[1710] 16 and 17 seem hopelessly corrupt. Gerlach supposes some "remedy for languishing love" to be intended ("irritamentum Veneris languentis"), and reads "Callosa ova et bene plena: tunc olorum atque anseris collus" (cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iv., 14), "Hard and well-filled eggs; then swan's and goose's neck." But the emendation is too wide to be admitted into the text.
[1711] Muginor is used by Cicero in the sense of "dallying, trifling." "Nugas agere, causari, moras nectere, tarde conari." Att., xvi., 12. But its primitive meaning is conveyed by its etymology, "Mugitu moveo." It refers to the noise made by those who move heavy weights, that their efforts may be exerted in concert. Coupled with Fr. 10, its meaning is obvious here.
[1712] Ogannis, i. e., obgannis. It is properly applied to a dog. Cf. Juv., vi., 64, "Appula gannit." Compare the Greek λαγνεύειν.
[1713] Cf. lib. iv., Fr. 8.
[1714] Gerlach reads "Acron" for the old lorum, which Scaliger approved, and connected this Fragment with the second of the eighth book.
BOOK VIII.
ARGUMENT.
The eighth book, as Schoenbeck supposes, consisted of an exposition of domestic life, with a discussion as to the virtues which a good wife ought to possess. Duentzer would rather connect it with the last book, and imagines unlawful love to have been the theme, and that the ancient title of the book countenanced this opinion. The second, fourth, fifth, eleventh, and thirteenth Fragments seem to confirm the conjecture; the drift of the others is not apparent.
1 When the victor cock proudly rears himself, and raises his front talons—