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"GOODBYE TO ALL THAT" 129
This is the major question of this article. How does Propertius indicate
his gradual disengagement from Cynthia and effect the transition
to other forms of poetry?8 How is the reader made aware of the evolution
of his poetic intent? This article will argue that the transition is
effected largely between elegies 3.16 and 3.21.
If the love elegies before this group are examined. there is very
little indication that Propertius intends to discard Cynthia. The poems
to and about his puella are the standard fare encountered in Books I
and 2: a poem celebrating his love for Cynthia and her beauty in
elegy 2. fights and reconciliations in elegies 6 and 8. a poem celebrating
Cynthia's birthday in elegy 10. It is only perhaps at elegy 5 that
the reader is given a hint that there may come some closure to the
endless cycle of their relationship. Propertius suggests that, while it
was appropriate in his youth for him to worship Helicon and twine
spring roses round his brow. in his old age he will turn to the study of
natural philosophy (23-4). Here then he poses a question that most love
poets eventually had to deal with: what happens to the lover and his
mistress when they begin to age? But even this poem is to some extent
based on stock materiaI,9 and Propertius' avowed intention to turn to
influence. Hubbard (above. n. 2) 121. on the other hand. argues that a Roman Aetia
was not a particularly novel enterprise and that the influence that Callimachus
exerted on Propertius was more to do with style and perspective; J.P. Sullivan
adopts a similar line. arguing that it was an ironical use of language and a detached.
humorous viewpoint that constituted Propertius' greatest debt to Callimachus
(Propertius: A Critical Introduction [Cambridge/New York 1976] [47).
Most recently. Debrohun (above. n. 4) 27 argues that what Propertius produces is
not pure patriotic elegy but a sort of hybrid discourse between the competing
values of Roma and amor but she modifies this view with the qualification that
Roma tends to dominate most of the elegies