as an infant is held" in gremio matris," Juv. III. 176. Sinus denotes the loose folds of the tunic or toga, according to the sex alluded to." Paley. 20. ungue] Cf. Propert. I. 20, 38; Catull. LXII. 43.

21. On the Hyacinth, see note on Ovid, 25, 21.

Amarante] "immortelle: " a red flower, as is clear from Tibull. III. 4,

33.

22. rorem] "rosemary:" 'ros marinus,' so called from the mealy whiteness, like dried sea-foam, under the leaves. Paley.

23. sunt] sub. 'sunt alii quos legunt.'

27. Patruus] Pluto, the brother of Jupiter and Ceres.

30. i. e. she tore off in despair the fold of her tunic which held the flowers. 32. inassueti] because they were accustomed to the infernal world.

33, 34. chorus æqualis] "the train of youthful maids," duhλikes, who attended Proserpine. Cf. Virg. G. IV. 460.

Persephone] the Greek form of Proserpine.

tua dona] "the presents offered to you."

35. ut clamata] "when she, though summoned."

37. modo] "only just:" i. e. on her return from the banquet.

40. Mænadas] from Mænas, raving Bacchanal:" from μaívoμal, I rave.

41. sua] is scarcely correct: ejus being required. Paley says: "This use of suus appears to depend on a mental confusion between the subject and the object, as if the poet had meant ut vitulus desideratur a suâ matre.""

45. puellaris plantæ] "of the maiden's tread."

33. OVID RELATES HIS OWN LIFE.

1, 2. The order of the words is as

follows: 'accipe, Posteritas, ut noris, qui ego fuerim, ille lusor tenerorum amorum, quem legis.

3, 4. See notes on Ovid 20, above. 5. He alludes to the death of the Consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, before Mutina, B. C. 43.

7, 8. ordinis] scil. equestris. fortunæ A fortune of 4,000 sesterces entitled its owner to the equestrian dignity.

11, 12. Ovid and his brother, who was his senior by twelve months, were both born on the same day of the year: two birthday cakes celebrated the event on the same day. See Juv. XVL 38. Martial (X. 28) speaks of the "quinquagesima liba," the cakes offered to the gods on one's fiftieth birthday.

13, 14. This is one of the five festal days of Minerva-the first day which witnesses gladiatorial combats: that is, the second day of the festival: for on the first there was no such exhibition. Burmann. Ovid's birthday, according to this computation, was the 21st of March.*

16. ab arte] follows 'insignes.' "The poets," says Madvig, Lat. Gram. § 254, Obs. 2, "use ab where the ablativus instrumenti would usually stand in prose: e. g. turbinem assuetâ versat ab arte puer,'' by the help of his wonted art,' Tib. I. 5, 4." An exact parallel occurs in Virgil, 'torrida semper ab igni,' G. I. 234. See note on Propert. 29, 51, above; and compare Ovid, 38, 116, below, 'solvar a lætitiâ.'

urbis] Urbs 'constantly designates Rome, кaт' è§oxηv.

28. "Togam virilem designat, quam nobiles adolescentes apud Romanos sumebant in festo Liberi patris, 16 Kal. April., depositâ prætextâ." Bur.

mann.

29. Augustus allowed the use of the 'latus clavus' even to the children

* The writer of the article' Ovidius' in Dr. Smith's Biog. Dict. has evidently mistaken the sense of prima' in this line, when he makes the 20th of March Ovid's birthday.

of senators: but if, on reaching the senatorial age, they were either unable or unwilling to assume that dignity, they were obliged to wear the narrow 'clavus'-a purple stripe running down the centre of the 'toga'-to which Ovid alludes below, in the words, 'clavi mensura coacta est.' Burmann.

34. tribus... viris] Triumviri,' or boards of three commissioners, were frequently appointed at Rome to discharge various public offices.

39. Aoniæ Sorores] the Muses: so called because they haunted Mount Helicon, in Boeotia, one of the most ancient tribes of which were the Aŏnes.

43, 44. "Emilius Macer, Veronensis poeta, de herbis scripsit, et Ornithogoniam sive de avibus, item Theriaca." Harles.

47. Ponticus wrote an heroic poem on the Theban war. Bassus is not mentioned by any other Roman authority, unless he be the person familiarly addressed by Propertius, I. 4.

46

51, 52. The order of the words is :

nec avara fata dedere Tibullo tempus amicitiæ meæ," "time to form my friendship."

55, 56. majores] "my predeces

sors."

mea Thaleia] a poetical variation of "my Muse."

63. placitura] "which would have pleased."

68. fabula]" scandal."

80. matri, etc.] The meaning is: "I buried my mother next: Matri justa [funebria] tuli proxima.'

88. foro] alluding to the fabulous tribunals of Minos, Eacus and Rhadamanthus. In the two following lines, the construction is 'errorem, non scelus, caussam esse jussæ fugæ ' [exile].

94. miscuerat] i. e. had mingled grey with black hair.

95, 96. Pisæâ] The victors in the Olympic games at Pisa, in Elis, were crowned with chaplets of wild olive. Ten Olympiads=50 years, according

to Ovid's computation: which, however, is erroneous, as the interval between the celebration of the games was four years, not five.

97, 98. Tomitas] "the people of Tomi," now Tomisvar, the place of Ovid's banishment, a town of Lower Moesia, on the Euxine.

106. temporis arma] "cœpi tempori cedere, et necessitati parere, ut virum fortem decet." Burmann.

108. occultum... polum] per occultum polum, Australem, per conspicuum vero, Septentrionalem intelligit, Virgilius, G. I. 242:

"Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis: at

illum

Compare Virg. En. V. 166: "quo diversus abis? Ovid's daughter, Perilla, had gone to Africa with her husband. Certior esse, 'certior fieri,' are common phrases for "being informed." 23. femina virque] poetical singulars for plurals. pueri]" servants."

25. in parvo] "in a little matter." 29. ab hâc]" by her light." 30. frustra] is thus explained by Burmann: "quia mihi non profuerunt, quum [though] præsentia numinum, templa habitantium, vicinos quoque tueri debuisset."

31. Compare Manlius' invocation of the Gods on the Capitoline hill: "Jupiter Optime Maxime, Junoque Regina, ac Minerva, ceterique Dii, Deæque, qui Capitolium arcemque incolitis:" Liv. VI. 10.

32. jam] "henceforth," like the Greek ἤδη.

35. clipeum sumo] a proverb for taking precautions too late.

He

37. cœlesti viro] as well as 'deo,' 40, refers to Augustus. distinguishes culpa,' an error," from 'scelus,' "a crime."

66

43, 44. Perilla-Ovid's wife-prostrates herself before the images of the Lares, and prays to them, kissing the fireplace, in which the fire was now extinguished, because the master of the house was leaving it.

45. aversos] Compare Hor. Od. III. 23:"Mollibit aversos Penates."

47. nox præcipitata] "the setting of night." "This means that the night was coming to an end. Night falling with us means night coming on, because the shadows appear to fall upon the earth. The ancient poets represented night as declining down the western sky as the light came up from the eastern." Macleane. 48. The constellation of the Bear

towards the East; a sign that the dawn was at hand. Callisto, a nymph, daughter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, whose capital was Parrhasia, was transformed into a bear by Juno, and changed into a constellation by Jupiter.

53. "He often pretended, when they would have him make haste, that he had fixed in his own mind upon a particular hour, as being most propitious for departure. But this was only an excuse for delay." Macleane. 57. Vale dicto] "after saying,

Farewell."

59. me fefelli] i. e. mei ipsius oblitus sum. Harles.

62. utraque... mora] i. e. reluctance either to leave Rome, or to go to Scythia.

66. Theseâ fide] alluding to the strong friendship of Theseus for Pirithous.

35. THE IONIAN SEA. Description of a storm encountered by Ovid on his voyage to Tomi.

1. custos Erymanthidos Ursæ] There was a mountain in Arcadia named Erymanthus, and

Erymanthis, Ursa' is equivalent to "the Arcadian Bear:" so called in allusion to the conversion of Callisto, daughter of an Arcadian king, into a bear. The "guardian" is the Little Bear, called Arctophylax and Arcturus by the Greeks. Arcturus, who sets on the 11th of December, says of himself in Plautus, Rud. Prol. 71, "Vehemens sum exoriens; cum occido, vehementior."

4. metu] he was obliged to brave the storm for fear of the wrath of Augustus.

5. me

miserum!]

"wretched man that I am!" This is elliptical, as all exclamations are, because they represent sudden emotions. "Ecce me miserum," "look at me, poor wretch," would be a complete sentence. Macleane.

8. pictos deos] Images of the

36. A COMPARISON BETWEEN

ULYSSES AND OVID.

1. Pro duce Neritio] "instead of the Ithacan chief: " i. e. Ulysses, so called from Neritus, a mountain in Ithaca, thus alluded to by Virgil, "Neritos ardua saxis," Æn. III. 271.

4. Dulichium is reckoned by Strabo among the Echinades: and is frequently mentioned in the Odyssey as one of the group of isles subject to Ulysses; as in Od. I. 225; IX. 24.

20. diva] i. e. Minerva.

merely a new form of the elegy. It is a passionate soliloquy, in which the mind gives vent to the distresses and emotions under which it labours; but the epistolary form gives it a propriety, interest, and animation, of which the elegy, or even a well-conducted soliloquy in tragedy, is scarcely susceptible."

Ariadne was a daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë. When Theseus was sent by his father to convey the tribute of the Athenians to Minotaurus, Ariadne fell in love with him, and gave him the string by means of which he found his way out of the labyrinth, and which she herself had received from Hephaestus. Theseus in return promised to marry her, and she accordingly left Crete with him; but when they arrived at the Isle of Dia [Naxos], he faithlessly deserted her, at the command of Bacchus.

"The story of Ariadne seems to have been a favorite with Ovid. It is beautifully related in the first book of the Art of Love; in the third of the Fasti, where the heroine deplores the double desertion of Theseus and Bacchus; and in the eighth of the Metamorphoses, where the melancholy part of the story is recalled to notice, in order to introduce the transformation of her Crown into a star." Dunlop, vol. III. p. 385.

2. "I could not have been entrusted to any wild beast less safely than to you." The indicative, 'eram,' is often used in conditional expressions, where the subjunctive might have been expected, to give liveliness or brevity to

37. ARIADNE TO THESEUS. Dunlop, History of Roman Lit. vol. III. p. 380, speaking of the Epistles of Ovid, remarks: "Ovid* claims for himself the invention of this species of composition, though it is, in fact,

* Ars Am. III. 346: "Ignotum hoc aliis ille novavit opus."

licius iter pæne hostibus dedit, ni unus vir fuisset.' Hor. Od. II. 17, 27: "Me truncus illapsus cerebro Sustulerat, nisi Faunus ictum Dextrâ levâsset." See Macleane ad 1. c. and Prof. Conington on Virg. G. II. 133: "et si non alium late jactaret odorem, Laurus erat."

3. litore] i. e. the shore of Naxos. 9. Incertum vigilans] "half

awake."