M/M: United in Death: Carpos & Calamos

Carpus and Calamus

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Eclogues, 5.48

The story of Calamus is as follows: ancient authors say that the wind Zephyr married one of the Hours, and together they had a very handsome son named Carpus. Calamus, the son of the river god Meander, fell in love with him, and they loved each other intensely. However, when Carpus fell into the Meander river and drowned, Calamus was horrified by his father’s deed and ran away. He begged Jupiter to end his grief and let him die as well, so that he could join his sweetheart in death. Moved to pity, Jupiter ordered Calamus to be transformed into a reed, which is accustomed to bloom around riverbanks. Then he transformed Carpus into the fruit of all things, so he could always be reborn.

Carpus and Calamus

Fabula de Calamo talis est: veteres Zephyro vento unam ex horis coniugem adsignant, ex qua et Zephyro Carpon filium pulcherrimi corporis editum dicunt. Quem cum Calamus, Maeandri fluvii filius, amaret, a Carpo mutua vice etiam ipse adamatus est. Sed Carpos cum in Maeandrum fluvium cadens esset extinctus, Calamus, patrem propter hoc scelus aversatus, aufugit rogavitque Jovem, ut finem suis luctibus daret sibique mortem praestaret, ut amato post obitum iungeretur. Quem miseratione Juppiter ductus in harundinales calamos verti iussit, qui semper circa oras fluminum nasci solent, Carpon vero in fructus rerum omnium vertit, ut semper renasceretur.

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

W/W: Remember Me, Delicate Rose: A Medieval Love Poem

Remember Me, Delicate Rose: A Medieval Nun to Her Girlfriend

Name:    Unknown Date:     12th Century CE Region:  [western Europe] Citation:   MGH Volume 8: Liebesbriefe 8 [1]

To her unique rose G,

From A, the bond of precious love.

How can I be strong enough

To endure your leaving?

Isn’t my strength the strength of stone

To wait for your return?

Night and day, I can’t stop grieving

When you’re gone, it feels like I’ve lost a hand and a foot.

When you’re gone, everything that is pleasant and delightful

Is like mud under my foot.

I turn to weeping instead of joy;

My heart is never happy.

When I recall the kisses you’ve given me,

And how you restored my heart with your happy words,

I’d rather die

Than not see you again.

What will wretched ol’ me do?

Where will poor li’l ol’ me turn?

If only my body were laid to earth

Until your longed-for return occurs,

Or if I could make a trip like Habakkuk

To go where you are.

To see the face of my lover—just once!—

I’d be content to die right then and there.

For no other woman was born in the universe

Who is so lovely and pleasant,

Without any fake or feigned aspects,

Who loves me with such deep intimacy.

 So I’ll never stop grieving

Until I’m worthy of seeing you again.

According to a certain Wise One,

Mankind’s great Sorrow is to be kept from

The one person you cannot live without.

As long as the world still stands

You will never be taken from the bottom of my heart.

Why do I delay any further?

Return,  sweet love!

Don’t put off your travels any longer,

Remember that I cannot endure your absence any longer.

Goodbye.

Remember me.

[1] Piechl,Helmut and Bergmann, Werner. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Vol. 8: Die Tegernseer Briefsammlung des 12. Jahrhunderts, p. 356. 

Remember Me, Delicate Rose: A Medieval Nun to her Girlfriend

G unicae suae rosae

A vinculum dilectionis preciosae.

Quae est fortitudo mea, ut sustineam,

ut in tuo discessu patientiam habeam?

Numquid fortitudo mea fortitudo est lapidum,

ut tuum exspectem reditum?

Quae nocte et die non cesso dolere,

velut qui caret manu et pede.

Omne quod iucundum est et delectabile

absque te habetur ut lutum pedum calcabile.

Pro gaudere duco fletus

numquam animus meus apparet laetus.Dum recordor quae dedisti oscula,

et quam iucundis verbis refrigerasti pectuscula,

mori libet

quod te videre non licet.

Quid faciam miserrima?

Quo me vertam pauperrima?

O si corpus meum terrae fuisset creditum

usque ad optatum tuum reditum,

aut si translatio mihi concederetur Abaccuc

ut semel venissem illuc,

ut vultum amantis inspexissem,

et tunc non curarem si ipsa hora mortua fuissem!

Nam in mundo non est nata

quae tam amabilis sit et grata,

et quae sine simulatione

tam intima me diligat dilectione.

Unde sine fine non cesso dolere

donec te merear videre.

Revera iuxta quendam sapientem magna miseria est hominis,

cum illo non esse

sine quo non potest esse.

Dum constat orbis

numquam deleberis de medio mei cordis.

Quid multis moror?

Redi, dulcis amor!

Noli iter tuum longius differe,

scias me absentiam tuam diutius non posse suffere.

Vale,

meique memorare.     

M/M: A Medieval version of the Hyacinthus myth, Hildebert of Levardin 14

Apollo Mourns Hyacinthus

Name: Hildebert of Levardin Date:   1055 – 1133 CE Region: Levardin [modern France] Citation:   #4, Phoebus On the Death of Hyacinthus

Phoebus, being

A god,

A healer,

And a lover,

Trying in vain to stop Hyacinth from dying, said,

“Gods, please spare my boyfriend!

If we cannot both die,

I’d rather follow him in death

Than remain living as a god.

If you won’t allow this,

Let part of both of us remain together

And part of us die together,

And I will come to terms with losing my godhood.

Both of us will happily adjust to losing part of ourselves,

While part of us falls to the underworld together,

The other part of us flying together to the stars.”

Apollo Mourns Hyacinthus

Et deus et medicus et amans, rescindere frustra

tentans Aebalidae funera, Phoebus ait;

“Parcite, di, puero, si non moriatur uterque;

malo sequi puerum quam superesse deum.

Si prohibetis et hoc, sit pars utriusque superstes,

par cadit, ignoscam sic minor esse deo.

Quisque feret laetus propriae dispendia partis,

dum pars ad manes, pars eat ad superos.”  

Hildebert of Levardin [1055 – 1133 CE, modern France] was a famous Christian author and bishop. Although he spent a majority of his life serving in various Church roles in what is now France, his most famous poem is his love poem to the city of Rome, [“Par tibi, Roma, nihil, cum sis prope tota ruina,”] in which he begs for aid to preserve its historical and architectural marvels.

M/M: Gone, but not forgotten: John Tzetzes Analyzes the Deaths of Hyacinthus & Narcissus, Hist. 1.11

Hyacinthus and Narcissus, United in Purpose

Name: John Tzetzes Date:   1100 – 1180 CE Region:    Constantinople [modern Istanbul, Turkey] Citation:     Histories / Chiliades 1.241 – 265

There are countless tales of abduction and transformation in Greco-Roman mythology. Although modern readers see these myths as cautionary tales against predatory behavior, their

primary purpose in the ancient world was an attempt to alleviate grief after the loss of a loved one.  Young people who died before reaching societal milestones of adulthood would be euphemistically married to divinities as a way of handling the grief of their lost potential. There are countless references to young people being “snatched by the nymphs,” or becoming “brides” of Persephone or Hades. In this passage, the Byzantine author John Tzetzes explains how the transformations of Narcissus and Hyacinthus were used to help alleviate the grief of their loved ones.

Hyacinthus was the attractive brother of Cynortus.

He was the son of Amyclus and Diomeda,

From Lacon, the noble land of the Amyclean clan.

Both Apollo and Zephyr often competed for the youth’s affection.

And—they say—once, while Apollo and Hyacinthus were practicing the discus,

Zephyr sent a violent wind, and changed the course of the discus.

It struck the beautiful youth in the head and killed him.

The Earth created a flower in memory of the youth, taking his name,

Mourning his beauty the same way she mourned Narcissus.

But the allegory of Narcissus is apparent:

When the youth fell into the water, he drowned.

As a consolation for their grief,

Those who praised the youth’s beauty

Said he fell in the water, struck by longing for his own beauty.  

Famous transformation tales of plants, of trees of all kinds,

And of constellation myths are similar to this.

The kin of the deceased, transforming their loss,

Name these things after their lost kin.

Just as I’ve stated, they say that the rivals of Hyacinthus [Apollo and Zephyr]

Reveal the extreme beauty of the youth,

Since the Sun reveled in the delight of Hyacinthus,

And the Wind itself also vied for his affection.

When the youth was killed while training with a discus,

They made up a story that the Wind, jealous of the Sun,

Took Hyacinthus away from his life—and from the Sun.  

Hyacinthus and Narcissus, United in Purpose

Ὑάκινθος Κυνόρτου μὲν ἦν ἀδελφὸς ὡραῖος Ὑἱὸς Ἀμύκλου δὲ πατρός, μητρὸς τῆς Διομήδης Ἐκ γῆς ἀνδρῶν τῶν εὐγενῶν Λακώνων Ἀμυκλαίων. Ἀπόλλων δὲ καὶ Ζέφυρος τοῦ μείρακος ἀντήρων. Καὶ δή ποτε δισκεύοντος Ἀπόλλωνος σὺν τούτῳ, Λάβρον πνεύσας ὁ Ζέφυρος τὸν δίσκον περιτρέπει. Τῇ κορυφῇ δὲ τὸν καλὸν πλήξας ἀνεῖλε νέον,

Hyacinthus Cynorti quidem erat frater venustus. Filius Amycli autem patris, matris Diomedae, ex terra virorum nobilium Laconum Amycleensium. Apollo vero et Zephyrus adolescentem certatim deperibant et sane olim disco ludente Apolline cum hoc Vehementer cum efflasset zephyrus, discum circumvertit. Vertice autem pulchrum cum percussisset, occidit iuvenem.

Ἡ γῆ δ ̓ ἄνθος ὁμώνυμον ἀντέδωκε τοῦ νέου, Καθάπερ καὶ τὸν Νάρκισσον οἰκτείρασα τοῦ κάλλους. Ἀλλ’ ἡ Ναρκίσσου πρόδηλός ἐστιν ἀλληγορία, Ὅτι πεσὼν ἐν ὕδασιν ὁ νέος ἀπεπνίγη. Τὸ κάλλος δ ̓ ὑπεραίροντες, πένθους παρηγορία, Φασὶ πεσεῖν ἐν ὕδασι σκιᾶς αὐτοῦ τῷ πόθῳ. Τὸ τῶν φυτῶν δὲ πρόδηλον, ὡς καὶ τῶν δένδρων πάντων Καὶ τῶν ἀστέρων σὺν αὐτοῖς καὶ τῶν ὁμοιοτρόπων. Τῶν γὰρ θνησκόντων ἀγχιστεῖς, τρέφοντες πόθον τούτων, Ἐκεῖνα κατωνόμαζον εἰς κλήσεις τὰς ἐκείνων. Τοῦ ̔Υακίνθου δέ φασιν ἀντεραστὰς οὓς ἔφην Δεικνύντες, ὑπεραίροντες τοῦ νέου τὸ ὡραῖον Ὡς ἔχαιρεν ὁ ἥλιος τρεπόμενος τῷ νέῳ, Καὶ τῶν ἀνέμων αἱ πνοαὶ θέλγητρον εἶχον τοῦτον. Ὡς δὲ σὺν μείρακί τινι δισκεύων ἀνηρέθη

Terra autem florem eiusdem nominis reddidit pro iuvene, quasi Narcissum miserata ob pulchritudinem. Sed narcissi clara est allegoria. Quia cum cecidisset in aquas iuvenis, praefocatus est. Pulchritudinem vero extollentes, luctus solatio. Dicunt cecidisse in aquas, umbrae suae desiderio. Plantarum autem fictio clara, sicut et arborum omnium, et stellarum cum ipsis atque istiusmodi. Morientium enim affines, nutrientes desiderium horum, ista nominarunt nominibus illorum. Hyacinthi autem dicunt rivales, quos dixi, ostendentes excellentem iuvenis venustatem, quod gavisus sit Sol, oblectatus iuvene: et ventorum flatus pro deliciis habuerint hunc. Ut vero cum iuvene aliquo disco ludens interfectus est,

Ἔπλασαν ὡς ὁ Ζέφυρος βασκαίνων τῷ Ηλίῳ Ἐξάγει τοῦτον τῆς ζωῆς καὶ τοῦ λαμπρου φωσφόρου.

vento subvertente in verticem discum, finxerunt quod Zephyrus invidens Soli educit hunc e vita, atque e splendido lucifero.  Translated into Latin by Paolo Lazise

John Tzetzes [1100 – 1180 CE, Constantinople/Byzantium, modern Istanbul, Turkey] was a Byzantine scholar and beaurocrat. He is known for his epic poem the Histories / Chiliades, which ties together topics from Greek and Roman history and mythology, followed by a Christian interpretation.