Propertius: The Elegies - Index D-I
Daedalius, Daedalus
The mythical Athenian architect who built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete.
(See Michael Ayrton’s extended series of sculptures, bronzes, and artefacts celebrating Daedalus, Icarus and the Minotaur.)
He made wings of bee’s-wax and feathers to escape from Crete. Warning Icarus, his son, to follow him in a middle course, they flew towards Ionia. Between Samos and Lebinthos Icarus flew too high and the wax melted, and he drowned in the Icarian Sea and was buried on the island of Icaria.
Book II.14:1-32. Architect of the Labyrinth.
Danae
The daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. He was warned by an oracle that his daughter’s son would kill him, so he shut her in a brazen tower, but Jupiter raped her in the form of a shower of gold. Their son Perseus killed Acrisius accidentally in a discus-throwing competition.
Book II.20:1-36. The tower.
Book II.32:1-62. Seduced rather than raped by Jupiter?
Danaus, The Danaids
The fifty daughters of Danaüs, granddaughters of Belus, king of Egypt. They were forced to marry their cousins, the fifty sons of Aegyptus, and, with one exception, Hypermnestra, who saved the life of Lynceus, because he preserved her virginity, killed them on their wedding night. The others were punished in Hades by having to fill a bottomless cistern with water carried in leaking sieves.
Book II.1:1-78. Water carriers in a Propertian double-entendre!
Book II.26A:21-58. Book III.8:1-34. Book III.9:1-60.
Book III.22:1-42. Book IV.1:1-70. Book IV.1A:71-150. The Danaans=the Greeks at Troy. Book III.22 mentions the killing of Iphigenia and her substitution by a roe sent by Diana.
Book II.31:1-16. Statues in the new Colonnade.
Daphnis
A Virgilian shepherd. (A Sicilian shepherd in other poetry, said to have invented the pastoral genre)
Book II.34:1-94. See Virgil’s Eclogues V and VII.
Dardanius, Trojan, Troy
An epithet applied to the descendants of Dardanus, the son of Jupiter and the Pleiad Electra, who came from Italy to the Troad, and was one of the ancestors of the Trojan royal house.
Book I.19:1-26. Book IV.1:1-70. Trojan.
Decius
Decius Mus, the hero of the Samnite Wars of the fourth century BC dreamed that one army would have to sacrifice its leader, the other its entire power, so he charged the enemy alone and was killed in order to guarantee the victory.
Book III.11:1-72. A Roman hero.
Book IV.1:1-70. Three Decii, Roman generals, gave their lives for their country, father, son and grandson in 336, 296 and 279 BC.
Deidamia
The daughter of Lycomedes, king of Scyros, who fell in love with Achilles while he was concealed on the island by Thetis, to save him from the TrojanWar. She bore his son Neoptolemus.
Book II.9:1-52. Bereaved at his death.
Deiphobus
Son of Priam of Troy. A Trojan prince who fought in the war.
Book III.1:1-38. Attempted with Hector to kill Paris.
Delos
The Greek island in the Aegean, one of the Cyclades, birthplace of, and sacred to, Apollo (Phoebus) and Diana (Phoebe, Artemis), hence the adjective Delian. (Pausanias VIII xlvii, mentions the sacred palm-tree, noted there in Homer’s Odyssey 6, 162, and the ancient olive.) Its ancient name was Ortygia. A wandering island, that gave sanctuary to Latona (Leto). Having been hounded by jealous Juno (Hera), she gave birth there to the twins Apollo and Diana, between an olive tree and a date-palm on the north side of Mount Cynthus. Delos then became fixed in the sea. In a variant she gave birth to Artemis-Diana on the islet of Ortygia nearby.
Book IV.6:1-86. Apollo’s island.
Demophoon
A pseudonym for a friend of Propertius.
Book II.22:1-42. His friend.
Book II.24A:17-52. A son of Theseus who loved Phyllis, daughter of Sithon king of Thrace. he deserted her. She killed herself but was turned into an almond tree, which flowered when he returned, remorsefully, to find her. (See Burne-Jones’s marvellous painting: The Tree of Forgiveness, Lady Lever Art Gallery: Merseyside, England)
Demosthenes
The Greek orator and Athenian Statesman of the fourth century BC who attacked the growing power of Macedon under Philip II, seeing it as a threat to the Greek world.
Book III.21:1-34. A master of oratory.
Deucalion
King of Phthia. He and his wife Pyrrha, his cousin, and daughter of Epimetheus, were survivors of the flood. He was he son of Prometheus. (See Michelangelo’s scenes from the Great Flood, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome). See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book I:313-347.
Book II.32:1-62. Ancient times.
Dia
An old name for Naxos.
Book III.17:1-42. Wine flowed there for Bacchus.
Diana
The goddess Diana, Phoebe, or Artemis the daughter of Jupiter and Latona (hence her epithet Latonia) and twin sister of Phoebus-Apollo. She was born on the island of Ortygia which is Delos (hence her epithet Ortygia). Goddess of the moon and the hunt. She carries a bow, quiver and arrows. She and her followers are virgins. She is worshipped as the triple goddess, as Hecate in the underworld, Luna the moon, in the heavens, and Diana the huntress on earth. (Skelton’s ‘Diana in the leaves green, Luna who so bright doth sheen, Persephone in hell’) Callisto is one of her followers. (See Luca Penni’s – Diana Huntress – Louvre, Paris, and Jean Goujon’s sculpture (attributed) – Diana of Anet – Louvre, Paris.)
Book II.15:1-54, She loved Endymion.
Book II.19:1-32. The recipient of vows of chastity, and prayers for luck in hunting.
Book II.28A:47-62. The recipient of vows from women in time of illness.
Book IV.8:1-88. Her temple on the Aventine.
Dindymis, Dindymus
Book III.22:1-42. A mountain near Cyzicus on the southeast of the Sea of Marmara (Propontis) with a famous shrine of Cybele.
Dircaeus
Book III.17:1-42. The Dircean spring was at Thebes.
Dirce
Antiope was the daughter of Nycteus of Thebes, famed for her beauty and loved by Jupiter in satyr form. She bore twin sons Amphion and Zethus. Her father exposed them on Mt Cithaeron, but they were found and raised by a shepherd. Later they built the walls of Thebes, Amphion, the husband of Niobe, using the magical music of his lyre (See Ovid’s Metamorphoses VI 176, XV 427). Antiope fled her father but was imprisoned by Lycus and his wife Dirce who tormented her. Her sons avenged her by killing Dirce.
Book III.15:1-46. Her jealousy of Antiope.
Dis
A name for Pluto, king of the Underworld, brother of Neptune and Jupiter. His kingdom in the Underworld described. At Venus’s instigation Cupid struck him with an arrow to make him fall in love with Persephone.He raped and abducted her, re-entering Hades through the pool of Cyane. Jupiter decreeed that she could only spend half the year with him and must spend the other half with Ceres.
Book II.28A:47-62. Husband of Persephone.
Book III.22:1-42. His rape of Persephone is sited at various places, here Propertius suggests the Black Sea region.
Dodona
The town in Epirus in north western Greece, site of the Oracle of Jupiter-Zeus, whose responses were delivered by the rustling of the oak trees in the sacred grove. (After 1200BC the goddess Naia, worshipped there, who continued to be honoured as Dione, was joined by Zeus Naios. The sanctuary was destroyed in 391AD.)
Book II.21:1-20. Regarded as unreliable?
Doricus, Dorian
Book II.8A:1-40. Book IV.6:1-86. A synonym for Greek.
Doris
The daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, wife of Nereus the old man of the sea who is a shape-changer, and mother of the fifty Nereids, the attendants on Thetis. The Nereids are mermaids.
Book I.17:1-28. The Nereids are mentioned as her daughters.
Dorozantes
Book IV.5:1-78. A fictitious or otherwise unknown people.
Dorus, Dorian
Greek.
Book III.9:1-60. Philetas, the Dorian poet.
Dryades
Book I:20:1-52. The wood nymphs.
Dulichius, Dulichia
An island off the west coast of Greece, identified with Ithaca, as Ulysses homeland. Athene was his guardian goddess and she was worshipped at the altars there.
Book II.2:1-16. Athene-Minerva worshipped.
Book II.14:1-32. Book II.21:1-20. Ithaca.
Book III.5:1-48. Home of the beggar Irus.
Edonis, Thrace
The country bordering the Black Sea, Propontis and the northeastern Aegean. The cults of Bacchus and Orpheus were followed there.
Book I.3:1-46. Maenads.
Electra
The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, sister of Iphigenia and Orestes. She aided her brother Orestes on his return, when he avenged Agamemnon’s death. (See Aeschylus, the Oresteia)
Book II.14:1-32. Her joy at Orestes return,
Eleus, Elis
A city and country in the western Peloponnese.
Site of the quinquennial games at Olympia.
Book I.8A:27-46. Famous for its horses. See Hippodamia.
Book III.2:1-26. The shrine of Jupiter with its famous statue, by Phidias, at Olympia one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, still subject to time.
Book III.9:1-60. The palms awarded at the Olympic Games at Olympia in Elis.
Elysius, Elysian
Book IV.7:1-96. A region of the underworld for spirits in bliss, rewarding virtue in life.
Enceladus
One of the Giants who fought with the Gods.
Book II.1:1-78. The fight is mentioned.
Endymion
Diana, as the moon goddess, loved Endymion the King of Elis (or a Carian shepherd) while he slept on Mount Latmos. She made him sleep eternally so that she could gaze at him.
Book II.15:1-54. Propertius suggests their intimacy.
Enipeus, Enipus (River and God)
The God of the River Enipus in Thessaly. Neptune disguised himself as the river-god and raped Tyro in a dark wave of the river at its confluence with the Alpheius.
Book I.13:1-36. The disguise mentioned.
Book III.19:1-28. Tyro desired him.
Ennius
Quintus Ennius (239-169BC), the ‘father of Roman poetry’ .He wrote an epic on Roman history, Annals, of which part survives.
Book III.3:1-52. Propertius imagines himself writing epic.
Book IV.1:1-70. An epic poet.
Eous
From the Eastern countries. Eastern. The Dawn.
Book I.15:1-42. Eastern.
Book I.16:1-48. The Dawn.
Book II.3:1-54. The East.
Book II.18A:5-22. Dawn from the East.
Book III.13:1-66. The Eastern custom of suttee.
Book III.24:1-20. Rosy faced.
Book IV.6:1-86. Parthia, in the East.
Ephyreus, Corinth
Book II.6:1-42. Ephyra was an ancient name for Corinth.
Epicurus
The Greek Philosopher (341-271BC) and founder of the Epicurean School.
Book III.21:1-34. A source of knowledge.
Epidaurius, Asclepius
Asclepius (Aesculapius) was the son of Coronis and Apollo. He was saved by Apollo from his mother’s body and given to Chiron the Centaur to rear. He is represented in the sky by the constellation Ophiucus near Scorpius, depicting a man entwined in the coils of a serpent, consisting of the split constellation, Serpens Cauda and Serpens Caput, which contains Barnard’s star, having the greatest proper motion of any star and being the second nearest to the sun.
He saved Rome from the plague, and became a resident god. His cult centre was Epidaurus where there was a statue of the god with a golden beard. Cicero mentions that Dionysius the Elder, Tyrant of Syracuse wrenched off the gold. (‘On the Nature of the Gods, Bk III 82) Epidaurus was a city in Argolis, sacred to Aesculapius. The pre-Greek god Maleas was later equated with Apollo, and he and his son Aesculapius were worshipped there. There were games in honour of the god every four years, and from 395BC a drama festival. The impressive ancient theatre has been restored and plays are performed there. From the end of the 5th c.BC the cult of Asklepios spread widely through the ancient world reachingAthens in 420BC and Rome (as Aesculapius) in 293BC.
Book II.1:1-78. He restored Androgeon to life.
Erectheus
Of Erechtheus an early king of Athens, Athenian.
Book II.34:1-94. A reference to Aeschylus’s works.
Erichthonius
A son of Vulcan (Hephaestus), born without a mother (or born from the Earth after Hephaestus the victim of a deception had been repulsed by Athene). Legendary king of Athens and a skilled charioteer. He is represented by the constellation Auriga the charioteer, containing the star Capella. (Alternatively the constellation represents the she-goat Amaltheia that suckled the infant Jupiter, and the stars ζ (zeta) and η (eta) Aurigae are her Kids. It is a constellation visible in the winter months.)
Book II.6:1-42. =Athenian.
Eridanus
Book I.12:1-20. The River Po in Northern Italy its mouth near Venice.
Erinna
Book II.3:1-54. A poetess of Lesbos, contemporary with Sappho.
Erinys, The Furies, The Eumenides
A Fury. The Furies, The Three Sisters, were Alecto, Tisiphone and Megaera, the daughters of Night and Uranus. They were the personified pangs of cruel conscience that pursued the guilty. (See Aeschylus – The Eumenides). Their abode is in Hades by the Styx. They were called, ironically, the Eumenides, or Kindly Ones.
Book II.20:1-36. Conscience.
Book III.5:1-48.They pursued Alcmaeon.
Eriphyla, Eriphyle
She was bribed by Polynices with the gift of the famous necklace of Aphrodite given to her ancestress Harmonia, Cadmus’s wife. She induced her husband, the seer, Amphiaraus to join the Seven against Thebes leading to his death. He agreed though he foresaw that he would not return. Their son Alcmaeon killed her in retribution.
Book II.16:1-56. The danger of gifts.
Book III.13:1-66. Her greed.
Erycinus, Eryx
There was a famous shrine of Venus-Aphrodite, at Eryx on the western extremity of Sicily, for which Daedalus made the golden honeycomb.
Book III.13:1-66. The nautilus shell is described as Venus’s conch.
Erythea
Book IV.9:1-74. An Island in the bay of Gades ruled by Geryon.
Erythra
A mythical King of the East.
Book II.13:1-16. A Persian archer.
Esquiliae, The Esquiline
Book III.23:1-24. Book IV.8:1-88. Propertius lives on the Esquiline Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome.
Etruscus, Etruscan, Etruscans, Etrurians
A country in Central Italy. Its people are the Etrurians or Etruscans. Hence Tuscany in modern Italy. The Tyrrhenians migrated into Italy from Lydia (Tyrrha on the River Cayster) to form the rootstock of the Etrurians (Etruscans).
Book I.21:1-10. Perusia (modern Perugia) was in Etruria, where Octavian (later Augustus Caesar) defeated Lucius Antonius in the Civil Wars in 41BC with much bloodshed.
Book I.22:1-10. Perusia again.
Book II.1:1-78. A further reference to civil bloodshed. Propertius makes clear his anti-war stance.
Book III.9:1-60. Maecenas is described as of Etruscan descent.
Euboicus, Euboea
The large island close to eastern Greece separated from it by the Euboean Gulf. It contains Eretria and Aegae. Anthedon is on the mainland across the Gulf from Euboea.
Book II.26A:21-58. Book IV.1A:71-150. The Greek ships were landlocked at Aulis opposite waiting for a favourable wind for Troy.
Eumenides
A Fury. The Furies, The Three Sisters, were Alecto, Tisiphone and Megaera, the daughters of Night and Uranus. They were the personified pangs of cruel conscience that pursued the guilty. (See Aeschylus – The Eumenides). Their abode is in Hades by the Styx.
Book IV.11:1-102. The Furies.
Euphrates
One of the great rivers of Mesopotamia or modern Iraq.
Book II.10:1-26. Book IV.6:1-86. Mesopotamia, scene of Crassus’s defeat.
Book II.23:1-24. Girls from Iraq, dancers and prostitutes.
Book III.4:1-22. On campaign the soldiers will have the country and by double entendre the river’s waters flow to their tune (as they relieve themselves in it!)
Book III.11:1-72. Its waters diverted to pass through Babylon.
Europa, Europe
The European Continent.
Book II.3:1-54. Represented by the Greeks at Troy.
Europe, Europa
Daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, abducted by Jupiter disguised as a white bull. (See Paolo Veronese’s painting – The Rape of Europa – Palazzo Ducale, Venice). Minos was her son.
Book II.28A:47-62. A beauty.
Eurotas
The river of Sparta, in Laconica.
Book III.14:1-34. Helen exercised there.
Eurus
The East Wind. Auster is the South Wind, Zephyrus the West Wind, and Boreas is the North Wind.
Book II.26A:21-58. Book III.5:1-48. Book III.15:1-46. A stormwind.
Eurymedon
A Giant.
Book III.9:1-60. A reference to their war with the Gods.
Eurypylus
Book IV.5:1-78. King of Cos.
Eurytion
He was killed at the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs, at the marriage of Pirithous and Hippodamia.
Book II.33A:23-44. A victim of drunkenness.
Evadne
The wife of Capaneus, one of the Seven against Thebes. She threw herself onto her husband’s funeral pyre rather than live on after his death.
Book I.15:1-42. Book III.13:1-66. A type of loyalty.
Evander
An exiled Greek king of Arcadia who settled on the site of ancient Rome.
Book IV.1:1-70. His cattle.
Evenus
A son of Mars.
Marpessa was the daughter of Evenus, the son of Mars, by his wife Alcippe. Her father wished her to remain virgin, and her suitors were forced to compete in a chariot race with him, the losers forfeiting their lives. Apollo vowed to win her and end the custom, but Idas borrowing his father Neptune’s chariot pre-empted him. Idas snatched her: Evenus gave chase, but killed his horses and drowned himself in the Lycormas, then renamed the Evenus, in disgust at failing to overtake Idas. Apollo and Idas fought over Marpessa, but Jupiter parted them and she chose Idas fearing that Apollo would be faithless to her.
Book I.2:1-32. He is mentioned.
Fabius (Q. Maximus)
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosos, Cunctator (‘The Delayer’) (?275-203BC). He was appointed Dictator of Rome after Hannibal’s victory at Lake Trasimene in 217BC. He was nicknamed Cunctator for his tactics in delaying open battle with the Carthaginians. When the Roman army was destroyed at Cannae in 216BC pursuing open warfare his tactics were vindicated.
Book III.3:1-52. An ironic subject for epic.
Fabius, Fabii, see Lupercus
Falernus
A district in Campania producing a strong, highly-prized wine, Falernian.
Book II.33A:23-44. Cynthia drinking.
Book IV.6:1-86. A prized wine.
Fama
Book II.34:1-94. Fame personified. (But fama also means public opinion, rumour and tradition, a little gentle irony here?)
Book III.1:1-38. Propertius already famous?
Fates
The Fates, The Three Goddesses, The Parcae, The Three Sisters.
The three Fates were born of Erebus and Night. Clothed in white, they spin, measure out, and sever the thread of each human life. Clotho spins the thread. Lachesis measures it. Atropos wields the shears.
Book II.13A:1-58. Book II.28:1-46. The Fates determine life span.
Book IV.7:1-96. Cynthia swears an oath by them.
Feretrius
Book IV.10:1-48. A title of Jupiter. His Feretrian Temple on the Capitoline, where the spoils, the spolia opima, of leaders killed in single combat by Roman generals were dedicated and displayed.
Fidenae
A town near Rome in Latium.
Book IV.1:1-70. Once regarded as distant from Alba Longa.
Forum
The Roman Forum. The main thoroughfare.
Book II.24:1-16. Book IV.1A:71-150. The marketplace.
Book III.9:1-60. Maecenas as a magistrate has the right to set up a court of justice there.
Book III.11:1-72. Curtius’s sacrifice there.
Book IV.2:1-64. The Vicus Tuscus lead to it.
Book IV.4:1-94. The centre of early Rome.
Book IV.8:1-88. A licentious area.
Book IV.9:1-74. Its origins.
Gabii
A town not far from Rome in Latium.
Book IV.1:1-70. Overshadowed later by Rome.
Galaesus
A river near Tarentum.Tarentum was a city on the ‘heel’ of Italy founded by Lacedaemonians, the modern Taranto, and a commercial port. The Spartan colony of Taras, it was founded in 708BC and became the greatest city of Magna Graecia, famous for its purple murex dyes, wool etc. It was a centre of Pythagorean philosophy. It became subject to Rome in 272BC, and surrendered to Hannibal in 209BC for which it was severely punished, on being retaken.
Book II.34:1-94. Probably a reference to Virgil’s Georgics IV 125.
Galatea
A sea nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris. ( See the fresco ‘Galatea’ by Raphael, Rome, Farnesina). She told her story to Scylla. Loving Acis, she was pursued by Polyphemus. When Acis was crushed by the rock, thrown at him by Polyphemus, she changed Acis into his ancestral form of a river.
See Ovid’s Metamorphoses XIII 738 onwards.
Book I.8:1-26. Sicilian coasts are intended, since her story is set on Sicily.
Book III.2:1-26. Listened to the Song of Polyphemus.
Galla
Aelia Galla, the wife of Postumus. Possibly the sister of Aelius Gallus, successor to Cornelius Gallus as prefect of Egypt.
Book III.12:1-38. Her faithfulness.
Galli
The Gauls of the region of modern France.
Book II.31:1-16. Book III.13:1-66. Under Brennus they sacked Apollo’s oracle at Delphi in 278BC. An earthquake repulsed them.
Gallicus
Phrygian from Gallus a river of Phrygia in Asia Minor.
Book II.13A:1-58. The region (Dardania) containing Troy.
Gallus (1)
A friend of Propertius.
Book I.5:1-32. He is warned off.
Book I.10:1-30. Advice to him.
Book I.13:1-36. Gallus in love.
Book I:20:1-52. Has a male lover, a handsome boy.
Gallus (2)
Book I.21:1-10. A soldier, perhaps a kinsman of Propertius.
Gallus (3)
The son of Arria, possibly a friend or kinsman of Propertius.
Book IV.1A:71-150. He died in war.
Gallus (C. Cornelius)
Gaius Cornelius Gallus (c69-26BC). The first notable Roman elegiac poet who wrote of his mistress Lycoris. He was First Prefect of Egypt, but lost Augustus’s favour perhaps through ambition and was obliged to commit suicide.
Book II.34:1-94. Recently dead, dating Book II to around 26BC.
Geryones, Geryon
Book III.22:1-42. The monster with three bodies, killed by Hercules. In the Tenth Labour, Hercules brought back Geryon’s famous herd of cattle after shooting three arrows through the three bodies. Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirhoë, and King of Tartessus in Spain.
Geta, Getae
Book IV.3:1-72. The Getae. A Scythian tribe.
Book IV.5:1-78. Scythian slaves appeared in a play by Menander.
Gigantes
The sons of Heaven and Earth, Uranus and Ge. They rebelled against Jupiter but were defeated and buried beneath mountains and volcanos.
Book III.5:1-48. Tormented underground.
Giganteus
The ora Gigantea is the volcanic Phlegrean plain, north of Naples where the gods fought the giants.
Book I:20:1-52. A country pleasure area.
Glaucus
A fisherman of Anthedon in Boeotia. He was transformed into a sea god by the chance eating of a magic herb, and told the story of his transformation to Scylla who rejected him. He asked Circe for help and she in turn fell in love with him. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book XII 906.
Book II.26:1-20. A sea-god.
Gnosius, Cnossos
The royal city of Crete, ruled by Minos, hence the Minoan period.
Book I.3:1-46. Ariadne comes from there.
Book II.12:1-24. Cretan.
Gorgon
Medusa was the best known of the Three Gorgons, the daughters of Phorcys. A winged monster with snake locks, glaring eyes and brazen claws whose gaze turns men to stone. Her sisters were Stheino and Euryale. Perseus was helped by Athene-Minerva and Hermes-Mercury to overcome Medusa. He was not to look at her head directly but only in a brightly-polished shield. He cut off her head with an adamantine sickle, at which Pegasus the winged horse and the warrior Chrysaor sprang from her body. He used her head to petrify Atlas. Minerva had placed snakes on her head because Medusa was violated, by Neptune, in Minerva’s temple.
Book II.2:1-16. Book IV.9:1-74. Minerva wears a breastplate depicting her.
Book II.25:1-48. Turned men to stone with her gaze.
Book III.22:1-42. Her head severed by Perseus. The Gorgons lived in the lands of the Hyperboreans to the far north-west.
Gorgoneus, Pegasus, Hippocrene
The fountain that was created by a blow from Pegasus’s hoof. He was a child sprung from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, daughters of Phorcys the wise old man of the sea. She is represented in the sky by part of the constellation Perseus, who holds her decapitated head. Perseus turned Atlas and others to stone with her severed head. Neptune lay with her in the form of a bird, and she produced Pegasus. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses IV 743 and VI 119.
Book III.3:1-52. The Hippocrene fountain on Helicon.
Graecia, Graecus, Graius, Greece
The country in southern Europe, bordering on the Ionian (West of Greece), Cretan (South of Greece) and Aegean Seas.
Book II.6:1-42. Corinth, a Greek city.
Book II.9:1-52. Greece.
Book II.32:1-62. Greek women.
Book II.34:1-94. Greek authors.
Book III.1:1-38. Greek metres/rhythms.
Book III.7:1-72. The Greek fleet.
Book III.8:1-34. The Greeks at Troy.
Book III.22:1-42. Book IV.1A:71-150. The fleet wrecked on Caphareus.
Book IV.8:1-88. Greek wine.
Gygaeus, Gyges
A lake near Sardis named after Gyges king of Lydia. For the lake see Herodotus Book I Ch 93. For Gyges see Book I Ch 8 onwards.
Book III.11:1-72. Omphale bathed there.
Hadria
The Adriatic Sea, between Italy and Western Greece.
Book I.6:1-36. It is mentioned.
Hadriacus. The Adriatic
The Adriatric Sea between Italy and northern Greece.
Book III.21:1-34. On the way to Athens from Rome.
Haedus, The Kids
A binary star (zeta Aurigae) in the constellation Auriga, the Charioteer (of which the brightest star is Capella).
Book II.26A:21-58. A harbinger of good weather if seen clearly.
Haemon
The son of Creon, king of Thebes (brother to Jocasta and successor to Oedipus) who was to have married Antigone, but committed suicide when she was entombed. See Sophocles’s Antigone.
Book II.8A:1-40. His death for love is mentioned.
Haemonius, Haemonia
The ancient name for Thessaly.
Book I.13:1-36. The River Enipeus is located there.
Book I.15:1-42. Jason came from there.
Book II.1:1-78. Achilles’s spear, which belonged to his father Peleus, came from there.
Book II.8A:1-40. Achilles’s Thessalian horses.
Book II.10:1-26. A Thessalian horse the metaphor for epic poetry.
Hamadryades
Nymphs of the woods.
Book I:20:1-52. They are mentioned.
Book II.32:1-62. Saw Paris and Oenone.
Book II.34:1-94. Wanton or loose. (facilis)
Hannibal
The Carthaginian general, son of Hamilcar, who campaigned in Italy during the Second Punic War (218-201BC). He crossed the Alps turning the Roman flank and defeated the Roman armies at Lake Trasimene and Cannae. Publius Cornelius Scipio crossed to Africa in 204BC and Hannibal was recalled to Carthage, and defeated at Zama in 201BC. Hannibal fled to Harumetum. A complex series of events led to his suicide in 183BC.
Book III.3:1-52. Subject of epic.
Book III.11:1-72. His spoils.
Hebe
The daughter of Iuno, born without a father. She married Hercules after his deification. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book IX 394.
Book I.13:1-36. She is mentioned.
Hector, Hectoreus
The Trojan hero, son of Priam and Hecuba. His wife was Andromache. He torched the Greek ships, and terrified the Greeks in battle, bringing the gods with him to the battlefield. He was killed by Achilles.
Book II.8A:1-40. Book III.1:1-38. His body dragged behind Achilles’s chariot.
Book II.22:1-42. His fierceness unaffected by lovemaking.
Book III.8:1-34. The main champion of the Trojans.
Book IV.6:1-86. Trojans. People of Hector.
Helena, Helen
The daughter of Leda and Jupiter (Tyndareus was her putative father), sister of Clytemnaestra, and the Dioscuri. The wife of Menelaüs. She was taken, by Paris, to Troy, instigating the Trojan War.
Book II.1:1-78. Noted for her many lovers and suitors.
Book II.3:1-54. A standard for feminine beauty.
Book II.15:1-54. Desired by Paris.
Book II.32:1-62. Went with a foreign stranger.
Book II.34:1-94. A loose woman. Lesbia compared with her.
Book III.8:1-34. The lover of Paris.
Book III.14:1-34. Helen exercised bare-breasted with her brothers.
Helenus
A son of Priam of Troy. He fought in the War, and was gifted with powers of prophecy.
Book III.1:1-38. A famous name.
Helicon
The mountain in Boeotia near the Gulf of Corinth where the Muses lived. The sacred springs of Helicon were Aganippe and Hippocrene, both giving poetic inspiration. The Muses’ other favourite haunt was Mount Parnassus in Phocis with its Castalian Spring. They also guarded the oracle at Delphi. The fountain of Hippocrene sprang from under the hoof of Pegasus, the winged horse. Helicon is the domain of poetic genius.
Book II.10:1-26. The place of poetic inspiration.
Book III.3:1-52. Propertius dreams he is there.
Book III.5:1-48. Symbol of the poetic life.
Helle
The daughter of Athamas and Nephele, sister of Phrixus. Escaping from Ino on the golden ram, she fell into the sea and was drowned, giving her name to the Hellespont, the gateway to the Bosphorus and Black Sea from the Adriatic.
Book II.26:1-20. Drowned, giving her name to the waters.
Book III.22:1-42. Her cities of the region.
Hercules
The Hero, son of Jupiter. He was set in the sky as the constellation Hercules between Lyra and Corona Borealis.
The son of Jupiter and Alcmena, the wife of Amphitryon. Called Alcides from Amphitryon’s father Alceus. Called also Amphitryoniades. Called also Tyrinthius from Tiryns his home city in the Argolis.
Book I.11:1-30. Book III.18:1-34. The causeway at Baiae attributed to him. It was a narrow strip of land, the via Herculea, dividing the Lucrine Lake from the sea. He was said to have built it when he carried of Geryon’s cattle.
Book I.13:1-36. He married Hebe after his deification, she the daughter of Iuno, born without a father. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book IX 394.
Book I:20:1-52.He loved Hylas.
Book II.23:1-24. Jupiter predicted at his birth that a scion of Perseus would be born, greater than all other descendants. Juno delayed Hercules birth and hastened that of Eurystheus, grandson of Perseus, making Hercules subservient to him. Hercules was set twelve labours by Eurystheus at Juno’s instigation:
1. The killing of the Nemean lion.
2. The destruction of the Lernean Hydra. He used the poison from the Hydra for his arrows.
3. The capture of the stag with golden antlers.
4. The capture of the Erymanthian Boar.
5. The cleansing of the stables of Augeas king of Elis.
6. The killing of the birds of the Stymphalian Lake in Arcadia.
7. The capture of the Cretan wild bull.
8. The capture of the mares of Diomede of Thrace, that ate human flesh.
9. The taking of the girdle of Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons.
10. The killing of Geryon and the capture of his oxen.
11. The securing of the apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. He held up the sky for Atlas in order to deceive him and obtain them.
12. The bringing of the dog Cerberus from Hades to the upper world.
Book II.24A:17-52. His Twelve Labours are referred to.
Book II.32:1-62. Tibur described as Herculean.
Book III.1:1-38 He captured Troy and rescued Hesione, with the help of Telamon, and gave her to Telamon in marriage. Philoctetes received his bow and arrows after his death, destined to be needed at Troy.
Book III.11:1-72. His love for Omphale unmanned him.
Book III.22:1-42. He fought with Antaeus and overcame him.
Book IV.7:1-96. The air of Tibur supposedly preserved ivory, Hercules being specially worshiped there.
Book IV.9:1-74. The Palatine Hill. Hercules and the Sacred Grove. Note that there was a Sabine cult of Hercules Sancus, with a possible realtionship to the verb sancio, to make sacred.
Book IV.10:1-48. An ancestor of Acron.
Book IV.11:1-102. Claimed as an ancestor by Perses.
Hermione
The daughter of Helen and Menelaus. Orestes and Neoptolemus (=Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles) were rivals for her love.
Book I.4:1-28. Famed for her beauty.
Hesperides
The three nymphs who tended the garden with the golden apples on a western island beyond Mount Atlas. Their names were Hespere, Aegle, and Erytheis, the daughters of Night, or of Atlas and Hesperis, the daughter of Hesperus. In the Eleventh Labour, Hercules obtains the golden apples by deceiving Atlas.
Book II.24A:17-52. A demanding task.
Book III.22:1-42. Their dances in the far west.
Hesperius, Hesper, Hesperus
The evening star (the planet Venus). It sets after the sun and remains close to the sun being an inner planet. Hence the meaning of Western or Italian.
Book II.3:1-54. Western.
Hiberus, Spain
The Roman province in south-western Europe, bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
Book II.3:1-54. Vermilion dye came from there.
Hilaira
Phoebe, a priestess of Athene-Minerva, and Hilaira a priestess of Diana-Artemis, daughters of Leucippus, the Messenian co-king were abducted and raped by Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces) known as the Dioscuri, the sons of Jupiter by Leda. The two sisters had been betrothed to Lynceus and Idas the sons of Aphareus king in Messene. Idas later married Marpessa, the daughter of Evenus by Alcippe, after winning her in a chariot race using a winged chariot lent by his true father Neptune-Poseidon.
Book I.2:1-32. She is mentioned as a woman who relied on her natural charms.
Hippodamia,Hippodameia
The daughter of Oenomaus, the Arcadian ruler of Elis and Pisa. He prevented her marriage by challenging suitors to a chariot race, on a course from Pisa near the river Alpheus at Olympia to the altar of Neptune on the Isthmus of Corinth. The losers forfeited their life. Pelops raced for her. In love with him, she bribed Myrtilus, Oenomaus’s charioteer to remove the lymch-pins from the axles, and the king was killed in the race. Myrtilus was later killed by Pelops but was set in the heavens by Mercury as the constellation of the Charioteer, Auriga. (The constellation is equally linked with Erichthonius, legendary king of Athens). Auriga contains the star Capella the sixth brightest in the sky.
Book I.2:1-32. She is mentioned as a woman who relied on her natural beauty only.
Book I.8A:27-46. Her dowry was the Peloponnese, conquered by Pelops her husband.
Hippolyte
Queen of the Amazons, warrior maidens living near the Rivers Tanaïs and Thermodon in Scythia, based on Greek knowledge of the Scythian princesses of the Sarmatian people of the Black Sea region. Burials of warrior princesses have been excavated from the tumuli of the area aroundRostov, and north west of the Sea of Azov. See Herodotus IV 110-117, for the Amazons and Scythians. In the Ninth Labour, Hercules obtained the golden girdle of Hippolyte.
Book IV.3:1-72. Able to go to war.
Hippolytus
The son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyte. He was admired by Phaedra, his step-mother, and was killed at Troezen, after meeting ‘a bull from the sea’. He was brought to life again by Aesculapius, and hidden by Diana (Cynthia, the moon-goddess) who set him down in the sacred grove at Arician Nemi, where he became Virbius, the consort of the goddess (as Adonis was of Venus, and Attis of Cybele), and the King of the Wood (Rex Nemorensis). All this is retold and developed in Frazer’s monumental work on magic and religion, ‘The Golden Bough’ (see Chapter I et seq.). (See also Euripides’s play ‘Hippolytos’, and Racine’s ‘Phaedra’.)
Book II.1:1-78. Phaedra’s stepson.
Book IV.5:1-78. Resisted Phaedra’s advances.
Homerus, Homer
The possibly mythical Greek epic poet who wrote the Iliad and Odyssey.
Book I.7:1-26. The greatest of poets.
Book I.9:1-34. Not too useful when in love.
Book II.1:1-78. He sang of Troy.
Book II.34:1-94. Is supposed to have loved Penelope, as recorded by Hermesianax.
Book III.1:1-38. His Iliad.
Horatius, The Horatii
Two sets of three brothers the Alban Curiatii and the Roman Horatii fought each other in the wars between Rome and Alba Longa. Two Horatii were killed, the third killed all the three Curatii.
Book III.3:1-52. A subject for epic.
Book III.11:1-72. Horatius, who kept the bridge against Lars Porsena’s army. (see Macaulay’s poem from Lays of Ancient Rome)
Horos
An unknown astrologer. Perhaps fictitious.
Book IV.1A:71-150. The son of Orops.
Hylaei
A region on the northern borders of Scythia.
Book I.8:1-26. Distant, beyond Scythia.
Hylaeus
A Centaur who attacked and tried to rape Atalanta at the Calydonian Boar Hunt. He wounded her lover Milanion (or Meleager) as he protected her, and was shot down by her. (Many variants of this myth exist).
Book I.1:1-38. He is mentioned.
Hylas
The beautiful son of Theodamas, loved by Hercules, who sailed with the hero on the Argos. Propertius tells how Hylas was pursued by Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, escaped them, but was taken by the Nymphs.
Book I:20:1-52. The story of Hylas.
Hymenaeus, Hymen
Book IV.4:1-94. The god of marriage. His blessing was asked at the marriage-feast.
Hypanis
A river in southern Russia. The Kuban or Bug.
Book I.12:1-20. Mentioned.
Hypermestre
A daughter of Danaus. She refused to obey her father and would not murder her husband on his wedding night. Her forty-nine sisters obeyed.
Book IV.7:1-96. The virtuous exception.
Hypsipyle
The daughter of Thoas, king of Lemnos.
Thoas was king there when the Lemnian women murdered their menfolk because of their adultery with Thracian girls. His life was spared because his daughter Hypsipyle set him adrift in an oarless boat. As Queen of Lemnos she welcomed Jason and the Argonauts. He deserted her to continue the quest for the Golden Fleece.
Book I.15:1-42. She mourned for him.
Hyrcanus, Hyrcania, Caspian Sea
The region around the Caspian Sea.
Book II.30:1-40. Cynthia is headed there.
Iacchus, see Bacchus
Book II.3:1-54. A name for Bacchus from the ecstatic shouts of his followers the Maenads.
Iasis
Atalanta, the daughter of Iasus of Calydon. He exposed her on the Parthenian hill near Calydon, having wished for a male heir. She was suckled by a bear sent by Diana-Artemis. She was later won by Milanion (According to a variant myth she was Schoeneus’s daughter and won by Hippomenes, see Ovid’s Metamorphoses X 560). She later defiled the sanctuary of Zeus, with Melanion, by lying with him in an oracular cave, and both were changed into lions.
Book I.1:1-38. She is mentioned.
Iason, Jason
The son of Aeson, and leader of the Argonauts: hero of the adventure of the Golden Fleece. The fleece is represented in the sky by the constellation and zodiacal sign of Aries, the Ram. In ancient times it contained the point of the vernal equinox (The First Point of Aries) that has since moved by precession into Pisces. He reached Colchis and the court of King Aeetes. He accepted Medea’s help and promised her marriage. He completed the tasks set and won the Golden Fleece, and married Medea, before returning to Iolchos.He asked Medea to lengthen his father’s life.He acquired the throne of Corinth, and married a new bride Glauce (Creusa). Medea in revenge for his disloyalty to her sent Glauce a wedding gift of a golden crown and white robe, which burst into flames when she put them on, and consumed her and the palace. Medea then killed her own sons by Jason, and fled his wrath.
Book II.24A:17-52. He abandons Medea.
Book II.34:1-94. The hero of Apollonius Rhodius’s Argonautica translated by Varro.
Iasonius
Icariotis
Penelope, the daughter of Icarius brother of Tyndareus, and the Naiad Periboea.
Book III.13:1-66. Disdainful of the suitors’ gifts.
Icarius
The daughter of Icarius the Athenian, Erigone was loved by Bacchus. Her country was Panchaia. She was set in the sky as the constellation Virgo, after her suicide, by hanging, in despair at finding her father Icarius’s body. He had learned the art of winemaking and gave the wine to some peasants who thinking they were poisoned murdered him. Icarius is identified with the constellation Boötes.
Book II.33A:23-44. The constellation.
Idaeus, Ida, Idalius, Mount Ida
One Mount Ida is near Troy. There is a second Mount Ida on Crete.
Book II.2:1-16. Paris and the Goddesses on the Trojan Ida.
Book II.13A:1-58. Adonis killed on the Cretan Ida. He was identified with Tammuz of the Lebanon, and was a consort of the Great Goddess, Ishtar= Venus-Aphrodite.
Book II.32:1-62. Oenone loved Paris on the Trojan Ida.
Book III.1:1-38. Source of the river Simois at Troy.
Book III.17:1-42. Cybele worshipped on Trojan Ida.
Idas
A son of Neptune, putative son of Aphareus king of Messene, by Aphareus’s half-sister Arene. Lynceus was his brother. He participated with Lynceus in the Calydonian boar-hunt, and they both sailed with the Argo.
Marpessa was the daughter of Evenus, the son of Mars, by his wife Alcippe. Her father wished her to remain virgin, and her suitors were forced to compete in a chariot race with him, the losers forfeiting their lives. Apollo vowed to win her and end the custom, but Idas borrowing his father Neptune’s chariot pre-empted him. Idas snatched her: Evenus gave chase, but killed his horses and drowned himself in the Lycormas then renamed the Evenus in disgust at failing to overtake Idas. Apollo and Idas fought over Marpessa, but Jupiter parted them and she chose Idas fearing that Apollo would be faithless to her.
Book I.2:1-32. He is mentioned.
Iliacus, Ilion, Ilius
A name for Troy.
Book II.13A:1-58. Book III.1:1-38. Book III.13:1-66. Troy.
Book IV.4:1-94. The embers of fallen Troy.
Ilias. The Iliad
Homer’s epic verse story of the Trojan War, specifically the Anger of Achilles and its aftermath.
Book II.1:1-78. Mentioned for its length and greatness.
Book II.34:1-94. The standard of highest poetic achievement.
Illyria, Illyricus
The North-Eastern seaboard of the Adriatic, north of Epirus.
Book I.8:1-26. Cold climate.
Book II.16:1-56. A Roman province. A praetor arrives from there.
Inachis, see Io
Io, daughter of Inachus.
Book II.33:1-22. Worshipped as Isis.
Inachius, Inachus
Book I.13:1-36. Inachus was King of Argos, hence Argive=Greek.
Book II.13:1-16. Greek Linus.
India, Indicus
The Indian sub-continent, part of Asia.
Book I.8A:27-46. Pearls were imported from there.
Book II.9:1-52. A military outposting.
Book II.10:1-26. Subject to Rome.
Book II.22:1-42. A source of gemstones.
Book III.4:1-22. Augustus planning a campaign there.
Book III.13:1-66. Herodotus and Pliny say that ants brought gold dust from the Indian mines in winter, which was gathered by the Indians in summer when the ants sheltered from the heat. See Herodotus Book III Chs. 102-105.
Book III.17:1-42. Indian warriors routed by the Bacchic dancers.
Ino
The daughter of Cadmus, wife of Athamas, and sister of Semele and Agave. She fosters the infant Bacchus. She participated in the killing of Pentheus. She incurred the hatred of Juno. Maddened by Tisiphone, and the death of her son Learchus, at the hand of his father, she leapt into the sea, and was changed to the sea-goddess Leucothoë by Neptune, at Venus’s request.
Book II.28:1-46. Became a goddess. Changes of fortune.
Io
The daughter of Inachus a river-god of Argolis, chased and raped by Jupiter, she was changed to a heifer by Jupiter and conceded as a gift to Juno. She was guarded by hundred-eyed Argus. After Mercury killed Argus, and driven by Juno’s fury, Io reached the Nile, and was returned to human form. With her son Epaphus she was worshipped in Egypt as a goddess. Io is therefore synonymous with Isis (or Hathor the cow-headed goddess with whom she was often confused), and Epaphus with Horus.
Book I.3:1-46. She is mentioned.
Book II.28:1-46. Changes of fortune.
Book II.30:1-40. Loved by Jupiter.
Book II.33:1-22. Worshipped as Isis.
Book III.22:1-42. Transformed by Juno.
Iolciacis, Iolcus
A seaport town in Thessaly from which the Argonauts sailed.
They return there with Medea and the Golden Fleece.
Book II.1:1-78. Medea in Iolcus.
Iole
Book IV.5:1-78. One of Cynthia’s (?) slaves.
Ionia, Ionius
Ionia was the Greek coastal region of Asia Minor, often extended to include Lydia and Caria, and the associated offshore islands in the Aegean.
The Ionian Sea (Ionius) is on the other western side of the Greek mainland.
Book I.6:1-36. Ionia noted for its soft richness.
Book II.26:1-20. The Ionian sea, subject to storms causing shipwreck.
Book III.11:1-72. Augustus-Octavian’s naval battleground. Propertius hints at homosexual proclivities again.
Book III.21:1-34. On the route to Athens.
Book IV.6:1-86. Off the site of Actium.
Iope
(1). The daughter of Iphiclus and wife of Theseus.
(2). The daughter of Aeolus, wife of Cepheus, and mother of Andromeda, more commonly called Cassiope.
Book II.28A:47-62. A beauty.
Iphiclus
Melampus the son of Amythaon, undertook to steal the cattle of Iphiclus for Neleus, so that Bias his brother or he himself could win Pero, Neleus’s daughter. He was captured and chained but escaped and succeeded in marrying her.
Book II.3:1-54. Iphiclus is mentioned.
Iphigenia
The daughter of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and Clytaemnestra. She is called Mycenis. She was sacrificed by her father at Aulis, to gain favourable winds for the passage to Troy but snatched away by Diana. (to Tauris)
Book III.7:1-72. Book IV.1A:71-150. Her sacrifice.
Irus
A beggar on Ithaca, in the palace of Ulysses who defeats him in a boxing match. See Homer’s Odyssey.
Book III.5:1-48. In the underworld.
Ischomache, Hippodamia
The daughter of Adrastus, and wife of Pirithoüs. Eurytus the Centaur attempted to carry her off at her wedding and precipitated the battle between Lapiths and Centaurs.
Book II.2:1-16. Her beauty. A daughter of the Lapithae.
Isis
Book IV.5:1-78. The Egyptian Goddess. See Io. Worshipped throughout the Empire, women remained celibate while performing her rites and vigils.
Ismara, Ismarius
Book II.13:1-16. Book III.12:1-38. The home of the Cicones in Thrace. Thracian.
Book II.33A:23-44. Ulysses gives Polyphemus neat wine from there.
Isthmos, The Isthmus
The Isthmus of Corinth between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Sea.
Book III.21:1-34. On the route to Athens.
Italia
Italy. The country, with capital at Rome, the centre of the Roman Empire in Propertius’s day.
Book I.22:1-10. The country and people.
Book III.7:1-72. Italian shores.
Italus, Italian
Book III.1:1-38. Italian mysteries. (Itala orgia)
Book III.22:1-42. Italian waters.
Ithacus, Ulysses, Odysseus
Odysseus, the hero from Ithaca. Also called Ulysses. The Greek hero, son of Laërtes. See Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. He fought at Troy, spent many years returning home, was noted for his cunning and resilience. His patron was Minerva-Athene, goddess of the mind and intellect. Penelope his wife is the type of faithfulness, waiting patiently for his return.
(See Francesco Primaticcio’s painting – Ulysses and Penelope – The Toledo Museum of Art)
Book I.15:1-42. He is mentioned. Calypso delayed him.
Book III.12:1-38. Of Ithaca.
Itys
The son of Tereus and Procne. He was murdered by his mother in revenge for Tereus’s rape of Philomela, and his flesh was served to his father at a banquet. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book VI 437.
Book III.10:1-32. His mother’s grief.
Iugurtha
King of Numidia, in North Africa, defeated and killed by Marius in 104BC.
Book III.5:1-48. In the underworld.
Book IV.6:1-86. Led in defeat through the streets of Rome.
Iuleus
Iulius, Julian
Of the Julian dynasty.
Book IV.6:1-86. Used of Augustus’s fleet
Iulus
The son of Aeneas, Ascanius, who built Alba Longa and was its first king.
Book IV.1:1-70. Trojan lineage.
Iuno, Juno
The daughter of Rhea and Saturn, wife of Jupiter, and the queen of the gods. A representation of the pre-Hellenic Great Goddess. (See the Metope of Temple E at Selinus – The Marriage of Hera and Zeus – Palermo, National Museum.)
Book II.2:1-16. The sister, and wife, of Jupiter.
Book II.5:1-30. The goddess of women’s arts, and domestic order.
Book II.28:1-46. Called Pelasgian. Moved by the deaths of young girls.
Book II.33:1-22. Book III.22:1-42. Changed Io into a heifer.
Book IV.1A:71-150. Presides over childbirth.
Book IV.8:1-88. Her temple at Lanuvium.
Book IV.9:1-74. She persecuted Hercules. See the entry for Hercules for further detail.
Iuppiter, Jupiter
The sky-god, son of Saturn and Rhea, born on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia and nurtured on Mount Ida in Crete. The oak is his sacred tree. His emblems of power are the sceptre and lightning-bolt. His wife and sister is Juno (Iuno). (See the sculpted bust (copy) by Brassides, the Jupiter of Otricoli, Vatican)
Book I.13:1-36. He raped Leda in the form of a swan.
Book II.1:1-78. He fought the Giants.
Book II.2:1-16. Responsible for a long list of rapes of desirable girls, and many resultant offspring. His adulteries resented by Juno.
Book II.3:1-54. Notorious adulterer.
Book II.7:1-20. Powerless to separate loyal lovers.
Book II.13:1-16. A synonym for Augustus. Propertius was probably in trouble with the authorities for the seditious nature of his verse.
Book II.16:1-56. Punishes faithless girls.
Book II.22:1-42. Fathered Hercules on Alcmene.
Book II.26A:21-58, Sends the lightning.
Book II.28:1-46. A God who protects lovely girls.
Book II.30:1-40. He raped Semele, Io, and flying as an eagle to Troy carried off Ganymede, the son of king Tros (a dig at Augustus, imputing homosexual practices to him?)
Book II.32:1-62. He raped Danae.
Book II.33:1-22. He loved Io.
Book II.34:1-94. A potential rival where lovely women are concerned.
Book II.34:1-94. He struck down Capaneus.
Book III.1:1-38. Father of the river-god Xanthus (Scamander).
Book III.2:1-26. His shrine at Elis.
Book III.3:1-52. The Capitol with its temple of Jupiter was saved by the cries of geese during the surprise attack by the Sabines.
Book III.4:1-22. The Roman Jupiter=Augustus. Propertius suggests Augustus might be unduly interested in the Persian trophies=catamites, an innuendo about Augustus’s sexual proclivities.
Book III.9:1-60. The god portrayed at his temple at Olympia by Phidias’s chryselephantine statue, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. God also of the thunderbolt.
Book III.11:1-72. The gods behaviour reprehensible, by analogy Augustus’s also.
Book III.11:1-72. Augustus, challenged by Cleopatra.
Book III.15:1-46. The god raped Antiope, taking the form of a satyr.
Book III.24:1-20. Not a god of commonsense.
Book IV.1:1-70. Book IV.4:1-94. His temple on the Tarpeian Hill, the Capitoline. He aided the founding of Rome as a rebirth of Troy.
Book IV.1A:71-150. Prophecies bought for gold. Jupiter the planet astrologically connected with good fortune (Fortuna Maior). Ammon, an Egyptian and Libyan god, worshipped in the form of a Ram-headed deity, was identified by the Romans and Greeks with Jupiter and Zeus.
Book IV.6:1-86. His supposed support for Augustus at Actium.
Book IV.9:1-74. Outraged by Cacus’s thieving.
Book IV.10:1-48. His temple as Feretrian Jupiter.
Ixion
King of the Lapithae, father of Pirithoüs, and of the Centaurs.
The father of Nessus and the other centaurs. He attempted to seduce Juno, but Jupiter created a false image of her, caught Ixion in the act with this simulacrum, and bound him to a fiery wheel that rolls through the sky (or turns in the Underworld).
Book II.1:1-78.His son is Pirithous.
Book IV.11:1-102. Tormented in Hades.
Ixionides, see Pirithous
Book II.1:1-78. Pirithous, son of Ixion.