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25

qui finem imperii Bactra futura canent:

sed, quod pace legas, opus hoc de monte sororum
detulit intacta pagina nostra via.

mollia, Pegasides, date vestro serta poetae :
non faciet capiti dura corona meo.
at mihi quod vivo detraxerit invida turba,
post obitum duplici fenore reddet Honos.
omnia post obitum fingit maiora vetustas:
maius ab exequiis nomen in ora venit.
nam quis equo pulsas abiegno nosceret arces.
fluminaque Haemonio cominus isse viro,

23. omnia FLDV Famae N. vetustas FLDV vetustae N (cf. Enk ad loc.)

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190: ad talem formam non facit iste locus.

21. Cf. Hor. Car. 2, 20, 4 sqq.: invidiaque maior urbes relinquam ... non ego. obibo nec Stygia cohibebor unda me Colchus et, qui dissimulat metum Marsae cohortis, Dacus et ultimi noscent Geloni; Ovid, Am. 1, 15, 39-40.

24. ab: from the time of.' Cf. Ovid, Trist. 4, 10, 121: vivo sublime dedisti nomen, ab exequiis quod dare fama solet.

25. pulsas: the walls of Troy were literally battered down to let in the wooden horse; but the broader, figurative sense is probably intended here.

26. Haemonio... viro: Achilles was the most famous Thessalian, for which Haemonian is a synonymous term. For the dat. with isse, cf. 4, 1, 148; Uhlmann, p. 38.

30

Idaeum Simoenta Iovis cum prole Scamandro,
Hectora per campos ter maculasse rotas?

Deiphobumque Helenumque et Polydamanta et in
armis

qualemcumque Parin 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.

27. cum prole Scamandro G Wolff a lacuna in N Iovis cunabula parvi FLDV Idaeos montes Iovis incunabula Palmer. 29. Polydamanta Lachmann Polydamantis Phillimore Polilidamantas changed to—es N (unchanged in NFL).

27. Cf. Hom. I. 21, 2; 223, and the context. The attempts to justify the Mss. reading here can hardly be convincing, as the sense is thus widely interrupted; and the silence of N is significant; cf. Butler and Enk, ad loc.

28. Cf. Verg. Aen. 1, 483: ter circum Iliacos raptaverat Hectora

muros.

29. Pōlydamanta: this grouping of Polydamas, son of Panthous, with three famous sons of Priam is justified by his close association with leading Trojans in Homer and in Latin poetry; cf. 1, 14, 19, n.; Ovid, Met. 12, 547.

30. qualemcumque: 'sorry warrior as he was.'- vix. . . humus: cf. Ovid, Trist. 5, 5, 54: forsitan Evadnen vix sua nosset humus.

31. Ilion: Vergil similarly uses this name several times in juxtaposition with Troia, e.g. Aen. 2, 625: Ilium et ex imo verti Nep

ROM. EL. POETS-18

tunia Troia.

What distinction, if any, was intended by the poets, is uncertain.

32. bis... capta: Heracles took Troy in person in revenge for the perjury of Laomedon; and the Greeks took it in the famous ten years' war, but only, according to prophecy, by using the arrows of Heracles (which Philoctetes had inherited) with which to kill Paris, whose death indirectly caused the fall of the city. Oetaei... dei: Heracles, who ascended from Mt. Oeta to his place among the gods.

33. memorator: Propertius is fond of rare verbal nouns in -tor; cf. 2, 13, 9.

34. posteritate: one of the poet's vague ablatives, apparently expressing means; cf. vetustas (v. 23). -sensit: perf. def., implying the conscious existence of the soul of Homer after death.

273

35

meque inter seros laudabit Roma nepotes:
illum post cineres auguror ipse diem.
ne mea contempto lapis indicet ossa sepulcro
provisum est Lycio vota probante deo.

5

2

Carminis interea nostri redeamus in orbem :
gaudeat in solito tacta puella sono.
Orphea detinuisse feras et concita dicunt
flumina Threicia sustinuisse lyra:

saxa Cithaeronis Thebas agitata per artem
sponte sua in muri membra coisse ferunt:
quin etiam, Polypheme, fera Galatea sub Aetna
ad tua rorantes carmina flexit equos:

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divine being like Galatea, and that
too in spite of her great reluctance.
5. artem that of Amphion.
6. membra: purpose acc.
7. quin etiam introducing the
most remarkable instance.

8. ad tua. . . carmina flexit :
Propertius delights in the obscure
version of a myth; cf. 4, 4, Intr.
According to the well-known idyls
of Theocritus (6 and 11) and the
metamorphoses of Ovid (13, 735
sqq.) Polyphemus was unsuccess-
ful in his suit; but that there was
a version according to which his
efforts were not in vain is evident
from the Greek mythographer
Nonnus, of the fifth century A.D.
(Dion. 6, 300-324); cf. App. Ill.
1, 2, where Keltos, Illyrios, and
Galas are referred to as sons of
Polyphemus and Galatea.
- roran-

15

miremur, nobis et Baccho et Apolline dextro
turba puellarum si mea verba colit?

quod non Taenariis domus est mihi fulta columnis,
nec camera auratas inter eburna trabes,
nec mea Phaeacas aequant pomaria silvas,
non operosa rigat Marcius antra liquor:
at Musae comites, et carmina grata legenti,
et defessa choris Calliopea meis.
fortunata, meo siqua est celebrata libello!
2. 17. est 0 es w.

tes: dripping with brine as they
showed themselves above the sur-
face of the sea.

9. Baccho: Bacchus has already appeared as a patron of poets in Tib. 3, 4, 43: casto nam rite poetae Phoebusque et Bacchus Pieridesque favent; cf. also Prop. 2, 30, 38: medius docta cuspide Bacchus; E. Maass in Hermes, Vol. 31 (1896), pp. 375 sqq.; Farnell, Greek Cults, Vol. 5, pp. 114, 143, 148. — dextro = fausto; cf. 3,

18, 5.

11. Cf. Hor. Car. 2, 18, 1: Non ebur neque aureum mea renidet in domo lacunar, non trabes Hymettiae premunt columnas ul

tima recisas. Taenariis: the marble from Taenarum was black, rare, and so a sign of wealth where used.

12. camera: a vaulted ceiling rather than the lacunar (panel ceiling') referred to by Horace.

13. Phaeacas: the special feature of the wealth of King Alcinous was the magnificence of his

orchards and gardens. Cf. Hom. Od. 7, 112; Verg. Georg. 2, 87: pomaque et Alcinoi silvae.

con

14. operosa: ' artfully structed'; cf. 3, 3, 27. - Marcius: i.e. brought by the Aqua Marcia, whose water was justly celebrated in ancient times, and is still in use at Rome; built by A. Marcius Rex in 144 B.C., and restored by Agrippa; cf. 3, 22, 24: aeternum Marcius umor opus; Tib. 3, 6, 58: temperet annosum Marcia lympha merum; Pliny, N. H. 31, 24, 41: clarissima aquarum omnium in toto orbe frigoris salubritatisque palma praeconio urbis Marcia est.

16. Calliopea: Propertius makes no more attempt here to differentiate the functions of individual Muses than Horace does in addressing at different times Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Clio, and Melpomene. Indeed Calliope is the only Muse whom Propertius ever mentions; cf. 3, 3, 38, n.

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carmina erunt formae tot monimenta tuae.
nam neque pyramidum sumptus ad sidera ducti
nec Iovis Elei caelum imitata domus
nec Mausolei dives fortuna sepulcri

mortis ab extrema condicione vacant.
aut illis flamma aut imber subducet honores,
annorum aut ictu pondere victa ruent.
at non ingenio quaesitum nomen ab aevo.
excidet ingenio stat sine morte decus.

3

Visus eram molli recubans Heliconis in umbra,
Bellerophontei qua fluit umor equi,

24. pondere NDVL pondera F.

19-24. Cf. Hor. Car. 3, 30, I5: Exegi monumentum aere perennius regalique situ pyramidum altius, quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens possit diruere aut innumerabilis annorum series et fuga temporum.

19. pyramidum sumptus ducti: poetic for pyramides sumptuosae ductae.

20. The Zeus-temple at Olympia had no roof over the cella, which was itself of large proportions; so Zeus might seem to the worshiper literally enthroned in the sky.

21. For the construction cf. v. 19, n. The tomb of King Mausolus of Halicarnassus, built by his wife, Artemisia, was of such size and grandeur that it was consid

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