The latest verb tego, which has a primary sense of ‘conceal’ (Dated s.v. tego 1), apparently means ‘clothe’ (Dated s.v. tego 3) and you will demonstrably include which resonance in the indicated juxtaposition having nudasse, of nudo, ‘generate naked, divest’ (Old s.v. nudo step 1). The brand new poem and therefore announces ‘dress’ – or rather ‘undress’ – while the a good polyvalent figure to have Sulpicia’s elegiac poetics. According to the amatory system of modern Latin elegy Sulpicia rights sensual, socially quit strip down more than respectable, socially conformist top for example perform match see your face she ‘throws on’ to have society, once the she claims regarding poem’s last couplet (vultus componere famae | taedet, ‘I am https://datingranking.net/nl/beautifulpeople-overzicht/ tired of creating a nose and mouth mask having rumour,’ 3.13.9–10). By the expressing through the metaphor out-of disrobing this lady intention to place this lady amatory verses towards the flow, Sulpicia combines one or two apparently contrasted
Compared to the brand new nakedness off elegy’s patron deity Amor and you can the fresh new unlock honesty of one’s elegiac poet-spouse, concurrently, really stands the elegiac mistress’s conventional passion for magnificent attire and costly adornment
193 Sartorial Elegance and you can Poetic Finesse from the Sulpician Corpus elegiac dress requirements. Propertius, including, rebukes his domme on her behalf need for pricey attire and work out-with the brand new observance your naked goodness will not have respect for artificially improved charm (nudus Amor formae non amat artificem, 1.2.8). Furthermore Ovid contends that, even though he may do not have the wealth and large ancestry so you can allure their mistress, other functions – along with their blameless character, unlock sincerity, and you may blushing modesty – is to commend him in order to the girl (Was. 1.step 3.7–14): lorsque myself non veterum commendant magna parentum nomina, si nostri sanguinis auctor eques, nec meus innumeris repus aratris, temperat mais aussi sumptus parcus uterque parens: in the Phoebus comitesque novem vitisque repertor hac faciunt et myself et celle-ci tibi donat Amor et nulli cessura fides, sine crimine mores, nudaque simplicitas purpureusque pudor. If your higher names of my personal old ancestors do not highly recommend me, should your composer of our very own descent are an equestrian, nor are my personal house restored that have many ploughs, and every mother frugally husbands bills, still Apollo, new 9 Muses, his friends, and you can Dionysus, discoverer of your own vine, grab my part and additionally Love who gives me to your, commitment that will yield to none, a characteristics in the place of blemish, unlock sincerity, and blushing modesty.
Ovid here elaborates the new moral from Propertius 1.dos.12 in order to articulate a connection between this new elegiac poet’s simple condition and the elegiac lover’s naked emotion, and then he get and thus mean that the new elegiac poet-companion uses Amor’s analogy inside eschewing fancy-dress. Propertius makes reference to their partner dressed up in all the woman finery (step one.dos.1–6): quid iuvat ornato procedere, vita, capillo et tenuis Coa veste movere sinus, aut quid Orontea crinis perfundere murra, teque peregrinis vendere muneribus, naturaeque decus mercato perdere cultu, nec sinere inside the propriis membra nitere bonis?
With the one hand, nudity ‘s the trait feature of Amor, tutelary goddess of Latin sensual elegy and you can patron of one’s elegiac poetlover
194 Alison Keith As to the reasons, living, is it possible you delight to walk away along with your tresses inspired and you will rustle this new lean folds of one’s Coan clothes, or to drench the hair that have Syrian myrrh and sell on your own to possess overseas merchandise, marring your natural beauty by purchasing decoration and never enabling your own limbs so you can glow the help of its inborn appeal?
Myrrh and you may Coan ‘silk’ was in fact pricey eastern luxury imports during the Rome, the previous a keen Arabian item available because of Syrian change, the second delivered towards the isle from Cos because of the rotating brand new filaments from a caterpillar just like the Chinese silkworm.step one As the Coan silk was also almost clear (cf. Hor. Seated. 1.dos.101–103), it said the newest wearer’s intimate accessibility (an attribute one to, paradoxically, aligns brand new elegist’s girlfriend with Amor). new poem’s concluding line, taedia dum miserae sint tibi luxuriae, ‘provided that your wretched privileges establish tiresome for your requirements,’ step 1.dos.32), the guy somewhere else asserts that subtlety off her dress drives their refined elegiac verse (2.step one.3–8): low haec Calliope, non haec mihi cantat Apollo, ingenium nobis ipsa puella facit. sive illam Cois fulgentem incedere †cogis† hac totum e Coa veste volumen erit; seu vidi advertisement frontem sparsos errare capillos, gaudet laudatis ire superba comis; Calliope does not play this type of audio in my opinion, nor Apollo. My personal girlfriend furnishes our motivation. For people who compel the woman to get in glowing into the Coan silks, my whole regularity commonly step out in the Coan raiment; or if perhaps I have seen this lady wandering together hair spread over the woman forehead, she rejoices and treks out arrogantly when We have praised the girl hairdo.