Biting Animals and Human Bites. Embodied Metaphors and Experiences in Latin Elegy

In this paper, I delve into the significance of human bites within contexts of jealousy as portrayed in elegiac texts, focusing on the works of Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. I aim to explore the connections between this theme and the way in which certain emotions, especially envy and jealousy, can be understood and linguistically elaborated in Latin. To accomplish this, I conduct a corpus-based and target-orientated research study utilizing lexemes associated with the semantic fields of jealousy and envy, found in the Library of Latin Texts corpus published by Brepols. These lexemes include invidia, livor, aemulatio, obtrectatio, and malevolentia. Through this analysis, it becomes evident that jealousy and envy can be comprehended and conveyed via metaphors that involve animals biting the experiencer (hereafter “biting animal metaphors”).