Book iii

. 1. 536, and the Note to the passage.]

[Footnote 336: Hippolytus.--Ver. 32. Hippolytus was an example of chastity, while Priapus was the very ideal of lustfulness.]

[Footnote 337: Heroines of old.--Ver. 33. He supposes the women of the Heroic ages to have been of extremely tall stature. Andromache was remarkable for her height.]

[Footnote 338: The brunette.--Ver. 39. 'Flava,' when coupled with a female name, generally signifies 'having the hair of a flaxen,' or 'golden colour'; here, however, it seems to allude to the complexion, though it would be difficult to say what tint is meant. Perhaps an American would have no difficulty in translating it 'a yellow girl.' In the 43rd line, he makes reference to the hair of a 'flaxen,' or 'golden colour.']

[Footnote 339: Tablets rubbed out.--Ver. 5. If 'deletæ' is the correct reading here, it must mean 'no tablets from which in a hurry you 'have rubbed off the writing.' 'Non interceptæ' has been suggested, and it would certainly better suit the sense. 'No intercepted tablets have, &c.']

[Footnote 342: The wine on table.--Ver. 14. The wine was probably on this occasion placed on the table, after the 'coena,' or dinner. The Poet, his mistress, and his acquaintance, were, probably, reclining on their respective couches; he probably, pretended to fall asleep to watch, their conduct, which may have previously excited his suspicions.]

[Footnote 343: Moving your eyebrows.--Ver. 15. See the Note to the 19th line of the Fourth Elegy of the preceding Book.]

[Footnote 344: Were not silent.--Ver. 17. See the Note to the 20th line of the same Elegy.]

[Footnote 345: Traced over with wine.--Ver. 18. See the 22nd and 26th lines of the same Elegy.]

[Footnote 346: Your discourse.--Ver. 19. He seems to mean that they were pretending to be talking on a different subject from that about which they were really discoursing, but that he understood their hidden meaning. See a similar instance mentioned in the Epistle of Paris to Helen, 1. 241.]

[Footnote 347: Hand of a master.--Ver. 30. He asserts the same right over her favours, that the master (dominus) does over the services of the slave.]

[Footnote 348: New-made husband.--Ter. 36. Perhaps this refers to the moment of taking off the bridal veil, or 'flammeum,' when she has entered her husband's house.]

[Footnote 349: Of her steeds.--Ver. 38. When the moon appeared red, probably through a fog, it was supposed that she was being subjected to the spells of witches and enchanters.]

[Footnote 350: Assyrian ivory.--Ver. 40. As Assyria adjoined India, the word 'Assyrium' is here used by poetical licence, as really meaning 'Indian.']

[Footnote 351: Woman has stained.--Ver. 40. From this we learn that it was the custom of the Lydians to tint ivory of a pink colour, that it might not turn yellow with age.]

[Footnote 352: Of this quality.--Ver. 54. 'Nota,' here mentioned, is literally the mark which was put upon the 'amphorae,' or 'cadi,' the 'casks' of the ancients, to denote the kind, age, or quality of the wine. Hence the word figuratively means, as in the present instance, 'sort,' or 'quality.' Our word 'brand' has a similar meaning. The finer kinds of wine were drawn off from the 'dolia,' or large vessels, in which they were kept into the 'amphoræ,' which were made of earthenware or glass, and the mouth of the vessel was stopped tight by a plug of wood or cork, which was made impervious to the atmosphere by being rubbed over with pitch, clay, or a composition of gypsum. On the outside, the title of the wine was painted, the date of the vintage being denoted by the names of the Consuls then in office: and when the vessels were of glass, small tickets, called 'pittacia,' were suspended from them, stating to a similar effect. For a full account of the ancient wines, see Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.]

[Footnote 353: The imitative bird.--Ver. 1. Statius, in his Second Book, calls the parrot 'Humanæ sollers imitator linguæ,' 'the clever imitator of the human voice.']

[Footnote 354: The long trumpet.--Ver. 6. We learn from Aulus Gellius, that the trumpeters at funerals were called 'siticines.' They headed the funeral procession, playing mournful strains on the long trumpet, 'tuba,' here mentioned. These were probably in addition to the 'tibicines,' or 'pipers,' whose number was limited to ten by Appius Claudius, the Censor. See the Sixth Book of the Fasti, 1. 653.]

[Footnote 360: Affectionate turtle-dove.--Ver. 12. This turtle-dove and the parrot had been brought up in the same cage together. He probably refers to these birds in the thirty-eighth line of the Epistle of Sappho to Phaon where he mentions the turtle-dove as being black. This Elegy is remarkable for its simplicity and pathetic beauty, and can hardly fail to remind the reader of Cowper's Elegies, on the death of the bullfinch, and that of his pet hare.]

[Footnote 361: The Phocian youth.--Ver. 15. He alludes to the friendship of Orestes and Pylades the Phocian, the son of Strophius.]

[Footnote 362: So prettily.--Ver. 24. 'Bene' means here, 'prettily,' or 'cleverly,' rather than 'distinctly,' which would be inconsistent with the signification of blæsus.]

[Footnote 363: All their battles --Ver. 27. Aristotle, in the Eighth Chapter of the Ninth Book of his History of Animals, describes quails or ortolans, and partridges, as being of quarrelsome habits, and much at war among themselves.]

[Footnote 364: The foreboder.--Ver. 34. Festus Avienus, in his Prognostics, mentions the jackdaw as foreboding rain by its chattering.]

[Footnote 366: Armed Minerva.--Ver. 35. See the story of the Nymph Coronis, in the Second Book of the Metamorphoses.]

[Footnote 367: After nine ages.--Ver. 36. Pliny makes the life of the crow to last for a period of three hundred years.]

[Footnote 368: Destined numbers.--Ver. 40. 'Numeri' means here, the similar. parts of one whole: 'the allotted portions of human life.']

[Footnote 369: Seventh day was come.--Ver. 45. Hippocrates, in his Aphorisms, mentions the seventh, fourteenth, and twentieth, as the critical days in a malady. Ovid may here possibly allude to the seventh day of fasting, which was supposed to terminate the existence of the person so doing.]

[Footnote 370: Corinna, farewell.--Ver. 48. It may have said 'Corinna;' but Ovid must excuse us if we decline to believe that it said 'vale,' 'farewell,' also; unless, indeed, it had been in the habit of saying so before; this, perhaps, may have been the case, as it had probably often heard the Poet say 'vale' to his mistress.]

[Footnote 371: The Elysian hill.--Ver. 49. He kindly imagines a place for the souls of the birds that are blessed.]

[Footnote 372: By his words.--Ver. 58. His calling around him, in human accents, the other birds in the Elysian fields, is ingeniously and beautifully imagined.]

[Footnote 377: This very tomb.--Ver. 61. This and the following line are considered by Heinsius to be spurious, and, indeed, the next line hardly looks like the composition of Ovid.]

[Footnote 378: Am I then.--Ver. 1. 'Ergo' here is very expressive. 'Am I always then to be made the subject of fresh charges?']

[Footnote 379: Long-eared ass.--Ver. 15. Perhaps the only holiday that the patient ass got throughout the year, was in the month of June, when the festival of Vesta was celebrated, and to which Goddess he had rendered an important service. See the Sixth Book of the Fasti, 1. 311, et seq.]

[Footnote 380: Skilled at tiring.--Ver. 17. She was the 'ornatrix,' or 'tiring woman' of Corinna. As slaves very often received their names from articles of dress, Cypassis was probably so called from the garment called 'cypassis,' which was worn by women and men of effeminate character, and extended downwards to the ancles.]

[Footnote 387: With the whip.--Ver. 22. From this we see that the whip was applied to the female slaves, as well as the males.]

[Footnote 388: Carpathian ocean..--Ver. 20. See the Metamorphoses,