Table Of ContentA Guide to Latin
Elegy and Lyric
BLACKWELL GUIDES TO CLASSICAL LITERATURE
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Published
A Guide to Hellenistic Literature
By Kathryn Gutzwiller
A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama, second edition
By Ian C. Storey and Arlene Allan
A Guide to Latin
Elegy and Lyric
Barbara K. Gold
Hamilton College
Clinton, NY
Genevieve Liveley
University of Bristol
Bristol, UK
This edition first published 2021
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gold, Barbara K., 1945- author. | Liveley, Genevieve, author.
Title: A guide to Latin elegy and lyric / Barbara Kirk Gold, Hamilton
College, Clinton, NY; Genevieve Liveley, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Description: Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2021. | Series:
Blackwell guides to classical literature | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “In our Guide to Latin Elegy
and Lyric, we hope to reach both students of Classics and Latin poetry at various levels and those who are interested in the ancient
world in an avocational way. When I (Barbara Gold) first reached out to Genevieve Liveley about being my co-author, I don’t think
that either of us had any idea how hard it would be to write about Latin elegy and lyric for people who might not know any Latin.
But now that we have tackled writers like Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, and Sulpicia with exactly that audience in
mind, I think that the two of us understand Latin elegy and lyric in a different and exciting way. We hope that our readers will be
equally excited about this fantastic poetry and might even be tempted to learn a bit of Latin so that they could have a different sort
of entry into the poetry. We have included lots of Latin to help illustrate our discussions and offer a pathway towards some deeper
insights into this poetry, but we have included our own translations for everything. We have tried to give some historical and
cultural context for each of the authors and then to open up the world of each author by looking at themes, language and
ideas in their poems as well as possible modes of reception. We are very aware that reception of this poetry or any literature
will vary depending upon who is doing the reading so we hope that our understanding of this poetry will allow other, different
interpretations that will open up the poetry in interesting and unforeseen ways. We have included ten chapters: seven are devoted
to individual authors or a set of authors, one to contexts of the poetry, one to major themes, and one to critical approaches. We
have also written a preliminary chapter of Introduction on “How to Read a Latin Lyric or Elegiac Poem” and a pedagogical
section, “How to Teach Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry””--
Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020058493 (print) | LCCN 2020058494 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781119227083 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119227113 (pdf) |
ISBN 9781119227137 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Latin poetry--History and criticism. | Elegiac poetry,
Latin--History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PA6047 .G64 2021 (print) | LCC PA6047 (ebook) |
DDC 871.009--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020058493
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020058494
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Cover design by Wiley
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Table of Contents
Preface vii
Introduction: How to Read and Teach a Latin
Elegiac or Lyric Poem 1
1 The Literary, Political and Social Contexts of
Latin Elegy and Lyric 7
2 Catullus 24
3 Horace 39
4 Tibullus 55
5 Propertius 70
6 Ovid 85
7 Sulpicia 100
8 Other Elegiac and Lyric Poets 110
9 Tropes and Themes in Elegy and Lyric 122
10 Critical Approaches to Elegiac and Lyric Poetry 137
Bibliography 152
Index 163
Preface
In our Guide to Latin Elegy and Lyric, we hope to reach both students of Classics and
Latin poetry at various levels and those who are interested in the ancient world in an
avocational way. When I (Barbara Gold) first reached out to Genevieve Liveley about
being my co-author, I don’t think that either of us had any idea how hard it would be
to write about Latin elegy and lyric for people who might not know any Latin. But
now that we have tackled writers like Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid,
and Sulpicia with exactly that audience in mind, I think that the two of us understand
Latin elegy and lyric in a different and exciting way. We hope that our readers will be
equally excited about this fantastic poetry and might even be tempted to learn a bit of
Latin so that they could have a different sort of entry into the poetry.
We have included lots of Latin to help illustrate our discussions and offer a pathway
towards some deeper insights into this poetry, but we have included our own transla-
tions for everything. We have tried to give some historical and cultural context for each
of the authors and then to open up the world of each author by looking at themes,
language, and ideas in their poems as well as possible modes of reception. We are very
aware that reception of this poetry or any literature will vary depending upon who is
doing the reading, so we hope that our understanding of this poetry will allow other,
different interpretations that will open up the poetry in interesting and unforeseen
ways.
We have included ten chapters: seven are devoted to individual authors or a set of
authors, one to contexts of the poetry, one to major themes, and one to critical
approaches. We have also written a preliminary chapter of Introduction on “How to
Read a Latin Lyric or Elegiac Poem” and a pedagogical section, “How to Teach Latin
Lyric and Elegiac Poetry”.
Our first main chapter covers the literary, political, and social contexts of the turbu-
lent period of history in which most of this poetry was composed. Because elegy and
lyric respond immediately to their socio-cultural context, it is necessary to understand
the events and cultural tides of the time period before we can understand the poetry
produced in and from this context. Here we raise such questions as: How did Hellenistic
viii PREFACE
poetry influence the later Augustan poetry? How did increasingly imperial policies
influence writers like Tibullus, Propertius, Horace, and Ovid? What differences do we
find in the elegists and the lyric poets in the ways they react to the political currents of
their times? We also examine the influences of earlier Greek and Hellenistic poetry
upon the later Roman lyric and elegiac poetry and consider the role of the early
Augustan poet Gallus in shaping the elegiac tradition at Rome. Gallus, who is said by
Quintilian to be the first of the elegists, is an important figure whose influence on
elegy is clear but whose few extant lines give us only a small clue about exactly what
kind of elegy he wrote and why he casts such a broad shadow over the later elegists.
Chapters 2 through 8 focus on the individual lyric and elegiac poets: Catullus,
Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, Ovid, Sulpicia, and other elegists and lyric poets
(Lygdamus, the “Amicus” poems from the Corpus Tibullianum, and post-Augustan
elegy and lyric). Chapter 2 is focused on the first century bce writer Catullus who
wrote both lyric and elegiac poetry. Catullus’ poem 68 is often thought to be the first
real elegiac poem; this subjective and intensely erotic poem, which contains mytho-
logical figures but is focused on a female beloved (Lesbia), holds within it the seeds of
later elegy. Catullus occupies a liminal, awkward position as the first extant author
of an elegiac poem but a poet who does not write solely in elegiac meter.
Chapter 3 brings us to another poet who also does not quite fit the same mold as the
main group of poets studied in this book. Horace wrote entirely lyric poetry. He was
apparently Rome’s first and last lyric poet. His lyric Odes draw on Greek and Hellenistic
traditions to explore distinctively Roman and Italian themes as he adapts traditional
motifs and meters to celebrate the Italian countryside, life at symposia or dinner par-
ties, sex and friendship, time, politics and patronage. His relationships with Maecenas
(his patron) and Augustus complicate the political and ideological character of his
lyrics, but traces of the satiric and comic edge which characterizes his early work are
also evident here.
Chapters 4 and 5 cover the elegists Tibullus and Propertius who were almost exact
contemporaries. Both poets wrote only in elegiac couplets, and Quintilian counts them
as among the major Roman elegists. Tibullus wrote two books of elegies with a third
book, the Corpus Tibullianum, added on probably in the same period, but that book
contained poems written by several other poets. Tibullus’ poems proceed not in a lin-
ear fashion but by association of ideas, often with no logical transition; they have been
described as dreamlike. They are often addressed to two female lovers, Delia and
Nemesis (both pseudonyms) and to a male lover, Marathus. Unlike Tibullus, Propertius
writes in a less associative manner and engages more clearly with his Roman world,
very often mentioning politics and political figures like Maecenas. Most of Propertius’
love poems are addressed to a lover he calls Cynthia, who plays a major role especially
in Book 1. He describes her in such a way as to make her seem real, giving her a “real-
ity factor,” but most people see her as a “written woman,” part of the poetry of
Propertius’ text. Like Catullus and Tibullus, Propertius names Callimachus as his
poetic ancestor, using Callimachean poetics as the underpinnings of his poetry.
Chapter 6 is devoted to Ovid, who wrote in the relatively stable period of the
Augustan “golden age.” His considerable elegiac corpus (extant works comprising
Amores, Heroides, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris, Fasti, Tristia, and Epistulae ex Ponto)
PREFACE ix
inventively reworks the model of love elegy popularized by his predecessors, “wom-
anufacturing” a patently fictitious mistress (Corinna) to serve as the focus for his
Amores, exaggerating established elegiac figures and tropes, and expanding the elegiac
story-world to include more female voices and viewpoints, and a more cynical and
ludic approach to life, love and literature. We focus this chapter on the evolution of
core elegiac conceits and motifs across his seven elegiac works.
Chapter 7 is devoted to the only extant female elegiac poet, Sulpicia. Her poems are
preserved as part of the Corpus Tibullianum. Sulpicia was a niece of the Augustan poli-
tician and literary patron, Messalla, and she was a contemporary of Horace and
Tibullus. The six extant elegies written by Sulpicia (or so we think) offer the rare
opportunity to experience an ancient female voice and viewpoint, and to witness the
elegiac world from a unique perspective in which the mistress or puella speaks and tells
her side of the story. Key elegiac motifs are therefore subject to radical revision as
Sulpicia presents a very different view of sex and gender, politics (both sexual and
imperial) and patronage, myth, and religion. The poetry of Sulpicia has given rise to
heated critical debate in recent years concerning uncertainties about authorship, the
constitution of literary canon, and (so called) “feminine Latin,” making her slender
elegiac corpus particularly useful and interesting in re-evaluating modern approaches
to ancient elegiac poetry.
Chapter 8 is devoted to other poets including the poets in the Corpus Tibullianum,
and post-Augustan elegiac and lyric poets. These are poets who have reached us in
fragmentary form or under the guise of pseudonyms and about whom we know far
less than the poets discussed in Chapters 2–7. Here we look closely at the third book
of the Tibullan corpus (the Corpus Tibullianum); this contains poems by Sulpicia and
other poems by a supposed “friend” of Sulpicia (Amicus Sulpiciae), poems by a certain
Lygdamus, by an anonymous author of a panegyric to Messalla and by another anon-
ymous author of two poems about rumors and unfaithfulness. These poems have
engendered discussion about the nature of originality, gender, aesthetics, and the
nature of elegiacs; they give us further clues to understanding the genre of elegy even
in their fragmentary or anonymous form.
Chapter 9 provides an overview and analysis of the key themes and topics, figures,
and tropes that elegy and lyric typically incorporate; these include two “umbrella”
tropes, militia amoris (“the warfare of love”) and servitium amoris (“the slavery of love”);
sexuality and gender; poetic community and friendship; politics and patronage; myth
and religion; Romanitas and masculinity; love as a disease, madness, or fire; magic,
witchcraft, and the lena; speech and silence; time; wealth and poverty; empire and
imperializing; the closed door (paraclausithyron) and the shut-out lover (exclusus ama-
tor); counting and numbers.
Chapter 10 gives an overview and analysis of the key critical approaches to elegy
and lyric in current scholarship; these include autobiographical realism; psychoanaly-
sis; gender and sexuality; narratology; reception; and decolonization. Various
approaches have fallen in and out of fashion among critics and commentators, but
these are the key critical and theoretical approaches that remain influential in current
scholarship. They also suggest some likely areas for further development in the future.
