Propertius

Catalog description

We will concentrate especially on the elegist's third book, which has been viewed both as a work of closure (a farewell to the erotic themes dominant in the earlier books) and as transitional (as the poet moves toward the more overtly Callimachean stance and political themes that will characterize the fourth book). While our primary interest will be literary-critical, including especially the elegist's engagement with his Roman contemporaries, we will also engage seriously with textual criticism, employing Heyworth's Cynthia and the new Oxford commentary on Book 3 (in addition to the other major commentaries).