E-Book Overview
This collection focuses on a woman's point of view in love poetry, and juxtaposes poems by women and poems about women to raise questions about how femininity is constructed. Although most medieval "woman's songs" are either anonymous or male-authored lyrics in a popular style, the term can usefully be expanded to cover poetry composed by women, and poetry that is aristocratic or learned rather than popular. Poetry from ancient Greece and Rome that resonates with the medieval poems is also included here. Readers will find a range of voices, often echoing similar themes, as women rejoice or lament, praise or condemn, plead or curse, speak in jest or in earnest, to men and to each other, about love.
E-Book Content
An Anthology of Ancient and Medieval Woman’s Song
This page intentionally left blank
An Anthology of Ancient and Medieval Woman’s Song
Edited by Anne L. Klinck
ANTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL WOMAN’S SONG
© Anne L. Klinck, 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 1–4039–6309–6 hardback ISBN 1–4039–6310–X paperback Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data An anthology of ancient and medieval woman’s song / edited by Anne L. Klinck. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 1–4039–6309–6 (hc)—1–4039–6310–X (pbk.) 1. Poetry, Ancient. 2. Poetry, Medieval. 3. Lyric poetry. 4. Poetry, Ancient—History and criticism. 5. Poetry, Medieval—History and criticism. 6. Lyric poetry—History and criticism. 7. Women in literature. I. Klinck, Anne Lingard, 1943– PN6101.A49 2004 808.81⬘4083522—dc22 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: February 2004 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America.
2003065607
Contents
Preface Preparation of the Texts and Translations
Introduction 1 Ancient Greece The Archaic Period Alcman 26—A Partheneion or Maidens’ Song Sappho 1—Hymn to Aphrodite 16—“Some say an army of horse, some of foot” 31—“I think he’s equal to the gods” 47—“Eros has shattered my heart” 102—“Sweet mother, I cannot ply the loom” 105c—“Just as in the mountains the shepherd men trample a hyacinth” 111—“Raise high the roof-beam!” 130—“Once again limb-loosening Eros shakes me” 140—“He is dying, Cytherea, graceful Adonis. What shall we do?” The Classical Period Aristophanes Ecclesiazusae (“Women at the Assembly”) 952a–68b Euripides Medea 465–519 The Trojan Women 657–83 The Hellenistic and Roman Periods Theocritus Idyll 18 (Epithalamion for Helen) 9–58 Anonymous The Locrian Song
xiii xv
1 17 18 18 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 22 22 22 22 23 26 27 27 29
vi
contents
2 Ancient Rome Catullus Carmina 64.124–201—Lament of Ariadne Virgil Aeneid 4.305–30, 365–87—Two laments of Dido Sulpicia Carmina Tibulli 3.13–18—Six love poems Ovid Heroides 10.1–36, 59–74, 145–50—Lament of Ariadne Ovid? Heroides 15, (Epistula Sapphus) 1–20, 123–34, 157–72, 195–220—Lament of Sappho 3
Ireland
Anonymous Créde’s Lament for Cáel
31 32 35 37 39 41 45 45
4
Anglo-Saxon England
Anonymous Wulf and