Paraklausithyron ( grc, παρακλαυσίθυρον) is a motif in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and especially Augustan love

elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

, as well as in

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...

poetry. The details of the Greek etymology are uncertain, but it is generally accepted to mean "lament beside a door", from παρακλαίω, "lament beside", and θύρα, "door". A paraklausithyron typically places a lover outside his mistress's door, desiring entry. In Greek poetry, the situation is connected to the ''

komos The Kōmos ( grc, κῶμος; pl. kōmoi) was a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as komasts (κωμασταί, ''kōmastaí''). Its precise nature has been difficult to recon ...

'', the

revels ''Revels'' is a contemporary series of American seasonal stage performances, incorporating singing, dancing, recitals, and theatrics loosely organized around a central theme or narrative. The folk-tradition-based performances started in 1957, we ...

of young people outdoors following intoxication at a symposium.

Callimachus Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide varie ...

uses the situation to reflect on self-control, passion, and free will when the obstacle of the door is removed.Niall Livingstone and Gideon Nisbet, ''Epigram'' (Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 73–75.

Latin poetry The history of Latin poetry can be understood as the adaptation of Greek models. The verse comedies of Plautus, the earliest surviving examples of Latin literature, are estimated to have been composed around 205-184 BC. History Scholars conve ...

offers several examples and variations on the ''exclusus amator'' ("shut-out lover") theme. Horace offers a less-than-serious lament in ''Odes'' 3.10 and even threatens the door in 3.26;

Tibullus Albius Tibullus ( BC19 BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins. Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a f ...

(1.2) appeals to the door itself; in Propertius (1.16), the door is the sole speaker. In

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''

Amores Amores may refer to: * ''Amores'' (Ovid), the first book by the poet Ovid, published in 5 volumes in 16 BCE * ''Amores'' (Lucian), a play by Lucian; also known as ''Erotes'' * Erotes (mythology), known as Amores by the Romans * ''Amores'', a bo ...

'' (1.6), the speaker claims he would gladly trade places with the doorkeeper, a slave who is shackled to his post, as he begs the door-keeper to allow him access to his mistress, Corinna. In the ''Metamorphoses'', the famous wall (''invide obstas'') with its chink (''vitium'') that separates the star-crossed lovers,

Pyramus and Thisbe Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The story has since been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses. Their r ...

, seems to be an extension of this motif. The appeal of the paraclausithyron derives from its condensing of the situation of love elegy to the barest essentials: the lover, the beloved and the obstacle, allowing poets to ring variations on a basic theme. This feature of amatory poetry may owe its origin to Greek New Comedy; as is often the case scholars look to Roman comedy to supply the deficiencies of the highly fragmentary remains of the Greek models and in lines 55 to 65 of

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the ...

' ''

Curculio ''Curculio'' is a genus of weevils belonging the family Curculionidae and subfamily Curculioninae. Members of the genus are commonly referred to as acorn weevils or nut weevils as they infest the seeds of trees such as oaks and hickories. The ...

'' is a specimen of a short but nonetheless completely bona fide paraclausithyron. The motif is not merely a historical phenomenon: it continues in contemporary songwriting. Steve Earle's song "More Than I Can Do," for example, gives a typical paraklausithyronic situation with such lines as "Just because you won't unlock your door /That don't mean you don't love me anymore" as does his song "Last of the Hardcore Troubadours," in which the singer addresses a woman, saying "Girl, don't bother to lock your door / He's out there hollering, "Darlin' don't you love me no more?" Similarly, the first two verses of Jimi Hendrix's " Castles Made of Sand" involve paraklausithyronic situation of a man kicked out by his lover. Likewise,

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

's song " Temporary Like Achilles" contains many features typical of the ancient motif (lament at the door, long wait, presence of a guard as a further obstacle, etc.) and recalls the pathos and rhetoric of the Roman elegiac paraclausithyron.

References

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Sources

*Cairns, Francis. ''Generic composition in Greek and Roman poetry''. Edinburgh, University Press, 1972. *Copley, Frank Olin. ''Exclusus amator: a study in Latin love poetry.'' Monographs of the American Philological Society no. 17. Madison, Wis., American Philological Association, 1956. *Cummings, Michael S. ''Observations on the development and code of pre-elegiac paraklausithuron.'' Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Ottawa, 1997. Summary in : DA 1997-1998 58 (10) : 3914A. Microform available from : University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor (Mich.), no. AAT NQ21961. *Thomas, Richard F., "New Comedy, Callimachus, and Roman Poetry", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 83, (1979), pp. 179–206. *Walker, Janet A. "Conventions of Love Poetry in Japan and the West" ''The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese'', Vol. 14, No. 1 (Apr., 1979), pp. 31–65. Poetic devices Ancient Greek literature Latin poetry Latin poems