to achieve a particular affect (employing a literary technique known as hyperbaton). For example, selecting certain words to be placed either next to one another or far apart in a sentence helps to draw our attention to a particular connection, similarity, or contrast. Similarly, words placed at the beginning or at the end of a line of poetry often carry some special significance and value. Indeed, there are many poetic effects relating to Latin word order in poetry, including: asyndeton, leaving out conjunctions in a list of words; chiasmus, the “a-b-b-a” arrangement of words (adjective, noun, noun, adjective); ellipsis, the omission of words; hendiadys, using noun/noun in place of noun/adjective; polysyndeton, using lots of conjunctions; tricolon, a list of three elements, usually increasing in size or importance; and zeugma, using one word to convey two different senses simultaneously.
Again, the opening lines of Horace, Odes 1.5 (discussed in greater detail in Chapter 3) gives us a good example to explore some of these poetic features. The word order in the first line of this poem is an excellent example of the remarkable flexibility that Latin allows in terms of word order (especially compared to a language such as English; Horace, Odes 1.5.1-5):
quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
perfusus liquidis urget odoribus
grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?
cui flavam religas comam,
simplex munditiis?
The poem opens with a question (quis?) and introduces us to its subject, a “graceful/slim young man or boy” (gracilis … puer) in the nominative case (the case used for the main subject of a sentence). We also meet an object: here the addressee of the poem, signaled by the pronoun “you” (te) – although we do not yet know the identity of this person as the name “Pyrrha” isn’t revealed until the poem’s third line. There is no main verb yet: the verb “hugs/embraces” (urget) is delayed until the next line, so we have to read on to discover the main sense of the line: “what graceful boy [is hugging] you?” But we do get a vivid word-picture of the opening scene which Horace wants us to imagine here. The object, te, is deliberately placed in-between the two subject words, gracilis … puer: Pyrrha, the poem’s addressee, is literally being embraced by the graceful boy. When we look at the adjectives in the first line, we see that this embrace itself takes place “amidst many roses,” or “on a bed of roses” (multa … in rosa). Pyrrha and her young lover are embracing literally within (in) a picturesque bed or arbor of roses (multa … rosa). As the poem continues, we discover that the boy is “drenched in liquid perfume” (perfusus liquidis … odoribus) and that this flowery embrace is taking place “within a lovely cave” (grato … sub antro). Here we see, once again, that the arrangement of words mirrors the action of the poem: Pyrrha is literally enclosed within her “lovely cave” (grato, Pyrrha, sub antro). In the next line (the last line of this stanza), Horace asks Pyrrha another question: “For whom do you tie up your golden hair …?” (cui flavam religas comam …?). We might well expect this to be a good place to “tie-up” the sentence and the stanza with a full stop. However, Horace lets the sentence flow on into the middle of the first line of the next stanza (an example of enjambment). Given the evident care and attention Horace has already given to his choice of word order and arrangement, it is probably safe to presume that this spilling over of the sense and sentence into a new line and a new stanza is significant in some way – perhaps because they reveal something important about Pyrrha who, we now learn, is “simple in [your] worldliness,” or “simple in [your] elegance” (simplex munditiis). This is an oxymoron: a contradiction. Is Pyrrha supposed to be simple and innocent? Or is she elegant and worldly? Or is she both – duplicitous and deceitful? The fact that, later in the poem, her young lover is described by Horace as “trusting” (credulus) suggests that this third reading is justified. Indeed, it is always worth reading and then re-reading a lyric or elegiac poem because your initial interpretation of its meaning may well be informed and changed by what you learn as the poem progresses.
Analyzing a Latin lyric or elegiac poem in this detailed way is known as “close reading,” and even if you don’t find something meaningful or interesting to say about every single line in a given poem, this technique will add depth and nuance to your understanding. You should also pay close attention in your “close reading” to any figurative language that you come across. This might include: metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, and imagery – or any figurative expression used by the poet to transform ordinary language into a “heightened form of speech.” In Horace’s Odes 1.5, for example, the poet goes on to add more depth and detail to his characterization of Pyrrha as duplicitous and untrustworthy. He uses natural imagery likening her unpredictable temperament and mood-swings to the “seas roughened by black winds” (aspera/nigris aequora ventis – 1.5.6-7). We might even interpret the name Horace gives to this character as a figurative expression of her “fiery” temper. Perhaps Pyrrha represents the fiery passion of love (or desire) personified? Figurative language can be difficult to translate, and metaphors (an implied comparison between two things) and metonymy (use of an associated term to stand in for some other object or concept) can be obscure. However, they all contribute to that essential characteristic of poetry as a “heightened form of speech,” and making sense of this figurative language is all part of what it means to read and understand a Latin lyric or elegiac poem.
Part II. How to Teach Latin Elegiac and Lyric Poetry
Guiding students as they translate the Latin (and its literary figures) is only the beginning. Each genre, each author, each topic, and each poem will invite further analysis and study, raising questions about a wide range of difficult subjects: politics, poetics, gender, sexuality, religion, history, philosophy, ethics, and more. Elegy in particular introduces a number of “uncomfortable” subjects to the classroom, including: abortion, death, rape, and suicide. There is, as yet, no single book offering advice on “how to teach Latin lyric and/or elegy.” However, there is plenty of support and guidance available to help teachers negotiate these challenges and the following suggestions draw upon the wealth of advice collected by experienced teachers in various classroom contexts over the past few decades (see the “Guide to Further Reading” below). Clearly there is no single best approach to teaching Latin lyric and elegiac poetry, but these suggestions are a good starting point:
Get yourself a good “Companion” for the journey – The Cambridge Companion to Ovid, edited by Philip Hardie (2002); A Companion to Latin Literature, edited by Stephen Harrison (2006); A Companion to Catullus, edited by Marilyn Skinner (2007); The Cambridge Companion to Horace, edited by Stephen Harrison (2007); Stephen Heyworth’s Cynthia: A Companion to the Text of Propertius (2007a); A Companion to Ovid, edited by Peter Knox (2009); A Companion to Horace, edited by Gregson Davis (2010); A Companion to Roman Love Elegy, edited by Barbara Gold (2012); and The Cambridge Companion to Latin Love Elegy, edited by Thea Thorsen (2013).
Choose a “Reader” – Paul Allen Miller’s Latin Erotic Elegy: An Anthology and Reader (2002) stands out among the current library of textbooks available because it combines a judicious selection of Latin texts (including some pieces by Catullus and Sulpicia) together with textual commentaries and a critical anthology of the key pieces of secondary scholarship. Textbook style “Readers” of individual authors are also great teaching and learning resources. Try: Ronnie Ancona’s Passion: A Catullus Reader (2004); Paul Allen Miller’s, A Tibullus Reader (2013a); Phebe Bowditch’s, A Propertius Reader (2014); and Carole Newlands’, An Ovid Reader (2014).
Find a textbook or set of online resources that works for your needs and those of your students. There are hundreds of textbooks on the market and hundreds more sites online offering free texts, translations, commentaries, and study notes
