7. CHARTAE. See at xii 27 chartis ([p 380]).
7. REVELLAS 'tear away' is surprisingly strong in its overtones. It is found only here in the poems of exile, six times in the other elegies, and fifteen times in the Metamorphoses.
8. QVOD SIT OPVS VIDEOR DICERE POSSE TVVM. 'I think I could say which work was yours'. Heinsius' QVID SIT OPVS VIDEAR is a strange error: the interrogative adjective is acceptable enough, while the notion of the subjunctive must of course be contained in posse, not in the verb that governs it.
11. PRODENT AVCTOREM VIRES. 'His strength will reveal the poet's identity'. The same sense of prodere at Met II 433 'impedit amplexu nec se sine crimine prodit', Met XIV 740-41 'adapertaque ianua factum / prodidit', and Am I viii 109 'uox erat in cursu, cum me mea prodidit umbra'. Vires again used of poetic skill at Tr I vi 29 'ei mihi non magnas quod habent mea carmina uires', Tr IV ix 16 'Pierides uires et sua tela dabunt', EP III iii 34, and EP III iv 79.
13. DEPRENSA. Deprendere 'recognize, detect' is also found at Met II 93-94 'utinamque oculos in pectore posses / inserere et patrias intus deprendere curas' and Met VII 536-37 'strage canum primo uolucrumque ouiumque boumque / inque feris subiti deprensa potentia morbi', as well as at Livy XLII 17 7 (uenenum) and Celsus III 18 3 '[phrenetici ...] summam ... speciem sanitatis in captandis malorum operum occasionibus praebent, sed exitu deprenduntur'. This seems to be a semi-medical sense; Professor R. J. Tarrant suggests that colore may bear the secondary meaning 'complexion' in this passage.
15. TAM MALA THERSITEN PROHIBEBAT FORMA LATERE. For Thersites' ugliness, see Il II 216-19 'αἴσχιστος δὲ ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ῆλθε· / φολκὸς ἔην, χωλὸς δ' ἕτερον πόδα· τὼ δέ οἱ ὤμω / κυρτώ, ἐπὶ στῆθος συνοχωκότε· αὐτὰρ ὕπερθε / φοξὸς ἔην κεφαλήν, ψεδνὴ δ' ἐπενήνοθε λάχνη'.
For the modern reader, Thersites' ugliness is hardly his leading characteristic; but at EP III ix 9-10 Ovid again refers to his appearance: 'auctor opus laudat: sic forsitan Agrius [his father] olim / Thersiten facie dixerit esse bona'. Other mentions of Thersites' ugliness at Lucian Dial Mort XXV (Thersites argues that he is now as handsome as Nireus) and Epictetus Diss II 23 32 (Thersites is contrasted with Achilles), to which Professor C. P. Jones adds from Greek epigram Greek Inscr. Brit. Mus. IV ii 1114; other citations from late Greek authors at PW V A,2 2457 18-38 & 2464 23-66 and Roscher V 670 23 ff.
16. NIREVS. For the beauty of Nireus, see Il II 671-74 'Νιρεὺς αὖ Σύμηθεν ἄγε τρεῖς νῆας ἐί̈σας, / Νίρεὺς Ἀγλαί̈ης υἱὸς Χαρόποιό τ' ἄνακτος, / Νίρεύς, ὃς κάλλιστος ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ῆλθε / τῶν ἄλλων Δαναῶν μετ' ἀμύμονα Πηλεί̈ωνα'. This is the only mention of Nireus in the poem; but Demetrius (Peri Hermeneias 62; cited by Cope at Aristotle Rhet 1414a) remarks that because of Homer's use of epanaphora (the repetition of Nireus' name) and dialysis (asyndeton) 'σχεδὸν ἅπαξ τοῦ Νιρέως ὀνομασθέντος ἐν τῷ δράματι μεμνήμεθα οὐδὲν ἧττον ἢ τοῦ Άχιλλέως καὶ τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως'. Ovid mentions Nireus again at AA II 109-12 'sis licet antiquo Nireus adamatus Homero ... ingenii dotes corporis adde bonis'; see also Hor Epod XV 22 'forma ... uincas Nirea', Hor Carm III xx 15 (where Nireus is paired with Ganymede) and Prop III xviii 27 'Nirea non facies, non uis exemit Achillem'; from Greek epigram Professor C. P. Jones cites Peek Griech. Versinschr. 1728 (Merkelbach ZPE 25 [1977] 281).
16. CONSPICIENDVS. The word is metrically suited to the second half of the pentameter, before the disyllable: compare Tib I ii 70 & II iii 52, Fast V 118 & V 170, and Tr II 114.
17. MIRARI SI is a colloquialism: most of the passages from verse cited at TLL VIII 1067 14 are from Plautus and the hexameter poems of Horace; from Propertius compare II iii 33 'haec ego nunc mirer si flagret nostra iuuentus?' and from Ovid Her X 105 'non equidem miror si stat uictoria tecum' and Tr I ix 21 'saeua neque admiror metuunt si fulmina'.