Tibullus 1.1 Lines 1-20 Notes Flashcards
Who does Tibullus think should be rich? Why?
Soldiers for withstanding the terrors and sleeplessness of military life
In what ways does Tibullus want to be content?
His lot will stop him wandering and will give him pleasure
Who was Pales?
Deity of shepherds, flocks and livestock
How often were offerings and purifications made to Pales?
Yearly
What will Pales accept offerings to be in?
Earthenware vessels not gold
What can Tibullus not bear?
His mistress’ weeping
What does Tibullus want?
Quiet protection with his mistress from winter wind and rain
Who is the captive here? Why?
Tibullus as hos girl’s slave doorkeeper
What sort of people does Tibullus think soldiering and commercialism are for?
The greedy
What does Tibullus think they should do now while they are young?
Make love
Which two lives does Tibullus compare?
The ambitious, practical, political life of a Messalla and the poor, quiet, country life he aspires
What does Tibullus compare between a military and rural life?
Motion against rest Action against passivity Exposure against retreat Winter against the fireside Summer against chill of shade and streams
What does Tibullus think a farming life is built on?
Love
What ideas does the prospect of love conjure?
Old age, death, excluded lover, doorposts broken
What does the ending of the poem create?
A position halfway between abundance and poverty, ancestral wealth and limitation, war and peace, country and city and youth and age
What does Tibullus look into during this poem?
The future
What does Tibullus describe little about?
The present
What does Tibullus associate ‘divitias’ with?
Ambition and competition in love
Which word does ‘divitias’ anticipate and why?
‘Fulvo’ as ‘divitias’ has the same root as a word meaning ‘bright’. Riches are eye catching and attractive
What does ‘alius’ suggest?
Rouses suspicion that a special instance, perhaps himself, is in the poet’s mind
What sort of statement is the first sentence?
Impersonal
What do the subjunctives suggest?
A prayer as well as a command
What does ‘fulvo’ do to the description?
Points out its reality
What is a typical Tibullan device?
Using the abstract for a concrete object ‘congerat’
What does ‘iugera’ have in common with ‘auro’?
Means of wealth
‘Iugerum’ is more specific than…
‘Divitias’
What is an ‘iugerum’?
A size roughly equivalent to an acre and the amount a yoke of oxen could plough in a day
Where is there personification?
‘Labor assiduus’
Why did Tibullus choose ‘assiduus’?
Quasi-military overtones. The enemy is near and continuous effort is by his side.
The juxtaposition of ‘assiduus’ and ‘vicino’ emphasises what?
The etymological pun
Why is ‘somnos’ plural here?
With a lot of Tibullus, it emphasises the repetition of an action and adds to the generality
Where are the military metaphors in lines 3-4?
‘Pulsa’ typically used for string or percussion instruments you might strike and ‘fugent’
What else does ‘pulsa’ show?
A motif of heaping up and holding money but at the price of losing peace and quiet
What does the personification of ‘paupertas’ do?
Keeps up pretense that the statement is generic
What turns the focus towards Tibullus?
‘Me’, ‘mea’, ‘Meus’
What is the effect of mentioning the hearth and home?
Brings it down to earth
What do the flames also represent?
A rich man’s heap of gold
What was the heart of the family home?
The hearth and Lares altars
What does ‘traducat’ hint at?
The passivity and possible negativity gives an idea of betrayal which contrasts the positivity of ‘congerat’
What does ‘vita inerti’ refer to?
The leisurely life in the countryside
What is the only thing ‘assiduus’ in the country life?
The fire
What is confusing about ‘dum’?
The poet is in poverty yet he lays down conditions
Is making demands seemingly strange in Tibullus?
Yes
What sort of subjunctive is ‘seram’? What does it do to the prayer?
Future or optative. Makes it less definite
Which word is elegist’s language?
‘Teneras’
What is ‘the season’?
The right time to seed young plants
What is the contrast and effect on lines 7-8?
‘Teneras’ with ‘maturo’ suggests growth and development
What does ‘rusticus’ contrast with?
The ordinary position of a city elegiac poet
What sort if adjective is ‘facilis’?
Passive
‘Facili’ fits with the ‘vita inerti’ but what is it strange with?
‘Rusticus’
What does ‘grandia’ do?
Anticipates the productivity of his seedlings which he prays for
Where was Hope’s chief Roman temple?
In the Forum Holitorium
What does ‘destituat’ do?
Continues the military metaphor in a new context as the poet-farmer needs allies to furnish his produce
What does ‘frugum aceruos’ contrast?
The rich man’s piles of wealth
The new wine is from what vintage?
October
What does the plural of ‘musta’ suggest?
A series of events to make wine
Which word marks a change of mood?
‘Veneror’
Is the object of devotion stated?
No
Which God might the stumps and weathered stone refer to?
Terminus, other boundary gods or a superstition
Who was Terminus?
Boundary God
What is the effect of the adjectives ‘desertus’ and ‘vetus’?
Takes the reader into a faraway, nostalgic world
What were the crossroads?
Where boundary lines met was fitting to put altars
What was a common offering at shrines and houses?
Flowers/ garlands
The new year was considered as…
The producer of crops
‘Agricolae deo’ is deliberately…
Vague and ‘agricola’ is the first adjectival use in Latin
‘Flava’ is an epithet for…
The goddess of grain
What is the difference between ‘flava’ and ‘fulvo’?
‘Fulvo’ represents acquired wealth
The renewed chain of subjunctives on line 16 shows…
Wishful thinking
Where was Ceres’ temple most likely, despite her rural connections?
In the city like urban poets who claim to be rustici
What was the earliest type of garland to be used?
A crown of grain spikes
What was Priapus god of?
Fertility (chief garden divinity)
Describe Priapus’ cult
Centered originally at Lampascus on Hellespont and reached importance in the Alexandrian period
Why was Priapus red?
Red used to paint statues of gods, especially on festive occasions
What is the irony of ‘saeva falce’?
Connecting a wooden statue with a menacing weapon
What does ‘ruber’ and ‘falc’ suggest?
Phallus
Line 19 echoes which poet?
Virgil
What is the dream that Tibullus creates in line 20?
An unwilling warrior who returns and remakes the impoverished land that was his ancestral acres
How does Tibullus contrast Meliboeus in the Eclogues?
Tibullus comes from war into the country
What is there a Roman love for?
The land and its gods
What were the Lares Custodes?
Lares Compitales which were guardians of the crossroads and celebrated at the Compitalia
Was farming respectable?
Yes
How does Tibullus show he is not lazy?
Talks about planting tall trees and young vines himself
Who put the flowers there to pray by?
Tibullus
What case is Ceres in?
Vocative
What does Tibullus accept?
He cannot do the farm work on his own. He needs help from the gods
Which two words go together in line 3?
‘Assiduus vicino’ to show nearby and how close
How is Priapus used?
As a scarecrow
What is the contrast of using ‘assiduo’?
Tibullus’ constant fire and a soldier’s constant threat
Who is Ceres in Roman myth?
Demeter
Who was Demeter’s daughter?
Proserpina
