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Juvenal and Propertius
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
In his article ‘Juvenal's Bookcase,’ Gilbert Highet demonstrates that Juvenal's poetry was stylistically influenced chiefly by Martial, Ovid, Vergil, and Horace. Highet also points out that Juvenal was familiar with Propertius’ elegies, and cites four instances of imitation. In this study we shall examine these passages and other passages where the satirist may have been influenced by the Augustan elegist.
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References
1 American Journal of Philology 72 (1951) 369–394. Professor Highet (p. 392) points out the following borrowings: Prop. 2.32.2 - Juv. 13. 210; Prop. 2.9.41 and 4.11.37 - Juv. 8.146–150; Prop. 3.25.1 - Juv. 15.42; Prop 4.7.1 - Juv. 2. 149.Google Scholar
2 The passages to be discussed are drawn chiefly from Friedlaender, Ludwig, D. Junii Juvenalis Saturarum Libri V, hereafter ‘Friedlaender’ (2 vols., Leipzig 1895; reprinted Amsterdam 1962); Butler, H. E. and Barber, E. A., The Elegies of Propertius, hereafter Butler and Barber (Oxford 1933); Enk, P. J., Sex. Propertii Elegiarum Liber I (Monobiblos), Pars Prior (Leyden 1946) 69–70; Shackleton Bailey, D. R., ‘Echoes of Propertius,’ Mnemosyne 4 5 (1952) 320; Id., Propertiana (Cambridge 1956).Google Scholar
3
All quotations from Juvenal point to W. V. Clausen's edition (Oxford
1959), unless otherwise indicated; all quotations from Propertius refer to E. A. Barber's edition (Oxford
19602).Google Scholar
4 On rubeta see Butler and Barber on Prop. 3.6.27.Google Scholar
5 Et contum is the reading adopted in Owen's, S. G. edition (Oxford 1908 2); Clausen, (above, note 3) reads Cocytum et. Google Scholar
6 A quadrans (‘farthing’), one fourth of an as, was the price of admission to the public baths; cf. Horace Serm. 1.3.137; Juv. 6.447.Google Scholar
7 The locus classicus for this thought is Iliad 23.103–107, where Achilles mentions the nocturnal visit of the slain Patroclus' ghost. For a discussion and translation of Prop. 4.7, see Highet's, G. Poets in a Landscape (New York 1957) 94–98.Google Scholar
8 On Propertius' attitude toward death and the afterlife see Michels, A. K., ‘Death and Two Poets,’ Transactions of the American Philological Association 86 (1955) 171–179.Google Scholar
9 For other examples of epic parody in Juvenal see Scott, I. G., The Grand Style in the Satires of Juvenal (Northampton, Mass. 1927) 46–90.Google Scholar
10 I 170.Google Scholar
11 For a translation and a careful analysis of Propertius 2.23 see Allen, A. W. in Critical Essays on Roman Literature: Elegy and Lyric , edited by Sullivan, J. P. (London 1962) 121–124.Google Scholar
12 On the Sixth Satire see Anderson, W. S. ‘Juvenal 6: A Problem in Structure’ Classical Philology 51 (1956) 73–94; Mason, H. A. in Critical Essays on Roman Literature: Satire , edited by Sullivan, J. P. (London 1963) 136–155.Google Scholar
13 The locus classicus for the Golden Age is Hesiod, Works and Days 109–120. Cf. Tibullus 1.3.35–48; Vergil, , Georgics 2.536–540; Aen. 8.319–325; Ovid, , Am. 3.8.35–44; Met. 1.89–112.Google Scholar
14 I accept here the interpretation of Butler and Barber ad loc. p. 253.Google Scholar
15 Butler and Barber point out (ad loc.) that iam is needed here to avoid hiatus.Google Scholar
16 Friedlaender (I 135) gives a list of the relative clauses which Juvenal often uses as periphrases for common nouns, personal names, or place names.Google Scholar
17 Juvenal himself uses misellus in 13.213 and ocellus in 6.109, 578. Friedlaender (I. 131–132, 210) gives a list of diminutives used by Juvenal.Google Scholar
18 Juvenal the Satirist (Oxford 1954) 268.Google Scholar
19 For an interesting comparison of the Paetus elegy and Milton's Lycidas see Sellar, W. Y., Horace and the Elegiac Poets (Oxford 1891: reprinted 1937) 314–315.Google Scholar
20 Cf. Cicero's remark to Clodia about her brother Clodius, Pro Caelio 36: ‘qui propter nescio quam, credo, timiditatem et nocturnos quosdam inanis metus tecum semper pusio cum maiore sorore cubitabat.’ Google Scholar
21 In Am. 1.8, an imitation of Prop. 4.5, the lena Dipsas is overheard dispensing advice to Ovid's mistress.Google Scholar
22 Serafini, A., Studio sulla satira di Giovenale (Florence 1957) 182–185, has a good analysis of the Messalina vignette.Google Scholar
23 ‘Turn Sabinae mulieres, quarum ex iniuria bellum ortum erat, crinibus passis scissaque veste victo malis muliebri pavore ausae se inter tela volantia inferre, ex transverso impetu facto dirimere infestas acies, dirimere iras … 'Cf. Ovid's account in Ars am. 1.101–130.Google Scholar
24 A Numidian chieftain, surprised and defeated in his camp by Scipio Africanus the Elder: Livy 30.12.Google Scholar
25 Imitated by Ovid Am. 1.2.1–2: Google Scholar
Esse quid hoc dicam, quod tam mihi dura videntur Google Scholar
strata, neque in lecto pallia nostra sedent? Google Scholar
26 Butler and Barber (p. 196) believe that cum of Prop. 2.3.21 is probably a repetition of the conjunction cum in line 19, and take Corinnae as a dative of association after committit. They add, however, that cum may be a preposition, cum Corinnae = cum scriptis; Corinnae. Google Scholar
27 Juvenal (11.180–181) again couples the two poets.Google Scholar
28 Cf. Lucan, 1.652: ‘stella nocens … Saturni.’ Google Scholar
29 Cf. Lucan, 1.661–662: ‘Venerisque salubre sidus.’ Google Scholar
30 Other passages in Juvenal on the influence of the planets are 7.194–196, 200; 9.33–34: 16.3–4.Google Scholar
31 I accept here Camps, W. A.' interpretation of pretium fecere (Propertius, Elegies Book IV [Cambridge 1965] 65).Google Scholar
32 Scott, I. G. (above, note 9), p. 96, believes that Juvenal's sidus triste may be an imitation of Vergil, , Aen. 11.259–260 triste Minervae / sidus.' Google Scholar
33 On Plautius Lateranus see Tacitus, , Ann. 11.36, 13.11, 15.49, 15.53, 15.60.Google Scholar
34 For a discussion and translation of this, ‘the queen of elegies,’ see Highet, (above, note 7) 98–104.Google Scholar
35 She is descended from Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus, called ‘Numantinus’ in commemoration of his victory at Numantia in 133 B. C.Google Scholar
36 On ‘devotio’ see Rose's, H. J. article in the Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford 1949) 270. Juvenal alludes to the patriotism of the Decii again in 14.239. Cf. also Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 1.89, 2.59; Prop. 3.11.62; Lucan 2.308, 6.785–786, 7.359.Google Scholar
37 The consul Brutus and the Decii are found in juxtaposition also in Vergil, , Aen. 6.819–824.Google Scholar
38 On the Ninth Satire see Mason, H. A. (above, note 12), 96–107.Google Scholar
39 Od. 12.37–54, 165–200.Google Scholar
40 Highet, , Juvenal the Satirist 276, shows that Juvenal's Tenth Satire is an elaborate expansion of Persius' Second Satire. See also Nisbet's, R. G. M. essay on Persius in Critical Essays on Roman Literature: Satire (above, note 12) 39–71.Google Scholar
41 Cf. Ausonius' epitaph (8) for Nestor (Evelyn, H. G. White's text, Loeb Classical Library edition, I 145):Google Scholar
Hoc tegor in tumulo quarti iam prodigus aevi Google Scholar
Nestor, , consilio clarus et eloquio.Google Scholar
obiecit sese cuius pro morte peremptus Google Scholar
filius et nati vulnere vivo pater.Google Scholar
eheu cur fatis disponere sic placet aevum ,Google Scholar
tam longum ut nobis, tam breve ut Antilocho? Google Scholar
42 Post tria saecla is a reminiscence of Iliad 1.250–252, verses on Nestor's age.Google Scholar
43 For the punishment of Ixion cf. Pindar, , Pyth. 2.21–41; Vergil, , Aen. 6.601, 616–617; Tib. 1.3.73–74; Prop. 4.11.23; Ovid, , Met. 4.461, 9.123–124, 10.42; Ibis 176.Google Scholar
44 The locus classicus for the punishment of Sisyphus is Homer Od. 11.593–600: cf. Vergil, , Aen. 6.616; Horace, , Carm. 2.14.19–20; Prop. 2.17.7–8, 2.20.32, 4.11.23; Ovid, , Met. 4.460, 10.44, 13.26; Ibis 175, 191.Google Scholar
45 For the punishment of Tityus cf. Homer Od. 11.576–581; Vergil, , Aen. 6.595–600; Horace, , Carm. 2.14.8; Tib. 1.3.75–76; Prop. 2.20.31; Ovid, , Am. 3.12.25; Met. 4.457–458, 10.43; Ibis 181–182.Google Scholar
46 Prop. 3.5.25–38 is similar in thought to Vergil, , Georg. 2.475–482.Google Scholar
47 For the snaky locks of Tisiphone cf. Tib. 1.3.69–70; Ovid, , Met. 4.474–475, 491–496; Juvenal, 6.29.Google Scholar
48 Alcmaeon, , first mentioned in Homer Od. 15.248, murdered his mother Eriphyle (Vergil, , Aen. 6.445–446) to avenge the death of his father, the prophet Amphiaraus (Od. 15.244–247). Eriphyle, bribed by the gift of a necklace, persuaded her reluctant husband to join the disastrous expedition of the Seven against Thebes (Od. 11.326–327; cf. Prop. 2.16.29, 3.13.57–58; Ovid, , Ars am. 3.13–14; Statius, , Thebaid 2.299–305, 4.187–213, 8.104–107; Juvenal 6.655). Ovid summarizes this story of greed and matricide in Met. 9.406–410.Google Scholar
49 On the Harpies‘ pollution of Phineus’ food and his consequent near-starvation, see Apol. Rhod., Argonautica 2.178–193, 2.223–231. In Apollonius' account (2.262–296, cf. Ovid, , Met. 7.2–4), the Argonauts Zetes and Calais drive off the Harpies, but Propertius represents Phineus' punishment as continuing in Tartarus.Google Scholar
50 For the receding water and the elusive fruit which eternally torment Tantalus, the locus classicus is Od. 11.582–592; cf. Horace, , Serm. 1.1.68–69; Carm. 1.28.7; Tib. 1.3.77–78; Prop. 2.1.66, 2.17.5–6, 4.11.24; Ovid, Am. 3.12.30; Ars am. 2.605–606; Met. 4.458–459, 10.41–42; Ibis 179–180. For a rational interpretation of the punishments of Tantalus, Tityus, and Sisyphus see Lucretius, 3.978–1002.Google Scholar
51 Butler and Barber (273) believe that scopuli refers to the punishment of Sisyphus. Camps, W. A. ( Propertius, Elegies Book III [Cambridge 1966] 78) believes that scopuli ‘must have been suggested by the other version of Tantalus’ punishment, the rock hanging over his head and always seeming about to fall.' For this overhanging rock cf. Pindar Ol. 1.57–58 and Lucretius 3.980–981.Google Scholar
52 On Prop. 2.32 see Luck, G., The Latin Love Elegy (London 1959) 109–110, 171.Google Scholar
53 Luck, (117) points out that Propertius, ‘although no story-teller … tries at least to find a beginning and an end. This applies to his affair with Cynthia as a whole (1.1 and 3.25), as well as the many stories, incidents, and pointed situations that consitute its fabric.’ Google Scholar