It is time for Lavinia, the only child of King Latinus of Latium, to marry. Her mother, the Queen, has definite plans, but the omens are unfavourable, including a horrifying accident as Lavinia’s hair catches fire at the altar.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
Today’s poem consist of extracts from De Rerum Natura (on the nature of things) by Lucretius. He was a follower of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who taught that humanity should free itself from fear of the Gods, death and the tomb. See Lucretius’s poet page here, and hear the poetry in Latin and follow in English here.
In the illustration by Boulanger, the people bustling along the Appian Way do not seem to be taking much notice of the tombs which line the road, according to Roman custom.
But wishes she hadn’t Hear the Latin, which contains probably the most succinct summary of the Gods’ sexual misbehaviour, here and follow in English.
Hear Ovid’s version of the abduction of the beautiful Europa by Jupiter disguised as a bull here.
See and hear a selection of poems by Catullus, Virgil, Callimachus and Archilochus on the theme of loss and mourning here.
Who is this lecher boasting that he can go all night and one woman is not enough? What happened to the Propertius who is always pledging eternal loyalty to Cynthia alone, even when she is treating him like a doormat? It’s a reminder that poets are not necessarily diarists or autobiographers: if they are any good, they are artists, using their creative imagination. If you were a Roman who wanted to write love elegy and didn’t have a lover, you would invent one. If you did have one, you – and she or he – might have views on how literally the relationship should be turned into verse. Conversely, when they seem at their most imaginative and spontaneous, Roman poets may be following a convention or a model from centuries of Greek precedents that we may or may not know about. It all adds to the mystery that is one of the charms of poetry.
Hear the poem and follow in English here.
This ode is a lively and heartfelt tribute to the God of wine – if you want a potted biography in the form of mythological reference, here it is! Like Virgil’s Aeneas, Bacchus is one of the select band to make the journey to Hades and return to the upper world: in the most charming description of Cerberus in Latin, Horace shows the watchdog of the underworld in unusually gentle mood. The illustration of Cerberus is by William Blake.
Hear the poem in Latin and follow in English here.
Around 650 BCE, mourning a brother-in-law lost at sea, the warrior-poet Archilochus tells his friend that sorrow is something that the Gods expect us to endure. The illustration shows mourners from a Greek vase of the sixth century BCE. Archilochus is the earliest poet of personal experience that we have from Greece: learn more about him on his poet page here.
Hear the poem in Greek and follow in English here.
Today’s new selection of poems on prospering love includes poems by Catullus, Ovid, Horace, Propertius and Virgil. You will find the links to follow here.