92. _Pierides_; Tyrwhitt rightly says--'He rather means, I think, the [141]
daughters of Pierus, that contended with the Muses, and were changed into
pies; Ovid, Metam. bk. v.' Yet the expression is not wrong; it
signifies--'I do not wish to be likened to those _would-be_ Muses, the
Pierides'; in other words, I do not set myself up as worthy to be
considered a poet.
93. _Metamorphoseos._ It was common to cite books thus, by a title in the
_genitive case_, since the word _Liber_ was understood. There is, however,
a slight error in this substitution of the singular for the plural; the
true title being P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon Libri Quindecim. See the
use of _Eneydos_ in the Nonne Prestes Tale, B. 4549; and of _Judicum_ in
Monk. Ta. B. 3236.