The mythical Athenian architect who built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete.
(See Michael Ayrton’s extended series of sculptures, bronzes, and artefacts celebrating Daedalus, Icarus and the Minotaur.)
He made wings of bee’s-wax and feathers to escape from
Book II.14:1-32. Architect of the Labyrinth.
The daughter of Acrisius, king of
Book II.20:1-36. The tower.
Book
II.32:1-62. Seduced rather than raped by Jupiter?
The fifty daughters of Danaüs, granddaughters of Belus, king of
Book II.1:1-78. Water carriers in a Propertian double-entendre!
Book II.26A:21-58. Book III.8:1-34. Book III.9:1-60.
Book III.22:1-42. Book IV.1:1-70. Book IV.1A:71-150. The Danaans=the Greeks at Troy. Book III.22 mentions the killing of Iphigenia and her substitution by a roe sent by Diana.
Book II.31:1-16. Statues
in the new Colonnade.
A Virgilian
shepherd. (A Sicilian shepherd in other poetry, said to have invented the pastoral genre)
Book II.34:1-94. See Virgil’s Eclogues
V and VII.
An epithet applied to the descendants of Dardanus, the son of Jupiter and the Pleiad Electra, who came from
Decius Mus, the hero of the Samnite Wars of the
fourth century BC
dreamed that one army would have to sacrifice its leader, the other its entire
power, so he charged the enemy alone and was killed in order to guarantee the
victory.
Book III.11:1-72. A Roman hero.
Book IV.1:1-70. Three
Decii, Roman generals, gave their lives for their country, father, son and
grandson in 336, 296 and 279 BC.
The daughter of Lycomedes, king of
Book II.9:1-52. Bereaved at his death.
Son of Priam of Troy. A Trojan prince who fought in the
war.
Book III.1:1-38. Attempted with Hector to kill Paris.
The Greek island in the
Book IV.6:1-86. Apollo’s island.
A pseudonym for a friend
of Propertius.
Book II.22:1-42. His friend.
Book II.24A:17-52. A
son of Theseus who loved Phyllis, daughter of Sithon
king of Thrace. he deserted her. She
killed herself but was turned into an almond tree, which flowered when he
returned, remorsefully, to find her. (See Burne-Jones’s marvellous painting:
The Tree of Forgiveness,
The Greek orator and Athenian Statesman of the fourth century BC who attacked the growing power of Macedon under Philip II, seeing it as a threat to
the Greek world.
Book III.21:1-34. A master of oratory.
King of Phthia.
He and his wife Pyrrha, his cousin, and daughter of Epimetheus, were survivors
of the flood. He was he son of Prometheus.
(See Michelangelo’s scenes from the Great Flood, Sistine Chapel,
Book II.32:1-62. Ancient times.
An old name for Naxos.
Book III.17:1-42. Wine flowed there
for Bacchus.
The goddess Diana,
Phoebe, or Artemis the daughter of Jupiter and Latona
(hence her epithet Latonia) and twin sister of Phoebus-Apollo. She was born on the
Book II.15:1-54, She loved Endymion.
Book II.19:1-32. The recipient of vows of chastity, and prayers for luck in hunting.
Book II.28A:47-62. The recipient of vows from women in time of illness.
Book IV.8:1-88. Her temple on the Aventine.
Book III.22:1-42. A
mountain near Cyzicus on the southeast
of the
Book III.17:1-42. The Dircean
spring was at Thebes.
Antiope
was the daughter of Nycteus of
Book III.15:1-46. Her jealousy of
Antiope.
A name for Pluto, king of the Underworld, brother of Neptune and Jupiter.
His kingdom in the Underworld described. At Venus’s instigation Cupid struck him with an arrow to make him
fall in love with Persephone.He
raped and abducted her, re-entering Hades through the pool of Cyane. Jupiter
decreeed that she could only spend half the year with him and must spend the
other half with Ceres.
Book II.28A:47-62. Husband of Persephone.
Book III.22:1-42. His
rape of Persephone is sited at various places, here Propertius suggests the
The town in
Book II.21:1-20. Regarded as
unreliable?
Book II.8A:1-40. Book IV.6:1-86. A synonym for Greek.
The daughter of Oceanus and
Tethys, wife of Nereus the old man of
the sea who is a shape-changer, and mother of the fifty Nereids, the attendants on Thetis. The Nereids are mermaids.
Book I.17:1-28. The Nereids are mentioned as her daughters.
Book IV.5:1-78. A fictitious or
otherwise unknown people.
Greek.
Book III.9:1-60. Philetas, the Dorian poet.
Book I:20:1-52. The wood nymphs.
An island off the west coast of
Book II.2:1-16. Athene-Minerva worshipped.
Book
II.14:1-32. Book II.21:1-20.
Book III.5:1-48. Home of the beggar Irus.
The country bordering the
Book I.3:1-46. Maenads.
The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, sister of Iphigenia and Orestes.
She aided her brother Orestes on his return, when he avenged Agamemnon’s death.
(See Aeschylus, the Oresteia)
Book II.14:1-32. Her joy at Orestes
return,
A city and country in the western
Site of the quinquennial games at
Book I.8A:27-46. Famous for its horses. See Hippodamia.
Book III.2:1-26. The
shrine of Jupiter with its famous statue, by Phidias, at
Book III.9:1-60. The
palms awarded at the Olympic Games at
Book IV.7:1-96. A region
of the underworld for spirits in bliss, rewarding virtue in life.
One of the Giants who fought with the Gods.
Book II.1:1-78. The fight is mentioned.
Diana, as the moon
goddess, loved Endymion the King of Elis (or a Carian
shepherd) while he slept on
Book II.15:1-54. Propertius suggests their intimacy.
The God of the River Enipus in Thessaly. Neptune disguised himself as the
river-god and raped Tyro in a dark
wave of the river at its confluence with the Alpheius.
Book I.13:1-36. The disguise mentioned.
Book III.19:1-28.
Tyro desired him.
Quintus Ennius (239-169BC), the ‘father of Roman poetry’ .He wrote an epic on Roman
history, Annals, of which part survives.
Book III.3:1-52. Propertius imagines himself writing epic.
Book
IV.1:1-70. An epic poet.
From the Eastern
countries. Eastern. The Dawn.
Book I.15:1-42. Eastern.
Book I.16:1-48. The Dawn.
Book II.3:1-54. The East.
Book II.18A:5-22. Dawn from the East.
Book III.13:1-66. The Eastern custom of suttee.
Book III.24:1-20. Rosy faced.
Book IV.6:1-86.
Book II.6:1-42. Ephyra was an ancient
name for
The Greek Philosopher (341-271BC) and founder of the
Book III.21:1-34. A source of
knowledge.
Asclepius (Aesculapius) was the son of Coronis and Apollo. He was saved by Apollo from his mother’s body and given to Chiron the Centaur to rear. He is represented in the sky by the constellation Ophiucus near Scorpius, depicting a man entwined in the coils of a serpent, consisting of the split constellation, Serpens Cauda and Serpens Caput, which contains Barnard’s star, having the greatest proper motion of any star and being the second nearest to the sun.
He saved
Book II.1:1-78. He restored Androgeon to life.
Of Erechtheus an early
king of Athens, Athenian.
Book II.34:1-94. A reference to Aeschylus’s works.
A son of Vulcan (Hephaestus), born without a mother (or born from
the Earth after Hephaestus the victim of a deception had been repulsed by
Athene). Legendary king of Athens and a
skilled charioteer. He is represented by the constellation Auriga the
charioteer, containing the star Capella. (Alternatively the constellation
represents the she-goat Amaltheia that suckled the infant Jupiter, and the
stars ζ (zeta) and η (eta) Aurigae are her Kids. It is a
constellation visible in the winter months.)
Book II.6:1-42. =Athenian.
Book I.12:1-20. The River Po in
Book II.3:1-54. A poetess of Lesbos, contemporary with Sappho.
A Fury. The Furies, The Three Sisters, were Alecto, Tisiphone and
Megaera, the daughters of Night and Uranus. They were the personified pangs of
cruel conscience that pursued the guilty. (See Aeschylus – The Eumenides). Their
abode is in Hades by the Styx. They
were called, ironically, the Eumenides, or Kindly Ones.
Book II.20:1-36. Conscience.
Book III.5:1-48.They pursued Alcmaeon.
She was bribed by Polynices with the gift of
the famous necklace of Aphrodite
given to her ancestress Harmonia, Cadmus’s
wife. She induced her husband, the seer, Amphiaraus
to join the Seven against Thebes
leading to his death. He agreed though he foresaw that he would not return.
Their son Alcmaeon killed her in
retribution.
Book II.16:1-56. The danger of gifts.
Book III.13:1-66. Her greed.
There was a famous shrine of Venus-Aphrodite, at Eryx on the western
extremity of Sicily, for which Daedalus made the golden honeycomb.
Book III.13:1-66. The nautilus
shell is described as Venus’s conch.
Book IV.9:1-74. An
A mythical King of the
East.
Book II.13:1-16. A Persian archer.
Book III.23:1-24. Book IV.8:1-88. Propertius lives on the Esquiline
Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome.
A country in
Book I.21:1-10. Perusia (modern
Book I.22:1-10. Perusia
again.
Book II.1:1-78. A further reference to civil bloodshed. Propertius makes clear his anti-war stance.
Book III.9:1-60. Maecenas is described as of Etruscan
descent.
The large island close to eastern
Book II.26A:21-58. Book IV.1A:71-150. The Greek ships were landlocked at Aulis opposite waiting for a favourable wind
for Troy.
A Fury. The Furies, The Three Sisters, were Alecto, Tisiphone and
Megaera, the daughters of Night and Uranus. They were the personified pangs of
cruel conscience that pursued the guilty. (See Aeschylus – The Eumenides).
Their abode is in Hades by the Styx.
Book IV.11:1-102. The Furies.
One of the great rivers
of
Book II.10:1-26. Book IV.6:1-86.
Book
II.23:1-24. Girls from
Book III.4:1-22. On campaign the soldiers will have the country and by double entendre the river’s waters flow to their tune (as they relieve themselves in it!)
Book III.11:1-72. Its
waters diverted to pass through Babylon.
The European Continent.
Book II.3:1-54.
Represented by the Greeks at Troy.
Daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, abducted by Jupiter disguised as a white bull. (See Paolo Veronese’s
painting – The Rape of Europa – Palazzo Ducale,
Book II.28A:47-62. A beauty.
The
Book III.14:1-34. Helen
exercised there.
The East Wind. Auster is the South Wind, Zephyrus the West Wind, and Boreas is the North Wind.
Book II.26A:21-58. Book III.5:1-48. Book III.15:1-46. A stormwind.
A Giant.
Book III.9:1-60. A reference to their war with the Gods.
Book IV.5:1-78. King of Cos.
He was killed at the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs, at the marriage of Pirithous and Hippodamia.
Book II.33A:23-44. A victim of
drunkenness.
The wife of Capaneus,
one of the Seven against Thebes. She
threw herself onto her husband’s funeral pyre rather than live on after his
death.
Book I.15:1-42. Book III.13:1-66. A type of
loyalty.
An exiled Greek king of Arcadia who settled on the site of ancient
Book IV.1:1-70. His cattle.
A son of Mars.
Marpessa
was the daughter of Evenus, the son of Mars, by his wife Alcippe. Her father
wished her to remain virgin, and her suitors were forced to compete in a
chariot race with him, the losers forfeiting their lives. Apollo vowed to win her and end the custom,
but Idas borrowing his father Neptune’s chariot pre-empted
him. Idas snatched her: Evenus gave chase, but killed his horses and drowned
himself in the Lycormas, then renamed the Evenus, in disgust at failing to
overtake Idas. Apollo and Idas fought over Marpessa, but Jupiter
parted them and she chose Idas fearing that Apollo would be faithless to her.
Book I.2:1-32. He is mentioned.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosos, Cunctator (‘The
Delayer’) (?275-203BC).
He was appointed Dictator of Rome
after Hannibal’s victory at
Book III.3:1-52. An ironic subject
for epic.
A district in Campania producing a strong, highly-prized
wine, Falernian.
Book II.33A:23-44. Cynthia drinking.
Book
IV.6:1-86. A prized wine.
Book II.34:1-94. Fame personified. (But fama also means public opinion, rumour and tradition, a little gentle irony here?)
Book III.1:1-38. Propertius already famous?
The Fates, The Three Goddesses, The Parcae, The Three Sisters.
The three Fates were born of Erebus and Night. Clothed in white, they spin, measure out, and sever the thread of each human life. Clotho spins the thread. Lachesis measures it. Atropos wields the shears.
Book II.13A:1-58. Book II.28:1-46. The Fates determine life span.
Book IV.7:1-96. Cynthia swears an oath by them.
Book IV.10:1-48. A
title of Jupiter. His
A town near
Book IV.1:1-70. Once regarded as
distant from Alba Longa.
The Roman Forum. The main
thoroughfare.
Book II.24:1-16. Book IV.1A:71-150. The marketplace.
Book III.9:1-60. Maecenas as a magistrate has the right to set up a court of justice there.
Book III.11:1-72. Curtius’s sacrifice there.
Book IV.2:1-64. The Vicus Tuscus lead to it.
Book IV.4:1-94. The
centre of early
Book IV.8:1-88. A licentious area.
Book IV.9:1-74. Its
origins.
A town not far from Rome in
Book IV.1:1-70. Overshadowed later by
A river near Tarentum.Tarentum
was a city on the ‘heel’ of
Book II.34:1-94. Probably a reference
to Virgil’s Georgics IV 125.
A sea nymph, daughter of Nereus
and Doris. ( See the fresco ‘Galatea’ by Raphael,
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII 738 onwards.
Book I.8:1-26. Sicilian
coasts are intended, since her story is set on
Book III.2:1-26. Listened to the Song of
Polyphemus.
Aelia Galla, the wife of Postumus. Possibly the sister of
Aelius Gallus, successor to Cornelius Gallus as
prefect of
Book III.12:1-38. Her faithfulness.
The Gauls of the region
of modern
Book II.31:1-16. Book III.13:1-66. Under Brennus they sacked Apollo’s oracle at
Phrygian from Gallus a
Book II.13A:1-58. The region (Dardania) containing Troy.
A friend of Propertius.
Book I.5:1-32. He is warned off.
Book I.10:1-30. Advice to him.
Book I.13:1-36. Gallus in love.
Book
I:20:1-52. Has a male lover, a handsome boy.
Book I.21:1-10. A soldier, perhaps a kinsman of Propertius.
The son of Arria, possibly a friend or kinsman of Propertius.
Book IV.1A:71-150. He died in war.
Gaius Cornelius Gallus (c69-26BC). The first notable Roman elegiac poet who
wrote of his mistress Lycoris. He was
First Prefect of Egypt, but lost Augustus’s favour perhaps through ambition
and was obliged to commit suicide.
Book II.34:1-94.
Recently dead, dating Book II to around 26BC.
Book III.22:1-42. The
monster with three bodies, killed by Hercules. In the
Tenth Labour, Hercules brought back Geryon’s famous herd of cattle after
shooting three arrows through the three bodies. Geryon was the son of Chrysaor
and Callirhoë, and King of Tartessus in
Book IV.3:1-72. The Getae. A Scythian tribe.
Book
IV.5:1-78. Scythian slaves appeared in a play by Menander.
The sons of Heaven and Earth, Uranus and Ge.
They rebelled against Jupiter but were defeated and
buried beneath mountains and volcanos.
Book III.5:1-48. Tormented
underground.
The ora Gigantea is the volcanic Phlegrean plain, north of
Book I:20:1-52. A country pleasure area.
A fisherman of Anthedon in Boeotia.
He was transformed into a sea god by the chance eating of a magic herb, and
told the story of his transformation to Scylla
who rejected him. He asked Circe for help
and she in turn fell in love with him. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book XII 906.
Book II.26:1-20. A sea-god.
The royal city of Crete, ruled by Minos, hence the Minoan period.
Book I.3:1-46. Ariadne comes from there.
Book II.12:1-24. Cretan.
Medusa was the best
known of the Three Gorgons, the daughters of Phorcys. A winged monster with
snake locks, glaring eyes and brazen claws whose gaze turns men to stone. Her
sisters were Stheino and Euryale. Perseus
was helped by Athene-Minerva and Hermes-Mercury to overcome Medusa. He
was not to look at her head directly but only in a brightly-polished shield. He
cut off her head with an adamantine sickle, at which Pegasus
the winged horse and the warrior Chrysaor sprang from her body. He used her
head to petrify Atlas. Minerva had placed
snakes on her head because Medusa was violated, by Neptune, in Minerva’s temple.
Book II.2:1-16. Book IV.9:1-74. Minerva wears a breastplate depicting her.
Book II.25:1-48. Turned men to stone with her gaze.
Book III.22:1-42. Her
head severed by Perseus. The Gorgons lived in the lands of the Hyperboreans to
the far north-west.
The fountain that was created by a blow from Pegasus’s hoof. He was a child
sprung from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa. Medusa was one of the three
Gorgons, daughters of Phorcys the
wise old man of the sea. She is represented in the sky by part of the
constellation Perseus, who holds
her decapitated head. Perseus turned Atlas and others to stone with her severed
head. Neptune lay with her in the form
of a bird, and she produced Pegasus. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IV 743 and VI
119.
Book III.3:1-52. The Hippocrene
fountain on Helicon.
The country in southern Europe, bordering on
the Ionian (West of Greece), Cretan (South of
Book II.6:1-42. Corinth, a Greek city.
Book II.9:1-52.
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