12. VISA EST A TERGO PENNA DEDISSE SONVM. 'I thought I heard a wing rustle behind me'. A similar advent of an unseen deity at Met III 96-98 'uox subito audita est; neque erat cognoscere promptum / unde, sed audita est: "quid, Agenore nate, peremptum / serpentem spectas? et tu spectabere serpens"'. Compare as well Met V 294-98 'Musa loquebatur: pennae sonuere per auras, / uoxque salutantum ramis ueniebat ab altis. / suspicit et linguae quaerit tam certa loquentes / unde sonent hominemque putat Ioue nata locutum; / ales erat'.
12. PENNA BMFHILT PINNA C. Pinna and penna, perhaps from different roots, were confused even in antiquity. The ancient manuscripts of Virgil offer pinna as the spelling even for the meaning 'wing', but Quintilian clearly took penna as the correct spelling for this sense: 'quare ['therefore'] discat puer ... quae cum quibus cognatio; nec miretur cur ... a pinno quod est acutum [sc fiat] securis utrimque habens aciem bipennis, ne illorum sequatur errorem qui, quia a pennis duabus hoc esse nomen existimant, pennas auium dici uolunt'. (I iv 12).
13. NEQVE ERAT CMHL NEC ERAT BFIT. Virgil had a very strong preference for neque before words starting with a vowel, but Ovid did not follow this rule: compare Met I 101 'nec ullis', 132 'nec adhuc', 223 'nec erit', 306 'nec ablato', and 322 'nec amantior'. However, it seems better to accept neque as the true reading in view of the good manuscript support and the parallel at Met III 96-97 'uox subita audita est (neque [uar nec] erat cognoscere promptum / unde, sed audita est)'.
13. NEQVE ERAT CORPVS. 'But there was no body'. Neque (nec) represents sed ... non as well as et ... non.
It is one of Ovid's favourite devices to describe the aspect of gods when they appear to him, as at Am III i 7-14 (Elegy and Tragedy), Fast I 95-100 (Janus), Fast III 171-72 (Mars), Fast V 194 (Flora), Fast V 637-38 (Tiber), and EP III iii 13-20 (Amor). The only other passage where Ovid says he did not see the god is Fast VI 251-54, but Vesta had no traditional appearance that Ovid could make use of: compare Fast VI 298 'effigiem nullam Vesta ... habet'.
The reason that Ovid did not describe Fama was that the picture of Fama as a winged monster which Virgil had made standard (Aen IV 174-88) could not easily be integrated into the poem. The only description of Fama in Ovid is at Met IX 137-39 'Fama loquax praecessit ad aures, / Deianira, tuas, quae ueris addere falsa / gaudet, et e minima sua per mendacia crescit'. At Met XII 39-63 there is a memorable description of Fama's dwelling-place. Fama is also personified (but with no descriptions) at EP II i 19-20 & II ix 3.
16. PER IMMENSAS AERE LAPSA VIAS. Similar phrasing at EP III iii 77-78 (Amor speaking) 'ut tamen aspicerem consolarerque iacentem, / lapsa per immensas est mea penna uias'.
17. QVO NON TIBI CARIOR ALTER. Compare Tr III vi 3 'nec te mihi carior alter', Tr IV vi 46 'qua nulla mihi carior, uxor', and EP II viii 27 'per patriae nomen, quae te tibi carior ipso est'.
18. CANDIDVS ET FELIX PROXIMVS ANNVS ERIT. Compare Fast I 63-64 'ecce tibi faustum, Germanice, nuntiat annum / inque meo primus carmine Ianus adest'. No doubt both passages echo the phrasing of a New Year wish or prayer.
18. CANDIDVS. 'Favourable'. Compare Tr V v 13-14 (on his wife's birthday) 'optime natalis! quamuis procul absumus, opto / candidus huc uenias', Prop IV i 67-68 'Roma, faue, tibi surgit opus, date candida ciues / omina, et inceptis dextera cantet auis!', and Fast I 79-80 'uestibus intactis Tarpeias itur in arces, / et populus festo concolor ipse suo est'.