Abstract

AbstractThis article argues that in poem 4.3, Propertius depicts Arethusa not as a citizen wife, but as a concubine or an elegiac courtesan under exclusive contract to Lycotas. The Roman lexicon of marriage was frequently used to describe relationships other thaniustum coniugium, especially in love elegy. That is the situation presented in Propertius 4.3. Arethusa’s anxieties are primarily sexual, and thus identify her as something new in elegy: not a wife but a faithfulpuella. This poem gives us the poetic voice of a loving, loyal, contracted courtesan.

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