A Reading of Propertius' Elegies

Among the surviving poets of the Age of Augustus, the elegist Propertius is an enigma. Now brooding, now buoyant, Propertius' couplets offer mesmerizing commentary on the history of Rome and the renaissance of the republic in the wake of the Augustan victory at Actium. The elusive figure who dominates the poems is Cynthia, a literate, musically-inclined, chestnut-haired Muse who calls to mind aspects of both the huntress goddess Diana and the battle goddess Minerva. Through the course of hi...