Greek Words and Myth in Propertius 1.20 Curran, Leo C Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1964; 5, 4; ProQuest pg. 281 Greek Words and Myth in Propertius 1.20 Leo C. Curran EVERY POET inevitably writes within a literary tradition, although there is great variation in the extent to which the poet's aware­ ness of his place in the tradition enters explicitly into his poetry. It is a truism of criticism that the Roman poets were especially self-conscious in this respect and particularly concerned with defining and stating in their poems what they conceived to be their relationship to a literary tradition that was as much Greek as Roman. For the Roman poet, the Greek strand of this tradition included, among other things, a long succession of authors from among whom one might choose his model, a wealth of mythological and other kinds of learning, and, of course, its vehicle, the Greek language. Each Roman poet had to come to terms in his own way and in his own poetry with the opportunity and the challenge offered by Greek and its literature. Propertius, in defining his position, finally decided that he was the Roman Callimachus [4.1.64], but he did not make this proud claim until he had produced four books of elegies and had turned to aetiol­ ogy. In the first book, Callimachus is not even mentioned and in Books Two and Three the identification may be implicit, but it is not asserted. This reticence in the first book may be a reflection not so much of humility as of the fact that the search for a poetic voice was still going on. The twentieth elegy in the first book is a product of the early stages of this search: it is an experiment in the use of Greek and Greek myth in poetry which purports to deal with the personal ex­ perience of a Roman poet and his friends. The language of the poem exploits the plastic qualities of words, especially Greek words, as tangible, physical objects, whatever their meanings, and their rich potential, purely as successions of sounds, to be manipulated and fashioned into a work of verbal art. The handling of Greek myth is not the one Propertius finally adopted for his first three books, vi{. a 281 282 GREEK WORDS AND MYTH IN PROPERTIUS 1.20 series of brief, allusive references in the same poem to several myths or mythological figures. Here he treats a single myth at some length, largely for its own sake, exploring in detail all of its imaginative and suggestive implications. Certain elements of the Hylas myth, especi­ ally the boy's name and the role of water, are transmuted from mere particulars in a narrative into images and motifs that reverberate through the poem. The poem is a warning to Gallus to take care lest he lose the boy he loves by exposing him to heterosexual attractions. The warning takes the form of a splendidly exaggerated comparison of the lovers with Hercules and Hylas, climaxing in the mock-heroic injunction to save the boy from "ravishing" by "Ausonian Adryads" and himself from grief of Herculean proportions [1-16].1 The advice serves as an intro­ duction to the main business of the poem, an exquisite adaptation of the Hylas myth to the style and tone of elegy.2 In Propertius' version of the familiar story3 Hylas first resists the attack of the Boreads (standing in the myth for Gallus' male rivals), only to succumb to the enticements of a sylvan spring and its nymphs (standing for the elegant waterside resorts of Augustan Italy and their female denizens, the "Ausonian Adryads").4 The poem is a virtual tour-deJorce of elaborate sound effects. An exotic flavor is produced by the accumulation of a large number of Greek proper names, in addition to whatever importance the names may have by virtue of their meanings. Especially effective are words containing sounds not native to Latin, such as th and ph: Theiodam­ anteo, Nympharum, Phasidos, Athamantidos, Orithyiae, Arganthi, Nymphis, Thyniasin, and Nymphis.5 Greek has many words in which a long vowel retains its original quantity before another vowel, but in classical Latin such vowels had been shortened.6 This non-Latin sequence is 1 G. Krokowski rightly characterizes the tone of this passage in "De Propertio ludi­ bundo," Bos 29 (1926) 85. S See R. Heinze, Ovids elegische Erziihlung, Ber. U. d. Verhand. d. Siichs. Akad. d. Wiss. zu LeipZig 71 (1919) 84ff; and E. Reitzenstein, "Wirklichkeitsbild und Gefiihlsentwicklung bei Properz," Phi/%gus, Suppl.-bd. 29.2 (1936) 70. 3 Most familiar are the versions of Theocritus and Apollonius, but since, as Virgil said, cui non dictus Hylas?, the question of Propertius' source is not a profitable one. Cf. W. Steidle, Anzeiger f. d. Altertumswissenschaft 9 (1956) 85 n.3. , D. M. Jones, "Three Notes on Propertius," CR 75 (1961) 197ff. 6 For the pronunciation in Augustan Rome of th and ph see M. Niedermann, Precis de phonetique historique du Latin' (Paris 1959) 85f; cf. J. Marouzeau, Trait/! de stylistique latine' (Paris 1946) 91. 6 See Niedermann §38. LEO C. CURRAN 283 exploited in words like Theiodamanteo, Gigantea, heroum, and Pandioniae. Foreign names are even more impressive when they are lengthy; for this reason, and not merely for metrical convenience, some names are used in expanded patronymic or adjectival forms: Theiodamanteo, Gigantea, Athamantidos, Pandioniae, and, a Latin example, Aquilonia. Purely Greek inflectional endings, while not involving non-Latin phonemes, nevertheless increase the foreign flavor of the language; e.g., Phasidos, Athamantidos, and Pege.7 Three pentameters end in a kind of refrain formed by a Greek dative plural found nowhere else in Propertius' work and extremely rare in the rest of Latin literature: Adryasin, Hamadryasin, and Thyniasin. It is no objection that the corre­ sponding Latin forms would be metrically unsuitable in these posi­ tions or that Propertius may simply be transliterating grammatical forms found in his Greek original. A Greek accusative form, and one that is very rare even in Greek,s appears in Argon [17]; a commoner Greek form is the accusative Hylan [52]. These datives and accusatives in nu produce five lines in which the last word ends with a consonant rarely found in final position in Latin, which at least one other Roman also found especially agreeable to the ear.9 Manipulation of sounds is not confined to phonemes or phoneme combinations rare or non-existent in Latin. A broad range of effects involving native phonemes serves, in a general way, to call further attention to the words in the poem as sounds and, in a more particular way, to enhance the contrast in the listener's ear between Greek and Latin sounds. For example, the sequence n plus dental stop in Atha­ mantidos is echoed in the Latin words framing it: labentem Athamantidos undis .. . [19] Note also the exact metrical correspondence: in each case the syllable ending in n is the first syllable of the foot and the accented syllable of the word. In 38ff there is an almost incantatory repetition of p and p--r: ... purpureis mixta papaveribus. quae modo decerpens tenero pueriliter ungui proposito jlorem praetulit officiO. 7 The reading accepted by most modern editors because of the singular verb. 8 See F. Bechtel, Die griechischen Dialekte I (Berlin 1921) 67 and 271; c. D. Buck, The Greek Dialects (Chicago 1955) 93. 9 Quintilian 12.10.31, at illi (sc. Graeci) ny jucundam et in fine praecipue quasi tinnientem illius loco ponunt, quae est apud nos rarissima in clausulis. 284 GREEK WORDS AND MYTH IN PROPERTIUS 1.20 Note also the subtle variations on this alliterative sequence in the occurrences of labial consonants other than p: m (a nasal p), b (a voiced p), and f (a labiodental fricative).lO There is a good deal in this poem of what may appropriately be called rhyme. Eleven of the hexameters and five of the pentameters contain internal rhyme,u Since, however, this proportion agrees roughly with Propertius' general practice, there is more significance in a similar but more elaborate kind of rhyme. In several distichs, an in­ ternal rhyme in one of its lines is enhanced by the repetition of the rhyming syllable either before the caesura of the hexameter or before the diaeresis of the pentameter: hoc pro continuo te, Galle, monemus amore, (id tibi ne vacuo dejluat ex animo) [If]. et jam praeteritis labentem Athamantidos undis Mysorum scopulis applicuisse ratem [19f]. et modo formosis incumbens nesdus undis errorem blandis tardat imaginibus [41f]. The rhyming of syllables at caesura and diaeresis of adjacent lines also occurs where neither of the lines contains an internal rhyme of its own to be anticipated or echoed: ne tibi sit duros montes et frigida saxa, Galle, neque expertos semper adire lacus [13f]. at comes invicti juvenis processerat ultra raram sepositi quaerere fontis aquam. [23f]. This variety of rhyme can hardly be fortuitous, for in all five cases it occurs within the couplet, thus strengthening the couplet's internal coherence. It is interesting to note that, although adjacent lines rhyme at their mid-points, end-rhyming in the couplet is strictly avoided. A more complex instance of rhyme occurs in 25ff: hunc duo sectati !ratres, Aquilonia proles, hunc super et Zetes, hunc super et Calais, oscula suspensis instabant carpere palmis. 10 For the notion of alliteration of "cognate" sounds, see K. Burke, "On Musicality in Verse," The Philosophy of Literary Form, rev. ed. (New York 1957) 296ff. 11 By internal rhyme I mean the rhyming of the last syllable before the main caesura of the hexameter or before the diaeresis of the pentameter with the final syllable of the line. This is not the place to argue the large question of how important this kind of rhyme was to the Augustan elegists; it may be pointed out, however, that in line 35. where the normal LEO C. CURRAN 285 Not only do Zetes and Calais produce a near rhyme with each other, but rhymes at emphatic positions anticipate the final syllable of Zetes and repeat the final syllable of Calais (with slight variation in length of vowels). Repetition of sound in the form of anaphora takes place four times: sive . .. sive ... sive ... sive [7ft]; hunc ... hunc super et ... hunc super et [25f]; oscula ... oscula [27fJ; and ibat . .. ibat [32]. Fascination with abstract patterns of sound is paralleled by an ab­ stract correspondence of form. The whole poem is enclosed within a highly artificial frame. The last hexameter echoes the first in an almost word-for-word correspondence in sound, sense, and word order: hoc pro continuo te, Galle, monemus amore [IJ his, 0 Galle, tuos monitus servahis amores [51]. Only Galle is an exact repetition, but his answers to hoc, tuos to te, monitus to monemus, and amores to amore. A similar frame encloses the assertion of the comparison between Hercules and Gallus [5-16] which introduces the Hylas story. In dixerit Ascanius [4] and jleverat Ascanio [16] there is an exact metrical equivalence and a matching of verb­ noun phrase.12 Much is made in this poem of the name Hylas, the meaning of which will be discussed shortly. It also inspires some of the most inter­ esting sound effects. It is introduced in such a way as to call our attention to it as a name and thus as a word: est tihi ... non nomine disparj ... proxi­ mus ardor Hylae [5f]. It is the last word in the poem and stands twice more at the emphatic final position of the line [6 and 48J. In 32, its single occurrence within a line, Propertius alliterates Hylas and Hamadryasin. In 49 the name is described as echoing through the landscape. Hylas contains a vowel that does not occur in Latin, upsilon.13 Its strangeness continued to charm the Roman ear in the time of Quintilian.14 Propertius clearly wished to play upon this somewhat classical form nulli would have fitted the meter, it is replaced by the form that produces internal rhyme: quam supra nullae pendebant debita curae. 12 The epithets of the Ascanius, indomito and crude/is, correspond loosely with each other. 18 For the pronunciation of y by educated Romans of this period, see E. Sturtevant, Pro­ nunciation of Greek and Latin2 (Philadelphia 1940) 122. 14 Quintilian 12.1O.27f: namque est (sc. Latina facundia) ipsis statim sonis durior, quando et jucundissimas ex Graecis litteras non habemus, vocalem alteram (sc. y), alteram consonantem (sc. Z), quibus nullae apud eos dltlcius spirant; quas mutltari solemus, quotiens illorum nominibus utimur. 286 GREEK WORDS AND MYTH IN PROPERTIUS 1.20 exotic sound, for he has chosen again and again to include in this poem proper names containing it: Minyis, Nympharum, Adryasin, Mysorum, Orithyiae, Hamadryasin, Nymphis, Thyniasin, Nymphis, and Dryades, in addition to the four instances of Hylas itself. He reinforces the effect by placing such words in clusters or in contexts where Greek v contrasts with Latin u and i: crudelis Minyis [4] proximus ardor Hylae [6] Nympharum semper cupidas [11] Mysorum scopulis applicuisse ratem [20] jam Pandioniae cessit genus Orithyiae: a dolor! ibat Hylas, ibat Hamadryasin. (31f; note the sequence in 32 of i-a, y-a, i-a, ya.) grata domus Nymphis umida Thyniasin quam supra nullae pendebant debita curae [34f] cuius ut accensae Dryades candore puellae [45] tum sonitum rapto corpore fecit Hylas [48] formosum Nymphis credere visus Hylan [52]. In the last example, both the beginning and the end of the line contain these same three vowels in juxtaposition: u-y-i and i-u-y. The foreign y is set off against the two native vowels it most resembles. Alpha is the other vowel in Hylas. It is echoed in the numerous proper names in the poem containing a and in the assonance of a in this passage: ... Ascanio. namque ferunt olim Pagasae navalibus Argon egressam longe Phasidos isse viam, ... laben tem Athamantidos .... [16ff] The combination of the two vowels in Hylas' name is echoed through­ out the poem in words containing the Greek y (or its Roman approxi­ mations i and u) and a in adjacent syllables (a number of examples are included in the lines quoted above). Such complex manipulation of the sounds of language can only be deliberate. However, attempts to assign specific expressive values to sounds are notoriously prone to subjectivity. The listener's personal response and the meanings of the words inevitably color his reaction LEO C. CURRAN 287 to their sounds. No attempt will be made, therefore, to assign individ­ ual meanings or connotations to the sound effects discussed in this paper. They are in part due to the poet's interest in the physical prop­ erties of sounds and words for their own sake, whatever their mean­ ings. Such a phenomenon is especially characteristic of the early stages in a poet's career and the early stages in a nation's literature. One finds in this poem, written by a young poet, and in the language of Plautus and Ennius, writing in the youth of Latin literature, a similar excite­ ment in the discovery that the sounds of language have a tangible reality which can be exploited in an abstract and plastic manner. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that this poem is as much about the sounds of Greek and Latin as it is about the experiences of Gallus and Hylas. This is only a part of the answer, for there is a special reason for the verbal and acoustic games Propertius plays with the name Hylas. The boy Gallus loved must in fact have been named Hylas.15 We are pointedly told that Gallus' beloved is non nomine dispar to the legen­ dary Hylas [5]. Whatever the common figurative meanings of nomen, the plain meaning of non nomine dispar is