Part 8

[Footnote 028: Warm the bosom of another.--Ver. 5. As each guest while reclining on the couch at the entertainment, mostly leaned on his left elbow during the meal, and as two or more persons lay on the same couch, the head of one person reached to the breast of him who lay above him, and the lower person was said to lie on the bosom of the other. Among the Romans, the usual number of persons occupying each couch was three. Sometimes, however, four occupied one couch; while, among the Greeks, only two reclined upon it. In this instance, he describes the lady as occupying the place below her husband, and consequently warming his breast with her head. For a considerable time after the fashion of reclining at meals had been introduced into Rome, the Roman ladies sat at meals while the other sex was recumbent. Indeed, it was generally considered more becoming for females to be seated, especially if it was a party where many persons were present. Juvenal, however, represents a bride as reclining at the marriage supper on the bosom of her husband. On the present occasion, it is not very likely that the ladies were particular about the more rigid rules of etiquette. It must be remembered that before lying down, the shoes or sandals were taken off.]

[Footnote 029: Damsel of Atrax.--Ver. 8. He alludes to the marriage of Hippodamia to Pirithous, and the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ, described in the Twelfth-. Book of the Metamorphoses.]

[Footnote 031: Do come first.--Ver. 14. He hardly knows why he asks her to do so, but still she must come before her husband; perhaps, that he may have the pleasure of gazing upon her without the chance of detection; the more especially as she would not recline till her husband had arrived, and would, till then, probably be seated.]

[Footnote 032: Touch my foot.--Ver. 16. This would show that she had safely received his letter.]

[Footnote 033: My secret signs.--Ver. 18. See the Note in this Volume, to the 90th line of the 17th Epistle.]

[Footnote 034: By my eye-brows.--Ver. 19. See the 82nd line of the 17th Epistle.]

[Footnote 035: Traced in the wine.--Ver. 20. See the 88th line of the 17th Epistle.]

[Footnote 036: Your blooming cheeks.--Ver. 22. Probably by way of check to his want of caution.]

[Footnote 037: Twisted on your fingers.--Ver. 26. The Sabines were the first to introduce the practice of wearing rings among the Romans. The Romans generally wore one ring, at least, and mostly upon the fourth finger of the left hand. Down to the latest period of the Republic, the rings were mostly of iron, and answered the'purpose of a signet. The right of wearing a gold ring remained for several centuries the exclusive privilege of Senators, Magistrates, and Knights. The emperors were not very scrupulous on whom they conferred the privilege of wearing the gold ring, and Severus and Aurelian gave the right to all Roman soldiers. Vain persons who had the privilege, literally covered their fingers with rings, so much so, that Quintilian thinks it necessary to warn the orator not to have them above the middle joint of the fingers. The rings and the gems set in them, were often of extreme beauty and value. From Juvenal and Martial we learn that the coxcombs of the day had rings for both winter and summer wear. They were kept in 'dactyliothecæ,' or ring boxes, where they were ranged in a row.]

[Footnote 038: Who are in prayer.--Ver. 27. It was the custom to hold the altar while the suppliant was praying to the Deities; he here directs her, while she is mentally uttering imprecations against her husband, to fancy that the table is the altar, and to take hold of it accordingly.]

[Footnote 039: If you are discreet.--Ver. 29. Sapias' is put for 'si sapias,' 'if you are discreet,' 'if you would act sensibly.']

[Footnote 041: Ask the servant.--Ver. 30. This would be the slave, whose office it was to mix the wine and water to the taste of the guests. He was called [oivôxooç] by the Greeks, 'pincerna' by the Romans.]

[Footnote 042: Which you have put down.--Ver. 31. That is, which she either puts upon the table, or gives back to the servant, when she has drunk.]

[Footnote 043: Touched by his mouth.--Ver. 34. This would appear to refer to some choice morsel picked out of the husband's plate, which, as a mark of attention, he might present to her.]

[Footnote 044: On his unsightly breast.--Ver. 36. This, from her position, if she reclined below her husband, she would be almost obliged to do.]

[Footnote 045: So close at hand.--Ver. 37. A breach of these injunctions would imply either a very lax state of etiquette at the Reman parties, or, what is more probable, that the present company was not of a very select character.]

[Footnote 048: Beneath the cloth.--Ver. 48. 'Vestis' means a covering, or clothing for anything, as for a couch, or for tapestry. Let us charitably suppose it here to mean the table cloth; as the passage will not admit of further examination, and has of necessity been somewhat modified in the translation.]

[Footnote 049: The conscious covering.--Ver. 50. The 'pallia,' here mentioned, are clearly the coverlets of the couch which he has before mentioned in the 41st line; and from this it is evident, that during the repast the guests were covered with them.]

[Footnote 050: Add wine by stealth.--Ver. 52. To make him fall asleep the sooner]

[Footnote 051: 'Twas summer time.--Ver. 1. In all hot climates it is the custom to repose in the middle of the day. This the Spaniards call the 'siesta.']

[Footnote 053: A part of the window.--Ver. 3. On the 'fenestræ,' or windows of the ancients, see the Notes to the Pontic Epistles, Book iii. Ep. iii. 1. 5, and to the Metamorphoses, Book xiv. 1. 752. He means that one leaf of the window was open, and one shut.]

[Footnote 054: Corinna.--Ver. 9. In the Fourth Book of the Tristia, Elegy x. 1. GO, he says, 'Corinna, (so called by a fictitious name) the subject of song through the whole city, had imparted a stimulus to my geuius.' It has been supposed by some Commentators, that under this name he meant Julia, either the daughter or the grand-daughter of the emperor Augustus, but there seems really to be no ground for such a belief; indeed, the daughter of Augustus had passed middle age, when Ovid was still in boyhood. It is most probable that Corinna was ouly an ideal personage, existing in the imagination of the Poet; and that he intended the name to apply to his favourite mistress for the time being, as, though he occasionally denies it, still, at other times, he admits that his passion was of the roving kind. There are two females mentioned in history of the name of Coriuna. One was a Theban poetess, who excelled in Lyric composition, and was said to have vanquished Pindar himself in a Lyric contest; while the other was a native of Thespiæ, in Bceotia. 'The former, who was famous for both her personal charms and her mental endowments, is supposed to have suggested the use of the name to Ovid.]

[Footnote 055: Clothed in a tunic.--Ver. 9. 'Tunica' was the name of the under-garment with both sexes among the Romans. When the wearer was out of doors, or away from home, it was fastened round the waist with a belt or girdle, but when at home and wishing to be entirely at ease, it was, as in the present instance, loose or ungirded. Both sexes usually wore two tunics. In female dress, Varro seems to call the outer tunic 'subucula,' and the 'interior tunica' by the name also of 'indusium.' The outer tunic was also called 'stola,' and, with the 'palla' completed the female dress. The 'tunica interior,' or what is here called tunica,' was a simple shift, and in early times had no sleeves. According to Nonius, it fitted loosely on the body, and was not girded when the 'stola' or outer tunic was put on. Poor people, who could not afford to purchase a 'toga,' wore the tunic alone; whence we find the lower classes called by the name of 'tunicati.']

[Footnote 056: Her flowing hair.--Ver. 10. 'Dividuis,' here means, that her hair was scattered, flowing over her shoulders and not arranged on the head in a knot.]

[Footnote 057: Semiramis.--Ver. 11. Semiramis was the wife of Ninus, king of Babylon, and was famous for her extreme beauty, and the talent which she displayed as a ruler. She was also as unscrupulous in her morals as the fair one whom the Poet is now describing.]

[Footnote 058: And Lais.--Ver. 12. There are generally supposed to have beén two famous courtesans of the name of Lais. The first was carried captive, when a child, from Sicily, in the second year of the 91st Olympiad, and being taken to Corinth, became famous throughout Greece for her extreme beauty, and the high price she put upon her favours. Many of the richest and most learned men resorted to her, and became smitten by her charms. The second Lais was the daughter of Alcibiades, by his mistress, Timandra. When Demosthenes applied for a share of her favours, she made the extravagant demand of ten thousand drachmae, upon which, regaining his wisdom (which had certainly forsaken him for a time) he said that he would not purchase repentance at so high a price.]

[Footnote 059: In its thinness.--Ver. 13. Possibly it was made of Coan cloth, if Corinna was as extravagant as she was vicious.]

[Footnote 060: The cruel fetter--Ver. 1. Among the Romans, the porter was frequently bound by a chain to his post, that he might not forsake it.]

[Footnote 062: Watches of the keepers.--Ver. 7. Properly, the 'excubiæ' were the military watches that were kept on guard, either by night or day, while the term 'vigiliæ,' was only applied to the watch by night. He here alludes to the watch kept by jealous men over their wives.]

[Footnote 063: Spectres that flit by night.--Ver. 13. The dread of the ghosts of the departed entered largely among the Roman superstitions. See an account of the Ceremony, in the Fifth Book of the Fasti, 1. 422, et seq., for driving the ghosts, or Lemures, from the house.]

[Footnote 064: Ready for the whip--Ver. 19. See the Note to the 81st line of the Epistle of De'ianira to Hercules. Ovid says, that he has often pleaded for him to his mistress; indeed, the Roman ladies often showed more cruelty to the slaves, both male and female, than the men did to the male slaves.]

[Footnote 065: As you wish.--Ver. 28. Of course it would be the porter's wish that the night should pass quickly on, as he would be relieved in the morning, and was probably forbidden to sleep during the night.]

[Footnote 066: Hours of the night pass on.--Ver. 24. This is an intercalary line, being repeated after each seventh one.]

[Footnote 067: From the door-post.--Ver. 24. The fastenings of the Roman doors consisted of a bolt placed at the bottom of eacn 'foris,' or wing of the door, which fell into a socket made in the sill. By way of additional precaution, at night, the front door was secured by a bar of wood or iron, here called 'sera,' which ran across, and was inserted in sockets on each side of the doorway. Hence it was necessary to remove or strike away the bar, 'excutere seram,' before the door could be opened.]

[Footnote 068: Water of the slave.--Ver. 26. Water was the principal beverage of the Roman slaves, but they were allowed a small quantity of wiue, which was increased on the Saturnalia. 'Far,' or 'spelt,' formed their general sustenance, of which they received one 'libra' daily. Salt and oil were also allowed them, and sometimes fruit, but seldom vegetables. Flesh meat seems not to have been given to them.]

[Footnote 069: About my temples.--Ver. 37. 'Circa mea tempora,' literally, 'around my temples' This-expression is used, because it was supposed that the vapours of excessive wine affect the brain. He says that he has only taken a moderate quantity of wine, although the chaplet falling from off his hair would seem to bespeak the contrary.]

[Footnote 073: Otherwise I myself!--Ver. 57. Heinsius thinks that this and the following line are spurious.]

[Footnote 074: Holding in my torch--Ver. 58. Torches were usually carried by the Romans, for their guidance after sunset, and were generally made of wooden staves or twigs, bound by a rope around them, in a spiral form, or else by circular bands at equal distances. The inside of the torch was filled with flax, tow, or dead vegetable matter, impregnated with pitch, wax, rosin, oil, or other inflammable substances.]

[Footnote 075: Love and wine.--Ver. 59. He seems, by this, to admit that he has taken more than a moderate quantity of wine, 'modicum vinum,' as he says above.]

[Footnote 076: Anxieties of the prison.--Ver. 64. He alludes to the 'ergastulum,' or prison for slaves, that was attached to most of the Roman farms, whither the refractory slaves were sent from the City to work in chains. It was mostly under ground, and, was lighted with narrow windows, too high from the ground to be touched with the hand. Slaves who had displeased their masters were usually sent there for a punishment, and those of uncouth habits were kept there. Plutarch says that they were established, on the conquest of Italy, in consequence of the number of foreign slaves imported for the cultivation of the conquered territory. They were finally abolished by the Emperor Hadrian.]

[Footnote 077: Bird is arousing.--Ver. 66. The cock, whom the poets universally consider as 'the harbinger of morn.']

[Footnote 078: Equally slaves.--Ver. 74. He called the doors, which were bivalve or folding-doors, his 'conservæ,' or 'fellow' slaves,' from the fact of their being obedient to the will of a slave. Plautuâ, in the Asinaria, act. ii sc. 3, has a similar expression:--'Nolo ego fores, conservas meas a te verberarier.' 'I won't have my door, my fellow-slave, thumped by you.']

[Footnote 080: Did not Ajax too.--Ver. 7. Ajax Telamon, on being refused the arms of Achilles, became mad, and slaughtered a flock of sheep, fancying that they were the sons of Atreus, and his enemy Ulysses. His shield, formed of seven ox hides, is celebrated by Homer.]

[Footnote 081: Mystic Goddesses.--Ver. 10. Orestes avenged the death of his father, Agamemnon, by slaying his own mother, Clytemnestra, together with her paramour, Ægistheus. He also attempted to attack the Furies, when they haunted him for the murder of his mother.]

[Footnote 082: Daughter of Schceneus.--Ver. 13. Atalanta, the Arcadian, or Mae-nalian, was the daughter of Iasius, and was famous for her skill in the chase. Atalanta, the Boeotian, was the daughter of Schceneus, and was renowned for her swiftness, and for the race in which she was outstripped by Hippomenes. The Poet has here mistaken the one for the other, calling the Arcadian one the daughter of Schoeneus. The story of the Arcadian Atalanta is told in the Eighth Book of the Metamorphoses, and that of the daughter of Schceneus, at the end of the Tenth Book of the same work.]

[Footnote 083: The Cretan damsel.--Ver. 16. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, when deserted on the island of Naxos or Cea.]

[Footnote 084: Cassandra.--Ver. 17. Cassandra being a priestess, would wear the sacred fillets, 'vittse.' She was ravished by Ajax Oileus, in the temple of Minerva.]

[Footnote 085: The humblest Roman.--Ver. 29. It was not lawful to strike a freeborn human citizen. See Acts, c. xxii. v. 25. 'And as they hound him with thongs, Paul said unto the Centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemncd?' This privilege does not seem to have extended to Roman women of free birth.]

[Footnote 086: Strike a Goddess.--Ver. 32. He alludes to the wound inflicted by Diomedes upon Venus, while protecting her son Æneas.]

[Footnote 087: Her hurt cheeks--Ver. 40. He implies by this, to his disgrace which has made her cheeks black and blue by his violence.]

[Footnote 089: At the middle.--Ver. 48. He says that he ought to have been satisfied with tearing her tunic down to the waist, where the girdle should have stopped short the rent; whereas, in all probability, he had torn it from the top to the bottom.]

[Footnote 090: Her free-born cheeks.--Ver. 50. It was a common practice with many of the Romans, to tear and scratch their Slaves on the least provocation.]

[Footnote 091: The Parian mountains.--Ver. 52. The marble of Paros was greatly esteemed for its extreme whiteness. Paros was one of the Cyclades, situate about eighteen miles from the island of Delos.]

[Footnote 092: Their proper order. --Ver 68. 'In statione,' was originally a military phrase, signifying 'on guard'; from which It came to be applied to any thing in its place or in proper order.]

[Footnote 094: Does she derive.--Ver. 3. He says that her name, 'Dipsas,' is derived from reality, meaning thereby that she is so called from the Greek verb [êtxpâui], 'to thirst'; because she was always thirsty, and never rose sober in the morning.]

[Footnote 095: The charms of Ææa.--Ver. 5. He alludes to the charms of Circe and Medea. According to Eustathius, Ææa was a city of Colchis.]

[Footnote 096: Turns back to its source.--Ver. 6. This the magicians of ancient times generally professed to do.]

[Footnote 097: Spinning wheel.--Ver. 8. 'Rhombus,' means a parallelogram with equal sides, but not having right angles, and hence, from the resemblance, a spinning wheel, or winder. The 'licia' were the cords or thrums of the old warp, or the threads of the old web to which the threads of the new warp were joined. Here, however, the word seems to mean the threads alone. The spinning-wheel was much used in magical incantations, not only among the Romans, but among the people of Northern and Western Europe. It is not improbable that the practice was founded on the so-called threads of destiny, and it was the province of the wizard, or sorceress, by his or her charms, to lengthen or shorten those threads, according as their customers might desire. Indeed, in some parts of Europe, at the present day, charms, in the shape of forms of words, are said to exist, which have power over the human life at any distance from the spot where they are uttered; a kind of superstition which dispenses with the more cumbrous paraphernalia of the spinning-wheel. Some Commentators think that the use of the 'licia' implied that the minds of individuals were to be influenced at the will of the enchanter, in the same way as the old thrums of the warp are caught up and held fast by the new threads; this view, however, seems to dispense with the province of the wheel in the incantation. See the Second Book of the Fasti, 1. 572. The old woman there mentioned as performing the rites of the Goddess, Tacita, among her other proceedings, 'binds the enchantea threads on the dark-coloured spinning-wheel.']

[Footnote 098: Venomous exudation.--Ver. 8. This was the substance called 'hippomanes,' which was said to flow from mares when in a prurient state. Hesiod says, that 'hippomanes' was a herb which produced madness in the horses that ate of it. Pliny, in his Eighth Book, says that it is a poisonous excrescence of the size of a fig, and of a black colour, which grows on the head of the mare, and which the foal at its birth is in the habit of biting off, which, if it neglects to do, it is not allowed by its mother to suck. This fictitious substance was said to be especially used in philtres.]

[Footnote 099: Moon was empurpled.--Ver. 12. If such a thing as a fog ever exists in Italy, he may very possibly have seen the moon of a deep red colour.]

[Footnote 101: That she, transformed.--Ver. 13. 'Versam,' 'transformed,' seems here to be a preferable reading to 'vivam,' 'alive.' Burmann, however, thinks that the 'striges' were the ghosts of dead sorcerers and wizards, and that the Poet means here, that Dipsas had the power of transforming herself into a 'strix' even while living, and that consequently 'vivam' is the proper reading. The 'strix' was a fabulous bird of the owl kind, which was said to suck the blood of children in the cradle. Seethe Sixth Book of the Fasti, 1. 141, and the Note to the passage.]

[Footnote 102: A double pupil, too.--Ver. 15. The pupil, or apple of the eye, is that part through which light is conveyed to the optic nerve. Some persons, especially females, were said by the ancients to have a double pupil, which constituted what was called 'the evil eye.' Pliny the Elder says, in his Seventh Book, that 'all women injure by their glances, who have a double pupil.' The grammarian, Haephestion, tells us, in his Fifth Book, that the wife of Candaulcs, king of Lydia, had a double pupil. Heinsius suggests, that this was possibly the case with the Ialysian Telchines, mentioned in the Seventh Book of the Metamorphoses, 1. 365, 'whose eyes corrupting all things by the very looking upon them, Jupiter, utterly hating, thrust them beneath the waves of his brother.']

[Footnote 103: And their grandsires.--Ver. 17. One hypercritical Commentator here makes this remark: 'As though it were any more difficult to summon forth from the tomb those who have long been dead, than those who are iust deceased.' He forgot that Ovid had to make up his line, and that 'antiquis proavos atavosque' made three good feet, and two-thirds of another.]

[Footnote 105: The twofold doors.--Ver. 20. The doors used by the ancients were mostly bivalve, or folding doors.]

[Footnote 106: Mars in opposition.--Ver. 29. She is dabbling here in astrology, and the adverse and favourable aspects of the stars. We are to suppose that she is the agent of the young man who has seen the damsel, and she is telling her that the rising star of Venus is about to bring her good luck.]

[Footnote 107: Makes it his care.--Ver. 32. Burmann thinks that this line, as it stands at present, is not pure Latin; and, indeed, 'curæ habet,' 'makes it his care,' seems a very unusual mode of expression. He suggests another reading--'et, cultæ quod tibi défit, habet,' 'and he possesses that which is wanting for your being well-dressed,' namely, money.]

[Footnote 108: The damsel blushed.--Ver. 35. He says that his mistress blusned at the remark of the old hag, that the young man was worthy to be purchased by her, if he had not been the first to make an offer. We must suppose that here the Poet peeped through a chink of the door, as he was on the other side, listening to the discourse; or he may have reasonably guessed that she did so, from the remark made in the same line by the old woman.]

[Footnote 109: Your eyes cast down.--Ver. 37. The old woman seems to be advising her to pretend modesty, by looking down on her lap, so as not to give away even a look, until she has seen what is deposited there, and then only to give gracious glances in proportion to her present. It was the custom for the young simpletons who lavished their money on the Roman courtesans, to place their presents in the lap or bosom.]

[Footnote 111: Sabine females.--Ver. 39. The Sabines were noted for their domestic virtues. The hag hints, that the chastity of the Sabine women was only the result of their want of good breeding. 'Tatio régnante' seems to point to the good old times, in the same way as our old songsters have it, 'When good king Arthur reigned.' Tatius reigned jointly at Rome with Romulus. See the Fourteenth Book of the Metamorphoses, 1. 804.]

[Footnote 112: In foreign warfare.--Ver. 41. She says, that they are now in a more civilized state, than when they were fighting just without the walls of Rome; now they are solely engaged in foreign conquests, and Venus reigns in the city of the descendants of her son, Æneas.]

[Footnote 113: Dispel these frowns.--Ver. 45. The damsel has, probably, frowned here at her last remark, on which she tells her she must learn to dispense with these frowns, and that when she dispels them, 'excutit,' so many faults which might otherwise prove to her disadvantage, will be well got rid of.]