Overpowered by a Single Woman: The Spartans vs. The Courage of Telesilla

Name: Michele Marullo Tarchaniota Date: 1330 – 1408 CE Region:   Constantinople [modern Turkey] / Volterra [modern Italy] Citation:  Epith. Telesillae; Contantinopalitani Epigrammaton,  Book 4

 If you ask where she’s from,

Her homeland was Argos.

If you ask what her name was

Her noble name was Telesilla.

If you want to know her skillset or her courage

I’m embarrassed to tell you.

The Muse can tell you about her skills,

The Spartans can tell you about her courage.

For it’s embarrassing to say that Sparta

Was overcome by  single woman

Even though it’s Spartan custom

To always tell the truth.  

Si patriam, patria est Argos. Si nomina quaeris

Scire, Telesillae nobile nomen erat,

At si artes animosque, vetat pudor hiscere de me.

Musa sed has dicent hos lacedaemonii.

Nam quis pudeat Sparten cessisse puellae

Vera tamen fari mos Lacedaemoniis.

 

Michele Marullo Tarcaniota [1458 – 1500 CE, Constantinople, modern Turkey / Volterra, modern Italy] was a famous scholar and author known for his Greco-Roman mythology-themed poetry.

I Will Never Be Yours: An Ace Daphne Confronts Apollo, M. Marullus

Daphne: I’ll Never Be Yours, Apollo

Name: Michele Marullo Tarchaniota Date: 1330 – 1408 CE Region:   Constantinople [modern Turkey] / Volterra [modern Italy] Citation:   Illustrated Myths of Ovid (1580) 17

I am now safe from your divinity,

As a newly transformed bay tree!

I, a maiden who stayed a maiden,

I, who was mean to her stalker.

And now he hugs my naked branches and tells me to rejoice that I am now his.

I may be your tree, but I’ll not be your spouse. [1]

 

Daphne: I’ll Never Be Yours, Apollo

Tuta suis monstris, et iam nova Laurea Daphne:

Aspera amatori sic quoque virgo suo:

Nunc ait, exulta ramos complexus inanes:

Ut tua sim, coniunx non ero nempe tua.

 

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[1] A reference to the famous line of the version in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 1.557-558 [“'at, quoniam coniunx mea non potes esse, /  arbor eris certe' dixit 'mea!” / “But since you cannot be my wife, you can be my tree!”].

Michele Marullo Tarcaniota [1458 – 1500 CE, Constantinople, modern Turkey / Volterra, modern Italy] was a famous scholar and author known for his Greco-Roman mythology-themed poetry.