May I look upon you when my last hour comes, when dying, may I hold you
with my failing hand. Delia, you will lament me, too, when placed on my
bier, doomed to the pile, and will give me kisses mingled with the tears
of grief.' To these lines Ovid evidently here refers. It would appear
from the present passage, that it was the custom to give the last kiss
when the body was laid on the funeral pile.]
[Footnote 629: With his failing hand.--Ver. 58. Nemesis here alludes
to the above line, and tells Delia, that she, herself, alone engaged his
affection, as it was she alone who held his hand when he died.]
[Footnote 630: Learned Catullus.--Ver. 62. Catullus was a Roman poet, a
native of Verona. Calvus was also a Roman poet of great merit. The poems
of Catullus and Calvus were set to music by Hermogenes, Tigellius, and
Demetrius, who were famous composers. See the Tristia, Book ii. lines
427 and 431, and the Notes to the passages.]
[Footnote 631: Prodigal of thy blood.--Ver. 64. He alludes to the fact
of Gallus having killed himself, and to his having been suspected
of treason against Augustus, from whom he had received many marks of
kindness Ovid seems to hint, in the Tristia, Book ii. 1. 446, that the
fault of Gallus was his having divulged the secrets of Augustus, when
he was in a state o* inebriety. Some writers say, that when Governor of
Egypt, he caused his name and exploits to be inscribed on the Pyramids,
and that this constituted his crime. Others again, suppose that he was
guilty of extortion in Egypt, and that he especially harassed the people
of Thebea with his exactions. Some of the Commentators think that under
the name 'amicus,' Augustus is not here referred to, inasmuch as it
woulc seem to bespeak a familiar acquaintanceship, which is not known
to have existed. Scaliger thinks that it must refer to some
misunderstanding which had taken place between Gallus and Tibullus, in
which the former was accused of having deceived his friend.]
[Footnote 632: The rites of Ceres--Ver. 1. This festival of Ceres
occurred on the Fifth of the Ides of April, being the 12th day of that
month. See the Fasti, Book iv. 1. 393. White garments, were worn at this
festival, and woollen robes of dark colour were prohibited. The worship
was conducted solely by females, and all intercourse with men was
forbidden, who were not allowed to approach the altars of the Goddess.]
[Footnote 633: The oaks, the early oracles.--Ver. 9. On the oaks, the
oracles of Dodona, see the Translation of the Metamorphoses, pages 253
and 467.]
[Footnote 634: Having nurtured Jove.--Ver. 20. See an account of the
education of Jupiter, by the Curetes, in Crete, in the Fourth Book of
the Fasti, L 499, et seq.]
[Footnote 635: Beheld Jasius.--Ver. 25. Iasius, or Iasion, was,
according to most accounts, the son of Jupiter and Electra, and enjoyed
the favour of Ceres, by whom he was the father of Plutus. According
to the Scholiast on Theocritus, he was the son of Minos, and the Nymph
Phronia. According to Apollodorus, he was struck dead by the bolts of
Jupiter, for offering violence to Ceres. He was also said by some to
be the husband of Cybele. He is supposed to have been a successful
husbandman when agriculture was but little known; which circumstance is
thought to have given rise to the story of his familiarity with Ceres.
Ovid repeats this charge against the chastity of Ceres, in the Tristia,
Book ii. 1. 300. See the Note to the passage.]
[Footnote 636: Proportion of their wheat.--Ver. 30. With less corn than
had been originally sown.]
[Footnote 637: The law-giving Mims.--Ver. 41. Minos is said to have
been the first who gave laws to the Cretans.]
[Footnote 638: Late have the horns.--Ver. 6. This figure is derived
from the horns, the weapons of the bull. 'At length I have assumed the
weapons of defence.' It is rendered in a singular manner in Nisard's
Translation, 'Trop tard, helas 1 J'ai connu l'outrage fait a mon front.'
'Too late, alas! I have known the outrage done to my forehead.'!!!]
[Footnote 639: Have patience and endure.--Ver. 7. He addresses himself,
recommending fortitude as his only cure.]
[Footnote 640: The hard ground.--Ver. 10. At the door of his mistress;
a practice which seems to have been very prevalent with the Roman
lovers.]
[Footnote 641: I was beheld by him.--Ver. 15. As, of courser, his rival
would only laugh at him for his folly, and very deservedly.]
[Footnote 642: As you walked.--Ver. 17. By the use of the word
'spatiantis,' he alludes to her walks under the Porticos of Rome, which
were much frequented as places for exercise, sheltered from the heat.]
[Footnote 643: The Gods forsworn.--Ver. 22. This forms the subject of
the Third Elegy of the present Book.]
[Footnote 644: Young mem at banquets.--Ver. 23. See the Fifth Elegy of
the Second Book of the Amores.]
[Footnote 645: She was not ill.--Ver. 26. When he arrived, he found his
rival in her company.]
[Footnote 646: I will hate.--Ver. 35. This and the next line are
considered by Heinsius and other Commentators to be spurious.]
[Footnote 647: She who but lately.--Ver. 5. Commentators are at a
loss to know whether he is here referring to Corinna, or to his other
mistress, to whom he alludes in the Tenth Elegy of the Second Book,
when he confesses that he is in love with two mistresses. If Corinna was
anything more than an ideal personage, it is probable that she is not
meant here, as he made it a point not to discover to the world who was
meant under that name; whereas, the mistress here mentioned has been
recommended to the notice of the Roman youths by his poems.]
[Footnote 648: Made proclamation.--Ver. 9. He says that, unconsciously,
he has been doing the duties of the 'præco' or 'crier,' in recommending
his mistress to the public. The 'præco,' among the Romans, was employed
in sales by auction, to advertise the time, place, and conditions of
sale, and very probably to recommend and praise the property offered
for sale. These officers also did the duty of the auctioneer, so far
as calling out the biddings, but the property was knocked down by the
'magister auctionum.' The 'præcones' were also employed to keep silence
in the public assemblies, to pronounce the votes of the centuries, to
summon the plaintiff and defendant upon trials, to proclaim the victors
in the public games, to invite the people to attend public funerals,
to recite the laws that were enacted, and, when goods were lost, to cry
them and search for them. The office of a 'præco' was, in the time of
Cicero, looked upon as rather disreputable.]
[Footnote 649: Thebes.--Ver. 15. He speaks of the Theban war, the
Trojan war, and the exploits of Caesar, as being good subjects for Epic
poetry; but he says that he had neglected them, and had wasted his time
in singing in praise of Corinna. This, however, may be said in reproof
of his general habits of indolence, and not as necessarily implying that
Corinna is the cause of his present complaint. The Roman poet Statius
afterwards chose the Theban war as his subject.]
[Footnote 650: Poets as witnesses.--Ver. 19. That is, 'to rely
implicitly on the testimony of poets.' The word 'poetas' requires a
semicolon after it, and not a comma.]
[Footnote 651: The raging dogs.--Ver. 21. He here falls into his usual
mistake of confounding Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, with Scylla, the
Nymph, the rival of Circe, in the affections of Glaucus. See the Note
to 1. 33 of the First Epistle of Sabinus, and the Eighth and Fourteenth
Books of the Metamorphoses.]
[Footnote 652: Descendant of Abas.--Ver. 24. In the Fourth Book of the
Metamorphoses he relates the rescue of Andromeda from the sea monster,
by Perseus, the descendant of Abas, and clearly implies that he used
the services of the winged horse Pegasus on that occasion. It has been
suggested by some Commentators, that he here refers to Bellerophon; but
that hero was not a descendant of Abas, and, singularly enough, he is
not on any occasion mentioned or referred to by Ovid.]
[Footnote 653: Extended Tityus.--Ver. 25. Tityus was a giant, the son
of Jupiter and Elara. Offering violence to Latona, he was pierced by the
darts of Apollo and hurled to the Infernal Regions, where his liver was
doomed to feed a vulture, without being consumed.]
[Footnote 654: Enceladus.--Ver. 27. He was the son of Titan and Terra,
and joining in the war against the Gods, he was struck by lightning,
and thrown beneath Mount Ætna. See the Pontic Epistles, Book ii. Ep.ii.
1.11.]
[Footnote 655: The-two-shaped damsels.--Ver. 28. He evidently alludes
to the Sirens, with their two shapes, and not to Circe, as some have
imagined.]
[Footnote 656: The Ithacan bags.--Ver. 29. Æolus gave Ulysses
favourable wind* sewn up in a leather bag, to aid him in his return to
Ithaca. See tha Metamorphoses, Book xiv. 1. 223]
[Footnote 657: The Cecropian bird.--Ver. 32. He calls Philomela the
daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, 'Cecropis ales Cc crops having been
the first king of Athens. Her story is told in the Sixth Book of the
Metamorphoses.]
[Footnote 658: A bird, or into gold.--Ver. 33. He alludes to the
transformation of Jupiter into a swan, a shower of gold, and a bull; in
the cases of Leda, Danaë, and Europa.]
[Footnote 659: The Theban seed.--Ver. 35. He alludes to the dragon's
teeth sown by Cadmus. See the Third Book of the Metamorphoses.]
[Footnote 660: Distil amber tears.--Ver. 37. Reference is made to the
transformation of the sisters of Phaeton into poplars that distilled
amber. See the Second Book of the Metamorphoses, 1. 364.]
[Footnote 661: Who once were ships.--Ver. 38. He alludes to the ships
of Æneas, which, when set on fire by Turnus, were changed into sea
Nymphs.]
[Footnote 662: The hellish banquet.--Ver. 39. Reference is made to the
revenge of Atreus, who killed the children of Thyestes, and set them
on table before their father, on which occasion the Sun is said to have
hidden his face.]
[Footnote 663: Stonesfollowed the lyre.--Ver. 40. Amphion is said to
have raised the walls of Thebes by the sound of his lyre.]
[Footnote 664: Camillus, by thee.--Ver. 2. Marcus Furius Camillus, the
Roman general, took the city of Falisci.]
[Footnote 665: The covered paths.--Ver. 12. The pipers, or flute
players, led the procession, while the ground was covered with carpets
or tapestry.]
[Footnote 666: Snow-white heifers.--Ver. 14. Pliny the Elder, in his
Second Book, says, 'The river Clitumnus, in the state of Falisci, makes
those cattle white that drink of its waters.']
[Footnote 667: In the lofty woods.--Ver. 20. It is not known to what
occasion this refers. Juno is stated to have concealed herself on two
occasions; once before her marriage, when she fled from the pursuit of
Jupiter, who assumed the form of a cuckoo, that he might deceive her;
and again, when, through fear of the giants, the Gods took refuge in
Egypt and Libya. Perhaps the former occasion is here referred to.]
[Footnote 668: As a mark.--Ver. 21. This is similar to the alleged
origin of the custom of throwing sticks at cocks on Shrove Tuesday. The
Saxons being about to rise in rebellion against their Norman oppressors,
the conspiracy is said to have been discovered through the inopportune
crowing of a cock, in revenge for which the whole race of chanticleers
were for centuries submitted to this cruel punishment.]
[Footnote 669: With garments.--Ver. 24. As 'vestis' was a general name
for a covering of any kind, it may refer to the carpets which appear to
be mentioned in the twelfth line, or it may mean, that the youths and
damsels threw their own garments in the path of the procession.]
[Footnote 670: After the Grecian manner.--Ver. 27. Falisci was said to
have been a Grecian colony.]
[Footnote 671: Hold religious silence.--Ver. 29. 'Favere linguis' seems
here to mean, 'to keep religious silence as to the general meaning of
the term, see the Fasti, Book i. 1. 71.]
[Footnote 672: Halesus.--Ver. 33. Halesus is said to have been the son
of Agamemnon, by a concubine. Alarmed at the tragic death of his father,
and of the murderers, Ægisthus and Clytemnestra, he fled to Italy, where
he founded the city of Phalesus, which title, with the addition of
one letter, was given to it after his name. Phalesus afterwards became
corrupted, to 'Faliscus,' or 'Falisci.']
[Footnote 673: One side and the other.--Ver. 32. For the 'torus
exterior' and 'interior,' and the construction of the beds of the
ancients, see the Note to the Eighth Book of the Metamorphoses, 1.
659. * Forced to love.--Ver. 39. This passage seems to be hopelessly
corrupt.]
[Footnote 674: Turning-place is grazed.--Ver. 2. On rounding the 'meta'
in the chariot race, from which the present figure is derived, see the
Note to the 69th line of the Second Elegy of this Book.]
[Footnote 675: Heir to my rank.--Ver. 5. See the Tristia, Book ii. 1.
112, where he enlarges upon the rank and circumstances of his family.]
[Footnote 676: To glorious arms.--Ver. 9. He alludes to the Social
war which was commenced in the year of the City 659, by the Marsi, the
Peligni, and the Picentes, for the purpose of obtaining equal rights
and privileges with the Roman citizens. He calls them 'arma honesta,'
because wielded in defence of their liberties.]
[Footnote 677: Rome dreaded.--Ver. 10. The Romans were so alarmed, that
they vowed to celebrate games in honour of Jupiter, if their arms should
prove successful.]
[Footnote 678: Amathusian parent.--Ver. 15. Venus was worshipped
especially at Amathus, a city of Cyprus; it is mentioned by Ovid as
abounding in metals. See the Metamorphoses, Book x. 1. 220 and 531, B.
III.]
[Footnote 679: The homed.--Ver. 17. In addition to the reasons already
mentioned for Bacchus being represented as horned, it is said, by some,
that it arose from the fact, of wine being drunk from horns in the
early ages. It has been suggested, that it had a figurative meaning, and
implied the violence of those who are overtaken with wine.]
[Footnote 680: Lyæus.--Ver. 17. For the meaning of the word Lyæus, see
the Metamorphoses, Book iv. 1. 11, and the Note to the passage.]
[Footnote 681: My sportive.--Ver. 19. Genialis; the Genii were the
Deities of pure, unadorned nature. See the Fasti, Book iii. 1. 58, and
the Note to the passage. 'Genialis,' consequently, 'voluptuous,' or
'pleasing to the impulses of nature.']