Per exempla: amore elegiaco, matrimonio ed etica della famiglia in Properzio

Abstract

From exemplary mythical heroines to exemplary matrons of Augustan aristocracy: these are the poles of the transformation process that the female models undergo in propertian elegy, while their didactic-psych- agogic function goes running out and it can be explored another kind of referentiality especially on the book four of the collection. The κένωσις of a repertoire contrasts with the enrichment of another one, represented by an elegiac wife and a matron. The design of emblematic characters such as Elia Galla and Arethusa corresponds to an ‘experimental engagement’ of a prototype in another one by which results the new type of ‘elegiac bride’, linked to a kind of secluded life, spent in typically female jobs, equipped with a dedication and chas- tity out of time, but agitated by a passionate love, anxieties, fears and jealousies similar to those of elegiac dominae. It is a prototype getting enriched with new shades between 3,12 and 4,3. Cornelia, a foreign model to elegy, proves certainly the most original character created by the Umbrian poet. Her existence’s a paradigm, her morality is a paradigm, her ancestors are a paradigm, even her offspring will be a paradigm. But in 4,11 the notion of ‘ p a r a d i g m ’ rhymes with two key-terms, i.e. ‘ t r a d i c t i o n ’ and ‘ c o n s e r v a t i o n ’ : that’s the legacy of the last propertian heroine, whose profile forces and refounds the genre in which it is incorporated.