As the poem's commentators have shown, Propertius 3.21 responds in various ways both to Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica and to Catullus, including poem 64.Footnote ¹ On beginning a journey to Athens to engage in cultural pursuits and forget Cynthia, ‘Propertius’Footnote ² enjoins his companions (socii) to launch the ship and set to the oars, followed by the command iungiteque extremo felicia lintea malo (‘attach fair-weather canvas [that is, the sail] to the top of the mast’), 3.21.13.Footnote ³ As has been noted,Footnote ⁴ there is an imitation here of Argon. 1.565, where the Argonauts, having set out from Pagasae, make ready for the open sea: first they set up the mast and secure it (1.563–4), and then κὰδ δ’ αὐτοῦ λίνα χεῦαν, ἐπ’ ἠλακάτην ἐρύσαντες (‘they drew the sail to the top of the mast and let it down from there’).Footnote ⁵

A point that has not previously been highlighted is that Propertius’ line also seems to allude to a specific line in Catullus 64. This is line 225, part of Aegeus’ instructions to Theseus as the latter departs Athens on his apparently doomed mission to Crete. Aegeus says he will equip Theseus’ ship with a dyed sail to denote mourning (inde infecta uago suspendam lintea malo, ‘I shall then hang dyed canvas [that is, the sail]Footnote ⁶ on the wandering [or ‘journeying’] mast’, 64.225, cf. 64.243),Footnote ⁷ on the assumption that the ship will return bringing news of his son's death. Theseus is told to take this down and raise a different, bright white, sail on the journey home if still alive (something he famously forgets to do, precipitating Aegeus’ suicide: 64.243–4). Significantly for us, this sail-hanging in Catull. 64.225 seems to allude to the sail-hanging-and-unfurling of Argon. 1.565 too, if more loosely than Propertius, and if so counts as one of many instances of Catullus’ very wide-ranging (and much-studied) engagement with Apollonius in poem 64:Footnote ⁸ the two poets’ respective uses of lintea and λίνα make the presence of an allusion likely,Footnote ⁹ as does the presence of a highly probable allusion by Catullus to a nearby line of Argonautica Book 1 (551) just three lines further on in Aegeus’ speech (64.228 Itoni; cf. Apollonius’ Ἰτωνίδος).Footnote ¹⁰ By ‘repurposing’ Apollonius’ sail and mast but adding the new detail that the sail-canvas of the ship in question is dyed (infecta), Catullus associates with the departure of Apollonius’ Argonauts not only Theseus’ imminent departure for Crete itself but also something even more unsettling: the spectre of his failure to change the sail when returning to Athens later, with tragic consequences.

This kind of association is important for the thematic texture of poem 64 itself (see below), but it is also important for Propertius, who seems to be shaping his engagement with Argon. 1.565 with specific reference to Catullus’ response to that same line in 64.225. Where Apollonius in Argon. 1.565 shows us the sail both drawn up to the top of the mast and unfurled as the Argo prepares to enter the open sea, both Catullus in 64.225 and Propertius in 3.21.13 focus on a much earlier point in the process: the attaching of the sail to the mast in preparation for departure. Most interestingly for us, both Catullus and Propertius also end their lines with lintea malo; and although this is used as a verse-ending on two other occasions by other poets (as we shall see),Footnote ¹¹ Propertius’ phrase felicia lintea—a ‘happy’ as well as ‘fair-weather’ sailFootnote ¹²—seems to signal an explicit revision and inversion of Catull. 64.225 (with its gloomy infecta … lintea). Where Catullus’ Aegeus envisages a voyage to Athens which will bring news of Theseus’ death—the worst possible outcome—‘Propertius’ in 3.21.13 also envisages a voyage culminating in Athens, but one with a happy outcome for him.

This revision of Catullus’ sombre line in fact joins other connections Propertius is making in 3.21 to Catullus’ treatment of Theseus’ journey back to Athens and arrival to find his home in mourning. The ‘shores of Piraeus’ (Piraei … litora) in 3.21.23 recall the Piraei litora of Catull. 64.74 (litoribus Piraei);Footnote ¹³ and even though ‘Propertius’ actually envisages docking at Lechaeum and heading to Athens on foot (pedes) via the Isthmus road (3.21.21–2)—like the young Theseus, famously—he in fact chooses to pinpoint Theseus’ legacy only when imagining himself accessing Athens via the route from the sea at Piraeus along the (ruined) Long Walls (bracchia longa).Footnote ¹⁴ It is specifically this part of his route that he calls ‘Theseus’ way/road’ (Theseae … uiae, 3.21.24), the route Catullus’ Theseus must have taken (after docking at Piraeus) before learning at home of Aegeus’ death (cf. 64.246–7), which was itself caused by Theseus’ neglect of the instructions given him by Aegeus in the Catullan line Propertius is reworking in his own line 13.Footnote ¹⁵ Although the parallel between ‘Propertius’’ escape from Cynthia and Theseus’ abandonment of Ariadne serves as a disquieting presence, some confidence that ‘Propertius’ will secure a happy arrival at Athens arises from the fact that he is symbolically doing the job Theseus failed to do, in exchanging Catullus’ gloomy dyed sail (infecta) for his own hopeful one (felicia). Where Catullus had revised Apollonius’ neutral ‘sail’ (just λίνα) by giving it a characterizing adjective tied to its crucial role in the present narrative, Propertius takes the revision a stage further and inverts the characteristic in question to suit his own needs.

Given the scale and enterprise of Catullus’ deployment of Apollonius in poem 64, especially in his opening sequence narrating the Argonauts’ departure,Footnote ¹⁶ Propertius’ simultaneous act of allusion to Catullus and to Apollonius (and to Apollonius via Catullus) in 3.21.13—a double or ‘two-tier’ allusion or ‘window reference’Footnote ¹⁷—functions as a way of asserting his credentials as a creative contributor to Roman reception of the Greek poetic tradition in playful self-distinction from Catullus. This is an especially appropriate claim for ‘Propertius’ to articulate on departing for Athens (where even fuller engagement with Greek literature awaits: 3.21.25–8). Though the entirety of Prop. 3.21.11–14 evokes in miniature both Catullus’ Argo departure sequence and the point in Apollonius’ own where the Argonauts prepare for the open sea (Argon. 1.563–79),Footnote ¹⁸ Propertius not only reverses Catullus’ gloomy sail with felicia but also captures the particular attention Apollonius had paid to the top of the mast, with extremo … malo corresponding to ἠλακάτην, the masthead: the fair wind is in fact what allows the sail to be taken to the top of the mast at all.Footnote ¹⁹ This choice serves to assert Propertius’ dexterity with Greek poetic usages, given the apparent obscurity of ἠλακάτη used in this sense, that is, to designate the pointed masthead (it normally means ‘distaff’; the maritime usage derives from the similar shape).Footnote ²⁰ Furthermore, the fact that the only other recorded such usage—indeed, the one which explains this maritime usage for us at all—occurs in the work of another Hellenistic writer, Asclepiades of Myrlea,Footnote ²¹ suggests that Propertius is enjoying subverting Catullus in a typically neoteric domain: the creative deployment in Latin of recherché post-classical Greek vocabulary.

Propertius’ partial reclamation of Apollonius at Catullus’ expense—moving closer to the model than Catull. 64.225, which recalls Argon. 1.565 only loosely—may be seen not only as a competitive manoeuvre but also as alerting the reader to the relevance to Prop. 3.21 of the themes both of Catullus 64 and of Argonautica Book 1. Importantly, it communicates Propertius’ ambition to keep two dynamics (which address the complexity of epic heroism) in view simultaneously in 3.21: the optimistic evocation of the epic-quest narrative and, conversely, the fostering of a sense of uncertainty in the reader as to whether Athens, freighted as it is with the Thesean associations of Catullus 64, will really provide the escape from love that ‘Propertius’ seeks (his favourable sail only guarantees him a happy arrival in Greece, after all); the later part of Prop. 3.21 questions whether he can really fit the epic mould at all if his sojourn in Athens is going to consist only in intellectual pursuits (including a selection of study texts without strong ties to the heroic past: 3.21.25–8).Footnote ²² In 3.21.11–14, though, optimism is probably uppermost, and this involves Propertius going a stage further than the Apollonian model in a different respect. A new element is the direct command to the crew to attach the sail (iungiteque … lintea) which follows earlier commands (agite … propellite … ducite, 3.21.11–12). This recalls Apollonius (Argon. 1.386, 1.395–6),Footnote ²³ but surpasses in immediacy what in Apollonius are simple third-person narrative statements, and also goes further than Aegeus’ first-person intentional statement in Catull. 64.225 (suspendam): the direct command iungite immerses readers in the action now, as fellow socii (itself a term resonant of epic).Footnote ²⁴ This aspect of Propertius’ reworking helps communicate the sense that epic-scale heroic achievements need not be confined to myth (or to the epic genre, as represented by Apollonius or, more loosely, by Catullus 64), but can equally take the form of an exciting journey (the magnum iter of Prop. 3.21.1) for deeper knowledge and new, restorative personal experiences undertaken in what can (even if fictively) pass for the lived present.Footnote ²⁵ Propertius’ confidence in his own poetic abilities (and in the possibilities of elegy) is also conveyed here in his echoing of a similar sequence of direct commands (involving lintea again) in his own poem 3.4, earlier in the book (3.4.7–8 agite … date [lintea] … ducite). The intimation is that, despite the doubts they may have about the heroic status of the visit to Athens itself, readers should at least feel assured about Propertius’ ability to deploy the Greek poetic tradition with creativity and independence—perhaps a heroism of sorts in itself.

The special attention I suggest Propertius paid to Catullus’ line seems reflected by Ovid too. In Heroides 5—part of a collection where we find numerous responses to Catullus 64,Footnote ²⁶ and whose contents probably postdate Propertius Book 3Footnote ²⁷—Oenone describes how ‘a light breeze stirs the sail hanging from the rigid mast’ of Paris’ departing ship, ‘and the water, churned up by the oars, is white with foam’ (Her. 5.53–4 aura leuis rigido pendentia lintea malo | suscitat, et remis eruta canet aqua).Footnote ²⁸ Oenone's situation—left behind by Paris (and now, it has turned out, rejected in favour of Helen)—is shaped by Ovid in ways that recall the situation of Catullus’ Ariadne—left behind by TheseusFootnote ²⁹—and also of his Aegeus (Ariadne's structural opposite, but also linked with her by situation).Footnote ³⁰ Accordingly, we should not be surprised to find an allusion to a Theseus-related part of the ekphrasis of Catullus 64 here: lintea malo is again in the same verse position as in Catull. 64.225, while the churning up of the sea in Ovid (remis eruta canet aqua) seems to recall the departure of the Argo in Catull. 64.13 (tortaque remigio spumis incanuit unda).Footnote ³¹ Catullus 64 sustains a close parallelism between the Argo's launch and the movements of Theseus’ ship, especially its departure from Dia (cf. here 64.58 pellit uada remis, and so in turn cf. 64.6–7 as well as 64.13), which informs the poem's exploration of the complexity and limits of heroismFootnote ³² and is therefore clearly relevant to the case of Ovid's departing Paris and to Heroides 5 more broadly.

This prompts us to look more closely at the context in Ov. Her. 5.53–4. Ovid's lintea malo in line 53 is not only in the same verse position as Catullus’ in 64.225 (as just seen) but clearly also in the same verse position as Propertius’ in 3.21.13 (iungiteque extremo felicia lintea malo). The totality of Ovid's aura leuis rigido pendentia lintea malo | suscitat in fact seems to allude simultaneously to Catullus and to Propertius and specifically to their reworking of Apollonius. The foam-based allusion to Catullus in 64.54 might admittedly encourage us to see Ovid's aura leuis as recalling primarily the light breeze which is all that is required to speed the Argo along in Catullus, thanks to Athene's design (ipsa leui fecit uolitantem flamine currum, 64.9, only a few lines earlier than the foam in 64.13 after all). Ovid might then be alluding to Apollonius through Catull. 64.9, which recalls two Apollonian lines: 1.111, where Athene creates the Argo in the first place (αὐτὴ γὰρ καὶ νῆα θοὴν κάμε),Footnote ³³ and 1.566, where a ‘shrill fair wind’ (λιγὺς … οὖρος) favours the ship's progress, arriving once it is underway and immediately after the letting down of the sail in our key line of Apollonius, 565. But Ovid's close association of aura and lintea malo in Her. 5.53 make it likely that Propertius’ own allusions to Apollonius via Catullus in 3.21.13–14 have also played a role in the conception of Her. 5.53–4. Immediately after 3.21.13 (iungiteque extremo felicia lintea malo), ‘Propertius’ comments on the fair wind (aura) which favours his journey (iam liquidum nautis aura secundat iter, 3.21.14),Footnote ³⁴ and this recalls not only Apollonius’ λιγὺς … οὖρος (1.566) but also Jason's prayer to Apollo for that very wind before the launch of the Argo (ἐπιπνεύσειε δ᾽ ἀήτης | μείλιχος, ‘may a gentle breeze blow’, Argon. 1.423–4; cf. 1.335). And although Apollonius’ ἀήτης μείλιχος might very well be informing Catull. 64.9 as well (neatly paralleling leui flamine), Propertius’ use of the rare verb secundat Footnote ³⁵ (paralleling, albeit not perfectly,Footnote ³⁶ the role of ἐπιπνεύσειε in Apollonius) once again signals even closer investment in the model, and also suggests a thematically relevant ‘self’-casting as Jason (another erotically compromised hero, also in the background in Catullus 64) even as he expresses confidence (as we have already seen) about the overall success of ‘his’ own quasi-heroic enterprise. In his close association of aura leuis and lintea malo, then, Ovid seems to be responding both to Catullus and to the way in which Propertius had then overtly reinvested in the Apollonian model and distinguished himself from Catullus by successfully capturing in his two consecutive lines (3.21.13–14) much of the content of the two consecutive Apollonian lines 1.565 and 1.566 (including the window reference in 3.21.13 to Catullus’ allusion to Argon. 1.565 in 64.225, signalled by lintea malo), as well as Apollonius’ ἐπιπνεύσειε in 1.423.

However, rather than just highlighting a site of prior poetic contestation, Ovid appears to make his own interventions. First, he recalls Catullus 64 directly, restoring Catullus’ (64.9) (and Apollonius’) ‘light’ or ‘gentle’ or ‘fair’ wind by modifying his aura with the leuis that Catullus (64.9 leui) had specified and that Propertius had omitted (relying instead on felicia and secundat to communicate the breeze's favourable quality). Second, just as Propertius (I have suggested) inverted Catullus’ infecta (and thus negative) lintea to make them felicia (and thus positive) and restored Apollonius’ pointed top to the mast of the ship concerned, Ovid also homes in on Catull. 64.225, as Propertius had, and turns Catullus’ ‘wandering’ or ‘journeying’ mast (uago … malo) into a ‘rigid’ or ‘fixed’ one (rigido … malo)—an ironic touch for a ship captained by the notably inconstant Paris.Footnote ³⁷ The result is a piece of intertextual play entirely in character for Ovid: if Propertius changed Catullus’ sail and salvaged Apollonius’ masthead, Ovid will go one better and recharacterize Catullus’ mast itself.Footnote ³⁸ I would also suggest tentatively that Ovid points to his own act of allusion in this line in another way too: the present-tense pendentia (lintea malo)—recalling Catullus’ Aegeus’ future-tense suspendam (lintea malo) in 64.225—could point to the prior existence of the Catullan model itself: Catullus’ poetic sail (itself borrowed from Apollonius and, as a woven item, open to interpretation as a metaphor for poetry itself)Footnote ³⁹ is hanging there already, available for deployment by Ovid in a new poetic context and on a new poetic voyage.

To recharacterize a different element of Catullus’ ship—the mast—is therefore a stylish and subtle way for Ovid to highlight both his own independence and his creative engagement with his predecessors. On the one hand, he has not only readapted the specifics of Propertius’ reworking of Apollonius and Catullus and (through them) Catullus’ reworking of Apollonius, but has also applied this caucus of images to a ship now fully underway—which supplies the obvious, commonsensical reason why the lintea are pendentia—whereas Apollonius, Catullus and Propertius had all used them of ships either only just about to enter the open sea or much earlier in the departure process. On the other hand, Ovid's decision to work with these images at all fits with the broader ambitions of Heroides 5 (and the Heroides collection in general) to weave a richly interactive generic texture to support the characterization of heroine and addressee alike.Footnote ⁴⁰ In these lines, Oenone's generic affiliations to epicFootnote ⁴¹ allow her abandonment by Paris—which jeopardizes any claim he might have to epic heroism in Heroides 5—to be linked simultaneously with Catullus’ Theseus’ abandonment of Ariadne and with the performative aspirations to epic heroism of ‘Propertius’ in 3.21 as he flees Cynthia (even though his felicia lintea may secure him a happier arrival in Athens than Theseus’). The rarity of lintea malo as a verse-ending—with only one other use in extant Latin, by Silius ItalicusFootnote ⁴²—also helps to indicate that Ovid is participating in similar intertextual manoeuvres to Propertius and Catullus, and that for him, as for them, changing the sail (or the mast)—and specifically on the ship of a departing male lover whose rejection of his love directly informs the reader's assessment of his claims to heroic status—functions as a deft and focussed means of communicating the poet's ingenuity and dexterity in the handling of famous models: an entirely appropriate development given the well-established close association between woven fabric, sailing and poetic craft in these and many other poets, and especially in Catullus 64.Footnote ⁴³