Like the lovers of Roman elegy, the speaker of
C. 1.19 claims to be dominated by his beloved. As in elegy,
however, this "inversion" is a sham. The speaker retains control over his
beloved while ...expressing his secret hostility toward her. Associating
Glycera's body with toxic, uncontrolled nature, the lover claims that
he risks harm simply by gazing upon her. He attempts to control his
unruly object of desire by identifying her as material for his poetry,
by immobilizing her as a statue, and by symbolically killing/penetrating
her in the ode's closing sacrifice.
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