An intaglio made of chalcedony from the British Museum shows Diana with her trademark short tunic (to allow for easy movement while hunting), holding a bow in her right hand, and with her left hand removing an arrow from her quiver ( pharetra).ġ1–12: crīnibus: ablative of respect, with insignem Apollo was famous for his flowing locks. AD), shows the typical depiction of Ceres in Roman statuary and coins: standing, with ears of wheat in her right hand, extended as if offering them in her left hand is a lighted torch (sometimes a sceptre). colī > colō colere coluī cultum, "to cultivate, till, farm." A Roman bronze Statuette of Ceres from the Miho Museum, Kyoto, Japan (1st c. pharētrātae: the reference is to Diana (Artemis), the goddess of the hunt. "law," but here perhaps "jurisdiction" notice that (as in line 8) the clause is in asyndeton, to express excitement. Ceres, the goddess of grain and agriculture in general. A fine Minerva from the theater at Leptis Magna, now in the Jamahiriya Museum in Tripoli, Libya, shows the goddess with her traditional offensive and defensive arma: spear, helmet, shield, and the goat-skin aegis that served as her distinctive breast-plate.ĩ–10: probet: potential subjunctive ( AG §447.3). the absence of a connecting word), indicating high excitement and/or a strong contrast. ventilet: a second protasis, connected to praeripiat by an adversative asyndeton (i.e. arma: Minerva/Athena was often depicted wearing breastplate and helmet and carrying a spear. flāvae: Minerva (Athena) was proud of her golden hair she had turned Medusa's hair into snakes for boasting about hers. A vātēs was a more formal and religious kind of poet than a mere poēta.ħ–8: quid: interrogative understand dīcās or something similar quid thus provides the apodosis of the condition introduced by sī praeripiat. sumus: the emphasis here is on Pīeridum and tua: "we poets are the Muses' entourage, not yours." Pīeridum > Pīeris -idos f. iūris: partitive genitive, with hoc ( AG §346.4). pedem: pes here means "foot" in its metrical sense in elegiac verse the second line of each couplet is a dactylic pentameter: it is similar to the dactylic hexameter of epic poetry, but shorter by a foot.ĥ–6: in carmina: "over songs" for in + the accusative with words expressing power or control, see OLD 11b. modīs: modus can mean "rhythm" or "meter."ģ–4: īnferior: here the "lower" verse Ovid had been writing dactylic hexameters, so that his second line was equal (metrically) to his first. māteriā: scansion reveals that the final a is long, and that the word is therefore ablative it frequently happens that scansion is essential to establishing the meaning of a line. ēdere > ēdō -ere -idī -itum, "to emit, bring forth, produce" also "publish." Barsby observes that it is unlikely that Ovid was really planning to write an epic, even though he elsewhere talks about his subject, the battle of the gods and giants ( Amores 2.1.11–16) his claim about epic owes more to the traditions of the recusatio poem, in which poets of "lighter" verses explain their reasons for avoiding epic. The meter in question was dactylic hexameter, which as the meter for Greek and Latin epic poetry was considered the most serious of the meters. gravī numerō: numerus here means "meter" (of verse). The poet was preparing to write epic poetry: his first word is the same as the first word of the Aeneid, and he would have continued writing in dactylic hexameter, except that apparently Cupid “stole a foot.” ġ–2: Arma: a weighty and tradition-laden first word, coming after Vergil’s famous Arma virumque canō ( Aeneid 1.1). The poem begins with a metrical and generic joke. Sex mihi surgat opus numerīs, in quīnque resīdat Mē miserum! certās habuit puer ille sagittās: 25 “quod”que “canās, vātēs, accipe” dīxit “opus.” Questus eram, pharetrā cum prōtinus ille solūtā Nec mihi māteria est numerīs leviōribus apta,Īut puer aut longās c ōmpta puella comās.” 20 Sunt tibi magna, puer, nimiumque potentia rēgna:Īn, quod ubīque, tuum est? tua sunt Helicōnia tempē? 15Ĭum bene surrēxit versū nova pāgina prīmō, Quis probet in silvīs Cererem rēgnāre iugōsīs,Ĭrīnibus īnsignem quis acūtā cuspide Phoebum Quid, sī praeripiat flāvae Venus arma Minervae, “quis tibi, saeve puer, dedit hoc in carmina iūris? 5 Arma gravī numerō violentaque bella parābam
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