9. EXEMPLVM EST ANIMI NIMIVM PATIENTIS VLIXES. Ovid frequently compares his trials in exile to those undergone by Ulysses. The longest instance of this is Tr I v 57-84; compare as well Tr III xi 61-62 'crede mihi, si sit nobis collatus Vlixes, / Neptuni minor est quam Iouis ira fuit', Tr V v 1-4, and EP I iii 33-34, II vii 59-60 & III vi 19-20.
Ulysses' voyage was a favourite subject of the Latin poets. For a surviving example, see Prop III xii 23-36. An indication of the subject's popularity is the fact that Pan Mess 45-49 'nam seu diuersi fremat inconstantia uulgi, / non alius sedare queat; seu iudicis ira / sit placanda, tuis poterit mitescere uerbis. / non Pylos aut Ithace tantos genuisse feruntur / Nestora uel paruae magnum decus urbis Vlixem' is followed not by a description of Ulysses' eloquence, as would have been appropriate, but by a narrative of his travels (52-81): this illogical sequence was no doubt induced by the poet's familiarity with similar descriptions of Ulysses' voyage in the poetry of his time.
Professor E. Fantham cites Seneca's use of Ulysses as an exemplum patientiae at Sen Dial II 2 1, where Hercules is compared to Ulysses.
9. EXEMPLVM EST. Professor R. J. Tarrant points out to me the unusual baldness of the phrase. In Ovid's earlier verse exemplum has an instructional or minatory overtone (AA III 686, Met IX 454). The flatter use of exemplum seems to be typical of the poetry of exile: compare EP III i 44 'coniugis exemplum diceris esse bonae', and Tr I v 21, IV iii 72 & IV iv 71.
9. NIMIVM PATIENTIS = πολύτλας (Il VIII 97, Od V 171, et saep.). The sense of nimium seen here is not generally found in poetry, or even in literary prose; the instances cited by OLD nimium2 2 are all from comedy, Cato, and the letters of Cicero.
10. DVO LVSTRA. Compare xvi 13-14 'Vlixem / errantem saeuo per duo lustra mari' and AA III 15-16 'est pia Penelope lustris errante duobus / et totidem lustris bella gerente uiro'.
11. SOLLICITI ... FATI is based on such phrases as sollicita uita (Prop II vii 1) and sollicitissima aetas (Sen Breu Vit 16 1). Similar phrasing at Tr IV x 116 'nec me sollicitae taedia lucis habent'.
11. PLACIDAE SAEPE FVERE MORAE. Compare Prop III xii 23-24 'Postumus alter erit miranda coniuge Vlixes: / non illi longae tot nocuere morae'.
13. SEX ANNIS. According to Homer (Od VII 261), Ulysses left Calypso in the eighth year of his stay on her island. André points out that Hyginus Fab CXXV 16 has Ulysses on the island for one year only; for other estimates of the length of Ulysses' stay, see Roscher III 627. Ovid was probably influenced by the bis ... tertia of the poem's opening. Cimmerio in 1 furnishes another connection with Ulysses (Od XI 14; quoted at 1).
13. FOVISSE. Compare Od V 118-120 (Calypso speaking) 'Σχέτλιοί ἐστε, θεοί, ζηλήμονες ἔξοχον ἄλλων, / οἵ τε θεαῖς ἀγάασθε παρ' ἀνδράσιν εὐνάζεσθαι / ἀμφαδίην, ἤν τίς τε φίλον ποισετ' ἀκοίτην'.