Propertius – författare

Of all the Greek and Latin love poets, Propertius (c. 50-10 BC) is one of those who perhaps holds most immediate appeal for the twentieth century reader. His helpless infatuation for the sinister figure of his mistress Cynthia forms the main subject of his poetry, and is analysed with a tormented but witty grandeur in all its changing moods - from ecstasy to suicidal despair.The son of an Umbrian landowner who fought on the wrong side in the Civil War after Caesar's murder, he lost his father and most of the family estate in boyhood and was brought up by his mother. He was able nevertheless to reject a legal or military career and to devote his life to the art of poetry, in which he is a far more self-conscious practitioner than most of the other Latin poets.His modern popularity was furthered in particular by Ezra Pound's Homage to Sextus Propertius (1919).

Of all the great classical love poets, Propertius (c. 50-10 BC) is surely one of those with most immediate appeal for readers today. His helpless infatuation for the sinister figure of his mistress Cynthia forms the main subject of his poetry and is analysed with a tormented but witty grandeur in all its changing moods, from ecstasy to suicidal despair. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Propertius, though his works are small in volume, is one of the foremost poets of the Augustan age and his writing has a certain appeal to modern tastes. Book II is especially suitable for the reader wanting a representative selection of Propertius' poetry. It stands on its own, having appeared in the first place as a separate collection; it reflects a distinct phase of the poet's activity (and of his emotional development); and it is the book which made his reputation. This edition is designed for the pocket of the university student, but it should find a wider audience among classicists of all ages. The introduction provides the necessary historical and critical background and relates Book II to the rest of the elegies; the notes are helpful and to the point; and the text has a reasonable minimum of apparatus. There are no modern editions of this size and scope.

This edition of Propertius Book III follows the general style and arrangement of Camps' editions of Books I and IV. Camps presents, without concealing difficulties and uncertainties, a fairly conservative but readable and coherent text, together with such annotation as may help the modern reader of Latin to understand the language and follow the thought of this difficult, much disputed, but very rewarding poet. While the book may be of interest to students and amateurs of Latin in general, the editor has had in mind the particular needs of undergraduates and of sixth forms. Of the twenty-five elegies which compose this book, all but two are related to the theme of love: but the treatment has become curiously remote and impersonal. After the first two books the touch is light, even cynical - except on the last two elegies, where the poet takes an embittered farewell of Cynthia. In his introduction Camps writes of the literary qualities of the poems and suggests some valid critical approaches for the modern reader.

In this edition of Propertius Book IV, Camps follows the general lines of his earlier edition of Book I (Cambridge, 1960). He has presented, without concealing difficulties and uncertainties, a fairly conservative but readable and coherent text, together with such annotation as may help the modern reader of Latin to understand the language and follow the thought of this difficult, much disputed, but very rewarding poet. While the book may be of interest to students and amateurs of Latin in general, the editor has had in mind the particular needs of undergraduates and of sixth forms. The notes are weighted differently from those in Butler and Barber's edition of 1933 and the text of that edition and from the Oxford text of 1960. As far as we know, this is the poet's last work. He has moved away from his earlier preoccupation with the theme of love and the eleven careful elegies that compose the present book are on a variety of subjects. Most are concerned with Roman antiquities. The last is an elaborate and celebrated epitaph on a lady of Roman nobility. But perhaps the poems likely to appeal most to a modern reader are the two in which Propertius recalls and exhibits in a new light, the figure of Cynthia, the declared inspiration of the elegies of Book I.

Propertius, though his works are small in volume, is one of the foremost poets of the Augustan age, and his writing has a certain appeal to modern tastes (witness the admiration of Ezra Pound). Book I is especially suitable for the reader wanting a representative selection of Propertius' poetry. It stands on its own, having appeared in the first place as a separate collection; it reflects a distinct phase of the poet's activity (and of his emotional development); and it is the book which made his reputation. This edition is designed for the pocket of the university student, but it should find a wider audience among classicists of all ages. The introduction provides the necessary historical and critical background and relates Book I to the rest of the elegies; the notes are helpful and to the point; and the text has a reasonable minimum of apparatus. There are no modern editions of this size and scope.

Propertius' fourth book is his most challenging and innovative. It disrupts genre; dislocates time and order; and meditates on gender, perception and history. A sort of postmodernism combines with narrative and structural verve, incisively physical writing and a gallery of colourful characters. This edition makes a demanding and rewarding text more accessible and more intelligible. The text is new; help and fresh ideas are offered on the text and meaning of words. A wide range of literary, inscriptional and archaeological material is used to illuminate this many-sided poetry. Much more space is given than in previous editions to literary interpretation and historical contextualization, in the light of modern work. The book is approached as a dynamic sequence of poems rather than a collection. The edition should be valuable to both students and scholars.

Learned love poems from the early Augustan age.The passionate and dramatic elegies of Propertius gained him a reputation as one of Rome’s finest love poets. Here he portrays the exciting, uneven course of his love affair with Cynthia and tells us much about his contemporaries and the society in which he lives, while in later poems he turns to mythological themes and the legends of early Rome.Born in Assisi about 50 BC, Propertius moved as a young man to Rome, where he came into contact with a coterie of poets, including Virgil, Tibullus, Horace, and Ovid. Publication of his first book brought immediate recognition and the unwavering support of Maecenas, the influential patron of the Augustan poets. He died perhaps in his mid-thirties, leaving us four books of elegies that have attracted admirers throughout the ages.In this new edition of Propertius, G. P. Goold solves some longstanding questions of interpretation and gives us a faithful and stylish prose translation. His explanatory notes and glossary-index offer steady guidance and a wealth of information.

The Roman poet Propertius is best known as the writer who perfected the Latin love elegy, a technical as much as a psychological and cultural feat. Propertius has been admired for both his metrical genius and the modernity of his narrative flow. Many of the poems here pay tribute to Cynthia, Propertius's romantic obsession, but the scope of these 107 elegies is broad. Propertius's poetry offers a fascinating look into life in the Augustan age, addressing social, political, and historical subjects. A contemporary of Virgil and Horace, Propertius has influenced scores of poets--from Ovid to Housman to Pound. His poetry appears here for the first time in a dual-language edition with the translations facing the original Latin. Rendered into English by a poet who is also one of the nation's pre-eminent Propertius experts, the volume brings Propertius's difficult mix of vernacular and high literary allusion into contemporary language. Cynthia was the first. She caught me with her eyes, a fool who had never before been touched by desires.Love cast down my look of constant pride, and he pressed on my head with his feet, until he taught me to despise chaste girls, perversely, and to live without plan. Already, it's been a whole year that the frenzy hasn't stopped, when, for all that, the gods are against me.

The Latin poet Propertius (ca. 50-16 B.C.) is considered by many to be the greatest elegiac poet of Rome. Long neglected because of the obscurity of his thought and the vagaries of his syntax, Propertius has now emerged as a writer of compelling originality and intellectual power. In this authoritative edition of Propertius's elegies, L. Richardson, jr, makes these challenging poems both intelligible and accessible.For students of literature and history alike, Propertius offers insights into the intellectual world of Augustan Rome and Roman society. His perplexities and frustrations, his struggles with himself and with his domineering and capricious mistress Cynthia, and his exhilarations and depressions all strike a surprisingly familiar chord for the modern reader.Through an in-depth introduction and explanatory notes, Richardson strives to make the poems as readable as possible, at the same time examining the complexities and textual difficulties of the texts. Each elegy is accompanied by an introductory note providing a literary interpretation of the poem, followed by full and detailed commentary.

Propertius' celebration of his love for Cynthia broke new ground in Latin poetry: sensuous, passionate, witty, yet complex and allusive. The appeal of his 'Monobiblos' (Book I) is direct and immediate but his profound grasp of the violent and contradictory emotions of the relationship pushed his language into new areas and new forms. So he is a difficult and important poet, with the kind of difficulty that appeals to modern readers. This edition is designed to serve two different kinds of readers. For those who are not Latin specialists there is an elegant but literal translation alongside the Latin text, with a critical essay on each poem to lead the reader into the richness of the Latin. On the other hand Latinists will find here new light on the text itself. Above all, the edition is dedicated to reading poetry as poetry.