CHAPTER IV.
[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!