Te veniente die, te decedente canebat: il τόπος del mattino e della sera tra neoterismo e poesia augustea

Abstract

Abstract The reference to the rising and setting of the sun to indicate the unceasing duration of an action becomes a τόπος in Latin poetry from an influential distich of Cinna onwards, which was reworked a number of times in Augustan poetry. As well as Vergil and Horace, who adapt the model to different genres and occasions, the treatment of it by the elegists is interesting, in whom the two terms that define East and West are set in relation to the eternity of poetic renown. This transformation may go back to Gallus, to whom Ovid, above all, makes significant references. The numerous occurrences of the τόπος in different authors and genres make possible interesting comparisons.