§140. For the Greek poetry, maidens and additionally play about meadows, hence topic has already established so much scholarly appeal that full conversation listed here is impossible. ” While the Stehle Stigers demostrates, the brand new meadow was an area out-of virginity, but also of their loss, the future of the plants synchronous compared to that of a beneficial maiden. The fresh classic instance of the fresh theme try, without a doubt, Persephone’s fateful selecting of your plants for the a lovely meadow and you may with their unique family unit members. It’s long been noticed that one of many meadow’s identifying functions was its unproductiveness, and this really stands in the clear compare toward fertility of ploughed career. Much like the metaphor off ploughing are conveyed regarding Athenian well-known dictum toward reason for matrimony, so it is implicit on Russian custom of dangling a beneficial plough along side door of your own newlywed’s bedroom. The fresh bride’s musical, on the other hand, are never concerned with fertility, doubting by their loud silence the truth that anything is provided towards bride-to-be inside compensation for what she will lose. The latest concern of one’s maiden’s sounds and also the bride’s lament is perhaps not generation, however, natural beauty as well as irrevocable losses, depicted while the absolute exhaustion.
Rather, the fresh new meadow was a great locus off sensual potentiality and you will “awakening sexual feeling,” an appealing yet , dangerous place for girls, in which, due to the fact Rosenmeyer leaves they, there are not any men, but “risks of predation hover on edges
§141. The haunts of maidens try stunning and you will unproductive, end up being they crazy places, such as meadows and forest, otherwise rooms that will be, in fact, developed and protected. That it latter choice is since common due to the fact former, however, enjoys different connotations. About meadows, the newest maiden try unprotected plus the organization from their unique years-mates-it’s within setting that she could be seen by their particular future husband, and you may from this form that she is seized. The picture of a secure rose lawn, likewise, often is because of the new bride’s moms and dads, along with her protected and you will lavish existence regarding the adult family, that is visiting an-end given that surely due to the fact to relax and play from inside the the newest meadows. Here one particular striking parallel to the Russian relationship music happens yet again off Catullus 62, in which the chorus out of maidens will not grant much better to wedding and you will measures up an excellent maiden so you can a flower inside the an excellent walled yard where neither cattle neither plough normally okcupid seksi kД±zlar jeopardize it. While it’s protected, the brand new flower is actually stunning and common, however, once it is plucked they each other goes out and you can goes out away from take a look at, no longer “sweet” and you will “dear” so you can boys and you will girls, a fate similar to that of the fresh maiden:
Ut flos qui into 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; sperm castum amisit polluto corpore florem, nec pueris iucunda manet, nec cara puellis.
Serve they to say that the brand new meadow could have been appropriately explained because the a good “place full of Eros” and you may “construction having game that lead so you’re able to fulfillment from amorous attention,” but in addition to a space that’s rarely this new locus away from sex
Identical to a rose expands hidden within the an enclosed garden, unknown in order to cattle, uprooted by the no plough, a rose your breezes caress, the sun strengthens, the new rain rears. Of a lot youngsters, of several maidens desire they- One to exact same rose after it withers, plucked from the a soft complete, No children, no maidens focus: Just so an excellent maiden, provided this woman is unblemished, is actually beloved in order to their unique nearest and dearest; Shortly after she manages to lose the new pure rose, their own system defiled, She doesn’t are still enjoyable so you can children, neither beloved in order to maidens.
