CHAPTER III. GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY. Graecisms. I HAVE already said that Greek literature exerted a general influence upon his style: and how he sought to attain its symmetry of form by adopting and developing the devices of arrangement which first appear in the Alex- Homoioteleuton. andrine elegiac poets. The same leaning to the Greek is seen in his accumulation of several adjectives upon a single substantive; see below, p. cv. This grata neglegentia might also be explained by Propertius' love for the archaic, as such concurrences are not avoided by Catullus and Lucretius, were it not for the fact that he seems actually to have cultivated them. Allied to this is his accumulation of similar endings, especially in the case of short vowels, ă, &c., notably at the end of a pentameter III. 20 (17). 48 femina multa mala, III. 25. 12 (20. 46) longa pericla sua, 7. 1. 132 libera sumpta toga, v. 11. 59 suā natā dignum (Ovid would without doubt have written dignum nata). To come to more obvious imitations, he has a good number of borrowed Greek words, e. g. ephemeris, cerastes, pyropus, crotalistria, conopium, baris, hippomanes, trochus, gymnasium, cataphractus, crocinum. Borrowed sug gested by Greek There are also some expressions which the Greek have suggested, e. g. pennis, ‘omens’= πτεроîя IV. 9 (10). 11, lectus wife' 11. 6. 23, Phrases in numero ¿vapílμuos III. 26. 9 (20. 55) (nullo (in) numero is however common Latin). Besides tolerably common Greek constructions, Propertius has est quibus eoru ols IV. 8 (9). 17, est cui in IV. 10 (11). 64 is less strange, though in ordinary Latin the qui is rarely put in an oblique case; foederis heu taciti v. 7. 21 = φεῦ c. gen. in is used like Greek eis in 11. 9. 12 appositum fluuiis in Simoenta uadis, cf. Iv. 24. 19 tua me in sacraria dono. In 11. 3. 45 (4. 1) ut uerear ows c. subj. See also III. 5. 22 note. = Greek construc tions. Archaisms, &c. In a very considerable number of cases Propertius uses a word with a sense or in a form which is not found in his immediate contemporaries. The number of these usages is greater than it would otherwise have been owing to the etymological bias of which I have spoken, p. lvi note. Words used in an archaic or etymological sense: sedulus (prob.) 'resting on' 1. 3. 32. desidia' sitting at the toilet' 1. 15. 6. fulcire 'press' I. 8. 7. fauilla 'spark, glow' (metaph.) 1. 9. 18. 6 fluuius adj. flowing' II. 9. 12. iners=sine arte III. 30 (24). 20. turba 'commotion' (lit.) Iv. 2 (3). 24. quod sin Iv. 5 (6). 41. insinuare 'to take into the bosom' IV. 8 (9). 28. apricus 'open' v. 10. 18. impurus in a literal sense v. 8. 22. concumbere 'to lie down in a multitude' v. 1. 4. concubitus discubitus v. 8. 36. intepere v. 1. 124. uelificare in literal sense rare v. 9. 6, III 25. 6 uelificari Forms of words: Verbs: (20. 40'). clatra == κλῇθρα v. 5. 74. insomnia plur. 'sleeplessness' III. 20. (17). 47. sertae III. 31 (25). 37. exuuio abl. of exuuium v. 10. 6. ni for ne II. 7. 3. illi for illius v. 10. 43. nullae toto uno for the forms in -i. See 1. 20. 35; iv. 10 (11). 57; 11. 1. 47. roridus roscidus, perh. provincial v. 4. 48. = His genders are sometimes archaic: e.g. puluis and finis are common., and colus masc. There are one or two surprising apparent instances of resolution of a word into its elements. III. 28 (22). 11 et iam, si pecces, deus exorabilis illest; 1. 3. 37 if 1 The same tendency to regard the primitive meaning of words is seen in Medeae sequacis v. 5. 41, herbae tenaces of the lotus, the binding' weed, Iv. 11 (12). 27. Of course this list does not include all words which do not occur till Propertius; e. g. adsessu, memorator, seuecta est. ( Kuttner is right in taking namque ubi for ubinam. So we may add III. 10 (9). 10 quam prius and III. 20 (17). 25 prius...quam ante where observe the doubling. There are also some archaistic constructions which will be found in their place. Proper names. The number of proper names in Propertius is very large, and they have been gathered from all quarters. They had a strange attractiveness for him as they have had for many other poets, amongst whom we at once think of Milton and Scott. He does not however use them with the same fine effect as these writers. Accumulations. Antithesis. Two things are noteworthy about their use; (1) the way in which he accumulates them together, and (2) his habit of putting proper names side by side in a sort of imaginary antithesis, especially in the pentameter. Both are illustrated by II. 1. 59 sqq., IV. 13 (14). 13 sqq., 22. 1--37. For (2) I may quote II. 1. 54 Colchis Iolchiacis urat aena focis, I. 6. 32 Lydia Pactoli tingit arata liquor, iv. 12 (13). 54 Gallica Parnasus sparsit in arma niues, id. 16 (17). 30 cinget Bassaricas Lydia mitra comas, id. 4 (5). 17 Lydus Dulichio non distat Croesus ab Iro. The recognition of this principle makes our way clearer in several passages, v. 11. 30 Afra Numantinos regna loquontur auos, III. 5. 32 (4. 48) Gallicus Iliacis miles in aggeribus, IV. 6 (7). 22 qua notat Argynni poena Mimantis aquas. Curtailment. Fond as he is of proper names, he does not treat them very ceremoniously. At the bidding of metre he cuts them down without mercy. This is especially the case with adjectives. Hence we have Aemilia ratis, Pompeia manu, Tatiae turmae, Horatia pila; Romula uincla; Inda formica, Phaeacas siluas, Aniena unda (Aniensis in prose), Partha tellus, Dore poeta, Anio Tiburne, Greek names. Athamana litora (the proper adj. would be -ia or -ica); probably also animi Deci, and Hylaei rami (for Hylaeii). Still more surprising are Baiae aquae and Curios fratres (= Curiatios'). Arganthos (for Arganthone 1. 20. 33) has some Greek authority; see note. His declension of Greek names shews some uncertainty. In the feminines we usually have Greek forms preferred where they are found in Latin usage. Thus we have Nom. -e, Niobe, Nesace, sometimes -a, Ariadna, once Electrā. Gen. -es, sometimes -ae, Pagasae. Dat. always -ae. Acc. -amand -en. So in the masc. we have both -m and -n in the Acc. e. g. Persem, Achillem, Parim and even Adonem, Euphraten, Daphnin; in the Nom. -es or -as, once -ă Atridă. In the third declension Gen. fem. is always -os Tantalidos, Pallados, &c.; so sometimes Gen. masc. except where o precedes, Myos, but Minois. In masculines in -eus the Gen. is - or -eos; Capanēr, Pentheos. The Acc. is a (sing.) and -ds (plur.) for both genders Salmonida, Pana; Tyndaridas, Phaeacas; and -sin in the Dat. plur. Hamadryasin. Noteworthy forms are Panes, Argon (acc. fem. of Argo), Menandre voc. IV, 21. 28. Add beryllon. SYNTAX. Propertius' syntax is very peculiar. Sometimes it may be called un-Latin and sometimes ultra-Latin. In other words, it sometimes shews the effect of foreign influences and sometimes a genuine Latin tendency pushed to its extreme. I shall touch briefly upon some main points. 1 There are somewhat similar shortenings in carbasa lina and praetexto senatu. 2 I must again ask leave to point out that here, as elsewhere in this Introduction, my treatment is intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive, and that my object, in |