Poems Read online

  To lay down my life …: Propertius is apparently returning to the thought expressed earlier in the poem, that he would be content to be lost at sea if Cynthia was granted decent burial on land.

  II.28

  The oldest Propertius manuscript, followed by some modern editors, makes this two poems, the second beginning at ‘The magician’s wand…’. But the theme – Cynthia close to death – seems to persist throughout. If, at the end, the story has moved on and Cynthia has been saved, the effect is similar to that of a medieval or Renaissance painting in which successive episodes appear on the same canvas. As in many other poems, Propertius has created a dramatic scenario and we need see no reference to actual events. Ezra Pound was so struck by this poem that he made two English versions of it: ‘Prayer for his Lady’s Life’ (1911), which translates a section near the end in the archaising style of his earlier period; and a rendering of the full text in Sections VIII and IX of Homage to Sextus Propertius (written in 1917), in a more modern idiom.

  Venus … Juno … Minerva: By chance or design, the three goddesses who competed in the judgment of Paris, which led to the Trojan War. On Juno, see note to II.5. Minerva (Greek Athene) is habitually described in Homer as ‘grey-eyed’. There are hints in ancient literature that the colour was thought unbecoming.

  Io: See also note to I.3. After being driven round the world by a gadfly sent by Juno, she was changed back from a cow to her proper form in Egypt, where she became identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis. She is referred to again in the penultimate line.

  Ino: See note to II.26a.

  Callisto: An Arcadian woman beloved by Jupiter. She was turned into a bear – either by him or by Juno – and was killed by the hunting goddess Diana. Jupiter then transformed her into the Great Bear constellation.

  Semele: Yet another of Jupiter’s women and the subject of a well-known opera by Handel. The jealous Juno incited her to persuade the king of the gods to appear to her in his full resplendence, as a result of which Semele was burnt to a cinder.

  Persephone: See note to II.13. Her husband Pluto was king of the underworld.

  Europa … Pasiphae … Antiope … Tyro: Europa was a Phoenician princess carried off by Jupiter disguised as a bull. Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete, was smitten with desire for (another) bull. In order to couple with it, she had the craftsman Daedalus construct a hollow wooden cow, which she lay inside. The result was the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull. See notes to I.4 on Antiope and I.13 on Tyro.

  Achaia: A part of ancient Greece.

  II.29b

  Vesta: Goddess of the household, and famously chaste. The ancients believed that telling a deity of your ominous dreams could avert bad consequences.

  II.30

  This odd, disjointed poem or poems (lines may well be missing), starts with what appears to be advice to a friend about to travel abroad (possibly on the Parthian expedition mentioned in II.10), warning him that wherever he goes, he won’t escape love. Then the addressee becomes Cynthia, with Propertius again defending his dedication to love (or love poetry) and protesting that only she can inspire him.

  Pegasus: In mythology, the winged horse who sprang from Gorgon’s blood and was ridden by the hero Bellerophon to slay the fire-breathing Chimaera monster.

  Perseus: The slayer of the Gorgon was helped by winged sandals given him by the gods. Such sandals were associated with the messenger god Mercury. Propertius describes the air as ‘Mercury’s high road’.

  Old buffers: Probably another echo of Catullus’ Poem 5: ‘Lesbia, live with me / & love me so / we’ll laugh at all / the sour-faced strict- / ures of the wise.’ (Whigham’s translation).

  Maeander: Identified as the modern Büyük Menderes River in south-western Turkey. The ancient name is the origin of the word ‘meander’. Propertius is referring to a legend that the goddess Minerva invented the flute but threw it away after seeing a reflection of herself with her cheeks puffed out playing it, and finding it unflattering.

  Semele … Io …: On Semele, see note to II.28, and on Io, notes to I.3 and II.28. In an ironic reversal, Propertius makes it Jupiter who is burned rather than Semele, and Jupiter who is undone rather than Io. He goes on to cite another myth that the bisexual king of the gods assumed the form of an eagle to carry off the beautiful Trojan prince Ganymede, a subject treated by numerous artists over the ages.

  Oeagrus: In legend, a Thracian king who begot the singer Orpheus in a liaison with the Muse Calliope.

  When they put you …: Bacchus, as well as Apollo, had the power of poetic inspiration. But Propertius is saying that ‘only when Cynthia accompanies him to the Muses’ haunts will inspiration come to him; he cannot receive it from the Muses alone.’ (Camps).

  II.31–32

  Apollo’s gilded portico: Vowed by Octavian (Augustus) after his victory over Sextus Pompeius in 36 BC, it was dedicated by the emperor in 28. The complex included a temple, and Propertius appears to refer to two separate statues of Apollo, both portraying him singing. Ancient writers say that between the columns of the portico were statues of the fifty daughters of the mythical King Danaus, all but one of whom, Hypermnestra, carried out his orders to kill their bridegrooms on their collective wedding night.

  Myron: A fifth-century-BC Greek sculptor.

  Delos: The Aegean island was the reputed birthplace of Apollo.

  The Gauls: Invading Gauls attacked Delphi, Greece, but were defeated there in 278 BC. Mount Parnassus overlooks the city.

  Niobe: See note to II.20.

  Diana’s grove: At Ariccia, south of Rome. Propertius goes on to list other towns near the capital: Palestrina (later the birthplace of the sixteenth-century Italian composer of that name, but known to the ancient Romans as Praeneste), Tuscolo (now ruined), Tivoli (ancient Tibur) and Lanuvio. The Appian Way, one of the great Roman roads, went ultimately to Brindisi, south-eastern Italy. The poet’s point is that Cynthia is visiting these places not for lack of attractions in Rome but to escape his surveillance and dally with other men. Lanuvio figures at greater length in IV.8, which has echoes of this poem.

  Pompey’s portico: Different from Apollo’s portico and mentioned in IV.8 as a pick-up place.

  Maro: It is uncertain who this is, but a man of the name is mentioned by Homer as a priest of Apollo and by Euripides as a son of Bacchus. Camps suggests he may have been depicted in a statue as a satyr, with fountain-water spilling from his mouth. Triton was an attendant of Neptune and he too may have been carved in stone sporadically spouting water from a horn in the shape of a seashell.

  Helen: Although her elopement with Paris sparked the ten-year-long Trojan War, when it ended after enormous casualties on both sides, she returned to live quietly in Sparta with her Greek husband Menelaus.

  Venus: Married to the smith-god Vulcan, she had an affair with the war-god Mars.

  A goddess: Some have seen this as a continuing reference to Venus, whose liaison with the Trojan Anchises led to the birth of Aeneas. But most modern commentators think it is the nymph Oenone, who had an amour with Paris on Mount Ida, near Troy.

  Silenus: Chief of the satyrs, wood spirits conventionally depicted as half-man, half-goat and noted for their voracious sexual appetites.

  Lesbia: An intriguing reference to the woman who was the subject of Catullus’ love poems and who is widely thought to have been the historical figure Clodia (see Afterword). The words ‘Rome is fortunate,’ found just above, may echo a notorious bad line in a self-congratulatory poem by Cicero (who famously pilloried Clodia in a legal speech): ‘O fortunatam natam me consule Romam’ (O fortunate Rome, born by my consulship). Propertius’ poem combines (possibly ironic) praise of stern old-fashioned morality – which was preached by the likes of Cicero and was a rhetorical commonplace – with recognition that such an era, if it ever existed, was long over. Hence the poem’s last line.

  Saturn’s reign: Sometimes named as an ancient king of Latium (Lazio, the area around Rome), Saturn was also identified as a Roman equ
ivalent of the Greek Kronos, who was supplanted as king of the gods by his son Zeus (Jupiter). Saturn’s rule is conventionally described by Latin writers as a golden age in the remote past.

  The Flood: Classical mythology recorded a Great Flood resembling that in Genesis, with Deucalion as the equivalent of Noah.

  King Minos’ wife: Pasiphae, on whom see note to II.28.

  Danae: See note to II.20.

  II.33a

  The ‘plot’ of the poem concerns the Egyptian goddess Isis, identified in classical mythology with Io (see notes to I.3 and II.28). The second stanza refers to her various manifestations. The cult of Isis reached Rome, attracting numerous women, who were required to forgo sex for ten days as part of an annual festival. Roman imperial authorities made at least two attempts to ban the cult during the 20s BC, but it returned.

  II.33b

  Ruin of good water: The ancients habitually mixed wine with water before drinking.

  Icarius (or Icarus): Not to be confused with the Icarus who crashed into the sea while attempting to fly from Crete, he was, in mythology, an Athenian who was taught how to make wine by Bacchus. He gave a taste to some shepherds, who, when they became drunk, thought they had been poisoned and killed him. Eurytion was the Centaur who drunkenly attempted to molest the bride at the wedding of Pirithous the Lapith and Hippodamia (see note to II.6). The Cyclops Polyphemus, in Homer’s Odyssey, allowed Ulysses and his crew to escape when they blinded him after intoxicating him with Ismarian wine, renowned as a strong brew.

  Falernian: A famous ancient Roman wine from Campania, the area around Naples.

  II.34

  The bulk of the poem picks up the argument of I.9 (addressed to Ponticus) concerning an epic poet’s need to shift to love poetry as a result of personal infatuation. But it also links to II.1 to develop Propertius’ discussion of the incompatibility of the two kinds of poetry, effectively ‘topping and tailing’ Book Two – assuming the book was originally conceived in the form we now have it.

  Menelaus’ guest: The Trojan Paris (see note to II.3).

  A man she barely knew: Jason.

  Lynceus: A name that occurs nowhere else in Propertius. It is widely considered a pseudonym for Lucius Varius Rufus, a writer of epic and tragedy who introduced Horace to Maecenas and was later an editor of the Aeneid after Vergil’s death. Only fragments of his work survive.

  Epimenides: A semi-mythical poet and religious teacher from Crete, said to have lived in the sixth century BC. But this is based on the reading of only part of the manuscript tradition, and many other suggestions have been made. Whoever it is, Propertius’ point is that his work can no longer help Lynceus because it is not about love.

  Philitas … Callimachus: On Callimachus, see note to II.1. Philitas, born on the eastern Mediterranean island of Kos, was another member of the Alexandrian school. He was slightly older than Callimachus, but his exact dates are unclear. Both are cited again as masters in the first poem of Book Three (qv).

  Achelous: The largest river in Greece, flowing into the Ionian Sea. The line perhaps alludes to a mythical ‘fight between Hercules and the (personified) Achelous over Deianira, in which the victor Hercules broke off one of his rival’s horns (regular attributes of a river-god)’ (Camps). Deianira later became Hercules’ wife.

  Maeander: See note to II.30.

  Adrastus … Archemorus: In mythology, Adrastus, king of the Greek city of Argos, went on the disastrous expedition of the Seven Against Thebes (see note to I.7). Hercules gave him the magic horse Arion, which had the gift of speech and saved Adrastus by predicting the defeat of the expedition. Earlier, Arion had won a victory at the first Nemean Games near Corinth (a regular fixture in historical times), which were held to mark the funeral of a child named Archemorus, killed by a snake.

  Amphiaraus … Capaneus: Other members of the Seven Against Thebes. Amphiaraus’ chariot fell into a gap in the earth.

  Antimachus and Homer: Antimachus was a Greek epic poet of the fifth century BC. He had a mistress named Lyde, while there was a story that Homer fell in love with Penelope.

  Vergil: In this passage, picked up in Ezra Pound’s Homage (Section XII), Propertius looks ahead to the Aeneid, evidently aware that Vergil was working on it and of details in the text too. He goes on to mention Vergil’s two other well-known works: the Georgics, a didactic poem on farming inspired by the Works and Days of ‘old Hesiod’; and the Eclogues, which set the pastoral life described by the third-century-BC Greek poet Theocritus against the background of contemporary Italy. The following lines have a number of verbal echoes from the latter work, including the use of the word ‘happy’.

  Thyrsis and Daphnis: Shepherds’ names from the Eclogues.

  Galaesus: A river in southern Italy, which cannot be exactly identified.

  Tityrus: Another of Vergil’s shepherds. Because his name kicks off the first Eclogue, it was sometimes used as shorthand for the work as a whole and even as a pseudonym for Vergil. Corydon and Alexis feature in the second Eclogue.

  Varro: A first-century-BC Latin poet who addressed love poems to a woman he called Leucadia.

  Calvus: See note to II.25. He wrote an elegy on the death of his wife or mistress Quintilia.

  Gallus: See note to I.5. Lycoris, the beloved in his almost entirely lost poems, is believed to have been a mime actress named Volumnia or Cytheris. Propertius and his readers would have known that Gallus did not die of love for Lycoris but committed suicide after incurring Augustus’ displeasure. The reference to him here is an elegant farewell to a literary model, and possible early patron, of Propertius.

  III.1

  Callimachus, Philitas: See notes to II.1 and II.34.

  Triumph: A parody of Rome’s triumphal military processions, on which see note to II.14.

  Sisters … daughters of Pegasus: The Muses.

  Rivers of Troy: The rivers Scamander and Simois near Troy are portrayed by Homer as fighting with the Greek hero Achilles, who was later to kill the Trojan champion Hector and drag the body round the tomb of his friend Patroclus, slain by Hector (see also note to II.8). Hercules is described as capturing Troy twice, once on his own account in revenge because he was not given the reward promised him by King Laomedon for killing a monster, and the second time indirectly when his arrows were used by the Greek warrior Philoctetes to kill Paris.

  III.2

  Propertius’ words at times resemble the better known lines of Horace, written around the same time in Odes III.30, beginning: ‘Exegi monumentum aere perennius’ (I have wrought a monument more lasting than bronze).

  Cithaeron: A mountain range near Thebes. On Amphion, see note to I.9.

  Galatea: A sea-nymph beloved by Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops living on the slopes of Mt Etna in Sicily. His wooing is sometimes portrayed by classical authors as uncouth and ridiculous, but is presented by Propertius as successful.

  Gardens of Babylon: Propertius in fact refers to the legendary garden of King Alcinous, mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey. The ‘private water supply’ is an allusion to the aqua Marcia, an aqueduct built in the second century BC by Quintus Marcius Rex to bring water to Rome from the Sabine hills to the east. Only rich people could have afforded their own water supply, piped off from the public aqueduct.

  Jove’s Olympia temple: The spectacular temple in southern Greece, built in the mid-fifth century BC, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, as were the Egyptian pyramids and the Mausoleum.

  Original Mausoleum: Built of white marble at Halicarnassus, Asia Minor, for Mausolus, ruler of Caria, by his widow Artemisia in the mid-fourth century BC.

  III.3

  Helicon: See note to II.10. The ‘stream struck by Pegasus’ is Hippocrene (Greek for ‘Horse Stream’), a nearby fountain sacred to the Muses, said to have been produced by a hoof-stroke of Pegasus (on which, see note to II.30).

  Kings of Alba: A town south of Rome which Aeneas’ son Ascanius built and where his descendants ruled until Romulus founded Rome.
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br />   Old Ennius: The first great Roman poet (239–169 BC), he wrote the Annals in eighteen books on Roman history, of which about 550 lines survive. There follows a jumbled account of some of the events he included (or not). The Curiatii and the Horatii fought each other on behalf of Rome and Alba, though it is uncertain who was on which side. The mention of Aemilius apparently refers to Aemilius Paullus, who was victorious over Perseus, king of Macedon, and celebrated a triumph in Rome in 167 BC, shipping huge quantities of booty up the Tiber. Since this was two years after Ennius died, he can hardly have written of it, but it would be unlike Propertius to scruple over such details. Quintus Fabius Maximus was given the title Cunctator (Delayer) because his tactic of putting off an engagement with Hannibal weakened the Carthaginians and gave Rome time to recover in the Second Punic War. The Battle of Cannae in south-eastern Italy in 216 BC was a disastrous defeat by Hannibal in which up to 70,000 Roman soldiers died. The reference to the guardian deities (Latin Lares) is not entirely clear. The sacred geese featured in a celebrated episode in which their ‘cackling … woke [the Roman consul Marcus] Manlius and saved the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol from being captured by the Gauls in 390 or 387’ BC (Heyworth & Morwood’s commentary).

  Castalian copse: The geography is as muddled as the history. The Castalian spring, seen as a source of poetic inspiration, was on Mt Parnassus near Delphi, nowhere near Mt Helicon where the action of this poem starts.

  Silenus: See note to II.31–32.

  The Gorgon’s pool: We are back to Hippocrene. Pegasus, its creator, sprang from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa’s severed head.