THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

246 P. OVIDII NASON15 LIBER III,
Hie metu vacuus, Nomen mihi, dixit, Accetes;
Patria Mseonia est; humili de plebe parentes.
Non mihi, quED duri colerent pater arva juvenci,
Lanigerosve greges, non ulla armenta reliquit.
Pauper et ipse fuit; linoque solebat et hamis 10
Decipere, et calamo sah'entes ducere pisces.
Ars illi sua census erat. Cum traderet artem;
Accipe, quas habeo, studii successor et haeres,
12. Cum tracleiet ar
Dixit, opes; moriensque mihi nihil ille reliquit, tem dixit: accipe - suc ...
13 _ * 1 1 , ceasor cessor et lucres lucres studii, studii,
rrffiter aquas: unum hoc possum appellare paternum. 15 opes quas imbeo; mo-
Mox ego, ne scopulis hsererem semper in isdem, niwf^mihi'6 'prater
Addidici regimen, dextra moderante, carinse aquas.
Flectere: et Olenice sidus pluviale capellffi,
Taygetenque, Hyadasque oculis Arctonque notavi,
Ventorumque domos, et portus puppibus aptos. 20
NOTVE.
PEN This too thy art hath waived, and told
me nought.
BAG. To instruct the wise in wisdom argues
weakness.
PEN. Games! thou here first to introduce the
god?
BAC. These orgies each barbaric region holds.
PEN. Less wise than the enlightened sons ol
Greece?
BAC. In this more wise, though differing in
their laws.
PEN. Hold you tnese rites by night, or in the
day?
BAC. Chiefly by night; darkness creates an
awe.
PEN. This tempts aud poisons female chastity.
BAC. Even in the day foul deeds are often
found.
PHN. Thou must be punished for thy sophistry.
BAC. Thou for thy folly, impious 'gainst the
god. BACCHJB.
5. Cur Jrequentes: why thou celebrates!
6. Aceeles. Homer, m describing the
same story of Bacchus and the pirates,
gives Mededes as the name of the pilot.
7. Mtsonia. A part of Lydia was for
merly called Mseonia. Tyrrhenus, the son
of Atys, led a colony into Tuscany; hence
Accetes was a Mseonian by birth, and a
Tyrrhenian or Tuscan by habitation.
10. Lino: with the line, or the net. Li-
num, flax, the material, is put for the thing
made, by metonymy.
11. Calamo: with the reed; with the
fishing-rod.
11. Ducere: to draw out; to draw to
land.
11. Salicntes piscee: the leaping fishes.
IS. Arf illi census: his art was his in
come ; his art was his estate.
Privatus illis census erat brevis.
HORAT. Lib. ii. Od. 15.
13. Studiisuccessor: the successor of my
employment; my profession.
15. Unum ftoc paternum: this alone pa
ternal. The waters were his only patrimony.
16. Scopulis isdem: upon the same rocks,
viz. the rocks where his father had fished,
before him.
18. Olenice capellts: of the Olenian kid.
The goat Amalthea, which nourished Ju
piter, was called Olenia, because it was
kept in the town of lhat name, or because,
when translated to heaven, it was placed
in the shoulder (dAo/as) of Auriga. Storms
of rain are common at its rising, and hence
it is called s idus pluviale, by Pliny and
others. Virgil mentions the importance
of the observation of this sign by husband
men and mariners:
Prtclerea tarn eunt Arcturi sidera nobis,
llredorumque dies servandi, el lueidus anguis;
C^uam quibus in patriam ventosa per cequora
vectis
Pontus et ostriferi fauces tentantur Abydi.
GEOBOIC i. 204
Tost iusania Capne sidera.
HOKAT Lib. iii. Od- 7.
19. Taygeten. O ne of the Pleiades, a
constellation situated in the neck of the
sign Taurus.
19. Hyndas. The daughters of Atlas
and ,/Ethra, who lamented their brother
Hyas with great violence, and were
changed by Jupiter into a constellation,
situated in the forehead of Taurus.
19. A rcton. He particularly mentions
Arctos, or the Bear, because of their im
portance to mariners. The poet here uses
Arctos in the singular number. This is
done either by virtue of synecdoche, or be
cause the ancient Greek poets, Homer and
others, appear to have known only the
Greater Bear. The Greeks steered by
Helict, in that constellation, while the
Sidonians steered by the Cynosura, or
Little Bear. Hence Ovid:
Ease duas Arclos, quorum Cynosura petatur
Sidoniis, Hcliceii Graia carina iiotet.
FAST. iii. 107
I
I
FABULA VIII. METAMORPHOSE ON. 247
Forte petens Delon, Dies telluris ad eras
Applicor, et dcxtris adducor littora remis:
Deque leves saltus; udoeque immittor arence.
Nox ubi consumpta est; Aurora rubescere primiim
Cczperat; exsurgo, laticesque inferre recentes 25
Admoneo; monstroque viam quse ducat ad undas,
Ipse, quid aura mihi tumulo promittat ab alto,
Prospicio; comitesque voco, repetoque carinam.
Adsumus, en! inquit sociorum primus Opheltes;
Utque putat, prsedam deserto nactus in^agro,
Virginea puerum ducit per littora forma.
Ille, mere somnoque gravis, titubare videtur;
Vixque sequi: specto cultum, faciemque gradumque:
Nil iii, quod posset credi mortale, videbam.
Et sensi, et dixi sociis, Quod numen in isto
Corpore sit, dubito; sed corpore numen in isto est.
Quisquis es, O ! faveas, nostrisque laboribus adsis,
His quoque des veniam. Pro nobis mitte precari,
Dictys ait; quo non alius conscendere summas
Ocyor antennas, prensoque rudente relabi:
Hoc Libys, hoc flavus prorce tutela Melanthus,
Hoc prolat Alcimedon; et, qui requiemque inodumque
Voce dabat remis, animorum hortator Epopeus:
Hoc omnes alii: prsedze tarn cceca cupido est.
Non tamen hanc sacro violari pondere pinum 45
Perpetiar, dixi; pars hie mihi maxima juris.
NOT-ffi.
20. Ventorum domos. The different
quarters of the winds are spoken of as their
regions or habitations. In Fable I., Book
I., Ovid eives an account of the different
regions of the winds. So Virgil:
Eurique Zephyrique tonat domus.
GEORGIC i. 371.
21. Dilon. Delos was an island in Mare
^Egseum, or A rchipelago, one of the Cy-
cladcs, where Apollo and Diana were born.
21. D ies. Dia was an ancient name of
the island of Naxos.
25. Latices inferre. To take in fresh
water for the use of the voyage.
27. Quid aura promittat: what the wind
may promise. Virgil, in like manner, de
scribes Palinurus, the pilot of ./Eneas, as
anxious to forecast the weather:
1 loud negnis slrato surgit Palinurns, et ornnes
Kxplorat ventos, atque auribus ae'm capiat.
..T^NFm iii. 513.
31. Vimiiiea forma: of virgin-like form.
This is the nppcnrnnce always attributed to
the Tbcban Bacchus:
PEV. Vet not nnprneeful, stranper, is thy form.
Charming ttic « omen, and for this tliou comcst
To Tin-lies : tliy lenplli of liuir. pnl-rslric toils
Denoting not, flows Inosely round Ih\ cheek,
Awakeninl snfr ilp-»ires; mill that filir skin
Of cherisl ctl w luli-iiess never felt the touch
30
35
40
27. lp.se prospicio ab
alto tumulo quid aura
promittat mihi
41. Libys hoc, fla-
vus Melanthus tutela
PTOKB hoc, Alcimedon
probat hoc.
Of the sun's beams; but, nursed in sheltering
shades.
Aims with its beauty to enkindle love. BACCH.S.
Qualis iratam metuens novercam
Creveras falsps. imitatus anus.
Crine flavemi simulata virgo
Luteam vestem retinente zona. SENEC. CErtP
33. Gradum. As Bacchus comes stum
bling along, videtur litubare, ActBtes re
cognises in his ga\t a deity. With our
modern views of the virtue of temperance,
on seeing him reeling, we would have been
more likely to have recognised a beast.
But from subsequent statements of the
poet, we are led to infer that Bacchus as
sumed this appearance of intoxication,
that the sailors might carry out their own
wicked intentions, and thus draw down up
on their heads merhed punishment.
35. Quod nvmen. Homer, in his Hymn
to Bacchus, relates the same story. The
captain of the vessel takes the deiiy to be
Jupiter, Apollo, or Neptune.
40. Kudenterelati: t o glide down a rope.
41. Prone tutela: the guard of the prcw.
He stood there on the lookout, or for the
purpose of sounding the depths.
42. Qui requiem. There was an officer,
who, by his voice, or by the stroke of a