212

Notes: Ovid.

[METAM.

VI. PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA.

ACRISIUS, king of Argos, had been warned that he should be dethroned and slain by the child of his daughter Danaë, whom therefore, to elude the oracle, he confined in a dungeon with brazen walls. But Jupiter gained admission in the form of a shower of gold, and Danaë became the mother of Perseus. Being shut with the child then four years of age in a chest, or coffer, and cast into the sea, she drifted to the island of Seriphus, where the boy grew up, and was sent craftily by the tyrant of the island for the head of the Gorgon Medusa. In this enterprise he was helped and delivered by the friendly care of the divinities Mercury and Minerva, who armed him for his task, gave him the power of flight, and made him invulnerable and invincible. (See, for an admirable narrative of the adventure, Kingsley's “Heroes,” and “Andromeda.")

IV. 615. viperei monstri, the Gorgon Medusa, whose beautiful locks of hair had been changed to serpents by the wrath of Minerva (vv. 801-803).

616. stridentibus alis: Perseus had been equipped for his aërial journey by the ægis of Minerva, the winged cap and sandals furnished by the Graiæ, the cap of Pluto making its wearer invisible, and the curved sword (harpe) of Mercury, with its two points, one straight and the other curved. (See the interpretation of the fable of the Gorgons in "Modern Painters," vol. v. p. 150.)

617. Libycas, African: Libya was the earlier general name of Africa, the home of the Gorgons.

622. exemplo, in the manner.

623. longe, from afar, qualifying despectat.

625. Cancri: used for the tropical region, as Arctos for the polar.

628. Hesperio far western. The gardens of the Hesperides, daughters of Atlas, were placed somewhere in the west of Africa. 630. Auroræ, sc. currus. diurnos, of the day.

632. Atlas, "the unwearied," one of the Titans, condemned after their rebellion to bear the weight of heaven upon his shoulders.

634. subdit, see ii. 68.

637. arboreæ frondes, etc., a description of the garden of the Hesperides. Some report of oranges a fruit unknown to the - may have helped in shaping the story of the golden

ancients

apples.

IV. 615-685.] VI. Perseus and Andromeda.

639. seu, if on the one hand; sive, or if.

641. rerum, heroic deeds.

643. Themis, see note, i. 321.

213

645. Jove natus: the son of Jupiter, who stole the golden apples of the Hesperides, was Hercules, himself a remote descendant of Perseus.

...

649. ne longe absit, lest the glory, &c., be far from helping thee.

650. mentiris, falsely boast. 654. parvi, of little worth.

655. Medusæ ora: the horror of the countenance of Medusa, with its snaky locks, chilled the beholder into stone. Perseus himself had approached the monster averted — ipse retroversus – gazing at her reflection in the polished shield; and had borne the bleeding head in an enchanted sack, given him by the sea-nymphs. 657. quantus erat, sc. tantus = of just his size.

658. abeunt, pass, or are converted.

661. di, vocative.

663. Hippotades, Æolus, son of Hippotas, god of the winds. 664. admonitor operum, summoner to toil.

665. ille, Perseus.

669. Cephēa (adj.), of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, brother of Ægyptus and Danaus.

670. maternæ linguæ: Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda, was "That starred Ethiop queen that strove

To set her beauty's praise above

The sea-nymphs, and their powers offended."

Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and Perseus are among the most striking constellations in the northern heavens.

671. Ammon: the chief divinity of Egypt, identified with the Greek Zeus (Jupiter); represented with the head of a ram. He had an oracle in the Libyan desert.

672. bracchia, acc. of specification.

673. Abantiades: Abas, king of Argos, descended from Danaus, was father of Acrisius

675. ignes, the flames of love.

679. quibus, sc is catenis.

680. requirenti, sc. mihi.

683. religata, i. e. her hands bound behind.

684. quod potuit, i. e. the only thing she could its antecedent is the sentence lumina, etc.

685. instanti, to him urgent. sua, emphatic: she would not seem to confess guilt.

her offence, which incurred this penalty.

695. lacrimarum limits tempora; manere governs vos. 697. peterem, seek in marriage. — Perseus, in appos. with 702. meritum : i. e. that the boon should be my own earni dotibus, endowments.

703. meă, predicate.

704. legem, condition.

705. super

=

insuper. dotale, a bridal gift. In Ovid's the wife brought a dowry to the husband. This usage he transferred to the heroic times, when the husband purchased wife from her parents.

706. rostro, construe with sulcat.

709. Balearica: the people of these islands were fan slingers.

710. cæli, space: partitive genitive with quantum. - plun i. e. the leaden slug thrown by the sling.

714. Jovis præpes, the eagle.

715. præbentem Phœbo, turning to the Sun.

718. inane, the void (i. e. air).

720. Inachides: Inachos, son of Oceanus, was the first k

of Argos.

720. hamo, see note, v. 616.

725. qua patent, where they are exposed.

729. graves, made heavy.

730. bibulis, soaked with blood.

732. stantibus, quiet.

734. exegit, thrust through; repetita, attacked repeatedly. 735. implevere: the plural subject is cum plausu clam

751. duritiam capiant: as if the coral were a sea-plant, whic

turns to stone by contact with the air.

tact with the air.

756. alipedi, Mercury.

tacto ab aere, from con

757. præmia indotata, i.e. herself the price of the exploit without other dowry

s, thrown back. ta, prepared.

i, people of Cepheus.

etc., having discharged the service of high-born

re, relaxed.

es: Lynceus was a fabled ancestor of Perseus.

rides, Perseus, descended from a brother of Agenor. luminis usum: the sisters Graiæ, daughters of ut one eye between them, which Perseus - made cap of Pluto - caught as it was passing from one Thus made helpless, they were constrained to tell on which the fate of the Gorgon depended.

s, sharing.

mque: observe that the syllable -que is elided
el at the beginning of the next verse (synapheia).
is = from their proper shape.

epercusso, i. e. by the image reflected from the
; limited by clipei, above (see note, v. 655).

s fugacem Pegason: the winged horse Pegasus,
Muses, and the giant Chrysaor, wielding a golden
from the blood of the slain Gorgon.

sororum, Medusa was the only one of the three
s mortal. All, however, had the power of convert-
er into stone. - 798. vitiasse, dishonored.
f Perseus (like that of Hercules and many other
-ents the daily course of the sun, in conflict with the
kness and storm. The harpe is his gleaming ray;
e the twilight; the Gorgons are the storm-cloud,
on the bosom of the sea-wave, and is cloven by the
d" of the lightning. The jagged edges of the cloud,
on stream which pours from it in the glow of sunset,
eatures of the image.

216

Notes: Ovid.

[METAM.

VII. THE WANDERING OF CERES.

CERES, in the Greek myth, is the Earth-Mother (AnμýTMnp), type of the productive power of the soil, who seeks her child Proserpina (Persephone, called also Kopń, the maiden), stolen from her sight by the king of the lower world, and only restored to her by Jupiter for six months of each year. By this parable the ancients understood the annual sowing of the grain-harvest, by which the corn is hidden in the ground through the winter months, but restored in spring to sunlight, and ripening to the harvest, in which the yearly festival of Ceres is celebrated with religious rites.

V. 341. unco aratro: the ancient plough, still sometimes seen in Italy, was a rude wooden instrument which broke the soil with its hooked extremity.

343. dedit leges: because agriculture first led men to an orderly life, she was called Ceres legifera (Anunτηр Оeσμоpóроs).

346. membris (dat. after ingesta), heaped on the giant limbs (Typhoeus, see Introd.). Typhoeus was not reckoned one of the giants, but represented the violent powers of nature, especially in the earthquake: hence he is placed for punishment under the volcano Etna.

347. Trinacris, "the three headlands," is the ancient name describing the triangular form of Sicily, which, on a rude map, might suggest the notion of a buried giant. — subjectum and ausum agree with Typhoea; molibus depends on subjectum, and sperare on ausum; sedes is object of sperare.

350. Peloro, etc., Pelorus is the headland nearest Italy; Pachynus, the S. E. extremity of the island: Libybæum, the western. Ausonio, Italian (an old name of Southern Italy). 352. resupinus, flat on his back.

354. remoliri, to cast off (with effort).

356. rex silentum, king of the silent realms, Pluto.

361. ambibat, surveyed, going his rounds, like a watchman. 363. Erycina, Venus, who had a famous temple on Mt. Eryx, in the western part of Sicily, apparently of Phoenician origin. Eryx was fabled to be her son, killed by Hercules in a boxingmatch, and buried on this mountain (see Virgil, Æn. v. 392-420).

364. natum volucrem, her winged son, Cupido (="Epws) or Desire, son of Venus: the modern Cupid, whose attributes of bow and arrows, with wings, have come down from ancient works of art.