20 25 qui finem imperii Bactra futura canent: sed, quod pace legas, opus hoc de monte sororum mollia, Pegasides, date vestro serta poetae : non faciet capiti dura corona meo. 23. omnia FLDV Famae N. vetustas FLDV vetustae N (cf. Enk ad loc.) 16. Bactra on the outskirts of Roman geographical knowledge beyond Parthia. Cf. 2, 10, 1316, nn. 17. sororum = Musarum. 18. Propertius affects for the moment an air of superiority as compared to the epic poets; but the real reason why he writes elegy appears shortly in v. 20; and we have only to compare 2, 10; 3,3; and 3, 9 to realize that he would gladly have sung epic strains, had he not known himself unfit for the task. 19. mollia: cf. 4, 1, 61-62. Pegasides: this name for the Muses is derived from the horse whose hoof stamped out their fountain Hippocrene. Cf. 3, 3, 2. 20. non faciet corresponds here exactly to the English idiom, 'will not do.' For a similar sense with the acc. cf. Ovid, Her. 15. 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, I, 148; Uhlmann, p. 38. 30 Idaeum Simoenta Iovis cum prole Scamandro, Deiphobumque Helenumque et Polydamanta et in qualemcumque Parin vix sua nosset humus. Troia bis Oetaei numine capta dei. nec non ille tui casus memorator Homerus 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: 5 2 Carminis interea nostri redeamus in orbem : saxa Cithaeronis Thebas agitata per artem 35. meque me quoque; cf. Cat. 102, 3. 37. Cf. 2, 13, 37. 38. Lycio... deo: famous oracles were given by Apollo at his temple at Patara in Lycia. The poet speaks as if this were one of them. 3. 2 1. Cf. 3. 3, 21. 2. gaudeat in: Propertius often uses a superfluous in with ablatives that are really causal; cf. 4, 8, 63: Cynthia gaudet in exuviis; I, 18, 8; 3, 9, 11.- puella: collective; cf. v. 10 infra. 3. Propertius enforces his argument by citing three famous instances of the marvelous power of a singer to draw after him inanimate nature, beasts, and even a divine being like Galatea, and that 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 unsuccessful 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 miremur, nobis et Baccho et Apolline dextro quod non Taenariis domus est mihi fulta columnis, 2. 17. est 0 es w. tes: dripping with brine as they showed themselves above the surface 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 con orchards and gardens. Cf. Hom. 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. 17. libello: my verse'; a noncommittal word; cf. 2, 13, 25, n. 20 25 carmina erunt formae tot monimenta tuae. mortis ab extrema condicione vacant. at non ingenio quaesitum nomen ab aevo 3 Visus eram molli recubans Heliconis in umbra, 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 ered one of the seven wonders of the world, and has given the name ever since to any tomb of unusual size or beauty. Cf. Pliny, N. H. 36, 5, 30. 24. annorum . . . ictu: like the steady stroke of the battering-ram. 25. ab aevo excidet: the cause is represented under its original guise of source. It may be thought of as the agent, and the verb rendered as a passive. L. 1318; A. & G. 404; 405, a. 3, 3 The idea of the previous elegy that the poet is divinely called to this field of his art rather than to epic strains is here repeated in the form of a dream. The fre |