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THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

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90 P. <strong>NASO</strong>NIS<br />

Nilus, et antique sua flumina reddidit alveo,<br />

^Ethereoque recens exarsit sidere limus ;<br />

Plurima cuJlores versis animalia glebis 10<br />

Inveniunt: et in his quoedam mode coepta sub ipsum<br />

Nascendi spatium: qusedam imperfecta, suisque<br />

Trunca vident numeris: et eodem in corpore ssepe<br />

Altera pars vivit, rudis est pars altera tellus.<br />

Quippe ubi temperiem sumsere humorque calorque, 15<br />

Concipiunt: et ab his oriuntur cuncta duobus.<br />

Cumque sit ignis aquse pugnax, vapor humidus omnes<br />

Res creat, et discors concordia fetibus apta est.<br />

Ergo ubi diluvio teJlus lutulenta recenti<br />

Solibus cethereis, altoque recanduit EEstu; 20<br />

Edidit innumeras species : partimque figuras<br />

empties into the Mediterranean. Of the<br />

seven mouths, but two remain, the Ro-<br />

eetta branch, (Ostium Canopicum,) and the<br />

Damietta branch, (Oslium Phatmeticum,)<br />

which, together with the Mediterranean<br />

Sea, form the Delta of Egypt. The pe<br />

riodical rains in Abyssinia, which occur<br />

when the sun is vertical there, cause the<br />

Nile to overflow its banks about the first<br />

of June. The inundation continues till<br />

September, or even October, and fertilizes<br />

the country by a rich deposit of alluvian.<br />

The river Nile:<br />

See vhere it flows, disgorging at seven mouths,<br />

Into the sea. MU.TOX.<br />

9. JEthereo sidere : the ethereal planet;<br />

the sun.<br />

9. Recens limus: the fresh mud.<br />

9. Eicarsit: lias become heated.<br />

10. Cultores: the husbandmen.<br />

10. Versis elefiis: on the sod being turned<br />

tip; viz. by the plough.<br />

11. Inveniunt: they find many animals.<br />

Certain insects and worms may be pro<br />

duced from corruption, but by no means<br />

animals, as related by the poet. He seems<br />

to have copied after Diodorus Siculus and<br />

Pliny.<br />

11. Sub ipsum spatium: at the very time<br />

of being formed.<br />

13. Trunca numeris: destitute of their<br />

parts.<br />

The grassy clods now calved; now half ap<br />

peared<br />

The tawny lion, pawing to get free<br />

His himler parts; then springs, as hroke from<br />

bonds.<br />

And rampant shakes his brindled mane. MILTOX.<br />

14. A ltera pars vivit: one part is alive ;<br />

ia quickened.<br />

By the movements of the atmosphere, the ig<br />

neous parts rose, which gave tc the sun and<br />

other heavenly bodies their rotatory inovt-ment:<br />

and a solid matlcr was precipitated to form the<br />

sea and earth, from which fish and animals were<br />

produced, nearly in the same manner as \vestill<br />

see in Egypt, where an infinity of insects and<br />

NOTjE.<br />

LlBEK I.<br />

7. Sic ubi scptcm-<br />

fluus Nilus deseruit<br />

madidos agros, et red<br />

didit sua ftumiua anti-<br />

quo alveo, que recens<br />

limus exarsit sethereo<br />

sidere; cultores iiivc-<br />

niunt plurima anima<br />

lia versis glebis: et<br />

qusedam in his moJtk<br />

ccepta sub ipsum<br />

15. Quippe ubi hn<br />

morque calorque<br />

sumsere tempericm,<br />

concipiuiit: et cuncta<br />

oriuntur ab his duo-<br />

bus. Cumque ignis<br />

sit pugnax aqua;,<br />

19. Ergo ubi tellus,<br />

lutulenta recenti dilu<br />

vio, recanduit cethe-<br />

leis solibus altoque<br />

other creatures come forth from the mud, after<br />

it has been inundated by the waters of the Nile.<br />

DIODORUS SICULUS, Lib. ii. 7.<br />

But the inundation of the Nile hrings a cre<br />

dence to these things that surpasses all won<br />

ders, for when it retires, little mice are formed,<br />

the work of the genital \vuter and earth haying<br />

just commenced, being already quickened in a<br />

part of the body, the extreme part of their form<br />

being still earth. PLINIUS, Lib. ix. 53.<br />

14. Sudis tellus: rude earth; mere<br />

earth. This statement is utterly prepos<br />

terous.<br />

15. Sumsere temperiem : have assumed<br />

temperateriess.<br />

16. Concipiunt. The poet shows that the<br />

principle of generation depends on a dtte<br />

mixture of heat and moisture.<br />

17. Aqwe pugnax: opposed, repugnant<br />

to water.<br />

17. Humidus vapor: humid vapor; moist<br />

heat; a proper mixture of heat and moist<br />

ure.<br />

From hence we may conclude, that, as all<br />

parts of the world are sustained by heat, tho<br />

world itself lias so long subsisted from the same<br />

cause; and the ralher, becanse it is observable<br />

that it communicales a generative virtue, to<br />

which all animals and vegetables must neces<br />

sarily owe their birth and increase. CICERO OS<br />

<strong>THE</strong> GODS.<br />

18. Discors concordia: discordant con<br />

cord ; the union of the opposite principles,<br />

heat and moisture. These words consti<br />

tute the figure called Oxymoron, which, in<br />

a seeming contradiction, unites contraries.<br />

Grammar, p. 210.<br />

When the logos composed the Universe, it<br />

made one concord out of many discords. Pa-<br />

TAKCII ON ISIS AND OsiaiS.<br />

18 Ftetibus: for birth ; for reproduction.<br />

20 Recanduit: became heated again.<br />

21 Figuras antiqitas -• the ancient forms;<br />

viz. ihe" animals that existed before the<br />

deluge.<br />

21. Partimane rettulit •• partly restored.<br />

Many antediluvian animals are believed<br />

not to have been reproduced. There is a<br />

peculiarity in the words jiguras antiqual<br />

FABCLA XI. METAMORPHOSED N.<br />

Rettulit antiquas, partim nova monstra creavit.<br />

Ilia quidem nollet, sed te quoque, maxime Python,<br />

Turn genuit; populisque novis, incognito serpens,<br />

Terror eras : tantum spatii de monte tenebas.<br />

Hunc Deus arcitenens, et nunquam talibus armis<br />

Ante, nisi in damis, capreisque fugacibus, usus,<br />

Mille gravem telis, exhausta pene pharetra,<br />

NOTjE.<br />

that would indicate something of great<br />

bulk, huge and gigantic. Many of the ex<br />

tinct animals were of vast dimensions, aa<br />

the mastodon, megatherium, paUeothe-<br />

lium, cheropotamus, iguanadon, and the<br />

different gigantic sauria.<br />

22. -ZVoun monstra: new monsters. The<br />

production, in part, of new monsters,<br />

would antithetically indicate as monsters<br />

the antiquas Jiguras that had been partially<br />

restored.<br />

23. Ilia : she ; viz. the earth.<br />

23. Nollet: might be unwilling; might<br />

shudder at the idea.<br />

23. Python. A serpent sprung from the<br />

mud and stagnant waters of the deluge,<br />

and slain by Apollo. Some mythologists<br />

suppose it was produced from the earth,<br />

by Juno, and sent to persecute Lalona,<br />

\vhen about to give birth to Apollo and<br />

Diana; and that Apollo, as soon as born,<br />

destroyed it with his arrows.<br />

This ineffectual effort of the Evil-being,<br />

in the form of n serpent or dragon, to de<br />

stroy the Mediator at his birth, and the<br />

discomfiture of the dragon by ihc Mediator,<br />

has a beautiful connection with the Egyp<br />

tian myth, and the passages in Isaiah,<br />

quoted tn the explicatio of the fable; and<br />

reminds one forcibly of the efforts of the<br />

dragon in the Apocalypse. In this latter,<br />

. there is an evident adumbration of the<br />

destruction at the flood, and of the binh<br />

of the Mediator, as well as the after-pre<br />

servation of the Christian church.<br />

And there appeared a great wonder in hea<br />

ven ; a worn on clothed with the sun, and the<br />

moon under her feel, and upon her head a<br />

crown of twelve stars;<br />

And she being with child, cried, travailing in<br />

birth, and pained to be delivered.<br />

And there appeared another wonder in hea<br />

ven; and behold n great red dragon, having<br />

seven heads mid ten horns, and seven crowns<br />

upon his heads.<br />

And the dragon stood before the woman<br />

which was ready to be delivered, for to devour<br />

her child as soon as it was born.<br />

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water<br />

as a flood after the woman, Hint he might cause<br />

her to he curried away of the flood.<br />

And the enrth lielped the womnn. and the<br />

earth opened her mouth, nnd swallowed up the<br />

flood which the d ragon cast out of his mouth.<br />

REVELATION, xii.<br />

By Python in this fable, is meant the<br />

darkness of the deluge, and the poisonous<br />

exhalations that followed it. It is the Ty-<br />

phori of the Egyptians.<br />

91<br />

aestu; edidit nnumc-<br />

ras species: partim<br />

que rettulit amiquat<br />

figuras, partim crea-<br />

vit nova monstra.<br />

Illaquidemnollet.sed<br />

turn genuit te quoque.<br />

20. Deus arcitenens,<br />

et nunquam ante usui<br />

talibus armis, nisi in<br />

damis. fugacibusque<br />

It (Typhon or Python) becomes, in the earth,<br />

the cause of concussions and shakings, and, in<br />

the air, of parching droughts and tempestuous<br />

winds, as also of hurricanes and thunders. It<br />

likewise infects both waters and winds with<br />

pestilential diseases, and runs up and insolently<br />

rages, and, as the Egyptians believe, one while<br />

smote Horus's eye. PLUTARCH'S Isis AND<br />

OSIRIS.<br />

The furious Typhon, who 'gainst all the gods<br />

Made wnr; his horrid jaws, with serpent hiss,<br />

Breathed slaughter; from his eyes the gorgon<br />

glare<br />

Of baleful lightnings flashed, as his proud force<br />

Would rend from Jove his empire of the sky.<br />

Turn tellus gravis imbre et adhuc stagnantibus<br />

undis<br />

Humida. anhela, vagos tollebat ad Eethera tortus,<br />

Involvens ccelum nube, et caligine opaca;<br />

lime ilie imiiianis Python. PONT. MELA.<br />

Ner {Ibe Ocean) produced, out of the number<br />

of vipers, one huge viper, with excess of wmd-<br />

iugs. CYNDDELW <strong>THE</strong> DRUID.<br />

24. Incognite serpens: serpent unknown<br />

before; or a kind with which they were<br />

not acquainted.<br />

Nor unknown<br />

The serpent, subtlest beast of all the field,<br />

Of hugt: extent, sometimes with brazeu eyes<br />

And hairy mane terrific. MILTON.<br />

25. Tantum spatii : so great a space of<br />

the mountain you occupied.<br />

26. Deus arcilenens: the bow-bearing<br />

god; viz. Apollo. This epithet is bor<br />

rowed from Homer's ro^fpos, in the hymn<br />

to Apollo.<br />

In the Egyptian mythology, Horus, or<br />

Apollo, \e the second person of the Triad,<br />

and corresponds to our second person in<br />

the Trinity. He is the same as the Per<br />

sian Mithras, (Mediator,) who was re<br />

garded as the sun, and as light; the same<br />

as the Indian Vishnoo, who, in the avatar<br />

of Crishna, slays the serpent Caliya, who<br />

is biting his heel; and is also the same as<br />

the Gothic Thor, whom the Edda styles<br />

"a middle divinity, a mediator between<br />

God and man," and who bruises the head<br />

of the great serpent with his mace.<br />

When the deluge hnd ceased, Vishnoo »lcw the<br />

demon and recovered the Vcdas; instructed<br />

Satyavrala in divine knowledge, and appointed<br />

him the seventh Menu. IKDIAK BHAGAVAT.<br />

26. Talibus armis: such arms; viz. ar<br />

rows.<br />

27. flisi in damis: unless in the case ol<br />

the deer; in the character of a hunter.<br />

28. Gravem: loaded ; weighed down.<br />

f

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