Pervigilium Veneris

Pervigilium Veneris, the Vigil of Venus, a is short Latin poem. The author, date, and place of composition are unknown.

Related Topics:
Latin - Poem - Author

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The poem was probably written in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. An article signed L Raquettius in the Classical Review (May 1905) assigns it to Sidonius Apollinaris (5th cent.) It was written professedly in early spring on the eve of a three-nights' festival of Venus (probably April 1-3). It describes in poetical language the annual awakening of the vegetable and animal world through the goddess. It consists of ninety-three verses in trochaic septenarii, and is divided into strophes of unequal length by the refrain:

Related Topics:
2nd - 3rd century - Sidonius Apollinaris - Venus

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"Cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit eras amet."

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Editio princeps (1577); modern editions by Franz Bücheler (1859), A Riese, in Anthologia latino (1869), E Bahrens in Umdierte lateinische Gedichte (1877); SG Owen (with Catullus, 1893). There are translations into English verse by Thomas Stanley (1651) and Thomas Parnell, author of The Hermit; on the text see John William Mackail in Journal of Philology (1888), vol. xvii.

Related Topics:
Franz Bücheler - Catullus - Thomas Stanley - Thomas Parnell - John William Mackail

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