THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
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246 P. OVIDII <strong>NASO</strong>N15 LIBER III,<br />
Hie metu vacuus, Nomen mihi, dixit, Accetes;<br />
Patria Mseonia est; humili de plebe parentes.<br />
Non mihi, quED duri colerent pater arva juvenci,<br />
Lanigerosve greges, non ulla armenta reliquit.<br />
Pauper et ipse fuit; linoque solebat et hamis 10<br />
Decipere, et calamo sah'entes ducere pisces.<br />
Ars illi sua census erat. Cum traderet artem;<br />
Accipe, quas habeo, studii successor et haeres,<br />
12. Cum tracleiet ar<br />
Dixit, opes; moriensque mihi nihil ille reliquit, tem dixit: accipe - suc ...<br />
13 _ * 1 1 , ceasor cessor et lucres lucres studii, studii,<br />
rrffiter aquas: unum hoc possum appellare paternum. 15 opes quas imbeo; mo-<br />
Mox ego, ne scopulis hsererem semper in isdem, niwf^mihi'6 'prater<br />
Addidici regimen, dextra moderante, carinse aquas.<br />
Flectere: et Olenice sidus pluviale capellffi,<br />
Taygetenque, Hyadasque oculis Arctonque notavi,<br />
Ventorumque domos, et portus puppibus aptos. 20<br />
NOTVE.<br />
PEN This too thy art hath waived, and told<br />
me nought.<br />
BAG. To instruct the wise in wisdom argues<br />
weakness.<br />
PEN. Games! thou here first to introduce the<br />
god?<br />
BAC. These orgies each barbaric region holds.<br />
PEN. Less wise than the enlightened sons ol<br />
Greece?<br />
BAC. In this more wise, though differing in<br />
their laws.<br />
PEN. Hold you tnese rites by night, or in the<br />
day?<br />
BAC. Chiefly by night; darkness creates an<br />
awe.<br />
PEN. This tempts aud poisons female chastity.<br />
BAC. Even in the day foul deeds are often<br />
found.<br />
PHN. Thou must be punished for thy sophistry.<br />
BAC. Thou for thy folly, impious 'gainst the<br />
god. BACCHJB.<br />
5. Cur Jrequentes: why thou celebrates!<br />
6. Aceeles. Homer, m describing the<br />
same story of Bacchus and the pirates,<br />
gives Mededes as the name of the pilot.<br />
7. Mtsonia. A part of Lydia was for<br />
merly called Mseonia. Tyrrhenus, the son<br />
of Atys, led a colony into Tuscany; hence<br />
Accetes was a Mseonian by birth, and a<br />
Tyrrhenian or Tuscan by habitation.<br />
10. Lino: with the line, or the net. Li-<br />
num, flax, the material, is put for the thing<br />
made, by metonymy.<br />
11. Calamo: with the reed; with the<br />
fishing-rod.<br />
11. Ducere: to draw out; to draw to<br />
land.<br />
11. Salicntes piscee: the leaping fishes.<br />
IS. Arf illi census: his art was his in<br />
come ; his art was his estate.<br />
Privatus illis census erat brevis.<br />
HORAT. Lib. ii. Od. 15.<br />
13. Studiisuccessor: the successor of my<br />
employment; my profession.<br />
15. Unum ftoc paternum: this alone pa<br />
ternal. The waters were his only patrimony.<br />
16. Scopulis isdem: upon the same rocks,<br />
viz. the rocks where his father had fished,<br />
before him.<br />
18. Olenice capellts: of the Olenian kid.<br />
The goat Amalthea, which nourished Ju<br />
piter, was called Olenia, because it was<br />
kept in the town of lhat name, or because,<br />
when translated to heaven, it was placed<br />
in the shoulder (dAo/as) of Auriga. Storms<br />
of rain are common at its rising, and hence<br />
it is called s idus pluviale, by Pliny and<br />
others. Virgil mentions the importance<br />
of the observation of this sign by husband<br />
men and mariners:<br />
Prtclerea tarn eunt Arcturi sidera nobis,<br />
llredorumque dies servandi, el lueidus anguis;<br />
C^uam quibus in patriam ventosa per cequora<br />
vectis<br />
Pontus et ostriferi fauces tentantur Abydi.<br />
GEOBOIC i. 204<br />
Tost iusania Capne sidera.<br />
HOKAT Lib. iii. Od- 7.<br />
19. Taygeten. O ne of the Pleiades, a<br />
constellation situated in the neck of the<br />
sign Taurus.<br />
19. Hyndas. The daughters of Atlas<br />
and ,/Ethra, who lamented their brother<br />
Hyas with great violence, and were<br />
changed by Jupiter into a constellation,<br />
situated in the forehead of Taurus.<br />
19. A rcton. He particularly mentions<br />
Arctos, or the Bear, because of their im<br />
portance to mariners. The poet here uses<br />
Arctos in the singular number. This is<br />
done either by virtue of synecdoche, or be<br />
cause the ancient Greek poets, Homer and<br />
others, appear to have known only the<br />
Greater Bear. The Greeks steered by<br />
Helict, in that constellation, while the<br />
Sidonians steered by the Cynosura, or<br />
Little Bear. Hence Ovid:<br />
Ease duas Arclos, quorum Cynosura petatur<br />
Sidoniis, Hcliceii Graia carina iiotet.<br />
FAST. iii. 107<br />
I<br />
I<br />
FABULA VIII. METAMORPHOSE ON. 247<br />
Forte petens Delon, Dies telluris ad eras<br />
Applicor, et dcxtris adducor littora remis:<br />
Deque leves saltus; udoeque immittor arence.<br />
Nox ubi consumpta est; Aurora rubescere primiim<br />
Cczperat; exsurgo, laticesque inferre recentes 25<br />
Admoneo; monstroque viam quse ducat ad undas,<br />
Ipse, quid aura mihi tumulo promittat ab alto,<br />
Prospicio; comitesque voco, repetoque carinam.<br />
Adsumus, en! inquit sociorum primus Opheltes;<br />
Utque putat, prsedam deserto nactus in^agro,<br />
Virginea puerum ducit per littora forma.<br />
Ille, mere somnoque gravis, titubare videtur;<br />
Vixque sequi: specto cultum, faciemque gradumque:<br />
Nil iii, quod posset credi mortale, videbam.<br />
Et sensi, et dixi sociis, Quod numen in isto<br />
Corpore sit, dubito; sed corpore numen in isto est.<br />
Quisquis es, O ! faveas, nostrisque laboribus adsis,<br />
His quoque des veniam. Pro nobis mitte precari,<br />
Dictys ait; quo non alius conscendere summas<br />
Ocyor antennas, prensoque rudente relabi:<br />
Hoc Libys, hoc flavus prorce tutela Melanthus,<br />
Hoc prolat Alcimedon; et, qui requiemque inodumque<br />
Voce dabat remis, animorum hortator Epopeus:<br />
Hoc omnes alii: prsedze tarn cceca cupido est.<br />
Non tamen hanc sacro violari pondere pinum 45<br />
Perpetiar, dixi; pars hie mihi maxima juris.<br />
NOT-ffi.<br />
20. Ventorum domos. The different<br />
quarters of the winds are spoken of as their<br />
regions or habitations. In Fable I., Book<br />
I., Ovid eives an account of the different<br />
regions of the winds. So Virgil:<br />
Eurique Zephyrique tonat domus.<br />
GEORGIC i. 371.<br />
21. Dilon. Delos was an island in Mare<br />
^Egseum, or A rchipelago, one of the Cy-<br />
cladcs, where Apollo and Diana were born.<br />
21. D ies. Dia was an ancient name of<br />
the island of Naxos.<br />
25. Latices inferre. To take in fresh<br />
water for the use of the voyage.<br />
27. Quid aura promittat: what the wind<br />
may promise. Virgil, in like manner, de<br />
scribes Palinurus, the pilot of ./Eneas, as<br />
anxious to forecast the weather:<br />
1 loud negnis slrato surgit Palinurns, et ornnes<br />
Kxplorat ventos, atque auribus ae'm capiat.<br />
..T^NFm iii. 513.<br />
31. Vimiiiea forma: of virgin-like form.<br />
This is the nppcnrnnce always attributed to<br />
the Tbcban Bacchus:<br />
PEV. Vet not nnprneeful, stranper, is thy form.<br />
Charming ttic « omen, and for this tliou comcst<br />
To Tin-lies : tliy lenplli of liuir. pnl-rslric toils<br />
Denoting not, flows Inosely round Ih\ cheek,<br />
Awakeninl snfr ilp-»ires; mill that filir skin<br />
Of cherisl ctl w luli-iiess never felt the touch<br />
30<br />
35<br />
40<br />
27. lp.se prospicio ab<br />
alto tumulo quid aura<br />
promittat mihi<br />
41. Libys hoc, fla-<br />
vus Melanthus tutela<br />
PTOKB hoc, Alcimedon<br />
probat hoc.<br />
Of the sun's beams; but, nursed in sheltering<br />
shades.<br />
Aims with its beauty to enkindle love. BACCH.S.<br />
Qualis iratam metuens novercam<br />
Creveras falsps. imitatus anus.<br />
Crine flavemi simulata virgo<br />
Luteam vestem retinente zona. SENEC. CErtP<br />
33. Gradum. As Bacchus comes stum<br />
bling along, videtur litubare, ActBtes re<br />
cognises in his ga\t a deity. With our<br />
modern views of the virtue of temperance,<br />
on seeing him reeling, we would have been<br />
more likely to have recognised a beast.<br />
But from subsequent statements of the<br />
poet, we are led to infer that Bacchus as<br />
sumed this appearance of intoxication,<br />
that the sailors might carry out their own<br />
wicked intentions, and thus draw down up<br />
on their heads merhed punishment.<br />
35. Quod nvmen. Homer, in his Hymn<br />
to Bacchus, relates the same story. The<br />
captain of the vessel takes the deiiy to be<br />
Jupiter, Apollo, or Neptune.<br />
40. Kudenterelati: t o glide down a rope.<br />
41. Prone tutela: the guard of the prcw.<br />
He stood there on the lookout, or for the<br />
purpose of sounding the depths.<br />
42. Qui requiem. There was an officer,<br />
who, by his voice, or by the stroke of a