The Return of Cynthia and The Structure of Propertius Book Iv (Latin, Elegy)

Shea, Christine Rita

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Description

Title

The Return of Cynthia and The Structure of Propertius Book Iv (Latin, Elegy)

Author(s)

Shea, Christine Rita

Issue Date

1984

Department of Study

Classics

Discipline

Classical Philology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Literature, Classical

Abstract

• This dissertation argues that Propertius in Book IV of his elegies may have deliberately scuttled an elegantly symmetrical book-structure to meet the demands of context.
• Chapter I contends that 4.8 is a whimsical ghost story, intended to be understood as occurring after the death of Cynthia in 4.7, and that, since 4.7 and 4.8 are two inseparable parts of a single episode, the poet has reordered the book to place these poems side by side.
• Chapter II analyzes the program for the aetiological poems (2, 4, 6, 9, 10) as contained in 4.1(A) and demonstrates how 4.8 violates the patterns established for this set of poems.
• Chapter III continues the analysis of the program with 4.1(B) which points ahead to the amatory elegies 3, 5, 7, 11. The expectations aroused by this part of the program are likewise confounded by the placement of 4.8.
• Chapter IV argues that 4.2 is, among other things a clever variant of a common poetic conceit, the author's apostrophe to his book, and that, as such, it also provides clues to the book's structure by anticipating how the poet will vary generic form and narrative stance in the elegies to follow.
• In the light of these arguments, Chapter V reconsiders the pyramidal structure proposed by Grimal (amoung others) and speculates on what may have been the original form and position of the present 4.8.

Graduation Semester

1984

Type of Resource

text

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