a different sense, to please the emperor.

The author gathers and scrutinizes the cases in which Jan Kochanowski, the most prominent poet of the Polish Renaissance, mentions Naples or Campania, one of his destinations while travelling through Italy in 1555. One of the designations in question appears to be "Parthenopea lues" from his Latin elegy III 17, a periphrastic term for syphilis, a disastrous veneral disease which truly decimated the population of then Europeans. It's mentioned as part of a long tirade against a woman who, according to the poet's wishes, is going to pay high price for her wrongdoings, especially those against love. The ultimate punishment she will suffer, right before immersing herself in the abyss of Tartarus, will be, devastating for her health, "morbus gallicus". The paper ponders on the right identification of the female protagonist of the elegy, taking into consideration the existing theories about it as well as comments on a peculiar name syphilis was given by the poet and the medical knowledge he shares with a reader.

Abstract. My paper focusses on the treatment of the triumph as a metaphor for poetic glory in Ovid. In the Augustan poetry the triumph theme is treated predominantly from a political perspective, but images and situations of the ceremony are also used from a literary point of view. Ovid in particular gives this topic original and ambiguous features.
Key words: triumph; poetic glory; Ovidian elegy; amor. 1, 2.

The opinion that Virgil’s ecl. 10 can have a function of ‘courtship’ to Lycoris in favour of Gallus, or to the same Gallo by Virgil is contradicted by a careful reading of the text and by a comparison with the verses of the Qaṣr Ibrîm papyrus. The eclogue appears quite deliberately assimilated in other ways to the erotic Latin elegy with which it is compared.