Perque deos oro, quos hosti nuper ademi, 375 380 385 Este mei memores; aut si mihi non datis arma, 390 ii. 7, 76: Ille (animus) etiam vires corpus habere facit.-375. Perque deos, per Palladium. The plural exaggerates his merit. — 376. Per si quid superest. Si quid is a more modest expression for quicquid: per is therefore joined with it, as if it could be declined; properly, per omnia quae supersunt. So Metam. vii. 854: Per si quid merui de te bene.-377. Ex praecipiti, e loco periculoso.-378. Trojae fatis, iis quae per fata Trojae accidere debent. Fatis is therefore the dative, and Trojae the genitive. It seems less poetical to take fatis for the ablative, in which case Trojae would be the dative.-380. Fatale, on which the fate of Troy depends.-381. Quid facundia posset Re patuit. The idea of the whole fable is here expressed in few words; it is the triumph of mind, and in particular of eloquence, over rude power, for which reason this theme was a favourite in the schools of rhetoric at Rome. - 383. Qui ferrum ignemque Jovemque, a repetition, word for word, of what Ajax had said, v. 91.-390. The well-known story, which Sophocles follows in his Ajax, is, that Ajax was seized with madness, and in this madness slew himself.-391. Qua patuit ferro, where he was vulnerable. See v. 266.-394. Purpureum florem, the hyacinth. There were two accounts of the origin of this flower given by the Greek poets; Ovid had already treated the one, the transformation of Hyacinthus, in the tenth book, and he now introduces the other also, as otherwise the Armorum Judicium would have no right to a place in the Metamorphoses. He therefore unites both accounts, and makes the flower spring from the blood of both Hyacinthus and Ajax. What flower is here meant cannot be determined with certainty. It has been supposed by some that larkspur is referred to; by others, lilies of different kinds; by others, a particular kind of iris; in all of which the letters AI have Qui prius Oebalio fuerat de vulnere natus. 395 been, with some help of the fancy, distinguished.-395. Prius, jam prius. Oebalio de vulnere, from the wound of Hyacinthus, the son of Oebalus.-396. Pueroque viroque, Hyacintho et Ajaci.-397. Haec nominis, the first syllable of Alas. Illa querelae, the excla mation al. GALATEA ET POLYPHEMUS. THE subject of the following fable is Sicilian, and therefore a favourite theme with the Sicilian poets. It has been treated by Theocritus and Bion, besides a number of others whose works have not come down to us. 750 "Acis erat, Fauno Nymphaque Symaethide cretus, Hunc ego, me Cyclops nullo cum fine petebat; 755 Nec, si quaesieris, odium Cyclopis amorne Acidis in nobis fuerit praestantior, edam: Par utrumque fuit. Pro, quanta potentia regni Est, Venus alma, tui! Nempe ille immitis et ipsis Horrendus silvis et visus ab hospite nullo 760 Impune et magni cum dis contemtor Olympi, Quid sit amor sentit, nostrique cupidine captus Uritur, oblitus pecorum antrorumque suorum. 765 750. Galatea herself relates the story of Scylla. Fauno. See Metam. i. 193. Nymphaque Symaethide, daughter of the river Symaethus in the east of Sicily, not far from Catana. Acis is therefore the son of the wood and of the river; that is, since he is himself a stream, the tributary of a wood-river.-752. Me sibi junxerat uni, he had bound me to himself alone, so that could not bestow my love on any other.-753. Octonis iterum natalibus actis, sixteen years old, by a periphrasis of frequent occurrence with the poets.754. Signarat malas. The operation of nature is here ascribed to the man as his own work. Dubia lanugine, dum dubium esset, utrum lanugo esset an barba.-756. Odium Cyclopis, amorne Acidis, hatred, against the Cyclops, love for Acis.-760. Visus ab hospite nullo Impune, as is well known from the story of Ulysses.-761. Magni-Olympi. Compare below, v. 843.-765. Rastris-falce. Ovid seeks to invest the whole account with a shade of burlesque. Jam libet hirsutam tibi falce recidere barbam, 770 775 780 Cui postquam pinus, baculi quae praebuit usum, 785 Senserunt undae. Latitans ego rupe, meique Acidis in gremio residens, procul auribus hausi 790 Talia dicta meis, auditaque mente notavi: 795 -767. Componere vultus, to put on a kind face.-770. Telemus Eurymides. Telemus, son of Eurymus, is mentioned in Homer as the soothsayer of the Cyclops.-771. Quem-ales, whom no bird had ever deceived; that is, who knew how to distinguish whether any bird foreboded fate or not.-775. Altera jam rapuit. Expression of one in love, his lover robs him of his eyes. Amor. ii. 19, 19: Tu quoque quae nostros rapuisti ocellos. Altera is used where the question is about two only, here Ulysses and Galatea: Ulysses, he says, cannot rob him of his sight, for Galatea has already done it. Metam. xiv. 378: Altera captum me tenet.-780. Medius, in medio colle. Metam. x. 143: inque ferarum Concilio medius turba volucrumque sedebat.-784. Arundinibus-centum. In another passage of Ovid the shepherd's pipe consists of seven reeds, here of a hundred, in keeping with the gigantic stature of Polyphemus. 787. Hausi, drank in the sound; that is, listened attentively. 789. Ligustri, Ligustrum vulgare, L., a white flower. - 795. Lucidior, clearer, referring to the colour of the skin; whereas splen Et, si non fugias, riguo formosior horto; 800 805 810 Sunt et purpureae: tibi et has servamus et illas. 815 Verum etiam generosa novasque imitantia ceras ; Nec tibi castaneae me conjuge, nec tibi deerunt 820 Hoc pecus omne meum est; multae quoque vallibus errant, 825 didior, v. 791, means shining more brightly.-798. Eadem Galatea, repeated to strengthen the contrast: the same Galatea who has those excellent qualities, is also at the same time, &c.-799. Fallacior undis, more deceitful than the sea, which often appears calm, and thereby occasions the sailor the greater danger. 800. Lentior, more coy; lentus, applied to virga, means tough. 803. Tribulis, Tribulus terrestris, L., a plant with a prickly fruit. Feta ursa, the she-bear is most furious when she has just brought forth.804. Surdior, more inexorable.-810. Vivo pendentia saxo, hanging with living stone. The stone, as the chief material of which they are composed, is looked upon as the instrument by which they hang. A more simple expression would be: in quibus viva saxa suspensa sunt. So Amor. iii. 1, 3: speluncaque pumice pendens. 816. Fraga -corna. See above, Metam. i. 104, 105.-817. Nigro liventia suco, dark-blue, the common plum.-818. Generosa, noble; novasque imitantia ceras, a particular kind of plums, of the colour of wax.-819. Deerunt, a dissyllable, by synaeresis. -820. Arbutei fetus. See Metam. i. 104. You shall not want the usual fruits also, chestnuts and strawberries.-821. Multae. We must supply Ut vix sustineant distentum cruribus uber. Sunt fetura minor, tepidis in ovilibus agni ; Sunt quoque, par aetas, aliis in ovilibus hoedi. Lac mihi semper adest niveum: pars inde bibenda 830 Nec tibi deliciae faciles vulgataque tantum Munera contingent, damae leporesque capraeque Parque columbarum demtusque cacumine nidus: Nescio quem regnare Jovem. Coma plurima torvos Quique Jovem et coelum sperno et penetrabile fulmen, 835 840 845 850 855 -837. pecudes or oves from the preceding pecus. -826. Join: cruribus sustineant distent uber. -827. Fetura minor, the younger race.828. Par aetas, an equal age; that is, a race of equal age. 830. Partem coagula durant. Coagula, runnet, pieces of the stomach of the calf, dried, steeped in water (liquefacta), and then thrown into milk, which is thereby curdled (durant). Dominae. The odious sense attached by the Romans to the word dominus begins in the Augustan age to disappear. -844. Nescio quem, contemptuously. Torvos, severos, viriles. -854. Genitor, Neptunus. -857. Penetrabile, in active sense. So Metam. v. 67: penetrabile telum. On the other hand, xii. 166: Corpus nullo penetrabile telo.-858. Nereï. The second syllable is here, and in many other passages short, according to the rule vocalis ante vocalem corripitur. Elsewhere it follows the Greek quantity Nnents; |