Tot in Vno Corpore Formae: Hybridity, Ethnicity and Vertumnus in Propertius Book 4

Abstract

The opening poem of Propertius Book 4 famously contains a programmatic statement which presents notamor(love or desire)—the staple of Roman elegy through the 20s and into the 10s BCE—as the ruling theme of the collection, but Roman aetiology: Roma, faue, tibi surgit opus, date candida ciues omina, et inceptis dextera cantet auis! sacra diesque canam et cognomina prisca locorum. (4.1.67-69) Rome, lend your support. This work arises for you. Citizens, grant bright omens—and may the bird of augury sing favourably! Of rites and days I will sing, and of the ancient names of places. The focus on Roman origins in poem 1 itself specifically involves a comparison between the early history of Rome (the mythic past) and the poet's present (what we have come to know as ‘Augustan’ Rome). This comparison is introduced in the very opening lines of the poem: hoc quodcumque uides, hospes, qua maxima Roma est, ante Phrygem Aenean collis et herba fuit; atque ubi Nauali stant sacra Palatia Phoebo, Euandri profugae procubuere boues. fictilibus creuere deis haec aurea templa, nec fuit opprobrio facta sine arte casa. (4.1.1-6) Whatever you see here, stranger, where now is great Rome, was hills and grassland before the coming of Phrygian Aeneas. Where the Palatine shrine of Naval Phoebus now stands, the cattle of Evander once lay down as refugees. These golden temples grew from clay gods, and there was no shame in an artless dwelling. Anthropologists and sociologists have demonstrated the vital role which myths of origin, such as the poet here purports to represent, play in the formation, maintenance and expression of ethnicity in many cultures, ancient and modern. A.D. Smith even goes so far as to call such myths thesine qua nonof ethnic identity. It seems reasonable to suggest, then, that the representation of Roman origins projects Roman identity. Indeed, some scholars have recently argued for this in the case of Propertius Book 4. What is more, as I will argue here, Propertius Book 4 accentuates the complexities inherent in the particular picture of Roman identity which Roman myth transmits, and dramatises them in such ways as to challenge the unitariness of that identity at the very moment of its assertion.

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