Poems Page 15

  I.2

  Outfit from Kos: The eastern Mediterranean island was famed for its diaphanous fabrics.

  Leucippus’ daughters: Phoebe and Helaira, Greek mythological sisters who were carried off by the twins Castor and Pollux (later becoming the constellation Gemini) despite being betrothed to other men. Marpessa attracted two suitors, the god Apollo and the mortal Idas. Jupiter, the king of the gods, ruled that she should choose between them and she opted for Idas on the grounds that he would grow old with her.

  Hippodamia: Daughter of the mythological King Oenomaus of Elis, who forced all applicants for her hand to compete with him in a chariot race, on pain of death if they lost. But Pelops, from Phrygia in Asia Minor, had a servant of Oenomaus sabotage his master’s chariot, causing a fatal crash and enabling him to marry Hippodamia.

  Apelles: A renowned fourth-century-BC Greek artist; originally from Colophon, he died in Kos.

  Calliope: One of the Muses.

  Minerva and Venus: Cynthia possessed the practical skills associated with the former and the good looks dear to the latter.

  I.3

  Ariadne: Lovers of Richard Strauss’ opera Ariadne auf Naxos will be familiar with the story of the Cretan princess who helped the Athenian hero Theseus slay the Minotaur, a monster that was half man, half bull. Theseus took her with him as he journeyed back to Athens but abandoned her as she slept on the island of Naxos.

  Andromeda: The daughter of an Ethiopian king, who chained her to a rock as an offering to placate a ravening sea-monster, sent by the sea-god Neptune to punish her mother’s boast of being more beautiful than seanymphs. She was rescued and married by Perseus.

  Thracian maenad: Maenads were devotees of the wine-god Dionysus (Bacchus to the Romans), whose ecstatic worship was said to be widespread in Thrace, northeast Greece.

  Argus: Io was one of many mortal women loved by Jupiter. When his wife Juno accused him of adultery, he denied it and turned Io into a cow. Juno (who in another version was the one who gave Io bovine form) appointed the giant Argus as a sentinel to keep watch on her; his hundred eyes meant that he was ever-watchful.

  I.4

  Bassus: According to Ovid, a writer of ‘iambics’ (often verse lampoons).

  Antiope … Hermione: Two relatively minor figures chosen as examples of Greek mythological beauties. Antiope (see also note to III.15) was one of Jupiter’s paramours. Hermione was the daughter of Helen of Troy and her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta.

  I.5

  Gallus: Propertius discloses the name of the addressee only at the end of the poem, but I have brought it up to the beginning to help the modern reader. The same name occurs in other poems in Book One. On the basis of the reference in this poem to aristocratic ancestry (Latin ‘nobilitas’), many scholars have argued that it cannot be the poet-politician Cornelius Gallus, who served in Egypt but fell foul of Augustus and committed suicide in 27 or 26 BC. That Gallus came from provincial stock. But Francis Cairns has made a case that Propertius is addressing his fellow poet, who also crops up in Vergil’s Eclogues. Gallus, of whose work only a handful of fragments survives, is credited with having pioneered the writing of love poetry in elegiac couplets in Latin, and hence was important to Propertius; the identification of the supposed originator of a genre was commonplace in Greek and Latin literature. The present poem, in which Propertius teases Gallus over his supposed desire to start a relationship with Cynthia, has an obvious parallel with the preceding one, in which he humorously takes to task another poet, Bassus, for trying to get him to drop Cynthia. The nobilitas argument does not seem conclusive as Gallus may have come from a prominent provincial family.

  Thessaly: This part of Greece had a reputation for witches and magic.

  I.6

  Tullus: See note to I.1. The present poem has some foundation in historical fact, in that Tullus’ uncle was appointed proconsul of ‘Asia’ – what we would now call Asia Minor, i.e. part of Turkey. Propertius appears to say his friend is going there in an advance party and has invited the poet to accompany him. Such assignments were common career moves for young men of Propertius’ social class, but we have no independent evidence of it. In any case the situation provides an occasion for a typical Propertian motif – that he has no talent for warfare, and prefers the militia amoris, or service of love. ‘The cherub’ refers to the love-god.

  Ionia: The western seaboard of Turkey, whose cities were Greek in ancient times. The River Pactolus was famed for its deposits of gold, or rather electrum (an alloy of gold and silver), which enabled the state of Lydia, where it was located, to create some of the earliest coinage. It is thought to be what is now called in Turkish the Sart Çayı, a tributary of the River Gediz.

  I.7

  Ponticus: An epic poet of the day, also mentioned by Ovid. History was not kind to his work, none of which has survived, as Propertius perhaps foresees in this first skirmish with those who think he too should be writing epic, not love lyrics. Ponticus was evidently working on a poem about the war of succession in mythical Thebes, in which Oedipus’ sons, Eteocles and Polynices, fought over the throne. The reference later in Propertius’ poem to seven armies refers to the allies recruited by Polynices to try to oust his brother, as immortalised in Aeschylus’ play, Seven Against Thebes.

  The Lad: Cupid.

  I.8a

  Propertius’ version of a genre of classical poetry known by the Greek word propemptikon, or farewell to a departing friend. In the medieval manuscripts, what are here printed as I.8a and I.8b appear as a single poem, but most modern editors split it in two. In either case, 8a is clearly a set-up for 8b, in which Propertius exults that Cynthia has decided not to leave after all but to stay with him.

  The freezing Balkans: The Roman province known then as Illyricum – broadly, parts of the Dalmatian coast. This poem, like several others, paints a picture of Cynthia making her living by sleeping with wealthy men – often, as suggested here, government officials on foreign postings. Poem II.16a also talks of a governor returning from Illyricum and being a likely client of Cynthia, leading some editors to conjecture that the same man is referred to here. None of this is to be taken too literally. The hardships Cynthia will supposedly endure if she goes to Illyricum with ‘Mr. What’s-his-name’ are literary/rhetorical rather than realistic.

  The Pleiades: The constellation whose rise in the spring marked the beginning of the sailing season.

  Karaburun: A long peninsula in what is now southern Albania, directly across the Strait of Otranto from Italy, and known to the ancients as Ceraunia. Its rocks were a formidable shipping hazard. Orikum (ancient Oricos) is a port at the southern end of the Bay of Vlorë.

  Jason and the Argonauts: I have followed Heyworth’s suggestion that the obscure and probably corrupt place-names given in the manuscripts in fact refer to stopping points on the outward and return journeys of the Argonauts, who sailed to Colchis (in what is now Georgia) in search of the Golden Fleece.

  I.8b

  Elis … Hippodamia: See note to I.2. The implication here is evidently that the unsuccessful suitors had forfeited their wealth to Elis, making it rich.

  I.9

  Ponticus: The epic poet already addressed in I.7, to which this poem is a sequel. Or rather, I.7 is a set-up for this poem (told you so!).

  Dodona’s prophetic pigeons: Doves at a famous oracle of Jupiter at Dodona in Epirus, north-west Greece.

  Thebes’ lyre-built ramparts: According to myth, the lyre-playing of Amphion was so sweet it enticed the stones to slide into place to construct the walls of Thebes, the city whose story is the theme of Ponticus’ epic.

  Mimnermus: A seventh-century-BC Greek love poet from Smyrna (now Izmir) in Asia Minor; he was later claimed by the people of Colophon. A few of his poems survive, written in elegiac couplets, the metre used by Propertius.

  Strapped to a wheel: The punishment of Ixion in the underworld for attempting to seduce Juno, wife of Jupiter.

  I.10

  Gallus: See
note to I.5.

  I.11

  Baia: A fashionable seaside resort at the west end of the Gulf of Naples. Ancient Rome’s equivalent of St Tropez, it had a similar reputation for holiday romances.

  Hercules’ causeway: A coastal path in the area, supposedly built by the legendary hero. It passed between the small Lake Lucrino (mentioned later on) and the sea.

  Admire how the sea …: The obscure text in the manuscripts has been argued over by scholars. I have paraphrased to adopt the least improbable suggestion of a reference to the construction in 37 BC by Octavian’s right-hand man Agrippa of a channel linking the sea to Lake Lucrino and then further inland to Lake Averno, in order to create a port (the Portus Iulius) to provide safe harbour for the future emperor’s fleet in his campaign against Sextus Pompeius (son of Pompey the Great and the last major rallying-point for opposition against the Second Triumvirate).

  Cuma: A town near Baia.

  I.12

  The Volga: The Hypanis, referred to in the Latin, is sometimes identified with what is now the Bug, which flows through Ukraine and Poland. Propertius certainly knew next to nothing about rivers in this area, and I have substituted the Volga on grounds of both familiarity (for the modern reader) and cadence. Both are far from Italy.

  Some oriental herb: The ancients believed that herbal brews could either inspire or chill amorous feelings.

  I.13

  Gallus: See note to I.5.

  You outstripped Neptune …: I have simplified the complex mythology here. Tyro fell in love with the river-god Enipeus in Thessaly, northern Greece. Neptune, who lusted after Tyro, disguised himself as the river in order to possess her. Hercules ended his mortal existence on a pyre on Mount Oeta in Greece and was promptly deified, marrying Hebe, goddess of youth and cup-bearer to the gods, once he reached Olympus.

  Leda: Wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta, she was seduced by Jupiter disguised as a swan, as in W. B. Yeats’ famous poem. She gave birth to Helen (of Troy) and Clytemnestra, whom Agamemnon took as his wife and queen.

  I.14

  I think of you: See also the notes to I.1 and I.6 on Tullus. The opening lines depict the wealthy young man in his Tiber-side villa, complete with carefully planted park. Despite the ‘money can’t buy me love’ message, Propertius laments elsewhere that money can buy the love – or at least the body – of Cynthia.

  Rivers of Asia: Another reference to the Pactolus – see note to I.6.

  Carrara marble: The Latin text says ‘an Arabian threshold’. Arabia was thought to be the source of onyx, an expensive kind of marble. I have substituted the better known Carrara marble, and ‘cloth of gold’ for the ‘purple’ (designating luxury) of the original.

  Alcinous: A king who, in Homer’s Odyssey, bestowed rich gifts on Odysseus (Ulysses). He was also famed for the wealth of his gardens, so there may be a reference back to Tullus’ parklands.

  I.15

  Danger: Propertius does not spell out the danger he claims he was in. It is doubtless fictitious, though literal-minded commentators have speculated that he was on a risky voyage (but then how could Cynthia visit him?) or was ill. In practice, it simply provides the argument: Cynthia has failed to match the devotion of Greek mythological heroines.

  Calypso: In the Odyssey, Ulysses dallied with the nymph Calypso on her Mediterranean island before resuming his voyage back home to Ithaca from the Trojan War.

  Hypsipyle: A princess on the Aegean island of Lemnos who entertained Jason (from Thessaly on the Greek mainland) during his quest for the Golden Fleece.

  Evadne: Wife of the Greek mythological warrior Capaneus, she threw herself on his funeral pyre after he was killed. Capaneus was one of the ‘Seven Against Thebes’ (see note to I.7). He did not die at the hands of enemies but was struck down by Zeus (Jupiter) for blasphemy; he features in Dante’s Inferno.

  I.16

  A door: This poem is a variant on a staple of ancient Greek and Latin literature, the paraklausithyron, or utterance by a lover outside the locked door of his beloved. In some cases the ‘exclusus amator’ addresses the beloved; here the narrator is the door, but the bulk of the poem consists of a tirade by the lover against the door. We are left in the dark as to whether the resident female is meant to be a prostitute, the mistress of a wealthy man, or simply a woman who sleeps around. Propertius’ stab at the genre bears some similarities to Catullus’ Poem 67, couched as a dialogue between himself and a door, in which the house’s decline from a grand past to a sordid present is likewise lamented. Here, it is not stated that the woman is Cynthia or that the lover is Propertius (although he does say he writes fashionable poetry); that the poem is about Cynthia would not have been lost on readers – the omission of her name from poems concerning her is not at all unusual in Propertius’ work.

  The goddess of chastity: Following Heyworth’s acceptance of an emendation to the obscure manuscript text to give a reference to Patricia Pudicitia, chastity personified as a goddess, whose statue stood in the Roman Forum.

  I.17

  Cassiope’s setting: Following the Oxford Classical Text reading, referring to the myth of Cassiope, whose arrogance led to her daughter Andromeda being offered as a victim to a marauding sea-monster (see note to I.3). Both women ended up as constellations. As with the later mention of the Gemini, Propertius is looking – as the ancients habitually did – to the stars to change the weather and allow him to sail home. A variant reading, taking Cassiope to be a small port of that name on the Greek island of Corfu, would have Propertius still at sea. But the rest of the poem suggests he is on land, marooned by storms in a remote location after setting off on his travels. Either way, we are surely dealing as often with a dramatic scenario, not a real event. As in several other poems, Propertius switches between second and third person references to Cynthia. The Italian poet Ugo Foscolo imitated the start of this piece in a sonnet.

  Gemini: Castor and Pollux were patrons of mariners.

  Daughters of the princess of the ocean: The fifty sea-nymphs known as Nereids, daughters of Nereus and Doris (herself the daughter of the marine deity Oceanus).

  I.18

  Pan: A Greek rural god. He pursued the wood-nymph Pitys, who only eluded him by being changed into a fir tree. The beech may be mentioned because its smooth bark lends itself (even today) to the carving of amorous messages.

  I.19

  Protesilaus: The first Greek warrior to fall before the walls of Troy. On hearing of his death, his wife Laodamia persuaded the gods to let his shade pay her a brief visit, after which she committed suicide.

  While we can …: Perhaps an echo of Catullus’ celebrated Poem 5: ‘Lesbia live with me / & love me … / This sun once set / will rise again, / when our sun sets / follows night & / an endless sleep.’ (Peter Whigham’s translation).

  I.20

  Gallus: See note to I.5. This time it’s a boy that Gallus has fallen in love with.

  Argonauts: See note to I.8a. Hercules was one of Jason’s team. The story of him losing his beloved Hylas to the nymphs was familiar to Propertius’ readers from Hellenistic versions, by Theocritus and Apollonius Rhodius in particular. The ironic twist the poet gives is a warning that Gallus’ Hylas is so beautiful he might be snatched away by latter-day ‘nymphs’ – the young women of contemporary Rome.

  River Ascanius: The action takes place in Mysia, part of what is now north-west Turkey, but the River Ascanius and Mount Arganthus, mentioned later, cannot be identified.

  Aniene: The ancient Anio, a picturesque small river flowing through Tivoli, east of Rome.

  I.21

  In this variant on the common classical theme of a tomb inscription addressing the passer-by, the speaker is a soldier who was a victim of the siege of Perugia in 41–40 BC by the forces of Octavian. The revolt at Perugia, led by Mark Antony’s brother Lucius, may have been partly intended to weaken Octavian. It seems likely that the speaker is the relative of Propertius mentioned in the next poem, who died in the siege but whose body was never recover
ed. The person addressed is an imaginary fellow soldier fleeing the scene.

  I eluded …: The manuscripts name the speaker as Gallus, but I incline to Heyworth’s view that this is a copyist’s error, representing a ‘leakage’ from the previous poem. Otherwise we have a puzzling confusion with the Gallus who figures in four other poems in Book One, and who may well be the soldier-poet of that name. I have therefore omitted it. I have also omitted the name Acca for the speaker’s sister, which is itself a conjecture.

  I.22

  Perugia: Today the Umbrian capital, but once an Etruscan city. See note to previous poem. Perugia is just a few miles from Propertius’ presumed birthplace of Assisi.

  II.1

  Silk from Kos: See note to I.2.

  Maecenas: With Book Two, Propertius for the first time addresses Maecenas, perhaps the most famous literary patron of all time. Vergil and Horace were already in the circle. We have no external evidence for the relationship between Maecenas and Propertius, and the tone of this and III.9 (also addressed to him) is hard to judge. Maecenas is portrayed by those he sponsored as a genial, arty type, but there is no doubt he was also a loyal servant of Augustus, tasked with getting writers behind the emperor and promoting his message. From now on, Propertius is increasingly concerned with what kind of poetry he is going to write. In this and other pieces he says about as clearly as he can that Maecenas is pressing him to produce ‘regime poetry’. Here, Propertius elegantly deflects the request, saying love poetry is all he is good for, and can be its own sort of epic or history. See my afterword for more on this theme.