(iv.) Hints for Verses.—Ovid is the acknowledged master of elegiac verse. Therefore, whenever you have a passage of his elegiacs to translate, you should, if possible, learn it by heart. (The Arion story as told by Ovid is well worth a place in any collection of Ediscenda.) If you cannot do this, notice useful phrases and turns of expression, e.g.:—
Line 1.—A question, instead of a bare statement, where no answer is expected.
Cf. ‘Quod crimen dicis praeter amasse meum?’
(Dido to Aeneas, Ov. Her. vii. 164.)
Lines 3, 4.—Parataxis and repetition of idea.
Line 9.—Vocalis Arion, apostrophe.
Line 2.—Simplicity; alliteration.
(v.) The Poem as Literature.—Ovid here depicts in language purposely exaggerated the power of music over the hearts of men, and even over nature, animate and inanimate. This gives point to the strong contrast in the lines which follow, where greed dominates all the feelings. Shakespeare refers to the love of music as a test of character:—
‘The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,