recall the exile. He was, therefore, compelled to spend the rest of his life at Tomi, where he died in 17 or 18 A.D. Ovid is a charming and graceful poet, full of keen wit, and possessing preeminently the ability to tell a good story, but superficial and frivolous. He rarely bores his reader, though he is sometimes wordy and diffuse; his poetry charms, but does not stir deeply, for Ovid was lacking in those characteristics that produce a deep impression upon men. His smooth and fluent verse, however, together with his power of entertaining, have made him a favorite poet for many generations. The extant works of Ovid are as follows: Amores (Loves), in three books, consisting of fortynine elegies, which sketch the amatory side of the poet's life. Heroides (Heroines), twenty-one love-letters represented as written by heroines to their absent lovers or husbands; several of these are now generally supposed to have been written by some imitator of Ovid. De Medicamine Faciei (The Use of Cosmetics), of which only a fragment of one hundred lines has reached us, addressed to women, and giving advice on the art of the toilet. Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), in three books (the first two books addressed to men, and the third to women), treating of the successful ways of winning love, and of retaining it when once won. Remedia Amoris (Cures of Love), a sort of appendix to the Art of Love, and treating of the methods of conquering a love not returned. Metamorphoses (Transformations), in fifteen books, a valuable collection of the fables of ancient mythology. This poem was scarcely completed when the heavy doom of banishment fell upon the poet. In a fit of desperation Ovid burned it with some other poems, but fortunately he had circulated among his friends some copies, from which a transcription was made, and thus his greatest work was preserved to the world. Fasti (Calendar), treating of the Roman festivals and their origin, with a description of their celebration. The plan of this work contemplated a book for each month of the year, but only six books were completed. Tristia (Laments), in five books, addressed to Augustus, Ovid's family, and his friends. Epistulæ ex Ponto (Letters from Pontus), in four books, of like character with the Tristia, from which they differ only in having the epistolary form. Ibis, imitated from a like-named poem by Callimachus, and consisting of imprecations called down upon a faithless friend at Rome; it is written in the obscure style of the Alexandrian poets. Halieutica (The Art of Fishing), treating of the fish in the Black Sea. BOOKS FOR PARALLEL READING Ovid and His Art BROWNE: History of Roman Classical Literature (pp. 307–317). CHURCH: Ancient Classics for English Readers: Ovid. CRUTTWELL: History of Roman Literature (pp. 305-311). MIDDLETON-MILLS: Students' Companion to Latin Authors (pp. 200-213). SELLAR: Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Horace and the SIMCOX: History of Latin Literature (Vol. I, pp. 325-362). Mythology BULFINCH: The Age of Fable. COLLIGNON: Manual of Mythology. D'OOGE: Helps to the Study of Classical Mythology. DURUY: History of Rome. GAYLEY: Classic Myths. GUERBER: Myths of Greece and Rome. HARRINGTON-TOLMAN: Greek and Roman Mythology. Keightley: Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy. KELSEY: Outlines of Greek and Roman Mythology. KINGSLEY: The Heroes: or, Greek Fairy Tales for my Children. LOWELL: Jason's Quest. MORRIS: Epic of Hades. MORRIS: Life and Death of Jason. MURRAY: Manual of Mythology. PECK: Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities. SEEMANN: Mythology of Greece and Rome. SEYFFERT: Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. SMITH: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. SWINBURNE: Atalanta in Calydon. VERGIL: Æneid, translated by Conington. II. SCANSION Ancient versification was a matter of quantity. To be able to read Latin poetry with pleasure one must pronounce correctly, and to pronounce correctly one must know and carefully observe the quantities of the syllables. Any one who can pronounce Latin fairly well and can read with intelligence Longfellow's Evangeline will have little trouble in mastering Ovid's verse. The poems of Ovid are written in dactylic meters. The hexameter (i.e. a verse of six measures or feet), the meter of Homer and Vergil, is used in the Metamorphoses and Halieutica; in his other works the hexameter alternates with the so-called pentameter (i.e. a verse of five measures or feet), forming the Elegiac Distich. The basis of all dactylic meters is the dactyl, composed of one long and two short syllables (expressed -~~). Now, by quantity we mean the time it takes to pronounce a syllable. The unit of measurement is the short syllable (marked ); the long syllable (marked) takes just twice as long in pronunciation as the short. Since, therefore, the long syllable is twice as long as the short, it is obvious that two short syllables equal one long; and hence we may expect to find a spondee, composed of two long syllables (expressed --), used instead of the dactyl. So instead of a foot of three syllables, one long and two short, we often have a foot of two long syllables. The fifth foot of the hexameter is commonly a dactyl; when a spondee is found in this foot, the verse is called a spondaic verse. The sixth foot is always considered a spondee. But the slight pause at the end of the verse makes it possible for a short syllable to stand here. The final syllable is therefore called syllaba anceps (doubtful syllable). The syllables of a metrical foot may belong to one or more words. The constitution of the hexameter may, then, be represented thus: -~-~-~-~-~-~ Scansion is the division of a verse into its metrical feet; hence to scan a verse, we must know the quantity of the syllables composing each word. The rules of quantity can be found in any Latin grammar. Some technical terms of prosody will be treated here. The long hexameter must have some place where the reader may pause to catch his breath. There are two kinds of pauses, the Caesura and the Diaeresis. A Caesura occurs when a word ends within a foot: sponte su,ā sine, lege, fi, dem, rēc,tumque, colebat. The caesural pauses are here marked by double lines. The feet are separated by single lines: sponte su is a foot, because the three syllables fill out the requirements of the dactyl; again, dem rēc is a foot, because its two syllables fill out the requirements of a spondee. It will be seen that a caesura may fall after a long syllable (-or--), or after the first short syllable of the dactyl (-). When a caesura falls after the long syllable, it is called Strong or Masculine Caesura; when |