Tag: Ovid

[Leander Heroni]

Invideo Phrixo, quem per freta tristia tutum
aurea lanigero vellere vexit ovis;
nec tamen officium pecoris navisve requiro,
dummodo, quas findam corpore, dentur aquae.
parte egeo nulla; fiat modo copia nandi,
idem navigium, navita, vector ero!
(Ovid, Her. 18.143-148)

[Leander to Hero]

I envy Phrixus, whom the ram with gold in its woolly fleece bore safely over the stormy seas; yet I ask not the office of ram or ship, if only I may have the waters to cleave with my body. There is nothing I lack; if only I may swim, I will be at once ship, seaman, passenger! (tr. Grant Showerman, revised by George Patrick Goold)

Ne foret hic* igitur mortali semine cretus,
ille** deus faciendus erat; quod ut aurea vidit
Aeneae genetrix, vidit quoque triste parari
pontifici letum et coniurata arma moveri,
palluit et cunctis, ut cuique erat obvia, divis
‘adspice,’ dicebat ‘quanta mihi mole parentur
insidiae, quantaque caput cum fraude petatur,
quod de Dardanio solum mihi restat Iulo.
solane semper ero iustis exercita curis,
quam modo Tydidae Calydonia vulneret hasta,
nunc male defensae confundant moenia Troiae,
quae videam natum longis erroribus actum
iactarique freto sedesque intrare silentum
bellaque cum Turno gerere, aut, si vera fatemur,
cum Iunone magis? quid nunc antiqua recordor
damna mei generis? timor hic meminisse priorum
non sinit; en acui sceleratos cernitis enses.
quos prohibete, precor, facinusque repellite neve
caede sacerdotis flammas exstinguite Vestae!’
(Ovid, Met. 15.760-778)

* sc. Augustus; ** sc. Caesar.

But, so that the one might not be born from mortal seed,
the other had to be made a god; and when Aeneas’ golden
mother saw that, and saw too that a sad death
was being planned for the pontifex and that conspiratorial arms were being readied,
she went pale and began to say to all the gods as she met
each one, ‘See with what great effort plots are being prepared
against me, and with what great deceit the only life
that I have left from Dardanian Iulus is being attacked.
Shall I always be the only one troubled by just cares,
I whom at one time the Calydonian spear of Tydeus’ son wounded,
whom at another time the walls of ill defended Troy distressed,
I who saw my son driven to long wanderings
and tossed on the sea and entering the abodes of the silent ones
and waging war with Turnus or, if we admit the truth,
with Juno rather? Why do I now recall my race’s
ancient losses? This fear does not allow me
to remember earlier things; look, you can see the wicked swords being sharpened!
Stop them, I pray, and prevent the crime, and do not
put Vesta’s fire out with the slaughter of her priest.’
(tr. Donald E. Hill)

Ipse tene distenta suis umbracula virgis,
ipse fac in turba, qua venit illa, locum.
nec dubita tereti scamnum producere lecto,
et tenero soleam deme vel adde pedi.
saepe etiam dominae, quamvis horrebis et ipse,
algenti manus est calfacienda sinu.
nec tibi turpe puta (quamvis sit turpe, placebit),
ingenua speculum sustinuisse manu.
ille, fatigata praebendo monstra noverca
qui meruit caelum, quod prior ipse tulit,
inter Ioniacas calathum tenuisse puellas
creditur, et lanas excoluisse rudes.
paruit imperio dominae Tirynthius heros:
i nunc et dubita ferre, quod ille tulit.
(Ovid, Ars Am. 2.209-222)

Do you yourself hold her parasol outstretched upon its rods, yourself make room for her in the crowd, where she is coming. Nor hesitate to place the footstool for her trim couch; take off her slipper from her dainty foot, or put it on. Often too when she is cold, though you are shivering too, you must warm your lady’s hand in your own lap. Nor think it base (though base, it will give pleasure) to hold a mirror in your freeborn hand. He who won the heaven which first he bore himself, when his step-mother was wearied of sending monsters, is believed to have held a basket among Ionian maidens, and to have spun fine the unworked wool*. The Tirynthian hero obeyed a mistress’ command: go, shrink from enduring what he endured!

* The reference is to Hercules and his servitude to the Lydian queen Omphale. His stepmother was of course Juno.

(tr. John Henry Mozley)

Cum vero faciem dempto nudaverat aere
purpureusque albi stratis insignia pictis
terga premebat equi spumantiaque ora regebat,
vix sua, vix sanae virgo Niseia compos
mentis erat: felix iaculum, quod tangeret ille,
quaeque manu premeret, felicia frena vocabat.
impetus est illi, liceat modo, ferre per agmen
virgineos hostile gradus, est impetus illi
turribus e summis in Cnosia mittere corpus
castra vel aeratas hosti recludere portas,
vel siquid Minos aliud velit.
(Ovid, Met. 8.32-42)

 

But when unhelmed he showed his face, when clad in purple he bestrode his milk-white steed gorgeous with broidered trappings, and managed the foaming bit, then was Nisus’ daughter hardly her own, hardly mistress of a sane mind. Happy the javelin which he touched and happy the reins which he held in his hand, she thought. She longed, were it but allowed, to speed her maiden steps through the foemen’s line; she longed to leap down from her lofty tower into the Cretan camp, to open the city’s bronze-bound gates to the enemy, to do any other thing which Minos might desire. (tr. Frank Justus Miller, revised by G.P. Goold)

Crede mihi, distant mores a carmine nostro –
vita verecunda est, Musa iocosa mea –
magnaque pars mendax operum est et ficta meorum;
plus sibi permisit compositore suo.
(Ovid, Tristia 2.353-356)

I assure you, my character differs from my verse (my life is moral, my muse is gay), and most of my work, unreal and fictitious, has allowed itself more licence than its author has had. (tr. Arthur Leslie Wheeler)