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Critical Appreciations I: Propertius iii. 10
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
Extract
In the last issue of Greece & Rome there appeared two critical analyses of Propertius iii. 10, an elegy written in celebration of Cynthia's birthday. Here I propose to enlarge on some of the points made by my predecessors, and publish my own reactions to reading the poem. I agree with Dr. Lyne and Mr. Morwood in detecting an underlying urgency in the piece: they notice marks of anxiety and preoccupation with passing time, along with a conflation of the concepts of sleep and death. But neither writer asks what I believe to be the necessary first question: what kind of poem is Propertius iii. 10? Formal considerations—classification according to literary genus—do in fact warrant some of their contentions, but leave others in need of modification.
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References
page 155 note 1 Vol. xx, 1 (April, 1973).
page 155 note 2 Cf. 4. 1 arma deus Caesar, and 5. 1 pacis amor deus est; also 5. 47–8 uos, quibus arma grata magis, Crassi signa referte domum, a nonchalant retrospect on 4.
page 156 note 1 ‘Propertius iii. 10 and Roman Birthdays’, Hermes xcix (1971), 150 ff.Google Scholar
page 155 note 2 Edinburgh U.P., 1972. An earlier study is Burgess, T. C., Epideictic Literature (Studies in Classical Philology, vol. iii, Chicago, 1902), 142 ff.Google Scholar
page 155 note 3 Neue Fahrbücher, 01 1898.Google Scholar
page 155 note 4 e.g. Tib. ii. 2. 1, i. 7. 63, Natalis; i. 7. 49Google Scholar, Genius; ii. 2. 9, 11, 17–22Google Scholar, iii. 11. 3 ff., 12. 5 ff. (Sulpicia), Virg. Ecl. iii. 76, Amor.Google Scholar
page 155 note 5 e.g. Tib. ii. 2. 1 f., Ovid, Tr. v. 5.Google Scholar 6 f., Mart. x. 87. 2, bona dicta and holy silence; Menander Περὶ ἐπιδεικτικῶν, in Rhetores Graeci ed. Spengel, L. (Leipzig, 1856), vol. iii, p. 412, 19–22.Google Scholar
page 157 note 1 e.g. Tib. i. 7. 47, Ovid, Tr. iii. 13. 13–14Google Scholar, Sulpicia [Tib.] iii. 12. 3, clothes; Tib. ii. 2. 3. i. 7. 53.Google Scholar incense; i. 7. 51–4, ii. 2. 7–8, nard, wine, honey-cake; ii. 2. 9–10, iii. 12. 15–16 (Sulpicia), wish of addressee; ii. 2. 19 f., Ovid, Tr. v. 5. 21 ff.Google Scholar, wish for longevity.
page 157 note 2 Varro ap. Censorinus, , De Die Nat. ii. 2.Google ScholarStat. Silv. ii. 7 is an exception, but cf. line 131.Google Scholar
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page 157 note 4 Dr. Lyne's suggestion of a personification (p. 40 n. 1) is along the right lines: the sun blushes at the sight of the lovers, rubente is less ‘unusual’ (Bailey, D. R. Shackleton, Propertiana [Cambridge, 1956], 301Google Scholar, citing from classical times only Lucr. v. 462) if we invoke the dawn motif.
page 159 note 1 I print the text advocated by Shackleton Bailey. Another possibility is at for ab, with uera fatebor in parenthesis: shipwreck on the sea of Venus—torture by fire and sword were unnecessary, being no more than equivalent to the actual disaster sustained—has taught Propertius that Cynthia must be abandoned.
page 160 note 1 He refers to his comments in CQ n.s. xxi (1971), 205: see especially n. 5.Google Scholar
page 161 note 1 ii. 15. 49.
page 161 note 2 See the parallels adduced by Camps ad loc.
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