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Interpretations Propertianae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

W. R. Smyth
W. R. Smyth
Affiliation:
University College of Swansea
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Extract

The amount of criticism heaped upon persuadent (13) has obscured consideration of the meaning of picta; for it is this word which carries the weight of the line. Tracing the sequence of thought in the passage will show where the emphasis lies. There is throughout a comparison, either expressed (melius 10, formosius 11, dulcius 14), or implied (9 and 12), between the artless manifestations of nature and their cultivated, trained, or man-made counterparts; ‘wild flowers are more beautiful to behold than cultivated ones; similarly ivy and arbutus which grow as they will are more attractive than those in gardens; natural rills more charming than artificial fountains, … birds which sing from the heart delight us more than those which have been taught.’

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 43 , Issue 3-4 , July 1949 , pp. 118 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1949

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References

page 118 note 1 For this use of pingere, pictura, and words, see my article in C.R. vol. lxi, No. 2, p. 47, n. 1.

page 118 note 2 For other neuter pronouns used in oblique cases to refer generally to the preceding subject matter, cf. Prop. 1. 15. 41 quis, 2. 17. 3 horum, 3. 2. 23 illis.

page 119 note 1 ‘nunc nullam habere ἔμφασιν in hac uerborum iunctura’ (Enk).

page 120 note 1 The chariot is that of Fortune; it is here mentioned with Icarus, as in Lucian, l.C. πειδν γρ αὐτοὺς τχη μηδν τοιοτον λπσαντας ἄφνω ναβιβση εἰς πτηνν τι. κα μετρσιον ἄχημα … ὥσπερ Iκαρος γλωτα φλισκνονσιν εἰς πελγη … μππτοντες. Compare also the anonymous Hymn to Fortune in Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina 196 (3rd cent. A.D.): τ μν ὑψιφα κα σεμν εἰς τεν μμ ὑπρικας ποτ γν … τ δ φαλα κα ταπειν πολλκις εἰς ὕψος ξειρας. The idea seems to derive from the winged chariot of Medea, Eur. Med. 1122–3.

page 120 note 2 Cf. Longus, 2. 7. I: θες στιν, ὦ παῖδες, Ἒρωε νος κα καλς κα πετμενος δι τοτο κα νετητι χαρει κα κλλος διώκει κα τας ψνχς ναπτεροῖ.

page 122 note 1 The legal colour of the context should be noted—for 7–9 cogor habere notam etc., cf. Cic. pro Clu. 46. 129 ‘et, qui pretio adductus eripuerit patriam fortunas liberos ciui innocenti, is censoriae seueritatis nota non inureretur?’ Ovid, , Her. 4. 32, 9. 20Google Scholar; for quid tantum merui, cf. Ter. Andr. 139 ‘quid fed? quid commerui aut peccaui, pater?’

page 124 note 1 The epithet is strange, and deserves attention; it has no parallel, but appears to be used for Cyprio, the connexion between bronze and Paphos being through Cinyras, who discovered bronze deposits in Cyprus (Pliny, , H.N. 7. 195)Google Scholar, and established there the cult of Paphian Venus (Tac. Hist. 2. 3). But the phrase is strongly reminiscent of saeuo Veneris aeno; if Ovid had understood it as I do, he would have found his adaptation simpler to make. The twelfth-century erotic iambographer, Nicetas Eugenianus (in whose Drosilla and Charides are many echoes of Propertius), may also have understood it so; cf. 2. 120 δρν λαβὼν Ἔρωτος νθρακονργαν and 3. 220–1 αἶ αἶ, τεφροῖς με τῇ καμνῳ το πθον, | κα πνρπολεῖς τ σπλχνα κα τν καρδαν.

page 124 note 2 aenum takes its sense from the context. It = ‘cauldron’ in Virg. Aen. 7. 463, Geo. f. 296, et al., but ‘dyeing-vat’ in Ovid, , Met. 6Google Scholar. 61, et al., ‘cooking-pot’ or ‘saucepan’ in Petronius 74, and is used of brazen vessels generally in Pliny, H.N. II. 193, 12. 88Google Scholar.