Abstract

In 2, 1, 67–72 Tibull mentions Cupido′s birth and first archery practice in the countryside. This detail has been regarded as isolated; the fact that Tibull introduces it with dicitur has been interpreted as a typically Alexandrian reference to a learned authority and show of erudition. This article states, (1) that there is a parallel for Tib. 2, 1, 67–72 in Ov. met. 1, 454–465, not yet recognized; both passages go back to a common, probably Hellenistic, source. (2) An analysis of Tibull′s use of phrases like dicitur can show that dicitur is not used as a typically Hellenistic learned reference, but as a reference to the authority of common knowledge.