veil of allegory in saying an indecency. "He preferred the bare, and even coarse, word; and he is too rich in this style of writing to need the loan of equivocal passages."
v. 12. The story of the race between Hippomenes and Atalanta, and how the crafty lover tricked the damsel into defeat by the three golden apples is well known. Cf. Ovid. Metam. lib. x. v. 560, et seq. According to Vossius the gift of an apple was equivalent to a promise of the last favour. The Emperor Theodosius caused Paulinus to be murdered for receiving an apple from his Empress. As to this, cf. the "Tale of the Three Apples," in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Sir Richard Burton's Translation, Benares, 1885-8, 16 volumes), vol. i. p. 191. Cf. also note to C. lxv. v. 19.
v. 13. Virgins wore a girdle, generally of wool, for wool by the ancients was supposed to excite love, which the bridegroom the first night unbound in bed. Both in Greek and in Latin the phrase to undo the zone was used to signify the loss of virginity.
C. vi. v. 8. Some say this is the spikenard, and the same with the Syrian malobathrum. But any rich odour was termed Syrian, by the Romans, who were extravagantly fond of perfumes; and used them, according to Vulpius, as provocatives to venery.
v. 9. Pulvinus, not pulvinar. Cf. carmen lxiiii. v. 47, post.
C. vii. v. 6. Battus (in Libyan) Bahatus, a chief, a ruler.—Halevy Essai, p. 164.—R. F. B.
C. viii. v. 18. Plautus speaks of Teneris labellis molles morsiunculae. Thus too Horace:
Sive puer furens
Impressit memorem dente labris notam.
Or on thy lips the fierce fond boy