Et Heat effusis ante sepulchra comis']
'No sister have I here to present to my ashes the Assyrian perfumes, and to weep before my tomb with dishevelled locks.' To this passage Ovid makes reference in the next two lines.]
628 ([return])
[ Thy first love.—Ver. 53. 'Prior;' his former love was Delia, who was forsaken by him for Nemesis. They are both represented here as attending his obsequies. Tibullus says, in the First Elegy of the First Book, addressing Delia:—]
Te spectem, suprema mihi cum venerit hora,]
Te teneam moriens, déficiente manu.]
Flebis et arsuro positum me, Delia, lecto,]
Tristibus et lacrymis oscula mista dabis.']
May I look upon you when my last hour comes, when dying, may I hold you with my failing hand. Delia, you will lament me, too, when placed on my bier, doomed to the pile, and will give me kisses mingled with the tears of grief.' To these lines Ovid evidently here refers. It would appear from the present passage, that it was the custom to give the last kiss when the body was laid on the funeral pile.]