The Last Poems of Ovid

by Ovid

Oblitus in 18 indicates that pectus is virtually equivalent to 'mind' or even 'memory'. In Ovid it often has the sense 'poetic feeling', as at xii 16 'pectus habere neger'.

17. LETHEN. Compare Tr IV i 47-48 'utque soporiferae biberem si pocula Lethes, / temporis aduersi sic mihi sensus abest'.

21. ET can be construed, as connecting with the preceding nec; compare Fast VI 325 'nec licet et longum est epulas narrare deorum'. SED should however possibly be read, the word contrasting with the preceding nec as at ii 15-16 'nec tamen ingenium nobis respondet ut ante, / sed siccum sterili uomere litus aro'. The error could easily be induced by the final s of the preceding putes; compare Med 55-56 'par erui mensura decem madefiat ab ouis / (sed [uar et] cumulent libras hordea nuda duas)'.

21. LEVIS HAEC ... GRATIA. 'This unimportant expression of gratitude'. The same use of leuis at EP II v 35-36 'hoc tibi facturo, uel si non ipse rogarem, / accedat cumulus gratia nostra leuis'.

21. HAEC MERITIS REFERATVR GRATIA. Similar phrasing at Met V 14-15 'meritisne haec gratia tantis / redditur?', Tr V iv 47 'plena tot ac tantis referetur gratia factis', EP I vii 61 'emeritis referenda est gratia semper', and EP III i 79-80 'nec ... debetur meritis gratia nulla meis'.

23. NVMQVAM PIGRA FVIT NOSTRIS TVA GRATIA REBVS. Wheeler rightly points out Ovid's play in 21-23 on the varying senses of gratia (thanks), gratus (grateful), and gratia (favour, kindness).

26. FERETQVE is Heinsius' correction for the REFERTQVE of the manuscripts (REFERT B¹, REFERTA C); it is made necessary by the following fiducia tanta futuri. Owen, Lenz, and André report feretque as the reading of the thirteenth-century Canonicianus lat 1, but Professor R. J. Tarrant, who has examined the manuscript, informs me that it in fact reads refertque.

For the pattern compare Tr III viii 12 'quae non ulla tibi fertque feretque dies' and Tr II 155-56 'per superos ... qui dant tibi longa dabuntque / tempora'.

The corruption was natural enough, particularly in view of such passages as Fast VI 334 'errantes fertque refertque pedes', Tr I vii 5-6 (to a friend who owned a ring with Ovid's portrait) 'hoc tibi ... senti ... dici, / in digito qui me fersque refersque [codd: ferasque Heinsius] tuo', and Tr V xiii 29 'sic ferat ac referat tacitas nunc littera uoces'.

28. QVOD FECIT QVISQVE TVETVR OPVS. 'Everyone protects the work he has created'. This is hardly a commonplace of ancient poetry, and the catalogue which follows of famous works of art does not serve to illustrate it.