THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

276 P. OVIDII HASONIS LIBER IV.
Ac super ostendit. Cur non stimuletur, eatque
Per cognata suis excmpk furoribus Ino ?
Est via declivis funesta nubila taxo :
Ducit ad infcrnas per muta silentia sedcs.
Styx nebulas exhalat iners : uinbreeque recentes
Descendunt iliac, simulacraque functa sepulcris.
Pallor, Hyemsque tencnt late loca senta : novique
Q,ua fit her, manes, Stygiam quod ducit ad urbeni,
Ignorant: ubi sit nigri fera regia Ditis.
Mille capax aditus, et apertas undique portas
Urbs habet: utque fretum de tola flumina terra,
Sic omnes animas locus accipit ille ; nee ulli
Exiguus populo est, turbamve accedere sentit.
Errant exsangues sine corpore et ossibus umbra?:
Parsque forum celebrant, pars ima tecta tyranni;
Pars alias artes, antiquas imitamina vita?
Exercent: aliam partem sua pcena coercet.
Sustinet ire illuc coelesti sede relicta,
(Tantum odiis ineque dabat), Saturnia Juno.
Gudsimul intravit, sacroque a corpore pressum
17. Est via. The construction of this
line is very similar to that of Lib. I., Fab.
VII., line 6.
Est via sublimis, ccelo mftnifesta sereno.
17. Taxo. The ancienta believed that
the juice of the yew-tree was poisonous,
and ihat it would cause death to slumber
under it. Hence it is represented as sha
ding the path to the infernal regions. Vir
gil describes the descent to the Shades aa
steep, and shaded .with gloomy trees :
These rites performed, the prince, without delay,
Hastes, to llie nether world, his destined way.
Deep was the cave ; and, downward as it went
From the wide mouth, a rocky rough descent ;
And here th' access a gloomy grove defends.
JEirelD vi. 238.
20. Functa sepulcris : having enjoyed
sepulcral rites ; having been buried. The
unhappy souls that had not received the
riles of burial, were forced to wander a
hundred years on the hanks of the Styx.
Hence, Virgil :
The ghosts rejected are th1 unhappy crew
Deprived of sepulcres and funeral due :
The boatman, Charon : those, the buried host,
He ferries over lo the farther coast ;
Nor dares his transport vessel cross the waves
Wiir> such whose bones are not composed ia
graves.
A hundred years they wander on the shore ;
At length, their penance done, are wafted o'er.
vi. 325.
21. Pallor, Hyemi. Paleness, coldness,
silence, torpidity, and the like symptoms
of death, are happily represented as dwell
ing here. Virgil gives a more extended
description of the inhabiiaiits, which are
NOTJE.
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20
25
30
33. Saturnia Juno
ede ccelesti rclictft,
ftustinet ire illuc.
personificaiions of human passions, affec
tions, and vices:
Just in the gate, and in the jaws of hell,
Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell,
And pale Diseases, and repining Age,
Want. Fear, and Famine's unresisted rage;
Here Toils, and Death, and Death's half-brother,
Sleep,
Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep;
'With anxious pleasures of a guilty mind,
Deep Frauds before, and open Force behind;
The Furies' iron beds; and Strife, that shake*
Her hissing tresses, and unfolds her snakes.
-A:\EID vi. 273.
23. Ignorant. The ghosts are described
as wandering about, unacquainted with the
way. So Virgil:
Obscure they went through dreary shades that
led
Along the waste dominions of the dead:
Thus wander travellers in woods by night,
By the moon's doubtful and malignant light.
JEraiD vi. 208.
25. Utque fretum. This is a beautiful
resemblance.
26. Ulli populo: to any people, viz. to
any multitude of people.
29. Forum celebrant: frequent the forum.
The ghosts are represented as still delight
ing in what had interested them in life.
31. Sua pcena: their proper punishment.
34. Ingemuit limen. The threshold
groaned with the weight of the goddess.
It had been accustomed to feel the weight
of ghosts only. So Virgil, in describing
the effect of the body of TEneag on the
boat of Charon:
He clears the deck, receives the mighty freight,
The leaky vessel groans beneath the weight.
JENIID vi. 413
FAEULA III. METAMORPHOSED N. 277
Ingemuit limen; tria Cerberus extulit ora ; 35
Et tres latratus simul edidit. Ilia sorores
Nocte vocat genitas, grave et implacabile numen,
Careen's ante fores clausas adamante sedebant;
Deque suis atros pectebant crinibus angues.
Q.uam simul agnorunt inter caliginis umbras, 40
Surrexere Deee. Sedcs Scelerata vocatur.
Viscera prabebat Tityos lanianda ; novemque
Jugeribus distentus erat. Tibi, Tantale, nullse
Deprenduntur aquai; quasque imimnet, enugit arbor:
Aut petis, aut urges ruiturum, Sisyphe, saxum. 45
35. Cerberus. Cerberus was the guar
dian of Hell, a dog with three heads, one
of a lion, another of a wolf, nnd the third
of a dog. Horace describes him as having
a hundred heads:
Demitiit atras bellim centiceps
Aures. LIB. ii. Ob. xiii. 34.
Hesiod describes Cerberus as having
fifty heads :
And next n monstrous birili, the dog of Hell :
Blood-fed and brazen- voiced, and bold, and
strong,
The fifty-headed Cerberus. THEOGONY.
36. Tres latratus. Cerberus uttered
three different barkings from as many dif
ferent heads. So Virgil:
Cerberus hiec ingens latratu regna trifauci
Personal. JEKEID vi. 417.
37. Nocte zenitas. The Furies Alecto,
Mcgaera, and Tisiphone, were said to be
the daughters of Acheron and Nox.
38. Jk-ores adamante. The doors are said
to be of adamant, as tnat is of the most
solid character. Milton, in his description
of Hell, far exceeds our poet :
At last appear
Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof;
And thrice threefold the gates: three folds were
brass.
Three iron, three of adamantine rock,
Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire,
Yet uncousumed. PARADISE LOST.
38. Sedebant .- were Fitting. Virgil, in
like manner describes the Fury, Tisiphone,
as keeping guard at the gates of Hell :
Wide ie the fronting gate, and, raised on high
With adamantine columns, threat the sky.
Vain ie the force of man, find heaven's as vain,
To rru«h the pillars which the pile sustain.
Puli lime on these a tower of steel is reared ;
And dire T .iphoue there keeps the ward. Vi. 552.
41. Suricxere Detp.. The Furies arose.
41. Kedts Scflernta: the habitation of ihe
wicked. So Virgil :
Tie here in different paths, the way divides:
The rislit to Fluid's golden palace guides,
The lefl to thai unhappy region tends
Which to the dtpth of Tartarus extends
The seat of night profound, and punished fiends.
vi. 540.
43. Belidesque ausse
moliri lelum suis pa-
truclibus assidure re-
42. Tityos. Tilyus was the son of
Terra, a giant of prodigious size, whose
body covered nine acres of land. He of
fered insult to Latonn, for which he was
confined in the Infernal Regions, with a
vullure preying upon his bowels as they
grew. The ficiion probably has reference
to some volcano. Homer cives a descrip
tion of this monster, which is again imi
tated by Virgil:
There Tilyus, large and long, in fetters bound,
OVrspreail nine acres of infernal ground ;
Two ravenous vuliures, furious for their food,
Scream o'er the fiend, and riot in his blood,
Incessant gore the liver in his breast,
The immortal liver grows and gives the immor
tal feast. ODYSSEY xi.
There Tityns was to see, who took his birth
From heaven, his nursing from the foodful earth
Here his gigantic limbs, with large embrace,
Infold nine acres of infernal space.
A ravenous vullure in his opened side,
Her crooked beak and cruel talons tried;
Pate for the growing liver, digged his breast:
The growing liver still supplied the feast.
jErfEiD vi. 595.
43. Tantale. Tantalus was the son of
Jupiter, and a king of Phrygia. Admitted
to the table of the gods, he betrayed their
secreis. For this crime, or, according to
some, for killing his son, and serving him
up to the gods, he was condemned in ihe
Infernal Regions to suffer perpetual thirst,
though immersed in water up to the chin.
He was doomed to perpetual hunger also,
though food was temptingly spread before
him, which always fled his touch. Homer
gives a vigorous description of this:
There Tantalus along the Stygian bounds
Fours onl deep groans: wilh groans all Hell
resounds;
E'en in Ihe circling floods refreshmenl craves,
And pines witli thirst umidpi a sea of waves:
When to the water he his lip applies,
Hack from his lip the treacherous water flies.
Ahove, beneath, around his hnpless head.
Trees of all kinds delicious fruitage spread ;
There fig*, sky-dyed, a purple hue disrlose,
Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows,
There dangling pears exalted scents unfold,
And yellow apples ripen into gold;
The fruit he strives to seize, hut blasts arise,
Toss it on high, and whirl it to the skies.
ODYSSEY n
2 A