Propertius Poems
- alligns with pessimistic pre-Actium era, as long as Cynthia still being written then epic being
postponed
- SHE IS UNORTHODOX BY NATURE, statement of priorities - questions and answersPoem
2.10
- another poem addressed to Gallus, strong indication the love poet
- Gallus "famous for female deception" a philanderer who has been caught in love
- "the rest my modesty conceals" again stirring gossip about his friends, further suggests link
between erotic and literary circulation
- compares Neptune and Tyro and Hercules and Hebe
- "nor has she let your previous arrogance return", looks back towards 1.1 a community of men
suffering together
- she is good enough for Jove, makes others jealous
- propertius as a viewer - questions and answersPoem 1.13
- character of the bawd inverts the teaching of 1.2
- she takes centre stage and his complaints only frame the peice
- highlights purpose to challenge and undermine erotic discourse through adoption of new
voices - questions and answersPoem 4.5
- complete contrast in tone to 1.1 rationally structured argument
- engages Xenophon Oeconomicus man instructing his wife
- didactic?
- 8, 16, 8 structure two opening and closing arguments surround central section with examples
from myth
- moralising stance advising Cynthia that natural beauty is best
- "Look at" examples from nature, ironic involve heroic daring unlike the narrator
- setting on the move - clinging fabric to every move
- discursive poem looks as if we can see dramatic movement, reader has to reconstruct the
conversation behind the lines
- she embodies his exemplary aesthetic programme
- FORMA: appearance and style of composition - questions and answersPoem 1.2
- contrast to the preceeding poem she is clearly of an marriageable status - questions and
answersPoem 2.7
- Cynthia comes back as a ghost, reminds of Patrokles in book 23 of the Iliad advising Achilles
on his burial rights
- she orders him to burn his poetry about her making final the movement away from love elegy?
- only after the grave she submits - questions and answersPoem 4.7
, - Cynthia decides to stay, proof she has been moved by his words
- the power of poetry to change the beloved
- "narrow bed" callimachean
- Hippodamia contrast still casts him in the light of heroic Pelops?
- ideal reader does not believe in materialism but values creativity - questions and
answersPoem 1.8b
- Cynthia is going to go abroad with a rich rival, threats to love
- the contrast of soft delicate mistress and the harshness of the new environment which cannot
sustain her
- "frail feet"
- proves himself most loyal still wishes her a safe return "however bad you treat me" - questions
and answersPoem 1.8a
- Cynthia on holiday in Baiae, notorious for licentious behaviour
- he projects his fears of her infidelity and sexuality onto her
- pictures her in a way he would like to see her, enclosed in a small boat
- then proves how the idea of her helpless and alone heightens his desire as moves on to detail
her seduction "little dinghy"
- "alternate arms" like hexameter and pentameter
- "love's margin" she can no longer exist going past his love which creates her
- "has some enemy...removed you from my poetry" points to her status as a written woman
- "girl without protection" necessary to control
- compares her to his mother either idealized figure or prostitute
- her existence is defined in relation to the speaker he constructs his through character voice
- reflection of identity, woman as a MIRROR of the man never receiving subjectivity, denied
separate identity needs and wants to control - questions and answersPoem 1.11
- deliberate emphasis on perversity as she is a vestal virgin
- unsusual to offer poem of betrayal in romes history
- makes it love not money the reason why she betrays rome
- brings erotic interest to military matters weapons take on a beauty
- adapts roman history to standard love stories of greek myth - questions and answersPoem 4.4
- deliberately echoes 1.1 shows a change in attitude
- officially sanctioned form of difference is just a form of social control
- propertius confirms the existence in society of attitudes which justify augustus' laws
- A NEGATIVE PARADIGM
- way to contain and normalise new concepts of pax/otium/libertas
- attempting an imaginary solution in times of crisis to problems of social experience - questions
and answersPoem 3.24
- displacement of the paraclysithyron motif from Propertius to the door itself, complaining about
former honour used to be the start of triumphs now subject to humiliation lovers song
- alligns with pessimistic pre-Actium era, as long as Cynthia still being written then epic being
postponed
- SHE IS UNORTHODOX BY NATURE, statement of priorities - questions and answersPoem
2.10
- another poem addressed to Gallus, strong indication the love poet
- Gallus "famous for female deception" a philanderer who has been caught in love
- "the rest my modesty conceals" again stirring gossip about his friends, further suggests link
between erotic and literary circulation
- compares Neptune and Tyro and Hercules and Hebe
- "nor has she let your previous arrogance return", looks back towards 1.1 a community of men
suffering together
- she is good enough for Jove, makes others jealous
- propertius as a viewer - questions and answersPoem 1.13
- character of the bawd inverts the teaching of 1.2
- she takes centre stage and his complaints only frame the peice
- highlights purpose to challenge and undermine erotic discourse through adoption of new
voices - questions and answersPoem 4.5
- complete contrast in tone to 1.1 rationally structured argument
- engages Xenophon Oeconomicus man instructing his wife
- didactic?
- 8, 16, 8 structure two opening and closing arguments surround central section with examples
from myth
- moralising stance advising Cynthia that natural beauty is best
- "Look at" examples from nature, ironic involve heroic daring unlike the narrator
- setting on the move - clinging fabric to every move
- discursive poem looks as if we can see dramatic movement, reader has to reconstruct the
conversation behind the lines
- she embodies his exemplary aesthetic programme
- FORMA: appearance and style of composition - questions and answersPoem 1.2
- contrast to the preceeding poem she is clearly of an marriageable status - questions and
answersPoem 2.7
- Cynthia comes back as a ghost, reminds of Patrokles in book 23 of the Iliad advising Achilles
on his burial rights
- she orders him to burn his poetry about her making final the movement away from love elegy?
- only after the grave she submits - questions and answersPoem 4.7
, - Cynthia decides to stay, proof she has been moved by his words
- the power of poetry to change the beloved
- "narrow bed" callimachean
- Hippodamia contrast still casts him in the light of heroic Pelops?
- ideal reader does not believe in materialism but values creativity - questions and
answersPoem 1.8b
- Cynthia is going to go abroad with a rich rival, threats to love
- the contrast of soft delicate mistress and the harshness of the new environment which cannot
sustain her
- "frail feet"
- proves himself most loyal still wishes her a safe return "however bad you treat me" - questions
and answersPoem 1.8a
- Cynthia on holiday in Baiae, notorious for licentious behaviour
- he projects his fears of her infidelity and sexuality onto her
- pictures her in a way he would like to see her, enclosed in a small boat
- then proves how the idea of her helpless and alone heightens his desire as moves on to detail
her seduction "little dinghy"
- "alternate arms" like hexameter and pentameter
- "love's margin" she can no longer exist going past his love which creates her
- "has some enemy...removed you from my poetry" points to her status as a written woman
- "girl without protection" necessary to control
- compares her to his mother either idealized figure or prostitute
- her existence is defined in relation to the speaker he constructs his through character voice
- reflection of identity, woman as a MIRROR of the man never receiving subjectivity, denied
separate identity needs and wants to control - questions and answersPoem 1.11
- deliberate emphasis on perversity as she is a vestal virgin
- unsusual to offer poem of betrayal in romes history
- makes it love not money the reason why she betrays rome
- brings erotic interest to military matters weapons take on a beauty
- adapts roman history to standard love stories of greek myth - questions and answersPoem 4.4
- deliberately echoes 1.1 shows a change in attitude
- officially sanctioned form of difference is just a form of social control
- propertius confirms the existence in society of attitudes which justify augustus' laws
- A NEGATIVE PARADIGM
- way to contain and normalise new concepts of pax/otium/libertas
- attempting an imaginary solution in times of crisis to problems of social experience - questions
and answersPoem 3.24
- displacement of the paraclysithyron motif from Propertius to the door itself, complaining about
former honour used to be the start of triumphs now subject to humiliation lovers song
