The Figure of Elegy in Amores 3.1: Elegy as Poeta, Elegy as Puella, Puella as Poeta

Caroline A. Perkins (Marshall University)

The figure of Elegy in Amores 3.1 mediates ideas, themes and characters of the Amores. Scholars have already demonstrated a close connection between Elegy and the puella or puellae of elegy by showing how shared adjectives, rara, tenuis and leuis, connect these female figures to each other and to elegiac poetics (Keith, Wyke). Additionally, Elegy herself, with her charming limp (3.1.8), shares the physical characteristics of the elegiac couplet (e.g. 1.1.3, 27) (Keith), and becomes, in Amores 3.1.53-58, actual written elegies (Wyke). The syllogistic Elegy is puella is elegy, and the equation Elegy=elegy multiply the dimensions of Elegy and Ovidian poetics, and at the same time shows the mediative functions of Elegy/elegy. In this paper I will strengthen these descriptions by showing functional connections between Elegy and the poeta and Elegy and the puella. Elegy’s self-defined characteristics in her speech of Amores 3.1 link her to both poeta and puella, and consequently link the puella to the poeta.

Elegy connects herself to the poeta in many ways. She like the poeta has a cura, a charge or concern: hers is Cupido, his is the puella (1.9.43). She, like the poeta, sees herself as a pimp: without her, she says Venus would be rustica (43), sexually inexperienced, a startling a suggestion indeed. Elegy as lena mirrors the poeta as leno: his promises of immortality in Amores 1.3 and 1.10 become darker in Amores 3.12.10-12 when he semi-ruefully realizes he has pimped his puella by exposing too many charms to too many people. In her form as a written elegy (53-58), Elegy, like the poet has suffered many physical pains. Both have hung around or on closed doors (1.6), both have (presumably) endured the agonies of waiting while a message was being conveyed (1.11), and both have suffered physical privations in the pursuit of love (1.6, 3.6). Elegy, like the poeta sees herself as an educator: through me (per me), she says, Corinna has learned (49), and what she has learned (49-52) reflects what the poet taught her or tried to teach her in Amores 1.4 and 1.5.

Elegy and the puella function as sources of inspiration. Elegy’s last reminder to the poeta in Amores 3.1.59: prima tuae moui felicia semina mentis, recalls the poeta’s own request in 1.3.20: te mihi materiem felicem in carmina probe. And we see the puella as inspiration in Amores 2.1 and 2.18. The puella can also be seen as a teacher/poet or at least an apt pupil who educates in turn. In Amores 3.1.27 it is Tragedy who suggests that puellae sing: quod tenerae cantent lusit tua Musa puellae, and while they could merely be singing the poeta’s song (it is not specified), or chanting spells like Simaetha in Theocritus Id. 2, canto obviously refers to poetic activity. Moreover, Amores 2.19 supports the idea of puella as teacher when she is “represented as herself assuming the posture of an elegiac poet through her manipulation of the staple themes of elegiac poems.” (Keith). Finally, Elegy connects herself to the puella through shared persuasive powers. Blanditiae, flattery or persuasion, used by the poet as a synonym for elegy itself (2.1.21), allows Elegy to penetrate closed doors (3.1.46), and the puella to keep the poet in line (e.g. 2.19.17, 3.11.31). In these ways, both share the functions of the poeta insofar as both operate much as the poeta operates or would like to operate, as praeceptor, persuader and instigator. With Elegy as a nexus, the metaphorical connection between poeta and puella surpasses the literal.

Works Cited

Keith, A. (1994) "Corpus Eroticum: Elegiac Poets and Elegiac Puellae in Ovid's Amores," CW 88: 27-40.

Maria Wyke. (2002) The Roman Mistress. Oxford.