THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

8
LIFE AND WRITINGS OF OVID.
visited some of the cities of Asia, and, on his way to Rome, passed into Sicily.
He and his companion spent nearly a year in the island, during which time they
visited almost every part that promised either amusement or pleasure.
On his return to Rome, Ovid became a professed advocate, and often harangued
with great force and elegance in the centumvir's court. He was appointed to
several minor judicial offices of the state, which he filled with success; and often
acted as arbiter in private causes, in which his decisions were judicious, and
made in so conciliating a manner that they were satisfactory to the litigants. He
was at length made one of the triumvirs, who were magistrates of great authority,
intrusted with the administration of justice in criminal causes. In this position
also he discharged the functions of his office with ability, and to the satisfaction
of the state:
Nee male commissa est nobis fortuna reorum,
Usque decem decies inspicicnda viris.
Res quoque privates statui sine crimine judex.
Deque viris quondam pars tribus unr. mi. TRIST. Lib. ii.
But all these efforts, however successful, were but a struggle against his
natural inclination to literature: and as Horace and Virgil had now risen to
court-favor and opulence through poetry, he entertained the idea of relinquishing
the engagements of the forum for pursuits more congenial to his taste, and Ftill
affording considerable chances of distinction. The death of his brother at this
time left him sole licir to an ample fortune, so that he could bestow his time and
attention in a manner perfectly agreeable to his literary predilections. He be
came, therefore, a professed votary of the Muses; hut mingled with their jjure
worship the grosser pleasures of sensuality, by indulging in the fashionable vices
of the capital. Though now possessed of an extensive farm and villa at Sulmo,
lie preferred to reside in Rome. He had a beautiful house on the Capitoline hill,
and another between the Claudian and Flaminian Ways, with beautiful gardens
adjacent. His affectionate disposition, brilliant wit and elegant manners ren
dered him an agreeable companion, and his genius, wealth, and rank, gave him
access to the best society, and secured to him a grateful reception by the em
peror. At the court of Augustus, he was treated with consideration by the most
polite and influential of the courtiers, among whom were Messala, Sextus Pom-
peius, and Fabiiis Maximus; while he enjoyed the familiar friendship of the
poets Tibullus, Horace, Sabinus, Macer, Severus, and Propertius.
The versatile genius of the young bard seemed adapted to every kind of
poetry; but his love of ease and pleasure, joined with affluence of fortune, and
his fondness for company, both of hia own and the fair sex, indisposed him to
attempt any labored efforts. In compliance with this temper, he first composed
light articles, elegies, epigrams, and amatory verses, to which he was incited by
his natural propensities and tho fashionable vices in which he was engaged.
Non ego, Phcebe, datas a tc rnuiiiiar aries;
Nee nos aeriaj voce moncniur avis.
Nee mibi sunt visae Clio, Clmsque sorores:
Vera canarn. Cceptis, mater ainoris, ades. ARS AMATOH. Lib. i .
Besides tliese, he composed some other poems of a more serious character. His
Jtmoret, Jtrs Jtmnluria, Remedia Jlinarh, Heroidcs, Medea, HaKeulica, Gi^anloma-
chia, Phxnomena, a poem against bad poets, and one on the triumphs of Augus
tus, were the fruits of this early period. The five last-named productions are
lost. - Of his Medea and llnlieulica, the former of which was highly praised by
Qiiintili.in, and the latter copied by Oppian, but a few fragments remain. His
Jtmures, Lib. ill., have all the freshness of feeling and the exuberant fancy of
youth, and abound with ingenious thoughts and agreeable images. The Jlrs
Mmaloria, Lib. ill., and the Jtf medium Jmnri', Lib. i ., Jiave for the most part the
sprightlinuss of our author, but the sensual inculcations and the glowing lan
guage drr calculated to inflame the pjssions, and corrupt the heart OvicI, like
LIFE AND WRITINGS OF OVID. 9
the author of Don Juan, is supposed, in this production, to have drawn largely
upon his own vicious experience. His lleroides, Epist. xxi., are amorous epis
tles from distinguished ladies of the Heroic age, abounding in passion and pathos,
and are the most polished of his productions.
The next work in order, and on which Ovid intended to rest his chances of
immortality, was the Melmnurphoses, Lib. xv. Tliese are a series of agreeable
transformations, founded upon the fictions of the Greeks, with some few Latin,
Oriental and Etruscan fables. Tiie introductory |. irt of the work, describing
Chaos, the Creation, the deterioration of morals, and the Flood, are in strikinu
accordance with the Biblical record, so that we can hardly persuade ourselves
that the author was unacquainted with the sacred writings of the Hebrews. The
work is of the cyclic kind, and the different parts are connected together in the
most ingenious manner, like the interfacings of network, so that the poet pro
ceeds in uninterrupted recital of the successive stories, lifting link-by link in the
golden chain of fiction. In some, few cases where no imagination could connect
the fables in a regular order, he gives the poem a dramatic form, and the. inter
locutors narrate them as separate stories.
In the fables of the Metamorphoses', there is an endless variety of character
and incident, the gay and the grave, the amusing and the pathetic, the familiar
and the wonderful, the simple and the sublime, the human and th divine, over
which the poet, with a versatility of style suited to every character and passion,
in all the exuberance of thought and expression, has supcrfused the glory of his
own immortal genius. No poetic work of ancient times was so varied in the
character of its subjects as the Metamorphoses, and no Greek or Latin poet, of
whom we have any knowledge, could, in treating of them, have succeeded so
well. The idea of the work was probably suggested to the poet by the mythic
poem of Partlienins the Greek, which is now lost. The Metamorphoses of
Ovid were highly esteemed by the Greeks, and were translated into their language
by their countryman Planudcs. The Metamorphoses may be regarded as the
propijlxum to the great temple of Grecian mythology; and though that temple
is now in ruins, from its majestic gateway we may form some idea of the mag
nificence of the mighty structure to which it led, and of the sublime splendors
of its ceremonial pomp.
In explaining the Fables of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, different theories
have been adopted. Some persons, having discovered that allegory is sometimes
employed by the poet, have attempted to reduce every thing to a moral allegory;
some, who have found history obscured under the veil of fiction, have referred
all the fables to occurrences in ancient history; while others, finding occasional
coincidences with the Scriptures, profess to see in every thing mutilated and
corrupt traditions of events that are. contained in the Biblical record. Thus,
whilo each interpreter has blindly followed his favorite theory, and sought to
accommodate every thing to that theory, though correct in particular instances,
he has erred in the generality of his interpretations. In the elucidation of the
Metamorphoses, the principles of interpretation must ever vary according to the
character of the fable. As the Greeks were distinguished by their fondness for
allegory, moral and physical truths, and etymological resemblances, often sup
plied subjects for ingenious allegorical narrative. Hieroglyphics, which by pic
torial representations recorded occurrences and thoughts anterior to the invention
of letters, were also fruitful sources of fabulous imagining, and as they were
liable to diversified interpretations, have caused much confusion in mythology.
Events of ancient history, too, have furnished ample materials for fictitious nar
rative; \\hile many traditions of the events and personages, and imitations of
ceremonies, mentioned in the Bible, obscured and confused by the lapse of time,
and altered, abridged, or amplified by circumstances, are presented to us, clothed
in the particolorrd, and oftentimes f.mtistic garb of mythic story.
"VVhilr engaged in the revision of the Metamorphoses, and while still enjoying
the confidence and fvivor of the emperor, Ovid committed some fault, or became
wilness of some trjnsaction which deeply wounded the honor of Augustus, who
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