THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

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P. OVIDII NASONIS
Perque hyemes, oestusque, et insequales autumnos,
Et breve ver, spatiis exegit quatuor annum.
Turn primum siccis ner f'ervoribus ustus
Canduit; et ventis glacies adstricta pependit.
LIBER I.
K argenteaprolessubiit.
deterior auro, pretio-
sior fulvosere. Jupiter
comraxit tempora
7. Turn primum a«»
u»tus siccii fervori-
NOT^E.
The gods then formed a second race of man, Some say he bid his angels turn askance
Degenerate far. and silver yeara began, The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
Unlike the mortals of a golden kind, From the sun's axle; others say the sun
Unlike in frame of limbs, and mould of mind. Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road,
llESIOD. To bring in change of seasons to each clime.
MILTON
2. Subiit . succeeded; in place of the
golden age.
7. Ustus: scorched by the sultry heat.
3. AUTO deterior: worse than gold; thnt
And summer shot
is, than the golden age., but better than the His pestilential heats. THOMSON.
brazen age which followed.
8. Canduit: became so hot in summer,
3. Futvo cere: the yellow brass; the that it might be said to glow.
brazen age.
8. Glacies.- ice, icicles.
4. Jupiter. Jupiter was the son of Sa 8. Adstricta: astricted, congealed by the
turn and Rhea. He appears originally to winds; by the cold atmosphere.
have been the imbodiment of the idea of Astriction is in a substance that hath a vir
the true God, and ws worshipped as the tual cold. BACON
father of gods aud men, and as the Creator Facientes frigora ventos. FAB. I.
of the universe. In this place, he seems 8. Pependit: depended; hung down.
to occupy the place of the Mediator. In
From the frozen beard
the Gothic mythology, he is called Thor, Long icicles depend, and crackling sounds are
the Thunderer, and is called the first-born heard,
of the supreme God. The Edda sty les him Prone from the dripping eave, and dumb cas
a "middle divinity, a mediator between cade.
God and man." He is said to have wrestled Whose idle torrents only seem to roar DBTDKN.
with death, to have bruised the head of the The pendent icicle. THOMSON.serpent,
and, in his final engagement with 9. Turn primum domos. Men had been
him, to have slain him.
accustomed to sleep in the open air, during
4. Contraxit: contracted; shortened the the golden age, because there was per
time.
petual spring, and a mild temperature oi
The sun
air. The inclemency of the atmosphere
Then had his precept so to move, so shine, now compelled them to build houses.
As might affect the earth with cold and heat
The lightsome wall
Scarce tolerable; and from the north to call Of finer masonry, the raftered roof
Decrepit winter ; from the south to bring They knew not; but, like ants, still buried,
Solstitial summer's heat. MILTON.
delved
4. Anliqui veris : the ancient spring, Deep iri the earth, and scooped their sunless
which had been perpetual and constant in caves. JEsciiYLTis.
the golden age.
9. Domvs antra. Their first habitations
Else had the spring were caves, then thick bushes formed a co
Perpetual smiled on earth with verdant flowers, vert, and lastly, poles joined together with
Equal in days and nights. MILTON.
bark, something like the kralle of the mo
5. Hyema: winter; from «w, to rain, to dern Hottentot.
be wet.
Wherein of antres vast, and deserts wild,
The winter keen
It was my bent to speak. SHAKSPEARE.
Shook forth his waste of snows. THOMSON. 11. Semina Cerealia : corn, called the
Unmarked the seasons changed, the biting seed of Ceres, as she first taught mankind
winter,
to sow grain, and use it for food.
The flower*j>erfumed spring, the ripening sum Gre.it nurse, all bounteous, blessed, and divine,
mer. JEsCHYLTTS.
Who joy'st in peace , to nourish corn is thine,
5. JEstiis: heat; here put by metony Goddess of seed, of fruits abundant, fair
my, for summer.
Harvest and threshing are thy constant care.
5. IntEqiuiles autumnos .* variable;
HraiNS OF ORPHEUS
changeful; now hot, now cold; at one Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terrain
time wet, and at another dry.
Instituit. GEORGIC i.
While sickly damps, and cold autumnal jogs, 11. Sulcis obruta : was covered in the
Hung not, relaxing, on the springs of life. turrow.
THOUSOH. Et sulcis frumemiquosreretherbam. VIRGIL.
6. Spatiis: spaces of time; seasons 12. Pressi jugo: pressed under the yoke.
consisting of three months each. After man had lost his innocence, he was
The seasons since have, with severer sway, forced to till the soil. The beasts, also,
Oppressed a broken world. THOMSON. were subjected to labor, in consequence ol
If
FABULA IV.
METAMORPHOSED N.
Turn primum subiere domos. Domus antra fuerunt, ]j
Et densi frutices et vinctse cortice virgse 10 .,ri,
Semina turn primum longis Cerealia sulcis
Obruta sunt, pressique jugo gemuere juvenci.
the earth refusing to afford its spontaneous
fruits.
Ante Jovem nulli subigebant arva coloni.
VIROIL.
12. Gcmuere juvenci: the bullocks
groaned.
Depresso incipiat jam turn mini taurus aratro
Ingemert.—VIRGIL.
He whose toil.
Patient, and ever ready, clothes the land
With all the pomp of hardest; shull lie bleed,
And struggling groan beneath the cruel hands
Kven of Ihe clown he feeds. THOMSON.
NOTJE.
The heathen account of the change upon
the soil, agrees well with the Biblical:
Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow
shall thou eat of it, all the days of thy life.
Thorns, also, and thislies, shall it bring forth to
thce. GENESIS.
Who was Saturn ? I
When did he reign ?
On what condition did he obtain the em
pire of the world ?
What did he do with his children 1
How was Jupiter preserved?
What was this stone called, and what is
the probable meaning of the fable ?
What is the meaning of Beth-elt
Is the Syrian il or ul the same as the
Hebrew el, God ?
Are Baith-ul and Bethel words of the
lame import ?
Where « js Saturn confined f
canduit;
47
Turn
II. Turn primum
Cerealia semina sum
Mox et frumentift labor additns: et mala culmoi
Esset rubigo, segnisque horreret in arvis
Cardints. Imereunt segetes ; subit aspera siha.
VmaiL
Jupiter, also, in the heathen account, re
quires the same severe labor for bread,
which Jehovah does in the Biblical:
In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread.
GENESIS.
Pater ipse colendi
Haud facilem ease viam voluit, primusque per
artem
Movit agros, curis acuens morialia corda.
VIROIL.
But men, through fulness «nd plenty, fell into
wickedness; which condition Jupiter abhorring,
altered the slate of things, and ordered them to
a life of labor. CALAKUS in STRABO.
Never shall they cease from toil and suffering
by day nor night coming on; but the gods shall
give harassing disquietudes. HESIOD.
QU^ESTIONES.
What is to be understood by Tartarus,
in this place ?
What was Imcian's opinion ?
Who is probably meant by Jupiter, in
this fable ?
What is said of the Gothic Jupiter,
Thort
What is said of the shortening of spring?
Into what was the year divided ?
What is said of the earth, and oC tht
cultivation of the ground ?
What is said of labor t
With what do these accounts agree ?