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Originality and Eroticism: Constantine Cavafy and the Alexandrian Epigram

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Valerie A. Caires
Valerie A. Caires*
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University
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Extract

Although it has become generally accepted by critics that Constantine Cavafy (1863–1933) was influenced greatly by the Hellenistic epigram ‘in attitude, subject matter, and technique’, a close comparison of that poetic tradition and Cavafy’s poems reveals interesting differences as well as similarities. We know that Cavafy was familiar with Hellenistic literature and that he had a copy of J. W. Mackail’s Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology in his personal library. His reading, however, ‘was much more extensive than his library’. More significant than this is the evidence to be found in his poems, which range from an actual mention of ancient epigrams to obvious imitations of them. Cavafy’s poems for the most part, however, are quite original in their tone and erotic stance when compared directly to the Alexandrian epigrams.

Type
Research Article
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 6 , 1980 , pp. 131 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1980

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References

1. Bien, P., Constantine Cavafy, Columbia Essays on Modern Writers, No. 5 (New York, 1964), p. 16 Google Scholar. Cf. the similar attitudes of other critics: Liddell, R., ‘Cavafy’, in Personal Landscape: An Anthology of Exile (London, 1945), pp. 102, 104 Google Scholar; Liddell, R., ‘Studies in Genius VII: Cavafy’, Horizon: A Review of Literature and Art, 18, No. 105 (September 1948), 189–90, 197, 199 Google Scholar; Friar, K., trans, and intro., Modern Greek Poetry: From Cavafis to Elytis (New York, 1973), pp. 24, 26 Google Scholar; Keeley, E., Cavafy’s Alexandria: Study of a Myth in Progress (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), pp. 32, 68, 180 n. 15Google Scholar; Pinchin, Jane Lagoudis, Alexandria Still: Forster, Durrell, Cavafy, Princeton Essays in Literature (Princeton, N.J., 1977), pp. 12–13, 42.Google Scholar

2. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1890). Other editions Cavafymay have had access to include: [Tauchnitz], Anthologia Graeca ad Palatini codicis fidem, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1829); Dübner, J. F., ed., Anthologia Palatina, 3 vols. (Paris, 1864–90)Google Scholar; Stadtmüller, H., ed., Anthologia Graeca, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1894–1906)Google Scholar; Preisendanz, C., ed., Anthologia Palatina, 2 vols. (Leyden, 1911)Google Scholar. He may also have known of the Loeb edition, published 1916–19; see n. 6.

3. Liddell, R., Cavafy: A Critical Biography (London, 1974), p. 121.Google Scholar

4. See’Young Men of Sidon (A.D. 400)’.

5. Cf. ‘In the Harbour’, ‘Tomb of Iasis’, ‘Tomb of Evrion’, ‘He Asked About the Quality’, ‘Those Who Fought for the Achaian League’, ‘Epitaph of Antiochos, King of Kommagini’, ‘Epitaphion’.

6. For purposes of my personal convenience, and the reader’s ease in reference, the Greek texts of the poems quoted in this study are from The Greek Anthology, trans. W. R. Paton, 5 vols., The Loeb Classical Library (London, 1916-19). The translations are my own, with some reference to those of the Loeb edition and to the notes in the Gow and Page editions cited below. Readers interested in further study of these epigrams should also consult the following editions (which do not, however, contain all the poems printed in the Loeb volumes): Gow, A. S. F. and Page, D. L., eds., The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, 3 vols. (Cambridge, 1965)Google Scholar and Gow, A. S. F. and Page, D. L., eds., The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1968)Google Scholar.

7. The Greek texts of Cavafy’s poems are taken from C. P. Cavafy, ed G. P. Savidis, 2 vols. (Athens, 1963) and C. P. Cavafy, 1882-1923, ed. G. P. Savidis (Athens, 1968). When I refer to Cavafy’s ‘corpus’, it is to diese texts that I refer. The translations, except for additions in brackets, are from Cavafy, C. P., Collected Poems, trans. Keeley, E. and Sherrard, P., ed. Savidis, G. (Princeton, N.J., 1975).Google Scholar

8. These numbers reflect my own count which includes those poems not in the official numbering (after XII.6, for example, comes XII.6a). In addition, it should be realized that mere were errors made in these divisions, so not every one of the poems in each category actually belongs mere.

9. Cf. VII. 2, 2b, 6, 17, 26, 28, 71, 103, 163-5, 197–8, 212, 247, 249, 260, 268-9, 272, 282, 313-14, 316-18, 320, 337, 350, 355, 380, 405, 408, 414-17. 419, 423, 425, 445, 450, 452, 465, 495, 499, 500, 502, 520-1, 523, 525, 536, 540, 544. 552, 558, 569, 584, 589, 631, 656-8, 710, 712, 718, 739.1 have listed only those epitaphs which explicitly call out. Many others give direct information, but do not use the vocative of such words as or or lack similar contexts.

10. This epigram is found in Mackail’s Select Epigrams. See n. 2.

11. An unusual blend of the erotic and sepulchral is found in XII.74. It is not a true epitaph, however, but a conventional and rather light-hearted complaint of a worn-out lover of boys who ‘expects’ to the due to his great passion for boys, and composes his epitaph ahead of time: ‘Love’s gift to Death’. Other love poems which stress Love’s destructive tendencies are: V.215; XII. 46-8, 71-3, 166.

12. Such mythological allusions to a young, attractive man (Narcissus) are not found in the sepulchral poems on young men of Book VII where the allusions are confined to Ares, Hades, Charon, Fate, and Hymen. They are found, however, in Book XII, with special reference to Ganymede (15 times), but no erotic references are made either to Narcissus or to Hermes. (Hermes’ name is used for oaths or thanks for good luck in XII. 7 7, 140, 143, 149.)Cavafy may have included Hermes in this analogy because he was the god of young athletes and was depicted in sculpture as a young man. (See Hammond, N. G. L. and Scullard, H. H., eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed. [Oxford, 1970], p. 503.)Google Scholar

13. The speaker in VII.260 (above) makes it clear that he has nothing to be ashamed of, and all other Hellenistic epitaphs that ask their readers to hold judgement, either refer to the fact diat the size of the tomb does not reflect the importance of its occupant (VII.137, 198, 235, 380), or refute the accepted reputation of the deceased (VII.345, 450).

14. Cf. especially ‘For Ammonis, Who Died at 29, in 610’; also ‘Tomb of Evrion’, ‘Tomb of Lanis’, ‘In the Month of Athyr’, ‘Of the Jews (A.D. 50)’, and possibly ‘Tomb of Ignatius’. See also Keeley, pp. 82-4.

15. It is interesting to note that epitaphs in the Greek Anthology on males who might have been young enough to be homosexual love objects add up to only 25 out of 755 sepulchral poems (equal to 3·3 per cent, and five of these refer to dead soldiers; seen. 19), whereas 17 out of the 23 poems(73·9 per cent) which mention death in the poems circulated by Cavafy deal explicitly with the deam of young men. In Cavafy’s total corpus (including the the figures are 19 out of 32, or 59 per cent, still a significant percentage. Cf. Keeley, pp. 81, 82, 116-17; Liddell, ‘Studies in Genius’, p. 199; Liddell, Personal Landscape, p. 106.

16. There are some instances of heterosexual sensuality, all in reference to female prostitutes, but they are much more decorous than the erotic poems found in Book V. Cf. VII.217-21, 223.

17. (lovable) plays no part in the vocabulary of the homosexual erotic poems of Book XII, nor is it found in Book V.

18. This word contains overtones of both ‘accomplishment’ or ‘learnedness’ and ‘attractiveness’, but, although it is found in sexual contexts in Book XII which describe boys (cf. 67, 124, 130, 154), in this poem it is not an overtly erotic response (nor is ‘sapling’ which is also-used in XII.91, 126), but an appreciation of the youthful beauty of someone who, at twenty-four, is long past the age of playing a homosexual passive role. (See Dover, K.J., Greek Homosexuality [London, 1978], pp. 15 n. 30, 49, 83.Google Scholar) It is not found in any other epitaph on a young man. I have chosen to discuss mis poem, ramer than one on a younger man, because its conventions are so close to the ones Cavafy uses in ‘Tomb of Evrion’.

19. Cf. VII.226, 231, 254, 258, 263, 300, 334, 427, 438-9, 466, 468, 495, 513. 515, 527. 558, 560-1, 574, 589, 602-3, 613, 671, which allude to young men who are probably not yet of marriageable age. (Dead young men who were old enough to be married are mourned in VII.298, 328, 343, 367, 475, 627.)

20. Cf. (VII.263, 513); (VII.300); (VII. 515). These are conventional descriptions of young men. Similar ones are used by Christian epigrammatists such as Agathias Scholasticus to describe the youmful dead (cf. VII.589, 602, 613).

21. By that age, one was the pursuer, not the pursued, and even the pursuers were slowing down. See Dover, p. 171.

22. Cf. VII.24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 143, 222, 449, 714.

23. My attention was called to Philip Sherrard’s article, ‘Cavafy’s Sensual City: A Question’, Byzantine and Modem Greek Studies, IV (1978), 133-7, after I had completed this paper. In answer to his questions (pp. 136-7), I found no prototypes among the Alexandrian epitaphs for Cavafy’s five erotic epitaphs. I have not placed any special emphasis on Cavafy’s ‘myth’ of Alexandria in the discussion that follows, but examination of both the historical and literary evidence for the Hellenistic period indicates diat Cavafy’s presentation of ancient Alexandria in his poetry as a sexual paradise for homosexuals is not based on fact. Although homosexuality was neidier condemned nor outlawed, society did not acknowledge it as the ‘best kind of love’ (although Cavafy tried to convince us that this is so), and it was apparently, for most young men at least, only a stage in life which one went through before marriage (see nn. 19, 20, 22, 29-31 and pp. 140-1 of this paper). See Dover’s book for a complete discussion of this matter.

24. Dover. pp. 1, 66-7. Cf. V.6, 19, 116; XII. 9, 86, 90, 109, where both sorts of eros are possible in the same person. Some, however, prefer only heterosexuality, (cf. V.116, 277-8; X.68; XII.41), others prefer homosexuality exclusively (cf. XII. 17, 87, 192, 245).

25. There are some early heterosexual poems in his but we need not take them very seriously. In the first place, they are bad poems, and in the second place, as far as we know Cavafy never had any heterosexual interests, so these very conventional sentimental poems must have been written without sincerity as poetic exercises, or with the female figure masking a male one.

26. Pinchin, p. 42.

27. Dover, pp. 149-51.

28. On openness about homosexuality in literature, see Dover, pp. 1, 153; cf. XII. 17, 87, 245. For details about society’s acceptance of the erastes (the active partner), see Dover, pp. 67-8, 82, 84, 89-90, 135, 137. All the epigrams in Book XII are written from the viewpoint of the erastes and, while they are clearly about homosexual eros, their approach, for the most part, is decidedly more euphemistic and romantic than the overtly gross sexual humour to be found in Aristophanes. (Cf. Dover, pp. 11, 59, 90-91, but see also n. 43.)

29. Dover, pp. 82-3, 88-90. Cf. XII.8, 205, 253; but 231 appears to speak about parental restrictions on the active partner.

30. Dover, pp. 49, 55-6, 83, 89, 106, 150. Cf. XII.4, 14, 21-2, 102, 200, 228, 251, 255, On age limits and courtship conventions. Some epigrams, however, show deviations from these conventions: cf. XII.9, 10.

31. Keeley, p. 63; cf. Bien, pp. 38-9 and Liddell, ‘Studies in Genius’, pp. 198-9.

32. Cf. XII. 87, 192, 245.

33. Cf. Keeley, p. 45; Bien, p. 4. Cf. also ‘The Next Table’, ‘Temethos, Antiochian, A.D. 400’, ‘The Twenty-Fifth Year of His Life’, ‘Days of 1896’, ‘Two Young Men, 23 to 24 Years Old’, and ‘Picture of a 23-Year-Old Painted by His Friend of the Same Age, An Amateur’.

34. Cf. also’Hidden Things’.

35. Cf. Bien, pp. 14, 38; Keeley, pp. 9-10.

36. Cf. XII.57, 110, for boys made by Eros; XII.54, 64, 75-8,97, 111, 11a, for boys like Eros in their beauty.

37. Cf. XII.6, 22, 30, 37-8, 97. XII.94, 213 refer to loins. See also n. 43.

38. Cf. Liddell, ‘Studies in Genius’, p. 197; Pinchin, p. 42.

39. This is a nice touch, because garlands are frequently depicted in the hands of both the wooers and the wooed on vase paintings in festive contexts (see Dover, pp. 92-3, 96).

40. Cf. Dover, pp. 49,55-6,83,89, 106, 150;XII.211.

41. Cf. Dover, pp. 36 n. 18, 52, 96-7, 150. There was, however, probablya gulf between reality and convention here (see Dover, pp. 103, 125 n. i,204;cf. XII.3, 7, 183, 209). The eromenos was also subject to a certain amount of social disdain as the passive partner (Dover, pp. 67-8, 84, 135, 137), but submission to a worthy man for purposes of self-improvement of any kind was acceptable to Greek society (Dover, p. 91).

42. There is almost no mention of poverty in the Hellenistic erotic poems of Book XII. In 150, hunger is seen as a ‘charm’ to drive away the disease of love (but it is not specified whedier it is effective against heterosexual or homosexual love, or both). In 148, a lover complains to his eromenos (passive partner) in regard to his mercenary attitude about the lover’s empty hands.

43. This is not to imply that all the erotic poems in Book XII (or even Book V) of the Greek Anthology are filled with decorum. A few are so graphic and ‘obscene’ that the Loeb edition has seen fit to present their translations in Latin instead of in English! (All or part of 14 poems in Book XII [and 14 in Book V] are translated into Latin.) For their tendency to be euphemistic, however, seen. 28.

44. Dover, pp. 69, 83.

45. Cf. XII.28, 81, 84, 99, 126, 132a, 154.

46. Cf. XII.71, 81, 85, 89, 92, 99, 100, 126, 144-5, 166.

47. Cf. ‘Voices’, ‘In the Evening’, ‘Gray’, ‘Following the Recipe of Ancient Greco-Syrian Magicians’, ‘Before Time Altered Them’, ‘The Afternoon Sun’.

48. Cf. Longings’, ‘I’ve Brought to Art’, ‘On the Stairs’, ‘Half An Hour’, ‘September, 1903’, ‘Body Remember …’.

49. Cf. ‘Daysof 1903’, ‘One Night’, ‘In Despair’, ‘The Twenty-Fifth Year of His Life’.

50. Gow and Page, Hellenistic Epigrams, II, p. 486. Cf. XII.98 and 150 which describe how learning and poetry heal poets wounded by love and make it possible to ignore love’s pain, and V.93 and XII. 120 which use reason as a shield against love. But XII. 117 throws logic to the winds in favour of loving, citing Zeus as an example.

51. The Greek Anthology manages to joke about old age and impotency (cf. XI.30; XII.240), but for Cavafy it is no laughing matter. Great unhappiness about old age is also expressed in ‘An Old Man’ and ‘The Souls of Old Men’, although another old man is consoled by knowing that young men respond to his poetry (Very Seldom’). See also Bien, pp. 9-10.

52. Cf. ‘Voices’, ‘When They Come Alive’, ‘I’ve Looked So Much….’, ‘Comes To Rest’, ‘Understanding’, ‘Their Beginning’, ‘I’ve Brought to Art’, ‘December, 1903’, ‘Half An Hour’, ‘In the Same Space’, ‘On Hearing of Love’. See also Bien, pp. 14-15,39.

53. Cf. XII.16, 21, 29-32, 197,215, 234-5.

54. . Cf. ‘Passing Through’, ‘The Photograph’, ‘And I Lounged and Lay on Their Beds’, ‘When They Come Alive’, ‘I’ve Looked So Much….’, ‘Comes To Rest’, ‘Understanding’, ‘Their Beginning’, ‘Half An Hour’.

55. Liddell, Personal Landscape, p. 102.

56. Lesky, A., A History of Greek Literature, trans. Willis, J. and Heer, C. de (London, 1966), p. 717.Google Scholar