Caecilia Trebulla

Last updated

Caecilia Trebulla was a poet of the Roman Empire, about whom little is known. She may have been an aristocrat based on assumptions made about the nature of her writing and knowledge of literary Greek. [1] She wrote Greek iambic poetry, [2] and the only remnants of her work are three epigrams inscribed upon the left leg of one of the Colossi of Memnon. She is believed to have first visited the statue in AD 130, and returned to have the next two poems inscribed upon it. [1] Not much is known of her aside from the poems that she left behind on this monument, as she lived during a time where verses written by women were not typically published so she left her work as graffiti. [1]

Contents

She was not the only poet to leave her mark on this monument, or even the only female poet to leave her mark, but the inscriptions left by female poets on Memnon's leg are almost 6% of the surviving works by women from the ancient world. [3] It is likely that she did not inscribe her poem herself, but instead paid a local stonecutter to do it for her in memory of her visit after she composed each poem. [3] A popular belief at the time was that the statue of Memnon sang to his mother Eos, the goddess of dawn, because the stones made a sound as they were warmed by the rising sun. It is possible that this sound inspired her to mention her own mother. [1]

Surviving poetry

1.

By Trebulla.

When I heard the holy voice of Memnon,

I longed for you, mother, and I prayed for you to hear it too. [1]

2.

Caecilia Trebulla,

upon hearing Memnon for the second time.

Before we heard only his voice,

Today he greeted us as friends and intimates,

Memnon, son of Eos and Tithon.

Did Nature, creator of all,

Give perception and voice to stone? [1]

3.

I, Caecilia Trebulla,

Wrote after hearing Memnon here.

Cambyses smashed me, this stone,

Made as a likeness of an Eastern king.

My voice of old was a lament, groaning

For Memnon's suffering, which Cambyses stole.

Today I cry sounds inarticulate and unintelligible

Remains of my former fate. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eos</span> Greek goddess of the dawn

In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at the edge of the river Oceanus to deliver light and disperse the night. In Greek tradition and poetry, she is characterized as a goddess with a great sexual appetite, who took numerous human lovers for her own satisfaction and bore them several children. Like her Roman counterpart Aurora and Rigvedic Ushas, Eos continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, Hausos. Eos, or her earlier Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ancestor, also shares several elements with the love goddess Aphrodite, perhaps signifying Eos's influence on her or otherwise a common origin for the two goddesses. In surviving tradition, Aphrodite is the culprit behind Eos' numerous love affairs, having cursed the goddess with insatiable lust for mortal men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tithonus</span> Mythological prince of Troy

In Greek mythology, Tithonus was the lover of Eos, Goddess of the Dawn. He was a prince of Troy, the son of King Laomedon by the Naiad Strymo (Στρυμώ). The mythology reflected by the fifth-century vase-painters of Athens envisaged Tithonus as a rhapsode, as attested by the lyre in his hand, on an oinochoe of the Achilles Painter, circa 470–460 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hemera</span> Ancient Greek goddess of the day

In Greek mythology, Hemera was the personification of day. According to Hesiod, she was the daughter of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night), and the sister of Aether. Though separate entities in Hesiod's Theogony, Hemera and Eos (Dawn) were often identified with each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anyte</span> Hellenistic poet

Anyte of Tegea was a Hellenistic poet from Tegea in Arcadia. Little is known of her life, but twenty-four epigrams attributed to her are preserved in the Greek Anthology, and one is quoted by Julius Pollux; nineteen of these are generally accepted as authentic. She introduced rural themes to the genre, which became a standard theme in Hellenistic epigrams. She is one of the nine outstanding ancient women poets listed by Antipater of Thessalonica in the Palatine Anthology. Her pastoral poetry may have influenced Theocritus, and her works were adapted by several later poets, including Ovid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colossi of Memnon</span> Two Ancient Egyptian statues near Luxor

The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which stand at the front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, the largest temple in the Theban Necropolis. They have stood since 1350 BC, and were well known to ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as early modern travelers and Egyptologists. The statues contain 107 Roman-era inscriptions in Greek and Latin, dated to between AD 20 and 250; many of these inscriptions on the northernmost statue make reference to the Greek mythological king Memnon, whom the statue was then – erroneously – thought to represent.

<i>Aethiopis</i> Lost Greek epic

The Aithiopis, also spelled Aethiopis, is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Aethiopis lands chronologically after the Homeric Iliad, and could be followed by that of the Little Iliad. The Aethiopis was often attributed by ancient writers to Arctinus of Miletus who lived in the 8th century BC. The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter. Very few fragments of the Aethiopis survive today; Proclus's summary of the poems' contents establishes the narrative framework of the epic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erinna</span> Ancient Greek female poet

Erinna was an ancient Greek poet. She is best known for her long poem The Distaff, a 300-line hexameter lament for her childhood friend Baucis, who had died shortly after her marriage. A large fragment of this poem was discovered in 1928 at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Along with The Distaff, three epigrams ascribed to Erinna are known, preserved in the Greek Anthology. Biographical details about Erinna's life are uncertain. She is generally thought to have lived in the first half of the fourth century BC, though some ancient traditions have her as a contemporary of Sappho; Telos is generally considered to be her most likely birthplace, but Tenos, Teos, Rhodes, and Lesbos are all also mentioned by ancient sources as her home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memnon</span> Ethiopian king in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Memnon (; Ancient Greek: Μέμνων, lit. the Steadfast or Resolute one, was a king of Aethiopia and son of Tithonus and Eos. Memnon was celebrated for both his exceptional physical beauty and his remarkable strength: "Whole throngs of foes fierce-hearted Memnon slew."" ; [Eurypylos] was the handsomest I ever saw after divine Memnon.. According to later traditions Memnon was black.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonia Sanchez</span> American poet, playwright and activist (born 1934)

Sonia Sanchez is an American poet, writer, and professor. She was a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement and has written over a dozen books of poetry, as well as short stories, critical essays, plays, and children's books. In the 1960s, Sanchez released poems in periodicals targeted towards African-American audiences, and published her debut collection, Homecoming, in 1969. In 1993, she received Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and in 2001 was awarded the Robert Frost Medal for her contributions to the canon of American poetry. She has been influential to other African-American poets, including Krista Franklin. Sanchez is a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nossis</span>

Nossis was a Hellenistic poet from Epizephyrian Locris in Magna Graecia. Probably well-educated and from a noble family, Nossis was influenced by and claimed to rival Sappho. Eleven or twelve of her epigrams, mostly religious dedications and epitaphs, survive in the Greek Anthology, making her one of the best-preserved ancient Greek women poets, though her work does not seem to have entered the Greek literary canon. In the twentieth century, the imagist poet H. D. was influenced by Nossis, as was Renée Vivien in her French translation of the ancient Greek women poets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joy Harjo</span> American Poet Laureate

Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms. Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program.

<i>Kalos</i> inscription Form of epigraph found on Attic vases and graffiti in antiquity

A kalos inscription is a form of epigraph found on Attic vases and graffiti in antiquity, mainly during the Classical period from 550 to 450 BC. The word kalos (καλός), meaning 'handsome' or 'beautiful', was often accompanied by the name of a certain man, or sometimes simply by the word pais (παῖς), meaning the 'boy' or 'youth', without naming a particular person. The female version was kalē (καλή). The kalos inscriptions typically had an erotic connotation.

Julia Balbilla was a Roman noble woman and poet. Whilst in Thebes, touring Egypt as part of the imperial court of Hadrian, she inscribed three epigrams which have survived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moero</span> Hellenistic poet from Byzantium

Moero or Myro was a woman poet of the Hellenistic period from the city of Byzantium. She was the wife of Andromachus Philologus and the mother – the Suda says daughter, but this is less likely – of the tragedian Homerus of Byzantium. Moero was probably active during the late fourth and early third centuries BC.

Twenty-nine epigrams are attributed to Plato, mostly in the Greek Anthology. These are short poems suitable for dedicatory purposes written in the form of elegiac couplets. Their authenticity is disputed.

Decimus Terentius Gentianus was a Roman senator of the 2nd century AD who held a number of offices in the imperial service, serving as suffect consul in 116 with Lucius Co[...] as his colleague. His origins may be in Gallia Narbonensis, and Gentianus may have been the son of Decimus Terentius Scaurianus, one of Trajan's generals.

Feminist poetry is inspired by, promotes, or elaborates on feminist principles and ideas. It might be written with the conscious aim of expressing feminist principles, although sometimes it is identified as feminist by critics in a later era. Some writers are thought to express feminist ideas even if the writer was not an active member of the political movement during their era. Many feminist movements, however, have embraced poetry as a vehicle for communicating with public audiences through anthologies, poetry collections, and public readings.

<i>CIL</i> 4.5296 Poem found graffitied in Pompeii

CIL 4.5296 is a poem found graffitied on the wall of a hallway in Pompeii. Discovered in 1888, it is one of the longest and most elaborate surviving graffiti texts from the town, and may be the only known love poem from one woman to another from the Latin world. The poem is nine verses long, breaking off in the middle of the ninth verse; a single line in a different hand is written underneath. It is in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Diane Marie Burns was an Anishinaabe and Chemehuevi artist, known for her poetry and performance art highlighting Native American experience. After moving to New York City, she become involved with the Lower East Side poetry community, including the Nuyorican Poets Café.

Demo or Damo was a Greek woman of the Roman period, known for a single epigram, engraved upon the Colossus of Memnon, which bears her name. She speaks of herself therein as a lyric poet dedicated to the Muses, but nothing is known of her life.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Women writers of ancient Greece and Rome : an anthology. Plant, I. M. (Ian Michael), 1963- (University of Oklahoma Press ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 2004. p. 149. ISBN   0806136219. OCLC   53375124.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. Women writers of ancient Greece and Rome : an anthology. Plant, I. M. (Ian Michael), 1963- (University of Oklahoma Press ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 2004. p. 244. ISBN   0806136219. OCLC   53375124.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. 1 2 Keegan, Peter (27 January 2017). Graffiti in antiquity. London. p. 58. ISBN   978-1138288393. OCLC   966194723.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading