Sæpe pater dixit, Studium quid inutile tentas? Motus eram dictis: totoque Helicone relicto, Scribere conabar verba soluta modis. Sponte suâ numeros carmen veniebat ad aptos : Liberior fratri sumpta, mihique, toga est : Eque viris quondam pars tribus una fui. Curia restabat: clavi mensura coacta est: Majus erat nostris viribus illud onus. Nec patiens corpus, nec mens fuit apta labori, Et petere Aöniæ suadebant tuta sorores Temporis illius colui fovique poëtas; Quotque aderant vates, rebar adesse deos. 25 30 35 40 Sæpe suas volucres legit mihi grandior ævo, Quæque necet serpens, quæ juvet herba, Macer. Sæpe suos solitus recitare Propertius ignes; 45 Jure sodalitio qui mihi junctus erat. Successor fuit hic tibi, Galle; Propertius illi. Tum quoque, cùm fugerem, quædam placitura cremavi, Molle, Cupidineis nec inexpugnabile telis Cor mihi, quodque levis causa moveret, erat. Cùm tamen hoc essem, minimoque accenderer igni ; Penè mihi puero nec digna, nec utilis, uxor Filia me mea bis primâ fœcunda juventâ, Et jam complêrat genitor sua fata; novemque Ante diem pœnæ quòd periêre meæ ! 55 60 65 70 1193 75 80 Si tamen exstinctis aliquid, nisi nomina, restat, Scite, precor, causam (nec vos mihi fallere fas est) Abstulerat decies præmia victor equus; Causa meæ cunctis nimiùm quoque nota ruinæ 85 90 95 100 Insolitâ cepi temporis arma manu. Totque tuli terrâ casus pelagoque; quot inter Occultum stellæ conspicuumque polum. Tacta mihi tandem longis erroribus acto 110 Hic ego, finitimis quamvis circumsoner armis, Tristia, quo possum, carmine fata levo. Quod, quamvis nemo est, cujus referatur ad aures ; Sic tamen absumo decipioque diem. Ergo, quòd vivo, durisque laboribus obsto, Nec me sollicitæ tædia lucis habent, 115 184 TRISTIA. LIB. IV. ELEGIA X. Gratia, Musa, tibi. Nam tu solatia præbes; Nam, tulerint magnos cùm sæcula nostra poëtas, 120 125 130 NOTES TO THE METAMORPHOSES. BOOK I. PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO, a celebrated Roman poet, was born at Sulmo, a town of the Peligni, about forty years before the Christian era. His parents were of equestrian rank, and educated their son for the bar; but he soon forsook this and every other pursuit for the cultivation of poetry, and at length became one of the most admired and eminent poets in the court of Augustus. His prosperity was, however, of short continuance. Having incurred, by some unknown offence, the displeasure of the emperor, he was banished to Tomos, a town near the Euxine sea; where, after many ineffectual attempts to obtain the pardon of Augustus, he ended his days, in the eighth year of his banishment, and the fifty-ninth year of his age. The poetry of Ovid has long been celebrated for its variety, sweetness, and elegance. But the frequent violations of modesty, which disgrace some parts of his writings, detract much from the merit of this gifted poet. His Metamorphoses, though not the most finished of his poems, may perhaps be considered the most curious and valuable. He has there preserved the various mythological traditions, which existed among the ancients, and happily connected them with each other. Many of these traditions appear to have been originally founded on historical facts; but it is, in most instances, impossible to trace the truths of history through the tales of superstition and the fictions of poetry. |