Book IV.5:1-78. A procuress, probably an invented character.
A name for the Greek
mainland, derived from a region in the northern Peloponnese. Hence the Acheans, for the
name of the people who fought against Troy
in Homer’s Iliad.
Book II.28A:47-62. Its beautiful
women.
Book II.13:1-16.
Persian, from the Achaemenian Dynasty
A river and river god, whose waters separated Acarnania and
Book II.34:1-94. His waters shattered
by love.
A river of the underworld, the underworld itself. The god of the
river, father of Ascalaphus by the nymph Orphne. It is in the deepest pit of
the infernal regions.
Book III.5:1-48. The depths of the
underworld.
The Greek hero of the Trojan
War. The son of Peleus, king of Thessaly, and the sea-goddess Thetis (See Homer’s Iliad).
Book II.1:1-78. He loved Patroclus.
Book II.3:1-54. He died indirectly because of Helen.
Book II.8A:1-40. His anger at Briseis being taken from him. His friendship with Patroclus, and killing of Hector.
Book II.9:1-52. His dead body cared for by Briseis.
Book II.22:1-42. Lovemaking did not affect his strength.
Book III.1:1-38. He
fought with the river-gods of the rivers Simois
and Scamander (
Book III.18:1-34. Not saved from death by his courage.
Book IV.11:1-102.
Claimed as an ancestor by Perses.
A name for the Greek mainland, derived from a region in the northern Peloponnese. Hence the Acheans, for the name of the people who fought against Troy in Homer’s Iliad.
Book II.8A:1-40. Book III.18:1-34. The Greeks at
Book IV.10:1-48. The Sabine king of Caenina
who attacked
The promontory in
Book II.1:1-78. The
triumph in
Book II.15:1-54. The evils of Civil War.
Book II.16:1-56.
Book II.34:1-94. A fit subject for Virgil.
Book III.11:1-72. The
promontory of Leucas overlooking the bay contained the
The son of Pheres, king
of Pherae in
Book II.6:1-42. Her loyalty.
The son of Myrrha by her father Cinyras, born after her transformation into a myrrh-tree. (As such he is a vegetation god born from the heart of the wood.) Venus fell in love with him. She warned him to avoid savage creatures, but he ignored her warning and was killed by a wild boar that gashed his thigh. His blood became the windflower, the anemone. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book X 503-739.
Book II.13A:1-58. Wept
over by Venus.
A king of
Book II.34:1-94. His horse Arion.
The wood-nymphs. They inhabit the oak trees in Ceres sacred grove
and dance at her festivals
Book I:20:1-52. Inhabitants of the Ausonian woods.
The son of Jupiter and
Book II.20:1-36. Book IV.11:1-102. His father Jupiter
made him a judge of the dead in the Underworld for his piety.
The
Book II.32:1-62. Telegonus was Circe’s son.
Book III.12:1-38. Propertius seems to confuse it with
Calypso’s island.
The
Book I.6:1-36. Book III.7:1-72. It is mentioned.
Book III.24:1-20. Metaphorically the sea of love, since Venus-Aphrodite was born from its waves.
The country in
Book II.1:1-78. Conquered by the Romans.
Book II.33:1-22.Home of the cult of Isis.
Book IV.11:1-102. A Vestal Virgin who cleared herself of the
charge that she had allowed the sacred fire to go out by placing part of her
dress in the ashes at which the fire flared.
Aemilius Paullus defeated
Demetrius of Pherae in 219BC.
Book III.3:1-52. A subject of epic.
A Trojan prince, the son
of Venus and Anchises, and the hero
of Virgil’s Aeneid. (See Turner’s etching and painting, The
Golden Bough- British Museum and Tate Gallery.) He leaves ruined
He visits the Sibyl, who
conducts him to the Underworld, having plucked the golden bough. He sees his
father’s shade in the fields of Elysium. (See Virgil, The Aeneid VI). He
returns from the Underworld, and sails from
Book II.34:1-94. Sung by Virgil.
Book III.4:1-22. Augustus descended (in the Imperial myth) from Aeneas.
Book IV.1:1-70. The
ancestor of the Romans.
Book II.3:1-54. The
Aeolic
The Greek Tragedian
(525-c456BC),
author of the Oresteian Trilogy.
Book II.34:1-94. His style not
suitable for love poetry.
Jason, the son of Aeson, leader of the Argonauts, and hero of the adventure of the Golden Fleece. The fleece is represented in the sky by the constellation and zodiacal sign of Aries, the Ram. In ancient times it contained the point of the vernal equinox (The First Point of Aries) that has since moved by precession into Pisces.
Book I.15:1-42. His
desertion of Hypsipyle.
A
volcanic mountain in Sicily.
Book III.2:1-26. Polyphemus tried to woo Galatea there.
Book III.17:1-42. Jupiter’s lightning bolts were forged
there.
Book III.20:1-30. The African
continent and its potential wealth.
The fountain of the Muses
on
Book II.3:1-54. Cynthia rivals the Muses.
Book III.3:1-52. The early kings of
Book IV.1:1-70. Founded there because of a favourable omen.
Book
IV.6:1-86. Augustus’s ancestral ‘home’.
Book III.22:1-42. The lake in the
Alban Hills near
Book I:20:1-52. Book IV.9:1-74. An epithet of Hercules as a descendant of Alceus.
The mythical King of the Phaeacians (Phaeacia is perhaps identified
with
Book I.14:1-24. A source
of gifts.
The son of Amphiaraus
and Eriphyle. He led the Epigoni in
the War of the Seven against Thebes.
He killed his mother who had betrayed her husband to his death through vanity,
and was pursued by the Furies.
Book I.15:1-42. He is alluded to.
Book III.5:1-48. Pursued by the Furies.
The daughter of Electryon king of
Book II.22:1-42. Loved by Jupiter.
The city of
Book III.11:1-72. Cleopatra’s northern capital.
A faithless shepherd-boy
in Virgil.
Book II.34:1-94. See Virgil’s Eclogue II.
The wife of Alcmaeon
who killed him, after he had deserted her for Callirhoe. She killed her own
brothers to cancel the blood-debt. This is part of a complicated series of
myths centreing on the magic necklace and robe of Harmonia. See
Book I.15:1-42. Her
loyalty.
The mother of Meleager, and
wife of Oeneus, king of
Book III.22:1-42. The burning
brand.
One of the Amazons, a race of warlike women living by the River
Thermodon, probably based on the Scythian
warrior princesses of the
Book III.11:1-72. Penthesilea from Maeotis, near the
Book III.14:1-34. They bathed naked
in the river Thermodon.
Book I.3:1-46. The god of Love and Sexual Desire, equated to
Cupid.
Book I.1:1-38. He is cruel in subduing lovers.
Book I.2:1-32. He dislikes artifice.
Book I.7:1-26. The god of love.
Book I.14:1-24. Wealth is irrelevant to him.
Book II.2:1-16. He ignores the desire for peace.
Book II.3:1-54. Love dressed in white sneezed a good omen at Cynthia’s birth.
Book II.6:1-42. God of free love.
Book II.8A:1-40. A powerful god.
Book II.12:1-24. Depicted as a boy armed with bow and barbed arrows, who wounds lovers.
Book II.13:1-16. The archer god of love.
Book II.29:1-22. The God of love, making sexual perfumes.
Book II.30:1-40. No escape from him.
Book II.34:1-94. Not to be trusted with beautiful girls.
Book III.1:1-38. Multiple servants.
Book III.5:1-48. A peace-loving god.
Book III.16:1-30. He carries a blazing torch for lovers.
Book III.20:1-30. He
seals lovers’ contracts.
A Greek seer, one of the heroes, the Oeclides, at the Calydonian Boar Hunt. The son of Oecleus, father of Alcmaeon, and husband of Eriphyle. He foresaw his death, but was persuaded to join the war of the Seven Against Thebes by his wife, Eriphyle. Jupiter saved him by opening up a chasm where he fell, and he and his chariot and horses were swallowed up. He had a famous oracular shrine at the spot at Oropus in Boeotia.
Book II.34:1-94. Not a fit subject for love.
Book III.13:1-66.
Destroyed by his wife’s greed. She was tempted by the necklace of Harmonia to
persuade him to go to the war.
The husband of Niobe, and son
of Jupiter and Antiope.
The King of Thebes. His magical use
of the lyre, given him by Mercury,
enabled him to build the walls of
Book I.9:1-34. He is mentioned.
Book III.15:1-46.
Avenged his mother.
Book IV.9:1-74. Hercules
as the son of Amphitryon, the husband of Alcmena and son
in turn of Alceus, King of Thebes.
Book IV.5:1-78. One of Cynthia’s (?) slaves.
A daughter of Danaus. Searching for water in time of
drought, she was saved from a satyr by
Book II.26A:21-58.
Loved by
The father of Melampus.
Book II.3:1-54. He is mentioned.
The son of Minos King of Crete,
killed in Attica.
Book II.1:1-78. Propertius has Aesculapius restore him to life.
The wife of Hector,
who was taken captive after his death and the fall of Troy, to become the wife of Neoptolemus.
Book II.20:1-36. A weeping prisoner.
Book
II.22:1-42. Wife of Hector.
The daughter of Cepheus and Cassiope (Iope) who was chained to a rock and exposed to a sea-monster Cetus because of her mother’s sin. She is represented by the constellation Andromeda which contains the Andromeda galaxy M31 a spiral like our own, the most distant object visible to the naked eye. Cetus is represented by the constellation of Cetus, the Whale, between Pisces and Eridanus which contains the variable star, Mira. Perseus offered to rescue her. (See Burne-Jones’s oil paintings and gouaches in the Perseus series, particularly The Rock of Doom). He killed the sea serpent and claims her as his bride.
Book I.3:1-46. She is mentioned.
Book II.28:1-46. Changes
of fortune.
Book III.22:1-42. Book IV.7:1-96. Offered as a sacrifice for the sins of her mother.
A river near
Book I:20:1-52. A country pleasure area.
Book
III.16:1-30. Book
III.22:1-42.
Book
IV.7:1-96. Cynthia buried beside it.
Book III.22:1-42. A Libyan giant killed by Hercules.
The daughter of Oedipus, King of Thebes, by Jocasta. She broke the city
laws to bury her brother Polynices, and committed suicide. See Sophocles’s Antigone.
Book II.8A:1-40. She is mentioned.
The son of Nestor.
Book II.13A:1-58. Died before his
father, killed at Troy.
The poet of
Book II.34:1-94. His love for Lyde.
Book IV.5:1-78. The chief suitor to Penelope in the Odyssey.
The daughter of Nycteus of
Book I.4:1-28. Her beauty recognised.
Book III.15:1-46. Dirce’s jealousy.
Book II.16:1-56.
Defeated at
Book III.9:1-60. His
hands ‘heavy with his fate’, his fate being, in a double entendre, Cleopatra.
The jackal-headed god Anpu of Egypt,
identified with Mercury, and ‘opener
of the roads of the dead’. He accompanies Isis.
Book III.11:1-72. An emblem of Cleopatra.
Book I.2:1-32. Part of Boetia containing
The Greek painter, of
Book I.2:1-32. Famous for his skill in portraying colour, light and surfaces.
Book III.9:1-60. Famous for his paintings of Venus/erotica.
A river in Thessaly.
Book I.3:1-46. Maenads.
Book III.9:1-60. Patron god of Troy.
Book IV.1A:71-150. God of song.
Book IV.6:1-86.
Associated with the victory at Actium. His temple on
the Palatine.
The
Book II.32:1-62. Book IV.8:1-88.The way to Lanuvium.
Book IV.5:1-78. The kalends of April were associated with courtesans who sacrificed to Venus and Fortuna virilis.
The North Wind, see Boreas.
Book II.5:1-30. Book III.7:1-72. The north wind.
Book IV.9:1-74. An altar situated in
the Forum Boarium.
The countries bordering the eastern side of the
Book I.14:1-24. Referred to.
Book II.10:1-26. Subject to Augustus.
Book I.14:1-24. Arabian. Propertius may
be referring to Aelius Gallus
who was Prefect of Egypt, and led a failed expedition to
Book II.3:1-54. A source of traded silk.
Book II.29:1-22. A source of perfumes.
Book III.13:1-66. A
source of cinammon.
Part of the Cithaeron
mountain range on the borders of
Book III.15:1-46. Dirce killed there.
The River in
Book III.12:1-38. Book IV.3:1-72. A feature of the Parthian campaign.
A region in the centre of the
Book I.1:1-38. The
location of Milanion and Atalanta (or
Book I.18:1-32. The haunt of the great god Pan.
Book II.28:1-46. Callisto’s home.
The son of Eurydice and Lycurgus king of
Book II.34:1-94. The horse Arion wept at his funeral.
Possibly the mathematician and philosopher of
the
Book IV.1A:71-150. His ‘child’ is Orops.
The twin constellations of the Great and Little
Bear, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, individually or together.
Book II.22:1-42. The constellations
halted in the sky.
It is not known whether Arethusa is a pseudonym
or a fictional name.
Book IV.3:1-72. Her letter to her
husband Lycotas.
A mountain in Mysia.
Book I:20:1-52. Hylas was seized there by the Nymphs.
Argus was the steersman of the Argo, the first
ship, built by Jason, and sailed to Colchis through the Hellespont
and the
Book I:20:1-52. Hercules and Hylas sailed with the Argonauts.
Book II.26A:21-58. The Argo navigated the Symplegades, the clashing rocks at the entrance to the Bosphorus by releasing a dove: when the dove’s tail feathers were clipped by the rocks the Argonauts rowed through, swiftly, following.
Book III.22:1-42. The
timbers of the Argo were cut on Mount Pelion.
Of
Book I.15:1-42. Evadne of
Book I.19:1-26. Greek.
Book II.25:1-48. Greek beauty.
A creature with a thousand eyes, the son of Arestor, set to guard Io by Juno. He was killed by Mercury. After his death, Juno sets his eyes in the peacock’s tail.
Book I.3:1-46. He is
mentioned.
A youth apparently loved by Agamemnon
who was punished for some sin by drowning.
Book III.7:1-72. Mourned by
Agamemnon.
A daughter of Minos. Half-sister of the Minotaur, and sister of Phaedra, she helped Theseus on Crete.
She fled to Dia with Theseus
and was abandoned there, but rescued by Bacchus, and her
crown is set among the stars as the Corona Borealis. (See Titian’s painting –
Bacchus and Ariadne – National Gallery,
Book I.3:1-46. She is mentioned.
Book II.3:1-54. Leads the Bacchic dancers.
Book II.14:1-32. Book IV.4:1-94. Helped Theseus navigate the Labyrinth by means of a ball of thread that he unwound (the clew).
Book III.17:1-42. Set among the stars by Bacchus.
Book III.20:1-30. Her starry crown in the sky.
The winged horse of Adrastus,
one of the Seven Against Thebes,
gifted with human speech. He mourned Archemorus.
Book II.34:1-94. Not a fit subject for
love poetry.
Arion was a late seventh century BC Greek poet, who invented the dithyramb, a wild
choric hymn, or Bacchanalian song, as a literary form.
He was thrown from a ship during a sea voyage, by the crew, but a dolphin
rescued him, and carried him to Corinth.
Book II.26:1-20. A
symbolised image of Propertius
himself, rescuing Cynthia from spiritual shipwreck.
The country situated between the
Book I.9:1-34. Tiger country.
A friend or kinswoman of Propertius. The mother of Lupercus and Gallus.
Book IV.1A:71-150. She fated her sons to die in war.
A river in Mysia, in
Book I:20:1-52 Visited by the Argonauts.
Book II.10:1-26. Book II.13:1-16. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod’s birthplace in Boeotia.
Book II.34:1-94. Hesiod.
The regions of
Book I.6:1-36. Noted for their riches.
Book
II.3:1-54. Represented by Troy.
Asisium, modern
Book IV.1:1-70 .Book IV.1A:71-150.The birthplace of Propertius.
A river in Boeotia.
Book III.15:1-46. Its course lies
near
The daughter of Iasus and Clymene beaten in the foot-race
by Milanion q.v. who decoyed her with
golden apples given him by Venus-Aphrodite.
Book I.1:1-38. She is
mentioned.
Book IV.6:1-86. The Athamanes were a
people of
The daughter of Athamas and Nephele, sister of Phrixus. Escaping
from Ino on the golden ram, she fell into the sea and was drowned, giving her
name to the Hellespont, the
straits that link the Propontis with the Aegean Sea, close to the site of Troy.
Book I:20:1-52. Passed by the Argonauts.
Book III.22:1-42. Helle as the daughter of Athamas.
The Greek city, sacred to
Minerva-Athene.
Book I.6:1-36. Book III.21:1-34. Renowned for its
learning.
The Titan who rules the
Moon with Phoebe the Titaness. Leader of the Titans in their war with the gods.
The son of Iapetus by the nymph Clymene. His brothers were Prometheus, Epimetheus and
Menoetius. Represented as
Book III.22:1-42. The far west, the
Pillars of Hercules.
Book I.8:1-26. From Atrax, a town in Thessaly, hence Thessalian.
The king of Mycenae, son of
Atreus, hence called Atrides, brother of
Menelaüs, husband of Clytaemnestra, father of Orestes, Iphigenia, and Electra. The leader of the Greek army in
the Trojan War. See Homer’s Iliad, and Aeschylus’s
Oresteian tragedies.
Book II.14:1-32. Victor at
Book III.7:1-72. Mourned for Argynnas, and sacrificed Iphigenia.
Book III.18:1-34. Perhaps a reference to Argynnas.
Book IV.1A:71-150. Doomed by the sacrifice of Iphigenia.
Book IV.6:1-86. Punished by Apollo with plague for the rape of Chryseis.
Attalus III of
Book II.13A:1-58. Book III.18:1-34. Cloth of gold.
The region of southern Greece containing Athens.
Book II.20:1-36. Haunt of the
night-owl sacred to Athene-Minerva.
Julius Caesar’s grand-nephew, whom he
adopted and declared as his heir, Octavius Caesar (Octavian). (The honorary
title Augustus was bestowed by the Senate 16th Jan 27BC).
His wife was Livia. Jupiter prophesies his future glory: his defeat of Antony, who had seized the inheritance, at Mutina: his defeat of the conspirators
Cassius and Brutus at the twin battles of Philippi: his (Agrippa’s) defeat of
Antony at Actium: and his (Agrippa’s) defeat of Pompey’s son at Mylae and Naulochus
off Sicily. (See the sculpture of Augustus, from Primaporta, in the
Book II.1:1-78. Maecenas was a close friend of the Emperor.
Book II.7:1-20. His power questioned in private matters.
Book II.10:1-26. India and Arabia subject to him.
Book II.16:1-56.Propertius wishes Augustus might live more humbly, referring to the casa Romuli preserved on the Palatine Hill.
Book II.16:1-56. Book II.34:1-94. Defeated Antony at Actium.
Book II.31:1-16. Opens the new Colonnade.
Book III.4:1-22. Plans a campaign in India. Actually the campaign to Parthia in 20BC.
Book III.9:1-60. Patron of Maecenas. Propertius hints at homosexual relations between them.
Book III.11:1-72. Eliminated Antony’s and Cleopatra’s armies and navy. In a double entendre Propertius hints that Augustus may be a worse tyrant than those eliminated.
Book III.12:1-38. His
expedition to
Book III.18:1-34. His nephew Marcellus.
Book IV.1:1-70. His arms derived from Aeneas.
Book IV.6:1-86. His
defeat of
Book IV.11:1-102.
Mourned Cornelia, half-sister to his daughter Julia.
Julia was later banished for sexual laxity.
The Boeotian harbour where the Greek fleet
massed prior to setting out for Troy
and where Iphigenia was sacrificed.
The area was a rich fishing-ground.
Book IV.1A:71-150. The harbour from
which the Greeks set out.
Goddess of the Morning, and wife of Tithonus, daughter of the Titan Pallas, hence called Pallantias or Pallantis, who fathered Zelus (zeal), Cratus (strength), Bia (force) and Nicë (victory) on the River