Queen Berenice<\/em>, about that on another occasion I will try .<\/p>\n\n\tCallimachus, in fragment 73 <\/em>of his work Aitia <\/em>("causes<\/em>" signfica the word that entitled explanations of various religious, cultural, etc. events ) tells us:<\/p>\n\n\tBut graven on your bark may ye bear such writing as shall declare “Cydippe beautiful” <\/strong><\/em>(Translated by A.W. Mair, D.Litt., 1921)<\/p>\n\n\tThe verse refers to the famous and popular love story or love fable "Acontius and Cydippe<\/em>", about that I will discuss in more detail on another occasion. It suffices now know that Acontius <\/em>did get an apple to the girl Cydippe <\/em>with the registration and the formula " I swear by Artemis to take by husband Acontius <\/em>". The reading, though unintended, of this oath joined her them forever in love. We can remember the important "apple<\/em>" plays in love affairs: the judgment of Paris, Helena, Atalanta and Hippomenes<\/em> .<\/p>\n\n\tMany years later, in the V or VI century AD, the Greek Aristaenetus<\/em>, who includes love poems by various authors, including Callimachus<\/em>, for which we serve as an informative complement and testimony splendid view of the few fragments of poet which left us, says:<\/p>\n\n\t"Hopefully, trees, you had understanding and voice, so that only ye should say 'beautiful Cydippe'; or you had such many letters written on your bark. "<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThe lyrical Theocritus<\/em>, who lived in Syracuse <\/em>(Sicily), Cos and Alexandria in the third century BC, in his Idyll XVIII, 48<\/em> (titled Epithalamium of Helena<\/em>) witness us the perhaps ancient practice of Laconia <\/em>and Sparta <\/em>to write on trees:<\/p>\n\n\tFor you afore all shall a coronal of the gray groundling trefoíl
\n\tHang to a shady platan-tree, and a vial of running oil
\n\tHis offering drip from a silver lip beneath the same platan-tree,
\n\tAnd a Doric rede be writ i' the bark for him that passeth by to mark,
\n\t‘I am Helen’s; worship me.’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t(Translated by Edmonds, J M. Loeb Classical Library Volume 28. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Univserity Press. 1912)<\/p>\n
\n\tThe word “epithalamium<\/em>” ( Latin form of Greek \u1f10πιθαλ\u03acμιον, epithalamion<\/em>, from \u1f10π\u03af epi "upon<\/em>," and θ\u03acλαμος thalamus, nuptial chamber, nuptial bed<\/em>), designates the wedding song that in the wedding of a girl the friends of a girl do her in front of the room of the newly betrothed.<\/p>\n\n\tIdyll<\/em> in turn is a Greek word, ε\u1f30δ\u03cdλλιον, transferred into Latin as Idyllium<\/em>, which in principle means short poem. It is a lyric poem of love theme in which the characters are idealized shepherds in an ideal nature. Virgil practiced this literary genre or subgenre in his Eclogues <\/em>or Bucolics<\/em>. On extension a “idyllium<\/em>', romance', can also refer to the certain intensity loving relationship itself.<\/p>\n\n\tThe Greek poet of the III-II century before Christ Glaucus of Nicopolis<\/em> also uses the action of writing in the bark, which is reflected in Palatine Anthology IX 341<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tA. Nymphs answer me truly, if Daphnis on his road rested here his white goats.
\n\tB. Yes, yes, piper Pan, and on the back of that poplar tree he cut a message for thee: “Pan, Pan, go tu Malea; to the mountain of Psophis. I shall come there.”
\n\tA. Farewell Nymphs, I go<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translated by W.R. Paton)<\/p>\n\n\tAlso Virgil <\/em>in his Eclogues 5 tand 10 <\/em> uses this topic.<\/p>\n\n\tIn Eclogue V, 10-18<\/em>, (dialogue between Menalcas <\/em>and Mopsus <\/em>pastors)
\n\t….
\n\tMENALCAS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tDo you first begin,
\n\tgood Mopsus, whether minded to sing aught
\n\tof Phyllis and her loves, or Alcon's praise,
\n\tor to fling taunts at Codrus. Come, begin,
\n\twhile Tityrus watches o'er the grazing kids.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tMOPSUS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tNay, then, I will essay what late I carved
\n\ton a green beech-tree's rind, playing by turns,
\n\tand marking down the notes; then afterward
\n\tbid you Amyntas match them if he can.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tMENALCAS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAs limber willow to pale olive yields,
\n\tas lowly Celtic nard to rose-buds bright,
\n\tso, to my mind, Amyntas yields to you.
\n\tBut hold awhile, for to the cave we come.<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translated by J. B. Greenough, 1895)<\/p>\n\n\t
\n\tMenalcas<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tIncipe, Mopse, prior, si quos aut Phyllidis ignes,
\n\taut Alconis habes laudes, aut iurgia Codri:
\n\tincipe, pascentis servabit Tityrus haedos.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tMopsus<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tImmo haec, in viridi nuper quae cortice fagi
\n\tcarmina descripsi et modulans alterna notavi,
\n\texperiar, tu deinde iubeto ut certet Amyntas.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tMenalcas<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tLenta salix quantum pallenti cedit olivae,
\n\tpuniceis humilis quantum saliunca rosetis,
\n\tiudicio nostro tantum tibi cedit Amyntas.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAnd in the Eclogue X Virgil sings his friend, the poet Cornelius Gallus<\/em>, in love with a whimsical actress named Cytheris <\/em>(what story often repeated) who in the poem is called Lycoris<\/em>; retired to the solitude of an idealized pastoral nature, he writes on the trees the story of his unhappy love:<\/p>\n\n\tEclogue X, 52 et seq<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tResolved am I
\n\tin the woods, rather, with wild beasts to couch,
\n\tand bear my doom, and character my love
\n\tupon the tender tree-trunks: they will grow,
\n\tand you, my love, grow with them<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translated by J. B. Greenough, 1900)<\/p>\n\n\tcertum est in silvis, inter spelaea ferarum
\n\tmalle pati, tenerisque meos incidere amores
\n\tarboribus; crescent illae, crescetis, amores.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAlso the melancholy Propertius<\/em> in his Elegies, I, XVIII, 19-22:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tYou'll be witnesses, if a tree has loves,
\n\tbeech and pine dear to the Arcadian god,
\n\thow often my words resound under your delicate shade
\n\tand is written in your bark the name, Cynthia!<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Transalate byVincent Katz. Los Angeles. Sun & Moon Press. 1995)<\/p>\n\n\tVos eritis testes, si quos haber arbor amores,
\n\tfagus et Arcadio pinus amica deo.
\n\tA quotiens teneras resonant mea verba sub umbras,
\n\tScribitur et vestris Cynthia corticibus!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tOvid <\/strong>also uses the "topos<\/em>" or the poetic "place" in their Heroida V 21-30 <\/em>(letter of old love heroines to her lovers), which conveys the letter that the nymph Oenone <\/em>writes to her husband, the Trojan Paris<\/em>, who later does not hesitate to go to Greece <\/em>and generate with its abduction of Helen<\/em>, wife of Menelaus<\/em>, the leiv-motiv, (what irony!), of the great Trojan War<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\tThe beech trees still preserve my name cut there by your hand; and Oenone, written by your knife, is read upon their bark; and, as the trunk increases, may name still grows:
\n\tGrow on, and rise straight as testimonies of my name!
\n\tThere grows, I remember, a poplar, rooted by the river’s side, on which are carved the letters, testament of our love.
\n\tLive, thou poplar, I pray, fed on the bordering stream, that holds this inscription
\n\tIn your furrowed bark:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tIf Paris is able to live without Oenone, than Xanthus shall would flow back to his source.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tXanthus, rush backwards; turn backward your streams around.
\n\tParis still allows Oenone to be deserted.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tIncisae servant a te mea nomina fagi
\n\tEt legor Oenone falce notata tua;
\n\tEt quantum trunci, tantum mea nomina crescunt.
\n\tCrescite et in títulos surgite recta meos.
\n\tPopulus est, memini, fluvialis consita rivo,
\n\tEst in qua nostri littera scripta memor;
\n\tPopule,vive, precor, quae consita margine ripae
\n\tHoc in rugosa cortice Carmen habes:
\n\t“Cum Paris Oenone poterit spirare relicta,
\n\tAd fontemXanthi versa recurret aqua”
\n\tXanthe, retro propera, versaeque recurrite limphae.
\n\tSustinet Oenonen deseruisse Paris.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t(Note that poplar is the tree that supports the scripture about that Ovid <\/em>tells us, like Machado<\/em>. It's the most logical if we talk about trees "planted on the banks of the river," Xanthos <\/em>and Duero<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\tThis combination of inscribed on the bark of trees love and impossible actions, called “adynata<\/em>” (Greek word which means “impossible actions<\/em>” will be repeated frequently in the later bucolic poetry of the Renaissance<\/em>. The “Adynata<\/em>”, return the river to its sources, the darkening of the sun, the immobility of the sky, are an expression of the world upside down:<\/p>\n\n\tWe can still quote Calpurnius Siculus<\/em> from old , author of the mid-first century BC, Latin poet born in Sicily<\/em>, who wrote (now being questioned authorship of his plays) the Ecloges <\/em>inspired by Theocritus <\/em>and Virgil<\/em>, and he also repeated this “topos” in Bucolic I, 19 ff <\/em>.:<\/p>\n\n\t( Corydon and Ornitus <\/em>brothers take shelter from the heat in the shade of a beech, whose bark are engraved with a poem with the prediction of Faun announces the return of the golden age …)<\/p>\n\n\tORNITUS. Now we have both come beneath the shade we sought. But what legend is this inscribed upon the hallowed beech, which someone of late has scored with hasty knife? Do you notice how the letters still preserve the fresh greenness of their cutting and do not as yet gape with sapless slit?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tCORYDON. Ornytus, look closer. You can more quickly scan the lines inscribed on the bark high up. You have length enough of limb by the bounty of your father, and tall stature ungrudgingly transmitted by your mother.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tORNITUS. These be no verses in wayside style by shepherd or by traveller: 'tis a very god who sings. No ring here of cattle-stall; nor do alpine yodellings make refrains for the sacred lay.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tCORYDON. You tell of miracles! Away with dallying; and at once with eager eye read me through the inspired poem.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tORNITUS. "I, Faunus of celestial birth, guardian of hill and forest, foretell to the nations that these things shall come. Upon the sacred tree I please to carve the joyous lay in which destiny is revealed. Rejoice above all, ye denizens of the woods; rejoice, ye peoples who are mine! …<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translated by J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff)<\/p>\n\n\tORNITUS: et iam captatae pariter successimus umbrae.
\n\t sed quaenam sacra descripta est pagina fago,
\n\t quam modo nescio quis properanti falce notavit?
\n\t aspicis ut virides etiam nunc littera rimas
\n\t servet et arenti nondum se laxet hiatu?
\n\tCORYDON: Ornyte, fer propius tua lumina: tu potes alto
\n\t cortice descriptos citius percurrere versus;
\n\t nam tibi longa satis pater internodia largus
\n\t procerumque dedit mater non invida corpus.
\n\tORNITUS: non pastor, non haec triviali more viator,
\n\t sed deus ipse canit: nihil armentale resultat,
\n\t nec montana sacros distinguunt iubila versus.
\n\tCORYDON : mira refers; sed rumpe moras oculoque sequaci
\n\t quamprimum nobis divinum perlege carmen.
\n\tORNITUS: "qui iuga, qui silvas tueor, satus aethere Faunus,
\n\t haec populis ventura cano: iuvat arbore sacra
\n\t laeta patefactis incidere carmina fatis.
\n\t vos o praecipue nemorum gaudete coloni,
\n\t vos populi gaudete mei:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tNote<\/em>: disclosed fates seem to refer to the advent of Emperor Nero<\/em>, whom sings Calpurnius.<\/p>\n\n\tAnd again he uses on the Bucolic III<\/em> in verses 43 <\/em>and then 91<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\tv. III, 43:<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\tI. Come, speak — for I will carve your words upon the bark of the cherry-tree and then cut away the lines on the red rind and take them to her.<\/strong>
\n\t(Translated by J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff)<\/p>\n\n\tDic age; nam cerasi tua cortice verba notabo
\n\tEt decisa feram rutilanti carmina libro.<\/em>
\n\t.
\n\tv. III,91<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tLYCIDAS: …Yet, ere all is o'er, these lines shall be affixed upon the accursed tree:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\t'Shepherds, put not your trust in fickle maids.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\tPhyllis is loved by Mopsus; the end of all claims Lycidas.' "<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translated by J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff)<\/p>\n\n\tHi tamen ante mala figentur in arbore versus
\n\t“Credere pastores, levibus nolite puellis
\n\tPhyllida Mopsus habet, Lycidam habet ultima rerum”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tAlso Nemesianus<\/em>, in his Eclogue I, v. 28<\/em>-29 writes the praises of Meliboeus <\/em>on a tree trunk:<\/p>\n\n\tBut since you ask but the praise my pipe can give, hear now what the cherry-tree you see beside the river keeps upon this theme; it preserves my lay in the carving on its bark.<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translated by J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff)<\/p>\n\n\tAccipe quae super haec cerasus,quam cernis ad amnem,
\n\tContinent, inciso servans mea carmina libro.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThis love-poetic topic continued to be used extensively in the Middle Ages<\/em> and in the Renaissance<\/em> naturally to this day with the "rebirth" of bucolic poetry. Serve as paradigmatic examples Garcilaso de la Vega<\/em> and the immortal Cervantes, who uses it at least three times in his immortal Life of Don Quixote<\/em> .<\/p>\n\n\tGarcilaso, Eclogue III, vv. 237 et seq.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tOne of those fair goddesses, whose beauty
\n\tseemed to exceed that of all the rest,
\n\ther countenance expressing the great pity
\n\taroused by such a sorrowful event.
\n\tstanding a little to one side, was busy
\n\tcarving on the bark of a tree a text,
\n\twhich was to be the fair nymph’s epitaph,
\n\tdelivering these word on her behalf.<\/em><\/strong>
\n\t(Translated by John Dent-Young, The University of Chicago Press, 2009)<\/p>\n\n\tUna de aquellas diosas, que en belleza,
\n\tal parecer, a todas excedía,
\n\tmostrando en el semblante la tristeza
\n\tque del funesto y triste caso había
\n\tapartado algún tanto, en la corteza
\n\tde un álamo estas letras escribía
\n\tcomo epitafio de la ninfa bella,
\n\tque hablaban así por parte de ella.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tThis verse of Garcilaso <\/em>seems to remind to Sannazaro, Arcadia, VI, 1:<\/em><\/p>\n