Los adornos de la puella como medio de comunicación en Tibulo y Propercio

Abstract

Elegiac poets sometimes assumed, without fully realizing its implications, the importance of non-verbal communication to define their beloved women and recreate love affairs and situations. Non-verbal directions constitute an important complement to achieve a more defined image of the puella and her social milieu. In the present essay we will be dealing with both body language and the language of objects –clothes, jewellery, make-up and hair care– which in the elegiac poets’ writings acquire a dynamic value and add to the verbal fields related to the habits and customs of a female sector of society in the age of Tibullus and Propertius.