Chapter 85

[1] _E.g._ In the first 100 lines of the _Remedium Amoris_, a long continuous treatise, there is only one couplet where the syntax is carried continuously through, v. 57, 8, _Nec moriens Dido summa vidisset ab arce Dardanias vento vela dedisse rates_, and even here the pentameter forms a clause by itself. Contrast the treatment of Catullus (lxvi. 104-115) where the sense, rhythm, and syntax are connected together for twelve lines. The same applies to the opening verses of Virgil's _Copa_. Tate's little treatise on the elegiac couplet correctly analyses the formal side of Ovid's versification. As instances of the relation, of the elegiac to the hexameter--iteration (Her. xiii. 167), _Aucupor in lecto mendaces caelibe somnos; Dum careo veris gaudia falsa iuvant_: variation (Her. xiv. 5), _Quod manus extimuit iugulo demittere ferrum Sum rea: laudarer si scelus ausa forem_: expansion (id. 1), _Mittit Hypermnestra de tot modo fratribus una: Cetera nuptarum crimine turba iacet_: condensation (Her. xiii. 1), _Mittit et optat amans quo mittitur ire salutem, Haemonis Haemonio Laodamia viro_: antithesis (Am. I. ix. 3), _Quae bello est habilis veneri quoque convenit aetas; Turpe senex miles turpe senilis amor_. These illustrations might be indefinitely increased, and the analysis carried much further. But the student will pursue it with ease for himself. Compare ch. ii. app. note 3.

[2] Ecl. x. 2.

[3] Two Greek Epigrams (Anthol. Gr. ii. p. 93) are assigned to him by Jacobs (Teuffel).

[4] Quint. x. 1, 93.

[5] Mart. iv. 29, 7.

[6] Id. vii. 29, 8.

[7] v. 17, 18.

[8] Tr. II. x. 6.

[9] El. I. i. 19.

[10] Ep. I. iv. 7.

[11] _Prisca iuvent alios: ego me nunc denique natum Gratulor: haec aetas moribus apta meis_ (A. A. iii. 121). Ovid is unquestionably right.

[12] Od. I. xxxiii. 2.

[13] El. I. 7; II. 1. Tibullus turns from battle scenes with relief to the quiet joys of the country.

[14] Others read _Plautia_, but without cause.

[15] El. ii. 21.

[16] Ib. i. 57.

[17] Ib. ii. 1.

[18] _Albi, nostrorum sermonum_ candide _index_, Hor. Ep. I. iv.

[19] Ov. Am. III. ix. 32, implies that Delia and Nemesis were the two successive mistresses of the poet.

[20] El. IV. ii. 11, 12, _urit ... urit_. Cf. G. i. 77, 78. Again, _dulcissima furta_ (v. 7), _cape tura libens_ (id. 9); _Pone metum Cerinthe_ (iv. 15), will at once recall familiar Virgilian cadences.

[21] Ib. IV. vi. 2; vii. 8.

[22] Ib. IV. viii. 5; x. 4.

[23] S. I. ix. 45.

[24] Ib. iv. 23, 24; v. 8, 1.

[25] Whatever may be thought of his identity with Horace's _bore_, and it does not seem very probable, the passage, Ep. II. ii. 101, almost certainly refers to him, and illustrates his love of vain praise.

[26] Merivale has noticed this in his eighth volume of the History of the Romans.

[27] As instances of his powerful rhythm, we may select _Cum moribunda niger clauderet ora liquor; Et graviora rependit iniquis pensa quasillis: Non exorato stant adamante vias_; and many such pentameters as _Mundus demissis institor in tunicis; Candida purpureis mixta papaveribus_.

[28] See El. I. ii. 15, _sqq._; I. iii. 1-8, &c.

[29] Ib. ii. 34, 61.

[30] El. iii. (iv.) 6 (7).

[31] Ib. v. (iv.) 7.

[32] Ib. iv. (iii.) 8 (9). Two or three other elegies are addressed to him.

[33] iv. (iii.) 1, 3.

[34] On these see next chapter, p. 320.

[35] See Contr. ii. 11.

[36] Trist. I. ii. 77.

[37] So says the introduction; but it is of very doubtful authenticity.

[38] Am. II. i. 11.

[39] A. A. III. 346, _ignotum hoc aliis ille novavit opus_

[40] G. iii, 4, _sqq._

[41] These remarks apply equally to the Metamorphoses, and indeed to all Ovid's works.

[42] Lex Papia-Poppaea.

[43] It is probable that the _Art of Love_ was published 3 B.C., the year of Julia's exile.

[44] Some have, quite without due grounds, questioned the authenticity of this fragment.

[45] Tac. De Or. xiii; Quint. X. i. 98.

[46] i. vii. 27.

[47] See the witty invocation to Venus, Bk. IV. init.

[48] F. ii. 8.

[49] The most beautiful portions are perhaps the following:--The Story of Phaethon (ii. 1), the Golden Age (i. 89), Pyramus and Thisbe (iv. 55), Baucis and Philemon, a rustic idyl (viii. 628), Narcissus at the Fountain (iii. 407), The Cave of Sleep (xi. 592), Daedalus and Icarus (viii. 152), Cephalus and Procris (vii. 661), The passion of Medea (vii. 11), from which we may glean some idea of his tragedy.

[50] The chief passages bearing on it are, Tr. II. 103; III. v. 49; VI. 27; IV. x. 90. Pont, I. vi. 25; II. ix. 75; III. iii. 75.

[51] Such names as _Messala, Graecinus, Pompeius, Cotta, Fabius Maximus_, occur in his Epistles.

[52] This continual dwelling on mythological allusions is sometimes quite ludicrous, _e.g._, when he sees the Hellespont frozen over, his first thought is, "Winter was the time for Leander to have gone to Hero; there would have been no fear of drowning!"

[53] His abject flattery of Augustus hardly needs remark. It was becoming the regular court language to address him as _Jupiter_ or _Tonans_; when Virgil, at the very time that Octavius's hands were red with the proscriptions, could call him a god (_semper erit Deus_), we cannot wonder at Ovid fifty years later doing the same.

[54] _E.g._ 69-90.

[55] We may notice with regard to the _Ciris_ that it is very much in Ovid's manner, though far inferior. I think it may be fixed with certainty to a period succeeding the publication of the Metamorphoses. The address to Messala, v. 54, is a mere blind. The goddess Sophia indicates a later view than Ovid, but not necessarily post-Augustan. The goddess Crataeis (from the eleventh Odyssey), v. 67, is a novelty. The frivolous and pedantic object of the poem (to set right a confusion in the myths), makes it possible that it was produced under the blighting government of Tiberius. Its continual imitations make it almost a Virgilian _Cento_.

[56] Tac. Ann. vi. 18.

[57] Pont. IV. xvi.

[58] Am. II. xviii. 27.

[59] IV. xvi. 27.

[60] Quint. X. i. 89.

[61] _I.e._ that waged with Sextus Pompey.

[62] Suas. vi. 26.

[63] Pont. VI. xvi. 5.

[64] Pont. VI. xvi. 34.

[65] The name Faliscus is generally attached to him, but apparently without any certain authority.

[66] I. 898.

[67] IV. 935.

[68] Ib. 764.

[69] V. 513.

[70] Manilius hints at the general dislike of Tiberius in one or two obscure passages, _e.g._ I. 455; II. 290, 253; where the epithets _tortus, pronus_, applied to Capricorn, which was Tiberius's star, hint at his character and his disgrace. Cf. also, I. 926.

[71] De Or. I. 16.

[72] It may interest the reader to catalogue some of his peculiarities. We find _admota moenibus arma_ (iv. 37), a phrase unknown to military language; _ambiguus terrae_ (II. 231), _agiles metae Phoebi_ (I. 199) = circum quas agiliter se vertit; _Solertia facit artes_ (I. 73) = invenit. Attempts at brevity like _fallente solo_ (I. 240) = Soli declivitas nos longitudine fallens; _Moenia ferens_ (I. 781) = muralem coronam; inaequales Cyclades_ (iv. 637), _i.e._ ab inaequalibus procellis vexatae, a reminiscence from Hor. (Od. II. ix. 3). Constructions verging on the illegitimate, as _sciet, quae poena sequetur_ (iv. 210); _nota aperire viam_, sc. sidera (I. 31); _Sibi nullo monstrante loquuntur Neptuno debere genus_ (II. 223); _Suus_ for eius (IV. 885); _nostrumque parentem Pars sua perspicimus_. The number might be indefinitely increased. See Jacob's full index.

[73] These are worth reading. They are--I. 1-250, 483-539; II. 1-150, 722-970; III. 1-42; IV. 1-118 (the most elaborate of all), 866-935; V. 540-619, the account of Perseus and Andromeda.

[74] A hint borrowed from Plato's _Timaeus_.

[75] I. 246. An instance of a physical conclusion influencing moral or political ones. The theory that seas separate countries has always gone with a lack of progress, and _vice versa_.

[76] _Vis animae divina regit, sacroque meatu Conspirat deus et tacita ratione gubernat_ (I. 250).

[77] Hyg. P. A, ii. 14.

[78] I. 458.

[79] II. 58.

[80] _Mundi Vates_, II. 148.

[81] _E.g._ that of spring, V. 652-668.

[82] _E.g._ the transitions _Nunc age_ (iii. 43), _Et quoniam dictum est_ (iii. 385); _Percipe_ (iv. 818), &c.; the frequent use of alliteration (i. 7, 52, 57, 59, 63, 84, 116, &c.); of asyndeton (i. 34; ii. 6); polysyndeton (i. 99, _sqq._).

[83] _E.g. pedibus quid iungere certis_ (iii. 35).

[84] _E.g._ in those of Phaethon, and Perseus and Andromeda.

[85] _E.g. alia proseminat usus_ (i. 90); _inde species_ (ii. 155), &c.

[86] Facis ad (i. 10); caelum et (i.795); _conor et_ (in thesi. iii. 3); pudent (iv. 403).

[87] _E.g._ clepsisset (i. 25); itiner (i. 88); compagine (i. 719); sorti _abl_. (i. 813); audireque (ii 479).

[88] _E.g._ the plague so depopulated Athens that (ii. 891) _de tanto quondam populo vix contigit heres!_ At the battle of Actium (ii. 916); _in Ponto quaesitus rector Olympi!_