THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

120
P. OVIDII NASONIS
Ultimus immense restabas, Nile, labori;
Q,uem simul ac tetigit, positisque in margine ripae
Procubuit genibus, resupinoque ardua collo,
Q.UOS potuit, solos tollens ad sidera vultus,
Et gemitu, et lacrymis, et luctisono mugitu
Cum Jove visa queri est, finemque orare malorum.
Conjugis ille SUSB complexus colla lacertis,
Finiat ut poenas tandem, rogat: Inque futurum
Pone metus, inquit, nunquam tibi causa doloris
Hoec erit; et Stygias jubet hoc audire paludes.
Ut lenita Dea est, vultus capit ilia priores ;
Fitque quod ante fuit. Fugiunt e corpore setae:
Cornua decrescunt; fit luminis arctior orbis :
Contrahitur rictus : redeunt humerique manusque :
Ungulaque in quinos dilapsa absumitur ungues.
De bove nil superest, forms nisi candor, in ilia :
Officioque pedum Nympha contenta duorum
Erigitur; metuitque loqui; ne more juvencte
PEL. What new device to vex the wretched
heifer >.
CHO. A winged pest, firmed with a horrid sting:
Those on the banks of Nile call it the brize.
THE SUPPLICANTS, v. 326.
5. Nile. The Nile is here introduced by
apostrophe. It is a large river in Africa,
which rises in Abyssinia, and empties into
the Mediterranean. See note on page 89.
..Eschylus notices the same.
On the land's extreme verge fi city stands,
Canobus, proudly elevate, nigh where the Nile
Rolls to the sea his rich stream: there slinll Jove
Heal thy distraction, and, with gentle hand,
Soothe thee to peace. PROMI-HHEUS CHAINED.
7. Btsupinoquealtn: high with upturn
ed neck.
8. Quag potuit solos: which alone she
could. She had not arms to raise in sup
plication.
10. Queri: to expostulate. Her feelings
are finely portrayed by ^schylus.
How, son of Saturn, how have I offended.
That with these stings, these tortures lliou pur
sues! me,
And drives! to madness my affrighted soul!
Hear me. supreme of gods, oh hear thy suppliant,
Blast me with lightnings, bury me in the earth,
Or cast me to the monsters of the sea;
But spare these toils, spare these wide-wander
ing errors. PBOMETIIECS CHAINED.
12. Pcsnat. Jupiter entreats that Juno
will discontinue her persecution of lo, and
permit her to resume the human form.
12. Infuturum: for the future ; hence
forth. Supply tempus.
14. Stygias paliidcs. To swear by the
Styx was considered an inviolable oath.
See note on flumina, page 61.
l/ol then imperishable Styx the first,
Swayed by ille careful counsels of her sire,
Stood on Olympus, and her sons beside.
LIBER I.
r, 5. Nile, reltabas
ultimus immense la-
labori. Quern simul
ac tegigit, positisque
genibus in margine
ripre, procubuit, que
ardua reeupino collo,
tollelis vultus Cjuos so-
1Q los potuit ad sidera, ct
visa cat queri cum
II. Ille complexui
colla conjugis SUED la
certis, rogat ut tan
dem finiat pocnas ; que
inquit, Pone metus in
futurum, hffic nun-
JPj quam erit cousa do
loris libi, et jubet
18. SeUE t'ugiunt e
corpore: cornua de
crescunt : orbis lu
minis fit arctior: ric
tus coutrahitur: hu
merique manusque
20 redeunt: ungulaque
dilapsa in qunios
21. Nj mphaque con
tenta ofiicio duorum
pedum, erigltur; me-
Her Jove received with honor ond endowed
With goodly gifts: ordained her the great oath
Of deities. HESIOD'S THEOGONY.
15. Lenita est: was appeased.
15. Vultus priores: her former features.
Lucian, who satirized the gods of the
Greeks and Romans, gives a very humor
ous account of her resuming the human
form.
NOTUS. That heifer a goddess!
ZEPHYRUS. Certainly ! and Mercury says she
is to be a tutelnr goddess of mariners, und our
mistress, BO that every one of us is to blow or
not to blow, just as she pleases.
NoTts. Then we should pay our court to her
betimes, Zephyr, since the thing is now as good
as done.
ZEPIIYRUS. By Jupiter! it il the way to ren
der her more benign. Hut, see! the voyage is
over, she is already arrived, and has swum
ashore. Look! already she has done walking
on all fours, and what a fine, stately dame Mer
cury has made of her!
NOTUS. These are wonderful events, dear
Zephyr! Horns, tail, and cloven feet, all gone
at once, and the heifer is a charming maid.
DIALOGUES OF MAPINE DEITIBL
15. Ilia: she, viz. lo.
17. Luminis: of her eye. As the eye is
the organ by which light is perceived, lu
men is figuratively used for oculus.
The light of the body is the eye.—MATT. vi. 22.
18. Eedeunt hwmervfue: her shoulders
and hands return. There is a nice distinc
tion in the use of redeunt; for the parts
in men called humeri are called armi in
beasts.
19. Dilapsa: having separated.
20. Forma candor: fcirnessof form. The
use of candor here is metaphorical.
21. Offifio: wilh the service.
22. f.tigilur: stands erect.
FABULA XV. METAMORPHOSEON.
Mugiat: et timidS verba intermissa retentat.
Nunc Dea linigera colitur celeberrima turba.
Huic Epaphus magni genitus de semine tandem 25
' Creditur esse Jovis: perque urbes juncta parenti
Templa tenet. Fuit huic animis tequalis et annis
Sole satus Phaethon: quern quondam magna loquentem,
Nee sibi cedentem, Phceboque parente superbum,
Non tulit Inachides: Matrique, ait, omnia demens
Credis, et es tumidus genitoris imagine falsi.
Erubuit Phaethon, iramque pudore repressit:
Et tulit ad Clymenen Epaphi convicia matrem.
ftuoque magis doleas, genitrix, ait, Ille ego liber,
Ille ferox tacui. Pudet hsec opprobria nobis,
NOTjE.
30
35
121
tuitque loqui, ne mu
giat more juvenca:, e
retentat intermissa
verba timid*. Nuno
celeberrima Dea
20. Huic Epaphui
tandem creditur cese
genitus de semina
28. Qucm, quondam
loquentem magna,neo
ceilentem sibi, que su
perbum Phtcbo pa-
rente, Inacliides non
tulit: que ait,l)crm-iis
credis matri omnia;
32. Plmfithon eru-
buit, que repressit
iram pudore: et tulit
ad matrem Clymenen
convicia Epapbi. Que
ait, genitrix, quo raa-
23. Verba intermit fa: words that had
been discontinued; disused speech.
ter and lo. He was worshipped in Egypt
under the name of Apis.
24. Dea colitur: IB worshipped as a god
dess ; as Isis.
Apis, also called Epaphus, ifl a young bull,
whose mother can have no other offspring, ana
MKKCORY. What is to be done ?
who is reported by the Egyptians to conceive
JUPITER. Nothing, but that you fly down to from lightning sent from heaven, and thus to
Nvmea, kill Argus, carry off lo into Egypt, and produce the god Apis. He is known by certain
make Isis of her. There she shall henceforth be mark?; his Lair is black, on his forehead is a
worshipped as a goddess, preside over the in white triangular spot, on his back an eagle, and
mutations of the Nile, and grant favorable wind! a beetle under his tongue, and the hair of his
to the mariners, and be their tutelar deity. tail double. HEEODOTUS, iii. 23.
LUCIAN'S DIALOGUES.
Of his high race a son,
To versa caput primps mugivernt annps The dusky Epaphus shall rise, and rule
Nunc Dea, quoe Nili flumma vacca bibit. The wide-extended land o'er which the Nile
PBOPBRTIUB ELEG. Pours his broad waves.
AESCHYLUS'3 PnoMETiiEus CHAUTED
tuTba; linen-wearing throng.
The priests of Isis wore garments of linen. 26. Juncta parenti.- joined to his parent;
The following reason is given by Plutarch jointly with his mother.
in his Moials.
Before the enclosure where Apis is kept, is a
For tlie greater part of men are ignorant, even vestibule, in which also the mother of the Sacred
of this most common ami ordinary thing, for Bull is led; and into this vestibule Apis is some
what reason the priesta (of Isis) lay aside their
times introduced, to be shown to strangers.
hair, and go in linen garments.
STKABO xviL
The true reason of them all, ie one and the I have seen an instance of a bull, with the
same, "For it is" not lawful (as Plato saitli) for globe and feathers between its liorits, standing
a clean tli ng to be touched by an unclean." on a monument built at the side of a mountain.
But now no superfluity of food or excrcmeiui- On the other side was a cow, al«o coming from
tious substance can be pure or clean ; but wool, n mountain with a similar head-dress, and the
down, hair, and nails, come up anil grow from long horns usually given to Athor, over which
superfluous excrements. It would be an absnr- was the name Isis.
dity. therefore, for them to lay aside, their own
WILKIKSON'S ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
hair in purgations, by shaving themselves, and
by m;ikiri£ their bodies all over smooth, and >et
27. Animis: in spirit; in pride.
in the nieiuitnne to wear and carry about tliem 28. Phaethon. He was the son of Apollo
tlie hair of brutes. For we ought to think that and the nymph Clyinenc. The name is
the poet llesiod, when he saith,
derived from the Egyptian phre, the gun,
At the rirh banquet of the gods forbear and uFS'ti), to burn.
The dr> excrescence from the quick to pare; 28. Ma«iialoquentem; speak ing proudly.
would teach us to keep the feast already 30. Inachides: Epaphus, the grandson of
cleansed from such things as these, and not in Inachus.
llie solemnities themselves to use purgation or 31. Imagine: with the idea.
removal of excrementitious superfluities. But,
31. Genitoris falsi: of a fictitious father.
now, flux springs up from an immortal being,
the Earth, nnd bears an eatable fruit, and affords Epaphns insinuated that Clymcne had con*
& simple and cleanly clothing, and not burder cealed her unchaste actions by giving out
some to him that's covered with it. and conve .hat Apollo was the father ot" Phaethon,
nient lor tvery season of the year, and which, who was born to her before she had mar
bosideR, is the least likely to engender vermin. ried Merops.
DE ISIDE ET OSIEI. 33. Clymenen. Clymcne was the daugn-
25. ITuic: to her; to lo.
ter of Oceanus and Tethys, and the mother
25. Epaphus. He was the son of Jupi-, of Phaethon by Apollo.
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