Summary Propertius’ elegies on shipwreck incorporate numerous topoi from Hellenistic Greek epigram, but the new Posidippus papyri (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII.309, Pos. XIV.2-28 Bastianini) are of particular importance for these odes. In 1.17 Propertius uses the propemptikon and the inverse epibaterion as a foundation and adds topoi such as the winds and the fear of sailing. But the ode is indebted to an epigram of Posidippus that equates love with sailing (AP 5.209), and also to the new Posidippus XIV.19-24, with its wish that the drowned man be cast up on the beach, and to Posidippus’ lament by a drowned man (Pos. XIV.13-14). Prop. 3.7 contains an extensive collection of shipwreck topoi, of which more than half and the most significant are found in Posidippus. Some topoi (setting course for Alexandria, the loss of the crew, the prayer that a body be buried at home, and a rebuke to the gods), appear to be unique to Posidippus and Propertius.
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