VAIOS VAIOPOULOS

From militia patriae to militia amoris.

Love labour and post obitum remuneration
(Tib. 1.3)

Estratto da:

VICHIANA
rassegna di studi filologici e storici

fondata da CARLO DEL GRANDE e FRANCESCO ARNALDI

diretta da ENRICO FLORES

4ª SERIE
ANNO X
1/2008 LOFFREDO EDITORE - NAPOLI
 A
FROM MILITIA PATRIAE TO MILITIA AMORIS.
LOVE LABOUR AND POST OBITUM
REMUNERATION (TIB. 1.3)

Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid, the elegiac poets of the Augustan

era with their verses will scorn war labores, battles, struggles and
wealth produced by war activities. Instead, they will form a life theory
that incorporates many of Epicurean doctrines, combining them with
a new value that is prima facie incompatible with the Epicurean otium,
love. It is exactly in this fundamental renunciation that they place the
ideological base for their poetry: they reject war and battle for inertia’s
sake, for idleness that they imagine as enriched with their beloved
girl’s company1. It is to her to whom they wish to surrender; it is her
whom they want to serve as loyal husbands (instead of obeying to
generals)2. Militia amoris is one of the most frequent themes in their
poetry, and the military subject essentially coincides with that of the
erotic servitium, as for example in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria3, where the
soldier’s attitude and labores are compared to those of a servus amoris,

1
Tibullus contempts wealth, war and land owning, while he declares eloquently his
preference, the field of love: hic ego dux milesque bonus (1.1.75, Ponchont). About the theme
of militia amoris in Tibullus see also 2.6.5 sq., 2.3.33 sq., etc.
2
The only recruitment Propertius would enjoyably pursue is the one to his beloved girl’s
“camp”, as he says in 2.7.15-18 (Viarre): Quod si uera meae comitarem castra puellae,/ non
mihi sat magnus Castoris iret equus./ Hinc etenim tantum meruit mea gloria nomen,/ gloria
ad hibernos lata Boristhenidas. Cf. 5-6: «At magnus Caesar». Sed magnus Caesar in armis:/
deuictae gentes nil in amore ualent.
3
Ov. Ars 2.233-242 (Goold): Militiae species amor est; discedite, segnes:/ Non sunt haec
timidis signa tuenda viris./ Nox et hiems longaeque viae saevique dolores/ Mollibus his castris et
labor omnis inest./ Saepe feres imbrem caelesti nube solutum,/ Frigidus et nuda saepe iacebis
humo./ Cynthius Admeti vaccas pavisse Pheraei/ Fertur, et in parva delituisse casa./ Quod
Phoebum decuit, quem non decet? exue fastus,/ Curam mansuri quisquis amoris habes. “Love
is a kind of warfare. Slackers, dismiss! These standards are not for cowards to guard. Night and
winter, long roads and cruel pains, and every kind of labour are found on love’s campaigns. You
will often endure rain pouring from heavenly clouds, you will often lie frozen on the naked
earth. They say that Cynthius Apollo pastured Admetus’s cattle, and found shelter in a humble
hut. Who cannot suit what suited Phoebus? Put off your pride, you, whoever you are, that care
for an enduring love”. (All translations cited are based mainly on A.S. Kline’s translations of the
works of Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid). Cf. also Am. 1.9 (Ovid directly compares the militia
of the soldier and the militia of the lover, pompously concluding that the latter is as laborious
and important as the former), Am. 1.2.19 sq. (the triumph of Love in its full magnitude), Am.
2.12 (love victory is presented as more important than any other success in the military field).
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 33

of an erotic servant4. The introduction of the theme of erotic militia

enriches that of the erotic slave’s humiliation and the motif of the
absolute obedience of the lover-poet to his partner5.
Along with rejecting military ventures the elegiac poets will reject
the poetry that describes them, epic poetry, e[po", the genre which
could better respond to the emperor’s demands for poetry that would
praise Rome’s past and his personal achievements in battle field. As a
result, they take up erotic elegy, a genus leve, instead of solemn epic
and heroic verses6. Tibullus’ el. 1.3 illustrates the contrast between
two opposite ways of life, in amore and in militia vivere, and exhibits
the post mortem compensation anticipated by a man, if he chooses to
act as the first or the second modus vivendi requires, accepting to be
submitted either to amatory or to military labores.
The announcement that an erotic, an elegiac poet, who hates war
and voyages, has participated in a military expedition7 to the East
accompanying Messalla, despite the reluctance and anxiety felt by
Delia and himself, at first puzzles the audience, but the surprise quickly
withers away, as the initial announcement is supplemented by Tibullus’
complaint; he is unable to accomplish his mission, as he lies seriously
sick, half-dead in Phaeacia, Corfu:
Ibitis Aegeas sine me, Messalla, per undas,
o utinam memores ipse cohorsque mei!
Me tenet ignotis aegrum Phaeacia terris.
Abstineas auidas, Mors, modo, nigra, manus.
abstineas, Mors atra, precor: non hic mihi mater
quae legat in maestos ossa perusta sinus,
non soror, Assyrios cineri quae dedat odores
et fleat effusis ante sepulcra comis,
Delia non usquam, quae, me cum mitteret urbe,
dicitur ante omnes consuluisse deos8.

“You will cross the Aegean Sea without me, Messalla, oh I wish you
and your cohort remember me! Phaeacia holds me ill in an unknown

4
Sappho must have been the first to use military vocabulary in the love theme (1.28). Cf.
Anacr. 46, Theogn. 1285, Aesch. Suppl. 1003 sq., Choeph. 594 sq., Soph. Trach. 488, Antig.
781, Fr. 932, Eur. Her. 299, Hipp. 525 sq., 727, Fr. 430, 431, 1132.19.
5
Cf. P. Murgatroyd, Militia amoris and the Roman Elegists, “Latomus” 34, 1975, p. 68.
6
The contempt for “long” e[po" is a stance inherited from Callimachus. See for example
A.G. 12.43 (Call. Ep. XXVIII Pf = II G-P).
7
The expedition is probably the one alluded to at Tib. 1.7.13 sq. according to P. Murga-
troyd, Tibullus I, Pietermaritzburg 1980, p. 98. But see also G. Lee, Tibullus: Elegies, Intro-
duction, Text, Translation and Notes (including Book 3, Text and Translation) revised in
collaboration with Robert Maltby, Leeds 19903, p. 119, where the scholar states that this
mission is before the Aquitanian campaign mentioned in 1.7.
8
Tib. 1.3.1-10.
34 Vaios Vaiopoulos

land: black Death, keep your hands away from me, I beg. Black Death,
I am begging you, keep away: my mother is not here to gather the
charred bones to her grieving breast, no sister to pour Assyrian
perfumes on my ashes and cry with loosened hair before my grave.
Delia is not here, who, when she was sending me from the city, took
counsel, as they say, before every god”.

If this does not yet constitute a recusatio versus epici, a rejection of

epic verse, a literary theme frequent in Propertius, if this is not an
annulment of composing heroic poetry, the poet’s declaration definitely
describes his obligatory retreat to the rear of a military expedition.
The first novelty the poet introduces has to do with the use of the
propempticon theme; while the poem begins with a brief, conventional
propempticon addressed to Messalla, Tibullus, exploiting all poetic possi-
bilities inherent in the background-situation of the poem, adapts and applies
the propempticon to the person being left behind; fear and hope is something
felt not by the person at sea, but by Tibullus himself, left in Corfu. So an
original reversal9 of the propempticon is produced, which contrasts with
the brief, conventional propempticon at the opening of the poem10.
It has widely been supported by scholars that by using the name
Phaeacia for what was known in his days as Corcyra, Tibullus is
transposed to the world of mythology and suggests parallels between
himself and Odysseus11 (who swam ashore, when shipwrecked there
in Hom. Od. 6 and 712); further similarities could be suggested between
Delia and Penelope13. Phaeacia of course is not an ignota terra, as

9
So the reference to signs for the voyage (cf. Hor. Epod. 10.1-2, Carm. 3.27.1 sq., Stat.
Silv. 3.2.50 sq.) is made concerning Tibullus’ own voyage to Corcyra (Tib. 1.3.11 sq.), and the
diatribe against navigation (cf. Hor. Carm. 1.3.9 sq., Ov. Am. 2.11.1 sq., Stat. Silv. 3.2.61 sq.:
probably belongs to the traditional scetliasmov", see R.G.M. Nisbet-M. Hubbard, A
Commentary on Horace: Odes Book 1, Oxford 1970, p. 43), is delivered with regard to this
same journey (Tib. 1.3.37 sq.).
10
Cf. Murgatroyd, Tibullus I, p. 100.
11
Cf. M.C.J. Putnam, Tibullus – A Commentary, Norman, Oklahoma 1973, pp. 74-75.
The concluding novsto" of Tibullus to Rome (1.3.89 sq.) leaves little doubt that the connection
of his persona with that of Odysseus was in poet’s mind. See also (among many others) D.F.
Bright, A Tibullan Odyssey, “Arethusa” 4, 1971, pp. 204 sq., D.H. Mills, Tibullus and
Phaeacia: a reinterpretation of 1. 3, “CJ” 69, 1974, p. 32, R. Ball, Tibullus the Elegist, A
Critical Survey, Göttingen 1983, pp. 52 sq., H. Eisenberger, Der innere Zusammenhang der
Motive in Tibulls Gedicht I, 3, “Hermes” 88, 1960, pp. 188 sq. But, while there are undoubted
parallels between Tibullus and Odysseus at the beginning and the end of 1.3, the links seen
by Bright in the rest of the poem are less convincing, according to R. Maltby, Tibullus:
Elegies. Text, Introduction and Commentary, Cambridge 2002, p. 29.
12
Cf. [Tib.] 3.7.78: finis et erroris miseri Phaeacia tellus.
13
Tib. 1.3.89-92. Cf. Hom. Od. 6.52-53 (there Arete, like the sedula anus of Tib. 1.3.84
sq., is absorbed in weaving). Delia could also be identified with Nausicaa, who in Homer is
presented as resembling to Diana (Od. 6.102-109, 151); one could remember that “Delia”, i.e.
“Diana”, “Artemis”, is the pseudonym of Tibullus’ beloved after all.
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 35

Tibullus complaints in 1.3.3; however to Homer it was a perhaps

mysterious and certainly happy place, a never-never land, neither
wholly a part of, nor completely removed from, ordinary humanity;
it was probably identified with Corcyra14 by Callimachus, Thucydides
and Plinius (among others)15, but this identification was disputed16.
The composition of an epitaph immortalizing the poet’s temporary
divergence from his peaceful nature, his joining the expedition for
Messalla’s sake, seals the first part of the poem, which is totally
overwhelmed by the fear of death:
Nunc Ioue sub domino caedes et uulnera semper,
nunc mare, nunc leti mille repente uiae.
Parce, pater: timidum non me periuria terrent,
non dicta in sanctos impia uerba deos.
Quodsi fatales iam nunc expleuimus annos,
fac lapis inscriptis stet super ossa notis:
HIC IACET IMMITI CONSVMPTVS MORTE TIBVLLVS,
MESSALLAM TERRA DVM SEQVITVRQVE MARI17.

“Now under Jupiter’s reign always wounds and massacre, sudden

death, either by sea or by a thousand ways. Forgive me, father. There
is no perjury to make me fear, no impious words spoken against the
sacred gods. But if I have now fulfilled my allotted years, let a stone
inscribed with these words be set up above my bones: HERE LIES
TIBULLUS WASTED BY HARSH DEATH, WHILE FOLLOW-
ING MESSALLA BY LAND AND SEA”.

In the second part of this multiple synthesis the poet describes

Elysium in detail, an ideal place, destined to be the after death residence
for a special category of “fighters”. The kind of piety shown by the
inhabitants of this blessed place determines the form this paradise will
have: only those who have been proven loyal to the edicts of Love and
Venus, only the “soldiers” of love18 are entitled to this erotic Elysium:

14
See Putnam, op. cit., p. 74 and Lee, op. cit., p. x.
15
See Call. Aet. 12-14; cf. Thuc. 1.25, Plin. Nat. 4.52. Ancient Scholia on Homer and
tragedy are more informative on that matter. In the Odyssey (for example in 5.34) the island
is called Scerivh.
16
Cf. Maltby, Tibullus: Elegies, pp. 186-87 and 202, Lee, op. cit., p. xi; F. Cairns,
Tibullus: a Hellenistic Poet at Rome, Cambridge-London-New York-New Rochelle-Mel-
bourne-Sydney 1979, pp. 47-50, points to a tradition in Greek literature that Saturnus (the
Greek Cronos) ruled both the Golden Age and the Isles of the Blessed, which are more or
less synonymous with Elysium; the idea of some geographical proximity of Elysium to
Phaeacia may be present.
17
Tib. 1.3.49-56.
18
In Hesiod’s Theogony (120-122) love is considered as one of the main powers of the
nature that rules men’s and gods’ minds. Cf. Paus. 9.27.3, where Hesiod’s view about Creation
is repeated.
36 Vaios Vaiopoulos

Sed me, quod facilis tenero sum semper Amori,

ipsa Venus campos ducet in Elysios.
Hic choreae cantusque uigent, passimque uagantes
dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aues;
fert casiam non culta seges, totosque per agros
floret odoratis terra benigna rosis;
ac iuuenum series teneris immixta puellis
ludit, et adsidue proelia miscet Amor.
Illic est, cuicumque rapax Mors uenit amanti,
et gerit insigni myrtea serta coma19.
“But I, since I am always fitted for tender Love, I will be led by Venus
herself to the Elysian Fields. There dances and songs flourish, birds
flying here and there sing sweet songs from slender throats; the fields,
untilled, bear cassia, and over all the land the kindly earth flowers with
perfumed roses: and companies of young boys and tender girls mix in
play, and Love stirs his warfare endlessly. There is every lover to whom
came greedy Death, and his hair bears myrtle wreaths for all to see”.

It sounds almost natural that the role of the yucopompov", of the

guide for the souls, is in this case played by Venus20, the goddess of
love, instead of Mercurius21, who is usually assigned this duty22. It
could be reminded that Venus had absorbed the Roman funerary
divinity Libitina23, and also there are traces of a funerary Venus in
Rome24. So, substituting the typical yucopompov" of antiquity25, Venus
assumes the responsibility of leading the chosen one to a new bright
world26, as if this was a muvhsi", an initiation to a religious rite27. Tibullus
certainly alludes to the immortality conferred by love.

19
Tib. 1.3.57-66.
20
Cf. P. Grimal, Venus et l’immortalité (À propos de Tibulle, I, 3, 37 et suiv.), in Hommages
à Waldemar Deonna, Collection Latomus, vol. XXVIII, Bruxelles 1957, p. 258, cf. R. Whitaker,
Myth and Personal Experience in Roman Love-Elegy, Göttingen 1983, p. 71.
21
Cf. W. Burkert, Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche (translated
in Greek by N.P. Bezantakos), Athens 1993 (originally published in 1977), p. 334; J. Cham-
peaux, La religion romaine, Paris 1998, p. 76.
22
The role of the guide of the souls is usually played by Mercurius (Hermes) as we can
see in Books 24 and 11 of the Odyssey. It is only in Minyas that we hear of a ferryman of the
dead, Charon. Guides suggest of course a difficult route for the dying person. It seems that
death had become less natural, less easy to tolerate, so the need for a reassuring, knowing
person is therefore also a sign of a graving anxiety about one’s own fate after death. See J.N.
Bremmer, The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife, The 1995 Read-Tuckwell Lectures at the
University of Bristol, London-New York 2002, p. 5.
23
Cf. G. Bottoni, Albio Tibullo, Delia e la pace dei campi – Elegie scelte, Milano 1931, p. 26.
24
See J. André, Albius Tibullus Elegiarum Liber Primus, Paris 1965, p. 40.
25
See for example K.P. Schulze, Römische Elegiker. Eine Auswahl aus Catull, Tibull,
Properz und Ovid, Berlin 1890, p. 77.
26
Cf. Grimal, Venus et l’immortalité…, cit., pp. 258-59.
27
It is the first time, as it has been noticed, that Venus appears under this persona of
yucopompo;" in literature. See Grimal, Venus et l’immortalité…, cit., p. 258.
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 37

Venus’ worshippers, as expected, carry myrtle branches, signs of

triumph for the winners and the initiates28, since this plant evokes
love29. In contrast to Virgil’s version, according to which the (destined
for love-victims) Underworld is called Lugentes Campi, since curae
non ipsa in morte relinquunt30 (amantes), the atmosphere in this
paradise (made by Tibullus for lovers) brings in mind the triumphant
tone of the elegy Am. 1.2 of Ovid: there31 the myrtle32 is a remuneration
for triumph of Love in a poem where the military vocabulary is again
used in elegiac contexts. In Tibullus’ Elysium myrtle characterizes
those who chose to spend their lives on a love militia from those who
did not make this choice. One should remember that this plant is
sacred to Venus; in the Aeneid’s sixth Book it protects those whom
the cares of loves had consumed in life33. Love in the afterlife is no
longer a torture, but a joyful game. Those who took up an erotic
ludus (in the sense of labour) on earth, they can enjoy a ludus (in the
sense of game)34 in the afterlife.
The atmosphere is without cease reminiscent of the love procedure
in which everything is included: flowers, fields bearing crop35 and,
most importantly, the absence of the most annoying element for an
Epicurean, labour. The element of human contact is rendered through
the ostentatious use of the relevant to sex action terms immixta and
miscet that at the same time constitute a re-determination of some
military terms36.
The calm attitude towards death that the Venus’ follower displays37
accentuates his superiority vis-à-vis the terrified Tibullus of the first
part of the poem. Propertius had laid the foundations for the

28
Cf. Aristoph. Ran. 156.
29
See for example Ov. Am. 1.2.23-24, where myrtle is related to the triumph of love. Cf.
also Hor. Carm. 1.25.17-20, Cat. 61.18 sq., Ov. Fast. 4.139.
30
Verg. Aen. 6.444 (Mynors).
31
Ov. Am. 1.2.23 (Goold): necte comam myrto, maternas iunge columbas.
32
See Putnam, op. cit., p. 83 about myrtle, a plant implying fertility, fecundity and love.
33
See Verg. Aen. 6.440 sq.; cf. Putnam, op. cit., p. 83 (commentary on verse 66 of Tib.
1.3), K.F. Smith, The Elegies of Albius Tibullus, The Corpus Tibullianum edited with
introduction and notes on books I, II, and IV, 2-14, Darmstadt 1964 (commentary on v.
1.3.66), Whitaker, op. cit., p. 71.
34
Tib. 1.3.64.
35
Tib. 1.3.61-62.
36
See Maltby, Tibullus: elegies, p. 204 (commentary on vv. 1.3.63-64). Cf. Verg. Aen.
10.796 (immiscuit). See also Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford 1968 and C. Lewis-C. Short,
A Latin Dictionary, Oxford 1958, s.vv. inmixtus, immisceo. On proelia miscet see Lucr. 4.1013,
Liv. 28.30.11, Verg. Georg. 3.220, Aen. 10.23, 12.628. This expression’s use is very frequent in
an amatory context.
37
Tib. 1.3.57-58.
38 Vaios Vaiopoulos

predominance of a lover against a soldier, in fact, on theoretical grounds

as far as death was concerned: Solus amans nouit, quando periturus et
a qua/ morte, neque hic Boreae flabra neque arma timet38. Ovid with
a sense of audacious humour will accentuate this contrast between in
militia and in amore mori provocatively opting for the second and
meaning his preference to the full39. He leaves the soldier to wear himself
out from the military labores, and the greedy to exhaust themselves
with gold chase. He himself wishes to die during Veneris mutua
certamina. So, Tibullus’ description of Elysium (in the poem’s second
part) is also rendered as an answer to the militia in the literal sense,
which he takes up during the first part of the composition: not only in
the sensory world, but also in the world of the dead, the capital position
in the hierarchy is given to the love labour and not to military efforts.
The after life survival and existence comes up as a fruit of consistent
piety that constitutes a conformation to a given procedure, the
participation to a certain ritual, the acceptance of the rules of a putative
religion of love. The after life survival is realized as a remuneration for
the practical pietas to the erotic and not to the military edicta40.
The description of an ideal postmortem place in Prop. 4.7 is not
distant from the perception of a specially constructed place for the fidi
amantes of Tibullus’ Elysium. The inclusion of Cynthia, the Propertian
heroine, in a scenery strongly reminiscent of the paradise in Tibullus’
1.3 – the most striking resemblances are the calm and the sounds of
the music, as Lydia plectra constitute a metonymy for lyric poetry –
establishes a confirmation of her conjugal fidelity and the subsequent
acceptance of the role of the wife from her part. She is presented
accompanying some mythological figures emblematic for their fidelity,
such as Andromeda and Hypermestra:
38
Prop. 2.27.11-12.
39
Ov. Am. 2.10.29-38: felix, quem Veneris certamina mutua perdunt!/ di faciant, leti
causa sit ista mei!/ Induat adversis contraria pectora telis/ miles et aeternum sanguine nomen
emat./ quaerat avarus opes et, quae lassarit arando,/ aequora periuro naufragus ore bibat./ at
mihi contingat Veneris languescere motu,/ cum moriar, medium solvar et inter opus;/ atque
aliquis nostro lacrimans in funere dicat:/ ‘conveniens vitae mors fuit ista tuae!’. “Happy is the
man, who dies in love’s mutual battle! I wish the gods make this the cause of my death! Let
the soldier’s breast oppose the enemy darts and buy an eternal name with his blood. Let the
greedy seek wealth, and weary with voyaging, shipwrecked, let their perjuring mouths drink
brine. But I wish that my lot is to be taken fainting in Venus’ act, when I die, and be dissolved
in the midst of its delight; and someone will say, weeping, at my funeral: ‘that death was so
appropriate to his life!’”. Cf. Tib. 1.1.45 sq. where the poet, in a more serious tone, rejects war
and wealth for the sake of love.
40
The poet’s fear in front of death in the first part of the poem is justified by the fact that
he has in some way violated his own principles, breaking love’s laws, i.e. abandoning Delia
and taking part in Messalla’s military expedition. Cf. H. Dettmer, The Arrangement of
Tibullus Books 1 and 2, “Philologus” 124, 1980, pp. 72-73.
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 39

Ecce coronato pars altera rapta phaselo,

mulcet ubi Elysias aura beata rosas,
qua numerosa fides quaque aera rotunda Cybebes
Mitratisque sonant Lydia plectra choris.
Andromedeque et Hypermestre sine fraude maritae
narrant historiae pectora nota suae
haec sua maternis queritur liuere catenis
bracchia nec meritas frigida saxa manus;
narrat Hypermestre magnum ausas esse sorores,
in scelus hoc animum non ualuisse suum.
Sic mortis lacrimis uitae sancimus amores:
celo ego perfidiae crimina multa tuae41.

“Look, others swept onwards by a garlanded boat, where pleasant

breezes caress Elysian roses, where tuneful lutes, where Cybele’s cym-
bals sound to the Lydian lyre, and choirs wearing mitres. Andromeda
and Hypermestra, wives beyond reproach, tell their story, with
accustomed feeling: the first complains her arms are bruised, with the
chains of her mother’s arrogance, and that her hands were not deserving
the punishment of a cold rock. Hypermestra narrates the audacious
deed of her sisters and that her mind was incapable of committing such
a crime. So with the tears of death we confirm the desires of life: I don’t
say anything about the numerous crimes of your unfaithfulness”.

The righteous presence of these heroines in the erotic paradise is

based on their sine fraude, on their irreproachable behaviour as wives42:
just like Tibullus, they are proven to be faciles tenero Amori43, instead
of being insensible to the values of love; instead of giving in to erotic
indifference, and committing erotic scelera, they adopted a valor system
in which love would occupy the most prominent position. This view-
point is strengthened if Propertius knows – as it is quite possible –
Euripides’ version of Andromeda’s story, according to which the young
princess after her salvation by Perseus refuses to stay home with her
parents in Aethiopia44 and chooses to follow her beloved one to Argos
as his wife.
On the other hand, the persona of Hypermestra as the impersona-
tion of conjugal faith, is characteristic45. The mythological paradigm
of the Danaids is after all used by Tibullus in his description of Tartarus
in 1.3.79-80. The fourty nine daughters of Danaus had committed a

41
Prop. 4.7.59-70.
42
The meaning of the v. 4.7.63 requires the conjugal identity for Andromeda as well, so
the lectio maritae should be probably preferable to marita suggested by Heinsius.
43
Cf. Tib. 1.3.57.
44
See H.E. Butler-E.A. Barber, The Elegies of Propertius, Oxford 1933, repr. Hilde-
sheim-Zürich-New York 1996, p. 364 (commentary on vv. 63-64).
45
See, for example, Hor. Carm. 3.11, Ov. Her. 13.
40 Vaios Vaiopoulos

crime against Venus, but Hypermestra respected the laws of love, so

she can righteously gain a position in the lovers’ Elysium. Tibullus’
own post obitum survival would depend on his adherence to an “eroto-
centric” system of thought, it would be the result and the recompense
of the adoption from his part of a certain life stance concerning the
world, a life stance that views love as the most important value. In
amore mori is the result of, the reward for in amore vivere.
Although tragedy and Plato show that on the whole the Athenian
public did not firmly believe in rewards and punishment after death46,
in antiquity there were many people believing that the pious will be
reserved a special place in Hades47. Regulating human behaviour and
imposing penalties against the sacrilegious and rewards for the pious
(an idea not far from the Orphic theories48) is reflected on the part of
Odyssey (Book 11), which comprises the description of Tartarus49.
This attitude may also be discerned in the description of Elysium in
the Aristophanean Frogs50 and in the Hymn to Demetra51. Plato will
not forget to mention a postmortem judgment of the pious and the
sinners in his Respublica52. Diogenes Laertius will talk about acquiring
immortality through piety53. This will become a topos in the Helleni-
stic epigram, one of the strongest influences for the elegiac poets54. At

46
See Bremmer, op. cit., p. 7.
47
Cf. E. Rohde, Psyche (Italian translation), Bari 1970, pp. 702 sq.
48
The Orphics developed the idea of a kind of a hell, where sinners had to wallow in the
mire, to swim in the mud. It is in the 5th century, then, in Orphic-Pythagorean milieus that
the contours of the later Christian distinction between heaven and hell first become visible;
in the same circles the idea arose of a “symposium of the pure” (cf. Plat. Respubl. 363c-d), a
view that is found in Empedocles (see Fr. 147) and remained popular into the Hellenistic
period. Cf. Pind. Ol. 1.39, 60-61, Eur. Or. 5-10, Nicolaus, Fr. 1, Diod. Sic. 4.74.2. About the
idea of celestial immortality and the deification of mortals see Eur. Suppl. 533-534, Hel. 1013-
1016, Or. 1086-1087. See Bremmer, op. cit., pp. 6, 7 and 137, notes 54, 55 and 62.
49
Hom. Od. 11.576-600. Cf. 4.563 sq.
50
Aristoph. Ran. 145-158. In Aristophanes’ (humoristic) Underworld there is a special
place, full of mud, where all nasty people drown: the ones who have wronged a stranger, or
run off without paying the boy they seduced, or beaten his parents. Also those who swore
a false oath, or got someone to plagiarise Aeschylus’ grand-nephew, Morsimus, a representative
of bad poetry; also those who have learnt an awful war dance by Kinesias. In Aristophanes’
paradise one can hear a lovely breath of pipes floating all around his ears and see the most
delightful sunlight. Just like on earth there are myrtles and groups of happy men and women,
the Initiates, all clapping their hands together.
51
Hymn. Hom. Ad Cererem 480-482 (speaking of the non-Initiates), cf. 367-69 (speaking
of the punishment upon those neglecting to honor Jupiter).
52
Plat. Respub. 614c (speaking about the existence of two separate places in Hades, the
one on the right destined for the fair people, the other on the left destined for those iniquitous).
53
Diog. Vit. 6.5 (those who want to gain immortality should live a pious and fair life).
54
A.G. 7.520 (Call. Ep. X Pf = XXXIII G-P: Timarchus will be among the pious in
Hades). See also A.G. 7.451 (Call. Ep. IX Pf = XLI G-P: the fair people don’t die).
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 41

the Eleusinian mysteries there had long since been a promise of a

better life in the hereafter, though without detail55.
Tibullus, innovating, will build an illusionary Elysium especially
for lovers, claiming the title of a special type of piety, whose application
evolves into an erotic militia; in fact, what he declares in his poetry is
his conviction that he will become immortal through serving love and
participating in the regeneration of the paradise-like Saturnian past.
According to Hesiod56 – another constant source of inspiration for
Tibullus and the elegiac poets in general, especially for the el. Tib. 1.3
– Elysium, the Island of the Blessed, is the place where the heroes
retreat after death and after having gained immortality. Similar ideas
are found in Pindar57. Furthermore, immortality is also conferred upon
those who die out of the celestial power: they are considered as the
chosen by the gods, because death caused by thunder strike designates
an unforeseen meeting with their destiny (it is considered to be a very
remarkable way of dying in any case). The third category entitled to
immortality is revealed by an interesting Homeric locus: heroes related58
to God, just like Menelaus, are entitled to Elysium. Menelaus is Jupiter’s
son in law, as husband of Helen, and what’s more, it is his moi'ra (in
the sense of destiny) to be immortal, because he is a holder of a moi'ra,
i.e. of a part, of a piece of eternal and immortal beauty. An interesting
analogy arises: while the subjects of Saturnus’ reign, the mythological
heroes and the legendary inhabitants of the Island of the Blessed in
general had acquired the right to participate in divine nature due to
their service for their country’s sake, due to the strong sense of duty
regarding a literary militia (for example the defense of Thebes or the
Trojan War59), anyway due to their glorious deeds (kleva), the blessed
lovers of Tibullus’ erotic Elysium have successfully serviced a love militia,
so they are allowed, as a reward, to take part in a paradise incarnating

55
See Bremmer, op. cit., p. 6. In Soph. Fr. 837 it is stated that thrice blessed are those
mortals who have seen the rites and thus enter Hades; for them alone there is life, for the
others all is misery. See also Hom. Hymn. Ad Cer. 480-482, Pind. Fr. 137, Philetaerus, Fr. 18
(where only those who play the flute are allowed to love, while those who don’t know
anything of music are tortured).
56
Hes. Op. 167-173 (abundance, order and peace characterize those heroes’ life); see
especially 169a-e, where Saturnus (Cronos) is mentioned as the king among the heroes, the
inhabitants of the Island of the Blessed.
57
Pind. Ol. 2.68-77 (those who managed to stay away from sins during their life on earth
are allowed to retire to Cronos’ tower after death, to go to the Isles of the Blessed, where
again peace, abundance and joy reign).
58
Hom. Od. 4.561-569 (Proteus informs Menelaus that his fate is to be sent by the gods
to the Elysian Fields, where life is always joyful for people, i.e. to gain immortality, because
he is Jupiter’s son in law, a god’s close relative, as Helen’s husband).
59
See for example Hes. Op. 158-165.
42 Vaios Vaiopoulos

the usual, the conventional visions of an elegiac lover-poet. Their paradise

is a happy combination of inertia, idleness, natural life and love, a
dream that a mortal – helas! – can never see come true. Elegy Venere
duce has built a special paradise (Elysium) for its own heroes60, i.e. the
love heroes, the followers and willing victims of love61, in the same way
as the epic world possesses an Elysium destined for war heroes.
Elysium, as mentioned before, is also the place that waits as postmor-
tem remuneration the thunderstruck chosen ones62 (according to one
possible etymological derivation63). Tibullus, exploiting and reforming
this mythological tradition64, indicates that his Elysium is accessible to
lovers who suffered a sudden death65, those who died thunderstruck
by love66, those who died during the love militia. Death seized them
in the same way as love often strikes its victims, by thunder strike.
The result is that love and its followers are immortalized just on the
very instant that the loyal miles is proving his piety67 and obedience to
the commands of the Goddess. A lover’s sudden death in amore brings

60
It is important to notice that in the afterlife, according to Hesiod (Op. 170) the blessed-
ones will spend their time without having any concern torturing their minds (e[conte" qumo;n
ajkhde;a), just like the elegiac poets imagine that a happy man should live on earth. Hesiod’s
blessed heroes are entitled to withdraw in makavrwn nh'son after their death, just like Tibullus
opts for withdrawal at the end of the world, away from negotia, as he also has been a hero,
according to elegiac criteria. Coincidences between the Hesiodean paradise and the Tibullan
dreams (as expressed in Tibullus’ first elegy) are obvious: abundance and at the same time
calm and Epicurean otium.
61
Cf. H.C. Gotoff, Tibullus: Nunc Levis est Tractanda Venus, “HSPh” 78, 1974, p. 244.
62
Just like Semele, according to the vv. 25-27b of Pindar’s Ol. 2, a poem rich in eschatology,
that contains a description of the Island of the Blessed: Semele lives now with Olympus’
gods, after she had died out of a thunder. She is now loved by Jupiter, Minerva, and her son
Dionysus. Semele, as a maid chosen by God, as a God’s mistress, had the opportunity to meet
Jupiter in his full grandeur. It was as a result of her identity as a mistress, as a love persona,
that she was allowed to see God, she has been awarded the honor of meeting Jupiter in his
full splendor. But this exceptional for mortals honor brings her death by thunder, a death that
is equivalent to immortality and eternal honor.
63
See H.G. Liddell-R. Scott-H.S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford 1940, s.vv.
∆Hluvsion and ejnhluvsio". Cf. W. Burkert, Elysion, “Glotta” 39, 1960-61, pp. 208-13. But his
long accepted etymology which connects ∆Hluvsion with ejnhluvsion, “place struck by lightning”,
has now been refuted and a pre-Greek character of the word is accepted. See Bremmer, op.
cit., p. 137, note 47.
64
It is possible that the conception of the lovers’ Elysium is not a Tibullus’ innovation.
A Hellenistic model might have influenced Tibullus and Virgil, as Aen. 6.442 could imply: hic
quos durus amor crudeli tabe peredit. But Tibullus is certainly the first to conceive Elysium
exclusively in amatory terms, as a special autonomous part of the Underworld.
65
Tib. 1.3.65.
66
Cf. F. Solmsen, Propertius in his literary relations with Tibullus and Vergil, “Philologus”
105, 1961, pp. 282-83 about the conception of the Underworld sub specie amoris.
67
As Grimal notices, it is not about a pietas concerning theology and religious faith, but
a piety related to the hope that mortals place on the mysterious powers they are surrounded
by. See P. Grimal, Le lyrisme à Rome, Vendôme 1978, p. 123.
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 43

the love-soldier (miles amoris) to the point of meeting his destiny. It

is a “heroic” death, comparable to the death of war heroes. It provides
the same value and power as a guarantee for future immortality. On
the other hand, in any case the poet has by all means the right to
imagine himself as having the same fate as Menelaus, since his relation
to the divine poetic persona of the domina provides him with the
necessary relation to the divine element68, validating his right to prelimi-
narily “taste” Delia’s divine beauty while he is still on earth.
It is probable that all this is not only the fruit of a fertile and vivid
imagination; Venus and Love are by ancient religions believed to be
gods-saviors, capable of ensuring existence in the afterlife for theirs
followers’ sake69; according to the rich Mediterranean religious tradi-
tion, savior, afterlife survival can be achieved through love. Such opi-
nions can be found for example in Propertius70 and Plutarch71, and
constitute, according to Grimal, a reliable indication that they represent
not only a literary theme but a deep faith as well72.
In fact not only the persona of the domina, of the beloved girl, is
presented as equal to a goddess, but also Tibullus, as Venus’ follower,
could become a god; at the end of the elegy the poet imagines himself
as appearing to Delia suddenly, as if from heaven (caelo missus). Delia
will (or would) accept him on bare feet and with her long hair loose
and tumbled: this image seems like an epiphany in which Tibullus
appears from heaven as a god73, and the mistress’ presentation as longos
turbata capillos and nudato pede74, along with the previous mention of
her purity, her castitas and pudor, allows thoughts that this is about a
iJero;" gavmo", a sacred marriage, and not a simple lovers’ rendez-vous.
This is the first and only time that Tibullus could be presented as
equal to his mistress75; Tibullus probable initiation to Elysium by
Venus could offer a possible explanation for this equation.

68
Cf. S. Lilja, The Roman Elegist’s Attitude to Women, Helsinki 1965, p. 188, who does
not seem to accept the divine nature of Tibullus’ mistress, but also R.P. Palmer, Is there a
Religion of Love in Tibullus?, “CJ” 73, 1977, p. 7, who, based on Tib. 1.2, supports the
divinity of the domina.
69
Cf. P. Grimal, L’amour à Rome (translated in Greek by N. Tsagas), Athens 1990
(originally published in Paris, 1963), p. 210.
70
Prop. 1.19.19-20, 2.27.11-12.
71
Plut. Amat. 766B.
72
Cf. Grimal, Vénus et l’immortalité…, cit., pp. 261-62.
73
Let us remind the sudden appearance of Odysseus before Nausicaa, when the maid
says to her friends that the stranger seems as a god in her eyes (Hom. Od. 6.243). Odysseus
has gained a divine appearance thanks to Minerva’s intervention, Tibullus could be caelo
missus and equated to a god thanks to Venus’ meditation.
74
Tib. 1.3.91-92.
75
See Palmer, op. cit., pp. 7-8.
44 Vaios Vaiopoulos

Despite of our poet’s illusions about the faith of his beloved mistress,
and the resemblance he is willing to point out between himself and
Odysseus, he must be aware of the contrast, of the great differences
that characterize his case and that of the Homeric hero. First of all,
little common things can be traced between a girl like Delia and a
noble and faithful lady like Penelope. And, what is more important,
Odysseus is an active person, a warrior, a real hero of the epic world,
not a passive figure, like ill and weak Tibullus. The lover-poet Tibullus
constitutes the persona of an anti-hero contrasting that of the epic
hero Odysseus76.
An important question remains unanswered: why the poet Tibullus
chooses to present Tibullus’ personage in Phaeacia when he falls mor-
tally ill? The suggestion that Tibullus did, as a historical fact, actually
travel to and fall ill in Corcyra, which was sometimes identified in
antiquity with the Phaeacia of the Odyssey, as it is mentioned before,
is not satisfactory: Tibullus’ journey to and illness on Corcyra could
be a fruit of poetic imagination, like the fantasy which gave birth to
Propertius’ journey and shipwreck in his el. 1.17. A possible
explanation could also be that the name Phaeacia for Corcyra–Corfu
brings into light Tibullus’ similarities and dissimilarities to Odysseus,
as it is also mentioned before77.
I think we should agree with the opinion held mainly by Cairns
that Tibullus is exploiting in the field of poetry the learned tradition
according to which Phaeacia lay, in terms of mythical geography, near
the Isles of the Blessed. This tradition could have sprung78 from the
account of the voyage of Rhadamanthys in Hom. Od. 7.321 sq.,
although Homer himself says nothing about Phaeacia being near Ely-
sium; the ancient Scholia on this Homeric passage though (like the
Scholia in Euripides’ Hippolytus) assure79 the Hellenistic currency of

76
Cf. C. Rambaux, Tibulle ou la répétition, Bruxelles (Collection Latomus, vol. 234)
1997, p. 22.
77
See note 13.
78
See Cairns, op. cit., pp. 44-45.
79
The reference to Phaeacia certainly constitutes a hint to Homer, but apart from that, it
is known, as it has been stated before, through Greek texts that this place is cited near the
Island of the Blessed, i.e. near Elysium. Tibullus presents himself ill in Phaeacia because his
deep aim is to go to Elysium, to be immortalized. See the ancient commentaries on Eur. Hipp.
750 (where the ancient scholiast informs us that there is a legend that close to the fiery circle
and the belt of fire there is another land in which many marvellous things grow; according
to the legend in this land the Elysian Fields and the country of the Phaeacians are sited) and
Hom. Od. 7.153 (the ancient scholiast says that the weather is always good in the land of
Phaeacians and the crops grow throughout the year; this place is near to the Elysian plain)
and 324 (the Scholia take for granted that the Phaeacians live near the Islands of the Blessed),
where the proximity of the two places (the Elysian Fields and Phaeacia) is clearly stated.
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 45

the tradition, which we don’t have reasons to believe that a “Helleni-

stic” poet like Tibullus would ignore. So, when our poet begins elegy
1.3 informing his audience that he is mortally ill in Phaeacia and
continues claiming that Venus herself will lead him to Elysium, he
may silently or clearly exploit this learned view of the geographical
proximity of Phaeacia and the Elysian Fields aiming to suggest that
his hopes about his postmortem fate will come true.
In addition to this, if Tibullus has in mind the fate gained by his
Hellenistic predecessor, the (Phaeacian) lyric poet Philicus, who is on
his way to the Isles of the Blessed80, then our poet could imply about
himself that he is not only an “alter Odysseus” but an “alter Philicus”
as well, being a host at the island of Alcinous. Within this framework,
although Tibullus has in fact composed an inverse epibaterion rather
than a real propempticon, he consciously avoids attacking the place to
which he has come, as the speaker in this variant of the genre often
does, because Phaeacia, Corfu, was useful to him in mythological
terms in suggesting parallels between himself and Odysseus and of
course proximity to Elysium81.
The pictures of Elysium share important similarities82 with the de-
scription of the happy human past, under Saturnus’ reign, antecedently
cited in 1.3.35-48:
Quam bene Saturno uiuebant rege, priusquam
tellus in longas est patefacta uias!
Nondum caeruleas pinus contempserat undas,
effusum uentis praebueratque sinum,
nec uagus ignotis repetens compendia terris
presserat externa nauita merce ratem.
Illo non ualidus subiit iuga tempore taurus,
non domito frenos ore momordit equus,
non domus ulla fores habuit, non fixus in agris,
qui regeret certis finibus arua, lapis;
ipsae mella dabant quercus, ultroque ferebant
obuia securis ubera lactis oues.
Non acies, non ira fuit, non bella, nec ensem
immiti saeuus duxerat arte faber.

“How well men used to live under Saturnus, before the world was
opened up to long travels! The boats made of pine wood had not yet
scorned the blue waves, they had not offered spreading sails to the
wind, and the wandering mariner, seeking profit in unknown lands,
had not loaded his boat with alien wares. In those days the strong ox

80
See Cairns, op. cit., p. 45.
81
See Cairns, op. cit., p. 46.
82
Cf. Maltby, Tibullus: elegies, p. 202 (commentary on vv. 57-66).
46 Vaios Vaiopoulos

had not submitted to the yoke, the horse had not champed the bit
with tame mouth, no house had any doors, no stone was fixed in the
earth to determine boundaries to the fields. The oaks themselves offered
honey, and, uncalled, ewes with full udders came to their free from
cares owner. There was no army, wrath, war, the cruel maker had not
forged the sword with his harsh craft”.

Aetas aurea, as we hear from its loyal admirer Tibullus, was a real
yet lost lover’s paradise83. Tibullus, in his description of the golden
Saturnian past, follows Aratus’ thesis84, according to which moral
superiority characterizes the Golden Age, before men were corrupted
by wealth and war85. However, while the poetic representation of the
Saturnian lost paradise emphasizes the optical beauty86, the delight
that comes from the participation in the ideal future world of the
blessed ones mainly pertains to acoustic pleasure: the terms choreae,
cantus, carmen in Tib. 1.3.59 and 6087 accentuate the sounds and their
beauty. It could be reminded that Virgil in his own perception of the
Elysium had predicted the presence of poets; he also presents Orpheus,
the master musician, surrounded by religious archieratic prestige88. In
the Aristophanean Hades, as it is presented in the Frogs, apart from
abundant light, the followers are surrounded by ‘the blow of the
flute’89. Hints concerning poetry and strict literature critics are not
spared from hell’s description90. The ideal world described in el. 1.3 is
a paradise that meets not only the expectations of Tibullus as a lover
but also the aims of a poet conscious of his artistic identity.
The use of (post-literary insinuations-filled) espressions such as
tenui91 gutture and dulce carmen in 1.3.60, reminiscent of love elegy,

83
Cf. D.F. Bright, Haec mihi fingebam – Tibullus in his World, Leiden 1978, p. 24.
84
Arat. Phaen. 1.96 sq.
85
Cf. R. Maltby, Latin Love Elegy, Selected and edited with introduction and notes,
Bristol 1980, p. 117 (commentary on v. 1.3.48).
86
Cf. the images of undescribable beauty of the place destined to the divkaioi of the
Platonic Respublica in 615a.
87
Hic choreae cantusque uigent, passimque uagantes/ dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aues.
88
Verg. Aen. 6.644-647.
89
Aristoph. Ran. 154.
90
Aristoph. Ran. 151-153. Discussion about poetry, its nature and its value is eminently
present in this play of Aristophanes. On that subject see for example K. Diamantakou-
Agathou, On Tragedy and Trugedy, Eight Itineraries Through Tragic and Comic Theatre,
Athens 2007, pp. 207-11.
91
The “subtlety” (the quality described by the adjective tenuis) is indicative of the elegiac
poetry, of the Mou'sa leptalevh. Cf. Maltby, Tibullus: elegies, p. 203 (commentary on vv. 59-
60). On the use of the Greek adjective leptalevo", see Call. Aet. 1.24 and Eust. Commentarii
ad Homeri Iliadem 4.261 (v. 571). About the meaning and the use of the Latin epithet tenuis
as a metonymy of elegiac poetry, see Prop. 3.1.8, Ov. Tr. 2.327, and cf. Am. 1.13.8, where the
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 47

reveals the poetic genre that is highly esteemed and generously reward-
ed in Tibullus’ erotic paradise: there, not only the crucial for his life
demand for love will be satisfied but also the need for composition of
erotic poetry. In the intertextual references-filled elegy Am. 3.992, Ovid’s
commemoration for Tibullus, the successor interprets authentically
the vision of his predecessor: if an Elysium valley exists, it is there
where Tibullus will be received by Calvus, Catullus and Gallus, the
group of Roman newvteroi. His paradise is primarily a postmortem
meeting point for poets, mainly those who served the erotic theme.
Pii and blessed are considered only the ones who exclusively served
erotic poetry, and Tibullus will be rightfully embodied in this team of
pious adherents:
Si tamen e nobis aliquid nisi nomen et umbra
restat, in Elysia valle Tibullus erit.
obvius huic venias hedera iuvenalia cinctus
tempora cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo;
tu quoque, si falsum est temerati crimen amici,
sanguinis atque animae prodige Galle tuae.
his comes umbra tua est; siqua est modo corporis umbra,
auxisti numeros, culte Tibulle, pios93.

“Yet if anything survives from us but a shadow and a name, Tibullus

will live in the valley of Elysium. Come to meet him, ivy wreathing
your young brows, learned Catullus, with your Calvus; and you also,
Gallus, if the charge is false you did wrong to your friend, free with
your blood and life. Your shade will accompany them; if shade is what
survives the body, gracious Tibullus, you have been added to the
number of the blessed”.

Under this light, the poet’s creative activity and inspiration is upgra-
ded to a fundamental aspect of the human existence94, exactly in the
same way as love constitutes a basic function of “being” itself. The
fact that serving this particular poetic genre, elegy, constitutes another
type of poetic recruitment has been alluded to in Propertius, Tibullus’
famous colleague, who is known for his interest in poetics, as he
declares in one of his famous recusationes of epic verse95. Tibullus

whole phrase of Tib. 1.3.60 is repeated. Cf. also Putnam, op. cit., p. 83 (commentary on v.
60), who points out the connection of the “slenderness” with elegy and elegists.
92
The Ovidian poem is especially reminiscent of Tibullus’ el. 1.3.
93
Ov. Am. 3.9.59-66.
94
Cf. Mills, op. cit., p. 231.
95
The use of the term castra declaring the change of poetic genre is characteristic in Prop.
2.10.19-20: Haec ego castra sequar; uates tua castra canendo/ magnus ero: seruent hunc mihi
fata diem!
48 Vaios Vaiopoulos

silently expands the originality of his poetic inspiration describing (or

creating) a paradise reserved not only for lovers but for poets as well.
In this spirit, not only love soldiers (milites amoris) but also love song
soldiers (milites carminis amatorii) constitute the group of the chosen
ones. The members of this club coincide with the ones of the lovers’
society and are entitled to immortality. Tibullus offers an interesting
and enlightening example for this coincidence: he is a lover, a Venus’
fan, and a poet at the same time, so he should rightfully find a place
in the lovers’ paradise after his natural death. His case presents a
characteristic sample of the qualities requested for someone who wishes
to be an inhabitant of Elysium.
Someone could add that Odysseus, a hero-model for Tibullus in
1.3, is one of the very few persons known by the Greek and Roman
mythology, who have succeeded in going to Hades and, most impor-
tant, to return safe on earth; the other known persons who have
succeeded in doing the same are Hercules and Orpheus. So the victory
over Hades and death is a deed (klevo"), it is something that has mana-
ged to achieve not only a hero, but also a poet, the famous musician
Orpheus. Tibullus – apart from Odysseus – could use also Orpheus as
his model; he could become an “alter Orpheus”, just like Philicus of
Corcyra, the Phaeacian Hellenistic predecessor of Tibullus who, as
mentioned before, is now on his way to the Island of the Blessed,
sited not very far from his native land.
Post-literary insinuations are also present in the description of the
paradise destined for loyal spouses in Prop. 4.7. The use of sonant,
Lydia plectra, choris96 brings about a function that appears very similar
to carmina production. The activities in which the famous loyal wives
and heroines indulge verify the very first impression: the heroines
narrant historiae pectora nota suae resembling in this way our poets’
preoccupations. Andromeda and Hypermestra queruntur, lament for
the tortures they suffered (may be in the most appropriate for the
querulae rhythm, the elegiac one), while they narrant (probably using
epic verse) the daring deeds (kleva) of Andromeda’s beloved and the
audacious scelera of Hypermestra’s impious (against Venus) sisters.
The ambience in the loyal spouses’ paradise is dominated by lyrical
songs, as the periphrasis Lydia plectra, typical metonymy for lyrical
poetry, indicates.
Ovid once again illuminates the symbolism of all these poetic hints:
in the tender epitaph he devoted to his dead parrot, he envisages an

96
Prop. 4.7.62.
From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3) 49

Elysium for birds, where his dear pet will be rewarded for its pietas.
The birds admissible to this particular paradise are only the pious
aves, the olores innocui, the (pacific and centenary) phoenix and doves,
well known for their conjugal faith, Juno’s, the sacred bird of the
goddess of marriage and conjugal devotion97:
Colle sub Elysio nigra nemus ilice frondet,
udaque perpetuo gramine terra viret.
siqua fides dubiis, volucrum locus ille piarum
dicitur, obscenae quo prohibentur aves.
illic innocui late pascuntur olores
et vivax phoenix, unica semper avis;
explicat ipsa suas ales Iunonia pinnas,
oscula dat cupido blanda columba mari.
psittacus has inter nemorali sede receptus
convertit volucres in sua verba pias98.

“At the foot of a hill in Elysium, there is a grove made of dark ilex
leafs, and the moist earth is green with everlasting grass. If you can
believe in doubtful things, they say that there is a place there for pious
birds, from which ominous ones are barred. There innocuous swans
and the phoenix, unique long-lived bird, browse far and wide; there
Juno’s bird spreads her tail-feathers, and the dove lovingly kisses her
eager mate. Our parrot gaining a place among those trees attracts the
pious birds by his words”.

In this paradise Ovid’s parrot will retain his natural gift of enchant-
ing with words its (“pious”) public. The declaration of the parrot’s
excellence (in what concerns poetry) on the epitaph epigram composed
in its honor –while its master’s (domina’s) love is guaranteed– strongly
resembles the characteristics normally attributed to the double-natured
persona of the elegiac lover-poet:
COLLIGOR EX IPSO DOMINAE PLACVISSE SEPVLCRO.
ORA FUERE MIHI PLVS AVE DOCTA LOQVI99.

“YOU MAY ASSUME FROM THIS GRAVE THAT MY MISTRESS

LOVED ME VERY MUCH. MY SPEECH WAS CLEVER
BEYOND OTHER BIRDS”.

If Prop. 4.7 illustrates an Elysium endowed with possible post-

97
Obscenae aves are strictly excluded from this paradise. About the use of this special
epithet, see Prop. 2.6.27 (with tabellas), 1.16.10 (with the word carminibus, a connection
which makes the metapoetical use of the word by Ovid in Am. 2.6.52 more obvious).
98
Ov. Am. 2.6.49-58.
99
Ov. Am. 2.6.61-62.
50 Vaios Vaiopoulos

literary memories, Ovid does not restrain from attributing such a

dimension to the poem dedicated to his parrot. His artistic inspiration
authentically interprets Tibullus’ vision, which he obviously had in
mind when creating the poem: the specially designed Tibullan Elysium
is destined to receive those who excelled not only in the erotic, but
also in the poetic arena, those who envisage their personal deification
not only as the outcome of their erotic (dedicated to love) life but as
the result of their concise (also dedicated to love) erotic writings.
All members of the newvteroi generation and those who composed
poetry under Callimachus’ influence achieved to conform an artistic
conscience, a stable confidence in their poetry’s worth and the immortal
fame they are entitled to achieve through poetry. Propertius is probably
the most clear among them in expressing himself about the glory he
hopes to gain from his love poems100. If Tibullus’ paradise described in
el. 1.3 is destined not only for love soldiers but also for love poets,
then Tibullus silently adds himself to those poets who, according to
the “neoteric” demands, possess (and declare their) conscience about
the superiority of (amatory) poetry to political military concerns.
The modern reader however should not be carried away by the
abundance of the eschatological references of this composition: poetic
constraint prevail over the existential agony. Tibullus does not aim at
articulating a wisely constructed philosophical argumentation, or at
describing a specific system of religious creeds. His aim is to present
living according to love principles and composing erotic poetry as
more important than living according to heroic ideals and writing
epic: in amore vivere and puellas scribere is more important than bella
gerere and bella canere101. The adoption of the attitude of an elegiac
lover-poet leads to immortality, while the adoption of the identity of
a soldier results to non-existence or to the useless and frigid perennial
endurance of the name. Thus the poetic proposition does not solely
involve adopting a new peaceful way of thinking. It involves the
construction of an ideal personal world, a new field appropriate not
only for the realization of the personal desires of the protagonist in an
elegiac composition miles amoris, but also those of a conscious miles
carminis amatorii, those desires that relate to Tibullus’ contribution to
poetic art in general.
Vaios Vaiopoulos

100
See for example Prop. 1.7.21-24; cf. A.G. 7.80 (Call. Ep. II Pf = XXXIV G-P, 5-6).
101
As Propertius also could have said; see for example 2.10.8: bella canam, quando scripta
puella mea est.
In questo numero:

Lidia Palumbo, La chora nel Timeo di Platone: una scena per il teatro del mondo
Gennaro Morisco, Il fr. 1 Chassignet degli Annales di Fannio
Vaios Vaiopoulos, From militia patriae to militia amoris. Love labour and post
obitum remuneration (Tib. 1.3)
Simona Manuela Manzella, Su un calembour giovenaliano. Nota a Iuv. III, 90-91
Giorgio Di Maria, Notae criticae in Anonymum I (Comm. in Arat. 87-98 M.)
Fabrizio Pagano, Sull’Anonimo de rebus bellicis 1, 1-3
Christian Vassallo, Reminiscenze classiche nel Canzoniere di Petrarca
Maria Chiara Scappaticcio, Il PHerc. 817, Angelo Decembrio, Jean d’Armagnac
Elena Silvestrini, Le traduzioni poetiche di Quasimodo dalle Metamorfosi
di Ovidio
Valentina Caruso, Una reinterpretazione degli Uccelli di Aristofane
Lucio Pepe, Istrioni, attori di ieri e di oggi
Alessandra Romano, Lo spettacolo della giustizia: le orazioni di Cicerone
Alessandra Romano, Il mito di Roma nei Fasti
Ferruccio Conti Bizzarro, Un nuovo contributo alla filosofia di Plotino
Chiara Piedisacco, Studi su Ademaro di Chabannes: a proposito di una recente
edizione di alcune favole
Chiara Piedisacco, Una nuova edizione dell’Avianus Vindobonensis
Crescenzo Formicola, Filologi epistolografi (G. De Sanctis-G. Fraccaroli):
traversie coniugali, e tradurre poesia
Giancarlo Giardina, Note storico-esegetiche al “Gesù di Nazareth” di Joseph
Ratzinger

ISSN: 0042-5079