M/M: I Miss You, Buddy: Ausonius to Paulinus 1.16-19

Name:  Ausonius Date:  310 – 395 CE Region:  Aquitania, Gaul [modern France] Citation:  Letter 27.34 – 37

In this letter to Paulinus, Ausonius complains about his absence by comparing their relationship to other great relationships of mythology.

 

Faithless one! You’d really break up Pirithous and Theseus,

Separate Euryalus from his Nisus?

You’d convince Pylades to abandon Orestes,

And keep the Sicilian Damon from offering himself as a hostage

So Pythias can escape?

Impie, Pirithoo disiungere Thesea posses,

Euryalumque suo socium secernere Niso!

Te suadente fugam, Pylades liquisset Orestem,

Nec custodisset Siculus vadimonia Damon!

Ausonius [Decimus Magnus Ausonius; 310 – 395 CE, modern France] was a Roman poet from Aquitania, Gaul who lived during the 4th century CE. He is best known for his epic poem Mosella, which describes the Moselle River, and his Epistles, a series of literary poems between himself and the Christian poet Paulinus. 

Saying Farewell to a Friend: Anth. Lat. 445

Roman men often had deep, loving and affectionate friendships with their peers. There was no shame or stigma in expressing love and support to one another.

 Friends, my Crispus was taken away from me

If I could give anything to bring him back

I would gladly give half of my life.

Now the best part of me has abandoned me.

Crispus, you were my support, my joy,

My heart, my delight:  

Without him, my mind cannot find anything enjoyable.

I will spend the rest of my life worn out and defeated

Since more than half of me has gone.

--Anthologia Latina 445

Ablatus mihi Crispus est, amici

pro quo si pretium dari liceret

nostros dividerem libenter annos.

Nunc pars optima me mei reliquit

Crispus, praesidium meum, voluptas,

pectus, deliciae: nihil sine illo

laetum mens mea iam putabit esse.

Consumptus male debilisque vivam:

plus quam dimidium mei recessit.

 

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.

Married to Her Passion: the Ace Roman Painter Iaia, Pliny the Elder Nat. Hist. 35.147-148

Iaia, The Best of Women Artists

Name: Pliny the Elder Date: 23 – 79 CE Region:  Como [modern Italy]; Rome [modern Italy] Citation:  Natural History, 35.147-148

There were also women painters:

·         Timarete, the daughter of Micon, [the creator of] Diana, a painting in Ephesus that is among the oldest

·         Irene, the daughter and protégé of the painter Cratinus, [the creator of] Proserpina (which is on display at Eleusis), as well as a painting of Calypso, an old man, and the juggler Theodorus, as well as the dancer Alcisthenes

·         Aristarete, the daughter and protégé of Nearchus, [the creator of] Aesculapius

·         Iaia of Cyzicus, who never married, was a painter at Rome during the time of Marcus Varro’s youth, did both paintings and engravings in ivory. Her specialty was portraits of women, the most famous of which is on display at Naples, a huge portrait of an old woman, as well as a self portrait in a mirror. No painter was faster at the art, and she was so skilled that her works were more valuable than even very famous artists of the time period, Sopolis and Dionysius, whose paintings litter our modern museums.

·         Some woman named Olympias, but the only thing we really still know about her was that she had a protégé named Autobulus.

Pinxere et mulieres:

·        Timarete, Miconis filia, Dianam, quae in tabula Ephesi est antiquissimae picturae;

·        Irene, Cratini pictoris filia et discipula, puellam, quae est Eleusine, Calypso, senem et praestigiatorem Theodorum, Alcisthenen saltatorem;

·        Aristarete, Nearchi filia et discipula, Aesculapium.

·        Iaia Cyzicena, perpetua virgo, M. Varronis iuventa Romae et penicillo pinxit et cestro in ebore imagines mulierum maxime et Neapoli anum in grandi tabula, suam quoque imaginem ad speculum. Nec ullius velocior in pictura manus fuit, artis vero tantum, ut multum manipretiis antecederet celeberrimos eadem aetate imaginum pictores Sopolim et Dionysium, quorum tabulae pinacothecas inplent.

Pinxit et quaedam Olympias, de qua hoc solum memoratur, discipulum eius fuisse Autobulum.

Pliny the Elder [Gaius Plinius Secundus; 23 – 79 CE, modern Italy] was an Italian-born Roman statesman and author who lived during the reigns of the early Roman emperors. He spent most of his life in service of his country; he ultimately gave his life in arranging the evacuation of the regions devastated by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. His work, the Natural History, is a 37-volume collection of art, history, and science of the ancient world.

Blessed Are those in love! Bion fr. 8

 

Name: Bion Date:  c. 2nd – 1st century BCE Region: Smyrna [modern Turkey] Citation:  Fragment 8

Blessed are those who are in love,

Especially when it is reciprocated!

Theseus was happy with Pirithous by his side,

Even when he descended into the inescapable halls of Hades.

Orestes was blessed even in the harsh land of his enemies

As long as Pylades was traveling by his side.

Achilles was blessed for as long as his companion Patroclus lived;

And once he died, Achilles returned to his blessed state,

For he used his death to avenge his lover’s.

 

Ὄλβιοι οἱ φιλέοντες, ἐπὴν ἴσον ἀντεράωνται. ὄλβιος ἦν Θησεὺς τῶ Πειριθόω παρεόντος, εἰ καὶ ἀμειλίκτοιο κατήλυθεν εἰς Ἀΐδαο. ὄλβιος ἦν χαλεποῖσιν ἐν Ἀξείνοισιν Ὀρέστας, ὥνεκά οἱ ξυνὰς Πυλάδας ᾄρητο κελεύθως. ἦν μάκαρ Αἰακίδας ἑτάρω ζώοντος Ἀχιλλεύς: ὄλβιος ἦν θνᾴσκων, ὅτι οἱ μόρον αἰνὸν ἄμυνεν.

Beati sunt qui amant, quum pariter redamantur.  Beatus erat Theseus, quum Pirithous adesset, etsi descendit in implacabilis Plutonis domum. Beatus erat inter asperos barbaros Orestes, quoties cum eo communia Pylades susceperat itinerat. Erat felix Aeacides socio vivente Achilles beatus erat moriens, quod ei mortem infelicem ulciscebatur. Translated into Latin by  Franz Siegfried Lehrs

Bion of Smyrna [c. 2nd to 1st century BCE; modern Turkey] was a Greek poet from Smyrna [modern Turkey]. Little is known about his life, and only fragments remain of his poetry, but he was considered to be one of the best and most influential bucolic poets of ancient Greek and Roman literature.

Athena, Unswayed by Aphrodite. Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 7 - 15

Athena, Unswayed by Aphrodite

Name:    Unknown Date:    7th – 5th century BCE Region:    [modern Greece] Citation:   Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, 7 – 15

But Aphrodite is not able to persuade three goddesses, nor can she beguile them.

One is the aegis-wearing daughter of Zeus, the bright-eyed Athena.

She doesn’t enjoy the works of golden Aphrodite;

Instead she runs after battles and Ares’ sphere of influence—

Conflicts and skirmishes and the equipment that goes with it.

She was the first to teach men the art of woodcraft outdoors,

And how to make chariots and carriages out of different types of metal.

Yet she also taught tender maidens splendid works indoors,

Granting a different type of knowledge to each person.

τρισσὰς δ᾽ οὐ δύναται πεπιθεῖν φρένας οὐδ᾽ ἀπατῆσαι: κούρην τ᾽ αἰγιόχοιο Διός, γλαυκῶπιν Ἀθήνην: οὐ γὰρ οἱ εὔαδεν ἔργα πολυχρύσου Ἀφροδίτης, ἀλλ᾽ ἄρα οἱ πόλεμοί τε ἅδον καὶ ἔργον Ἄρηος ὑσμῖναί τε μάχαι τε καὶ ἀγλαὰ ἔργ᾽ ἀλεγύνειν. πρώτη τέκτονας ἄνδρας ἐπιχθονίους ἐδίδαξε ποιῆσαι σατίνας τε καὶ ἅρματα ποικίλα χαλκῷ. ἣ δέ τε παρθενικὰς ἁπαλόχροας ἐν μεγάροισιν ἀγλαὰ ἔργ᾽ ἐδίδαξεν ἐπὶ φρεσὶ θεῖσα ἑκάστῃ.

Verum tres sunt deae, quarum animum flectere, suaque; fraude convellere haudquaquam potis est: nempe caesiam Minervam Jovis Filiam. Non enim illi aureae Veneris placuere opera: sed bella semper ac Martis opera grata sunt, praeliaque et pugnae, acres tractare splendidas. Prima enim artifices in terra docuit viros scuta construere, variosque ferro currus. Haec quoque teneras virgines intra limen docuit praeclara illa opera conficere, unicuique inflammans animum. Translated into Latin by Raphael Regio Volterranus (1541)

Artemis: Unswayed by Aphrodite's Power, Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 15-20

Name:    Unknown Date:    7th – 5th century BCE Region:    [modern Greece] Citation:   Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, 15-20

 …Furthermore, laughter-loving Aphrodite has never made golden-arrowed Artemis settle down in love. For she loves her bow and slaying beasts in the mountains, the lyre and dancing and war cries, shady groves and cities of just men.

οὐδέ ποτ᾽ Ἀρτέμιδα χρυσηλάκατον, κελαδεινὴν

δάμναται ἐν φιλότητι φιλομμειδὴς Ἀφροδίτη.

καὶ γὰρ τῇ ἅδε τόξα καὶ οὔρεσι θῆρας ἐναίρειν,

φόρμιγγές τε χοροί τε διαπρύσιοί τ᾽ ὀλολυγαὶ

ἄλσεά τε σκιόεντα δικαίων τε πτόλις ἀνδρῶν.

 

Neque unquam venatoriam atque aureo insignem arcu Dianae in amore domat ridens Venus. Etenim hanc iuvat arcus montesque ferarum caede inficere, et citharae choreaeque atque sublati clamores, et opaca nemora, et iustis civitas virorum.  Translated into Latin by Raphael Regio Volterranus (1541)