Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

as hostiae maiores, while sheep, kids, and goats were hostiae minores.

45. Tyndaridae fratres: i.e. the Dioscuri, 'Castor and Pollux,' who were the children of Leda and Tyndareus (acc. to Homer), and were placed among the stars as gemini. They were worshipped as the guardians of sailors, and if their light was seen in a storm the ship was supposed to be safe. Horace speaks of them as fratres Helenae, lucida sidera. Cf. Macaulay's Lays :

'Safe comes the ship to harbour,
Through billows and through gales,
If once the great Twin Brethren
Sit shining on the sails.'

The worship of the Dioscuri seems to have been often confused with the worship of the Kabeiroi, the primitive deities of Samothrace.

haec insula: Samothrace.

46. duplici viae: viz. (1) His journey to Tempyra, and

(2) the voyage of the Minerva's Helmet to Tomi.

precor: note numen adesse after precor.

47, 48.

Ovid's ship.'

altera altera, 'the Minerva's Helmet

...

50. illa... illa, 'the former... the latter.'

suos, 'favourable.'

XI.

6

I. Quaecumque littera, every letter read by thee.' Distinguish littera, 'a letter of the alphabet,' and litterae, 'a collection of such letters,' and so 'an epistle.' This elegy is an epilogue written on his way to Tempyra (see 1. 31) at the end of A. D. 8.

tibi: dative of reference; so also mihi, 1. 2.

2, &c. The elegies in this book were written either on his voyage from Brundisium across the Adriatic or when he had changed his ship at Corinth and was on his way through the Aegean Sea.

5. bimarem Isthmon: i. e. the Isthmus of Corinth, which was bimaris, i. e. 'on two seas, dividing as it did the Aegean from the Gulf of Corinth. Compare Horace bimaris Corinthi moenia. The town had two harbours, Cenchreae on the Saronic and Lechaeum on the Corinthian Gulf. Compare Byron's Siege of Corinth :

'The land-mark to the double tide That purpling rolls on either side.'

7. quod facerem: subjunctive because the clause is subordinate to an accusative and infinitive clause.

8. Cycladas: the islands which lie in a circle round Delos, the chief of which are Naxos and Paros (Greek κύκλος).

9. tantis fluctibus: either abl. of cause, or instrument after cecidisset, which is equivalent to a passive verb. Fluctibus is used literally with maris and metaphorically with animi, 'storms of heart and ocean.'

12. ab hac cura: notice the presence of ab with the instrumental ablative. In such cases there is almost personification, and the word is regarded as denoting a living agent. 'Whether this zeal is called insensibility or madness, my whole soul was comforted by this work.' Generally the idea of origin' is also present, e. g. received consolation from this work.' Compare also 3. 48 versa ab axe, i. e. 'by' and 'on.' Cf. Tristia 4, 10, 16, insignes ab arte viros, 'made illustrious by their skill and gaining fame from their skill.' The meaning in each case is more exactly defined and is more pregnant.

13. ab Haedis: ab because the Haedi are considered as living agents. The Constellation of the Kids, two stars in the arm of Auriga, rose about September 27, and were often spoken of as heralds of stormy weather. Virgil speaks of them as pluviales Haedi.

14. Steropes: genitive. Sterope was one of the Pleiades whose setting in November marked stormy weather.

15. custos: see 3. 48 and 4. 1.

16. seris aquis, 'had drained the Hyades of the wintry rains.' The epithet serus is used because the Hyades (Ὑάδες) or Rainy Ones set 'late in the year,' at the end of November, the season of rains.

aquis is ablative of respect, in respect of the late rains,' or perhaps ablative of the thing taken away, after a verb signifying deprivation. Hauserat = exhauserat : cf. feret, 2. 68, and ferri, 3. 89.

17. intus, 'in the ship.'

18. ducebam, 'I was composing.' The metaphor is from

spinning: compare deducta, 1. 39.

19. contenti, stretched out.'

25. attigero: compare 1. 62 for omission of si in the protasis.

portu ab ipso: compare lines 12 and 13.

28. ensis. We frequently hear of war among these

barbaric tribes on the coast of Thrace.

29, 30. The order is vereor ne ille meo, &c.

ille.

.. haec, 'the former... the latter.' meo sanguine: instrumental ablative; 'by shedding my blood.'

titulum, glory.' Cf. 1. 53.

31. pars laeva: the region on the left of Tempyra, viz. Thrace. Ovid wrote this elegy on his voyage from Samo. thrace to Tempyra, as is seen from lines 33 and 34.

37. hortis: the pleasure gardens attached to the wealthy Roman's villa. Ovid had a suburban villa and grounds near Rome.

38. consuete: a trisyllable by synaeresis.

lectule: a reading-couch or lounge on which the Romans were accustomed to recline for writing and reading. 41. improba, 'relentless.'

ausim: an archaic form of the present subjunctive from audeo. Faxim from facio is also common. There was originally a form of the fut. indicative and fut. subjunctive (in -so and -sim) formed by s being prefixed to the stem, like Greek future -σω. The subjunctive is one of alleged reason, the reason being not Ovid's but that alleged by the storm as the cause of its indignation. The clause is therefore virtually oblique.

44. illa: sc. statuat modum sui, i. e. let it put an end to its threats and then I will put an end to my writing.

APPENDIX A.

EL. I. 1-12. A ROMAN BOOK.

The opening lines of the first elegy give us an excellent idea of the usual ornaments of a Roman book. The Latin word liber was originally used of the inner bark or rind of the lime or other tree, and then of the Egyptian papyrus. The ancients used this to write upon, and hence the name. The paper, charta, was prepared from the papyrus. Only one side was written upon, the other being stained with saffron (cedrus), which at once served as an ornament and as an antiseptic against moths and the like. The paper was joined together so as to form one sheet, and when sufficient sheets had been pasted together a stick was fastened to the last sheet, and on this the whole was rolled into a volumen (volvo, 'I roll'). Knobs or bosses, called cornua, made of ivory or some other ornamental material, were fastened to each end of the stick, but ordinarily the sticks did not project beyond the roll but had their extremities on the same plane as the base of the cylinder. These the ancients called umbilici, from their resemblance to the human navel. The edges of the roll were carefully trimmed and polished with pumice-stone (pumex), so that the roll made a cylinder, of which the top and bottom were often coloured black: they were called geminae frontes. The roll was then covered in an envelope or cover-a parchment case called membrana--stained purple. The title (titulus or index) was written in vermilion letters (minium) on a piece of parchment, but it is not easy to say where this ticket was placed. Sometimes it was attached to the roll, and sometimes it hung down from one of the frontes. Several volumes were then enclosed in a box, called scrinium, which was placed usually beside the lectus in the cubiculum.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed]
« AnteriorContinuar »