I E> RA R Y OF THE U NIVLRSITY Of ILLINOIS T. W. BALDWIN ELIZABETHAN LIBRARY 871 1889 T: » EBS r„s,ir r ™Lp« B (or bound Joumafs " em ,s $,25 -<«>' *300.00 SEP 1 3 2007 JUL 1 1 2008 86 \ 1096 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/metamorphosesofo00ovid_0 ExnohJifFt. THE METAMORPHOSES OVID. LITERALLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE, WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS, BY HENRY T. RILEY, B.A. OF CLARE HALL, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COYENT GARDEN. 1889. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, Limited, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. n / O', f/w,£jiS INTRODUCTION. The Metamorphoses of Ovid are a compendium of the My- thological narratives of ancient Greece and Rome, sc in- geniously framed, as to embrace a large amount of inform- ation upon almost every subject connected with the learning, traditions, manners, and customs of antiquity, and have afforded a fertile field of investigation to the learned of the civilized world. To present to the public a faithful translation of a work, universally esteemed, not only for its varied information, but as being the masterpiece of one of the greatest Poets of ancient Rome, is the object of the present volume. To render the work, which, from its nature and design, must, of necessity, be replete with matter of obscure meanings more inviting to the scholar, and more intelligible to those who are unversed in Classical literature, the translation is ac- companied with Notes and Explanations, which, it is believed, will be found to throw considerable light upon the origin and meaning of some of the traditions of heathen Mythology. In the translation, the text of the Delphin edition has been generally adopted ; and no deviation has been made from it, except in a few instances, where the reason for such a step is stated in the notes ; at the same time, the texts of Burmann and Gierig have throughout been carefully consulted. The several editions vary materially in respect to punctuation ; the Translator has consequently used his own discretion in adopt- ing that which seemed to him the most fully to convey in each passage the intended meaning of the writer, v The Metamorphoses of Ovid have been frequently trans- lated into the English language. On referring to Mr. Bohn’s excellent Catalogue of the Greek and Latin Classics and their Translations, w r e find that the whole of the work has been twice translated into English Prose, while five translations in Verse are there enumerated. A prose version of the Me- tamorphoses was published bv Joseph Davidson, about the * A 2 INTKODUCTION. IV middle of the last century, which professes to be “as near the original as the different idioms of the Latin and English will allow;” and to be “printed for the use of schools, as well as of private gentlemen.” A few moments’ perusal of this work will satisfy the reader that it has not the slightest pretension to oe considered a literal translation, while, by its departure from the strict letter of the author, it has gained nothing in elegance of diction. It is accompanied by “ cri- tical, historical, geographical, and classical notes in English, from the best Commentators, both ancient and modern, be- side a great number of notes, entirely new ;” but notwith- standing this announcement, these annotations will be found to be but few in number, and, with some exceptions in the early part of the volume, to throw very little light on the ob- scurities of the text. A fifth edition of this translation was published so recently as 1822, but without any improvement, beyond the furbishing up of the old-fashioned language of the original preface. A far more literal translation of the Me- tamorphoses is that by John Clarke, which was first published about the year 1735, and had attained to a seventh edition in 1779. Although this version may be pronounced very nearly to fulfil the promise set forth in its title page, of being “as literal as possible,” still, from the singular inelegance of its style, and the fact of its being couched in the conversa- tional language of the early part of the last century, and being unaccompanied by any attempt at explanation, it may safely be pronounced to be ill adapted to the requirements of the present age. Indeed, it would not, perhaps, be too much to assert, that, although the translator may, in his own words, “have done an acceptable service to such gentlemen as are desirous of regaining or improving the skill they acquired ai school,” he has, in many instances, burlesqued rather that translated his author. Som^ of the curiosities of his version will be found set forth in the notes ; but, for the purpose of the more readily justifying this assertion, a few of them are adduced : the word “ nitid is” is always rendered “ neat,” whether applied to a fish, a cow, a chariot, a laurel, the steps of a temple, or the art of wrestling. He renders “ hor- ridus,” “in a rude pickle;” “virgo” is generally translated “the young lady;” “vir” is “a gentleman ;” “senex” and “senior” are indifferently “the old bHde,” “the old fellow,” INTRODUCTIl N. V or “ tbe old gentleman ;” while “ summa arx” is “ the very tip- top.” “ Misera” is “poor soul;” “ exsilio” means “to bounce forth;” “pellex” is “amiss;” “ lumina” are “the peepers;” “ turbatum fugere” is “ to scower off in a mighty bustle ;” “confundor” is “to be jumbled;” and ‘squalidus” is “in a sorry pickle.” “ Importuna” is “ a plaguy baggage ;” “ adulte- rium” is rendered “her pranks ;” “ ambages” becomes either “along rabble of words,” “ a long-winded detail,” or “ a tale of a tub;” “miserabile carmen” is “a dismal ditty “increpare hos” is “to rattle these blades;” “penetralia” means “the parlour ;” while “ accingere, ” more literally than elegantly, is translated “buckle to.” “ Situs” is “ nasty stuff ;” “ os- cula jungere” is “to tip him a kiss ;” “pingue ingenium” is. a circumlocution for “ a blockhead ;” “anilia instrumenta” are “his old woman’s accoutrements ;” and “repetito munere Bacchi” is conveyed to the sense of the reader as, “ they return again to their bottle, and take the other glass.” These are but a specimen of the blemishes which disfigure the most literal of the English translations of the Metamorphoses. In the year 1656, a little volume was published, by J[ohn] B[ulloker,] entitled “ Ovid’s Metamorphosis, translated gram- matically, and, according to the propriety of our English tongue, so far as grammar and the verse will bear, written chiefly for the use of schools, to be used according to the di- rections in the preface to the painfull schoolmaster, and more fully in the book called, ‘Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar school, chap. 8.’ ” Notwithstanding a title so pretentious, it contains a translation of no more than the first 567 lines of the first Book, executed in a fanciful and pedantic manner ; and its rarity is now the only merit of the volume. A literal interlinear translation of the first Book “ on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke,” was published in 1839, which had been already preceded by “ a selection from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a literal and interlineal translation,” published by James Hamilton, the author of the Hamiltonian system. This work contains selections only from the first six books, and con- sequently embraces but a very small portion of the entire work. For the better elucidation of the different fabulous narra- tives and allusions, explanations have been added, which a 3 ri IjvTRODTJ cti ost. are principally derived from the writings of Herodotus, Apol* iodorus, Pausanias, Dio Cassius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Hyginus, Nonnus, and others of the historians, phi- losophers, and mythologists of antiquity. A great number of these illustrations are collected in the elaborate edition of Ovid, published by the Abbe Banier, one of the most learned scholars of the last century ; who has, therein, and in his “ Explanations of the Fables of Antiquity,” with inde- fatigable labour and research, culled from the works of ancient authors, all such information as he considered likely to throw any light upon the Mythology and history of Greece and Rome. This course has been adopted, because it was considered that a statement of the opinions of contemporary authors would be the most likely to enable the reader to form his own ideas upon the various subjects presented to his notice. In- deed, except in two or three instances, space has been found too limited to allow of more than an occasional reference to the opinions of modern scholars. Such being the object of the explanations, the reader will not be surprised at the ab- sence of critical and lengthened discussions on many of those moot points of Mythology and early history which have occu- pied, with no very positive result, the attention of Niebuhr, Lobeck, Muller, Buttmaun, and many other scholars of pro- found learning. A SYNOPTICAL VIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL TRANSFORMATIONS MENTIONED IN THE METAMORPHOSES. BOOK I. Chaos is divided by the Deity into four Elements : to these their respective inhabitants are assigned, and man is created from earth and water. The four Ages follow, and in the last of these the Giants aspire to the sovereignty of the heavens ; being slain by J upiter, a new race of men springs up from their blood. These becoming noted for their impiety, Jupiter not only transforms Lycaon into a wolf, but destroys the whole race of men and animals by a Deluge, with the exception of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who, when the waters have abated, renew the human race, by throwing stones behind them. Other animated beings are produced by heat and moisture : and, among them, the serpent Python. Phoebus slays him, and institutes the Pythian games as a memorial of the event, in which the conquerors are crowned with beech ; for as yet the laurel does not exist, into which Daphne is changed soon after, while flying from Phoebus. On this taking place, the other rivers repair to her father Peneus, either to congratulate or to console him ; but Inachus is not there, as he is grieving for his daughter Io, whom Jupiter, having first ravished her, has changed into a cow. She is entrusted by J uno to the care of Argus ; Mercury iiaving first related to him the transformation of the Nymph Syrinx into reeds, slays him, on which his eyes are placed by Juno in the tail of the peacock. Io, having recovered human shape, becomes the mother of Epaphus. BOOK II. Epaphus, having accused Phaeton of falsely asserting that Phoebus is his father, Phaeton requests Phoebus, as a proof of his affection towards his child, to allow him the guidance of the SYNOPTICAL VIEW viii chariot of the Sun for one day. This being granted, the whole earth is set on fire by him, and the ^Ethiopians are turned black by the heat. Jupiter strikes Phaeton with a thunderbolt , and while his sisters and his kinsman Cycnus are lamenting him, the former are changed into trees, and Cycnus into a swan. On visiting the earth, that he may repair the damage caused by the conflagration, Jupiter sees Calisto, and, as- suming the form of Diana, he debauches her. Juno, being en- raged, changes Calisto into a bear; and her own son Areas being about to pierce her with an arrow, Jupiter places them both among the Constellations. Juno having complained of this to Oceanus, is borne back to the heavens by her peacocks, who have so lately changed their colour ; a thing which has also hap- pened to the raven, which has been lately changed from white to black, he having refused to listen to the warnings of the crow (who relates the story of its own transformation, and of that of Nyc- timene into an owl), and having persisted in informing Phoebus of the intrigues of Coronis. Her son iEsculapius being cut out of the womb of Coronis and carried to the cave of Chiron the Centaur, Ocyrrhoe, the daughter of Chiron, is changed into a mare, while she is prophesying. Her father in vain invokes the assistance of Apollo, for he, in the guise of a shepherd, is tend- ing his oxen in the country of Elis. He neglecting his herd, Mercury takes the opportunity of stealing it ; after which he changes Battus into a touchstone, for betraying him. I lying thence, Mercury beholds Herse, the daughter of Cecrops, and debauches her. Her sister Aglauros, being envious of her, is changed into a rock. Mercury returns to heaven, on which Jupiter orders him to drive the herds of Agenor towards the shore ; and then, assuming the form of a bull, he carries Europa over the sea to the isle of Crete. BOOK III. Agenor commands his son Cadmus to seek his sister Europa While he is doing this, he slays a dragon in Boeotia ; and having sowed its teeth in the earth, men are produced, with whose as- sistance he builds the walls of Thebes. His first cause of grief is the fate of his grandson Actaeon, who, being changed into a stag, is torn to pieces by his own hounds. This, however, gives pleasure to Juno, who hates not only Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, and the favourite of Jupiter, but all the house of Agenor as well. Assuming the form of Beroe, she contrives the destruction of Semele by the lightnings of Jupiter ; while Bacchus, being saved alive from his mother’s womb, is brought up on the earth Jupitey has a discussion with Juno on the relative pleasures of the sexes, and they agree to OF THE TBAKSFORMATIONS. IX refer the question to Tiresias, who has been of both sexes. He gives his decision in favour of Jupiter, on which Juno deprives him of sight ; and, byway of recompense, Jupiter bestows on Kim the gift of prophesy His first prediction is fulfilled in the case of Narcissus, who, despising the advances of all females (in whose number is Echo, who has been transformed into a sound), at last pines away with love for himself, and is changed into a flower which bears his name. Pentheus, however, derides the prophet ; who predicts his fate, and his predictions are soon verified ; for, on the celebration of the orgies, Bacchus having assumed a disguise, is brought before him ; and having related to Pentheus the story of the transformation of the Etrurian sailors into dolphins, he is thrown into prison. On this. Pentheus is torn in pieces by the Bacchanals, and great respect is afterwards paid to the rites of Bacchus, BOOK I Y. Still Alcithoe and her sisters, neglecting the rites, attend to their spinning, during the festivities, and pass the time in telling stories ; and, among others, th at of Pyramus and Thisbe, by whose blood the mulberry is turnedTfrom white to black, and that bT fhe~ discovery of the intrigues of Mars and Venus, on the information of the Sun. They also tell how the Sun assumed the form of Eurynome, that he, might enjoy her claughter Leu- cothoe ; how Clytie, becoming jealous of her sister, was trans- formed into a sun-flower ; and how Salmacis and Hermaphro- ditus had become united into one body. After this, through the agency of Bacchus, the sisters are transformed into bats, and their webs are changed into vines. Ino rejoicing at this, Juno, thher hatred and indignation, sends one of the Euries to her, who causes her to be struck with insanity, on which she leaps into the sea, with her son Melicerta in her arms ; but by the intercession of Venus, they become sea Deities, and their Sidonian attendants, who are bewailing them as dead, are changed into rocks. Cadmus, afflicted at this fresh calamity, retires from Thebes, and flies to Illyria, together with his wife, where they are both trans- formed into serpents. Of those who despise Bacchus, Acrisius alone remains, the grandfather of Perseus, who, having cut off the head of the Gorgon Medusa, serpents are produced by her blood. Perseus turns Atlas into a mountain, and having liberated An- dromeda, he changes sea-weed into coral, and afterwards marries her. BOOK V. A tumult arising during the celebration of the nuptials, Phi* iieus claims Andromeda, who has been betrothed to him ; ar d X SYNOPTICAL VIEW together with Proetus, lie and Polydectes are turned into stone. Pallas, who has aided Perseus, now leaves him, and goes to Heli- con, to see the fountain of Hippocrene. The Muses tell her the story of Pyreneus and the Pierides, who were transformed into magpies after they had repeated various songs on the subjects of the transformation of the Deities into various forms of animals ; the rape of Proserpine, the wanderings of Ceres, the change of Cyane into a fountain, of a boy into a lizard, of Ascalaphus into an owl, of the Sirens into birds in part, of Are- thusa into a spring, of Lyncus into a lynx, and of the invention of agriculture by Triptoiemus. BOOK VL Influenced by the example of the Muses, Pallas determines on the destruction of Arachne. She enters with her into a contest for the superiority in the art of weaving. Each represents various trans- formations on her web, and then Arachne is changed into a spider. Niobe, however, is not deterred thereby from preferring her own lot to that of Latona ; on account of which, all her children are slain by Apollo and Diana, and she is changed into a rock. On learning this, while one person relates the transfor- mation by Latona of the Lycian rustics into frogs, another calls to mind how Marsyas was flayed by Apollo. Niobe is lamented by Pelops, whose shoulder is of ivory. To console the Thebans in their afflictions, ambassadors come from the adjacent cities. The Athenians alone are absent, as they are attacked by hordes of barbarians, who are routed by Tereus, who marries Progne, the daughter of Pandion. Tereus coming a second time to Athens, takes back with him to his kingdom Philomela, his wife’s sister ; and having committed violence on her, with other enormities, he is transformed into a hoopoe, while Philomela is changed into a nightingale, and Progne becomes a swallow. Pandion, hearing of these wondrous events dies of grief. Erectheus succeeds him, whose daughter, Orithyia, is ravished by Boreas, and by him is the mother of Calais and Zethes, who are of the number of the Argonauts on the following occasion. BOOK VII. Jason, by the aid of Medea, having conquered the bulls that breathe forth flames, having sowed the teeth of a serpent, from which armed men are produced, and having lulled the dragon to sleep, recovers the Golden Fleece. Medea, accompanying Jason to Greece, restores iEson to youth by the aid of drugs ; and promising the same to Pelias, having first, as a specimen, changed a ram into a lamb, by stratagem she kills him. Passing through many places made remarkable by various transformations, and OF THE TRANSFORMATIONS. XJ having slain her children, she marries iEgeus, when Theseus returns home, and narrowly escapes being poisoned by her magic potions. Minos interrupts the joy of iEgeus on the re- turn of his son, and wages war against him ; having collected troops from all parts, even from Paros, where Arne has been changed into a jackdaw. Minos endeavours to gain the alliance of iEacus, who, however, refuses it, and sends the Myrmidons, (who have been changed into ants from men after a severe pesti* lence), under the command of Cephalus to assist JEgeus. Ce- phalus relates to Phocus, the son of iEacus, how, being carried off by Aurora and assuming another shape, he had induced his wife Procris to prove faithless ; and how he had received from her a dog and a javelin, th j former of which, together with a fox, was changed into stone ; while the latter, by inadvertence, caused the death of his wife. BOOK VIII. In the mean time Minos besieges Megara. Scylla, becom- ing enamoured of him, betrays her country, the safety of which depends upon the purple lock of her father Nisi* , Being after- wards rejected by Minos, she clings to his ship, and is changed into a bird, while her father becomes a sea eagle. Minos re- turns to Crete, and having erected the Labyrinth with the assist- ance of Daedalus, he there encloses the Minotaur, the disgrace of his family, and feeds it with his Athenian captives. Theseus being one of these, slays the monster : and having escaped from the Labyrinth by the aid of Ariadne, he takes her with him, but deserts her in the isle of Dia, where Bacchus meets with her, and places her crown among the Constellations. Daedalus being unable to escape from the island of Crete, invents wings and flies away ; while Icarus, accompanying his father, is drowned. The partridge beholds the father celebrating his funeral rites, and testifies his joy : Perdix, or Talus, who had been envied by Minos for his ingenuity, and had been thrown by him from the temple of Minerva, having been transformed into that bird. Theseus, having now become celebrated, is invited to the chase of the Calydonian boar, which Atalanta is the first to wound. Meleager slays the monster ; and his death is accelerated by his mother Althaea, who places in the fire the fatal billet. Eeturn- ing from the expedition, Theseus comes to Acheloiis, and sees the islands called the Echinades, into which the Naiads have been transformed. Pirithoiis denies the possibility of this : but Lelex quotes, as an example, the case of Baucis and Philemon, who were changed into trees, wlnle~0ieir house became a temple, and the neighbouring country a pool of water. Acheloiis then fells the story of the transformations of Proteus and of Metra, S ^OPTICAL VIEW Xll and how Metra supported her father EnsictJion, while afflicted with violent hunger. BOOK IX. Achelotjs then relates his own transformations, when he was contending with Hercules for the hand of Deianira. Hercules wins her, and Xessus attempts to carry her off : on which Her- cules pierces him with one of his arrows that has been dipped in the blood of the Hydra. In revenge, Xessu3, as he is dying, gives to Deianira his garment stained with his blood. She, dis- trusting her husband’s affection, sends him the garment ; he puts it on, and his vitals are consumed by the venom. As he is dying, he hurls his attendant Lychas into the sea, where he becomes a rock. Hercules is conveyed to heaven, and is enrolled in the number of the Deities. Alcmena, his mother, goes to her daughter-in-law Iole, and tells her how Galanthis was changed into a weasel ; while she, in her turn, tells the story of the transformation of her sister Dry ope into the lotus. In the meantime Iolaiis comes, whose youth has been restored by Hebe. Jupiter shows, by the example of his sons iEacus and Minos, that all are not so blessed. Miletus, flying from Minos, arrives in Asia, and becomes the father of Byblis and Caunus. Byblis falls in love with her brother, and is transformed into a fountain. This would have appeared more surprising to all, if Iphis had not a short time before, on the day of her nuptials, been changed into a man. BOOK X. Hymen^us attends these nuptials, and then goes to those of Orpheus ; but with a bad omen, as Eurydice dies soon after, and cannot be brought to life. In his sorrow, Orpheus repairs to the solitudes of the mountains, where the trees flock around him at the sound of his lyre ; and, among others, the pine, into which Atys has been changed ; and the cypress, produced from the transformation of Cvparissus. Orpheus sings of the rape of Ganymede ; of the change of Hyacinthus, who was beloved and slain by Apollo, into a flower ; of the transformation of the Ceras- tse into bulls ; of the Propoetides, who were changed into stones ; and of the statue of Pygmalion, which was changed into a living woman, who became the mother of Paphos. He then sings, how Myrrha, for her incestuous intercourse with her father, was changed into the myrrh tree ; and how Adonis (to whom Venus relates the transformation of Hippomenes and Atalanta into lions) was transformed into an anemone. BOOK XI. Obi-heus is torn to pieces by the Thracian women ; on which, a serpent, which attacks his face, is changed into stone. The OF THE TRANSFORMATIONS. ziii women are transformed into trees by Bacchus, who deserts Thrace, and betakes himself to Phrygia ; where Midas, for hi« care of Silenus, receives the power of making gold. He loathes this gift ; and bathing in the river Pactolus, its sands become golden. Por his stupidity, his ears are changed by Apollo into those of an ass. After this, that God goes to Troy, and aids Laomedon in building its walls. Hercules rescues his daugh- ter Hesione, when fastened to a rock, and his companion Telamon receives her as his wife ; while his brother Peleus marries the sea Goddess, Thetis. Going to visit Ceyx, he learns how Dseda- lion has been changed into a hawk, and sees a wolf changed into a rock. Ceyx goes to consult the oracle of Claros, and perishes by shipwreck. On this, Morpheus appears to Halcyone, in the form of her husband, and she is changed into a kingfisher ; into which bird Ceyx is also transformed. Persons who observe them, as they fly, call to mind how iEsacus, the son of Priam, was changed into a sea bird, called the didapper. BOOK XII Priam performs the obsequies for iEsacus, believing him to be dead. The children of Priam attend, with the exception of Paris, who, having gone to Greece, carries off Helen, the wife of Menelaiis. The Greeks pursue Paris, but are detained at Aulis, where they see a serpent changed into stone, and prepare to sacrifice Iphigenia to Diana ; but a hind is substituted for her. The Trojans hearing of the approach of the Greeks, in arms await their arrival. At the first onset, Cygnus, dashed by Achilles against a stone, is changed by Neptune into the swan, a bird of the same name, he having been vulnerable by no weapon. At the banquet of the chiefs, Nestor calls to mind Cseneus, who was also invulnerable ; and who having been changed from a woman into a man, on being buried under a heap of trees, was transformed into a bird. This Cseneus was one of the Lapithae, at the battle of whom with the Cen- taurs, Nestor was present. Nestor also tells how his brother, Periclymenus, was changed into an eagle. Meanwhile, Neptune laments the death of Cygnus, and entreats Apollo to direct the arrow of Paris against the heel of Achilles, which is done, and that hero is slain. BOOK XIII. Ajax Telamon and Ulysses contend for the arms of Achilles. The former slays himself, on which a hyacinth springs up from his blood. Troy being taken, Hecuba is carried to Thrace, where she tears out the eyes of Polymnestor, and is afterwards changed into a bitch. While the Gods deplore her misfortunes, Aurora is occupied with grief for the death of hex 3dv SYNOPTICAL VIEW. son Memnon, from whose ashes the birds called Memnonides arise. iEneas flying from Troy, visits Anius, whose daughters have been changed into doves ; and after touching at other places, remarkable for various transformations, he arrives in Sicily, where is the maiden Seylla, to whom Gralatea relates how Polyphemus courted her, and how he slew Acis. On this, Grlaucus, who has been changed into a sea Deity, makes his appearance. BOOK XIY. Circe changes Seylla into a monster. iEneas arrives in Africa, and is entertained by Dido. Passing by the islands called Pithe- cusse, where the Cecropes have been transformed from men into apes, he comes to Italy ; and landing near the spot which he calls Caieta, he learns from Macareus many particulars re- specting Ulysses and the incantations of Circe, and how king Picus was changed into a woodpecker. He afterwards wages war with Turnus. Through Yenulus, Turnus asks assist- ance of Diomedes, whose companions have been transformed into birds, and he is refused. Yenulus, as he returns, sees the spot where an Apulian shepherd had been changed into an olive tree. The ships of iEneas, when on fire, become sea Xymphs, just as a heron formerly arose from the flames of the city of Ardea. iEneas is now made a Deity. Other kings succeed him, and in the time of Procas Pomona lives. She is beloved by Yertumnus, who first assumes the form of an old woman ; and having told the story of Anaxarete, who was changed into a stone for her cruelty, he reassumes the shape of a youth, and prevails upon the G-oddess. Cold waters, by the aid of the Naiads become warm. Komulus having succeeded Numi- tor, he is made a Deity under the name of Quirinus, while his wife Hersilia becomes the G-oddess Hora. BOOK XY. Ntjma succeeds ; who, on making inquiry respecting the origin of the city of Crotona, learns how black pebbles were changed into white ; he also attends the lectures of Pythagoras, on the changes which all matter is eternally undergoing. Egeria laments the death of Numa, and wifi not listen to the consolations of Hippolytus, who tells her of his own transformation, and she pines away into a fountain. This is not less wonderful, than how Tages sprang from a clod of earth ; or how the lance of Romu- lus became a tree ; or how Cippus became decked with horns. The Poet concludes by passing to recent events; and after shewing how iEsculapius was first worshipped by the Komans, in the sacred isle of the Tiber, he relates the Deification of Julius Csesar and his change into a Star ; and foretells imperishable fame for himself. THE METAMORPHOSES BOOK THE FIRST. THE ARGUMENT. Mr design leads me to speak of forms changed into new bodies . 1 Ye Gods, (for you it was who changed them,) favour my attempts , 2 and bring down the lengthened narrative from the very beginning of the world, even to my own times . 3 FABLE I. God reduces Chaos into order. He separates the four elements, and dis- poses the several bodies, of which the universe is formed, into their pro- per situations. At first, the sea, the earth, and the heaven, which covers all things, were the only face of nature throughout the whole uni- 1 Forms changed into new bodies.'] — Yer. 1. Some commentators cite these words as an instance of Hypallage as being used for ‘ corpora mutata in novas formas/ ‘ bodies changed into new forms / and they fancy that there is a certain beauty in the circumstance that the proposition of a subject which treats of the changes and variations of bodies should be framed with a transposition of words. This supposition is perhaps based rather on the exuberance of a fanciful imagination than on solid grounds, as if it is an instance of Hypallage, it is most probably quite accidental ; while the passage may be explained without any reference to Hypallage, as the word ‘ forma’ is sometimes used to signify the thing itself ; thus the words ‘ formse deorum’ and ‘ ferarum’ are used to signify * the Gods/ or * the wild beasts’ themselves. 2 Favour my attempts.] — Ver. 3. This use of the word ‘ adspirate’ is a metaphor taken from the winds, which, while they fill the ship’s sails, were properly said ‘ adspirare.’ It has been remarked, with some justice, that this invocation is not sufficiently long or elaborate for a work of so grave and dignified a nature as the Metamorphoses. 1 To my own times.] — Ver. 4. That is, to the days of Augustus Csasar. B 2 THE METAMORPHOSES. [b. t. 6 — 26 . verse, which men have named Chaos ; a rude and undigested mass , 4 and nothing more than an inert weight, and the dis- cordant atoms of things not harmonizing, heaped together in the same spot. No Sun 5 as yet gave light to the world ; nor did the Moon , 6 by increasing, recover her horns anew. The Earth did not as yet hang in the surrounding air, balanced by its own weight, nor had Amphitrite 7 stretched out her arms along the lengthened margin of the coasts. Wherever, too, was the land, there also was the sea and the air ; and thus was the earth without firmness, the sea unnavigable, the air void of light ; in no one of them did its present form exist. And one was ever obstructing the other ; because in the same body the cold was striving with the hot, the moist with the dry, the soft with the hard, things having weight with those devoid of weight. To this discord God and bounteous Nature 8 put an end ; for he separated the earth from the heavens, and the waters from the earth, and distinguished the clear heavens from the gross atmosphere. And after he had unravelled these elements , and released them from that confused heap, he combined them, thus disjoined, in harmonious unison, each, in its proper place. The 4 A rude and undigested mass.] — Ver. 7. This is very similar to the words of the Scriptures, ‘ And the earth was without form and void/ Genesis, ch. i. ver. 2. 5 No Sun.]— Ver. 10. Titan. The Sun is so called, on account of his supposed father, Hyperion, who was one of the Titans. Hyperion is thought to have been the first who, by assiduous observation, discovered the course of the Sun, Moon, and other luminaries. By them he regulated the time for the seasons, and imparted this knowledge to others. Being thus, as it were, the father of astronomy, he has been feigned by the poets to have been the father of the Sun and the Moon. 6 The Moon.] — Ver. 11. Phoebe. The Moon is so called from the Greek In the Brazen Age, which succeeds, they become yet less virtuous ; but their wickedness does not rise to its highest pitch until the Iron Age, when it makes its appearance in all its deformity. Afterwards (Saturn being driven into the shady realms of Tartarus), the world was under the sway of Jupiter; then the Silver Age succeeded, inferior to that of gold, but more precious than that o/’yellow brass. Jupiter shortened the du- ration of the former spring, and divided the year into four pe- riods by means of winters, and summers, and unsteady au- tumns, and short springs. Then, for the first time, did the parched air glow with sultry heat, and the ice, bound up by the winds, was pendant. Then, for the first time, did men enter houses ; those houses were caverns, and thick shrubs, and twigs fastened together with bark. Then, for the first time, were the seeds of Ceres buried in long furrows, and the oxen groaned, pressed by the yoke of the ploughshare . B. I. 124 — 148 .] THE MET AMO RP HOSES. il The Age of Brass succeeded, as the third in order , after these; fiercer in disposition, and more prone to horrible warfare, but yet free from impiety. The last Age^i s^asof hard iron. Im- * mediately every species of crime burst forth, in this age of de- generated tendencies ; 30 modesty, truth, and honour took flight; in their place succeeded fraud, deceit, treachery, violence, and the cursed hankering for acquisition. The sailor now spread his sails to the winds, and with these, as yet, he was but little acquainted ; and the trees , which had long stood on the lofty mountains, now, os ships, bounded 31 through the un- known waves. The ground, too, hitherto common as the light of the sun and the breezes, the cautious measurer marked out with his lengthened boundary. And not only was the rich soil required to furnish corn and due sustenance, but men even descended into the entrails of the Earth ; and riches were dug up, the incentives to vice, which the Earth had hidden, and had removed to the Stygian shades . 32 Then destructive iron came forth, and gold, more destructive than iron ; then War came forth, that fights through the means of both , 33 and that brandishes in his blood- stained hands the clattering arms. Men live by rapine ; the guest is not safe from his entertainer, nor the father-in-law from the son-in-law ; good feeling, too, between brothers is a rarity. The husband is eager for the death of the wife, she for that of her husband. Horrible step-mothers then mingle the ghastly wolfsbane ; the son prematurely makes inquiry 34 30 Age of degenerated tendencies.'] — Yer. 128. ‘Vena’ signifies, among other things, a vein or track of metal as it lies in the mine. Literally, ‘ venae pejoris’ signifies ‘ of inferior metal .- 1 31 Now as ships bounded.] — Ver. 134. * Insultavere carinae.’ This line is translated by Clarke, ‘ The keel-pieces bounced over unknown waves.’ 32 To the Stygian shades.] — Ver. 139. That is, in deep caverns, and towards the centre of the earth ; for Styx was feigned to be a river of the Infernal Regions, situate in the depths of the earth. 33 Through the means of both.] — Yer. 142. Gold forms, perhaps, more properly the sinews of war than iron. The history of Philip of Macedon gives a proot of this, as he conquered Greece more by bribes than the sword, and used to say, that he deemed no fortress impregnable, where there was a gate large enough to admit a camel laden with gold. 34 Prematurely makes inquiry.] — Ver. 148. Namely, by inquiring of the magicians and astrologers, that by their skill n casting nativities, they 12 THE METAMORPHOSES. [b. i. 148—156 into the years of his father. Piety lies vanquished, and the virgin Astrsea 35 is the last of the heavenly Deities to abandon the Earth, now drenched in slaughter. EXPLANATION. The Poet here informs us, that during the Golden Age, a perpetual spring reigned on the earth, and that the division of the year into seasons was not known until the Silver Age. This allusion to Eden is very generally to be found in the works of the heathen poets. The Silver Age is succeeded by the Brazen, and that is followed by the Iron Age, which still continues. The meaning is, that man gradually degenerated from his primaeval inno- cence, and arrived at that state of wickedness and impiety, of which the history of all ages, ancient and modern, presents us with so many lament- able examples. The limited nature of their views, and the fact that their exuberant fancy was the source from which they derived many of their alleged events, na- turally betrayed the ancient writers into great inconsistencies. For in the Golden Age of Saturn, we find wars waged, and crimes committed. Saturn expelled his father, and seized his throne; Jupiter, his son, treated Saturn as he had done his father Uranus ; and Jupiter, in his turn, had to wage war against the Giants, in their attempt to dispossess him of the heavens. FABLE Y. The Giants having attempted to render themselves masters of heaven, Ju- piter buries them under the mountains which they have heaped together to facilitate their assault ; and the Earth, animating their blood, forms out of it a cruel and fierce generation of men. And that the lofty realms of aether might not be more safe than the Earth, they say that the Giants aspired to the sove- reignty of Heaven, and piled the mountains, heaped together, even to the lofty stars. Then the omnipotent Father, hurling his lightnings, broke through Olympus , 36 and struck Ossa away from Pelion, that lay beneath it. While the dreadful might inform them the time when their parents were likely to die, and to leave them their property. 35 Astrcea.] — Ver. 150. She was the daughter of Astraeus and Aurora, or of Jupiter and Themis, and was the Goddess of Justice. On leaving the earth, she was supposed to have taken her place among the stars as the Constellation of the Virgin. 36 Olympus.'] — Ver. 154. Olympus was a mountain between Thessaly and Macedonia. Pelion was a mountain of Thessaly, towards the Pelasgic gulf; and Ossa was a mountain between Olympus and Pelion. These the Giants are said to have heaped one on another, in order to scale heaven. b. i. 156—170.] THE METAMORPHOSES 13 carcasses lay overwhelmed beneath their own structure, they say that the Earth was wet, drenched with the plenteous blood of her sons, and that she gave life to the warm gore ; and that, lest no memorial of this ruthless race should be surviving, she shaped them into the form of men. But that generation, too, was a despiser of the Gods above, and most greedy of ruthless slaughter, and full of violence : you might see that th^y derived their origin from blood. EXPLANATION. The war of the Giants, which is here mentioned, is not to be confounded with that between Jupiter and the Titans, who were inhabitants of heaven. The fall of the angels, as conveyed by tradition, probably gave rise to the story of the Titans ; while, perhaps, the building of the tower of Babel may have laid the foundation of that of the attempt by the giants to reach heaven. Perhaps, too, the descendants of Cain, who are probably the persons mentioned in Scripture as the children ‘ of men/ and ‘ giants/ were the race depicted under the form of the Giants, and the generation that sprung from their blood. See Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 2. 4. FABLE YI. Jupiter, having seen the crimes of this impious race of men, calls a council of the Gods, and determines to destroy the world. When the Father of the Gods , the son of Saturn, beheld this from his loftiest height, he groaned aloud ; and recalling to memory the polluted banquet on the table of Lycaon, not yet publicly known, from the crime being but lately committed, he conceives in his mind vast wrath, and such as is worthy of Jove, and calls together a council ; no delay detains them, thus summoned. There is a way on high , 37 easily seen in a clear sky, and which, remarkable for its very whiteness, receives the name of the Milky Way. Along this is the way for the Gods above to 37 There is a way on high .] — Ver. 168. The Poet here gives a descrip- tion of the court of heaven ; and supposing the galaxy, or Milky Way, to be the great road to the palace of Jupiter, places the habitations of the Gods on each side of it, and adjoining the palace itself. The mythologists also invented a story, that the Milky Way was a track left in the heavens by the milk of Juno flowing from the mouth of Hercules, when suckled by her. Aristotle, however, suspected what has been since confirmed by the inves- tigations of modern science, that it was formed by the light of innumera- ble stars. 14 THE METAMORPHOSES. [b. i. 170 — -193, the abode of the great Thunderer and his royal palace. On the right and on the left side the courts of the ennobled DeAties 38 are thronged, with open gates. The Gods of lower rank 30 in- habit various places ; in front of the Way , the powerful and illustrious inhabitants of Heaven have established their resi- dence. This is the place which, if boldness may be allowed to my expressions, I should not hesitate to style the palatial residence of Heaven. When, therefore, the Gods above had taken their seats in the marble hall of assembly ; he himself, elevated on his seat, and leaning on his sceptre of ivory, three or four times shook the awful locks 40 of his head, with which he makes the Earth, the Seas, and the Stars to tremble. Then, after such manner as this, did he open his indignant lips ; — “ Not even at that time was I more concerned for the em- pire of the universe, when each of the snake-footed monsters was endeavouring to lay his hundred arms on the captured skies. For although that was a dangerous enemy, yet that war was with but one stock, and sprang from a single origin. Now must the race of mortals be cut off by me, wherever Nereus 41 roars on all sides of the earth ; this I swear by the Rivers of Hell, that glide in the Stygian grove beneath the earth. All methods have been already tried ; but a wound that admits of no cure, must be cut away with the knife, that the sound parts may not be corrupted. I have as subjects , Demigods, and 1 have the rustic Deities, the Nymphs, 42 and the Fauns, and the Satyrs, and the Sylvans, the inhabitants of 38 The ennobled Deities.'] — Yer. 172. These were the superior Deities, who formed the privy councillors of Jupiter, and were called ‘ Di majorum gentium/ or, ‘ Di consentes.’ Reckoning Jupiter as one, they were twelve in number, and are enumerated by Ennius in two limping hexameter lines : — 1 Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo/ 39 The Gods of lower rank.] — Ver. 173. These were the 4 Dii minorum gentium/ or inferior Deities. 40 Shook the awful locks.]— Yer. 179. This awful nod of Jupiter, the sanction by which he confirms his decrees, is an idea taken from Homer ; by whom it is so vividly depicted at the end of the first book of the Iliad, that Phidias, in his statue of that God, admired for the awful majesty of its looks, is said to have derived his conception of the features from that description. Virgil has the same idea in the /Eneid, book x. ; ‘ Annuit, et toturn metu tremefecit Olympum/ 41 Nereus.]— Yer. 187. He was one of the most ancient of the Deities of the sea, and was the son of Oceanus and Tethys. The Nymphs.] — Ver. 192. The terrestrial Nymphs were the Dryada b. i. 193—215.] THE METAMORPHOSES. 15 the mountains ; these, though as yet, we hare not thought them worthy of the honour of Heaven, let us, at least, permit to inhabit the earth which we have granted them. And do you, ye Gods of Heaven, believe that they will be in proper safety, when Lycaon, remarkable for his cruelty, has formed a plot against even me, who own and hold sway over the thunder and yourselves?” All shouted their assent aloud, and with ardent zeal they called for vengeance on one who dared such crimes. Thus, when an impious band 43 madly raged to extinguish the Homan name in the blood of Caesar, the human race was astonished with sudden terror at ruin so universal, and the whole earth shook with horror. Nor was the affectionate regard, Augustus, of thy subjects less grateful to thee, than that was to Jupiter. Who, after he had, by means of his voice and his hand, sup- pressed their murmurs, all of them kept silence. Soon as the clamour had ceased, checked by the authority of their ruler, Jupiter again broke silence in these words ; “ He, indeed, (dismiss your cares) has suffered dire punish- ment ; but what was the offence and what the retribution, I will inform you. The report of the iniquity of the age had reached my ears ; wishing to find this not to be the truth, I descended from the top of Olympus, and, a God in a human shape, I surveyed the earth. ’Twere an endless task to enu- merate how great an amount of guilt was everywhere dis- covered ; the report itself was below the truth.” EXPLANATION. It is to be presumed, that Ovid here follows the prevailing tradition of his time ; and it is surprising how closely that tradition adheres to the words and Hamadryads, who haunting the woods, and the duration of their existence depending upon the life of particular trees, derived their name from the Greek word Spvc , ‘ an oak.' The Oreades were nymphs who frequented the mountains, while the Napeee lived in the groves and vallies. There were also Nymphs of the sea and of the rivers; of which, the Ne- reids were so called from their father Nereus, and the Oceanitides, from Oceanus. The 1 “. were ilso the Nahnis, or ,'ynul s of the ftnnhiins, and many others. 43 Thus when an impious band.~\ — Ver. 200. It is a matter of doubt whether he here refers to the conspiracies of Brutus and Cassius against Julius Caesar, or whether to that against Augustus, which is mentioned by Suetonius, in the nineteenth chapter of his History. As Augustus survived the latter conspiracy, and the parallel is thereby rendered more complete, probably this is the circumstance here alluded to. 15 THE METAMORPHOSES. [b. i. 216—229. of Scripture, relative to the determination of the Almighty to punish the earth by a deluge, as disclosed in the sixth chapter of Genesis. The Poet tells us, that the King of heaven calls the Gods to a grand council, to deliberate upon the punishment of mankind, in retribution for their wickedness. The words of Scripture are, ‘And God saw that the wickedness >f man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts »f his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he oad made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created from the face of the earth ; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air : for it repenteth me that I have made them. , — Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 5, 6, 7. Tradition seems to have faithfully carried down the fact, that, amid this universal corruption, there was still at least one just man, and here it attributes to Deucalion the merit that belonged to Noah. FABLE VII. Lycaon, king of Arcadia, in order to discover if it is Jupiter himself who has come to lodge in his palace, orders the body of an hostage, who had been sent to him, to be dressed and served up at a feast. The God, as a punishment, changes him into a wolf. I had now passed Msenalus, to be dreaded for its dens of beasts of prey, and the pine-groves of coldLycseus, together with Cyllene . 44 After this, I entered the realms and the inhospitable abode of the Arcadian tyrant, just as the late twilight was bringing on the night. I gave a signal that a God had come, and the people commenced to pay their adorations. In the first place, Lycaon derided their pious supplications. After- wards, he said, I will make trial, by a plain proof, whether this is a God, or whether he is a mortal ; nor shall the truth remain a matter of doubt. He then makes preparations to destroy me, when sunk in sleep, by an unexpected death ; this mode of testing the truth pleases him. And not content with that, with the sword he cuts the throat of an hostage that had been sent from the nation of the Molossians , 45 and 44 Together with Cyllene .] — Ver. 217. Cyllenus, or Cyllene, was a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Mercury, who was hence called by the poets Cyllenius. Lyc