Today we publish a new selection of poems by Latin authors to hear in Latin and follow in English. See the selection here.
In this second selection of poems on a theme, love is not going so smoothly. Dido is being consumed by a passion for Aeneas which as yet is unrequited: Dido Continue Reading
This is the first of a new series of Pantheon Poets Latin medleys – a selection of Latin poems which share a common theme. The first is love, and specifically Continue Reading
Propertius has been invited by his friend Tullus to go with him to Greece and Asia, but concern about Cynthia’s reaction keeps him at home.
Hear Propertius’s Latin and follow in English here.
Today’s post is the first poem in Propertius’s works. He introduces us to Cynthia. He is not happy. Whether this is because he hasn’t got her, or because he has got her, we can’t be quite sure, but by the next poem they will be an item. It will be a long and rocky ride together. Cynthia is a skilled musician and lyre player, which is not the only attribute she has in common with the sirens.
Cynthia is away, probably at the luxurious seaside resort of Baiae, with its entertainments, attractions and temptations. What is she up to? Propertius is afraid that the separation has broken the bond between them, and that a great love may be dead or dying. Not for the first or last time, his imagination is torturing him. Nevertheless he asserts – in the face of some of the evidence – that he is a one-woman man. Cynthia was the first, he says, and she will be his last.
Hear Propertius’s Latin and follow in English here.
With a flattering valuation of Cynthia’s natural beauty and an elegant selection of mythological examples to back him up, Propertius takes a swipe at fancy cosmetics and beauty treatments. Hear his Latin and follow in English 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.