Propertius's insane love in dialogue with moral philosophy

Authors

  • Francisco Edi de Oliveira Sousa Professor da Universidade Federal do Ceará

Keywords:

Propertius. Latin love elegy. Moral philosophy.

Abstract

This work proposes a reading of Propertius’ poems founded in the area of philosophy that considers the passions a disease and prescribes a philosophical therapy. The presence of philosophy in Propertius is not deemed relevant; that’s why this reading is a challenging aim. This research relies essentially on philosophical texts of Cicero, particularly in the early thirteen chapters of the Tusculanae disputationes. Applied to Propertius’ poems, this theory initially bases the examination of the erotic passion, the anger and the notion of “exceeding the limit” (modus), and after it bases the search of cure for the elegiac “disease” and an appeal to philosophy as medicine of the soul. The results support the hypothesis that the moral philosophy is an important element for the characterization of Latin love elegy in general and for Propertius’ poems in particular.

Downloads

Published

2014-07-01

Issue

No. 12

Section

Dossiê Filosofia Antiga

License

Argumentos magazine is licensed under an International Creative Commons Attribution License.

The Magazine uses CC BY inclusion

1) The authors retain the copyright granted to the magazine or the right to initial publication, with the work regularly licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution, which allows the sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this magazine.

2) The authors are authorized to contract additional applicable contracts, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (for example, publication in the institutional repository or as a chapter of the book), recognition of authorship and initial publication in this journal.

3) Authors are authorized and encourage to publish and distribute their work online (for example, in institutional repositories or on their personal pages) at any time before or during the editorial process, as they can generate productive changes, as well as increase the impact and reference of published work.