The Last Poems of Ovid

by Ovid

24. DVCITVR. 'Is formed, written'. The same sense at Met I 649 (of Io) 'littera ... quam pes in puluere duxit' and Met X 215-16 'AI AI / flos habet inscriptum, funestaque littera ducta est'.

25. IMPETVS ILLE SACER. 'The famous divine impulse'. Similar phrasing at Fast VI 5-6 'est deus in nobis; agitante calescimus illo: / impetus hic sacrae semina mentis habet'.

25. VATVM PECTORA NVTRIT. Nutrit here seems to mean 'sustain'. Its usual transferred sense is 'cause to grow', as at III iv 26 (the only other passage I have found where the verb is used of poetry) and Hor C IV iv 26.

27. VIX VENIT AD PARTES ... MVSA. 'My Muse with difficulty performs her functions'. Partes in the sense of 'theatrical role' (Ter Ph 27) early acquired the extended sense of 'role', 'function', or 'duty'. Burman cites as parallels Am I viii 87 'seruus et ad partes sollers ancilla parentur' and Nux 68; compare as well AA II 546 'cum, tener, ad partes tu quoque, somne, uenis' and EP III i 41-42 'utque iuuent alii, tu debes uincere amicos, / uxor, et ad partes prima uenire tuas'.

27. SVMPTAE ... TABELLAE. Compare Met IX 523-25 'scribit damnatque tabellas ... inque uicem sumptas ponit positasque resumit'.

29. NE DICAM. I have found no other instance of the expression in verse, but it is common in Cicero (Kühner-Stegmann II i 825).

30. NVMERIS NECTERE VERBA. 'Bind words to metre'. I take numeris as a dative; no close parallel presents itself, but compare Aen IV 239-40 'pedibus talaria nectit / aurea'.

33. NVMEROSOS ... GESTVS. Compare Am II iv 29 'illa placet gestu numerosaque bracchia ducit', AA II 305 'bracchia saltantis, uocem mirare canentis', and Prop II xxii 5-6 'siue aliquis molli diducit candida gestu / bracchia, seu uarios incinit ore modos'. Heinsius thought GRESSVS (I¹PF^3ul) possible as well, citing Varro LL IX 5 'pedes male ponere atque imitari uatias ['bow-legged men'] coeperit', Martianus Capella IX 909 'licet pulchris rosea numeris ac libratis passibus moueretur', and Maximianus (6th century) El III 27 'suspensos ponere gressus'. But the strong manuscript authority for gestus and the parallels in Ovid mark it as clearly preferable to gressus.

33. PONERE. The verb seems strange, but Burman cited in its support Val Max VIII vii 7 'Roscius ... nullum umquam spectante populo gestum, nisi quem domi meditatus fuerat, ponere [codd: promere E. Schulze] ausus est'.

35-36. LAVDATAQVE VIRTVS / CRESCIT. For this commonplace of ancient literature see Otto ars 3 and compare RA 393 'nam iuuat et studium famae mihi creuit honore', Tr V xii 37-38 'denique non paruas animo dat gloria uires, / et fecunda facit pectora laudis amor', EP III ix 21 'scribentem iuuat ipse fauor minuitque laborem', Prop IV x 3, and Cic Tusc I 4.