Propertius
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
| Revision as of 08:01, 18 May 2009 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| - | [[Image:Poggio.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Poggio]], collector of ''[[Facetiae]]'']] | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | '''Latin literature''', the body of [[literature|written works]] in the [[Latin language]], remains an enduring legacy of the [[culture of ancient Rome|culture]] of [[ancient Rome]]. The Romans produced many works of poetry, comedy, tragedy, satire, history, and rhetoric, drawing heavily on the traditions of other cultures and particularly on the more matured [[Greek literature|literary tradition of Greece]]. Long after the Western Roman Empire had fallen, the Latin language continued to play a central role in western European civilization. | + | '''Sextus Aurelius Propertius''' was a [[Latin]] [[elegy|elegiac]] poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in [[Assisium]]) and died shortly after 15 BC. |
| - | For most of the [[Medieval]] era, Latin was the dominant [[written language]] in use in [[western Europe]]. After the Roman Empire split into its Western and Eastern halves, Greek, which had been widely used all over the Empire, faded from use in the West, all the more so as the political and religious distance steadily grew between the Catholic West and the Orthodox, Greek East. The vernacular languages in the West, the languages of modern-day western Europe, developed for centuries as spoken languages only: most people did not write, and it seems that it very seldom occurred to those who wrote to write in any language other than Latin, even when they spoke French or Italian or English or another vernacular in their daily life. Very gradually, in the late [[Middle Ages]] and the early [[Renaissance]], it became more and more common to write in the Western vernaculars. | + | Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of ''[[elegy|Elegies]]''. He was friends with the poets [[Gallus]] and [[Virgil]], and with them had as his patron [[Maecenas]], and through Maecenas the emperor [[Augustus]]. |
| - | It was probably only after the [[Movable type|invention of printing]], which made books and pamphlets cheap enough that a mass public could afford them, and which made possible modern phenomena such as the newspaper, that a large number of people in the West could read and write who were not fluent in Latin. Still, many people continued to write in Latin, although they were mostly from the upper classes and/or professional academics. As late as the 17th century, there was still a large audience for Latin poetry and drama; no-one found it strange, for example, that, besides his works in English, [[John Milton|Milton]] wrote many poems in Latin, or that [[Francis Bacon]] or [[Baruch Spinoza]] wrote mostly in Latin. The use of Latin as a lingua franca continued in smaller European lands until the 19th century. | + | == Influence == |
| - | ===Satire=== | + | Propertius himself says he was popular and even scandalous in his own day. [[Horace]], however, says that he would have to "endure much" and "stop up his ears" if he had to listen to "Callimachus...to please the sensitive stock of poets"; Postgate and others see this as a veiled attack on Propertius, who considered himself the Roman heir to Callimachus. This judgement also seems to be upheld by [[Quintilian]], who ranks the elegies of [[Tibullus]] higher and is somewhat dismissive of the poet, but Propertius' popularity is attested by the presence of his verses in the graffiti preserved at [[Pompeii]]. |
| - | :'''[[Juvenal]]''' - [[Satires of Juvenal|Saturae]] | + | |
| - | :[[Martial]] | + | |
| - | :[[Persius]] | + | |
| - | ==Poetry== | + | Propertius fell into obscurity in the Middle Ages, but was rediscovered during the Italian Renaissance along with the other elegists. [[Petrarch]]'s love sonnets certainly show the influence of his writing, and [[Pope Pius II|Aeneas Silvius]] (the future Pope Pius II) titled a collection of his youthful elegies "Cinthia". There are also a set of "Propertian Elegies" attributed to the English writer [[Ben Jonson]], though the authorship of these is disputed. [[Goethe]]'s 1795 collection of "Elegies" also shows some familiarity with Propertius' poetry. |
| + | |||
| + | Propertius is the lyrical protagonist of [[Joseph Brodsky]]'s poem "Anno Domini" (1968), originally written in Russian. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Modern assessment == | ||
| + | In the 20th century [[Ezra Pound]]'s poem "[[Homage to Sextus Propertius]]" cast Propertius as something of a satirist and political dissident, and his translation/interpretation of the elegies presented them as ancient examples of Pound's own [[Imagism|Imagist]] theory of art. Pound identified in Propertius an example of what he called (in "How to Read") 'logopoeia', "the dance of the intellect among words." Gilbert Highet, in ''Poets in a Landscape'', attributed this to Propertius' use of mythic allusions and circumlocution, which Pound mimics to more comic effect in his ''Homage''. The imagist interpretation, the poet's tendency to sustain an interior monologue, and the deeply personal nature of his poetry have made Propertius a favorite in the modern age. Two modern English translations of his work have appeared since 2000, and the playwright [[Tom Stoppard]] in his masterwork ''[[The Invention of Love]]'' suggests the poet was responsible for much of what the West regards today as "romantic love". | ||
| - | *[[Catullus]] -- Roman erotic poet | ||
| - | *[[Sextus Propertius]] -- Roman poet | ||
| - | == See also == | ||
| - | *[[Latin profanity]] | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Sextus Aurelius Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium) and died shortly after 15 BC.
Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of Elegies. He was friends with the poets Gallus and Virgil, and with them had as his patron Maecenas, and through Maecenas the emperor Augustus.
Influence
Propertius himself says he was popular and even scandalous in his own day. Horace, however, says that he would have to "endure much" and "stop up his ears" if he had to listen to "Callimachus...to please the sensitive stock of poets"; Postgate and others see this as a veiled attack on Propertius, who considered himself the Roman heir to Callimachus. This judgement also seems to be upheld by Quintilian, who ranks the elegies of Tibullus higher and is somewhat dismissive of the poet, but Propertius' popularity is attested by the presence of his verses in the graffiti preserved at Pompeii.
Propertius fell into obscurity in the Middle Ages, but was rediscovered during the Italian Renaissance along with the other elegists. Petrarch's love sonnets certainly show the influence of his writing, and Aeneas Silvius (the future Pope Pius II) titled a collection of his youthful elegies "Cinthia". There are also a set of "Propertian Elegies" attributed to the English writer Ben Jonson, though the authorship of these is disputed. Goethe's 1795 collection of "Elegies" also shows some familiarity with Propertius' poetry.
Propertius is the lyrical protagonist of Joseph Brodsky's poem "Anno Domini" (1968), originally written in Russian.
Modern assessment
In the 20th century Ezra Pound's poem "Homage to Sextus Propertius" cast Propertius as something of a satirist and political dissident, and his translation/interpretation of the elegies presented them as ancient examples of Pound's own Imagist theory of art. Pound identified in Propertius an example of what he called (in "How to Read") 'logopoeia', "the dance of the intellect among words." Gilbert Highet, in Poets in a Landscape, attributed this to Propertius' use of mythic allusions and circumlocution, which Pound mimics to more comic effect in his Homage. The imagist interpretation, the poet's tendency to sustain an interior monologue, and the deeply personal nature of his poetry have made Propertius a favorite in the modern age. Two modern English translations of his work have appeared since 2000, and the playwright Tom Stoppard in his masterwork The Invention of Love suggests the poet was responsible for much of what the West regards today as "romantic love".
