Paraklausithyron () is a motif in

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

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 (, ; ) 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 equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tr ...

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'' (; : ''kōmoi'') was a ritualistic drunken procession performed by revelers in ancient Greece, whose participants were known as ''kōmasts'' (κωμασταί, ''kōmastaí''). Its precise nature has been difficult to reconstruct ...

'', the revels of young people outdoors following intoxication at a

symposium In Ancient Greece, the symposium (, ''sympósion'', from συμπίνειν, ''sympínein'', 'to drink together') was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, o ...

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, most of which ...

uses the situation to reflect on self-control, passion, and free will when the obstacle of the door is removed.

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 conv ...

offers several examples and variations on the ''exclusus amator'' ("shut-out lover") theme.

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

offers a less-than-serious lament in ''Odes'' 3.10 and even threatens the door in 3.26;

Tibullus Albius Tibullus ( BC 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 few r ...

(1.2) appeals to the door itself; in

Propertius Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium (now Assisi) and died shortly after 15 BC. Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of '' Elegies'' ('). He was a friend of the ...

(1.16), the door is the sole speaker. In

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

's '' Amores'' (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 In Greek mythology, Pyramus and Thisbe () are a pair of ill-fated lovers from Babylon, whose story is best known from Ovid's narrative poem ''Metamorphoses''. The tragic myth has been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe's parents, drive ...

, 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 ( ; 254 – 184 BC) 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 genre devised by Livius Andro ...

' ''

Curculio ''Curculio'' is a genus of weevils belonging the family Curculionidae The Curculionidae are a family of weevils, commonly called snout beetles or true weevils. They are one of the largest animal families with 6,800 genera and 83,000 specie ...

'' is a specimen of a short but nonetheless completely bona fide paraklausithyron. After Ovid, the disappears from Latin poetry.Canter, H. V. (1920)
"The ''paraclausithyron'' as a literary theme"
''The American Journal of Philology'', 41(4), 355–368; pp. 365–366. The motif is not merely a historical phenomenon: it continues in contemporary songwriting.

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American country, rock, and folk singer-songwriter. He began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Earle's breakthrough album was his 1986 debut album '' ...

'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 James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

'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. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

's song "

Temporary Like Achilles "Temporary Like Achilles" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that was released on side three of his double album, ''Blonde on Blonde'' (1966). The song was written by Dylan, and produced by Bob Johnston. It was recorded at Columb ...

" 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

Sources

*Cairns, Francis (1972). ''Generic composition in Greek and Roman poetry''. Edinburgh, University Press. *Canter, H. V. (1920). "The ''paraclausithyron'' as a literary theme". ''The American Journal of Philology'', 41(4), 355–368. *Copley, F. O. (1942, January). "On the origin of certain features of the Paraclausithyron". ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' (pp. 96–107). {{doi, 10.2307/283540 *Cummings, Michael S. (1997) ''Observations on the development and code of pre-elegiac paraklausithuron.'' Thesis (Ph.D.) – University of Ottawa. Summary in : DA 1997–1998 58 (10) : 3914A. Microform available from : University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor (Mich.), no. AAT NQ21961. *Thomas, Richard F. (1979), "New Comedy, Callimachus, and Roman Poetry", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 83, pp. 179–206. *Walker, Janet A. (1979). "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. Literary motifs Ancient Greek poetry Latin poetry Pyramus and Thisbe