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138 JACQUELINE CLARKE
active role that Propertius has now assumed in his relationship with
Cynthia. 27
The journey motif is not especially conspicuous in this poem. but
Propertius does compare Cynthia's uncontrollable nature to a journey
over rough seas:
et placidurn Syrtes porturn et bona litora nautis
praebeat hospitio saeva Malea suo.
quam possit vestros quisquam reprehendere cursus
et rabidae stirnulos frangere nequitiae.
Sooner shall the Syrtes offer a calm haven and savage Malea
Give pleasant shores with a kindly welcome to sailors.
Than any man shall be able to check you in your course
Or shatter the goads of your savage wantonness.
(7-10)
The motif is then elaborated at the end of the poem with the picture of
Scylla's body being dragged through the sea (26). While this metaphor
is by no means unusual (Horace. for instance. employs it of Pyrrha at
Carm. 1.5.5-12). the allusion that Propertius makes to the dangerous
straits of the Syrtes (7), a sandbank off the North African coast. is interesting.
for he will revisit this image in the penultimate elegy of this
book. In 3.24 Propertius indicates that he has done with Cynthia forever
by making a statement to the effect that he has crossed the Syrtes
and cast his anchor: traiectae Syrtes. ancora iacta mihi est (16). This is
another link that ties this elegy more closely to the Cynthia cycle.
The second love poem. 20. begins with a departure from Cynthia.
In ironic fashion it is not Propertius who is leaving Cynthia but another
of her lovers who is setting out for Africa (1-4). picking up the
reference to the Syrtes in the previous poem. But Propertius himself
does not leave Cynthia in this elegy: far from it. for the poem apparently
describes a reconciliation with her. Barsby points out that this
poem has echoes of elegy 8 in the monobiblos in which Cynthia. on the
point of departing with another lover. is persuaded to stay and resume
her affair with Propertius. 28 In both cases the reconciliation is
described in such glowing terms that it recalls the very start of their
affair.
This is the last true love elegy of the book and is particularly in-
27 In view of the fact that Cynthia's real name wa allegedly Hostia. it is possible
that there is a play on the word hoste in line 28 (victor erat quamvis, aequus
in hoste fuit. "though he was victor. yet he was fair to his foe"). Propertius assumes
the role of a just and deserving victor over his conquered enemy. Cynthia
(hoste).
28 ].A. Barsby, "Propertius III 20." Mnemosyne28 (1975) 31.