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nudus at inferna, stulte, vehere rate.
victor cum victis pariter miscebitur umbris:
consule cum Mario, capte Iugurtha, sedes.
Lydus Dulichio non distat Croesus ab Iro.

optima mors, parca quae venit acta die.
me iuvat in prima coluisse Helicona iuventa,
musarumque choris inplicuisse manus :
me iuvat et multo mentem vincire Lyaeo
et caput in verna semper habere rosa.
atque ubi iam Venerem gravis interceperit aetas,
sparserit et nigras alba senecta comas,

tum mihi naturae libeat perdiscere mores,

14. at inferna . . . rate Schrader ad infernas

...

rates O ab

rate

w ad infernos . . . rate Palmer. 18. parca O Parcae Lachmann carpta Baehrens. 21. iuvat DV iuvet NFL. 24. sparserit et N sparserit DV sparsit et FL. et nigras o integras DV et integras NFL.

14. nudus. . . stulte: numerous parallels from Holy Scripture will occur to the reader, e.g. Job I, 21: "naked shall I return thither "; Luke 12, 20: "Thou fool, . . . then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" Lucian, Dial. Mort. 10.

16. Iugurtha and his captor, Marius, illustrate victis and victor of v. 15.

17. Dulichio . . . Iro: the famous beggar in the Odyssey (18 init.), a type of poverty, as the more famous Croesus is a type of wealth. For the thought, cf. Hor. Car. 2, 14, 9: unda scilicet omnibus

enaviganda, sive reges sive inopes erimus coloni; I, 4, 13; 2, 18, 32.

18. parca: this word sums up the thought of the elegy thus far: the climax of the best life is that which comes in the natural course of human events to the man of humble means.

19. Cf. 4, 1, 131 sqq. — Helicona: cf. 3, 3, I.

20. Cf. 3, 3, 37.

21. Cf. 2, 10,7.-vincire Lyaeo: literally' to bind with the loosener' is an oxymoron indicating that Propertius realizes the real nature of the much-vaunted freedom that is

given by wine. Cf. Verg. Georg. 2,94: temptatura pedes olim vincturaque linguam.

25. mores = leges; cf. Verg. Aen. I, 264: moresque viris et moenia ponet.

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quis deus hanc mundi temperet arte domum,
qua venit exoriens, qua deficit, unde coactis
cornibus in plenum menstrua luna redit,
unde salo superant venti, quid flamine captet
eurus, et in nubes unde perennis aqua,
sit ventura dies, mundi quae subruat arces,
purpureus pluvias cur bibit arcus aquas,
aut cur Perrhaebi tremuere cacumina Pindi,
solis et atratis luxerit orbis equis,

cur serus versare boves et plaustra Bootes,

26. deus... temperet: the Epicurean idea that it is necessary to eliminate the divine element from natural law is not followed by Propertius, any more than by Horace; cf. Hor. Car. 1, 12, 15: qui mare et terras variisque mundum temperat horis; but Horace leaves the gods out in Ep. 1, 12, 16 (quid temperet annum), where questions similar to those in this passage are suggested. Cf. also Ovid, Met. 15, 66 sqq. Vergil, on the other hand, does not raise the question of theism in his two well-known passages that suggest questions similar to those broached here, Georg. 2, 477 sqq., and Aen. I, 742-746.- temperet: 'controls.'

27. venit: there is a characteristically Propertian disregard of mood throughout this series of a score of indirect questions, the indicatives somewhat outnumbering the subjunctives. coactis: cf. Ovid, Her. 2, 3: cornua сит lunae pleno semel orbe coissent;

Met. 10, 295: coactis cornibus in plenum.

31. Cf. Lucr. 5, 95: una dies dabit exitio, quoted by Ovid, Am. 1, 15, 24. Indeed the inspiration given by Lucretius to his successors in similar queries is incalculable.

32. bibit: a common poetic conception; cf. Verg. Georg. 1, 380: bibit ingens arcus.

33. The origin of earthquakes is treated under a typical case, viz. that of the Pindus range between Thessaly and Epirus. Tribes called Perrhaebi were located on either side of this range.

34. luxerit puts on mourn

ing.'

35. serus sc. sit. As a matter of fact Ursa Major does not set at all in the latitude of the Romans. Cf. Ovid, Met. 2, 528: gurgite caeruleo Septem prohibete triones. -versare: i.e. to set. Used with the adjective serus.— boves et plaustra: the constellation of the Wain, or wagon, i.e.

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Pleiadum spisso cur coit igne chorus,
curve suos fines altum non exeat aequor,
plenus et in partes quattuor annus eat,
sub terris sint iura deum et tormenta nocentum,
Tisiphones atro si furit angue caput,

aut Alcmaeoniae furiae aut ieiunia Phinei,

num rota, num scopuli, num sitis inter aquas, num tribus infernum custodit faucibus antrum Cerberus, et Tityo iugera pauca novem,

an ficta in miseras descendit fabula gentis,

et timor haud ultra quam rogus esse potest.

39. nocentum Haupt Gigantum FLDV omitted in N reorum Housman.

Ursa Major, or the Septemtriones, the seven oxen. Cf. 2, 33, 24: flectant Icarii sidera tarda boves.

- Bootes : the ox-driver, or plowman, whose constellation, otherwise known as Ursa Minor, is so situated that it seems to be driving the oxen in Ursa Major.

36. Cf. Germanicus, Arat. 256: Pleiades suberunt brevis et locus occupat omnes, nec faciles cerni, nisi quod coeuntia plura sidera communem ostendunt ex omnibus ignem; Hor. Car. 4, 14, 21: Pleiadum choro scindente nubes.

37. Cf. Hor. Ep. 1, 12, 16; Psalms 104, 9.

39. nocentum: it is the question of future punishment for guilty mortals that the poet is proposing to tackle, cf. Statius, Silv. 2, 7, 117: nescis Tartaron et procul

nocentum audis verbera.

40. Cf. Tib. 1, 3, 69, n.

ROM. EL. POETS- 19

289

41. furiae: Alcmaeon was pursued by the furies for having slain his mother Eriphyle. — ieiunia : caused by the Harpies, who were sent to steal his food, after he had put out his sons' eyes. Neither of the punishments mentioned in this verse was ordinarily supposed to have been suffered after death.

42. rota of Ixion. - scopuli: of Sisyphus. -sitis: of Tantalus.

44. pauca: 'scant.' - Propertius exaggerates the usual form of the myth willfully, showing that he has reached the reductio ad absurdum in his catalogue, and is ready for the probable alternative of the next verse. Cf. Tib. 1, 3, 75.

45. Read Lucr. 3, 978-1023 for the Epicurean explanation of all the foregoing myths.

46. We should have expected ultra rogum in place of this illogical statement.

exitus hic vitae superest mihi: vos, quibus arma grata magis, Crassi signa referte domum.

7

Ergo sollicitae tu causa, pecunia, vitae, per te inmaturum mortis adimus iter.

47. superest O superet w.

7. I. vitae NFL vitae es DVF2.

47. exitus hic: i.e. one busy with such discussions.

3,7

The drowning of Paetus with its sad lessons and reflections (C. S.). It is not improbable that this sympathetic elegy was written to comfort the sorrowing mother of the ill-fated youth, of whose personality we know nothing that is not contained in the poem itself. Pedantic efforts to rearrange, in what has seemed to individual scholars a more logical order, the spontaneous expression of poetic feeling in this typical elegy have been as futile as unnecessary. Cf. Tib. 1, 1, Intr.; J. Vahlen (Sitzungsber. d. Kgl. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 1883, pp. 69-90) has made a careful, and in most respects, convincing study of the development of the thought.

I-12: 'O money, source of many woes, 'tis thou hast o'erwhelmed Paetus in the waters, and left to his sad mother not

even a corse to bury! 13-28: Ye winds, ye waves, how could you destroy so innocent, so confiding a youth? Alas! Agamemnon knew your ruthlessness too well. And since you have the life of Paetus, restore his body for burial, that his tomb may warn others against like rashness. 2942: But nay! Foolish men will not cease to venture on the deep, though certain ruin awaits them, as Ulysses learned. 43-66: Paetus, too, had he not thirsted for wealth, might now be alive. How delicate a youth for so terrible a death! So did he tell the gods of wind and wave, as the waters closed over him. 67-72: Why did you not save him, Nereids, Thetis? A lesson to me, never to trust myself off the land!'

1. Ergo cf. 1, 8, 1, n. - Note the middle rime in this and many other hexameter verses here.

2. inmaturum hypallage; in thought it belongs to mortis. The verse ends in a favorite rhythm for Book 3; cf. vv. 10,

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tu vitiis hominum crudelia pabula praebes:
semina curarum de capite orta tuo.

tu Paetum ad Pharios tendentem lintea portus
obruis insano terque quaterque mari.

nam dum te sequitur, primo miser excidit aevo,
et nova longinquis piscibus esca natat:

et mater non iusta piae dare debita terrae,

nec pote cognatos inter humare rogos,

sed tua nunc volucres adstant super ossa marinae,
nunc tibi pro tumulo Carpathium omne marest.
infelix Aquilo, raptae timor Orithyiae,

quae spolia ex illo tanta fuere tibi ?

aut quidnam fracta gaudes, Neptune, carina?
portabat sanctos alveus ille viros.

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