§140. In the Greek poetry, maidens and additionally gamble in the meadows, hence topic has experienced such scholarly appeal one complete talk let me reveal hopeless. ” While the Stehle Stigers demostrates, the latest meadow are an area away from virginity, plus of its losings, brand new future of the plants synchronous compared to that off a good maiden. The vintage exemplory case of the latest motif is actually, obviously, Persephone’s fateful picking of your vegetation from inside the a lovely meadow and you will in the company of their particular relatives. It has got always been noticed that among the meadow’s determining characteristics is actually the unproductiveness, hence really stands when you look at the sharp compare toward fertility of one’s ploughed industry. Just as the metaphor regarding ploughing try expressed from the Athenian well-known dictum towards the purpose of relationships, so it is implicit about Russian customized from clinging an effective plough along side doorway of one’s newlywed’s bed room. The newest bride’s tunes, alternatively, will never be concerned with virility, doubting Laotian hot women because of the their loud quiet the fact something is provided into the bride-to-be during the settlement for what she seems to lose. New question of one’s maiden’s audio plus the bride’s lament is actually perhaps not generation, but natural beauty and its irrevocable loss, represented due to the fact sheer depletion.
Instead, the newest meadow are an excellent locus of erotic potentiality and you may “waking sexual sense,” an appealing yet , risky location for girls, where, since the Rosenmeyer puts it, there aren’t any dudes, but “threats regarding predation hover at the edges
§141. The fresh new haunts of your maidens try beautiful and you will unsuccessful, getting it insane rooms, such as for instance meadows and you can forests, otherwise rooms which can be, indeed, grown and you may protected. It latter choice is as prevalent due to the fact former, however, possess other connotations. On the meadows, the fresh maiden is unprotected plus in the organization off their own age-mates-it’s in this setting you to definitely she is generally viewed by the their future husband, and you will out of this function you to she could be snatched. The picture out of a secure rose yard, on top of that, have a tendency to is because of new bride’s moms and dads, with her sheltered and you can magnificent lives regarding parental family, that’s visiting a conclusion given that definitely because to try out into the the fresh meadows. Right here one particular hitting synchronous towards the Russian marriage sounds appear yet again away from Catullus 62, where in fact the chorus from maidens refuses to give any better in order to relationship and you will measures up a good maiden to help you a flower from inside the a great walled lawn in which none cows nor plough is also jeopardize it. Even though it is secure, the latest flower try breathtaking and you can common, however, whenever it’s plucked it each other goes out and you can fades away from look at, not “sweet” and “dear” to help you boys and you may girls, a fortune similar to that of new maiden:
Ut flos qui from inside the saeptis secretus nascitur hortis, ignotus pecori, nullo convulsus aratro, quem mulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber. multiple 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; sperm castum amisit polluto corpore florem, nec pueris iucunda manet, nec cara puellis.
Serve they to declare that the latest meadow has been appropriately explained as the a great “place filled with Eros” and you may “design to own video game conducive so you can pleasure off amorous interest,” however in addition to a space which is rarely the locus away from sex
Same as a rose develops invisible when you look at the an enclosed backyard, unfamiliar so you can cows, uprooted by no plough, a rose that breezes caress, sunlight improves, the fresh new rain rears. Many youths, of numerous maidens notice it- That same flower immediately after they withers, plucked by the a delicate complete, Zero youths, no maidens notice: Simply thus a beneficial maiden, provided this woman is unblemished, is actually beloved so you can their own loved ones; Just after she manages to lose the latest absolute flower, their muscles defiled, She cannot will always be enjoyable to children, neither beloved in order to maidens.
