The Roman Mistress This page intentionally left blank THE ROMAN MISTRESS SA Ancient and Modern Representations Maria Wyke 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Maria Wyke 2002 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2002 First published in paperback 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law,or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Wyke, Maria. The Roman mistress : gender,politics, love poetry,reception / Maria Wyke. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Love poetry,Latin—History and criticism. 2. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, d. 30 B.C.—In literature. 3. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, d. 30 B.C.—In motion pictures. 4. Meassalina,Valeria, d. 48.—In motion pictures. 5. Messalina,Valeria, d. 48.—In literature. 6. Man-woman relationships in motion pictures. 7. Man-woman relationships in literature. 8. Feminism and literature—Rome. 9. Feminism and motion pictures. 10. Women and literature—Rome. 11. Women in motion pictures. 12. Sex role in literature. 13. Mistresses—Rome. I. Title. PA6029.L6 W95 2002 871¢.01093543¢082—dc21 2001039751 ISBN 978-0-19-815075-6 (Hbk.) 978-0-19-922833-1(Pbk.) 13579108642 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following for generously giving permission to reproduce (in various states of revision) papers that have been pub- lished previously: Helios (Ch. 1); The Roman Society (Ch. 2); The Cambridge Philological Society (Ch. 3); Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd (Ch.4);Ramus (Ch.5);Bristol Classical Press (Ch.6);Routledge (Chs. 7 and 8). Chapters 1–4 contain only minor editorial changes, including a new introduction for Chapter 4.Throughout these chap- ters, however, I have attempted to add in the notes (in the form ‘see now’) reference to the most recent literature that supports or chal- lenges my arguments.Chapters 5and6have been significantly revised and extended to take into account developments in scholarship on Augustan culture up to and including part of 2001. Chapters 7 and 8 revise, collate, and elaborate on a chapter of my book on ancient Rome in film and an article jointly written by myself and Dominic Montserrat on ‘Cleomania’.Chapters 9 and 10 are completely new. I am greatly indebted to John Henderson with whom I had the good fortune to begin my research into representations of the mistress in Augustan love poetry.In recent years, Mathilde Skoie has continued to provide me with opportunities to discuss love poetry and scholar- ship on it,and generously kept me supplied with new literature in the field. I would also like to thank Margaret Malamud for introducing me to various archives in Washington and New York, and for being such an enthusiastic companion in the study of ancient Rome in mod- ern popular culture, and Dominic Montserrat for our enjoyable dis- cussions of the process of metabiography (that is, in our case, an examination of the process whereby the lives of ancient Egyptians and Romans are represented in modern culture). vi Acknowledgements Susanna Braund and Stephen Hinds kindly supported my proposal to write this book at a number of stages, while Duncan Kennedy and Amy Richlin offered detailed comments on and criticisms of my original proposal. While I may not always have responded as they wished, I am very grateful for their stimulating suggestions. I was able to complete the larger part of the project as a result of two terms leave in 2000 supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Board and the University of Reading,while the British Academy funded the cost of obtaining illustrations and visiting archives in Rome. I would like to thank Andrew Wallace-Hadrill for the hospitality of the British School at Rome,Maria Pia Malvezzi for the pursuit of Italian permis- sions and photographs, and Valerie Scott for bibliographic advice.As ever, Ned Comstock of the USC Cinema and Television Library was an invaluable source of material on American popular culture. Susanne Dixon,Bob Gurval,Mary Hamer,Paul Allen Miller,Pino Pucci, Mathilde Skoie, and Effrosini Spentzou all generously pro- vided me with access to their work prior to publication. Margaret Miles, who invited me to a conference at the University of Urvine on Cleopatra and Egyptomania, kindly allowed me to use material here which will also be published in a joint article with Dominic Montserrat as part of a collected edition of the conference papers. Finally,I would like to express my gratitude to David Oswell who helped me finish this project by talking about other things. M.W. London April 2001 Contents List of illustrations viii Introduction 1 PART 1 Love Poetry 1. Mistress and Metaphor in Augustan Elegy 11 2. Written Women:Propertius’ scripta puella (2.10–13) 46 3. The Elegiac Woman at Rome: Propertius Book 4 78 4. Reading Female Flesh: Ovid Amores 3.1 115 5. Taking the Woman’s Part: Gender and Scholarship on Love Elegy 155 PART 2 Reception 6. Meretrix regina:Augustan Cleopatras 195 7. Oriental Vamp:Cleopatra 1910s 244 8. Glamour Girl: Cleopatra 1930s–1960s 279 9. Meretrix Augusta: Messalina 1870s–1920s 321 10. Suburban Feminist: Messalina 1930s–1970s 352 Bibliography 391 Index of Classical Passages Cited 429 General Index 437 List of Illustrations 2.1 Ariadne abandoned by Theseus. Drawing by H. Roux after a Pompeian wall-painting.From L. Barré, Herculanum et Pompéi (1861), ii, pl. 35 65 4.1 La belle Charite. Engraving by Crispin de Passe, from Charles Sorel, Le berger extravagant (1627,i.134). From Italian Studies, 18 (1963), pl. 2 118 4.2 Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy.E. Fisher after original exhibited in 1762 by Sir Joshua Reynolds. From E. Panofsky, Hercules am Scheidewege (1930), pl. 62 121 4.3 The choice of Hercules.Woodcut illustrating 1497 edition of Sebastian Brant, Narrenschiff. From E. Panofsky, Hercules am Scheidewege (1930), pl. 18 131 6.1 Cleopatra’s bronze coinage from Cyprus, dated c. 47–30 bc. London, British Museum. BMC Ptolemies, Cleopatra VII, p. 122, no. 2. Copyright:Trustees of the British Museum 203 6.2 Silver denarius of Antony,dated c.32 bc. London, British Museum. BMCR 2,no.180. Copyright: Trustees of the British Museum 218 6.3 Coin issued to celebrate the Actian victory.London, British Museum. BMC 1,no.616. Copyright:Trustees of the British Museum 232 6.4 Coin issued in celebration of the capture of Egypt, dated c.28–27 bc. London, British Museum. BMC 1,no.655. Copyright:Trustees of the British Museum 232 6.5 Coin issued in celebration of Julius Caesar’s Gallic victories, dated c.48 bc. London, British Museum. BMCR 1,no.3994. Copyright:Trustees of the British Museum 236 List of Illustrations ix 6.6 Coin marking Julius Caesar’s victories in Gaul, dated c.48 bc. London, British Museum. BMCR 1,no.3996. Copyright:Trustees of the British Museum 237 6.7 Statue of Augustus from Prima Porta.Vatican, Braccio Nuovo. Copyright: Deutsches Archäolog.Institut, Rome, 62.1788 238 6.8 Detail from breastplate of statue of Augustus from Prima Porta.Vatican, Braccio Nuovo. Copyright: Deutsches Archäolog.Institut, Rome, 1937.744 239 7.1 France unveils Egypt. Bronze medallion struck in 1826 to celebrate 2nd edn. of Description de l’Égypte. Photo courtesy of Peter A.Clayton 255 7.2 Antony and Cleopatra by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912). Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library 257 7.3 Poster advertising Gianna Terribili Gonzales in Marcantonio e Cleopatra (1913). From private collection of Vittorio Martinelli 265 7.4 Poster advertising Theda Bara in Cleopatra (1917). Photo from private collection of Maria Wyke 269 7.5 Theda Bara displays a costume from Cleopatra (1917). From Fox studio campaign book 276 8.1 Photographic illustration by Erwin Blumenfeld to article on ‘the new Egyptian look’, for Look, 27 February 1962. Photo by permission of Library of Congress, Look Magazine Photograph Collection 280 8.2 Poster advertising Claudette Colbert in Cleopatra (1934). Photo from private collection of Maria Wyke 296 8.3 Illustrations of merchandising campaign tied to Cleopatra (1934). From Paramount campaign book 299 8.4 ‘Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra relaxes between shots’. From Carlo Maria Franzero, Cleopatra,Queen of Egypt (1963 edn.) 314 8.5 Poster advertising Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963). Photo from private collection of Maria Wyke 319 9.1 ‘Messalina’ and her lovers, from Fellini’s Roma (1972). Photo courtesy of BFI Stills, Posters, and Designs 323 x List of Illustrations 9.2a Title page of C.