Sparta, the chief city of
Book I.4:1-28. The city of Hermione.
Book II.15:1-54. Of
Book III.14:1-34. Men and women exercised naked.
A famous courtesan of Corinth.
Book II.6:1-42. Her popularity.
Book IV.7:1-96. One of Cynthia’s slaves.
The daughter of the Sun, Phoebus-Apollo and guardian of his
cattle which Ulysses and his crew
sacrificed.
Book III.12:1-38. An adventure of
Ulysses.
A small town on the Appian Way south east of Rome.
Book II.32:1-62. Cynthia goes there.
Book
IV.8:1-88. The fertility ritual there.
The king of Troy, son of
Ilus the younger, father of Priam, Hesione
and Antigone of Troy.
Book II.14:1-32.
An ancient people of south western Thessaly. The marriage of Pirithoüs and Hippodamia was disrupted by Eurytus one of the centaurs invited to
the feast, leading to the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs. (See the sculpture from the
west pediment of the
Book II.2:1-16.
Hippodamia was a daughter of the Lapiths.
The Lares were spirits of the dead, worshipped
at crossroads, and in the home as guardian deities, coupled usually with the
Penates. The Penates were the old Latin household gods,
two in number, whose name derives from penus a larder, or storage room
for food. They were closely linked to the family and shared its joys and
sorrows. Their altar was the hearth, which they shared with Vesta. Their images were placed at the back
of the atrium in front of the Genius, the anonymous deity that protected and
was the creative force in all groups and families, and, as the Genius of the
head of the house and represented as a serpent, was placed between the Lar (the
Etruscan guardian of the house) and Penates. At meals they were placed between
the plates and offered the first food. The Penates moved with a family and
became extinct if the family did.
Book III.3:1-52. They resisted Hannibal.
Book III.7:1-72. Those of Paetus.
Book IV.1:1-70. The Trojan household gods.
Book IV.3:1-72. The shrine of the Lar opened at the Calends, the first of each month.
Book IV.8:1-88. The
shrine of the Lares by the entrance to the house.
Book II.32:1-62. Roman women.
Book III.4:1-22. Roman Jupiter=Augustus.
Book
IV.6:1-86. Roman waters. The
Book IV.10:1-48. Roman hands.
Book IV.7:1-96. A slave
of Cynthia. Her name from the Greek ‘to
serve’ = λατρεύειν
Lavinium, a city of
Book II.34:1-94. Founded by Aeneas.
The western
Book III.21:1-34. On the route to Athens.
The daughter of Thestius, and wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus. She had twin
sons Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux), the Tyndaridae, following her rape by Jupiter in the form of a swan. Castor
and Pollux are represented in the sky by the two bright stars in the
constellation of Gemini, the Twins. They were the protectors of mariners
appearing in the rigging as the electrical phenomenon now known as St Elmo’s
fire. Gemini contains the radiant of the Geminid meteor shower. (See the
painting Leda, by Gustave Moreau in the Gustave Moreau Museum Paris).
Propertius takes Leda’s other daughter by Tyndareus, Clytemnestra to be human and not
divine. Book I.13:1-36. She is mentioned.
The constellation and zodiacal sign of the Lion. It contains the
star Regulus ‘the heart of the lion’, one of the four guardians of the heavens
in Babylonian astronomy, which lies nearly on the ecliptic. (The others are
Aldebaran in Taurus, Antares in Scorpius, and Fomalhaut ‘the Fish’s Eye’ in
Piscis Austrinus. All four are at roughly ninety degrees to one another). The
constellation represents the Nemean lion killed by Hercules as the first of his twelve
labours.
Book IV.1A:71-150. The Zodiacal sign
of the Lion.
Book IV.11:1-102. A son
of Paullus.
The marsh where the Hydra lived destroyed by Hercules in the Second Labour.
Book II.24A:17-52. A demanding task.
Book II.26A:21-58. Neptune created the spring of Amymone, source of the river Lerna there,
with his trident.
The subject of Catullus’s love poems. Probably Clodia
Metelli.
Book II.32:1-62. Set a precedent for loose behaviour.
Book II.34:1-94.
‘Better-known’ than Helen. (An ironic
comment on her loose behaviour)
The island in the eastern Aegean.
Among its cities were Mytilene and Methymna. Famous as the home of Sappho the
poetess, whose love of women gave rise to the term lesbian. Through
Sappho and Alcaeus a centre, around 600BC,
for Greek lyric poetry, Sappho being the first great individual voice of European
lyric song.
Book I.14:1-24. Its wine is mentioned.
A
river of the Underworld, whose waters bring forgetfulness.
Book IV.7:1-96. Its waters have withered Cynthia’s lips.
Book II.34:1-94. Varro’s mistress.
The son of Gorgophone by Perieres. He co-ruled
Book I.2:1-32. He is
mentioned.
Ino the daughter of Cadmus, wife of Athamas, and sister of Semele and Agave. She fostered the infant Bacchus (Dionysus). She participated in the killing of Pentheus. She incurred the hatred of Juno. Maddened by Tisiphone, and the death of her son Learchus, at the hands of his father, she leapt into the sea, and was changed to the sea-goddess Leucothoë by Neptune, at Venus’s request.
Leucothoe is the White Goddess, the sea-goddess, who as a sea-mew
helped Ulysses (See Homer’s Odyssey). She is a manifestation
of the Great Goddess in her archetypal form. (See Robert Graves’s ‘The White
Goddess’).
Book II.26:1-20. Prayed to for safety and help at sea.
Book
II.28:1-46. The deified Ino.
Book IV.11:1-102. The
ancestors of Cornelia, a branch of the
Scribonii, the senatorial family.
A galley with a ram, light and manoeuvrable,
widely used by the Romans e.g. by Octavian
at Actium.
Book III.11:1-72. Its prow, a Propertian sexual reference.
The country in
Book II.31:1-16. A source of ivory.
Book III.11:1-72. Syphax, its king.
Book IV.1A:71-150. It contained the shrine of Jupiter Ammon.
Book IV.9:1-74. Hercules hair bleached there.
A mythological early poet. The son of Oeagrus and the Muse Calliope, brother of Orpheus.
Killed by Apollo out of jealousy
(in a tanist ritual?) the famous Lament for Linus crossed the ancient world.
Book II.13:1-16. Famous poet.
The followers of Lygmon
(Lucumo), who united with the Titienses,
the people of Titus Tatius, and the Ramnes followers of Romulus.
Book IV.1:1-70. Early
Romans.
Book II.19:1-32. The dawn. The morning star.
‘The light bringer’, the Roman goddess of childbirth, a
manifestation of Juno, but also applied
to Diana, as the Great Goddess.
Book IV.1A:71-150. Goddess of
childbirth.
A lagoon on the
Book I.11:1-30. Cynthia
stays nearby.
The Moon as celestial body and as manifestation
of the Triple Goddess.
Book I.10:1-30. Book II.28:1-46. Referred to.
Book II.34:1-94. The phenomenon of Lunar eclipse.
Book III.20:1-30. The
Moon.
A priest of Lupercus, the Roman version of Pan Lukaios. The priests were divided into
the colleges of the Fabii and Quintilii
Book IV.1:1-70. The
festival of the Lupercalia took place on February 15th. Men dressed only in
animal skins ran through the streets striking women with goatskin thongs to
promote fertility.
The son of Arria, possibly a friend or kinsman of Propertius.
Book IV.1A:71-150. He died in war.
Propertius’s first love.
Book III.15:1-46. Cynthia jealous of his past.
A region in south-west
Book II.34:1-94. The mistress of the
poet Gallus.
It is not known whether Lycotas is a pseudonym or a fictional name.
Book IV.3:1-72. The husband of Arethusa.
The legendary king of Thrace who disapproved of the orgiastic
rites of Bacchus-Dionysus and captured
the god, who maddened him so that he killed his own son thinking he was pruning
a vine.
Book III.17:1-42. Maddened by the
god.
Book III.15:1-46. The husband of Dirce.
A country in
Book I.6:1-36. Noted for its wealth and gold-bearing streams.
Book III.5:1-48. Croesus was king of
Book III.11:1-72. Omphale was queen of
Book III.17:1-42. A Lydian turban crowns Bacchus’s head.
Book IV.7:1-96. The Lydian lyre.
Book IV.9:1-74. Hercules served Omphale there.
A slave of Cynthia and then Propertius.
Book III.6:1-42. A message bearer.
Book IV.7:1-96. Cynthia doubted his loyalty.
Book
IV.8:1-88. Attends on Propertius.
An Etruscan general who assisted Romulus against Tatius king of the Sabines, and joined with them in a
peace settlement. He was also called Lucumo and his people the Luceres. (those of
Book IV.1:1-70. A countryman.
Book
IV.2:1-64. The crushing of the Sabines.
A fellow poet and friend of Propertius. Possibly a pseudonym
for Lucius Varius Rufus.
Book II.34:1-94.
Addressed by Propertius, for attempting something with Cynthia.
Book III.9:1-60. The
sculptor born at
A Greek physician at the
siege of Troy.
Book II.1:1-78. He healed Philoctetes.
The
Book II.30:1-40. Minerva invented the flute there, but threw it into the river when it puffed out her cheeks, marring her beauty.
Book II.34:1-94. Its
wanderings as a subject no help in love.
Gaius Maecenas (c70-8BC) diplomat, private citizen, patron of the arts, friend of Augustus. His protégés included Virgil, Horace and Propertius.
Book II.1:1-78. He is addressed.
Book III.9:1-60. He is
addressed as Propertius’s patron
and is the subject of veiled jokes, some homosexual regarding Augustus, which may have been an
acceptable practice within Maecenas’s set as it was in Elizabethan England in
some circles.
Book IV.9:1-74. Arcadian, from
The Bacchantes, the female followers of Bacchus-Dionysus, noted for their ecstatic worship
of the god. Dionysus brought terror and joy. The Maenads’ secret female
mysteries may indicate older rituals of ecstatic human sacrifice.
Book III.8:1-34. Frenzied women.
Book III.13:1-66. Cassandra, a frenzied prophetess.
Book III.17:1-42. Book III.22:1-42. They killed Pentheus.
Book II.3:1-54.
Book IV.8:1-88. A dwarf entertainer.
The most southerly
promontory of the
Book III.19:1-28. A dangerous
headland.
Mamurius Veturius, a mythical
metalworker at the time of Numa.
Book IV.2:1-64. His statue of Vertumnus.
Book III.18:1-34. Augustus’s nephew who died at Baiae in 23BC.
Quintus Marcius Rex built an aqueduct in 144BC the aqua Marcia, with excellent water.
Book III.2:1-26. Book III.22:1-42. Its water.
The general Gaius Marius defeated Jugurtha in
Book II.1:1-78. He is mentioned for his service to the State.
Book III.3:1-52. A subject for others’ poetry.
Book III.5:1-48. In the underworld.
Book III.11:1-72. His
weapons and statues honoured, but desecrated by Cleopatra’s presence.
A companion (or son) of Bacchus.
Book II.32:1-62. A stone fountain, a
statue of Maro, in Rome.
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. She is mentioned.
The war god, son of Jupiter
and Juno. An old name for him is Mavors. Venus
commited adultery with him and he was caught in a net with her by her husband
Vulcan. The father of Romulus. He
asked for
Book II.32:1-62. Committed adultery with Venus.
Book III.3:1-52. Book III.4:1-22. The God of War.
Book IV.1:1-70. The
father of
Book IV.1A:71-150. The
planet Mars associated astrologically with anger, energy, and rapaciousness.
The Mausoleum was the tomb of king Mausolus,
ruler of
A name for Mars.
Book II.27:1-16. God of war.
The daughter of Aeetes, king of Colchis
and the Caucasian nymph Asterodeia. She is called Aeetias. As told by Ovid in
Book VII of the Metamorphoses, a famous sorceress, she conceives a passion for Jason and agonises over the betrayal of
her country for him. (See Gustave Moreau’s painting ‘Jason and Medea’, Louvre,
Book II.1:1-78. The Colchian witch.
Book II.21:1-20. Jason deceived her, leaving her for Creusa.
Book II.24A:17-52. Book IV.5:1-78. Abandoned by Jason.
Book II.34:1-94. Went with a stranger.
Book III.11:1-72. She helped Jason overcome the brazen bulls, defeat the warrior’s born of the dragon’s teeth, and lull the dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece.
Book III.19:1-28. She murdered her children by Jason.
The Median Empire was founded by Dyakku and
made great by Cyaxares (625-585BC).
It was conquered by the Persians under Cyrus II.
Book III.9:1-60. Book III.12:1-38. Parthians (of
The son of Amythaon, who undertook to steal the
cattle of Iphiclus for Neleus, so that
Bias his brother or he himself could win Pero,
Neleus’s daughter. He was captured and chained but escaped and succeeded in
marrying her.
Book II.3:1-54. Driven by love for her.
King of Calydon, the son of Oeneus, and Althaea, daughter of Thestius. As prince, a
hero of
Book III.22:1-42. His mother took
his life.
The Ethiopian king, son of Tithonus and Aurora (The Dawn), killed by Achilles while fighting for the Trojans. He was changed to a bird by
Book I.6:1-36. He is
mentioned, indicating
Book II.18A:5-22. His
death mourned by
The city in Egypt.
Book III.11:1-72. Pompey murdered in
The playwright (341-290BC) and leading author of the
Book II.6:1-42. Book IV.5:1-78. He wrote a play with Thais as a character.
Book III.21:1-34. A source of wit
and learning.
The younger son of Atreus, and brother of Agamemnon, hence called Atrides minor. Paris’s theft of his wife Helen instigated the Trojan War
Book II.3:1-54. He demanded her return.
Book II.15:1-54. Helen’s abduction.
Book
II.34:1-94.
Book II.1:1-78. Patroclus the son of Menoetius.
Book III.24:1-20. The
Romans erected a
A famous Greek
silversmith of the early fourth century BC.
Book I.14:1-24. His work is mentioned.
Book III.9:1-60. A specialist in sculpted groups.
Book I.14:1-24. Of Mentor.
The messenger god, Hermes, son of Jupiter and the Pleiad Maia, the daughter of Atlas. He is therefore called Atlantiades.
His birthplace was
Book II.2:1-16. He slept with Hecate (Brimo).
Book
II.30:1-40. The skies are the highways of the god.
Book IV.6:1-86. The capital city of Cepheus’s
An early king of the
Book II.34:1-94. Coan. Philetas of
Book IV.8:1-88. Wine from Methymna in Lesbos.
The modern Bevagna near Assisi.
Book IV.1A:71-150. Near Propertius’s birthplace.
The Greek hero, son of Amphidamas the Arcadian
who won Atalanta daughter of Iasus and Clymene, famous for her running.
She was a virgin follower of Diana-Artemis.
She agreed to marry any suitor who could beat her in the race, those defeated
forfeiting their lives. Venus-Aphrodite
gave Milanion three golden apples, which he used as lures to delay Atalanta in
the foot-race.
Book I.1:1-38. He knew the
toils of love.
A mountain in Lydia
falling to a headland called Argennum which may have been connected with Argynnus.
Book III.7:1-72. Scene of Argynnus’s death.
The erotic lyric poet of
Book I.9:1-34. A minor
lyric poet is still more useful than Homer
in love.
The Roman name for Athene the goddess of the mind and women’s arts
(also a goddess of war and the goddess of boundaries – see the Stele of Athena,
bas-relief,
Book I.2:1-32. She presides over the feminine arts, and the intellect.
Book II.30:1-40. Minerva invented the flute by the River Maeander, but threw it into the river when it puffed out her cheeks, marring her beauty.
Book IV.1A:71-150.
Forbade the violation of Cassandra.
Ariadne daughter of king Minos.
Book II.24A:17-52. Abandoned by Theseus.
The King of Crete,
ruler of a hundred cities. Son of Jupiter
and Europa. Husband of Pasiphae. Father of Ariadne and Phaedra.
Book II.14:1-32. Ariadne’s father.
Book III.19:1-28. Scylla betrayed the city of
Book IV.11:1-102. His
brother is Rhadamanthus.
The descendants of Minyas, living in Orchomenus
in Boeotia. They formed the core crew
of Jason’s Argos, hence a name for the Argonauts.
Book I:20:1-52. The Argonauts.
Aeneas’s
trumpeter Misenus.
The location at the northern end of the
Book I.11:1-30. Cynthia stays nearby.
Book III.18:1-34. Marcellus died nearby in 23BC.
Book IV.8:1-88. The Molossi were a
tribe of
The nine Muses are the virgin daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory). They
are the patronesses of the arts. Clio (History), Melpomene (Tragedy), Thalia
(Comedy), Enterpe (Lyric Poetry), Terpsichore (Dance), Calliope (Epic Poetry), Erato (Love
Poetry), Urania (Astronomy), and Polyhymnia (Sacred Song).. Their epithets are
Aonides, and Thespiades.
Book I.8A:27-46. Their arts help lovers.
Book II.1:1-78. Book II.10:1-26. Book II.12:1-24.
Book IV.6:1-86The spirit of creative art in the individual poet. Propertius’s Muse.
Book II.13:1-16. The lesser lyric muses.
Book II.30:1-40. Live on
Book III.1:1-38. His muse.
Book III.1:1-38.
Called the Sisters, on
Book III.2:1-26. The poet’s companions.
Book III.3:1-52. Their emblems.
Book III.5:1-48. Poetry is their dance.
Book III.10:1-32. They send him a sign (!) that it is Cynthia’s birthday.
Book IV.4:1-94. Goddesses of incantation and magic.
Book IV.6:1-86. Peace-loving goddesses.
A city in
Book II.1:1-78. An
example of an episode of Civil War.
The city in the
Book II.22:1-42. Myceneans=the Greeks at Troy.
Book III.19:1-28. The city of Pelops and Agamemnon.
Book IV.6:1-86. The Mygdones were a tribe in Phrygia. Hence Phrygian.
The Athenian sculptor, c 430BC.
Book II.31:1-16. His statues of oxen,
round the altar.
The daughter of Cinyras, mother of Adonis, incestuously, by her father. She conceived an incestuous passion for her father. She attempted suicide, and was rescued by her nurse who promised to help her. She sleept with her father, was impregnated by him, and when discovered fled to Sabaea, and was turned into the myrrh-tree, weeping resin. Adonis was born from the tree. See Ovid’s Metamophoses Book X:298-502.
Book III.19:1-28. An
example of female lust.
The Greek silversmith and engraver of the fifth
century BC, who
worked with Parrhasius, see
Pausanias Book I Attica.
Book III.9:1-60. Acanthus was a
motif of his.
The country of
Book I:20:1-52. Visited by the Argonauts.
Book II.1:1-78.The country
of Telephus King of
The river nymphs.
Book II.32:1-62. Oenone.
Caphareus
is a headland of Euboea on which Nauplius
lit a false beacon causing the Greek
fleet returning from Troy to be
wrecked. He did this to avenge the death of his son Palamedes, falsely done to
death by the Greeks.
Book IV.1A:71-150. Vengeance on the
Greeks.
Book IV.1:1-70. The
The largest island of the
Book III.17:1-42. The island of the
god of the vine.
The grove at Aricia a
town in
Book III.22:1-42. The sacred grove
at Nemi.
Neptune, Poseidon, God
of the sea, brother of Pluto (Dis) and Jupiter. The trident is his emblem. He
helped to initiate the Great Flood (see Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks for the
influence of Book I on his descriptions of the deluge, and his drawing Neptune
with four sea-horses, Royal Library, Windsor: See the Neptune Fountain by
Bartolomeo Ammannati, Piazza della Signoria, Florence.)
He raped Medusa in the temple of Minerva,
fathering Pegasus and Chrysaor,
for which Minerva filled Medusa’s hair with snakes, and caused her to turn men
to stone at a look. He and Apollo
built the walls of Troy for Laomedon. He flooded the land when Laomedon refused to
pay, and demanded the sacrifice of Hesione to a sea-monster.
Book II.16:1-56. Book II.26:1-20. The God of the Sea.