In this poem, Propertius insults an unnamed woman for her manipulative and lusty behavior. Note that her asexual and unwilling target [coded with the mythological name Hippolytus] is seen as a conquest:
terra tuum spinis obducat, lena, sepulcrum,
et tua, quod non uis, sentiat umbra sitim;
nec sedeant cineri Manes, et Cerberus ultor
turpia ieiuno terreat ossa sono!
docta uel Hippolytum Veneri mollire negantem,
concordique toro pessima semper auis,
Penelopen quoque neglecto rumore mariti
nubere lasciuo cogeret Antinoo.
illa uelit, poterit magnes non ducere ferrum,
et uolucris nidis esse nouerca suis.
--Propertius, Eleg.IV.5.1-10
May thorns cover your grave, you little hussy,
And may your ghost still feel insatiable lust:
May your spirit never be at rest, and
May Cerberus rattle your wicked bones with his unending barking!
You who knew how to seduce a chaste Hippolytus,
You who loom ominously over consenting lovers,
Who would even force Penelope to abandon hopes of her husband’s return
And marry the lusty Antinoos.
If she wanted to, this woman could make a magnet not attract iron,
And make a winged mother bird abandon her nest.
PROPERTIUS
|
MAP:
|
Name: Sextus Propertius
Date: 50 – 15 BCE
Works: Elegies
|
REGION 1
 |
BIO:
|
Timeline:
|
Propertius was an Italian-born Roman lyric
poet whose love poetry provides insight into the mores of Augustan Rome.
Like Catullus and Tibullus, Propertius used a pseudonym for the object of his
attention; many of his love poems were addressed to “Cynthia.”
|
GOLDEN AGE ROME
 |
