Her Turn to Cry: The Politics of Weeping in Roman Love Elegy

Roman love elegy presents its male speakers as weeping helplessly for a cruel mistress, the dura puella. Though this image has dominated the reception of elegy, Ovid's Ars amatoria and Amores deviate strikingly: in these works the lover seeks to see his mistress weep. Further review demonstrates the same desire, well hidden, in the elegies of Propertius and Tibullus. This paper argues that Ovid shows the resentment underlying the elegiac lover's tears, along with the desire for revenge in the form of his beloved's compensatory tears.