University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-1-2016 Cerberus Amator: Underworld Imagery in the Elegies of Tibullus and Propertius Makaila Daeschel Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/fll_etds Recommended Citation Daeschel, Makaila. "Cerberus Amator: Underworld Imagery in the Elegies of Tibullus and Propertius." (2016). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/fll_etds/70 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. by THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico Acknowledgements I would like to extend a special thanks to all the members of my thesis committee, whose hard work, dedication, and unending patience made this thesis possible: first and foremost to my brilliant advisor and incredible mentor, Dr. Monica S. Cyrino, for your enduring patience, your incredible editing skills, your advice, your wit, your incredible style, and for supporting me every step of the way. To Dr. Lorenzo F. Garcia, Jr., for your patience, kindness, and willingness to help in any situation, and for your insight into the nuances of translation. To Dr. Osman Umurhan, for always having a book recommendation up your sleeve, for helping me to see the bigger picture, and for making me become a more thorough scholar. I am forever indebted to each one of you for the wisdom you have imparted to me, and the scholar you have helped me to become. I would also like to thank Dr. Luke Gorton for all of your edits and advice, and for constantly reminding me why it is all worth it. To all of you, I am profoundly grateful for everything that you have done for me. I would also like to thank the entire cohors classica at University of New Mexico for providing me with support, advice, and friendship along the way. Most of all, I would like to thank Sam Davis and Dannu Hütwohl, in whose company I was privileged enough to spend two and a half years. The two of you helped me in this journey more than anyone and I am honored to call you both my fellow scholars and my best friends. And finally, to Rob, whose love and support carried me through everything, and whose infectious love of learning inspires me to work harder, be better and love every minute of it. Cerberus Amator: Underworld Imagery in the Elegies of Tibullus and Propertius By Makaila J. Daeschel B.A., Classical and European Studies, University of New Mexico, 2013 M.A., Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, University of New Mexico, 2015 Abstract In my thesis, I explore the mythological figure of Cerberus in the Elegies of Tibullus and Propertius. My objective is to bring to light the imaginative and provocative way that both of these poets employ the imagery and history of Cerberus and by so doing to illustrate the way in which both poets present Cerberus as a depiction of the poet lover. My thesis begins with an analysis of the representations of Cerberus, both literary and in pottery, and his mythological history. I follow with a chapter exploring Tibullus’ use of Cerberus as a stand-in for the elegiac poet-lover as the exclusus amator, with which he is associated through his position outside of the doors of the Underworld. Next, I turn to the poet Propertius and his presentation of Cerberus as a stand-in for the poet- lover by means of marked vocabulary and a limited freedom that aligns the canine with the poet-lover through his ability to speak elegiacally. To conclude, I emphasize how the poets take a traditional mythological figure and employ it in order to create and manipulate an elegiac world and the figure within it. v Table of Contents INTRODUCTION: Elegy, Cerberus, and the Exclusus Aator 1 Roman Erotic Elegy: Origins and Meanings .......................................................................... 1 Cerberus as a Mythological Figure .......................................................................................... 4 The Chains of Cerberus .......................................................................................................... 13 The Paraclausithyron and the Exclusus Amator .................................................................... 17 Conclusions: Cerberus at the Limen ...................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER ONE: Cerberus as the Exclusus Amator in Tibullus 1.3 29 Tibullus: an Introduction ........................................................................................................ 30 The Elegiac Underworld in Tibullus 1.3 ................................................................................ 33 The Lucretian and Tibullan Underworlds ............................................................................ 43 Cerberus in Tibullus’ Underworld ........................................................................................ 49 Ante Fores: the Location of the Lover ................................................................................... 51 In Antrum: the Kennel of Cerberus ....................................................................................... 53 Tibullus’ Elaboration of the Paraclausithyron ...................................................................... 57 The Ties That Bind: the Poet’s Servitude ............................................................................. 61 Conclusions: the Chained Guard-Dog Cerberus as the Exclusus Amator ......................... 66 CHAPTER TWO: Cerberus as the Elegiac Poet in Propertius 4.7 71 Propertius: An Introduction ................................................................................................... 72 Mythology and Callimachean Influence on Propertius ....................................................... 75 Propertius on Love and Death ................................................................................................ 80 Sunt Aliquid Manes: Cynthia’s Ghostly Appearance in 4.7 ................................................. 84 Propertius’ Feminized Underworld ....................................................................................... 87 vi Propertius and Cerberus: A favorite figure .......................................................................... 91 Cerberus Speaks ...................................................................................................................... 94 The Physical Liberation of Cerberus ..................................................................................... 97 Conclusions: The Liberated Cerberus as the Poet-Lover .................................................. 101 CONCLUSION: Cerberus as the Elegiac Lover 103 Mythological Manifestations of the Lovers’ World ............................................................ 105 BIBLIOGRAPHY 108 1 INTRODUCTION Elegy, Cerberus, and the Exclusus Amator Among the many themes and tropes explored by the Roman elegists, the use of classical mythology and more specifically the imagery and exempla of the Underworld play a significant role in their verses. The elegists Tibullus and Propertius both make use of Underworld imagery to develop erotic and elegiac themes in a distinctive way that elucidates the position of the poet-lover. Within the genre-specific paradigm of Roman erotic elegy, Tibullus and Propertius developed characters, situations, and allusions that produce rich comparisons with the mythological Underworld. By offering these allusions, the elegists are able to enrich their audience’s understanding of their own subjective circumstances as elegiac poet-lovers. This thesis explores how Cerberus, the guard-dog of the Underworld, stands in for the elegiac figure of the poet-lover in two specific poems: Tibullus 1.3, and Propertius 4.7. In the first chapter, by examining the elegiac trope of the paraclausithyron and the figure of Cerberus in the work of Tibullus, I identify similarities and important connections between the canine figure as presented by Tibullus and the traditional exclusus amator figure in Roman elegy. Then in the second chapter, by further engaging with the vocabulary and imagery of Propertius 4.7, I identify how Propertius positions Cerberus as a substitute for the elegiac poet via specific elegiac vocabulary and imagery. Roman Erotic Elegy: Origins and Meanings Roman erotic elegy has fascinated scholars over generations for a variety of reasons. Praised by Paul Veyne as “one of the most sophisticated art forms in the entire 2 history of literature,”1 Roman elegy has been studied for its powerful and influential themes of love, loss, and erotic deception, its practice of poetic imitation, and its allusive use of mythology. Moreover, elegy performs a very specific narrative subjectivity in which the elegists write about their own erotic experiences in the first person. This subjectivity achieves, as Francis Cairns has noted, “a logical expansion and development of Greek subjective elegy,” in which “the contribution of each Roman poet can be seen clearly.”2 Indeed, the Roman elegists expanded upon Greek elegy and enhanced the genre not only with respect to subjectivity,