| dc.description.abstract | Carmina Magica: Reading Magic and Ritual in Latin Love Elegy focuses on the relationship
between magic, ritual, and poetics in the works of each of the major extant Latin elegists —
Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid — with the intention of demonstrating that the category of
magic acts as an integral supporting subtext that allows the elegiac poets to interrogate and
express the poetic concerns and ideological position of their work more fully. The Roman
elegists span a tumultuous period of Rome’s history, which saw a transition from the discord
of the civil wars to the increasingly consolidated rule of the principate. Although rituals,
both normative and non-normative, were a pervasive presence in Roman society, the
elegists seem to purposefully associate their poetry with the occult in a way that could be
seen as antagonistic to the newly emerging central authority. However, this inclusion of
magic suits the inverted ethos of the elegiac poet-lover and the marginal position he
purports to occupy in relation to contemporary culture. Rather than being an unwanted
presence in elegy, magic, with its problematic connotations, serves to highlight the
subversive nature of the genre. The research approaches the subject through an analysis of
the relevant poems; it explores how the poems engage with socio-political and magic
discourses, examines the dialogue between these magical poems, and draws on
contemporary magic scholarship to demonstrate how recognising the magic subtext
enhances our reading of Roman elegy. The thesis begins with an examination of the
provocative interplay between magic and conventional ritual in the poems of Tibullus. The
second chapter will show how in Books 1-3 Propertius emphasises the importance of magic
to his poetry by including it in each of his programmatic poems. The following chapter, on
Propertius 4, will explore how the ostensibly more patriotic façade of the book is
problematised by a continued juxtaposition of magic and civics rituals. The final chapter will
look at how Ovid’s treatment of magic codifies it as a standard element of the genre while
his engagement with the topoi of elegiac magic invites his audience to interrogate the
conventions, themes, and genre of elegiac poetry more deeply. Scholars rarely delve deeply
into the presence of magic in Latin elegy, and little systematic attention has been paid to
how it functions or what its significance is. Instead, the presence of magic is often passed
over as a commonplace element within elegy. This thesis aims to show how the various
instances of magic and ritual are bound up with some of the elegists’ main concerns —
politics, gender, and authority. More broadly, magic acts as a signal for subversion and
resistance to poetic and political norms throughout the genre. The elegists tap into the
cultural currency of the category of magic to add layers of meaning, symbolic connections,
and associations to their poetry that reach beyond the elegiac demi-monde. | en |
