Propertius: Poems - Hardcover

Propertius

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520017145 ISBN 13: 9780520017146

Publisher: University of California Press, 1992

Synopsis

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. This book is intended for students of Classics.

About this title

Review

Sensual, bitchy, soppy, satirical, this great sequence of love-hate poems lives again in Lee's vivid versions. Not just a scintillating survey of erotic agony and ecstacy, but a witty glimpse of the smart set in Rome. (New Statesman & Society)

From the Back Cover

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 ecstacy 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 his 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).

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520017145
• ISBN 13: 9780520017146
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 437