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its echo of Homeric passages like Odyssey 8.580 and 3.204.15 After these grand promises of the power of poetry, the naked revelation in the last couplet16 that this is all werbende Dichtung comes as a shock: one is surely not supposed to reveal so clearly that something was expected in return for the gift of immortality. Moreover, when we read of how Cyrnus deceives Theognis with words, it is difficult not to think of how Theognis has been deceiving Cyrnus, and more importantly us.17 What else is poetry but deceptive words? It is not normally thought a good tactic for seducers in literature or life to bring up the subject of deception. Would you believe a man who declared his love like this? Can we allow ourselves to be taken in by a poem that so blatantly tells us it deceives? The answer of course is 'yes': that is the name of the game. The concluding shock of 2534 does not affect the success of the lines either as a poem or as an expression of love. We have all learned in the postmodern age to say,18 not 'I love you', but 'As Barbara Cartland would say . . .' |
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This is a nice story well, I like it. But of course it requires a lot of assumptions. The problems of the Theognid corpus need no rehearsal.19 Is this a complete poem? What was its original context? How was it received? What is the status of this Englishman's dislike of explicit sexual bargaining? Is this ending a shock? Who says? These are questions worth discussing, but the provisional nature of any answer to them should not prevent us attempting readings. Naturally, in the end my reading is my reading, based on the stories I want to tell. I should like to convince others of it and them, and to argue: I should like to be forced to modify elements of my position, to be brought to see things I have missed. But it's no good pretending I didn't make it all up. Can we believe a critic who tells us this? Can we admit what we are doing, but take it seriously? I would argue that the answer is again 'yes'. And again, it seems to me particuarly curious that classical scholars of all people should be determined to situate their stories so firmly 'out there' when even the most apparently objective features of their texts are up for grabs. |
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15 The phrase will later be recalled in Theocritus 12.11, in an erotic context that merits attention: and a notable piece of Propertian Romantic Irony, 1.15.24 tu quoque uti fieres nobilis historia, is a further allusion a line many have tried to make closural. |
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16 The interpretation of the final couplet is disputed; 'Is the poet saying ''I do not chance on even a slight respect from you" or "I chance on a good amount of respect from you," a meaning which effectively postpones the aprosdoketon to the final line' (Tarkow (1977) 114). I would favour the former view, but note the interpretation of Gentili (1977) favouring the latter: 'Non poco riguardo io attengo da te (Cirno), ma in realta (my emphasis) tu mi inganni coi tuoi discorsi come un fanciullo'. |
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17 Cf. Tarkow (1977) 103, Adkins (1985) 152. |
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18 The celebrated example of Eco (1984) 678, which finds its way into most discussions of postmodernism: quoted Fowler (1989) 113. |
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19 On these lines, see especially Tarkow (1977) and Gentili (1977): more generally, Figueira and Nagy (1985). Note also the 'practical criticism' of the poem in Adkins (1985). |
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