rites were secret, being only known to those who were initiated, that is, admitted with certain ceremonies to share them. She is called 'taedifera,' because at the festival lighted torches were carried. 'Mystica' is derived from a Greek word signifying' g 'to close the mouth,' from the secrecy that was to be observed.

44. Vindicet in poenas] Vindicare' by itself is to punish.' It is also to assert a right to a thing, to claim. 'Vindicare se or aliquem in libertatem' is a common phrase for getting one's own freedom or that of another who is a slave; it means to claim a person for the purpose of setting him free. Ovid has imitated this way of speaking here. "Vindicet in poenas' can only be rendered in English should avenge,' as 'vindicare in libertatem' is 'to get free.'

45. furiosa] Furiosus' is one who is violently mad, as she says she was with love: 'amens,' 'demens' are the words for one out of his mind but not violent. She says she was so mad as to get his shattered fleet repaired only that he might have a sound ship to abandon her in. See Introduction.

48. Heu patior telis] This appears to be an allusion to the eagle in the fable who mourned that he had been shot with an arrow feathered from his own wing.

50. nominibusque tuis] 'Your family and names;' the great names of his ancestors, with which he had dazzled her. There is a reading 'numinibus,' which is printed in the text, but 'nominibus' is better. The gods he swore by are referred to below, v. 53.

54. inde] Of them.' This is not a common use of 'inde,' which generally signifies from that place or time.' It is an adverb compounded of the pronoun 'is' and the preposition 'de.' 55. Nec moveor] See Argument.

62. aequa venit] Justly comes.'

67. Aegidas] The sons of Aegeus, who was the father of Theseus and grandfather of Demophoon. She says for such a glorious achievement as the deceiving of a simple girl he ought to have a statue in the middle of Athens, among his great kinsmen and behind his father, with an inscription declaring his exploit. 'Titulis' means inscriptions setting forth his great deeds. It depends on 'magnificus.'

69. Sciron] Sciron, Procrustes, and Sinis were famous robbers who were killed by Theseus. Quum fuerit lectus' is 'after the account of these persons has been read.'

70. et tauri]And the mingled form of bull and man.' This was a monster called Minotaurus, half bull and half man, which was shut up in a labyrinth in Crete, and to which the Athenians were obliged to send seven young men and as many girls every year to be eaten. One year Theseus went as one of these youths, and with the help of Ariadne, daughter of Minos king of Crete, he killed the monster, and escaped from the

labyrinth. He married Ariadne, but deserted her on his way home.

71. domitae bello Thebae] Theseus is said to have led an army against the Thebans for the purpose of recovering the bodies of seven Argive leaders who, according to a famous legend, made an unsuccessful expedition against Thebes and were all killed. Theseus succeeded in his purpose, which is the subject of one of the plays of Euripides, called the Suppliants.

71. fusique Bimembres] These are the Centaurs, so called from being half horse and half man. Theseus assisted his friend Pirithoüs (see p. 11, v. 66 n.) in fighting against the Centaurs. With the same friend he went down to Hades for the purpose of carrying off Persephone (called Proserpina by the Romans), the wife of Pluto. In this he was not successful.

76. Cressa relicta] Cressa is the Cretan Ariadne mentioned above. She says, out of all the deeds of his father only one is represented in his heart, which is his desertion of his wife. Sedit in ingenio,' is fixed' or 'remains in your mind.'

77. Quod solum excusat] 'The only act he has to defend (that is, his only crime) is the one act thou dost admire in him.'

78. agis] Thou dost act the heir' is an English idiom.

79. meliore marito] When Theseus left Ariadne in the island of Naxos in the Aegean, she was found there, the story says, by Dionysus (or Bacchus), who married her.

80. capistratis]'Harnessed.' The car of Bacchus is represented as drawn by tigers, and Ariadne is here said to ride by her husband's side. The Romans said 'in equis' for ' on a chariot drawn by horses,' and so Ovid says 'in tigribus.'

84. Armiferam Thracen] The Thracians only professed to be a warlike people, and did not pretend to the learning and civilisation of Athens. But this is a notion taken from later times. In the old heroic days Athens was not more civilised than her neighbours, and the oldest poets were Thracians.

85. Exitus acta probat] The issue proves the deed.' This is a proverbial sentence, which she repeats, but adds that she hopes no man may ever have success who holds that doctrine and thinks that people's conduct is to be branded if it be unfortunate in the issue; who thinks that actions must be marked from the event.' She alludes to her own marriage, which was contracted in simplicity but ended unhappily. Some people it appears blamed her for it. Notare' is commonly used for a bad mark, from the practice of the censors putting a mark against the names of persons whom they excluded from the

senate.

88. Jam mihi] She says those who blame her conduct now, if he were to return would presently say she had consulted well for her own interests and those of her subjects. This is the meaning of 'consulere.' As to 'jam,' see p. 10, v. 32 n.

H

90. Bistonia] The Bistones were a people in the south of Thrace, and Bistonia' means 'Thracian.'

92. premeret] This may be rendered floated in my harbours.'

98. face exspectes] Fac' is the later form of the imperative, but that syllable being long, and 'face' short, he uses the older form. The idiom has been mentioned before, p. 23, v. 4, 'See that you look for.'

102. solo tempore] 'For a time only.'

105. Utque tibi excidimus] 'Since I was lost to thee,' or 'cast off by thee.' See p. 16, v. 27.

106. si quae sim] 'If thou dost ask who I am, I thy Phyllis, and of what parents,' that is, since you treat me as a stranger.

111. Lycurgi] Lycurgus was a former king of Thrace, famous for having suppressed the cultivation of the grape in his dominions, and thereby having incurred the wrath of Bacchus. The Thracians were notorious drunkards, and Bacchus was their protecting god.

112. Nomine femineo] 'Nomen' here means 'authority.' 'Vix satis' is 'not quite.'

113. Qua patet] Where icy Rhodope is seen from far stretching to shady Haemus.' The range of mountains called Rhodope, which being lofty is covered with snow for a great part of the year, extended in a north-westerly direction from near the coast of the Aegean till it joined the range called Haemus (now the Balkan), which was the northern boundary of Thrace, separating it from Moesia. Haemus is called 'umbrosus' because of its great forests. Patet,' is exposed or visible,' is said from the great height of Rhodope.

114. Et sacer admissas] The Hebrus was sacred to Bacchus, as the god of the Thracians. The swiftness of its stream is spoken of by the poets repeatedly. Admissas' means 'at full speed,' as if Hebrus were on a chariot, and his waters were his horses. See p. 5, v. 56.

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115. avibus libata sinistris] 'Libare' means 'to take from,' and virginitas libata' means 'my virginity was broken.' Avibus sinistris' is 'under evil auspices. Omens were taken from the flight of birds; those which appeared on the left hand, that is in the west (the face turning north), were counted bad. 'Cui' goes back to 'rogas' (v. 106), thou askest by whom'

116. zona recincta] Women wore girdles before they were married, and one of the ceremonies on their marriage was the removal of this girdle by the bridegroom. To unloose the zone' therefore was a proverbial expression equivalent to marrying.

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117. Pronuba Tisiphone] Juno was supposed to preside at weddings, and was therefore called 'pronuba' (see p. 25, v. 41); but Phyllis says Tisiphone, one of the furies (see p. 23, v. 6), presided at hers, and shrieked in her marriage-chamber. She

also says the owl sung a sorrowful note that night. It was a bird of ill omen, and is called 'devia' because it keeps out of the ways of men.

119. Alecto] This was another of the three furies, all of whom are represented by the poets and in ancient works of art with small snakes wreathed in their hair and about their necks. She says Alecto was at her wedding.

120. Suntque sepulcrali] And lights were carried with sepulcral torch. She means that the torches used at her wedding were such as were used at funerals.

123. Sive die laxatur humus] 'The ground frozen at night is thawed (laxatur') by the sun in the daytime.'

126. auguror esse deos] 'I guess to be my gods.' As said before (p. 13, v. 8), images of gods were carried in the sterns of ships, and she says that whatever ships appear she conjectures to contain her gods, that is her husband's. As to 'protinus,'' straightway,' see p. 16, v. 16 n.

130. Linquor] I faint,' I am deserted by my strength. 131. falcatus]'Curved, like a sickle' (falx); adductos arcus,' a narrow bow or bend.' 'Adductus' means 'with the ends drawn towards each other.'

132. Ultima praerupta] 'The extreme points (horns) bristle with an abrupt mole. The entrance of the bay was narrow, and protected by a high breakwater.

134. fallere pergis] Thou dost go on to the end deceiving me.' In this phrase the Roman poets used the infinitive where we use a participle. 'Pergo' is 'per-ago,' 'to go through,' that is to the end.

136. intumulata] To be left unburied was considered by the ancients the greatest calamity, and it was a crime to leave a body without burial, or (which was sufficient to avoid the penalty of such neglect) without throwing dust upon it three times.

137. ut superes] See p. 23, v. 17 n. "Even if thou dost surpass in hardness iron, adamant, and even thyself (which she means is the hardest thing of all), thou'lt say it was not thus, my Phillis, thou shouldst have followed me.'

142. Praebuerunt] The poets sometimes shorten the penultimate syllable of the third person plural in the perfect tense for convenience, particularly in the second conjugation.

143. Stat nece matura] 'I am resolved by early death to satisfy my tender modesty.' 'Stat' means 'it stands firm in my resolution.' 'Pensare' is to weigh,' and so to weigh out money and to pay. She says she will pay her modesty for the wrong she has done it, by a premature death.

144. In necis electum] In choosing death there shall be little hesitation.' We might expect electu,' but the poetical idiom in such cases admits of the accusative.

145. Inscribere] 'Thou shalt be written on my tomb as the hateful cause (of my death).'

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147. leto dedit] Do' is to put,' as before mentioned (p. 13, v. 16); and the Romans used the phrase 'put to death' as we do.

METAMORPHOSES.

The adventures of Cadmus, and misfortunes of his family. P. 30.

(The Argument should be referred to.)

1. Jamque deus] At the end of the second book it was related how Jupiter came down to the coast of Phoenicia and changed himself into a white bull, and in that form carried off Europa the king's daughter, who in sport placed herself upon his back. He carried her out to sea, and landed her on the island of Crete (Candia).

2. Dictaeaque rura] Dicte was a mountain in Crete, and Dictaeus is therefore used as equivalent to Cretan. This mountain was supposed to have been a favourite resort of Jupiter.

4. Imperat] 'Impero' is properly to put upon' (in, paro), therefore it always governs the dative case, which represents the place where a thing is. Verbs of command do not necessarily, as the old grammars say, govern a dative case. Jubeo' seldom does, and then only because it conveys the same notion as 'impero,' to 'lay orders upon.'

5. Exsilium] See p. 12, v. 80 n. Agenor was 'pius' for his affection for his daughter (see p. 12, v. 84 n.), but 'sceleratus' for his cruelty to his son.

8. Phoebique oracula] The oracle of Apollo at Delphi on Mount Parnassus in Phocis, which was celebrated above all other oracles of that god, and so is not mentioned by name.

11. immunis] This is compounded of the negative 'in' and 'munus,' which properly means a part,' 'share,' 'lot.' 'Immunis' therefore means one who has no part in a thing.' Here it may be translated free of the plough.'

12. carpe vias] Carpo' signifies to gather,'' to take,' and 'carpere iter' or 'viam' is 'to go on one's way,' as we say 'to take a journey.' It is only so used by the poets. The plural 'vias' is not used only for the convenience of the metre; he would have many days' journey to go and many ways to traverse. 13. fac condas] See p. 23, v. 4 n. 'Boeotia' is here supposed to be named from 'bos,' which is a Greek word.

14. Vix bene] This and non bene' are used for 'hardly."

We also say 'before he had well come down.'

The shrine of