Perhaps the most complex and unattainable of the Roman love elegists, Tibullus’ works were als
Perhaps the most complex and unattainable of the Roman love elegists, Tibullus’ works were also the shortest, bar those of Gallus for whom we have only a few surviving fragments. Both Propertius and Ovid produced over three volumes of Roman love elegy, whilst Tibullus published only two. Propertius offers a broad and comparatively simple introduction to the elegiac topos, and these are later echoed, amplified and subsequently carefully transformed in Ovid’s work. Tibullus’ work took these same tropes in a different direction, introducing a dream-like quality to his narrative that renders his work confusing for many readers, and yet continues to attract study and new interpretation. His concept and treatment of time, and the way this interacts with love within his poetry is one of the ways in which Tibullus manipulates these tropes, creating something that arguably cannot be seen in the surviving works of the other elegists. My personal favourite translation of Tibullus’ Elegies is the Oxford World’s Classics edition with translation by A. M. Juster. In my personal opinion, Juster’s translation lends a certain lyrical beauty to Tibullus’ work, more so than I have encountered in other editions. Further interesting reading regarding Tibullus and the other Roman love elegists includes: - P. Lee-Stecum, Power-play in Tibullus, Elegies 1 (Cambridge, 1998)- P.A. Miller, Subjecting Verses: Latin Erotic Elegy and the Emergence of the Real (Princeton, 2003)- M. Drinkwater, ‘His turn to cry: Tibullus’ Marathus cycle (1.4, 1.8, 1.9) and Roman Love elegy’, TheClassical Journal 107.4 (2012) 423-50n.b. The title of this blog, ‘and yet the victor / weeps because his foolish hands grew strong’ is taken from Juster’s translation of Tibullus 1.10 (1.10.57-8), and the url is taken from line 82, poem 1.2 - ‘and so my godless tongue must pay the price?’ -- source link
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