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Reading Ovid

Page 31

by Peter Jones


  celeber celebr-is e famous

  160 opus: i.e. the labyrinth

  not-a ae 1f. sign, marker (to help get one’s bearings)

  flex-us a um tortuous

  161 ambāge-s 3f. twists and turns

  162 nōn secus ac: ‘not otherwise than’, ‘just as’, introducing a simile

  Phrygi-us a um in Phrygia

  Maeandr-us ī 2m. Maeander, a winding river in Roman Asia (modern Turkey)

  163 ambigu-us a um uncertain

  lāps-us ūs 4m. course. Note the prevalence of l in this line

  (re)fluō 3 flow (back)

  164 occurrō 3 meet up with (+ dat.)

  165 uersus: from uertor

  166 exerceō 2 keep in motion, ply

  167 innumer-us a um myriad

  ipse: i.e. Daedalus

  reuertor 3 dep. return, find one’s way back

  168 līmen līmin-is 3n. entrance

  fallāci-a ae 1f. deceptiveness

  169 geminam . . . figūram: = the Minotaur

  170 Actae-us a um to do with Attica (Athens’ territory). When Minos found that he could not take Athens, he had prayed to his father Zeus/Jupiter for revenge on the city. Athens was immediately hit by a plague, and its people were told that it would be lifted only when they had given satisfaction to Minos. Minos demanded that a sacrifice of seven men and seven girls be sent to feed the Minotaur in its labyrinth every nine years. Time has now moved on, and the Minotaur has tasted Attic blood twice (bis), but the third youth consignment (tertia sors 171) is to cause its death

  bis twice

  pāscō 3 pāuī pāstum feed

  171 domō 3 domuī overcome. Theseus volunteered for the third group, killed the Minotaur and with the help of thread (fīlō . . . relectō 173) supplied by Minos’ daughter Ariadne (uirgineā 172) found his way out of the labyrinth. Theseus sailed off with Ariadne back to Athens but subsequently abandoned her on the island of Naxos (176)

  nouēn-ī ae a every nine

  172 uirgine-us a um of a virgin (Ariadne)

  iterō 1 visit a second time

  priōrum: i.e. the Athenians in the first two consignments; gen. after nūllīs

  173 fīl-um ī 2n. thread

  relect-us a um re-wound, wound up (relegō)

  174 Aegīdēs: Greek nom., ‘son of Aegeus’, i.e. Theseus

  Mīnōis Mīnōid-is 3f. ‘daughter of Minos’ i.e. Ariadne

  Dī-a ae 1f. Naxos (a Greek island)

  175 uēl-um ī 2n. sail; uēla dare set sail

  lītus lītor-is 3n. shore

  176 dēstituō 3 dēstituī abandon

  dēsert-us a um deserted. Here it is dat. s. f., referring to Ariadne, as is also querentī

  177 amplex-us ūs 4m. embrace, love. Note the syllepsis of amplexūs et opem

  Līber -ī 2m. Bacchus/Dionysus

  perenn-is e perennial

  178 *corōn-a ae 1f. crown. Bacchus took this from Ariadne’s forehead, to turn into the constellation called the Northern Crown. Placing people or objects among the stars is called ‘catasterism’ (from the Greek prefix kata + astereō, ‘en-star’, cf. astēr ‘star’). Bacchus throws the crown up into the sky as he and Ariadne race through the air in his chariot

  179 immittō 3 immīsī launch

  *uolō 1 move through the air, fly

  180 gemm-a ae 1f. jewel

  nitid-us a um shining, glittering

  ignēs: i.e. stars

  181 speci-ēs speci-ēī 5f. appearance

  182 quī: picks up locō

  medius: here + gen., controlling Nīxī genu and Anguem tenentis, both constellations

  Nīx-us (-a um) genu: ‘One-who-bends the knee’, i.e. the Kneeler

  Anguem tenēns tenent-is: ‘One-who-holds the snake’, i.e. Ophiuchus

  183 Crētēn: Greek acc. of Crete

  longumque: at least eighteen years, to calculate from this passage alone (170–1)

  perōs-us a um hating

  184 nātāl-is e of one’s birth (for Daedalus, this means Athens)

  185 pelag-us ī 2n. sea. Minos at this time ruled the waves

  licet although (+ subj.), RLV

  186 obstruō 3 close off. Minos is the subject

  illāc by that route

  188 ignōt-us a um unknown

  189 nouō 1 innovate in, alter

  190 ā . . . sequentī: ‘[feathers] beginning from the smallest, with the shorter coming behind the long’, i.e. short feathers first, then the long feathers (see Figure 3). For the problem of how the wings work, see Comment on p. 180, 4

  191 crēuisse: understand pennās as the subject of this inf.

  clīu-us ī 2m. slope (here, ablative of place)

  rūstic-us a um rustic, country

  192 fistul-a ae 1f. pan-pipe (see 1.709–12)

  dispar -is unequal

  paulātim gradually

  auēn-a ae 1f. reed

  193 mediās: i.e. the pennās in the mediās and īmās

  alligō 1 bind

  īm-us a um at the bottom

  194 compōnō 3 composuī compositum put together, construct

  curuāmen curuāmin-is 3n. curve

  195 Īcar-us ī 2m. Icarus, Daedalus’ son

  ūnā alongside

  196 tractō 1 handle

  perīcla = perīcula

  197 renīdeō 2 smile

  modo . . . modo . . . now . . . now . . .

  quās: take in order captābat plūmās quās

  uag-us a um wandering

  198 plūm-a ae 1f. feather

  pollex pollici-is 3m. thumb

  199 mollībat: = archaic form of molliēbat

  lūs-us ūs 4m. play

  201 impōnō 3 imposuī impositum place, put on

  opifex opific-is 3m. craftsman

  lībrō 1 balance, suspend

  203 īnstruō 3 instruct

  līmes līmit-is 3m. track, route

  204 dēmiss-us a um low (note the comparative here meaning ‘too’)

  205 grauō 1 weigh down

  cels-us a um high

  adūrō 3 scorch

  206 Boōtēn: Greek acc. of Bootes, a constellation (the Ox-driver)

  207 Helicēn: Greek acc. of Helice, a constellation (the Great Bear); Bootes and Helice together indicate the North, Orion the South

  strict-us a um drawn (stringō)

  Ōrīōn -is 3m. Orion, a constellation

  ēns-is is 3m. sword

  208 pariter . . . et at the same time as

  praecept-um ī 2n. instruction

  209 ignōt-us a um unfamiliar

  accommodō 1 fit

  210 monit-us ūs 4m. advice, warning

  gen-a ae 1f. cheek

  madeō 2 maduī be wet

  senīl-is e of the old man

  211 tremō 3 tremuī tremble

  213 ālēs ālit-is 3m./f. bird

  214 prōl-ēs is 3f. offspring, race

  prōdūcō 3 prōdūxī lead out

  nīd-us ī 2m. nest

  215 damnōs-us a um ruinous, pernicious

  ērudiō 4 teach, train in

  216 respiciō 3/4 look back at

  217 tremul-us a um trembling

  harundō harundin-is 3f. reed, rod

  *pisc-is is 3m. fish

  218 bacul-um ī 2n. stick, crook

  stīu-a ae 1f. shaft of a plough-handle

  innīx-us a um leaning on (innītor)

  arātor -is 3m. ploughman

  219 obstupēscō 2 obstipuī be amazed

  quīque . . . possent: translate after crēdidit . . . deōs

  220 Iūnōni-us a um belonging to Juno

  laeu-us a um left

  221 Samos . . . Dēlos . . . Parosque: all nom. s. of the Greek islands Delos, Paros, Samos. One would have expected Daedalus, whose native land was Athens (cf. 184), to be flying north-west from Minos’ palace in Knossos, but now they turn north-east to Lebinthos and Calymne – though Ovid has little option because that is the area where the isle of Icaros and the Icarian sea, named afte
r Icarus, actually are. How come? We know that there was an Attic deme called Icaria – perhaps because in the ‘original’ version of the myth Icarus fell into the sea near it. If so, was the name then somehow transferred (by colonists?) to the present island, and later tradition gradually forgot about the obscure Attic connection? See Rudd in Martindale (1988, 24).

  222 Lebinthos: nom. s. of the Greek island Lebinthos

  fēcund-us a um fertile

  mel mell-is 3n. honey

  Calymnē: nom. s. of the Greek island Calymne

  223 uolāt-us ūs 4m. flight

  224 cupīdō cupīdin-is 3f. desire

  225 rapid-us a um scorching, consuming

  uīcīni-a ae 1f. proximity

  226 odōrāt-us a um sweet-smelling

  uincul-um ī 2n. binding

  227 tābēscō 3 tābuī melt

  quatiō 3/4 beat

  228 rēmigi-um ī 2n. oarage

  percipiō 3/4 acquire, catch

  229 caerule-us a um blue

  231 Īcare: Daedalus repeats his son’s name three times. It was traditional at Roman funerals to call out the name of the dead person three times

  232 regiō regiōn-is 3f. area

  233 aspiciō = adspiciō

  234 dēuoueō 2 dēuōuī abjure

  235 sepult-us a um buried (sepeliō) – on the island named after Icarus (another Ovidian aetiology)

  Notes

  152–68: Minos returns home to Crete, remembers his vows to his father Zeus/Jupiter (a hecatomb is a gigantic offering) and commemorates his local successes in the war against Athens (152–4). But he needs to do something about the Minotaur. crēuerat indicates how the problem had grown (one could, as it were, keep such a monster swaddled in baby-clothes only for so long); patēbat indicates what the situation now was (155), with opprobrium, foedum (155) and mōnstrī (156) all emphasising the shame Minos feels for his family. Daedalus, then, is summoned to get rid of this pudor (157), and Minos tells him what to do – construct a treacherous, complex building in which the monster can be hidden away (158). One would have thought killing it, or locking it up in a perfectly simple building, would have done the trick: but this is myth. The result is the labyrinth, a building after Ovid’s heart – all sign(-post)s confused (160, cf. 167), eyes deceived, and routes full of twists and turns (160–1, cf. 167). A brilliant simile likens the labyrinth to the river Maeander (no less meandering today) and its god at the same time: that too deceives and is uncertain in its course (163, 166, cf. 167), turning back on itself (164, cf. 167), going now one way, now another (165, cf. 167) – the whole thing such a masterpiece of deception (168, cf. 160–1, 166) that even Daedalus could hardly find his way out (167–8). The simile is as complex in its tortuous, sinuous twists and turns as the labyrinth it describes.

  169–82: And so the Minotaur is led into the labyrinth. It has its first taste of human flesh with the first consigment of Athenian youth, and nine years later its second (169–70). Nine years after that comes Theseus. Ovid, for some reason, compresses the whole story into a few lines. If one did not know about Minos’ daughter Ariadne falling in love with Theseus and giving him the thread with which to mark his trail into and out of the labyrinth where he killed the Minotaur, it would be very hard to see what was behind 172–3. Ovid further compounds the problem by naming the couple by their father’s names (patronymic) in 174; Theseus’ desertion of Ariadne on Naxos (175–6) is called crūdēlis, but is otherwise unexplained, though 176 makes Ariadne’s distress clear enough; and why did Dionysus come to her rescue? There was a sexual motive (amplexūs), but, given Dionysus’ elevation of her, or at least her crown, to stardom (in another tradition, Ariadne herself was placed among the stars), one would have appreciated a little more detail. Since Ovid gives nearly six lines to the transformation of Ariadne’s crown into a constellation (177–82) – and the same number to the whole of the rest of the story (172–7) – it is clearly this metamorphosis which interests him: but even so, it does not interest him much. This episode, though a masterpiece of compression, does not show Ovid at his imaginative best; but if nothing else, it serves to highlight the brilliance with which he develops character and plot elsewhere. Had he revised Metamorphōsēs, perhaps this passage would have attracted his attention. (Ovid’s Heroides 10 is a letter from Ariadne to Theseus.)

  183–7: Daedalus is doubly motivated to leave Crete (183–4), but 185–7 make it clear that Minos rules earth and sea. That leaves only the air – but also (the fourth element) fire . . .

  188–202: The transformation which forms the centre-piece of the Daedalus story, then, is ornithological: Daedalus is to use his brilliance as an inventor to turn himself and his son Icarus into birds. Normally, only gods can engineer metamorphosis: here a human will try to. Ovid emphasises the daring and novelty of what this entails – the equivalent of interfering with nature itself (188–9) – and turns his own inventive capacities to describing first how he built the wings.

  203–9: Time to lecture his son (Ovid is very good on the ‘generation gap’ in this episode). Daedalus imagines Icarus running ahead (203) – he knows what small boys are like, always rushing about – and urges on him the middle way no less than three times: mediō līmite (203) . . . not dēmissior or celsior (204–5) . . . inter utrumque (206). He warns his son not even to look at the constellations (206–7: Icarus, like Phaethon, may regard them as real horrors in the sky, 2.198–200), but to follow his lead (208). As he speaks, he fits the ignōtās wings on him. The warning signs are already out.

  210–35: It is clear that Daedalus is full of fear for his exuberant young son. Ovid again realises Daedalus’ inner terror (210–12) by movingly describing Daedalus’ physical reactions as he fits on the wings – tears, trembling hands, kisses (nōn repetenda – the last he will ever give him, another moving narratorial shift), and fear (timet) as he flies ahead, leading the way (213, cf. 208). A simile decorates the moment: a mother bird leads its teneram young from its altō (and therefore dangerous) nest into the air, presumably for the first time (214–15). Daedalus is taking his ‘young’ high up into the air, for the first time. Clearly young Icarus is not obeying orders, so Daedalus has to urge him to stay close, teaching him (215: that damnōsās is telling: in whose eyes? A regretful Daedalus’, or is it Ovid’s comment? Cf. 188–9), and watching him closely (216). Now a brilliant change of focus: we move from the feelings and actions of the fliers to spectators on the ground – a fisherman, shepherd, ploughman (217–18) – suddenly freezing, amazed at what they see (219) and imagining them to be gods (219–20). What an achievement! But they are human – damnōsās artēs? Since gods do not career incompetently across the sky, Daedalus and his son must by now have learned the skill; indeed, they have made rather good progress (about 200 miles if they are passing Samos, 221). But now young Icarus lets this flying/gliding business go to his head (note audācī 223), regarding it as fun (gaudēre, as boys will, cf. 195–200). He wants to explore, like all boys, to reach for the skies (224–5). He abandons his father and starts to climb. As for Daedalus, one can imagine him still plodding boringly on, ignorant of what is now unfolding above him, assuming his son is following (cf. 196: damnōsās artēs?). What if . . . ? The sun (= fire) is scorching (225); the softened wax (cf. 199), releasing its perfumes (226: odōrātās is an exquisite change of focus – does Icarus smell it?), loosens the feathers and melts. Vainly Icarus tries to grip the air – but there is nothing to grip it with (228), his arms being useless (227). Ovid, true artist, spares imposing on us his emotionalising insights into the boy’s thoughts as he plunges to the sea (no modern novelist could possibly resist); the boy merely, uselessly, poignantly calls out pater! But even Daedalus cannot save him now (229–30). Indeed, Daedalus (no longer a father, as Ovid poignantly reminds us, 231) has no idea where Icarus is. How could he? His own panic-stricken cries (232–3) reflect his frantic searching (note the contrast between single cries, dīxit, and continued cries, dīcēbat) – and then he sees the feathers. A
gain, Ovid appends no narratorial comment to that bald statement: but Daedalus’ instant disavowal of his (damnōsās?) artēs – trying to alter nature and challenge the gods (188–9, 220)? – tells us everything we need to know about what Daedalus thinks of his invention.

  14 Baucis and Philemon, Metamorphōsēs 8.626–724

  Background

  Theseus’ conquest of the Minotaur brings him fame throughout Greece, and he is invited to join the expedition to kill the Calydonian boar. Mission accomplished, he is on his way back to Athens when he accepts an invitation from the river-god Achelous to stay for a while, Achelous’ river being in flood. Over dinner, one of the guests invited by Achelous suggests that the gods do not have the power to transform the shapes of Nature. The company is shocked, and one of them, the hero Lelex (described as ‘ripe in years and wisdom’), tells the story of Baucis and Philemon (who apparently lived in ‘Hellespontine’ Phrygia, northern Turkey: see on 719) to refute the idea. As often in Ovid, this mythical couple are thoroughly Romanised.

  8.626–36: Jupiter and Mercury find a humble cottage to stay in

  ‘Iuppiter †hūc speciē mortālī cumque parente

  uēnit †Atlantiadēs positīs cādūcifer ālīs.

  mīlle domōs adiēre, locum †requiemque petentēs,

  mīlle domōs clausēre †serae. tamen ūna^ recēpit,

  ^parua quidem, †stipulīs et cannā ^tēcta palūstrī,

  630

  sed ^pia. Baucis †anus parilīque aetāte Philēmōn

  †illā^ sunt annīs iūnctī iuuenālibus, ^illā

  †cōnsenuēre ^casā, paupertātemque fatendō

  effēcēre †leuem nec inīquā mente ferendō.

  nec †rēfert, dominōs illīc famulōsne requīrās:

  635

  tōta domus duo sunt, īdem †pārentque iubentque.’

  8.637–50: The old couple make the gods comfy and prepare food

  ‘ergo ubi †caelicolae paruōs tetigēre penātēs,

  †submissōque humilēs intrārunt uertice postēs,

  membra senex positō iussit †releuāre sedīlī,

  c †superiniēcit textum rude sēdula Baucis.

 

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