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Cynthia’s resurrection

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Cynthia is back from the grave, on an excursion with someone who looks like a rival for Propertius to visit a festival where a fearsome snake is to be fed by maidens in honour of Juno – and when she returns and catches Propertius up to no good, she gives him good reason to regret it. But in the preceding poem she was dead and buried: what is going on?

Find a suggestion, hear an extract from the original Latin and follow the whole poem in parallel text here.

Snake photo by Holger Krisp: see the photo credits page for licensing details.

Cynthia’s parting shot

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Cynthia is no more, but as Propertius lies in bed, her ghost appears to give him a trademark dressing-down. But is all as it seems? Perhaps we will find out in Propertius’s next poem…

Hear an extract in the original Latin and follow the poem in English with a parallel text here.

Apollo and Daphne

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The archer-God Apollo, flushed with his victory over Python, the monstrous serpent, has poked fun at Cupid’s bow, suggesting that such weapons are best left to the grown-ups. Cupid takes his revenge by inducing Daphne, a huntress-nymph, to renounce love altogether, and then making Apollo fall for her, head over heels.

Hear Ovid’s Latin and follow in English here.

A flea in Bassus’s ear

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In his fourth poem about his lover, Cynthia, Propertius delivers a sharp response to an acquaintance who tells him he should be looking elsewhere. Her accomplishments include the arts, including music – and certain other things, he adds …

Hear Propertius’s Latin and follow in English here.

Horace and his friend Virgil

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Virgil is bound for Athens. His friend, Horace, wishes him a voyage watched over by the Gods, and a safe return. In a bravura performance on a conventional theme, he goes on to marvel at the presumption of those who step over the divinely-ordained boundaries of the natural world by hazarding an ocean voyage.

Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.