Tibullus' Elegiac Underworld
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9666643 |
|---|---|
| Authors | L B T Houghton (0000-0001-7816-7618, University College London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 153-165 |
| Publication date | 2007-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0009838807000146 |
| OpenAlex | W2026844311 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
TIBULLUS' ELEGIAC UNDERWORLDOne of the earliest and most extensive accounts of the underworld in Roman elegiac poetry is to be found in the third poem of Tibullus' first book. 1 Sundered from Delia's embrace through the obligations of military service, and prevented by illness from following Messalla's campaign to the East, the poet lies sick on Phaeacia (the island of Corfu) and muses upon the contrast between the wretchedness of his-and mankind's-present condition, on the one hand, and the felicity of the Golden Age and the blessings he anticipates will await him after death, on the other.The descriptions of Elysium and Tartarus in the second half of the poem (1.3.57-82) are carefully integrated into the thematic structure of the whole: scholars have pointed to the appositeness of incorporating a Nekuia in a poem pervaded by echoes of the Odyssey, 2 and various correspondences have been detected between the two sections of the underworld and the lavish portrait of primeval simplicity representing Tibullus' conception of the aurea aetas. 3Within the context of its elegy, then, our poetic tour of the world below can be seen to fit into a tightly controlled complex of unifying themes.But these twenty-six lines of infernal gazetteer are also of considerable interest in their own right, as a model of the means by which an author can manipulate traditional material to fulfil a particular generic purpose.Having envisaged his death and penned his epitaph, Tibullus turns to the sequel (1.3.57-64)
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| Citations per year | 0.58 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2022 (9) |
| Highly cited | No |