Lucifer

: This article is about Lucifer the star or fallen angel; for other meanings, see Lucifer (disambiguation).

"Lucifer" in Roman poetry

"Lucifer" is a poetic name for the "morning star", a close translation of the Greek eosphoros, the "Dawn-bringer", which appears in the Odyssey and in Hesiod's Theogony.

Related Topics:
Odyssey - Hesiod - Theogony

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A classic Roman use of "Lucifer" appears in Virgil's Georgics (III, 324-5):

Related Topics:
Virgil - Georgics

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"Let us hasten, when first the Morning Star appears,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:To the cool pastures, while the day is new, while the grass is dewy"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And similarly, in Ovid:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Aurora, watchful in the reddening dawn, threw wide her crimson doors and rose-filled halls; the Stars took flight, in marshalled order set by Lucifer, who left his station last."

Related Topics:
Aurora - Lucifer

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::: (Metamorphoses)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A more effusive poet, like Statius, can expand this trope into a brief but profuse allegory, though still this is a poetical personification of the Light-Bearer, not a mythology:

Related Topics:
Statius - Trope - Allegory

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"And now Aurora, rising from her Mygdonian resting-place had scattered the cold shadows from the high heaven, and shaking the dew-drops from her hair blushed deep in the sun’s pursuing beams; toward her through the clouds rosy Lucifer turns his late fires, and with slow steed leaves an alien world, until the fiery father’s orb be full replenished and he forbid his sister to usurp his rays."

Related Topics:
Aurora - Mygdonian - Fiery father’s orb

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:::Statius, Thebaid 2.134

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~