§140. Inside Greek poetry, maidens including play on the meadows, and therefore subject has already established really scholarly appeal one complete conversation listed here is impossible. ” Due to the fact Stehle Stigers demostrates, the meadow is actually a location out-of virginity, and of its losings, the fresh new destiny of its vegetation synchronous to that particular of a great maiden. The newest antique exemplory case of the fresh new motif is actually, obviously, Persephone’s fateful choosing of the plant life within the an attractive meadow and you will together with her family unit members. It has always been noticed that among the meadow’s defining characteristics try their unproductiveness, which stands inside evident examine towards fertility of ploughed career. Similar to the metaphor of ploughing was indicated regarding the Athenian famous dictum to your reason for marriage, so it’s implicit regarding the Russian individualized out of clinging a good plough over the doorway of your newlywed’s bed room. The brand new bride’s songs, on the other hand, should never be concerned about fertility, denying from the the loud silence the fact that some thing is offered into bride to be when you look at the settlement for what she seems to lose. The matter of maiden’s musical plus the bride’s lament is maybe not age group, however, pure beauty as well as irrevocable losings, portrayed since the absolute depletion.

Instead, new meadow are a good locus away from sensual potentiality and you will “awakening sexual good sense,” a desirable but really dangerous place for girls, in which, as the Rosenmeyer leaves it, there aren’t any dudes, however, “risks from predation hover from the corners

§141. The fresh haunts of your own maidens try gorgeous and you will unsuccessful, getting they insane areas, such as for example meadows and you can woods, or room that are, indeed, expanded and you can secure. This second option is because commonplace due to the fact former, but enjoys some other connotations. On meadows, the new maiden is actually exposed and also in the organization from her years-mates-it’s within this mode one to she are seen of the their own future husband, and you can using this form you to she could be seized. The picture of a safe flower yard, likewise, often is because of the fresh new bride’s parents, along with her protected and luxurious lifetime throughout the parental domestic, that’s going to an-end given that undoubtedly while the to try out inside the the new meadows. Here one particular striking synchronous with the Russian relationships music arrives once again regarding Catullus 62, in which the chorus from maidens will not offer much better in order to matrimony and compares a great maiden so you can a flower inside a walled garden in which neither cows nor plough is jeopardize they. While it is safe, brand new flower try stunning and you can popular, but whenever it’s plucked they both fades and fades away from look at, no further “sweet” and you can “dear” to boys and you can girls, a fortune like the newest maiden:

Ut flos et celle-ci in the saeptis secretus nascitur hortis, ignotus pecori, nullo convulsus aratro, quem mulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber. multi illum pueri, multae optavere puellae: idem sperm tenui carptus defloruit ungui, nulli illum pueri, nullae optavere puellae: sic virgo, dum intacta manet, dum cara suis est; jizz castum amisit polluto corpore florem, nec pueris iucunda manet, nec cara puellis.

Suffice they to say that the latest meadow could have been aptly demonstrated because the an excellent “room filled up with Eros” and you can “framework for online game that lead to help you fulfillment out of amorous focus,” and yet along with a gap that’s barely the new locus out-of sex

Same as a rose first site expands invisible for the a sealed backyard, unknown so you can cattle, uprooted because of the zero plough, a rose your breezes caress, sunlight improves, brand new precipitation rears. Of many children, of a lot maidens interest they- You to same rose after they withers, plucked of the a silky nail, No youths, zero maidens appeal: Just therefore an effective maiden, provided she actually is unblemished, are dear in order to their relatives; Shortly after she manages to lose the absolute flower, their unique system defiled, She will not continue to be exciting to youths, nor precious to help you maidens.