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Propertius and ‘Coan Philitas’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Archibald Allen
Archibald Allen
Affiliation:
Penn State University
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Extract

This is our well received text of Propertius' celebrated address to the shades of Callimachus and Philitas at 3.1.1–2:

Callimachi Manes et Coi sacra Philitae,

in vestrum, quaeso, me sinite ire nemus.

Well received it may be, but scholarly worries and disagreements about the precise meaning of sacra, and indeed about the real purpose of the address, perhaps have diverted editors' eyes from a possible corruption. I would like to suggest that the pairing of ethnic adjective and personal name, Coi and Philitae, in line 1 may not be Propertian.

Information

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , May 1996, pp. 308 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1996

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References

1 Let me thank Heyworth, S. J. for helpful criticism of an earlier draft of this note.Google Scholar

2 On antonomasia in Latin poetry, and its precedents in Greek poetry, see Farrell, J., Vergil's Georgics and the Traditions of Ancient Epic (Oxford, 1991), 27ff.Google Scholar

3 Wimmel, W., ‘Philitas im Aitienprolog des Kallimachos’, Hermes 86 (1958), 346–54, at 352.Google ScholarEdwards, W. M., CQ 23 (1930), 110, first thought of it.Google Scholar

4 See Pfeiffer's notes ad loc, including his observation that ‘Ovidius semper Coumpoetam sine nomine proprio significat’. And on the likelihood that Prop. 2.1.5–6 (‘sive illam Cois fulgentem incedere… / totum de Coa veste volumen erit’) is indebted to this Callimachean comparison, seeGoogle ScholarHeyworth, S. J., CQ 36 (1986), 209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar