Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

5

24

Falsa est ista tuae, mulier, fiducia formae, olim oculis nimium facta superba meis. noster amor tales tribuit tibi, Cynthia, laudes: versibus insignem te pudet esse meis. mixtam te varia laudavi saepe figura,

ut quod non esses esse putaret amor: et color est totiens roseo collatus Eoo,

3, 24

The harshness and bitterness with which, in this and the succeeding poem, Propertius renounces Cynthia differ from anything in the other elegiac poets. Catullus still loves after he has learned to hate. The gentle

Tibullus cannot bear to hurt the feelings even of one who has jilted him. Ovid is not to be taken seriously when he undertakes to break with his imaginary Corinna. But Propertius, when he ceases to love, transforms his passion into a burning hatred. Cynthia is by name held up to scorn, and the angry poet can explain his former admiration and love as only pure insanity, while he gloats over the misery in which, he prophesies, she will end her days. This elegy should be carefully compared as a kind of palinode with the opening one of the collection. Cf. also Schiller's An Minna.

1-8: 'It was under a delusive fascination that I called you beau

tiful; 9-20: but what no power could compel me to do, I now do of my own will, acknowledge my madness, and pray for sanity henceforth.'

1. Falsa 'groundless.' mulier: the term, which is seldom used by the elegists as compared with femina and puella, and nowhere else in Propertius as an address, is significant of his changed attitude toward his mistress.

2. oculis i.e. the admiration of the observer.-facta: vocative.

4. pudet: sc. me. For a similar thought cf. Tib. 1, 9, 47: attonita laudes tibi mente canebam, et me nunc nostri Pieridumque pudet.

5. mixtam. . . varia. . . figura : 'as combining' various types of beauty, or 'beautiful features,' especially in the early poems of the first two books.

6. By such repeated flattery Propertius had actually fooled himself into believing it true.

7. roseo... Eoo: cf. Homer's 'rosy-fingered morn.'

IO

15

cum tibi quaesitus candor in ore foret. quod mihi non patrii poterant avertere amici, eluere aut vasto Thessala saga mari. haec ego, non ferro non igne coactus, et ipsa naufragus Aegaea verba fatebor aqua. correptus saevo Veneris torrebar aheno, vinctus eram versas in mea terga manus. ecce coronatae portum tetigere carinae, traiectae Syrtes, ancora iacta mihist.

24. 12. verba 0 vera Passerat.

8. quaesitus: 'procured by artifice.' The contrast suggested in the two verses could only arise in the case of one completely blinded by love.

9. quod: the infatuation described in the previous eight verses. The various possible agencies for relief from it following here, the persuasion of friends, witchcraft, steel, fire, travel over the seas, -are the same that are enumerated in I, I, 19-30.

10. saga mari: Medea, wife of the Thessalian Jason, was the typical witch. The sea is the great purifier in nature. Cf. Schoemann, Gr. Alt. 2, 374; De Jong, Antike Mysterienwesen, 136; Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 1, 294.

11. haec, although referring to some general idea, such as quod (v. 9), has its form determined by the verba in v. 12. non coactus: i.e. without being obliged to resort to the heroic treatment of I, I, 27, he is now free to tell

the simple truth about Cynthia, voluntarily.

12. Even if life were at stake in the journey he has already (3, 21) projected, he is confident he would still stick to the truth, viz. that all his previous raptures were 'empty words' (verba). Perhaps he also recalls 1, 17, with its far different state of mind.

13. The poet's obsession is here illustrated from the picture of a victim dragged to the witches' caldron for torture. Cf. 1, 3, 13: duplici correptum ardore; 3, 6, 39: consimili inpositum torquerier. - torrebar: of a habitual condition. Cf. Ovid, Ex P. 3, 2, 72: evincti geminas ad sua terga

--

14.

manus.

15. coronatae: cf. Verg. Georg. 1, 303: ceu pressae cum iam portum tetigere carinae puppibus et laeti nautae inposuere coronas.

16. Syrtes: among the most familiar and most dreaded perils of ancient navigators.

20

nunc demum vasto fessi resipiscimus aestu,

vulneraque ad sanum nunc coiere mea.

Mens Bona, siqua dea es, tua me in sacraria dono.
exciderant surdo tot mea vota Iovi.

25

Risus eram positis inter convivia mensis,
et de me poterat quilibet esse loquax.
quinque tibi potui servire fideliter annos:
ungue meam morso saepe querere fidem.

17. resipiscimus: a word peculiarly appropriate for recovery from amorous mal de mer, in view of the thought to which it leads in v. 19.

18. ad sanum . . coiere: i.e. 'heal' (sanum = sanitatem); cf. Ovid, Trist. 4, 4, 41: neve retractando nondum coeuntia rumpe vulnera.

19. A temple was indeed dedicated to Mens on the Capitoline, in accordance with a vow of T. Otacilius made after the battle of Lake Trasimenus, and the festival of this personified quality was held on June 8th. Mens Bona as such we do not hear of elsewhere.

20. exciderant: the poet had wasted many prayers on Jove before he successfully tried the appeal to Mens Bona.

3, 25

The dénouement. See 3, 24,

Intr.

1-10: 'For years I was foolishly faithful. You will recall it with regret, but no arts can win me back. You are to blame. Farewell. 11-18: As you grow old, may your lot be that of the ugly hag, and may you know yourself how it felt to be disdained! This is my curse.'

[ocr errors]

..

1. Risus laughing-stock.' For a similar use of this noun cf. Ovid, Fast. 1, 438: omnibus ad lunae lumina risus erat. Propertius uses iocus in the same way in 2, 24, 16: me. · pudet esse iocum. Plaut. -positis. . . mensis: cf. Most. 308: appone hic mensulam: Verg. Aen. 1, 216: exempta fames epulis mensaeque remotae. Cf. also the expressions mensa prima, and mensa secunda, which originally had a literal signification.

[ocr errors]

3. Cf. Intr. § 33.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small]

nil moveor lacrimis: ista sum captus ab arte.
semper ab insidiis, Cynthia, flere soles.
flebo ego discedens, sed fletum iniuria vincit:
tu bene conveniens non sinis ire iugum.
limina iam nostris valeant lacrimantia verbis,
nec tamen irata ianua fracta manu.
at te celatis aetas gravis urgeat annis,

et veniat formae ruga sinistra tuae.
vellere tum cupias albos a stirpe capillos
ah speculo rugas increpitante tibi,
exclusa inque vicem fastus patiare superbos,
et quae fecisti facta queraris anus.

has tibi fatalis cecinit mea pagina diras.
eventum formae disce timere tuae.

25. 7. vincit O vincet w.

5. ab arte: cf. 2, 27, 11, n. 6. ab insidiis: adverbial, like Tib. 1, 5, 4: adsueta versat ab arte puer.

7. Cf. Cat. 76, 14; 85. Ego is emphatic: 'I shall weep as well as you.'

8. tu: 'but it is you who.'conveniens . . . iugum : the wellmatched span'; cf. 1, 5, 2; sine nos cursu, quo sumus, ire pares. ire: i.e. to trot in "near- matrimonial harness.

[ocr errors]

9. lacrimantia: cf. 1, 16, 13, where the door represents itself as driven to tears by the pitiful complaints of a lover: gravibus cogor deflere querellis.

10. nec tamen i.e. in spite of the fact that the hand was that of

an angry man. This verse is a reminiscence probably of 2, 5, 22:

nec mea praeclusas fregerit ira fores.

11. celatis: 'which you have tried to conceal.' — annis: to be taken with gravis.

13. Ovid, A. A. 2, 117 ; tibi iam venerit cani, formose, capilli, iam venient rugae, quae tibi corpus arent. - stirpe: cf. Tib. 1, 8, 45: tollere tum cura est albos a stirpe capillos.

15. fastus: the shoe is to be on the other foot, as compared with 1, 18, 5.

16. quae fecisti facta: i.e. complain, when they are done to you, of the very things you have done to others.

17. fatalis: best taken with diras, which is here a substantive (as in Tib. 2, 6, 53) = 'curses.' — pagina: used five times by Prop.

LIBER QVARTVS

I

Hoc, quodcumque vides, hospes, qua maxima Romast,

ante Phrygem Aenean collis et herba fuit:

4, I

1. 1. qua Scioppius quam 0.

Propertius had been often urged to give his attention to a more serious type of poetry, and had several times (e.g. 2, 1; 3, 1; 3, 3) pleaded his inability to do so, yet with various hints that he would really like to try his hand on something else. In this elegy he dallies with the temptation longer than usual, and thus practically makes it a fitting introduction for this last book of his poems. For the first part of the elegy dwells at length on the earlier history and character of the city of Rome, and Nos. 2, 4, 6, 9, and 10 in this book likewise deal with the origins of legends or worships connected with particular localities in Rome. It is evident that Propertius was ambitious to imitate the Airia of his great model Callimachus, and planned to treat in topographical manner the various noteworthy places in Rome, as Ovid in his Fasti afterwards explained in chronological order the religious customs of the Roman year. In the

first half of this elegy, the poet starts to act as guide to a stranger who wants to know Rome, and expresses aspiration to write what will serve a similar purpose for all men; in the second half the stranger reveals himself as a Chaldaean astrologer, who, after magnifying his office and incidentally giving a history of the poet's life thus far, prophesies that Propertius will always be a slave to one woman and fit only to write amatory elegies. The date of this elegy seems thus to have been earlier than that of the other aetiological elegies of this book, before the final break with Cynthia occurred. Cf. Dieterich in Rh. Mus. 55 (1900), 191–221.

1-56: Humble were the beginnings from which came all the wonders of Rome, the new Troy, according to prophecy. 57-70: It is of this Rome that I would sing and thus win glory as the Callimachus of Rome. 71-102: Hold! rash poet, the gods favor not your project, say I, Babylonian Horos, an infallible seer,

« ZurückWeiter »