Education – History of Greece and Rome

Urbi et orbi: the city ruling an Empire (II)

Antonio Marco Martínez — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 02:06:33 +0000

The Roman citizen, in his self-assertion and self-satisfaction, confuses the “orbis terrarum” with the “orbis romanus”. There are also innumerable texts and facts that claim to establish in the citizens this idea: that the world, at least interesting, is Roman.

It is that, for example, we can see in Cicero, Rhetorica Ad Herennium, 4,9,13:

Our discourse will belong to the Middle type if, as I have said above,'' we have somewhat relaxed our style, and yet have not escended to the most ordinary prose, as follows :

Men of the jury, you see against whom we are waging war — against allies wlio have been wont to light in our defence, and together with us to preserve our empire by their valour and zeal. Not only must they have known themselves, their resources, and their manpower, but their nearness to us and their alliance with us in all affairs enabled them no less to learn and appraise the power of the Roman people in every sphere. When they had resolved to fight against us, on what, I ask you, did they rely in presuming to undertake the war, since they understood that much the greater part of our allies remained faithful to duty, and since they saw that they had at hand no great supply of soldiers, no competent commanders, and no public money — in short, none of the things needful for carrying on the war ? Even if they were waging war with neighbours on a question of boundaries, even if in their opinion one battle would decide the contest, they would yet come to the task in every way better prepared and equipped than they are now. It is still less credible that with such meagre forces they would attempt to usurp that sovereignty over the whole world which all the civilized peoples, kings, and barbarous nations have accepted, in part compelled by force, in part of their own will, when conquered either by the arms of Rome or by her generosity. Some one will ask : What of the Fregellans ? Did they not make the attempt on their own initiative ? ' Yes, but these allies would be less ready to make the attempt precisely because they saw how the Fregellans fared." For inexperienced peoples, unable to find in history a precedent for every circumstance, are through imprudence easily led into error; whilst those who know what has befallen others can easily from the fortunes of these others draw profit for their own policies.'' Have they, then, in taking up arms, been impelled by no motive ? Have they relied on no hope ? Who will believe that any one has been so mad as to dare, with no forces to depend on, to challenge the sovereignty of the Roman people ? They must, therefore, have had some motive, and what else can this be but what I say ? " (Translated by Harry Caplan)

In mediocri figura versabitur oratio, si haec, ut ante dixi, aliquantum demiserimus neque tamen ad infimum descenderimus, sic:

«Quibuscum bellum gerimus, iudices, videtis: cum sociis, qui pro nobis pugnare et imperium nostrum nobiscum simul virtute et industria conservare soliti sunt. Ii cum se et opes suas et copiam necessario norunt, tum vero nihilominus propter propinquitatem et omnium rerum societatem, quid omnibus rebus populus Romanus posset, scire existimare poterant. Ii, cum deliberassent nobiscum bellum gerere, quaeso, quae res erat, qua freti bellum suscipere conarentur, cum multo maximam partem sociorum in officio manere intellegerent? Cum sibi non multitudinem militum, non idoneos imperatores, non pecuniam publicam praesto esse viderent? Non denique ullam rem, quae res pertinet ad bellum administrandum? Si cum finitumis de finibus bellum gererent, si totum certamen in uno proelio positum putarent, tamen omnibus rebus instructiores et apparatiores venirent; nedum illi imperium orbis terrae, cui imperio omnes gentes, reges, nationes partim vi, partim voluntate consenserunt, cum aut armis aut liberalitate a populo Romano superati essent, ad se transferre tantulis viribus conarentur. Quaeret aliquis: Quid? Fregellani non sua sponte conati sunt? Eo quidem isti minus facile conarentur, quod illi quemadmodum discessent videbant. Nam rerum inperiti, qui unius cuiusque rei de rebus ante gestis exempla petere non possunt, ii per inprudentiam facillime deducuntur in fraudem: at ii, qui sciunt, quid aliis acciderit, facile ex aliorum eventis suis rationibus possunt providere. Nulla igitur re inducti, nulla spe freti arma sustulerunt? Quis hoc credet, tantam amentiam quemquam tenuisse, ut imperium populi Romani temptare auderet nullis copiis fretus? Ergo aliquid fuisse necessum est. Quid aliud, nisi id, quod dico, potest esse?»

This is that Ovid says on several occasions. Thus in Fasti, 1, 75 et seq. about the celebrations of January 1 to the god Janus:

Behold how Aether glows with sacred fire,
Where incense and odorous nard aspire ;
How lambent flames all tremulously rolled
Up to thy dome, reflect from burnished gold.
Lo! the procession mounts Tarpeia's height;
The garb and festival are sacred white ;
New fasces lead the way ; in purple dye
New consuls in the chairs of ivory.
The unyoked steers, from the Faliscan plain,
Proffer their necks consentant to be slain ;
And Jupiter from heaven gazing round
Begardeth nothing else, but Boman ground.
Salve, auspicious morn! for ever aye
Return to Romans an auspicious day.
Jane biformis, what shall I call thee ?
Greece, has no corresponding deity.
Propound the cause, why of Celestials one
May see behind his back the deed that's done,
And at the same time view events before.
(By Jonh Benson Rose. 1866)

cernis odoratis ut luceat ignibus aether,
     et sonet accensis spica Cilissa focis?
flamma nitore suo templorum verberat aurum,
     et tremulum summa spargit in aede iubar.
vestibus intactis Tarpeias itur in arces,
     et populus festo concolor ipse suo est,
iamque novi praeeunt fasces, nova purpura fulget,
     et nova conspicuum pondera sentit ebur.
colla rudes operum praebent ferienda iuvenci,
     quos aluit campis herba Falisca suis.
Iuppiter arce sua totum cum spectet in orbem,
     nil nisi Romanum quod tueatur habet.
salve, laeta dies, meliorque revertere semper,
     a populo rerum digna potente coli.
Quem tamen esse deum te dicam, Iane biformis?
     nam tibi par nullum Graecia numen habet.
ede simul causam, cur de caelestibus unus
     sitque quod a tergo sitque quod ante vides.

And then, a little later:

The Orbs is Urbs Romana, and our home.

Romanae spatium est Urbis et orbis idem.

Fasti 2, 667 y ss.

What happened when the Capitol was built ?
When all the gods, yielding to Jove, withdrew,
Save Terminus, the ancients tell us, who
Now shares that fane with Jove : therefore its roof
Is pierced that he may see the stars aloof.
Since then, Termine, thou art not free
To chop and change about in levity :
Where thou art placed remain, lest so it prove
Thou giv'st to man what thou deny'st to Jove.
If plough or harrow hurtle thee, cry out,
" This land is mine ; friend, mind what you're about."
There is a road on the Laurentian plain
That marked the limits of the Dardan reign ;
The sixth stone from the city marks the way,
And there a sheep to Terminus we slay.
All nations have their termini, save Rome :
The Orbs is Urbs Romana, and our home.
(By Jonh Benson Rose. 1866)

quid, nova cum fierent Capitolia? nempe deorum
     cuncta Iovi cessit turba locumque dedit;
Terminus, ut veteres memorant, inventus in aede
     restitit et magno cum Iove templa tenet.
nunc quoque, se supra ne quid nisi sidera cernat,
     exiguum templi tecta foramen habent.
Termine, post illud levitas tibi libera non est:
     qua positus fueris in statione, mane;
nec tu vicino quicquam concede roganti,
     ne videare hominem praeposuisse Iovi:
et seu vomeribus seu tu pulsabere rastris,
     clamato "tuus est hic ager, ille tuus".'
est via quae populum Laurentes ducit in agros,
     quondam Dardanio regna petita duci:
illa lanigeri pecoris tibi, Termine, fibris
     sacra videt fieri sextus ab Urbe lapis.
gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo:
     Romanae spatium est Urbis et orbis idem.

Pompey's triumphs from the East to the West confirm to the Romans they are the masters of the world. Plutarch presents us the triple triumphal parade of Pompey, in which the whole empire, all the land that he had conquered, participates.

Plutarch, Pompey 45:

His triumph had such a magnitude that, although it was distributed over two days, still the time would not suffice, but much of what had been prepared could not find a place in the spectacle, enough to dignify and adorn another triumphal procession. Inscriptions borne in advance of the procession indicated the nations over which he triumphed. These were: Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Media, Colchis, Iberia, Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia and Palestine, Judaea, Arabia, and all the power of the pirates by sea and land which had been overthrown. Among these peoples no less than a thousand strongholds had been captured, according to the inscriptions, and cities not much under nine hundred in number, besides eight hundred piratical ships, while thirty-nine cities had been founded. In addition to all this the inscriptions set forth that whereas the public revenues from taxes had been fifty million drachmas, they were receiving from the additions which Pompey had made to the city's power eighty-five million, and that he was bringing into the public treasury in coined money and vessels of gold and silver twenty thousand talents, apart from the money which had been given to his soldiers, of whom the one whose share was the smallest had received fifteen hundred drachmas. The captives led in triumph, besides the chief pirates, were the son of Tigranes the Armenian with his wife and daughter, Zosime, a wife of King Tigranes himself, Aristobulus, king of the Jews, a sister and five children of Mithridates, Scythian women, and hostages given by the Iberians, by the Albanians, and by the king of Commagene; there were also very many trophies, equal in number to all the battles in which Pompey had been victorious either in person or in the persons of his lieutenants. But that which most enhanced his glory and had never been the lot of any Roman before, was that he celebrated his third triumph over the third continent. For others before him had celebrated three triumphs; but he celebrated his first over Libya, his second over Europe, and this his last over Asia, so that he seemed in a way to have included the whole world in his three triumphs. (Translated by by Bernadotte Perrin)

We also have information on the deeds of Pompey in Diodorus Siculus 40, 4

This is a copy of the inscription that Pompeius set up, recording his achievements in Asia.
Pompeius Magnus, son of Gnaeus, imperator, freed the coasts of the world and all the islands within the Ocean from the attacks of pirates. He rescued from siege the kingdom of Ariobarzanes, Galatia and the territories and provinces beyond there, Asia and Bithynia. He protected Paphlagonia, Pontus, Armenia and Achaïa, also Iberia, Colchis, Mesopotamia, Sophene and Gordyene. He subjugated Dareius king of the Medes, Artoles king of the Iberians, Aristobulus king of the Jews, and Aretas king of the Nabataean Arabs, also Syria next to Cilicia, Judaea, Arabia, the province of Cyrenaica, the Achaei, Iozygi, Soani and Heniochi, and the other tribes that inhabit the coast between Colchis and Lake Maeotis, together with the kings of these tribes, nine in number, and all the nations that dwell between the Pontic Sea and the Red Sea. He extended the borders of the empire up to the borders of the world. He maintained the revenues of the Romans, and in some cases he increased them. He removed the statues and other images of the gods, and all the other treasure of the enemies, and dedicated to the goddess {Minerva} 12,060 pieces of gold and 307 talents of silver. (Translation by by Francis R. Walton)

Perhaps he is Pliny the most exaggerated to remind us of the success of Pompey throughout the Roman world:

"The most glorious, however, of all glories, resulting from these exploits, was, as he himself says, in the speech which he made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia, which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left its centre".

Let's extend this quote

Naturalis Historia: 7, 95 et seq. (26) (27) et seq.

But now, as it belongs fully as much to the glorious renown of the Roman Empire, as to the victorious career of a single individual, I shall proceed on this occasion to make mention of all the triumphs and titles of Pompeius Magnus: the splendour of his exploits having equalled not only that of those of Alexander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of Father Liber even. After having recovered Sicily, where he first commenced his career as a partizan of Sylla, but in behalf of the republic, after having conquered the whole of Africa, and reduced it to subjection, and after having received for his share of the spoil the title of " Great," he was decreed the honours of a triumph; and he, though only of equestrian rank, a thing that had never occurred before, re-entered the city in the triumphal chariot: immediately after which, he hastened to the west, where he left it inscribed on the trophy which he raised upon the Pyrenees, that he had, by his victories, reduced to subjection eight hundred and seventy-six cities, from the Alps to the borders of Farther Spain; at the same time he most magnanimously said not a word about Sertorius. After having put an end to the civil war, which indeed was the primary cause of all the foreign ones, he, though still of only equestrian rank, again entered Rome in the triumphal chariot, having proved himself a general thus often before having been a soldier. After this, he was dispatched to the shores of all the various seas, and then to the East, whence he brought back to his country the following titles of honour, resembling therein those who conquer at the sacred games—for, be it remembered, it is not they that are crowned, but their respective countries. These honours then did he award to the City, in the temple of Minerva, which he consecrated from the spoils that he had gained: "Cneius Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, having brought to an end a war of thirty years' duration, and having defeated, routed, put to the sword, or received the submission of, twelve millions two hundred and seventy-eight thousand men, having sunk or captured eight hundred and forty-six vessels, having received as allies one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight cities and fortresses, and having conquered all the country from the Mæotis to the Red Sea, dedicates this shrine as a votive offering due to Minerva." Such, in few words, is the sum of his exploits in the East. The following are the introductory words descriptive of the triumph which he obtained, the third day before the calends of October, in the consulship of M. Piso and M. Messala; "After having delivered the sea-coast from the pirates, and restored the seas to the people of Rome, he enjoyed a triumph over Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, the Scythians, Judæa, the Albanians, Iberia, the island of Crete, the Basterni, and, in addition to all these, the kings Mithridates and Tigranes."

The most glorious, however, of all glories, resulting from these exploits, was, as he himself says, in the speech which he made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia, which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left its centre. If any one should wish, on the other hand, in a similar manner, to pass in review the exploits of Cæsar, who has shown himself greater still than Pompeius, why then he must enumerate all the countries in the world, a task, I may say, without an end. (Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed. )

Verum ad decus imperii Romani, non solum ad viri unius, pertinet victoriarum Pompei Magni titulos omnes triumphosque hoc in loco nuncupari, aequato non modo Alexandri Magni rerum fulgore, sed etiam Herculis prope ac Liberi patris.
igitur Sicilia recuperata, unde primum Sullanus in rei publicae causa exoriens auspicatus est, Africa vero tota subacta et in dicionem redacta Magnique nomine in spolium inde capto, eques Romanus, id quod antea nemo, curru triumphali revectus et statim ad solis occasum transgressus, excitatis in Pyrenaeo tropaeis, oppida DCCCLXXVI ab Alpibus ad fines Hispaniae ulterioris in dicionem redacta victoriae suae adscripsit et maiore animo Sertorium tacuit, belloque civili, quod omnia externa conciebat, extincto iterum triumphales currus eques R. induxit, totiens imperator ante quam miles.
postea ad tota maria et deinde solis ortus missus hos retulit patriae titulos more sacris certaminibus vincentium — neque enim ipsi coronantur, sed patrias suas coronant —, hos ergo honores urbi tribuit in delubro Minervae, quod ex manubiis dicabat:
CN·POMPEIVS MAGNVS IMPERATOR BELLO XXX ANNORVM CONFECTO FVSIS FVGATIS OCCISIS IN DEDITIONEM ACCEPTIS HOMINVM CENTIENS VICIENS SEMEL LXXXIII DEPRESSIS AVT CAPTIS NAVIBVS DCCCXLVI OPPIDIS CASTELLIS MDXXXVIII IN FIDEM RECEPTIS TERRIS A MAEOTIS AD RVBRVM MARE SVBACTIS VOTVM MERITO MINERVAE.
Hoc est breviarium eius ab oriente. triumphi vero, quem duxit a. d. III kal. Oct. M. Pisone M. Messala cos., praefatio haec fuit:
CVM ORAM MARITIMAM PRAEDONIBVS LIBERASSET ET IMPERIVM MARIS POPVLO ROMANO RESTITVISSET EX ASIA PONTO ARMENIA PAPHLAGONIA CAPPADOCIA CILICIA SYRIA SCYTHIS IVDAEIS ALBANIS HIBERIA INSVLA CRETA BASTERNIS ET SVPER HAEC DE REGE MITHRIDATE ATQVE TIGRANE TRIVMPHAVIT.
Summa summarum in illa gloria fuit (ut ipse in conditione dixit, cum de rebus suis disseret) Asiam ultimam provinciarum accepisse eandemque mediam patriae reddidisse. si quis e contrario simili modo velit percensere Caesaris res, qui maior ille apparuit, totum profecto terrarum orbem enumeret, quod infinitum esse conveniet.

In many passages Pliny goes even further and justifies Roman imperialism by its beneficial effects for humanity. In the book 27 of his Natural History tells us about the numerous plants in the world that are collected and transported from anywhere in the world only by effect of the Roman Pax. That is why the Romans are like a second light, as a second sun for humanity, and also as a second nature as he will say in the book 44. I transcribe both passages:

Pliny, 27, 1 y ss:

The further I proceed in this work, the more I am impressed with admiration of the ancients; and the greater the number of plants that remain to be described, the more I am induced to venerate the zeal displayed by the men of former times in their researches, and the kindly spirit manifested by them in transmitting to us the results thereof. Indeed their bounteousness in this respect would almost seem to have surpassed the munificent disposition even of Nature herself, if our knowledge of plants had depended solely upon man's spirit of discovery: but as it is, it is evident beyond all doubt that this knowledge has emanated from the gods themselves, or, at all events, has been the result of divine inspiration, even in those cases where man has been instrumental in communicating it to us. In other words, if we must confess the truth—a marvel surpassed by nothing in our daily experience—Nature herself, that common parent of all things, has at once produced them, and has discovered to us their properties.

Wondrous indeed is it, that a Scythian plant should be brought from the shores of the Palus Mæotis, and the euphorbia from Mount Atlas and the regions beyond the Pillars of Hercules, localities where the operations of Nature have reached their utmost limit! That in another direction, the plant britannica should be conveyed to us from isles of the Ocean situate beyond the confines of the earth! That the æthiopis5 should reach us from a climate scorched by the luminaries of heaven! And then, in addition to all this, that there should be a perpetual interchange going on between all parts of the earth, of productions so instrumental to the welfare of mankind! Results, all of them, ensured to us by the peace that reigns under the majestic sway of the Roman power, a peace which brings in presence of each other, not individuals only, belonging to lands and nations far separate, but mountains even, and heights towering above the clouds, their plants and their various productions! That this great bounteousness of the gods may know no end, is my prayer, a bounteousness which seems to have granted the Roman sway as a second luminary for the benefit of mankind.
(Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A)

Crescit profecto apud me certe tractatu ipso admiratio antiquitatis, quantoque maior copia herbarum dicenda restat, tanto magis adorare priscorum in inveniendo curam, in tradendo benignitatem subit. nec dubie superata hoc modo posset videri etiam rerum naturae ipsius munificentia, si humani operis esset inventio.
nunc vero deorum fuisse eam apparet aut certe divinam, etiam cum homo inveniret, eandemque omnium parentem et genuisse haec et ostendisse, nullo vitae miraculo maiore, si verum fateri volumus. Scythicam herbam a Maeotis paludibus et Euphorbeam e monte Atlante ultraque Herculis columnas ex ipso rerum naturae defectu, parte alia Britannicam ex oceani insulis extra terris positis, itemque Aethiopidem ab exusto sideribus axe, alias praeterea aliunde ultro citroque humanae saluti in toto orbe portari, inmensa Romanae pacis maiestate non homines modo diversis inter se terris gentibusque, verum etiam montes et excedentia in nubes iuga partusque eorum et herbas quoque invicem ostentante! aeternum, quaeso, deorum sit munus istud! adeo Romanos velut alteram lucem dedisse rebus humanis videntur.

Pliny in 37, 77 (200) ss. assimilates Rome to nature itself and Italy is the governor and second mother of the world; the first is, of course, nature itself.

Having now treated of all the works of Nature, it will be as well to take a sort of comparative view of her several productions, as well as the countries which supply them. Through-out the whole earth, then, and wherever the vault of heaven extends, there is no country so beautiful, or which, for the productions of Nature, merits so high a rank as Italy, that ruler and second parent of the world ; recommended as she is by her men, her women, her generals, her soldiers, her slaves, her superiority in the arts, and the illustrious examples of genius which she has produced. Her situation, too, is equally in her favour ; the salubrity and mildness of her climate ; the easy access which she offers to all nations ; her coasts indented with so many harbours ; the propitious breezes, too, that always prevail on her shores ; advantages, all of them, due to her situation, lying, as she does, midway between the East and the West, and extended in the most favourable of all positions. Add to this, the abundant supply of her waters, the salubrity of her groves, the repeated intersections of her mountain ranges, the comparative innocuousness of her wild animals, the fertility of her soil, and the singular richness of lier pastures. (Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., and H. T. Riley, Esq., B.A.)

Etenim peractis omnibus naturae operibus discrimen quoddam rerum ipsarum atque terrarum facere conveniet.
Ergo in toto orbe, quacumque caeli convexitas vergit, pulcherrima omnium est iis rebus, quae merito principatum naturae optinent, Italia, rectrix parensque mundi altera, viris feminis, ducibus militibus, servitiis, artium praestantia, ingeniorum claritatibus, iam situ ac salubritate caeli atque temperie, accessu cunctarum gentium facili, portuosis litoribus, benigno ventorum adflatu. quod contingit positione procurrentis in partem utilissimam et inter ortus occasusque mediam, aquarum copia, nemorum salubritate, montium articulis, ferorum animalium innocentia, soli fertilitate, pabuli ubertate.

Also Cicero in Catiline Orations: 4, 11 (6) compares Rome with the lux orbis terrarum.

Wherefore, if you decide on this you give me a companion in my address, dear and acceptable to the Roman people; or if you prefer to adopt the opinion of Silanus, you will easily defend me and yourselves from the reproach of cruelty, and I will prevail that it shall be much lighter. Although, O conscript fathers, what cruelty can there be in chastising the enormity of such excessive wickedness? For I decide from my own feeling. For so may I be allowed; to enjoy the republic in safety in your company, as I am not moved to be somewhat vehement in this cause by any severity of disposition, (for who is more merciful than I am?) but rather by a singular humanity and mercifulness. For I seem to myself to see this city, the light of the world and the citadel of all nations, falling on a sudden by one conflagration. I see in my mind's eye miserable and unburied heaps of cities in my buried country; the sight of Cethegus and his madness raging amid your slaughter is ever present to my sight. (Translatión by C. D. Yonge, 1856)

Quam ob rem, sive hoc statueritis, dederitis mihi comitem ad contionem populo carum atque iucundum, sive Silani sententiam sequi malueritis, facile me atque vos a crudelitatis vituperatione populo Romano purgabo atque obtinebo eam multo leniorem fuisse. Quamquam, patres conscripti, quae potest esse in tanti sceleris inmanitate punienda crudelitas? Ego enim de meo sensu iudico. Nam ita mihi salva re publica vobiscum perfrui liceat, ut ego, quod in hac causa vehementior sum, non atrocitate animi moveor (quis enim est me mitior?), sed singulari quadam humanitate et misericordia. Videor enim mihi videre hanc urbem, lucem orbis terrarum atque arcem omnium gentium, subito uno incendio concidentem, cerno animo sepulta in patria miseros atque insepultos acervos civium, versatur mihi ante oculos aspectus Cethegi et furor in vestra caede bacchantis.

The concentrated and visual expression of the whole empire is represented in the famous "Map of Agrippa".
Agrippa ordered to build a map of the whole known world that was placed in the Porticus that had the name of his sister Vipsania, in the Field of Mars and near the Pantheon, and whose purpose was to show that Rome was the center of the world. We could therefore consider the map of the Orbis Terrarum or representation of the whole known world. There are those who think that it was simply a list of places with their dimension and the distance between them rather than a representation of the world. And it is that we have only some written fragments of the description of the map and and we can get some idea for later ones. We can imagine the Roman citizen, planning a journey or by mere curiosity, observing this huge map of countries and roads.

It is considered that the measures were of great precision, although Pliny observes some error, for example when he speaks of Hispania and of Baetica:

Pliny, Naturalis Historia, 3, 17(3,2,17)

At the present day the length of Bætica, from the town of Castulo, on its frontier, to Gades is 250 miles, and from Murci, which lies on the sea-coast, twenty-five miles more. The breadth, measured from the coast of Carteia, is 234 miles. Who is there that can entertain the belief that Agrippa, a man of such extraordinary diligence, and one who bestowed so much care on his subject, when he proposed to place before the eyes of the world a survey of that world, could be guilty of such a mistake as this, and that too when seconded by the late emperor the divine Augustus ? For it was that emperor who completed the Portico which had been begun by his sister, and in which the survey was to be kept, in conformity with the plan and descriptions of M. Agrippa. (Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)

Baeticae longitudo nunc a Castulonis oppidi fine Gadix CCL et a Murgi maritima ora XXV p. amplior, latitudo a Carteia Anam ora CCXXXIIII p. Agrippam quidem in tanta viri diligentia praeterque in hoc opere cura, cum orbem terrarum orbi spectandum propositurus esset, errasse quis credat et cum eo Divum Augustum? is namque conplexam eum porticum ex destinatione et commentariis M. Agrippae a sorore eius inchoatam peregit.

Vitruvius expresses the same idea from another point of view: there was no better place than Rome to conquer the world:

Vitruvius, VI,1, 10-11

But although southern nations have the keenest wits, and are infinitely clever in forming schemes, yet the moment it comes to displaying valour, they succumb because all manliness of spirit is sucked out of them by the sun. On the other hand, men born in cold countries are indeed readier to meet the shock of arms with great courage and without timidity, but their wits are so slow that they will rush to the charge inconsiderately and inexpertly, thus defeating their own devices. Such being nature's arrangement of the universe, and all these nations being allotted temperaments which are lacking in due moderation, the truly perfect territory, situated under the middle of the heaven, and having on each side the entire extent of the world and its countries, is that which is occupied by the Roman people.

In fact, the races of Italy are the most perfectly constituted in both respects—in bodily form and in mental activity to correspond to their valour. Exactly as the planet Jupiter is itself temperate, its course lying midway between Mars, which is very hot, and Saturn, which is very cold, so Italy, lying between the north and the south, is a combination of what is found on each side, and her preeminence is well regulated and indisputable. And so by her wisdom she breaks the courageous onsets of the barbarians, and by her strength of hand thwarts the devices of the southerners. Hence, it was the divine intelligence that set the city of the Roman people in a peerless and temperate country, in order that it might acquire the right to command the whole world. (Translation by Morris Hicky Morgan, 1914)

Cum sint autem meridiane nationes animis acutissimis infinitaque sollertia consiliorum, simul ut ad fortitudinem ingrediuntur, ibi succumbunt, quod habent exsuctas ab sole animorum virtutes; qui vero refrigeratis nascuntur regionibus, ad armorum vehementiam paratiores sunt magnis virtutibus sine timore, sed tarditate animi sine considerantia inruentes sine sollertia suis consiliis refragantur. cum ergo haec ita sint ab natura rerum in mundo conlocata et omnes nationes inmoderatis mixtionibus disparatae, veros inter spatium totius orbis terrarum regionesque medio mundi populus Romanus possidet fines.

Namque temperatissimae ad utramque partem et corporum membris animorumque vigoribus pro fortitudine sunt in Italia gentes. quemadmodum enim Iovis stella inter Martis ferventissimam et Saturni frigidissimam media currens temperatur, eadem ratione Italia inter septentrionalem meridianamque ab utraque parte mixtionibus temperatas et invictas habet laudes. itaque consiliis refringit barbarorum virtutes, forti manu meridianorum cogitationes. ita divina mens civitatem populi Romani egregia temperataque regione conlocavit, uti orbis terrarum imperii potiretur.

If the "orbis terrarum" is the "orbis romanorum" and Rome is a microcosm, Nero, for example, claims that his Domus Aurea is a microcosm also, a small-scale reproduction of the "Roman empire", including forests, lakes and Masterpieces of the entire empire. Texts of Suetonius or Tacitus and many others confirms it.

Suetonius, Nero’s Life, (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars), VI,31

In nothing was he more prodigal than in his buildings. He completed his palace by continuing it from the Palatine to the Esquiline hill, calling the building at first only "The Passage," but after it was burnt down and rebuilt, "The Golden House.1 Of its dimensions and furniture, it may be sufficient to say thus much: the porch was so high that there stood in it a colossal statue of himself a hundred and twenty feet in height; and the space included in it was so ample, that it had triple porticos a mile in length, and a lake like a sea, surrounded with buildings which had the appearance of a city. Within its area were corn fields, vineyards, pastures, and woods, containing a vast number of animals of various kinds, both wild and tame. In other parts it was entirely over-laid with gold, and adorned with jewels and mother of pearl. The supper rooms were vaulted, and compartments of the ceilings, inlaid with ivory, were made to revolve, and scatter flowers; while they contained pipes which shed unguents upon the guests. The chief banqueting room was circular, and revolved perpetually, night and day, in imitation of the motion of the celestial bodies. The baths were supplied with water from the sea and the Albula. Upon the dedication of this magnificent house after it was finished, all he said in approval of it was, "that he had now a dwelling fit for a man." (An English Translation. Publishing Editor. J. Eugene Reed. Alexander Thomson. Philadelphia. Gebbie & Co. 1889.)

Non in alia re tamen damnosior quam in aedificando domum a Palatio Esquilias usque fecit, quam primo transitoriam, mox incendio absumptam restitutamque auream nominauit. de cuius spatio atque cultu suffecerit haec rettulisse. uestibulum eius fuit, in quo colossus CXX pedum staret ipsius effigie; tanta laxitas, ut porticus triplices miliarias haberet; item stagnum maris instar, circumsaeptum aedificiis ad urbium speciem; rura insuper aruis atque uinetis et pascuis siluisque uaria, cum multitudine omnis generis pecudum ac ferarum.
in ceteris partibus cuncta auro lita, distincta gemmis unionumque conchis erant; cenationes laqueatae tabulis eburneis uersatilibus, ut flores, fistulatis, ut unguenta desuper spargerentur; praecipua cenationum rotunda, quae perpetuo diebus ac noctibus uice mundi circumageretur; balineae marinis et albulis fluentes aquis. eius modi domum cum absolutam dedicaret, hactenus comprobauit, ut se diceret “quasi hominem tandem habitare coepisse.”

In a similar way Martial, in his Book "On the Spectacles", offers us numerous examples of spectacles in Rome with exotic animals, brought from the confines of the empire, of which the Romans feel themselves owners.

Martial: De spectaculis (On the Spectacles), 2,

Here where, rayed with stars, the Colossus views heaven anear, and in the middle way tall scaffolds rise, hatefully gleamed the palace of a savage king, and but a single house now stood in all the City. Here, where the far-seen Amphitheatre lifts its mass august, was Nero's mere. Here, where we admire the warm-baths., 1 a gift swiftly wrought, a proud domain had robbed their dwellings from the poor. Where the Claudian Colonnade extends its outspread shade the Palace ended in its furthest part. Rome has been restored to herself, and under thy governance, Caesar, that is now the delight of a people which was once a master's.
(Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Hic ubi sidereus propius uidet astra colossus
     et crescunt media pegmata celsa uia,
inuidiosa feri radiabant atria regis
     unaque iam tota stabat in urbe domus;
hic ubi conspicui uenerabilis Amphitheatri
     erigitur moles, stagna Neronis erant;
hic ubi miramur uelocia munera thermas,
     abstulerat miseris tecta superbus ager;
Claudia diffusas ubi porticus explicat umbras,
    ultima pars aulae deficientis erat.
Reddita Roma sibi est et sunt te preside, Caesar,
     deliciae populi, quae fuerant domini.

So in De spectaculis, 5

That Pasiphae was mated to the Dictaean bull, believe : we have seen it, the old-time myth has won its warrant. And let not age-long eld, Caesar, marvel at itself : whatever Fame sings of, that the Arena makes real for thee. (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Iunctam Pasiphaen Dictaeo credite tauro:
uidimus, accepit fabula prisca fidem.
Nec se miretur, Caesar, longaeua uetustas:
quidquid fama canit, praestat harena tibi.

And in 6,b

Ok the lion laid low in Nemea's vasty vale, a deed renowned and worthy of Hercules, Fame used to sing. Dumb be ancient witness ! for after thy shows, O Caesar, we declare that such things are wrought by woman's prowess now. (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Prostratum uasta Nemees in ualle leonem
nobile et Herculeum fama canebat opus.
Prisca fides taceat: nam post tua munera, Caesar,
hoc iam femineo Marte fatemur agi.

And in 7

As, fettered on a Scythian crag, Prometheus fed the untiring fowl with his too prolific heart, so Laureolus, hanging on no unreal cross, gave up his vitals defenceless to a Caledonian bear. His mangled limbs lived, though the parts dripped gore, and in all his body was nowhere a body's shape. A punishment deserved at length he won he in his guilt had with his sword pierced his parent's or his master's throat, or in his madness robbed a temple of its close-hidden gold, or had laid by stealth his savage torch to thee, O Rome. Accursed, he had outdone the crimes told of by ancient lore ; in him that which had been a show before was punishment. (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Qualiter in Scythica religatus rupe Prometheus
     adsiduam nimio pectore pauit auem,
nuda Caledonia sic uiscera praebuit urso
     non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus.
Viuebant laceri membris stillantibus artus
     inque omni nusquam corpore corpus erat.
Denique supplicium dignum tulit: ille parentis
     uel domini iugulum foderat ense nocens,
templa uel arcano demens spoliauerat auro,
     subdiderat saeuas uel tibi, Roma, faces.
Vicerat antiquae sceleratus crimina famae,
     in quo, quae fuerat fabula, poena fuit.

And in 8

Daedalus, now thou art being so mangled by a Lucanian boar, how wouldst thou wish thou hadst now thy wings ! (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Daedale, Lucano cum sic lacereris ab urso,
quam cuperes pinnas nunc habuisse tuas!

And in 9

Shown along thy Arena's floor, O Caesar, a rhinoceros afforded thee an unpromised fray. Oh, into what dreadful rage fired he with lowered head ! How great was the bull ] to which a bull was as a dummy ! (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Praestitit exhibitus tota tibi, Caesar, harena
quae non promisit proelia rhinoceros.
O quam terribilis exarsit pronus in iras!
Quantus erat taurus, cui pila taurus erat!

And in 17

In that, loyal and suppliant, the elephant adores thee which here but now was so fearful a foe to a bull, this it does unbidden, at the teaching of no master ; believe me, it too feels the presence of our God! (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Quod pius et supplex elephas te, Caesar, adorat
hic modo qui tauro tam metuendus erat,
non facit hoc iussus, nulloque docente magistro,
crede mihi, nostrum sentit et ille deum.

Etc. etc.

Up to this point, some texts document the divine status that Rome acquired by virtue of the force and energy emanating from it. I could add many more. This explains why the "city" par excellence, par “antonomasia”, is Rome.

Note: antonomasia, Greek word, ἀντονομασία, from the verb ἀντονομάζω ("antonomázo"), composed of anti- / ant- / anta-, with the meaning of "instead of", "in exchange for", and the verb ὀνομάζω "onomázo"), that means “to denominate, to name”, derived from ὄνομα "ónoma", name. It designates a rhetorical figure that consists of naming a noun by the adjective that expresses its quality or vice versa, because there it is given that quality in an outstanding way.

(To be continued…)

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Let us quote correctly the Latin phrases, so concise and expressive, and that give so much cultural prestige.

Antonio Marco Martínez — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 23:19:42 +0000

“Urbi et orbi” is a Latin phrase constituted by two words related to each other by a copulative conjunction, that is united. It turns out that many Latin words, including nouns, have different forms or cases that differ by their termination; “” Casus “after all comes to mean” fall, termination “. In concrete these two words end in -i and for that reason we say that they are in “dative” case.

All this is elementary Latin grammar and anyone who knows this and nothing else can understand that if we modify the terminations of some words, the nouns between them, we are changing their function, and consequently the meaning.

Well, the previous phrase "urbi et orbi" means "for the city (that is Rome) and for the world (which is the remaining world)" and that is its meaning because the two end in -i.

The phrase applies literally to one of the messages issued by the Pope, who is the bishop of Rome and Father of all Catholic Christendom, when he addresses them to the faithful of Rome and the whole world and gives them plenary indulgence for their sins. But in reality the phrase applies by extension to every message issued by anyone and addressed to all men. In a second article I will comment more on the origin of this expression.

Well, it is very pleasant for those who love and enjoy with the Latin language to meet people who use Latin phrases in all types of writings, comments and conversations. Cervantes called them in Spanish "latinicos" (coloquial Latin) in the Prologue of the first part of his work "Don Quixote” and some call them with a certain contemptuous tone "latinajos", bad Latin.

Now, in the same proportion, it is profoundly unpleasant to encounter poorly constructed Latin phrases, which make elementary linguistic and grammatical errors, such as not respecting proper termination.

A few days ago I heard in the mouth of a frequent and abundant tertullian of one of the various television channels in Spain to pronounce with the aplomb of the ignorant "urbi et orbe", thus, finished the last in -e. And the same error in a few days I found it in the pen of a well-known commentator, young promise, of an important Spanish newspaper. (I think foreign authors are more careful when it comes to quoting). But that poorly constructed sentence no longer means what people pretend to use it, if it can mean anything now.

Of course, the error comes from ignorance, no doubt; facilitated it by the fact that in Spanish there is the noun "orbe" and that leads them to the mistake of these "latinists" little careful.

If it is not possible to demand that all citizens to know elementary Latin, no matter how desirable it may be, we can demand that those who use prestigious Latin expressions should be minimally advised, that is, they should look for any of the contrasting instruments which are now available to anyone.

But since today we go with grammatical conventions I take advantage to warn of other very frequent errors, as shocking as the previous one:

– – It is said "sensu stricto" and not "sensu strictu":
– "motu proprio" and not "motu propio": propius, without the -r- means closer
– "in dubio pro reo" and not "in dubium pro reo"
– "veni, vidi, vici" and not "vini, vidi, vinci"
– "morituri te salutant" and not "morituri te salutan" or "morituri te salutam"
– "sine nobilitate" (1) and not "sine nobilitatis"

(1) I had not yet finished this article when I receive from another lover of Latin, via twitter, the information of another error, new for me so far, which now is perpretated by a government of town, by local government of Guadalupe, city of Spain, , with a public announcement of a holiday very much rooted in Spain, "Corpus Christi", which the poster has transformed into "Corpus Christis", whose pronunciation would sound rather the name of a famous English auction house, "Christie's", but that can not refer to the belief of The Christians that the "host" of consecrated bread is actually the body of Christ.

(1). I will say as a curiosity, that precisely from the Latin expression "sine nobilitate" it comes the English term snob, s (ine) nob (ilitate), as Ortega y Gasset explained in "The revolt of the masses", although dictionaries English, such as Oxford do not admit this origin and they are looking for a more indigenous.

I reproduce the paragraph of Ortega in which he refers to the term "snob", in which also he uses another Latinism, "idola fori"

This man-mass is the man previously emptied of his own history, without entrails of the past and, therefore, docile to all disciplines called "international". More than a man, it is only a shell of a man constituted by mere idola fori; It lacks an "inside", an intimacy of its own, inexorable and inalienable, of a self that can not be revoked. Hence he is always available to pretend to be anything. He has only appetites, believes that he has only rights and does not believe that he has obligations: he is the man without the nobility that obliges -sine nobilitate-, snob.

Note: In England the lists of neighbors indicated next to each name the office and rank of the person. For that reason, next to the name of the simple bourgeois the abbreviation s. nob appeared; that is, “sine nobilitate” “without nobility”. This is the origin of the word snob. (The Revolt of the Masses. “Prologue for the French” III. 1937)

By the way, "idola fori" is an Latin expression coined by Francis Bacon in his Novum Organum to refer to the imperfect correspondence between the definitions expressed in words in a language and the real thing they define.

We could extend without end the list of shocking errors if we observe the overflowing imagination of those who, over a well-constructed primitive Latin phrase, create others without regard to the rules of grammatical concordance.

So on the famous expression “delenda est Carthago", with which the very conservative and nationalist Cato ended all his speeches, were over, whether or not, there are those who create similar ones of the type "delenda est parliament" (or whatever), when at least he could have said with a little imagination "delendum est parlamentum."

Or who on "condicio (or conditio) sine qua non," which is typically juridical, he coins others of any meaning, such as "elements, instruments, circumstances … sine qua non" when the relative "qua" is singular and feminine.

I take advantage of the previous idea to explain that in Latin "condicio" and "conditio" are two words of different origin, although in late Latin the word "conditio", which in classical Latin means "foundation", acquired the sense of "condition"; since the expression "conditio sine qua non" is characteristic of late Latin, it passed with that form into modern languages; in reality "conditio sine qua non" proves to be an anachronism or even hypercultism by converting a word from one epoch to that of another.

I can not miss the opportunity to warn of other errors that occur in the accentuation of Latin words, in which inevitably the non-expert in Latin, tends to accentuate as his nationality. This is aided by the fact that in Latin the graphic accent is not used; It is not that there is no prosodic or tonic accent (from prosody from πρὸς- (pros = next to), and the root ᾠδή, oide = song), which is put in one syllable or another depending on its quantity or duration (There are long and short syllables) and this, that the ancients differentiated well in some moments, for us it can not be significant.

It should be noted, therefore, that it is said “Cármina Burána” and not "Carmína Burana", that it is said "álea iacta est" and not "aléa iacta est", "curriculum vítae" and not "curriculum vitáe", because I refer only to some of the errors that we often hear. The latter of accenting the -a of the diphthong -ae in final position of word is very generalized, violating the rule that in Latin there are no words with acute accent, that is, with an accent on the last syllable.

I remember that in my youth there was in Spain an interesting satirical magazine called “La codorniz” (The Quail) and in it a section titled "The paper jail" to which was condemned him who destroyed the language with their nonsense. There would be at least the violators of Latin grammar, condemning always more bearable than the "lions" of the amphitheater to those who probably would have been sent in the days of some maniacal emperor of language like Claudius, who came to invent three letters to transcribe some Greek sounds, although with little success, because after his death they stopped being used.

Perhaps I should apologize, on my part, to avoid the annoyance of those who have good and precise knowledge of Latin by correcting such elementary, but not infrequent and unnerving errors. They will certainly know how to apologize me.

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May your life be like your speech (talis oratio qualis vita) (I)

Antonio Marco Martínez — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 23:50:17 +0000

“The face is the mirror of the soul”, “By the way of expressing yourself, we know the way of being yourself”, “May your life be like your speech” or “think that you say and say that you think” are expressions and ideas that we have been using it since Greco-Roman antiquity in which Stoic thinkers generalized them.

In a similar way, we believe that the general appearance and especially the dress of a person reveals his inner form of being and thinking. Thus a disheveled aspect is evidence of an unorganized life
Lucius Annaeus Seneca uses in the letter number 114, addressed to his friend Lucilius, the expression "talis hominibus fuit oratio qualis vita" (for these men his speech was like his life), warning us that this sentence is already a sentence or phrase made coined by the Greeks.

The meaning that this expression has for the Stoics, Seneca is one of them, is that there is a close relationship between what is said in speech, oral or written, and life; In other words, that the writer or speaker writes or speaks according to his life. Moreover, the convenience of the agreement between "what is said and what is thought" as an essential element of honest and moral life. Then I will go a little deeper in the sense of these sentences.

The truth is that the idea that there is a perfect relationship between a person's way of being and the way of expressing himself is very ancient and widespread in the Greek world. We find it, for example, in Plato, in his dialogue on the Republic, III, 11. 399e et seq. where he talks us about the importance of music and of the various rhythms in education, according to the expression of the various themes and in line with the way people are; it can be a little long, but it introduces perfectly the question:

“For upon harmonies would follow the consideration of rhythms: we must not pursue complexity nor great variety in the basic movements, but must observe what are the rhythms of a life that is orderly and brave,…
…For that there are some three forms from which the feet are combined, just as there are four in the notes of the voice whence come all harmonies,… But which are imitations of which sort of life, I am unable to say.”
“Well,” said I, “on this point we will take counsel with Damon, too, as to which are the feet appropriate to illiberality, and insolence or madness or other evils, and what rhythms we must leave for their opposites;
…
And, further, that good rhythm and bad rhythm accompany, the one fair diction, assimilating itself thereto, and the other the opposite, and so of the apt and the unapt, if, as we were just now saying, the rhythm and harmony follow the words and not the words these.” “They certainly must follow the speech,” he said. “And what of the manner of the diction, and the speech?” said I. “Do they not follow and conform to the disposition of the soul?” “Of course.” “And all the rest to the diction?” “Yes.” “Good speech, then, good accord, and good grace,
–
and good rhythm wait upon good disposition, not that weakness of head which we euphemistically style goodness of heart, but the truly good and fair disposition of the character and the mind.” “By all means,” he said. “And must not our youth pursue these everywhere if they are to do what it is truly theirs to do?” “They must indeed.”
……
…And gracelessness and evil rhythm and disharmony are akin to evil speaking and the evil temper but the opposites are the symbols and the kin of the opposites, the sober and good disposition.” “Entirely so,” he said.
“Is it, then, only the poets that we must supervise and compel to embody in their poems the semblance of the good character or else not write poetry among us, or must we keep watch over the other craftsmen, and forbid them to represent the evil disposition, the licentious, the illiberal, the graceless, either in the likeness of living creatures or in buildings or in any other product of their art,….. (Translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.)

In fact, this is the idea used by Virgil when in his Eclogue VI he indicates the need to adapt the poetic form of bucolic poetry to the themes that are its own:

Viril Eclogues VI 1-12:

first my Thalia stooped in sportive mood
to Syracusan strains, nor blushed within
the woods to house her. When I sought to tell
of battles and of kings, the Cynthian god
plucked at mine ear and warned me: “Tityrus,
beseems a shepherd-wight to feed fat sheep,
but sing a slender song.” Now, Varus, I—
for lack there will not who would laud thy deeds,
and treat of dolorous wars—will rather tune
to the slim oaten reed my silvan lay.
I sing but as vouchsafed me; yet even this
if, if but one with ravished eyes should read,
of thee, O Varus, shall our tamarisks
and all the woodland ring; nor can there be
a page more dear to Phoebus, than the page
where, foremost writ, the name of Varus stands.
(Translated by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1895.)

Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu,
nostra nec erubuit silvas habitare Thalia.
Cum canerem reges et proelia, Cynthius aurem
vellit, et admonuit: “Pastorem, Tityre, pinguis
pascere oportet ovis, deductum dicere carmen.”
Nunc ego—namque super tibi erunt, qui dicere laudes,
Vare, tuas cupiant, et tristia condere bella—
agrestem tenui meditabor arundine Musam.
Non iniussa cano: si quis tamen haec quoque, si quis
captus amore leget, te nostrae, Vare, myricae,
te nemus omne canet; nec Phoebo gratior ulla est,
quam sibi quae Vari praescripsit pagina nomen.

So there is and must be a perfect relationship between what is said, how it is said and the real life whom says it. It is also perfectly expressed by the very repeated French phrase "Le style, c'est l'homme même". The phrase is taken from the Address of entrance of Buffon in l'Académie française in 1753 in which it tries to justify and to praise the originality of the great writers. The phrase turned against Buffon himself who is criticized for his pompous and bombastic style.

Another testimony, this shorter because it is a fragment, is found in the Greek playwrighter Menander, Fragment 143K, that is identified as belonging to the Comedy "The self-tormentor", name that it receives also the adaptation to the Latin that soon Terence did with his Heautontimourumenos:

A man's character discovers itself in his speech.

Terence, a Latin author who uses Menander's theater to write his comedies in Latin, employs, as I said, a similar expression in a work on the same theme which he also calls Heautontimourumenos; this is in II, 4,4 (384 / in others Editions 392):

BACCHIS.
Upon my word, my dear Antiphila, I commend you, and think you fortunate in having made it your study that your manners should be conformable to those good looks of yours: and so may the Gods bless me, I do not at all wonder if every man is in love with you. For your discourse has been a proof to me what kind of disposition you possess. (Translated by Henry Thomas Riley. Ney York. Harper and Brothers. 1874.

Bacchides.

Edepol te, mea Antiphila, laudo et fortunatam iudico,
Id quum studuisti, isti formae ut mores consimiles forent:
Minimeque, ita me Di ament, miror, si te sibi quisque expetit.
Nam mihi quale ingenium haberes fuit indicio oratio.

The idea is also taken up by Cicero in his Brutus, 117:

As I have mentioned the Stoics, I must take some notice of Q. Aelius Tubero, the grandson of L. Paullus, who made his appearance at the time we are speaking of. He was never esteemed an orator, but was a man of the most rigid virtue, and strictly conformable to the doctrine he professed: but, in truth, he was rather too crabbed. When he was triumvir, he declared, contrary to the opinion of P. Africanus his uncle, that the augurs had no right of exemption from sitting in the courts of justice: and as in his temper, so in his manner of speaking, he was harsh, unpolished, and austere; on which account, he could never raise himself to the honourable ports which were enjoyed by his ancestors. But he was a brave and steady citizen, and a warm opposer of Gracchus, as appears from an oration of Gracchus against him: we have likewise some of Tubero's speeches against Gracchus. He was not indeed a shining orator: but he was a learned, and a very skilful disputant." Translated by E.Jones (1776)

Et quoniam Stoicorum est facta mentio, Q. Aelius Tubero fuit illo tempore, L. Pauli nepos; nullo in oratorum numero sed vita severus et congruens cum ea disciplina quam colebat, paulo etiam durior; qui quidem in triumviratu iudicaverit contra P. Africani avunculi sui testimonium vacationem augures quo minus iudiciis operam darent non habere; sed ut vita sic oratione durus incultus horridus; itaque honoribus maiorum respondere non potuit. fuit autem constans civis et fortis et in primis Graccho molestus, quod indicat Gracchi in eum oratio; sunt etiam in Gracchum Tuberonis. is fuit mediocris in dicendo, doctissumus in disputando.

And the same Cicero in Tusculanae Disputationes, V, 47

The Stoics give the name of excellent and choice to what the others call good: They call them so, indeed ; but they do not allow them to complete a happy life. But these others think that there is no life happy without them ;or, admitting it to be happy, they deny it to be the most happy. But our opinión is, that it is the most happy; and we prove it from that conclusión of Socrates. For thus that autor of philosophy argued that as the disposition of a man's mind is, so is the man; such as the man is, such will be his discourse; his actions will correspond with his discourse, and his life with his actions. But the disposition of a good man's mind is laudable ; the life, therefore, of a good Man is laudable ; it is honorable, therefore, because laudable ; the unavoidable conclusión from which is that the life of good men is happy. (Translated by C.D. Yonge)

At enim eadem Stoici1 “praecipua” vel “producta” dicunt, quae “bona” isti. dicunt illi quidem, sed is vitam beatam compleri negant; hi autem sine is esse nullam putant aut, si sit beata, beatissimam certe negant. nos autem volumus beatissimam, idque nobis Socratica illa conclusione confirmatur. sic enim princeps ille philosophiae disserebat: qualis cuiusque animi adfectus esset, talem esse hominem; qualis autem homo ipse esset, talem eius esse orationem; orationi autem facta similia, factis vitam. adfectus autem animi in bono [p. 426] viro laudabilis; et vita igitur laudabilis boni viri; et honesta ergo, quoniam laudabilis. ex quibus bonorum beatam vitam esse concluditur.

And again Cicero, referring to Cato the Elder, tells us in Republic, II, 1:

[When, therefore, he observed all his friends kindled with the de]sire of hearing him, Scipio thus opened the discussion. I will commence, said Scipio, with a sentiment of old Cato, whom, as you know,I singularly loved and exceedingly admired, and to whom, in compliance with the judgment of both my parents, and also by my own desire, I was entirely devoted during my youth; of whose discourse, indeed, I could never have enough, so much experience did he possess as a statesman respecting the republic which he had so long governed, both in peace and war, with so much success. There was also an admirable propriety in his style of conversation, in which wit was tempered with gravity; a wonderful aptitude for acquiring, and at the same time communicating,information; and his life was in perfect correspondence and unison with his language. (Translated by C.C. Yonge)

Cum omnes flagrarent cupiditate audiendi, ingressus est sic loqui Scipio: Catonis hoc senis est, quem, ut scitis, unice dilexi maximeque sum admiratus cuique vel patris utriusque iudicio vel etiam meo studio me totum ab adulescentia dedidi; cuius me numquam satiare potuit oratio; tantus erat in homine usus rei publicae, quam et domi et militiae cum optime, tum etiam diutissime gesserat, et modus in dicendo et gravitate mixtus lepos et summum vel discendi studium vel docendi et orationi vita admodum congruens.

Plutarch also uses the idea when he speaks also about Cato the Elder 7,1 and 2

Much the same traits are revealed in the man's oratory. It was at once graceful and powerful, pleasant and compelling, facetious and severe, sententious and belligerent. So Plato says of Socrates that from the outside he impressed his associates as rude, uncouth, and wanton; but within he was full of earnestness, and of matters that moved his hearers to tears and wrung their hearts.

Wherefore I know not what they can mean who say that Cato's oratory most resembled that of Lysias. However, such questions must be decided by those who are more capable than I am of discerning the traits of Roman oratory, and I shall now record a few of his famous sayings, believing that men's characters are revealed much more by their speech than, as some think, by their looks. (Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.)

And the same Plutarch in his Lives, in the comparison between Demosthenes and Cicero, 1, says:

These, then, are the memorable incidents in the recorded careers of Demosthenes and Cicero which have come to our knowledge. And though I have renounced the comparison of their oratorical styles, yet this, I think, ought not to be left unsaid, namely, that Demosthenes devoted to the rhetorical art all the powers of speech which he possessed by nature or acquired by practice, surpassing in force and effectiveness his rivals in forensic and judicial pleading, in pomp and majesty of utterance the professional declaimers, and in precision and skill the sophists; Cicero, on the other hand, became widely learned and had a variety of interest in the pursuit of letters, and left behind him not a few philosophical treatises of his own conforming to the fashion of the Academy; indeed, even in the speeches which he wrote for the forum and the courts he clearly desires to display by the way a considerable acquaintance with letters.

It is possible, too, to get a glimpse of the character of each in his style of speaking. For that of Demosthenes, which had no prettiness or pleasantry, and was condensed with a view to power and earnestness, did not smell of lamp-wicks, as Pytheas scoffingly said, but of water-drinking and anxious thought, and of what men called the bitterness and sullenness of his disposition; whereas Cicero was often carried away by his love of jesting into scurrility, and when, to gain his ends in his cases, he treated matters worthy of serious attention with ironical mirth and pleasantry, he was careless of propriety. Thus, in his defence of Caelius, he said that his client, surrounded as he was by great luxury and extravagance, did nothing out of the way when indulging in pleasures; for not to enjoy what is in one's possession was madness, he said, particularly when the most eminent philosophers assert that true happiness consists in pleasure.

And we are told that when Cato prosecuted Murena, Cicero, who was then consul, defended him, and because of Cato's beliefs made much fun of the Stoic sect, in view of the absurdities of their so-called paradoxes; and when loud laughter spread from the audience to the jurors, Cato, with a quiet smile, said to those who sat by: ‘What a funny man we have, my friends, for consul!’

And it would seem that Cicero was naturally prone to laughter and fond of jesting; his face, too, was smiling and peaceful. But in that of Demosthenes there was always a certain intense seriousness, and this look of thoughtfulness and anxiety he did not easily lay aside. For this reason his enemies, as he himself says, called him morose and ill-mannered. (Translated by Bernadotte Perrin, 1919)

Seneca is probably the author who more often uses this idea. As I said at the beginning he is the author of the letter in which the initial quoted sentence appears. In that letter he merely establishes in an eloquent way an absolute relation of identity between the form of life of the author and the type of expression and linguistic construction that he uses. And he exemplifies his thesis with the example of Maecenas. I now reproduce the first paragraphs of the letter, in which the phrase quoted appears, and I leave till the end the whole reproduction of the letter 114, worthy of being read, although somewhat long.

On Style as a Mirror of Character
You have been asking me why, during certain periods, a degenerate style of speech comes to the fore, and how it is that men's wits have gone downhill into certain vices – in such a way that exposition at one time has taken on a kind of puffed-up strength, and at another has become mincing and modulated like the music of a concert piece. You wonder why sometimes bold ideas – bolder than one could believe – have been held in favour, and why at other times one meets with phrases that are disconnected and full of innuendo, into which one must read more meaning than was intended to meet the ear. Or why there have been epochs which maintained the right to a shameless use of metaphor. For answer, here is a phrase which you are wont to notice in the popular speech – one which the Greeks have made into a proverb: "Man's speech is just like his life." Exactly as each individual man's actions seem to speak, so people's style of speaking often reproduces the general character of the time, if the morale of the public has relaxed and has given itself over to effeminacy. Wantonness in speech is proof of public luxury, if it is popular and fashionable, and not confined to one or two individual instances. A man's ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another. If his soul be wholesome, well-ordered, serious, and restrained, his ability also is sound and sober. Conversely, when the one degenerates, the other is also contaminated. Do you not see that if a man's soul has become sluggish, his limbs drag and his feet move indolently? If it is womanish, that one can detect the effeminacy by his very gait? That a keen and confident soul quickens the step? That madness in the soul, or anger (which resembles madness), hastens our bodily movements from walking to rushing?

Quare quibusdam temporibus provenerit corrupti generis oratio quaeris, et quomodo in quaedam vitia inclinatio ingeniorum facta sit, ut aliquando inflata explicatio vigeret, aliquando infracta et in morem cantici ducta ? Quare alias sensus audaces et fidem egressi placuerint, alias abruptae sententiae et suspiciosae, in quibus plus intellegendum esset quam audiendum ? Quare aliqua aetas fuerit, quae translationis iure uteretur inverecunde ? Hoc quod audire vulgo soles, quod apud Graecos in proverbium cessit: talis hominibus fuit oratio qualis vita.

Quemadmodum autem uniuscuiusque actio dicenti similis est, sic genus dicendi aliquando imitatur publicos mores, si 1 disciplina civitatis laboravit et se in delicias dedit. Argumentum est luxuriae publicae orationis lascivia, si modo non in uno aut in altero fuit, sed adprobata est et recepta.

Non potest alius esse ingenio, alius animo color. Si ille sanus est, si compositus, gravis, temperans, ingenium quoque siccum ac sobrium est; illo vitiato hoc quoque adflatur. Non vides, si animus elanguit, trahi membra et pigre moveri pedes ? Si ille effeminatus est, in ipso incessu adparere mollitiam ? Si ille acer est et ferox, concitari gradum ? Si furit aut, quod furori simile est, irascitur, turbatum esse corporis motum nec ire, sed ferri ?

Quanto hoc magis accidere ingenio putas, quod totum animo permixtum est; ab illo fingitur, illi paret, inde legem petit.

Then he uses it, as I said, on numerous occasions. Thus in Letters, 40, 2:

You write me that you heard a lecture by the philosopher Serapio, when he landed at your present place of residence. "He is wont," you say, "to wrench up his words with a mighty rush, and he does not let them flow forth one by one, but makes them crowd and dash upon each other. For the words come in such quantity that a single voice is inadequate to utter them." I do not approve of this in a philosopher; his speech, like his life, should be composed; and nothing that rushes headlong and is hurried is well ordered. That is why, in Homer, the rapid style, which sweeps down without a break like a snow-squall, is assigned to the younger speaker; from the old man eloquence flows gently, sweeter than honey.(Translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Audisse te scribis Serapionem philosophum, cum istuc adplicuisset: " Solet magno cursu verba convellere, quae non effundit una, sed premit et urguet. Plura enim veniunt quam quibus vox una sufficiat." Hoc non probo in philosopho, cuius pronuntiatio quoque, sicut vita, debet esse conposita; nihil autem ordinatum est, quod praecipitatur et properat. Itaque oratio illa apud Homerum concitata et sine intermissione in morem nivis superveniens iuveniori oratori data est, lenis et melle dulcior seni profluit.

And also in Letters, 40, 6

No; but just as you are well satisfied, in the majority of cases, to have seen through tricks which you did not think could possibly be done, so in the case of these Word-gymnasts, -to have Heard them once in amply sufficient. For what can a man desire to learn or to imitate in them? What is he to think of their souls, when their seech is sent into charge in utter disorder, and cannot be kept in hand? ( translated by Richard Mott Gummere

Sed ut pleraque, quae fieri posse non crederes, cognovisse satis est, ita istos, qui verba exercuerunt, abunde est semel audisse. Quid enim quis discere, quid imitari velit ? Quid de eorum animo iudicet, quorum oratio perturbata et inmissa est nec potest reprimi ?

And in 75, 4:

Let this be the kernel of my idea: let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life. That man has fulfilled his promise who is the same person both when you see him and when you hear him. (Translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Haec sit propositi nostri summa: quod sentimus loquamur, quod loquimur sentiamus; concordet sermo cum vita. Ille promissum suum inplevit, qui, et cum videas illum et cum audias, idem est.

And in 107, 12:

Le tus live thus, and speak thus; let Fate find us ready and alert. Here is your great soul –the man who has given himself over to Fate; on the other hand, that man is a weakling and a degenerate who struggles and maligns the order of the universo and would rather reform the gods tan reform himself. Farewell. (translated by Richard Mott Gummere).

Sic vivamus, sic loquamur; paratos nos inveniat atque inpigros fatum. Hic est magnus animus, qui se ei tradidit; at contra ille pusillus et degener, qui obluctatur et de ordine mundi male existimat et emendare mavult deos quam se. Vale.

And in 115, 1-2:

I wish, my dear Lucilius, that you would not be too particular with revard to words and their arrangemente; I have greater matters tan these to commend to your care. You should seek what to write, rather tan how to write it –and even that not for the purpose of writing but of feeling it, that you may thus make what you have felt more your own and, as it were, set a seal on it. Whenever you notice a style that is too careful and too polished, you may be sure that the mind also is no less absorbed in petty thingss. The really great man speaks informally and easily; whatever he says, he speaks with assurance rather tan with pains.

You are familiar with the Young dandies, natty as to their beards and locks, fresh from the bandbox; you can never expect from them any strength or any soundness. Style is the garb of thought: if it be trimmed, or dyed, or treagted, it shows that there are defects and a certain amount of flaws in the mind. Elaborate elegance is not a manly garb. (translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Nimis anxium esse te circa verba et compositionem, mi Lucili, nolo; habeo maiora, quae cures. Quaere, quid scribas, non quemadmodum; et hoc ipsum, non ut scribas, sed ut sentias, ut illa, quae senseris, magis adplices tibi et velut signes. Cuiuscumque orationem videris sollicitam et politam, scito animum quoque non minus esse pusillis occupatum.

Magnus ille remissius loquitur et securius; quaecumque dicit, plus habent fiduciae quam curae.
Nosti comptulos iuvenes, barba et coma nitidos, de capsula totos; nihil ab illis speraveris forte, nihil solidum. Oratio cultus animi est: si circumtonsa est et fucata et manu facta, ostendit illum quoque non esse sincerum et habere aliquid fracti. Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas.

This idea and expression is of great usefulness for the satirical poets who, like Horace, Persius or Juvenal, strongly criticize the vices of Roman society of their time and establish a relation between the decadence of Roman society and its new vices and Decadence of literature; that is why their language is renewing, because they feel responsible Romans who have to recover the old morality, the mos maiorum.

Juvenal in his Satire IV, 81 et seq. speaks about Crispus, and he says that he is "a nice old man whose customs were at the level of his eloquence." I transcribe the full text referred to him:

Next to come in was the aged, genial Crispus, 9 whose gentle soul well matched his style of eloquence. No better adviser than he for the ruler of lands and seas and nations had he been free, under that scourge and plague, to denounce cruelties and proffer honest counsels. But what can be more dangerous than the ear of a tyrant on whose caprice hangs the life of a friend who has come to talk of the rain or the heat or the showery spring weather? So Crispus never struck out against the torrent, nor was he one to speak freely the thoughts of his heart, and stake his life upon the truth. Thus was it that he lived through many winters and saw his eightieth solstice, protected, even in that Court, by weapons such as these. [Translated by G. G. Ramsay].

uenit et Crispi iucunda senectus,
cuius erant mores qualis facundia, mite
ingenium. maria ac terras populosque regenti
quis comes utilior, si clade et peste sub illa
saeuitiam damnare et honestum adferre liceret
consilium? sed quid uiolentius aure tyranni,
cum quo de pluuiis aut aestibus aut nimboso
uere locuturi fatum pendebat amici?
ille igitur numquam derexit bracchia contra
torrentem, nec ciuis erat qui libera posset
uerba animi proferre et uitam inpendere uero.
sic multas hiemes atque octogensima uidit
solstitia, his armis illa quoque tutus in aula.

Seneca the Elder insists on these ideas on the decadence of eloquence. The text I offer, perhaps too long, also serves to document the existence, in ancient times, of the so-called "generational struggle".

Seneca, the Elder, Declamations (Controversiae), I, Praefatio, 6 et s.

Then you will be able to think how the good talents diminishe every day, and, by some sort of disfavour of nature, eloquence has retrogressed: all that Roman eloquence can put beside or above the proud Greece, flourished towards in Cicero’s time; Then all the talents, which brought brilliance to our studies, were born then. Then things have got worse every day. Perhaps it is due to the excesses of our time, – nothing is as lethal for talent as luxury-; perhaps because, when this noble occupation is less esteemed, every opportunity to compete has become a sordid activity that seeks great prestige and benefits; or perhaps, finally, by a certain fatality whose law, evil, eternal and universal, requires that all that has reached the summit, falls to the bottom, and it falls faster than it had ascended.

Behold, the spirits of this lazy youth become stupid in indleness by not devoting their efforts to the cultivation of the only honorable activity, eloquence. Sleep, indolence, and, that is more shameful than sleep and indolence, a constant depravity has invaded their spirit and indecent passion for singing and dancing has filled the soul of these effeminate young persons. To curl their hair, to speak with a little voice to imitate feminine charm, to compete with women in body graciousness and to dress in the most indecent manner, this is the ideal model that our young people follow.
What young man of your generation can I quote who is not intelligent enough or hard enough, but man enough? Endurable and annoyed from birth, they continue being it all their lives, corrupt the innocence and modesty of others and they spoil theirs.

May the gods not allow the terrible misfortune, that eloquence falls into the hands of these people; I would not have the eloquence in such high regard, if she did not select the people to whom she is surrendered. You are mistaken, dear boys, if you believe that the famous saying is of M. Cato and not of an oracle.

What is, in fact, an oracle? It is, undoubtedly, the will of a God spoken by the mouth of a man. And could the divinity, not to advise the human race, but to rebuke him, to choose a priest more respectable than Marcus Cato? What, then, is this great man saying? "The orator, my son Marcus, is a good man, an expert in the art of speaking". *

Go now and look for speakers among those polished men with shaved hair, who are men only for their vices. It is natural that they follow some models according to their intelligence.
Is there anyone who is worried about the memory he will leave? Is there anyone who is appreciated, I say not by great qualities, but simply by the qualities which he possesses? In the midst of this generalized neglect, they can easily appropriate the sentences pronounced by the most eloquent orators and, thus, they are continually defiling the divine art of an eloquence which they can not acquire.

* This is the famous definition of Cato the Censor, also quoted by Quintilian, Institution oratory XII 1, 1 and repeated later again and again.

Deinde ut possitis aestimare, in quantum cotidie ingenia decrescant et nescio qua iniquitate naturae eloquentia se retro tulerit: quidquid Romana facundia habet quod insolenti Graeciae aut opponat aut praeferat circa Ciceronem effloruit; omnia ingenia quae lucem studiis nostris adtulerunt tunc nata sunt. In deterius deinde cotidie data res est, siue luxu temporum — nihil enim tam mortiferum ingeniis quam luxuria est — siue, cum praemium pulcherrimae rei cecidisset, translatum est omne certamen ad turpia multo honore quaestuque uigentia, siue fato quodam cuius maligna perpetuaque in rebus omnibus lex est, ut ad summum perducta rursus ad infimum, uelocius quidem quam ascenderant, relabantur. Torpent ecce ingenia desidiosae iuuentutis nec in unius honestae rei labore uigilatur: somnus languorque ac somno et languore turpior malarum rerum industria inuasit animos, cantandi saltandique obscena studia effeminatos tenent, et capillum frangere et ad muliebres blanditias extenuare uocem, mollitia corporis certare cum feminis et immundissimis se expolire munditiis nostrorum adolescentium specimen est. Quis aequalium uestrorum, quid dicam satis ingeniosus, satis studiosus, immo quis satis uir est? emolliti eneruesque quod nati sunt inuiti manent, expugnatores alienae pudicitiae, neglegentes suae. In hos ne dii tantum mali ut cadat eloquentia: quam non mirarer, nisi animos in quos se conferret eligeret. erratis, optimi iuuenes, nisi illam uocem non M. Catonis, sed oraculi creditis. Quid enim est oraculum? nempe uoluntas diuina hominis ore enuntiata; et quem tandem antistitem sanctiorem sibi inuenire diuinitas potuit quam M. Catonem, per quem humano generi non praeciperet, sed conuitium faceret? ille ergo uir quid ait? ‘orator est, Marce fili, uir bonus dicendi peritus.’ Ite nunc et in istis uulsis atque expolitis et nusquam nisi in libidine uiris quaerite oratores. Merito talia habent exempla qualia ingenia. Quis est qui memoriae studeat? quis qui, non dico magnis uirtutibus, sed suis placeat? sententias a disertissimis uiris iactatas facile in tanta hominum desidia pro suis dicunt et sic sacerrimam eloquentiam quam praestare non possunt, uiolare non desinunt

Persius, in his Satire I criticizes the lack of literary taste of the poets of his time, which according to him is but a reflection of his moral degradation. Style is a reflection of life. The Satire is worth reading, especially for those who feel the strength to try the literary creation. Its excessive length prevents me from reproducing it at this time.

Quintilian, as it could not be otherwise, repeats several times the idea in his Institutiones Oratoriae; so in XI, 1,30

For a man's character is generally revealed and the secrets of his heart are laid bare by his manner of speaking, and there is good ground for the Greek aphorism that, “as a man lives, so will he speak.” The following vices are of a meaner type: grovelling flattery, affected buffoonery, immodesty in dealing with things or words which are unseemly or obscene, and disregard of authority on all and every occasion. They are faults which, as a rule, are found in those who are over-anxious either to please or amuse. ((Translation by Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922).)

profert enim mores plerumque oratio et animi secret detegit. nec sine causa Graeci prodiderunt, ut vivat, quemque etiam dicere. humiliora illa vitia: summissa adulatio, adfectata scurrilitas, in rebus ac verbis parum modestis ac pudicis vilis pudor, in omni negotio neglecta auctoritas; quae fere accidunt iis, qui nimium aut blandi esse aut ridiculi volunt.

The dresses can represent a mental state, as we see in Quintilian VIII, Proem, 20:

Again, a tasteful and magnificent dress, as the Greek poet tells us, lends added dignity to its wearer: but effeminate and luxurious apparel fails to adorn the body and merely reveals the foulness of the mind. Similarly, a translucent and iridescent style merely serves to emasculate the subject which it arrays with such pomp of words. Therefore I would have the orator, while careful in his choice of words, be even more concerned about his subject matter. (Translation by Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922).

Et cultus concessus atque magnificus addit hominibus, ut Graeco versu testatum est, auctoritatem; at muliebris et luxuriosus non corpus exornat, sed detegit mentem. similiter illa translucida et versicolor quorundam elocutio res ipsas effeminat, quae illo verborum habitu vestiantur. curam ergo verborum, rerum volo esse sollicitudinem.

In the same way like the face is the reflection of the thoughts, a phrase already converted into a proverb under the formula "the face is the mirror of the soul", which reminds us, for example, Cicero in his In Pisonem 1:

Do you not see now, do you not feel, O you beast, what complaints men make of your impudence? No one complains that a Syrian, that a man whom nobody knows, that some one of that body of lately emancipated slaves, was made consul. For that complexion, like that of slaves, and those hairy cheeks and discoloured teeth, did not deceive us: your eyes, your eyebrows, your brow, in short your whole countenance, which is, as it were, a sort of silent language of the mind, led men into error, this it was which led those to whom this man was unknown into mistake and error, and blunders. There were but few of us who were acquainted with those foul vices of yours; few of us who knew the deficiency of your abilities, your stolid manner, and your embarrassed way of speaking. Your voice had never been heard in the forum; no one had had any experience of your wisdom in counsel: you had not only never performed any, I will not say illustrious exploit, but any action at all that was known of either in war or at home. You crept into honours through men's blunders, by the recommendation of some old smoke-dried images, though there is nothing in you at all resembling them except your colour. (Translated by. D. Yonge, 1891)

iamne vides, belua, iamne sentis quae sit hominum querela frontis tuae? nemo queritur Syrum nescio quem de grege noviciorum factum esse consulem. non enim nos color iste servilis, non pilosae genae, non dentes putridi deceperunt; oculi, supercilia, frons, voltus denique totus, qui sermo quidam tacitus mentis est, hic in fraudem homines impulit, hic eos quibus erat ignotus decepit, fefellit, induxit. pauci ista tua lutulenta vitia noramus, pauci tarditatem ingeni, stuporem debilitatemque linguae. numquam erat audita vox in foro, numquam periculum factum consili, nullum non modo inlustre sed ne notum quidem factum aut militiae aut domi. obrepsisti ad honores errore hominum, commendatione fumosarum imaginum, quarum simile habes nihil praeter colorem.

Now, having carried these principles to its ultimate consequences, does this mean that the literary work, every literary work, is a reflection of the thought and soul of the writer?

This also requires us to delve a little into it; but this seems already the subject of another article.
……….
Seneca, Epistulae, 114

On Style as a Mirror of Character

You have been asking me why, during certain periods, a degenerate style of speech comes to the fore, and how it is that men's wits have gone downhill into certain vices – in such a way that exposition at one time has taken on a kind of puffed-up strength, and at another has become mincing and modulated like the music of a concert piece. You wonder why sometimes bold ideas – bolder than one could believe – have been held in favour, and why at other times one meets with phrases that are disconnected and full of innuendo, into which one must read more meaning than was intended to meet the ear. Or why there have been epochs which maintained the right to a shameless use of metaphor. For answer, here is a phrase which you are wont to notice in the popular speech – one which the Greeks have made into a proverb: "Man's speech is just like his life." Exactly as each individual man's actions seem to speak, so people's style of speaking often reproduces the general character of the time, if the morale of the public has relaxed and has given itself over to effeminacy. Wantonness in speech is proof of public luxury, if it is popular and fashionable, and not confined to one or two individual instances. A man's ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another. If his soul be wholesome, well-ordered, serious, and restrained, his ability also is sound and sober. Conversely, when the one degenerates, the other is also contaminated. Do you not see that if a man's soul has become sluggish, his limbs drag and his feet move indolently? If it is womanish, that one can detect the effeminacy by his very gait? That a keen and confident soul quickens the step? That madness in the soul, or anger (which resembles madness), hastens our bodily movements from walking to rushing?

And how much more do you think that this affects one's ability, which is entirely interwoven with the soul, – being moulded thereby, obeying its commands, and deriving therefrom its laws! How Maecenas lived is too well-known for present comment. We know how he walked, how effeminate he was, and how he desired to display himself; also, how unwilling he was that his vices should escape notice. What, then? Does not the looseness of his speech match his ungirt attire? Are his habits, his attendants, his house, his wife, any less clearly marked than his words? He would have been a man of great powers, had he set himself to his task by a straight path, had he not shrunk from making himself understood, had he not been so loose in his style of speech also. You will therefore see that his eloquence was that of an intoxicated man – twisting, turning, unlimited in its slackness.
What is more unbecoming than the words: "A stream and a bank covered with long-tressed woods"? And see how "men plough the channel with boats and, turning up the shallows, leave gardens behind them." Or, "He curls his lady-locks, and bills and coos, and starts a-sighing, like a forest lord who offers prayers with down-bent neck." Or, "An unregenerate crew, they search out people at feasts, and assail households with the wine-cup, and, by hope, exact death." Or, "A Genius could hardly bear witness to his own festival"; or "threads of tiny tapers and crackling meal"; "mothers or wives clothing the hearth."

Can you not at once imagine, on reading through these words, that this was the man who always paraded through the city with a flowing tunic? For even if he was discharging the absent emperor's duties, he was always in undress when they asked him for the countersign. Or that this was the man who, as judge on the bench, or as an orator, or at any public function, appeared with his cloak wrapped about his head, leaving only the ears exposed, like the millionaire's runaway slaves in the farce? Or that this was the man who, at the very time when the state was embroiled in civil strife, when the city was in difficulties and under martial law, was attended in public by two eunuchs – both of them more men than himself? Or that this was the man who had but one wife, and yet was married countless times? These words of his, put together so faultily, thrown off so carelessly, and arranged in such marked contrast to the usual practice, declare that the character of their writer was equally unusual, unsound, and eccentric. To be sure, we bestow upon him the highest praise for his humanity; he was sparing with the sword and refrained from bloodshed; and he made a show of his power only in the course of his loose living; but he spoiled, by such preposterous finickiness of style, this genuine praise, which was his due. For it is evident that he was not really gentle, but effeminate, as is proved by his misleading word-order, his inverted expressions, and the surprising thoughts which frequently contain something great, but in finding expression have become nerveless. One would say that his head was turned by too great success.

This fault is due sometimes to the man, and sometimes to his epoch. When prosperity has spread luxury far and wide, men begin by paying closer attention to their personal appearance. Then they go crazy over furniture. Next, they devote attention to their houses – how to take up more space with them, as if they were country-houses, how to make the walls glitter with marble that has been imported over seas, how to adorn a roof with gold, so that it may match the brightness of the inlaid floors. After that, they transfer their exquisite taste to the dinner-table, attempting to court approval by novelty and by departures from the customary order of dishes, so that the courses which we are accustomed to serve at the end of the meal may be served first, and so that the departing guests may partake of the kind of food which in former days was set before them on their arrival.
When the mind has acquired the habit of scorning the usual things of life, and regarding as mean that which was once customary, it begins to hunt for novelties in speech also; now it summons and displays obsolete and old-fashioned words; now it coins even unknown words or misshapes them; and now a bold and frequent metaphorical usage is made a special feature of style, according to the fashion which has just become prevalent. Some cut the thoughts short, hoping to make a good impression by leaving the meaning in doubt and causing the hearer to suspect his own lack of wit. Some dwell upon them and lengthen them out. Others, too, approach just short of a fault – for a man must really do this if he hopes to attain an imposing effect – but actually love the fault for its own sake. In short, whenever you notice that a degenerate style pleases the critics, you may be sure that character also has deviated from the right standard.

Just as luxurious banquets and elaborate dress are indications of disease in the state, similarly a lax style, if it be popular, shows that the mind (which is the source of the word) has lost its balance. Indeed you ought not to wonder that corrupt speech is welcomed not merely by the more squalid mob but also by our more cultured throng; for it is only in their dress and not in their judgments that they differ. You may rather wonder that not only the effects of vices, but even vices themselves, meet with approval. For it has ever been thus: no man's ability has ever been approved without something being pardoned. Show me any man, however famous; I can tell you what it was that his age forgave in him, and what it was that his age purposely overlooked. I can show you many men whose vices have caused them no harm, and not a few who have been even helped by these vices. Yes, I will show you persons of the highest reputation, set up as models for our admiration; and yet if you seek to correct their errors, you destroy them; for vices are so intertwined with virtues that they drag the virtues along with them. Moreover, style has no fixed laws; it is changed by the usage of the people, never the same for any length of time. Many orators hark back to earlier epochs for their vocabulary, speaking in the language of the Twelve Tables. Gracchus, Crassus, and Curio, in their eyes, are too refined and too modern; so back to Appius and Coruncanius! Conversely, certain men, in their endeavour to maintain nothing but well-worn and common usages, fall into a humdrum style. These two classes, each in its own way, are degenerate; and it is no less degenerate to use no words except those which are conspicuous, high-sounding, and poetical, avoiding what is familiar and in ordinary usage. One is, I believe, as faulty as the other: the one class are unreasonably elaborate, the other are unreasonably negligent; the former depilate the leg, the latter not even the armpit.

Let us now turn to the arrangement of words. In this department, what countless varieties of fault I can show you! Some are all for abruptness and unevenness of style, purposely disarranging anything which seems to have a smooth flow of language. They would have jolts in all their transitions; they regard as strong and manly whatever makes an uneven impression on the ear. With some others it is not so much an "arrangement" of words as it is a setting to music; so wheedling and soft is their gliding style. And what shall I say of that arrangement in which words are put off and, after being long waited for, just manage to come in at the end of a period? Or again of that softly-concluding style, Cicero-fashion, with a gradual and gently poised descent always the same and always with the customary arrangement of the rhythm! Nor is the fault only in the style of the sentences, if they are either petty and childish, or debasing, with more daring than modesty should allow, or if they are flowery and cloying, or if they end in emptiness, accomplishing mere sound and nothing more.
Some individual makes these vices fashionable – some person who controls the eloquence of the day; the rest follow his lead and communicate the habit to each other. Thus when Sallust was in his glory, phrases were lopped off, words came to a close unexpectedly, and obscure conciseness was equivalent to elegance. L. Arruntius, a man of rare simplicity, author of a historical work on the Punic War, was a member and a strong supporter of the Sallust school. There is a phrase in Sallust: exercitum argento fecit, meaning thereby that he recruited an army by means of money. Arruntius began to like this idea; he therefore inserted the verb facio all through his book. Hence, in one passage, fugam nostris fecere; in another, Hiero, rex Syracusanorum, bellum fecit; and in another, quae audita Panhormitanos dedere Romanis fecere. I merely desired to give you a taste; his whole book is interwoven with such stuff as this. What Sallust reserved for occasional use, Arruntius makes into a frequent and almost continual habit – and there was a reason: for Sallust used the words as they occurred to his mind, while the other writer went afield in search of them. So you see the results of copying another man's vices. Again, Sallust said: aquis hiemantibus. Arruntius, in his first book on the Punic War, uses the words: repente hiemavit tempestas. And elsewhere, wishing to describe an exceptionally cold year, he says: totus hiemavit annus. And in another passage: inde sexaginta onerarias leves praeter militem et necessarios nautarum hiemante aquilone misit; and he continues to bolster many passages with this metaphor. In a certain place, Sallust gives the words: inter arma civilia aequi bonique famas petit; and Arruntius cannot restrain himself from mentioning at once, in the first book, that there were extensive "reminders" concerning Regulus.

These and similar faults, which imitation stamps upon one's style, are not necessarily indications of loose standards or of debased mind; for they are bound to be personal and peculiar to the writer, enabling one to judge thereby of a particular author's temperament; just as an angry man will talk in an angry way, an excitable man in a flurried way, and an effeminate man in a style that is soft and unresisting. You note this tendency in those who pluck out, or thin out, their beards, or who closely shear and shave the upper lip while preserving the rest of the hair and allowing it to grow, or in those who wear cloaks of outlandish colours, who wear transparent togas, and who never deign to do anything which will escape general notice; they endeavour to excite and attract men's attention, and they put up even with censure, provided that they can advertise themselves. That is the style of Maecenas and all the others who stray from the path, not by hazard, but consciously and voluntarily. This is the result of great evil in the soul. As in the case of drink, the tongue does not trip until the mind is overcome beneath its load and gives way or betrays itself; so that intoxication of style – for what else than this can I call it? – never gives trouble to anyone unless the soul begins to totter. Therefore, I say, take care of the soul; for from the soul issue our thoughts, from the soul our words, from the soul our dispositions, our expressions, and our very gait. When the soul is sound and strong, the style too is vigorous, energetic, manly; but if the soul lose its balance, down comes all the rest in ruins.

If but the king be safe, your swarm will live Harmonious; if he die, the bees revolt. The soul is our king. If it be safe, the other functions remain on duty and serve with obedience; but the slightest lack of equilibrium in the soul causes them to waver along with it. And when the soul has yielded to pleasure, its functions and actions grow weak, and any undertaking comes from a nerveless and unsteady source. To persist in my use of this simile – our soul is at one time a king, at another a tyrant. The king, in that he respects things honourable, watches over the welfare of the body which is entrusted to his charge, and gives that body no base, no ignoble commands. But an uncontrolled, passionate, and effeminate soul changes kingship into that most dread and detestable quality – tyranny; then it becomes a prey to the uncontrolled emotions, which dog its steps, elated at first, to be sure, like a populace idly sated with a largess which will ultimately be its undoing, and spoiling what it cannot consume. But when the disease has gradually eaten away the strength, and luxurious habits have penetrated the marrow and the sinews, such a soul exults at the sight of limbs which, through its overindulgence, it has made useless; instead of its own pleasures, it views those of others; it becomes the go-between and witness of the passions which, as the result of self-gratification, it can no longer feel. Abundance of delights is not so pleasing a thing to that soul as it is bitter, because it cannot send all the dainties of yore down through the over-worked throat and stomach, because it can no longer whirl in the maze of eunuchs and mistresses, and it is melancholy because a great part of its happiness is shut off, through the limitations of the body.

Now is it not madness, Lucilius, for none of us to reflect that he is mortal? Or frail? Or again that he is but one individual? Look at our kitchens, and the cooks, who bustle about over so many fires; is it, think you, for a single belly that all this bustle and preparation of food takes place? Look at the old brands of wine and store-houses filled with the vintages of many ages; is it, think you, a single belly that is to receive the stored wine, sealed with the names of so many consuls, and gathered from so many vineyards? Look, and mark in how many regions men plough the earth, and how many thousands of farmers are tilling and digging; is it, think you, for a single belly that crops are planted in Sicily and Africa? We should be sensible, and our wants more reasonable, if each of us were to take stock of himself, and to measure his bodily needs also, and understand how little he can consume, and for how short a time! But nothing will give you so much help toward moderation as the frequent thought that life is short and uncertain here below; whatever you are doing, have regard to death. Farewell. (translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Quemadmodum autem uniuscuiusque actio dicenti similis est, sic genus dicendi aliquando imitatur publicos mores, si disciplina civitatis laboravit et se in delicias dedit. Argumentum est luxuriae publicae orationis lascivia, si modo non in uno aut in altero fuit, sed adprobata est et recepta.

Quomodo Maecenas vixerit notius est, quam ut narrari nunc debeat, quomodo ambulaverit, quam delicatus fuerit, quam cupierit videri, quam vitia sua latere noluerit. Quid ergo ? Non oratio eius aeque soluta est quam ipse discinctus ? Non tam insignita illius verba sunt quam cultus, quam comitatus, quam domus, quam uxor ? Magni vir ingenii fuerat, si illud egisset via rectiore, si non vitasset intellegi, si non etiam in oratione difflueret. videbis itaque eloquentiam ebrii hominis involutam et errantem et licentiae plenam.
Quid turpius " amne silvisque ripa comantibus ? " vide ut " alveum lintribus arent versoque vado remittant hortos." Quid ? Si quis " feminae cinno crispat et labris columbatur incipitque suspirans, ut cervice lassa fanantur nemoris tyranni." " Inremediabilis factio rimantur epulis lagonaque temptant domos et spe mortem exigunt." " Genium festo vix suo testem. Tenuisve cerei fila et crepacem molam Focum mater aut uxor investiunt."

Non statim, cum haec legeris, hoc tibi occurret, hunc esse, qui solutis tunicis in urbe semper incesserit ? Nam etiam cum absentis Caesaris partibus fungeretur, signum a discincto petebatur. Hunc esse qui in tribunali, in rostris, in omni publico coetu sic apparuerit, ut pallio velaretur caput exclusis utrimque auribus, non aliter quam in mimo fugitivi divitis solent ? Hunc esse, cui tunc maxime civilibus bellis strepentibus et sollicita urbe et armata comitatus hic fuerit in publico spadones duo, magis tamen viri quam ipse ? Hunc esse, qui uxorem milliens duxi, cum unam habuerit ? Haec verba tam improbe structa, tam neglegenter abiecta, tam contra consuetudinem omnium posita ostendunt mores quoque non minus novos et pravos et singulares fuisse.

Maxima laus illi tribuitur mansuetudinis, pepercit gladio, sanguine abstinuit nec ulla alia re, quid posset, quam licentia ostendit; hanc ipsam laudem suam corrupit istis orationis portentosissimae deliciis.
Apparet enim mollem fuisse, non mitem. Hoc istae ambages compositionis, hoc verba transversa, hoc sensus miri, magni quidem saepe, sed enervati dum exeunt, cuivis manifestum facient. Motum illi felicitate nimia caput.

Quod vitium hominis esse interdum, interdum temporis solet. Ubi luxuriam late felicitas fudit, cultus primum corporum esse diligentior incipit. Deinde supellectili laboratur. Deinde in ipsas domos" inpenditur cura, ut in laxitatem ruris excurrant, ut parietes advectis trans maria marmoribus fulgeant, ut tecta varientur auro, ut lacunaribus pavimentorum respondeat nitor. Deinde ad cenas lautitia transfertur, et illic commendatio ex novitate et soliti ordinis commutatione captatur, ut ea, quae includere solent cenam, prima ponantur, ut quae advenientibus dabantur, exeuntibus dentur.

Cum adsuevit animus fastidire, quae ex more sunt, et illi pro sordidis solita sunt, etiam in oratione, quod novum est, quaerit et modo antiqua verba atque exsoleta revocat ac profert, modo fingit et ignota ac deflectit, modo, id quod nuper increbruit, pro cultu habetur audax translatio ac frequens.
Sunt qui sensus praecidant et hoc gratiam sperent, si sententia pependerit et audienti suspicionem sui fecerit. Sunt qui illos detineant et porrigant. Sunt qui non usque ad vitium accedant, necesse est enim hoc facere aliquid grande temptanti, sed qui ipsum vitium ament. Itaque ubicumque videris orationem corruptam placere, ibi mores quoque a recto descivisse non erit dubium.

Quomodo conviviorum luxuria, quomodo vestium aegrae civitatis indicia sunt, sic orationis licentia, si modo frequens est, ostendit animos quoque, a quibus verba exeunt, procidisse. Mirari quidem non debes corrupta excipi non tantum a corona sordidiore, sed ab hac quoque turba cultiore, togis enim inter se isti, non iudiciis distant. Hoc magis mirari potes, quod non tantum vitiosa, sed vitia laudentur. Nam illud semper factum est: nullum sine venia placuit ingenium. Da mihi quemcumque vis, magni nominis virum ; dicam, quid illi aetas sua ignoverit, quid in illo sciens dissimulaverit. Multos tibi dabo, quibus vitia non nocuerint, quosdam, quibus profuerint. Dabo, inquam, maximae famae et inter admiranda propositos, quos si quis corrigit, delet; sic enim vitia virtutibus inmissa sunt, ut illas secum fractura sint.

Adice nunc, quod oratio certam regulam non habet; consuetudo illam civitatis, quae numquam in eodem diu stetit, versat. Multi ex alieno saeculo petunt verba, duodecim tabulas loquuntur. Gracchus illis et Crassus et Curio nimis culti et recentes sunt, ad Appium usque et Coruncanium redeunt. Quidam contra, dum nihil nisi tritum et usitatum volunt, in sordes incidunt.

Utrumque diverso genere corruptum est, tam mehercules quam nolle nisi splendidis uti ac sonantibus et poeticis, necessaria atque in usu

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Male/Female (Qui…Quae…)

Antonio Marco Martínez — Mon, 29 May 2017 07:07:49 +0000

It is a well-established question that women in general in the ancient world, in Greece and in Rome, hardly play any public, social and political role, remaining largely invisible, even in different stays within their own home; so we call “gynoecium”, γυναικεῖον, the rooms of the house for the exclusive use of women; the “andron”, Ἀνδρῶν, is the part of the house reserved for men.

It is true that any statement about the ancient world needs many more profound qualifications and knowledge. Thus the situation of Greek women is not the same as that of Roman women, and this in the first centuries than at the end of the Republic or during the Empire, when their social and legal "status" has undergone important modifications.

It is even striking that while socially her relevant role is matron of the house, we speak about the free women of the Roman noble families, instead in the Greek-Roman "pantheon" the goddesses, demigoddesses, heroines have an important presence, and if Zeus-Jupiter responds to the paternalistic paradigm of the father-god, the virginal Artemis or Diana represents the autonomous, free and breakthrough woman with the dominant patriarchal system.

Also in art in general and in funeral epigraphy, for example, women are well present and represented.

I mean by all this that any statement about the ancient world, which we usually see with the eyes of the present, needs nuances and fine analysis.

But I do not want to refer to it but to a very current issue, that of sexism in language.

Both Greek and Latin languages are flexible, very flexible languages; that is to say, the words admit diverse forms, generally different endings to express the diverse "grammatical accidents".

We say that Spanish, like many other languages today, is derived from Latin. We could also say that these languages are but a Latin evolved over the years subjected to the influence of the substrate of other languages and various factors. This relationship is appreciated by those who are not specialists in languages, especially in the lexicon or set of words, but also in syntactic structures, despite variations. There are some other less obvious and less expected issues.

Thus for example in Latin there are two grammatical numbers, singular and plural and two there are also in Spanish; (in fact, there remains in Latin a remnant of a third number called dual which is applied to beings or objects that generally appear in pairs, such as two hands, two eyes, two ears, etc.).

In Latin there are three genders, masculine, feminine and neutral. In Spanish the neutral has disappeared, there is only one rest in the article "lo", in the pronoun "ello (it)", etc. So the masculine and the feminine are only operative.

However, the use of grammatical genders in Spanish has generated, in addition to purely linguistic questions, others of a social and even political kin when "grammatical gender" is identified with "physical sex".

It turns out that language, like other human activities, operates with an invisible "media economy" principle and thus generally it uses substantive or "masculine" adjectives to refer to both men and women. So when we affirm "man is a being endowed with intelligence", we naturally refer to "man and woman", without excluding the latter. In more linguistic terms, we would say that Spanish language "marks" the feminine term, but not the masculine one, which, because it is not "marked", can be used to refer to both genders.

In that has naturally influenced the very historical formation of society, aptly defined as "patriarchal" given the preponderant role played in civilian and social life by the "pater", the father, and not the mother, relegated generally and for many years to the interior of the home and her functions.

But the roles of men and women in society have changed markedly in a process of equalization that has certainly not ended. This process thas not been kind, but has provoked great controversy among "patriarchal", "sexist" people in popular terminology, and "feminists".

This process of equalization has spread to all sectors of society. Thus in democratic countries equality has been achieved in laws, which no longer cover discrimination in the enjoyment of rights based on the gender or sex of individuals. Real equalization in society has obviously not yet been achieved and there is still a great way to go. For example, laws regulating labor and labor relations are not discriminatory, but in our country it is a sad reality that women often charge a lower wage than men, even when they do the same work.

Well, some people consider that language, in which some masculine gender terms are used to refer to masculine and feminine beings together, is discriminatory and "sexist", that is, it exalts gender or masculine sex for the detriment of feminine. Thus language is also a field of confrontation between those who cling to traditional uses and those who demand a renewal that does not hide the reality that approximately half of the human beings which inhabit the planet earth are women.

The solutions that have been proposed are diverse and their general acceptance is nothing short of impossible. Thus it is proposed to replace the terms of specific gender with others of more abstract meaning, for example using "humanity" instead of "men", or use indistinct or alternatively one or the other, so we would sometimes say "men" and other "women"; "The boys" and "the girls"; or simultaneously use the two, thus "men and women", "boys and girls", etc.

This question of sexist language is not definitively resolved, despite the normative efforts of some institutions. Moreover, the issue sometimes provokes controversies, such as recently emerged between two academics of Royal Spanish Academy that has resulted in several articles of replicas and counter-replies loaded with ad hominem arguments.

At this point in the article, more than one reader will ask the story or reason of all this exhibition in a blog dedicated to the ancient Greek-Roman world?

Well, I can not say that this question of the "sexist" use of language arose in the ancient world, but there is evidence as old as the Greek Iliad in which the male and the female term are simultaneously specified and used simultaneously. It was precisely a recent rereading of the Iliad that caused me to stumble with verse 350 of Book XV and that motivated this article with such a long introduction.

Homer says in Illiad, XV, 346-351

And Hector shouted aloud, and called to the Trojans:“Speed ye against the ships, and let be the blood-stained spoils. Whomsoever I shall mark holding aloof from the ships on the further side, on the very spot shall I devise his death, nor shall his kinsmen and kinswomen give him his due meed of fire in death, but the dogs shall rend him in front of our city.” (English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D.Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 19)

In this occasion I will also cite the text in Greek so that it can be verified by the reader that the use of " male and female relatives, kinsmen and kinswomen" is not merely an effect of translation, but it is seen in the original: γνωτοί and γνωταί are the masculine form and female of the same word:

Ἕκτωρ δὲ Τρώεσσιν ἐκέκλετο μακρὸν ἀΰσας
νηυσὶν ἐπισσεύεσθαι, ἐᾶν δ' ἔναρα βροτόεντα·
ὃν δ' ἂν ἐγὼν ἀπάνευθε νεῶν ἑτέρωθι νοήσω,
αὐτοῦ οἱ θάνατον μητίσομαι, οὐδέ νυ τόν γε
γνωτοί τε γνωταί τε πυρὸς λελάχωσι θανόντα,
ἀλλὰ κύνες ἐρύουσι πρὸ ἄστεος ἡμετέροιο.

Let us now turn to this other example of Pausanias (eight hundred years separate it from the previous text), which in his Description of Greece, when speaking about Delphi, referring to Homer and Pindarus and to the source Casotide, says in 10: 24,2:

So these men wrote what I have said, and you can see a bronze statue of Homer on a slab, and read the oracle that they say Homer received:
—“Blessed and unhappy, for to be both wast thou born.
Thou seekest thy father-land; but no father-land hast thou, only a mother-land.
The island of Ios is the father-land of thy mother, which will receive thee
When thou hast died; but be on thy guard against the riddle of the young children.”

The inhabitants of Ios point to Homer's tomb in the island, and in another part to that of Clymene, who was, they say, the mother of Homer.
But the Cyprians, who also claim Homer as their own, say that Themisto, one of their native women, was the mother of Homer, and that Euclus foretold the birth of Homer in the following verses:
—“And then in sea-girt Cyprus there will be a mighty singer,
Whom Themisto, lady fair, shall bear in the fields, A man of renown, far from rich Salamis.
Leaving Cyprus, tossed and wetted by the waves,
The first and only poet to sing of the woes of spacious Greece,
For ever shall he be deathless and ageless.”

These things I have heard, and I have read the oracles, but express no private opinion about either the age or date of Homer. (Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918).

I have already mentioned something about this issue in http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/eucation-of-the-greek-girl-plato

But now I want to highlight a curious and significant fact.

In a special and repeated way the masculine / feminine doublet was sometimes used in the Roman legislative world. There are times when the legislator wants to make it clear linguistically that he refers to "men and women" in a non-discriminatory way. The Roman jurist has opted the solution of using together the masculine terms and the corresponding feminine in resemblance to some current uses.

I have also found it in a recent visit to the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid, in the known as the "Lex Salpensana", which regulates the citizenship of the town of Salpensa, now Facialcázar, city close to Utrera, in the Hispanic Bética of the time Imperial of Domitian.

It is known that the "Roman Law" is the set of laws that exclusively regulate the life of the "Roman citizen". However, not all inhabitants of the Roman Empire are "citizens" (cives), some of them are related but not Roman citizens, like the "latini", others are foreign friends, but not citizens, "peregrini", pilgrims, whose relations with the Romans is determined by ius gentium; many of them are slaves, that is, men without rights. Each group has its own rights, until in 212 with the so-called Constitutio Antoniniana the Emperor Caracalla considers Roman citizens all free inhabitants of the empire, including those of Hispania, of course.

In a similar way, the Romans assimilate the territories and cities that they conquer and are creating many others with different legal entities, such as "colonies" or "municipia", "municipalities." Moreover, the different legal qualifications are applied in terms of the quality of their citizens and their assimilation to Rome.

The emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus (51 – 96) assimilated since the year 73 the Hispanic cities to the condition of "Latin cities"; thus he promulgated and granted between the years 81 and 84 the municipality of Salpensa a law with which he granted the "ius Latii", the law of Lazio, the Latin Law, of inferior category and less beneficial than the "ius romanum". Of this law we have only 9 chapters of a plate of the several of which it should have, according to other similar laws, like the Lex Flavia Malacitana, and the Lex Irnitana.

On these laws and their meaning I must write an article at the time, but today I will confine myself to the verification of that linguistic precision which differentiates between the beings of gender and the masculine and feminine sex in the written language, in this case of a law . Of course he does not do it because it considers that the generalist formula is sexist, but for reasons of juridical precision; but who would tell us that this formula that has served and serves as a confrontation when not as exercises of dubious humor, who would tell us that he had already settled in a text two thousand years ago?

National Archaeological Museum of Madrid

I reproduce only the five rubrics in which these uses appear in Latin and in their translation, leaving for another occasion the comment and meaning, not without difficulty. I use the meritorious translation of E. G. Hardy, in his work Three Spanish Charters and other documents. The Lawbook Exchange Ltd. Clark. New Jersey)

Note: The word "rubric" is derived from the Latin ruber, rubra, rubrum, meaning "red". According The dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy, in its first two meanings, it means:

1. Trait or set of traits, always performed in the same way, which usually are put on the signature after the name and that sometimes replaces it. 2. Label, mark, epigraph

In the fifth, which alreadyit warns that it is in disuse, it means:

5. Sign in red or red sign.

And it is precisely this fifth that explains the meaning of the previous ones. In the ancient texts, especially legal, the beginning or title of the paragraph was colored "red", and hence derived their meanings.

Note: the English language is less flexible and less often marks the difference between masculine and feminine grammatical genders, which makes it less obvious the masculine-feminine linguistic differentiation in relation to physical sexual differentiation. In any case the differentiation appears: grand-sons/granddaughters, male/ female, freedmen/ freedwomen, free man / free woman,

Rubric 21

R. MAGISTRATES TO OBTAIN THE ROMAN CITIZENSHIP.
XXI. All persons created duoviri, aediles, or quaestors in accordance with this law shall be Roman citizens, on laying down the magistracy at the end of the year, together with their parents and wives, and children born in lawful wedlock, and subject to the patria potestas, and in like manner grand-sons and granddaughters being the children of a son, and subject to the patria potestas, always provided that no more Roman citizens be created than the number of magistrates proper to be elected in accordance with this law.

R. Ut magistratus civitatem Romanam consequantur. [XXI. . . Qui llvir aedilis quaestor ex hac lege factus erit cives Romani sunto cum post annum magistratu] | abierint cum parentibus coniugibusque {h}ac liberi(s) qui legitumis nuptis quae l siti in potestatem parentium fuerunt item nepotibus ac neptibus filio I nat{al}is [natabus] qui quaeque in potestate parentium fuerint dum ne plures c(ives) R(omani) I sint qua(m) quod ex h(ac) l(ege) magistratus creare oportet.

Rubric 22

R. PERSONS OBTAINING THE ROMAN CITIZENSHIP TO REMAIN IN THE LEGAL DOMINION', MARITAL CONTROL, AND PARENTAL POWER OF THE SAME PERSONS AS BEFORE.
All persons, male or female, obtaining the Roman citizenship, in accordance with this law, or having obtained it in accordance with an edict of the imperator Caesar Augustus Vespasianus, or the imperator Titus Caesar Augustus, or the imperator Caesar Augustus Domitianus, father of his country, shall be in the parental power or marital control o legal dominion of that person, having been made a Roman citizen by this law, to whom such dependence would be proper, if the said persons had not been transferred into the Roman citizenship; and the said persons shall have the same right of choosing a legal guardian, which they would have, if they had been born of Roman citizen, and had not exchanged their citizenship.

R. Ut qui civitat(em) Roman(am) consequantur, maneant in eorundem m(ancipio) m(anu) potestate.
XXII. Qui quaeque ex h(ac) l(ege) exve edicto imp(eratoris) Caesaris Aug(usti) Vespasiani, imp(eratoris)ve Titi Caesaris Aug(usti), aut imp(eratoris) Caesaris Aug(usti) Domitiani, p(atris) p(atriae), civitatem Roman(am) consecutus consecuta erit. Is ea in eius, qui c(ivis) R(omanus) h(ac) l(ege) factus erit, potestate manu mancipio, cuius esse deberet, si civitate Romana mutatus mutata non esset, esto idque ius tutoris optandi habeto, quod haberet si a cive Romano ortus orta neq(ue) civitate mutatus mutata esset.

Rubric 23

R. PERSONS OBTAINING THE ROMAN CITIZENSHIP TO RETAIN RIGHTS OVER FREEDMEN.
XXIII. In the case of all persons, male female, obtaining the Roman citizenship in accordance with this law, or having obtained it in accordance with an edict of the imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus or the imperator Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus or the imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus, there shall be the same rights and the same conditions in respect to freedmen or freedwomen, whether their own or their fathers', such freedmen and freedwomen not having come into the Roman citizenship, and likewise in respect to the goods of the said freedmen and freedwomen, and to the services imposed in consideration of their freedoms as would have existed, if the said persons had not exchanged their citizenship.

.R. Ut qui c(ivitatem) R(omanam) consequentur, iura Iiberatorum retineant.
XXIII. Qui quaeve [ex] h(ac) l(ege) exve edicto imp(eratoris) Caes(aris) Vesp(asiani) Aug(usti), imp(eratoris)ve Titi Caes(aris) Vespasian(i) Au(gusti) I aut imp(eratoris) Caes(aris) Domítiani Aug(usti) c(ivitatem) R(omanam) consecutus consecuta erit: is in | libertos libertasve suos suas paternos paternas, qui quae in c(vitatem) R(omanam) non | venerit, deque bonis eorum earum et is, quae libertatis causa inposita | sunt, idem ius eademque condicio esto, quae esset, si cìvitate mutatus I mutata non esset.

Rubric 28.

R. CONCERNING THE MANUMISSION OF SLAVES BEFORE A DUOVIR.
XXVIII. In the case of any citizen of the municipium Flavium Salpensanum, being possessed of Latin rights, manumitting one of his slaves, male or female, from servitude to liberty and ordering the said slave to be free man or free woman at the court of the duovirs charged with the highest jurisdiction in the said municipium, always provided that no ward in law and no unmarried woman and no widow shall manumit such person or order such person to he free man or free woman unless represented by a gnardian, then the person so manumitted and so ordered to be free shall be a free man or a free woman, possessed of the best rights whereby Latin freedmen are shall be free persons, provided that a person less than twenty years of age shall only manumit when that number of the decuriones by which decrees may lawfully be made shall have approved just cause of manumission.

R. De servis aput IIvir(um) manumittendis. XXVIII. Si quis municeps munici Flavi Salpensani, qui Latinus erit, aput Ilvir(os), | qui iure dicundo praeerunt eius municipi, servom suom servamve suam | ex servitute in libertate[m] manumiserit, liberum liberamve esse iusserit, | dum ne quis pupillus neve quae virgo mulierve sine tutore auctore | quem quamve manumittat, liberum liberamve esse iubeat: qui ita | manumissus liberve esse iussus erit, liber esto, quaeque ita manumissa | liberave [esse] iussa erit, libera esto, uti qui optum[o] iure Latini libertiní li Iberi sunt erunt; dum is qui minor XX annorum erit ita manumittat, | si causam manumittendi iusta[m] esse is numerus decuríonum, per quem | decreta h(ac) l(ege) facta rata sunt, censuerit.

Rubric 29

R. CONCERNING THE ASSIGNMENT OF A LEGAL GUARDIAN.
XXIX. As respecting persons, male or female, being citizens of the mllnicipium Flavium Salpensanum, and not being wards in law, who have no legal guardian or one whose legal existence is uncertains if the said persons shall bave made demand of the duovirs, charged with the highest juriSdiction in the said municipium, that they shall assign a guardian, at the same time specifying the person whom they desire to be so assigned, then the magistrate, of whom such demand is made, shall take cognizance of the case, acting on the views of all his colleagues, whether one or more than one, who are at the time present in the said municipium or within the boundaries thereof, and, if they shall approve, shall assign the guardian so specified. But if the person, male 37 female, in whose name such demand is made, is a ward in law, or if the magistrate, from whom such demand is made, shall have no colleague, or no colleague within the boundaries of the said municipium,u then the said magistrate, from whom such demand shall have been made, shall within the ten days next following take cognizance of the case, and acting on a decree of the decuriones, passed in the presence of not less than two-thirds of the said decuriones, shall assign the person specified by the applicant as his legal guardian,45 provided tha.t thereby the right of tutelage be not withdrawn from a legally constituted guardian6 The guardian so granted by this law to the said person, provided that thereby the right of tutelage be not withdrawn from a legally constituted guardian, shall be as lawfully appointed as though he were a Roman citizen, and as though the nearest agnate, being a Roman citizen, had been made guardian.

Cui tutor non erit incertusve erit, si is eave municeps municipi Flavi Salpensani erit, et pupilli pupillaeve non erunt, et ab IIviris, qui iure dicundo praeerunt eius municipi, postulaverit, uti sibi tutorem det, et eum, quem dare volet, nominaverit: tum is, a quo postulatum erit, sive unum sive plures collegas habebit, de omnium collegarum sententia, qui tum in eo municipio intrave fines municipi eius erunt, causa cognita, si ei videbitur, eum qui nominatus erit tutorem dato. Sive is eave, cuius nomine ita postulatum erit, pupillus pupillave erit, sive is, a quo postulatum erit, non habebit collegam, collegave eius in eo municipio intrave fines eius municipi nemo erit: tum is, a quo ita postulatum erit, causa cognita in diebus X proximis, ex decreto decurionum, quod cum duae partes decurionum non minus adfuerint, factum erit, eum, qui nominatus erit, quo ne ab iusto tutore tutela abeat, ei tutorem dato. Qui tutor hac lege datus erit, is ei, cui datus erit, quo ne ab iusto tutore tutela abeat, tam iustus tutor esto, quam si is civis Romanus et ei adgnatus proximus civis Romanus tutor esset.

Similar expressions appear in the other laws with content also similar and that is because I avoid repeating them.

The post Male/Female (Qui…Quae…) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Ancient myths try to explain the various kinds of sexual relationships between men and women

Antonio Marco Martínez — Tue, 09 May 2017 03:34:13 +0000

Phaedrus explains in a fable why homoeroticisme or homosexuality exists, both male and female; Ovid also does it with his account of Iphis and Ianthe. Plato also did it in his dialogue The Banquet, as I said in this blog. Even without understanding it very well, they tried to explain transsexuality and transgender.

The ancients do not question heterosexuality, that is, social order and social morality, but they recognize the natural reality that some women can feel and want to live as men and some men as women.

Two thousand years later, there are countries of advanced legislation with this recognition of a natural reality, in front of others that even punish very hard these facts not so much of female homosexuality as of transgender or transsexuality.

Female homosexuality, that a woman loves as a woman to another of the same sex, is hardly understood as possible and very little visible in the ancient world, although not nonexistent.

There is certainly, although virtually invisible also, the homosexuality of a woman who assumes the role of a man to relate her to another woman, that is, the masculinization of her behavior. It is the so-called tribade or tribas, a woman with homoerotic behavior, who seeks sexual intercourse with another woman, or more specifically, a woman who in the female homoerotic relationship assumes the dominant role, the masculinized role; it comes from the Greek τριβάς, tribas, derived from the verb τριβηιν, tribein, which means to rub, scrub or masturbate.

This female homosexual or homoerotic practice is generally rejected socially because it implies a violation of the practice considered normal, the heterosexual, but in any case, in the old world its existence is recognized recognizing the complexity and diversity of the social relation between humans; moreover, not only it does not hide itself but its explanation is approached with some naturalness, even if it is by recourse to myth.

This is that Plato made, as I said in http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/homosexuality-lesbian-gay-andorogynous

This is that Phaedrus does also for example in his fable IV, 16, eliminated along with the previous 15 of numerous editions, and Ovid in Book IX of the Metamorphoses when he narrates the history of Iphis and Ianthe.

Both texts have been widely studied and commented by researchers interested in the knowledge of sexual behavior in antiquity; I only now intend to give an account of the existence of these texts for the knowledge of the interested reader.

Phaedrus 4.16 (Perry 515)

Someone asked Aesop why lesbians and fairies had been created, and old Aesop explained, 'The answer lies once again with Prometheus, the original creator of our common clay (which shatters as soon as it hits a bit of bad luck). All day long, Prometheus had been separately shaping those natural members which shame conceals beneath our clothes, and when he was about to apply these private parts to the appropriate bodies Bacchus unexpectedly invited him to dinner. Prometheus came home late, unsteady on his feet and with a good deal of heavenly nectar flowing through his veins. With his wits half asleep in a drunken haze he stuck the female genitalia on male bodies and male members on the ladies. This is why modern lust revels in perverted pleasures.' (Translated by Laura Gibbs (2002))

Note: According to Pseud-Apollodorus, in his Mythological Library, 1,7,1 Prometheus was the creator of men, making them of water and earth, and for this he was punished by Zeus; in other versions Prometheus is only the benefactor, but not the creator of mankind:

Prometheus moulded men out of water and earth1 and gave them also fire, which, unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel.2 But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail his body to Mount Caucasus, which is a Scythian mountain. On it Prometheus was nailed and kept bound for many years. Every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver, which grew by night. That was the penalty that Prometheus paid for the theft of fire until Hercules afterwards released him, as we shall show in dealing with Hercules. (English Translation by Sir James George Frazer,)

Phaedrus IV, 16

Rogavit alter, tribadas et molles mares
Quae ratio procreasset? Exposuit senex:

«Idem Prometheus, auctor vulgi fictilis
Qui simul offendit ad fortunam frangitur,
Naturae partis veste quas celat pudor,
Cum separatim toto finxisset die,
Aptare mox ut posset corporibus suis,
Ad cenam est invitatus subito a Libero.
Ubi irrigatus multo venas nectare
Sero domum est reversus titubanti pede.
Tum semisomno corde et errore ebrio
Applicuit virginale generi masculo
Et masculina membra applicuit feminis.
Ita nunc libido pravo fruitur gaudio».

Note: from the fable it follows that homosexuality, both male and female, is the result of an error and therefore it is at odds with normal behavior, that is heterosexuality, but the error is of the creator himself of the "human Race "and therefore it is" natural " and permanent, not a "disease " that can be healed, and so it is intended to be explained with myth.

Ovid on the his hand narrates in his most important work, The Metamorphoses, various myths referred to the sexual behavior of men and women. The myth of Iphis and Ianthe addresses the reality of some people whose feelings and psychological behavior do not match their physical sex.

Ovid describes the reality of a girl, a woman physically, who feels like a man and falls in love with another woman. The reality observed certainly poses a problem in the old society in which a marriage between women is not conceived. The main purpose of marriage was to procreate children for the family and for society. The solution, according to the prevailing social norm, is to turn the girl into a boy, even if that conversion is due to the powerful goddess Isis and not to the human art of modern surgery.

Ovid, after narrating the impossible love of Biblis with his brother Caunus, tells the story of Iphis and Ianthe.

Metamorphosis IX, 666-798 The Fable of Iphis and Ianthe

The fame of this, perhaps, thro' Crete had flown:
But Crete had newer wonders of her own,
In Iphis chang'd; for, near the Gnossian bounds
(As loud report the miracle resounds),
At Phaestus dwelt a man of honest blood,
But meanly born, and not so rich as good;
Esteem'd, and lov'd by all the neighbourhood;
Who to his wife, before the time assign'd
For child-birth came, thus bluntly spoke his mind.
If Heav'n, said Lygdus, will vouchsafe to hear,
I have but two petitions to prefer;
Short pains for thee, for me a son and heir.
Girls cost as many throes in bringing forth;
Beside, when born, the titts are little worth;
Weak puling things, unable to sustain
Their share of labour, and their bread to gain.
If, therefore, thou a creature shalt produce,
Of so great charges, and so little use
(Bear witness, Heav'n, with what reluctancy),
Her hapless innocence I doom to die.
He said, and common tears the common grief display,
Of him who bad, and her who must obey.

Yet Telethusa still persists, to find
Fit arguments to move a father's mind;
T' extend his wishes to a larger scope,
And in one vessel not confine his hope.
Lygdus continues hard: her time drew near,
And she her heavy load could scarcely bear;
When slumbring, in the latter shades of night,
Before th' approaches of returning light,
She saw, or thought she saw, before her bed,
A glorious train, and Isis at their head:
Her moony horns were on her forehead plac'd,
And yellow shelves her shining temples grac'd:
A mitre, for a crown, she wore on high;
The dog, and dappl'd bull were waiting by;
Osyris, sought along the banks of Nile;
The silent God: the sacred crocodile;
And, last, a long procession moving on,
With timbrels, that assist the lab'ring moon.
Her slumbers seem'd dispell'd, and, broad awake,
She heard a voice, that thus distinctly spake.
My votary, thy babe from death defend,
Nor fear to save whate'er the Gods will send.
Delude with art thy husband's dire decree:
When danger calls, repose thy trust on me:
And know thou hast not serv'd a thankless deity.
This promise made, with night the Goddess fled;
With joy the woman wakes, and leaves her bed;
Devoutly lifts her spotless hands on high,
And prays the Pow'rs their gift to ratifie.

Now grinding pains proceed to bearing throes,
'Till its own weight the burden did disclose.
'Twas of the beauteous kind, and brought to light
With secrecy, to shun the father's sight.
Th' indulgent mother did her care employ,
And past it on her husband for a boy.
The nurse was conscious of the fact alone;
The father paid his vows as for a son;
And call'd him Iphis, by a common name,
Which either sex with equal right may claim.
Iphis his grandsire was; the wife was pleas'd,
Of half the fraud by Fortune's favour eas'd:
The doubtful name was us'd without deceit,
And truth was cover'd with a pious cheat.
The habit show'd a boy, the beauteous face
With manly fierceness mingled female grace.

Now thirteen years of age were swiftly run,
When the fond father thought the time drew on
Of settling in the world his only son.
Ianthe was his choice; so wondrous fair,
Her form alone with Iphis cou'd compare;
A neighbour's daughter of his own degree,
And not more bless'd with Fortune's goods than he.

They soon espous'd; for they with ease were join'd,
Who were before contracted in the mind.
Their age the same, their inclinations too;
And bred together, in one school they grew.
Thus, fatally dispos'd to mutual fires,
They felt, before they knew, the same desires.
Equal their flame, unequal was their care;
One lov'd with hope, one languish'd in despair.
The maid accus'd the lingring day alone:
For whom she thought a man, she thought her own.
But Iphis bends beneath a greater grief;
As fiercely burns, but hopes for no relief.
Ev'n her despair adds fuel to her fire;
A maid with madness does a maid desire.
And, scarce refraining tears, Alas, said she,
What issue of my love remains for me!
How wild a passion works within my breast,
With what prodigious flames am I possest!
Could I the care of Providence deserve,
Heav'n must destroy me, if it would preserve.
And that's my fate, or sure it would have sent
Some usual evil for my punishment:
Not this unkindly curse; to rage, and burn,
Where Nature shews no prospect of return.
Nor cows for cows consume with fruitless fire;
Nor mares, when hot, their fellow-mares desire:
The father of the fold supplies his ewes;
The stag through secret woods his hind pursues;
And birds for mates the males of their own species chuse.
Her females Nature guards from female flame,
And joins two sexes to preserve the game:
Wou'd I were nothing, or not what I am!
Crete, fam'd for monsters, wanted of her store,
'Till my new love produc'd one monster more.
The daughter of the sun a bull desir'd,
And yet ev'n then a male a female fir'd:
Her passion was extravagantly new,
But mine is much the madder of the two.
To things impossible she was not bent,
But found the means to compass her intent.
To cheat his eyes she took a different shape;
Yet still she gain'd a lover, and a leap.
Shou'd all the wit of all the world conspire,
Shou'd Daedalus assist my wild desire,
What art can make me able to enjoy,
Or what can change Ianthe to a boy?
Extinguish then thy passion, hopeless maid,
And recollect thy reason for thy aid.
Know what thou art, and love as maidens ought,
And drive these golden wishes from thy thought.
Thou canst not hope thy fond desires to gain;
Where hope is wanting, wishes are in vain.

And yet no guards against our joys conspire;
No jealous husband hinders our desire;
My parents are propitious to my wish,
And she herself consenting to the bliss.
All things concur to prosper our design;
All things to prosper any love but mine.
And yet I never can enjoy the fair;
'Tis past the pow'r of Heav'n to grant my pray'r.
Heav'n has been kind, as far as Heav'n can be;
Our parents with our own desires agree;
But Nature, stronger than the Gods above,
Refuses her assistance to my love;
She sets the bar that causes all my pain;
One gift refus'd, makes all their bounty vain.
And now the happy day is just at hand,
To bind our hearts in Hymen's holy band:
Our hearts, but not our bodies: thus accurs'd,
In midst of water I complain of thirst.
Why com'st thou, Juno, to these barren rites,
To bless a bed defrauded of delights?
But why shou'd Hymen lift his torch on high,
To see two brides in cold embraces lye?

Thus love-sick Iphis her vain passion mourns;
With equal ardour fair Ianthe burns,
Invoking Hymen's name, and Juno's pow'r,
To speed the work, and haste the happy hour.

She hopes, while Telethusa fears the day,
And strives to interpose some new delay:
Now feigns a sickness, now is in a fright
For this bad omen, or that boding sight.
But having done whate'er she could devise,
And empty'd all her magazine of lies,
The time approach'd; the next ensuing day
The fatal secret must to light betray.
Then Telethusa had recourse to pray'r,
She, and her daughter with dishevel'd hair;
Trembling with fear, great Isis they ador'd,
Embrac'd her altar, and her aid implor'd.

Fair queen, who dost on fruitful Egypt smile,
Who sway'st the sceptre of the Pharian isle,
And sev'n-fold falls of disemboguing Nile,
Relieve, in this our last distress, she said,
A suppliant mother, and a mournful maid.
Thou, Goddess, thou wert present to my sight;
Reveal'd I saw thee by thy own fair light:
I saw thee in my dream, as now I see,
With all thy marks of awful majesty:
The glorious train that compass'd thee around;
And heard the hollow timbrels holy sound.
Thy words I noted, which I still retain;
Let not thy sacred oracles be vain.
That Iphis lives, that I myself am free
From shame, and punishment, I owe to thee.
On thy protection all our hopes depend.
Thy counsel sav'd us, let thy pow'r defend.

Her tears pursu'd her words; and while she spoke,
The Goddess nodded, and her altar shook:
The temple doors, as with a blast of wind,
Were heard to clap; the lunar horns that bind
The brows of Isis cast a blaze around;
The trembling timbrel made a murm'ring sound.

Some hopes these happy omens did impart;
Forth went the mother with a beating heart:
Not much in fear, nor fully satisfy'd;
But Iphis follow'd with a larger stride:
The whiteness of her skin forsook her face;
Her looks embolden'd with an awful grace;
Her features, and her strength together grew,
And her long hair to curling locks withdrew.
Her sparkling eyes with manly vigour shone,
Big was her voice, audacious was her tone.
The latent parts, at length reveal'd, began
To shoot, and spread, and burnish into man.
The maid becomes a youth; no more delay
Your vows, but look, and confidently pay.
Their gifts the parents to the temple bear:
The votive tables this inscription wear;
Iphis the man, has to the Goddess paid
The vows, that Iphis offer'd when a maid.

Now when the star of day had shewn his face,
Venus and Juno with their presence grace
The nuptial rites, and Hymen from above
Descending to compleat their happy love;
The Gods of marriage lend their mutual aid;
And the warm youth enjoys the lovely maid.
(Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al)
By Mr. DRYDEN.

Fama noui centum Cretaeas forsitan urbes
Inplesset monstri, si non miracula nuper
Iphide mutata Crete propiora tulisset.
Proxima Gnosiaco nam quondam Phaestia regno
Progenuit tellus ignotum nomine Ligdum,
Ingenua de plebe uirum; nec census in illo
Nobilitate sua maior, sed uita fidesque
Inculpata fuit. grauidae qui coniugis aures
Vocibus his monuit, cum iam prope partus adesset:
"Quae uoueam, duo sunt: minimo ut releuere dolore,
Vtque marem parias. onerosior altera sors est,
Et uires fortuna negat: quod abominor, ergo,
Edita forte tuo fuerit si femina partu,
(Inuitus mando: pietas, ignosce) necetur."
Dixerat, et lacrimis uultum lauere profusis
Tam qui mandabat, quam cui mandata dabantur;
Sed tamen usque suum uanis Telethusa maritum
Sollicitat precibus, ne spem sibi ponat in arto;
Certa sua est Ligdo sententia. iamque ferendo
Vix erat illa grauem maturo pondere uentrem,
Cum medio noctis spatio sub imagine somni
Inachis ante torum pompa comitata sacrorum
Aut stetit aut uisa est: inerant lunaria fronti
Cornua cum spicis nitido flauentibus auro
Et regale decus; cum qua latrator Anubis
Sanctaque Bubastis uariusque coloribus Apis,
Quique premit uocem digitoque silentia suadet;
Sistraque erant, numquamque satis quaesitus Osiris
Plenaque somniferis serpens peregrina uenenis.
Tum uelut excussam somno et manifesta uidentem
Sic adfata dea est: "pars o Telethusa mearum,
Pone graues curas mandataque falle mariti;
Nec dubita, cum te partu Lucina leuarit,
Tollere, quidquid erit. dea sum auxiliaris opemque
Exorata fero, nec te coluisse quereris
Ingratum numen." monuit thalamoque recessit.
Laeta toro surgit purasque ad sidera supplex
Cressa manus tollens, rata sint sua uisa, precatur.
Vt dolor increuit seque ipsum pondus in auras
Expulit et nata est ignaro femina patre,
Iussit ali mater puerum mentita; fidemque
Res habuit, neque erat ficti nisi conscia nutrix.
Vota pater soluit nomenque inponit auitum:
Iphis auus fuerat, gauisa est nomine mater,
Quod commune foret nec quemquam falleret illo.
Inde incepta pia mendacia fraude latebant:
Cultus erat pueri, facies, quam siue puellae
Siue dares puero, fieret formosus uterque.
Tertius interea decimo successerat annus,
Cum pater, Iphi, tibi flauam despondit Ianthen,
Inter Phaestiadas quae laudatissima formae
Dote fuit uirgo, Dictaeo nata Teleste.
Par aetas, par forma fuit, primasque magistris
Accepere artes, elementa aetatis, ab isdem;
Hinc amor ambarum tetigit rude pectus et aequum
Vulnus utrique dedit, sed erat fiducia dispar:
Coniugium pactaeque exspectat tempora taedae,
Quamque uirum putat esse, uirum fore credit Ianthe;
Iphis amat, qua posse frui desperat, et auget
Hoc ipsum flammas ardetque in uirgine uirgo,
Vixque tenens lacrimas "quis me manet exitus" inquit,
"Cognita quam nulli, quam prodigiosa nouaeque
Cura tenet Veneris? si di mihi parcere uellent,
Parcere debuerant; si non, et perdere uellent,
Naturale malum saltem et de more dedissent!
Nec uaccam uaccae, nec equas amor urit equarum;
Vrit oues aries, sequitur sua femina ceruum;
Sic et aues coeunt, interque animalia cuncta
Femina femineo correpta cupidine nulla est.
Vellem nulla forem! ne non tamen omnia Crete
Monstra ferat, taurum dilexit filia Solis,
Femina nempe marem: meus est furiosior illo,
Si uerum profitemur, amor; tamen illa secuta est
Spem Veneris, tamen illa dolis et imagine uaccae
Passa bouem est, et erat, qui deciperetur, adulter.
Huc licet e toto sollertia confluat orbe,
Ipse licet reuolet ceratis Daedalus alis,
Quid faciet? num me puerum de uirgine doctis
Artibus efficiet? num te mutabit, Ianthe?
Quin animum firmas teque ipsa reconligis, Iphi,
Consiliique inopes et stultos excutis ignes?
Quid sis nata, uide, nisi te quoque decipis ipsam,
Et pete, quod fas est, et ama, quod femina debes.
Spes est, quae capiat, spes est, quae pascit amorem;
Hanc tibi res adimit: non te custodia caro
Arcet ab amplexu nec cauti cura mariti,
Non patris asperitas, non se negat ipsa roganti;
Nec tamen est potiunda tibi, nec, ut omnia fiant,
Esse potes felix, ut dique hominesque laborent.
Nunc quoque uotorum nulla est pars uana meorum,
Dique mihi faciles, quidquid ualuere, dederunt,
Quodque ego, uult genitor, uult ipsa socerque futurus;
At non uult natura, potentior omnibus istis,
Quae mihi sola nocet. uenit ecce optabile tempus,
Luxque iugalis adest, et iam mea fiet Ianthe –
Nec mihi continget: mediis sitiemus in undis.
Pronuba quid Iuno, quid ad haec, Hymenaee, uenitis
Sacra, quibus qui ducat abest, ubi nubimus ambae?"
Pressit ab his uocem, nec lenius altera uirgo
Aestuat, utque celer uenias, Hymenaee, precatur.
Quod petit haec, Telethusa timens modo tempora differt,
Nunc ficto languore moram trahit, omina saepe
Visaque causatur; sed iam consumpserat omnem
Materiam ficti, dilataque tempora taedae
Institerant, unusque dies restabat: at illa
Crinalem capiti uittam nataeque sibique
Detrahit et passis aram complexa capillis
"Isi, Paraetonium Mareoticaque arua Pharonque
Quae colis et septem digestum in cornua Nilum,
Fer, precor", inquit "opem nostroque medere timori!
Te, dea, te quondam tuaque haec insignia uidi
Cunctaque cognoui, sonitum comitesque facesque…
Sistrorum memorique animo tua iussa notaui.
Quod uidet haec lucem, quod non ego punior, ecce
Consilium munusque tuum est: miserere duarum
Auxilioque iuua." lacrimae sunt uerba secutae.
Visa dea est mouisse suas (et mouerat) aras,
Et templi tremuere fores imitataque lunam
Cornua fulserunt crepuitque sonabile sistrum.
Non secura quidem, fausto tamen omine laeta
Mater abit templo, sequitur comes Iphis euntem,
Quam solita est, maiore gradu; nec candor in ore
Permanet, et uires augentur, et acrior ipse est
Vultus et incomptis breuior mensura capillis,
Plusque uigoris adest, habuit quam femina. nam quae
Femina nuper eras, puer es. date munera templis,
Nec timida gaudete fide! dant munera templis,
Addunt et titulum, titulus breue carmen habebat:
"Dona puer solvit quae fémina voverat Iphis."
Postera lux radiis latum patefecerat orbem,
Cum Venus et Iuno sociusque Hymenaeus ad ignes
Conueniunt, potiturque sua puer Iphis Ianthe.

The post Ancient myths try to explain the various kinds of sexual relationships between men and women appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Ovid in the Prado Museum-Madrid (Ovid V)

Antonio Marco Martínez — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 08:20:12 +0000

The most famous Latin poets of the three of the time of Augustus, Virgil, Horace and Ovid, undoubtedly the most influential of them all in Western culture has been Ovid, although not the best valued by literary criticism. The influence of Ovid has been felt since antiquity itself, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the present day in all arts, in literature of course, but also especially in painting and even in music. This is a subject very attended by the scholars and to which perhaps I should on my part dedicate some ample comment at some time. Something of this I have said in some of the articles that I have published in the thread of the celebration of the bimillenary of the poet’s death.

I will briefly refer, however, to his influence on the painting of the Prado Museum, Museo del Prado in Madrid. Ovid is present in all the important museums of the world: Louvre Museum of Paris and the National Gallery of London and the Alte Pinakothek of Munich and the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, etc. etc., through its influence on painters, especially of the Renaissance and Baroque (Rubens, Velázquez, Tiziano ...) but also contemporaries, as Picasso himself.

The influence is mostly that of his book of mythology The Metamorphosis or transformation of some beings into others, usually humans or gods in animals, trees or stars. The Metamorphosis are a true treatise on mythology.

I will refer exclusively and briefly to his presence at the Prado Museum, Museo del Prado, in Madrid. In fact it is absolutely advisable to anyone who visits this important museum, one of the most important Pinacothecas, "art galleries", in the world, to do so after a previous reading of the work of Ovid, the Metamorphosis, or some of the guides and publications that exist on the subject, or a visit to the museum's own website.

https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obras-de-arte?search=metamorfosis&ordenarPor=pm:relevance

Note: the word "pinacotheca" has come to us through the Latin "pinacotheca, but in fact it is from Greek origin: πινακοθήκη, pinakotheke, word itself composed of πινακος, pinakos, genitive of πίναξ, pinax, meaning " picture" and θήκη, theke," box, wardrobe, shelf, and by extension collection of things and objects deposited therein.

The consultation to this link at the time of the publication of this article offers the immediate reference of 158 works, some of them of the most famous of which the Museum houses. It is true that not all of them are indebted exclusively to Ovid, but the vast majority.

I will confine myself to presenting only three of the corresponding Ovid texts and to cite some of the others to encourage the reader to search for the correspondences of himself, an experience that can be extended to any other museum, such as the Louvre Museum or the National Gallery of London) or the Alte Pinakothek of Munich or the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, etc. etc.

The reader can find ample information in numerous books and published articles on this, of general form in the work of Amalia Fernández: Diosesy mitos. Una aproximación literaria a la pintura mitológica del Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1998) (Gods and myths. A literary approach to the mythological painting of the Museo del Prado); Or Rosa López Torrijos: Mitología e Historia en las obras maestras del Prado, Madrid, 1998 (Mythology and History in the masterpieces of the Prado,) or more concretely in Mª. Cruz García Fuentes: Mitos de las Metamorfosis de Ovidio en la Iconografía del Museo del Prado, Madrid, Edit. C. E. R. S. A., 2013. ( Myths of the Metamorphoses of Ovid in the Iconography of the Prado Museum).

I will limit myself to relate, as I said, by way of example, three or four great works of the Museum, of the hundred and fifty exposed, with the corresponding text of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. I hope that this is enough incentive for the reader to locate and atmosphere the visit to the Museum with the reading of Ovid.

The painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is widely represented in the Museo del Prado with paintings of mythological subject, whose commission received from King Felipe IV to decorate the "Torre de la parada” (Tower of the Parada). Most of the mythological scenes of the passions of the gods were inspired by Ovid's description in the Metamorphoses.

For example:

Deucalión and Pyrrha. (1636-1637. Oil on wood, 26.4 x 41.7 cm.)

In Greco-Roman mythology there is also a deluge with which Jupiter punishes the evil of the human race, which must perish. Only Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha are saved from punishment in their ark, which was stranded on Mount Parnassus in the Greek Peloponnese. This pair will give rise to a new race of men.

Although Rubens's picture refers only to the creation of the new men, I will return to the story since the appearance of Deucalion in the poem of Ovid.

Ovid tells us the episode of the deluge and the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrh a in Metamorphosis, I, 309-430:

Now hills, and vales no more distinction know;
And levell'd Nature lies oppress'd below.
The most of mortals perish in the flood:
The small remainder dies for want of food.

A mountain of stupendous height there stands
Betwixt th' Athenian and Boeotian lands,
The bound of fruitful fields, while fields they were,
But then a field of waters did appear:
Parnassus is its name; whose forky rise
Mounts thro' the clouds, and mates the lofty skies.
High on the summit of this dubious cliff,
Deucalion wafting, moor'd his little skiff.
He with his wife were only left behind
Of perish'd Man; they two were human kind.
The mountain nymphs, and Themis they adore,
And from her oracles relief implore.
The most upright of mortal men was he;
The most sincere, and holy woman, she.

When Jupiter, surveying Earth from high,
Beheld it in a lake of water lie,
That where so many millions lately liv'd,
But two, the best of either sex, surviv'd;
He loos'd the northern wind; fierce Boreas flies
To puff away the clouds, and purge the skies:
Serenely, while he blows, the vapours driv'n,
Discover Heav'n to Earth, and Earth to Heav'n.
The billows fall, while Neptune lays his mace
On the rough sea, and smooths its furrow'd face.
Already Triton, at his call, appears
Above the waves; a Tyrian robe he wears;
And in his hand a crooked trumpet bears.
The soveraign bids him peaceful sounds inspire,
And give the waves the signal to retire.
His writhen shell he takes; whose narrow vent
Grows by degrees into a large extent,
Then gives it breath; the blast with doubling sound,
Runs the wide circuit of the world around:
The sun first heard it, in his early east,
And met the rattling ecchos in the west.
The waters, listning to the trumpet's roar,
Obey the summons, and forsake the shore.

A thin circumference of land appears;
And Earth, but not at once, her visage rears,
And peeps upon the seas from upper grounds;
The streams, but just contain'd within their bounds,
By slow degrees into their channels crawl;
And Earth increases, as the waters fall.
In longer time the tops of trees appear,
Which mud on their dishonour'd branches bear.

At length the world was all restor'd to view;
But desolate, and of a sickly hue:
Nature beheld her self, and stood aghast,
A dismal desart, and a silent waste.

Which when Deucalion, with a piteous look
Beheld, he wept, and thus to Pyrrha spoke:
Oh wife, oh sister, oh of all thy kind
The best, and only creature left behind,
By kindred, love, and now by dangers joyn'd;
Of multitudes, who breath'd the common air,
We two remain; a species in a pair:
The rest the seas have swallow'd; nor have we
Ev'n of this wretched life a certainty.
The clouds are still above; and, while I speak,
A second deluge o'er our heads may break.
Shou'd I be snatcht from hence, and thou remain,
Without relief, or partner of thy pain,
How cou'dst thou such a wretched life sustain?
Shou'd I be left, and thou be lost, the sea
That bury'd her I lov'd, shou'd bury me.
Oh cou'd our father his old arts inspire,
And make me heir of his informing fire,
That so I might abolisht Man retrieve,
And perisht people in new souls might live.
But Heav'n is pleas'd, nor ought we to complain,
That we, th' examples of mankind, remain.
He said; the careful couple joyn their tears:
And then invoke the Gods, with pious prayers.
Thus, in devotion having eas'd their grief,
From sacred oracles they seek relief;
And to Cephysus' brook their way pursue:
The stream was troubled, but the ford they knew;
With living waters, in the fountain bred,
They sprinkle first their garments, and their head,
Then took the way, which to the temple led.
The roofs were all defil'd with moss, and mire,
The desart altars void of solemn fire.
Before the gradual, prostrate they ador'd;
The pavement kiss'd; and thus the saint implor'd.

O righteous Themis, if the Pow'rs above
By pray'rs are bent to pity, and to love;
If humane miseries can move their mind;
If yet they can forgive, and yet be kind;
Tell how we may restore, by second birth,
Mankind, and people desolated Earth.
Then thus the gracious Goddess, nodding, said;
Depart, and with your vestments veil your head:
And stooping lowly down, with losen'd zones,
Throw each behind your backs, your mighty mother's bones.
Amaz'd the pair, and mute with wonder stand,
'Till Pyrrha first refus'd the dire command.
Forbid it Heav'n, said she, that I shou'd tear
Those holy reliques from the sepulcher.
They ponder'd the mysterious words again,
For some new sense; and long they sought in vain:
At length Deucalion clear'd his cloudy brow,
And said, the dark Aenigma will allow
A meaning, which, if well I understand,
From sacrilege will free the God's command:
This Earth our mighty mother is, the stones
In her capacious body, are her bones:
These we must cast behind. With hope, and fear,
The woman did the new solution hear:
The man diffides in his own augury,
And doubts the Gods; yet both resolve to try.
Descending from the mount, they first unbind
Their vests, and veil'd, they cast the stones behind:
The stones (a miracle to mortal view,
But long tradition makes it pass for true)
Did first the rigour of their kind expel,
And suppled into softness, as they fell;
Then swell'd, and swelling, by degrees grew warm;
And took the rudiments of human form.
Imperfect shapes: in marble such are seen,
When the rude chizzel does the man begin;
While yet the roughness of the stone remains,
Without the rising muscles, and the veins.
The sappy parts, and next resembling juice,
Were turn'd to moisture, for the body's use:
Supplying humours, blood, and nourishment;
The rest, too solid to receive a bent,
Converts to bones; and what was once a vein,
Its former name and Nature did retain.
By help of pow'r divine, in little space,
What the man threw, assum'd a manly face;
And what the wife, renew'd the female race.
Hence we derive our nature; born to bear
Laborious life; and harden'd into care.

The rest of animals, from teeming Earth
Produc'd, in various forms receiv'd their birth.
The native moisture, in its close retreat,
Digested by the sun's aetherial heat,
As in a kindly womb, began to breed:
Then swell'd, and quicken'd by the vital seed.
And some in less, and some in longer space,
Were ripen'd into form, and took a sev'ral face.
Thus when the Nile from Pharian fields is fled,
And seeks, with ebbing tides, his ancient bed,
The fat manure with heav'nly fire is warm'd;
And crusted creatures, as in wombs, are form'd;
These, when they turn the glebe, the peasants find;
Some rude, and yet unfinish'd in their kind:
Short of their limbs, a lame imperfect birth:
One half alive; and one of lifeless earth.
(Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717))

Note: because some texts are somewhat extensive, I will reproduce the Latin texts at the end of the article.

The Rape of Europa

According to the mythical account, Europa was daughter of Agenor, the king of Tiro; The god Zeus fell in love with her, who ordered Hermes to bring the king's cows to the river; Zeus was transformed into a white bull to gain the confidence of Europa, that was mounted in its loins; At that moment the bull started speeding, entered the Mediterranean Sea and reached Crete. There the god appeared in his divinity and seduced the young woman.

This is one of the myths most represented since ancient times; we have representations since the 6th century BC. Tiziano painted between 1559 and 1562 an oil on this myth that is exposed in the Museum of the Prado. Peter Paul Rubens copied this painting in 1628-1629. Then the same Rubens repeated the theme again for the “Torre de la Parada”,Tower of the Parade, but in a very different way (the sketch is preserved in the same museum) and in turn shortly afterwards Jan Erasmus Quelinus painted on this sketch the painting which is also preserved in the Prado Museum.

Peter Paul Rubens. (Copy of Tiziano, Vecellio di Gregorio)

The Rape of Europa. Sketch by Peter Paul Rubens 1636 – 1637. Oil painting, 18.9 x 13.7 cm. And Jan Erasmus Quelinus oil.

Ovid tells us in Metamorphoses II, 833-875:

Europa's Rape

When now the God his fury had allay'd,
And taken vengeance of the stubborn maid,
From where the bright Athenian turrets rise
He mounts aloft, and re-ascends the skies.
Jove saw him enter the sublime abodes,
And, as he mix'd among the crowd of Gods,
Beckon'd him out, and drew him from the rest,
And in soft whispers thus his will exprest.

"My trusty Hermes, by whose ready aid
Thy sire's commands are through the world convey'd.
Resume thy wings, exert their utmost force,
And to the walls of Sidon speed thy course;
There find a herd of heifers wand'ring o'er
The neighb'ring hill, and drive 'em to the shore."

Thus spoke the God, concealing his intent.
The trusty Hermes, on his message went,
And found the herd of heifers wand'ring o'er
A neighb'ring hill, and drove 'em to the shore;
Where the king's daughter, with a lovely train
Of fellow-nymphs, was sporting on the plain.

The dignity of empire laid aside,
(For love but ill agrees with kingly pride)
The ruler of the skies, the thund'ring God,
Who shakes the world's foundations with a nod,
Among a herd of lowing heifers ran,
Frisk'd in a bull, and bellow'd o'er the plain.
Large rowles of fat about his shoulders clung,
And from his neck the double dewlap hung.
His skin was whiter than the snow that lies
Unsully'd by the breath of southern skies;
Small shining horns on his curl'd forehead stand,
As turn'd and polish'd by the work-man's hand;
His eye-balls rowl'd, not formidably bright,
But gaz'd and languish'd with a gentle light.
His ev'ry look was peaceful, and exprest
The softness of the lover in the beast.

Agenor's royal daughter, as she plaid
Among the fields, the milk-white bull survey'd,
And view'd his spotless body with delight,
And at a distance kept him in her sight.
At length she pluck'd the rising flow'rs, and fed
The gentle beast, and fondly stroak'd his head.
He stood well-pleas'd to touch the charming fair,
But hardly could confine his pleasure there.
And now he wantons o'er the neighb'ring strand,
Now rowls his body on the yellow sand;
And, now perceiving all her fears decay'd,
Comes tossing forward to the royal maid;
Gives her his breast to stroke, and downward turns
His grizly brow, and gently stoops his horns.
In flow'ry wreaths the royal virgin drest
His bending horns, and kindly clapt his breast.
'Till now grown wanton and devoid of fear,
Not knowing that she prest the Thunderer,
She plac'd her self upon his back, and rode
O'er fields and meadows, seated on the God.

He gently march'd along, and by degrees
Left the dry meadow, and approach'd the seas;
Where now he dips his hoofs and wets his thighs,
Now plunges in, and carries off the prize.
The frighted nymph looks backward on the shoar,
And hears the tumbling billows round her roar;
But still she holds him fast: one hand is born
Upon his back; the other grasps a horn:
Her train of ruffling garments flies behind,
Swells in the air, and hovers in the wind.

Through storms and tempests he the virgin bore,
And lands her safe on the Dictean shore;
Where now, in his divinest form array'd,
In his true shape he captivates the maid;
Who gazes on him, and with wond'ring eyes
Beholds the new majestick figure rise,
His glowing features, and celestial light,
And all the God discover'd to her sight.
Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717)

Orpheus and Eurydice

The theme of the mythical pair Orpheus and Eurydice is that of the descent into the lower world, to hell, to the world of the dead, to the world where Pluto and Proserpine reign; In Greek this descent is called καταβᾴσεις, katabaseis, or κάθοδοι, kathodoi, and are adjudged to Hercules, Ulysses, Aeneas, Theseus, Pyrithus and especially to Orpheus, who goes in search of his wife, deceased by the venom of a snake, and whose end I do not anticipate for not to diminish the interest in the reading of Ovid's text, which undoubtedly inspired the many pictorial representations of the myth. I present it in a painting also by Peter Paul Rubens.

Orpheus and Eurydice. 1636 – 1638. Oil on canvas, 196.5 x 247.5 cm.

Virgil tells us also the myth in his little Culex and then in his famous Georgics. Ovid had to know this Virgilian version and it is Ovid's account that we find at the beginning of Book X of his Metamorphoses, verses 1 to 77. which I now transcribe:

The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice

Thence, in his saffron robe, for distant Thrace,
Hymen departs, thro' air's unmeasur'd space;
By Orpheus call'd, the nuptial Pow'r attends,
But with ill-omen'd augury descends;
Nor chearful look'd the God, nor prosp'rous spoke,
Nor blaz'd his torch, but wept in hissing smoke.
In vain they whirl it round, in vain they shake,
No rapid motion can its flames awake.
With dread these inauspicious signs were view'd,
And soon a more disastrous end ensu'd;
For as the bride, amid the Naiad train,
Ran joyful, sporting o'er the flow'ry plain,
A venom'd viper bit her as she pass'd;
Instant she fell, and sudden breath'd her last.

When long his loss the Thracian had deplor'd,
Not by superior Pow'rs to be restor'd;
Inflam'd by love, and urg'd by deep despair,
He leaves the realms of light, and upper air;
Daring to tread the dark Tenarian road,
And tempt the shades in their obscure abode;
Thro' gliding spectres of th' interr'd to go,
And phantom people of the world below:
Persephone he seeks, and him who reigns
O'er ghosts, and Hell's uncomfortable plains.
Arriv'd, he, tuning to his voice his strings,
Thus to the king and queen of shadows sings.

Ye Pow'rs, who under Earth your realms extend,
To whom all mortals must one day descend;
If here 'tis granted sacred truth to tell:
I come not curious to explore your Hell;
Nor come to boast (by vain ambition fir'd)
How Cerberus at my approach retir'd.
My wife alone I seek; for her lov'd sake
These terrors I support, this journey take.
She, luckless wandring, or by fate mis-led,
Chanc'd on a lurking viper's crest to tread;
The vengeful beast, enflam'd with fury, starts,
And thro' her heel his deathful venom darts.
Thus was she snatch'd untimely to her tomb;
Her growing years cut short, and springing bloom.
Long I my loss endeavour'd to sustain,
And strongly strove, but strove, alas, in vain:
At length I yielded, won by mighty love;
Well known is that omnipotence above!
But here, I doubt, his unfelt influence fails;
And yet a hope within my heart prevails.
That here, ev'n here, he has been known of old;
At least if truth be by tradition told;
If fame of former rapes belief may find,
You both by love, and love alone, were join'd.
Now, by the horrors which these realms surround;
By the vast chaos of these depths profound;
By the sad silence which eternal reigns
O'er all the waste of these wide-stretching plains;
Let me again Eurydice receive,
Let Fate her quick-spun thread of life re-weave.
All our possessions are but loans from you,
And soon, or late, you must be paid your due;
Hither we haste to human-kind's last seat,
Your endless empire, and our sure retreat.
She too, when ripen'd years she shall attain,
Must, of avoidless right, be yours again:
I but the transient use of that require,
Which soon, too soon, I must resign entire.
But if the destinies refuse my vow,
And no remission of her doom allow;
Know, I'm determin'd to return no more;
So both retain, or both to life restore.

Thus, while the bard melodiously complains,
And to his lyre accords his vocal strains,
The very bloodless shades attention keep,
And silent, seem compassionate to weep;
Ev'n Tantalus his flood unthirsty views,
Nor flies the stream, nor he the stream pursues;
Ixion's wond'ring wheel its whirl suspends,
And the voracious vulture, charm'd, attends;
No more the Belides their toil bemoan,
And Sisiphus reclin'd, sits list'ning on his stone.

Then first ('tis said) by sacred verse subdu'd,
The Furies felt their cheeks with tears bedew'd:
Nor could the rigid king, or queen of Hell,
Th' impulse of pity in their hearts repell.

Now, from a troop of shades that last arriv'd,
Eurydice was call'd, and stood reviv'd:
Slow she advanc'd, and halting seem to feel
The fatal wound, yet painful in her heel.
Thus he obtains the suit so much desir'd,
On strict observance of the terms requir'd:
For if, before he reach the realms of air,
He backward cast his eyes to view the fair,
The forfeit grant, that instant, void is made,
And she for ever left a lifeless shade.

Now thro' the noiseless throng their way they bend,
And both with pain the rugged road ascend;
Dark was the path, and difficult, and steep,
And thick with vapours from the smoaky deep.
They well-nigh now had pass'd the bounds of night,
And just approach'd the margin of the light,
When he, mistrusting lest her steps might stray,
And gladsome of the glympse of dawning day,
His longing eyes, impatient, backward cast
To catch a lover's look, but look'd his last;
For, instant dying, she again descends,
While he to empty air his arms extends.
Again she dy'd, nor yet her lord reprov'd;
What could she say, but that too well he lov'd?
One last farewell she spoke, which scarce he heard;
So soon she drop'd, so sudden disappear'd.

All stunn'd he stood, when thus his wife he view'd
By second Fate, and double death subdu'd:
Not more amazement by that wretch was shown,
Whom Cerberus beholding, turn'd to stone;
Nor Olenus cou'd more astonish'd look,
When on himself Lethaea's fault he took,
His beauteous wife, who too secure had dar'd
Her face to vye with Goddesses compar'd:
Once join'd by love, they stand united still,
Turn'd to contiguous rocks on Ida's hill.

Now to repass the Styx in vain he tries,
Charon averse, his pressing suit denies.
Sev'n days entire, along th' infernal shores,
Disconsolate, the bard Eurydice deplores;
Defil'd with filth his robe, with tears his cheeks,
No sustenance but grief, and cares, he seeks:
Of rigid Fate incessant he complains,
And Hell's inexorable Gods arraigns.
This ended, to high Rhodope he hastes,
And Haemus' mountain, bleak with northern blasts.
(Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717))

Atalanta and Hippomenes

Hippomenes and Atalanta 1618 – 1619. Oil on canvas, 206 x 297 cm. Reni, Guido, baroque Bolognese painter

Some time ago I wrote the story of the famous race of Atalanta and Hippomenes in this same blog adapting directly the text of Ovid. The myth tells the story of Atalanta, the daughter of the king of Arcadia, who offered to marry anyone who could beat her in the race; Those who were defeated would be punished with death. The handsome Hippomenes won the race by using the help of the goddess Venus, who suggested a stratagem.

I refer to http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/atalanta-mythologie-palace-of-the-infant

to get a wider commentary on the story, but I nonetheless offer the text, now in view of one of the pictures of the Prado , The one corresponding to Guido Reni.

Whoever wants a full reading of Ovid's text must go to Metamorphoses, VIII, 281 et seq. for the episode of Meleager and the boar hunt of Calidon and to Metamorphosis X, 560-704 for the race with Hippomenes.

When Atalanta was born, her father, the king of Arcadia, enraged because he only wanted a son, abandoned her all godliness lacking at the top of a mountain so that she could die of hunger or devoured by the ferocious beasts. The goddess Artemis, who casually hunted in those places, took pity on the helpless child and sent her a huge bear that, docilely, suckled her with her milk.
Sometime later, and adopted as a daughter by the goddess, she became an accurate huntress and the fastest woman in the world and emulating her patroness she promised that she would never marry either.

When being a famous huntress she received as a trophy the skin of the wild boar ravaging the kingdom of Calydon, whose hunting she had participated in, she reconciled with her father, who again and again insisted her on the need to get married and provide him a future heir for his throne.

The elusive Atalanta consulted the oracle of the gods on her husband and heard these confusing words:

– For anything you need a husband, Atalanta; avoid having a husband. And yet you will not escape from marriage and still alive you will see yourself private of yourself.

Frightened by these words, hard to be understood, she tries to remain single living in the woods, away from her many suitors, who she wants to scare and avoid with a strange proposal:

– Only will possess me the one of you who beats me in a quick race, that one will be my husband. Instead the loser will have to die in punishment for his pretensions. This is my final proposal.

Such is the beauty of the fast Atalanta that many were the unsuspecting youth who dared to compete with the fastest woman in the world, so they lost the race moaning and crying and, with it, they lost the priceless life.

So the young Hippomenes, who had only heard to talk about the beautiful Atalanta, considered excessive the risk he would have to face in order to get her as his wife. But as soon as he saw the splendid body of the young girl who had removed the veil from her face, he fell in love and was immediately seduced.

– I’ll also try my luck; the prize is worth risking death. Gods always help those who are brave- he says inflamed. And madly in love, he continues:

– Beautiful Atalanta, you have beaten easily and effortlessly those poor boys, but now measure yourself with me, that I'm the son of Megareus. If I beat you, it won´t be a dishonorable defeat for you and if you win the race, you would have beaten Hippomenes, the great-grandson of Neptune, god of the waters.

Atalanta raising her beautiful bright eyes up looks at him tenderly.

– Why do you, foolish boy, want to risk your precious life, you who are still a child? You are beautiful and brave, because death does not scare you. So much you love and want me that you are willing to die…? Run away while you can, young handsome boy; many other pretty girls will be pleased and happy to marry you.

And perhaps touched by the sweet feeling of love for the very first time, the inexperienced and unfriendly Atalanta softens her relentless decision and thinks in the inner part of her heart:

– Why has this unhappy boy to die undeservedly as a reward for his love? I wish you, unhappy boy, had not ever seen me. If virginity was not my eternal destiny, you'd be the only one with whom I would share my wedding bed. I wish you, fool, were faster than me.
But Hippomenes already urges the race, but not before entrusting himself to the goddess of love and asking for her divine help:

– You, goddess, who has inspired my blind passion, help my fearlessness.

Venus answered the call wrapped in a white cloud, visible only to Hippomenes, and gave him three yellow apples, as bright as the sun, that he should use in the race in a certain way.

The trumpets gave the departure signal. There the two contenders go, so fast that they seem to fly. Atalanta, refusing to pass and leave the boy behind, places herself on par and, rapt, she stares at his virginal face. Hippomenes then throws one of the three bright apples, which immediately attracts the eye and interest of Atalanta. She restrains then her speed and while she´s collecting the golden fruit from the ground with curiosity, she is passed by Hippomenes. The fast Atalanta recovers the lost space and again she surpasses the young man easily. The young man throws a second fruit and once again entertains the girl, who soon also recovers the lost time. All that remains is the last stretch before the finish line. Now the young man throws strongly the third apple out of the way. Atalanta hesitates, but trusting in her swift feet, she goes to collect the golden fruit which is placed in the distance. But she miscalculated her speed or maybe the burgeoning love restrained her progress, because now she loses the race. Meanwhile Hipomenes has reached the finish line and, this way, he has reached his desired and deserved prize too, the marriage with the young virgin.

Incomprehensibly, the young Hippomenes forgot Venus and failed to thank her help. This way, the goddess felt neglected and offended by it.

One day as they were passing by the temple of Cybele, Mother of gods, they decided to rest because they were very tired due to the long trip. Hipomenes was taken by a sudden and overwhelming desire to lie with Atalanta, sparked no doubt by the vengeful Venus. Right there, in the sacred cave, in front of the divine images, they desecrate the sanctuary with their obscene love.

Mother Cybele punished their lustfulness with her divine severity: long and fierce manes cover their human necks, hands become claws, a long tail emerges from their backs, fierce they raise up their proud lion heads and their jaws make roaring noises which intimidate the rest part of the animals.

Later the goddess takes pity on them, so she ties the pair of lions with strong flex leather straps to her majestic carriage, which they´ll have to pull tireless for the whole eternity.

These are three or four examples of how Ovid can facilitate the visit to Museums such as the Prado and facilitate the understanding of dozens of works exposed there.

Latin texts

Deucalion and Pyrrha, Metamorphosis, I, 309-430:

Obruerat tumulos inmensa licentia ponti,
Pulsabantque noui montana cacumina fluctus.
Maxima pars unda rapitur: quibus unda pepercit,
Illos longa domant inopi ieiunia uictu.
Separat Aonios Oetaeis Phocis ab aruis,
Terra ferax, dum terra fuit, sed tempore in illo
Pars maris et latus subitarum campus aquarum;
Mons ibi uerticibus petit arduus astra duobus,
Nomine Parnasus, superantque cacumina nubes:
Hic ubi Deucalion (nam cetera texerat aequor)
Cum consorte tori parua rate uectus adhaesit,
Corycidas nymphas et numina montis adorant
Fatidicamque Themin, quae tunc oracla tenebat:
Non illo melior quisquam nec amantior aequi
Vir fuit aut illa metuentior ulla deorum.
Iuppiter ut liquidis stagnare paludibus orbem
Et superesse uirum de tot modo milibus unum
Et superesse uidet de tot modo milibus unam,
Innocuos ambo, cultores numinis ambo,
Nubila disiecit nimbisque aquilone remotis
Et caelo terras ostendit et aethera terris.
Nec maris ira manet, positoque tricuspide telo
Mulcet aquas rector pelagi supraque profundum
Exstantem atque umeros innato murice tectum
Caeruleum Tritona uocat conchaeque sonanti
Inspirare iubet fluctusque et flumina signo
Iam reuocare dato: caua bucina sumitur illi,
Tortilis, in latum quae turbine crescit ab imo,
Bucina, quae medio concepit ubi aera ponto,
Litora uoce replet sub utroque iacentia Phoebo.
Tunc quoque, ut ora dei madida rorantia barba
Contigit et cecinit iussos inflata receptus,
Omnibus audita est telluris et aequoris undis
Et, quibus est undis audita, coercuit omnes.
Iam mare litus habet, plenos capit alueus amnes,
Flumina subsidunt collesque exire uidentur,
Surgit humus, crescunt loca decrescentibus undis,
Postque diem longam nudata cacumina siluae
Ostendunt limumque tenent in fronde relictum.
Redditus orbis erat; quem postquam uidit inanem
Et desolatas agere alta silentia terras,
Deucalion lacrimis ita Pyrrham adfatur obortis:
"O soror, o coniunx, o femina sola superstes,
Quam commune mihi genus et patruelis origo,
Deinde torus iunxit, nunc ipsa pericula iungunt,
Terrarum, quascumque uident occasus et ortus,
Nos duo turba sumus: possedit cetera pontus.
Haec quoque adhuc uitae non est fiducia nostrae
Certa satis; terrent etiam nunc nubila mentem.
Quis tibi, si sine me fatis erepta fuisses,
Nunc animus, miseranda, foret? quo sola timorem
Ferre modo posses? quo consolante doleres?
Namque ego, crede mihi, si te quoque pontus haberet,
Te sequerer, coniunx, et me quoque pontus haberet.
O utinam possim populos reparare paternis
Artibus atque animas formatae infundere terrae!
Nunc genus in nobis restat mortale duobus
(Sic uisum superis) hominumque exempla manemus."
Dixerat, et flebant; placuit caeleste precari
Numen et auxilium per sacras quaerere sortes.
Nulla mora est: adeunt pariter Cephisidas undas,
Vt nondum liquidas, sic iam uada nota secantes.
Inde ubi libatos inrorauere liquores
Vestibus et capiti, flectunt uestigia sanctae
Ad delubra deae, quorum fastigia turpi
Pallebant musco stabantque sine ignibus arae.
Vt templi tetigere gradus, procumbit uterque
Pronus humi gelidoque pauens dedit oscula saxo,
Atque ita "si precibus" dixerunt "numina iustis
Victa remollescunt, si flectitur ira deorum,
Dic, Themi, qua generis damnum reparabile nostri
Arte sit, et mersis fer opem, mitissima, rebus."
Mota dea est sortemque dedit: "discedite templo
Et uelate caput cinctasque resoluite uestes
Ossaque post tergum magnae iactate parentis."
Obstipuere diu, rumpitque silentia uoce
Pyrrha prior iussisque deae parere recusat,
Detque sibi ueniam, pauido rogat ore pauetque
Laedere iactatis maternas ossibus umbras.
Interea repetunt caecis obscura latebris
Verba datae sortis secum inter seque uolutant.
Inde Promethides placidis Epimethida dictis
Mulcet et "aut fallax" ait "est sollertia nobis,
Aut (pia sunt nullumque nefas oracula suadent)
Magna parens terra est: lapides in corpore terrae
Ossa reor dici; iacere hos post terga iubemur."
Coniugis augurio quamquam Titania mota est,
Spes tamen in dubio est: adeo caelestibus ambo
Diffidunt monitis. sed quid temptare nocebit?
Discedunt uelantque caput tunicasque recingunt
Et iussos lapides sua post uestigia mittunt.
Saxa (quis hoc credat, nisi sit pro teste uetustas?)
Ponere duritiem coepere suumque rigorem
Mollirique mora mollitaque ducere formam.
Mox ubi creuerunt naturaque mitior illis
Contigit, ut quaedam, sic non manifesta uideri
Forma potest hominis, sed, uti de marmore coepta,
Non exacta satis rudibusque simillima signis.
Quae tamen ex illis aliquo pars umida suco
Et terrena fuit, uersa est in corporis usum;
Quod solidum est flectique nequit, mutatur in ossa;
Quae modo uena fuit, sub eodem nomine mansit;
Inque breui spatio superorum numine saxa
Missa uiri manibus faciem traxere uirorum,
Et de femineo reparata est femina iactu.
Inde genus durum sumus experiensque laborum
Et documenta damus, qua simus origine nati.
Cetera diuersis tellus animalia formis
Sponte sua peperit, postquam uetus umor ab igne
Percaluit solis caenumque udaeque paludes
Intumuere aestu fecundaque semina rerum
Viuaci nutrita solo ceu matris in aluo
Creuerunt faciemque aliquam cepere morando.
Sic, ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros
Nilus et antiquo sua flumina reddidit alueo
Aetherioque recens exarsit sidere limus,
Plurima cultores uersis animalia glaebis
Inueniunt et in his quaedam modo coepta per ipsum
Nascendi spatium, quaedam inperfecta suisque
Trunca uident numeris, et eodem in corpore saepe
Altera pars uiuit, rudis est pars altera tellus.

             …………………
The rape of Europa. Metamorphoses II, 833-875:

Has ubi uerborum poenas mentisque profanae
Cepit Atlantiades, dictas a Pallade terras
Linquit et ingreditur iactatis aethera pennis.
Seuocat hinc genitor nec causam fassus amoris:
"Fide minister" ait "iussorum, nate, meorum,
Pelle moram solitoque celer delabere cursu
Quaeque tuam matrem tellus a parte sinistra
Suspicit (indigenae Sidonida nomine dicunt),
Hanc pete, quodque procul montano gramine pasci
Armentum regale uides, ad litora uerte".
Dixit et expulsi iamdudum monte iuuenci
Litora iussa petunt, ubi magni filia regis
Ludere uirginibus Tyriis comitata solebat.
Non bene conueniunt nec in una sede morantur
Maiestas et amor; sceptri grauitate relicta,
Ille pater rectorque deum, cui dextra trisulcis
Ignibus armata est, qui nutu concutit orbem,
Induitur faciem tauri mixtusque iuuencis
Mugit et in teneris formosus obambulat herbis.
Quippe color niuis est, quam nec uestigia duri
Calcauere pedis nec soluit aquaticus Auster.
Colla toris exstant, armis palearia pendent;
Cornua parua quidem, sed quae contendere possis
Facta manu puraque magis perlucida gemma.
Nullae in fronte minae nec formidabile lumen;
Pacem uultus habet. miratur Agenore nata
Quod tam formosus, quod proelia nulla minetur;
Sed quamuis mitem, metuit contingere primo.
Mox adit et flores ad candida porrigit ora.
Gaudet amans et, dum ueniat sperata uoluptas,
Oscula dat manibus; uix iam, uix cetera differt.
Et nunc alludit uiridique exsultat in herba
Nunc latus in fuluis niueum deponit harenis;
Paulatimque metu dempto, modo pectora praebet
Virginea plaudenda manu, modo cornua sertis
Impedienda nouis. ausa est quoque regia uirgo,
Nescia quem premeret, tergo considere tauri,
Cum deus a terra siccoque a litore sensim
Falsa pedum primo uestigia ponit in undis,
Inde abit ulterius mediique per aequora ponti
Fert praedam. pauet haec litusque ablata relictum
Respicit et dextra cornum tenet, altera dorso
Imposita est; tremulae sinuantur flamine uestes.

   ………..
Orpheus and Eurydice

Inde per immensum croceo uelatus amictu
Aethera digreditur Ciconumque Hymenaeus ad oras
Tendit et Orphea nequiquam uoce uocatur.
Adfuit ille quidem, sed nec sollemnia uerba
Nec laetos uultus nec felix attulit omen;
Fax quoque, quam tenuit, lacrimoso stridula fumo
Vsque fuit nullosque inuenit motibus ignes.
Exitus auspicio grauior. nam nupta per herbas
Dum noua naiadum turba comitata uagatur,
Occidit in talum serpentis dente recepto.
Quam satis ad superas postquam Rhodopeius auras
Defleuit uates, ne non temptaret et umbras,
Ad Styga Taenaria est ausus descendere porta
Perque leues populos simulacraque functa sepulcro
Persephonen adiit inamoenaque regna tenentem
Vmbrarum dominum pulsisque ad carmina neruis
Sic ait: "o positi sub terra numina mundi,
In quem reccidimus, quidquid mortale creamur,
Si licet et falsi positis ambagibus oris
Vera loqui sinitis, non huc, ut opaca uiderem
Tartara, descendi, nec uti uillosa colubris
Terna Medusaei uincirem guttura monstri;
Causa uiae est coniunx, in quam calcata uenenum
Vipera diffudit crescentesque abstulit annos.
Posse pati uolui nec me temptasse negabo:
Vicit Amor. supera deus hic bene notus in ora est;
An sit et hic, dubito. sed et hic tamen auguror esse,
Famaque si ueteris non est mentita rapinae,
Vos quoque iunxit Amor. per ego haec loca plena timoris,
Per Chaos hoc ingens uastique silentia regni,
Eurydices, oro, properata retexite fata!
Omnia debentur uobis paulumque morati
Serius aut citius sedem properamus ad unam.
Tendimus huc omnes, haec est domus ultima, uosque
Humani generis longissima regna tenetis.
Haec quoque, cum iustos matura peregerit annos,
Iuris erit uestri: pro munere poscimus usum.
Quod si fata negant ueniam pro coniuge, certum est
Nolle redire mihi: leto gaudete duorum."
Talia dicentem neruosque ad uerba mouentem
Exsangues flebant animae: nec Tantalus undam
Captauit refugam stupuitque Ixionis orbis,
Nec carpsere iecur uolucres, urnisque uacarunt
Belides, inque tuo sedisti, Sisyphe, saxo.
Tunc primum lacrimis uictarum carmine fama est
Eumenidum maduisse genas, nec regia coniunx
Sustinet oranti nec, qui regit ima, negare
Eurydicenque uocant. umbras erat illa recentes
Inter et incessit passu de uulnere tardo.
Hanc simul et legem Rhodopeius accipit Orpheus,
Ne flectat retro sua lumina, donec Auernas
Exierit ualles; aut irrita dona futura.
Carpitur adcliuis per muta silentia trames,
Arduus, obscurus, caligine densus opaca.
Nec procul abfuerant telluris margine summae:
Hic, ne deficeret, metuens auidusque uidendi
Flexit amans oculos: et protinus illa relapsa est
Bracchiaque intendens prendique et prendere certans
Nil nisi cedentes infelix adripit auras.
Iamque iterum moriens non est de coniuge quicquam
Questa suo (quid enim nisi se quereretur amatam?)
Supremumque "uale", quod iam uix auribus ille
Acciperet, dixit reuolutaque rursus eodem est.
Non aliter stupuit gemina nece coniugis Orpheus,
Quam tria qui timidus, medio portante catenas,
Colla canis uidit; quem non pauor ante reliquit,
Quam natura prior, saxo per corpus oborto;
Quique in se crimen traxit uoluitque uideri
Olenos esse nocens, tuque, o confisa figurae,
Infelix Lethaea, tuae, iunctissima quondam
Pectora, nunc lapides, quos umida sustinet Ide.
Orantem frustraque iterum transire uolentem
Portitor arcuerat; septem tamen ille diebus
Squalidus in ripa Cereris sine munere sedit:
Cura dolorque animi lacrimaeque alimenta fuere.
Esse deos Erebi crudeles questus in altam
Se recipit Rhodopen pulsumque aquilonibus Haemum.

The post Ovid in the Prado Museum-Madrid (Ovid V) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Was the Ovid’s exile real or mere fiction? (Ovid IV)

Antonio Marco Martínez — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 03:15:09 +0000

Was the exile that fueled part of Ovid’s poetry real or was it only a poetic fiction with which the creative poet has deceived us two thousand years?

The question may seem a modern exaggeration, characteristic of scholars who seek notoriety at any price. But it is not so and it is worthwhile to devote some time to this topic that was already raised at the beginning of the 20th century, and to which since then serious reflections and studies have been dedicated.

In the eighth year after Ch. Ovid was banished, fulminantly, by Augustus to Tomis, the present Constance, in Romania, on the coasts of the Euxine Pontus, the Black Sea. He wrote three works from exile: his famous Tristia, Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters from Pontus or Pontics) and Ibis, an invective against an enemy of his who harms him in Rome. In them they are some of the poet's most famous poems. See previous articles dedicated to the poet in this blog.

The mere possibility that the exile that motivates these works is a fiction produces at least a certain restlessness and sentimental shock in which young people feel the emotional charge of some of the poems that the poet wrote in exile.

At the beginning of twentieth century, in 1923, J.J. Hartman questioned the reality of Ovid's exile and asserted that all his references to exile in Tomis were but an exercise in imaginative humorous fiction; That the "I" of the poem has nothing to do with the real "I" of the poet.

The issue was debated in the following decades with some insistence, until in 1985 Fitton Brown published an article in the Liverpool Classical Monthly, 10.2 (1985), 18-22 entitled " The unreality of Ovid's Tomitan exile", which gained the consideration and attention of numerous scholars. Periodically there are studies and articles positioned in one direction or another.

In Spain, recently, in 2008, Professor E. Berchez Castro made his doctoral thesis at the University of Barcelona on the topic: Realidad y ficción del destierro de Ovidio en Tomis (Reality and fiction of Ovid's exile in Tomis). Based on it, he has published the book ”Ovid’s exile in Tomis: reality and fiction”.

The arguments that Fitton Brown and later Berchez in a more detailed and exhaustive way wield to deny or at least seriously doubt the reality of the poet's exile we can basically group them into six or seven groups:

1. The information we have about Ovid's exile is basically what the poet himself gives us in his poems and it is full of gaps, inaccuracies and contradictions. See his autobiography in the article http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/ovid-bimillenary-of-death-of-ovid and his description of the exile in http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/ovid-bimillenary-exile-euxine-pontus

Until the fourth century no mention of this exile appears, except for one of Pliny the Elder, which is doubtful, and another of Statius (lived in 45-96).

From Pliny's quotation, the only thing that can be safely deduced is that he knew the work of Ovid and that he had been in Pontus for the last few years, but he does not make any further comment about it.

Naturalis Historia XXXII 152 (LIV):

To the above enumeration we will add some names given in the poem of Ovid, which are not to be found in any other writer: species, howevr, whicn are probably peculiar to the Euxine, on the shores of which he commenced that work towards the close of his life. The fishes thus mentioned by him are the sea-ox, the cercyrus, that dwells among the rocks… (Translated by John Bostock and H.T. Riley. 1857)

his adiciemus ab Ovidio posita animalia, quae apud neminem alium reperiuntur, sed fortassis in Ponto nascentia, ubi id volumen supremis suis temporibus inchoavit : bovem, cercyrum in scopulis vivente

Statius for his part wrote in Silvae I 2, 254-255

Bring songs that are worthy of the marriage feast. Philetas himself with Cos to applaud him and old Callimachus and Propertius in his Umbrian grot Would fain have praised this day, and Naso too right gladly e'en in Tomi, And Tibullus by the glowing hearth that was his wealth. (Translated by J.H.MOZLEY,M.A. London. 1928. THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY)

… date carmina festis
digna toris, hunc ipse Coo plaudente Philetas
Callimachusque senex Umbroque Propertius antro
ambissent laudare diem, nec tristis in ipsis
Naso Tomis divesque foco lucente Tibullus.

But it can not be inferred from this that he had been exiled to Tomis.

   Especially striking is that neither Suetonius, who so many things and gossip tells us about Augustus, nor Tacitus refer to the matter, when they report in detail the punishments of other writers at the same time.

In the fourth century, Aurelius Victor (c.320 – c.390) and Jerome (340-420) in his “Chronicon 2033” informed us of the year of his death, as we saw in the previous article in this series on the Bimillennial of Ovid’s death:

Ovid the poet died in exile, and is interred near the town of Tomi.

Ovidius poeta in exilio diem obiit et iuxta oppidum Tomos sepelitur

And also briefly in Epitome of Caesaribus, I, 24:

So (Augustus) punished with exile the poet Ovid, also known as Naso, because he wrote three books on the "art of loving".

"Nam [Augustus] poetam Ovidium, qui et Naso, pro eo, quod tres libellos amatoriae artis conscripsit, exilio damnavit").

These appointments are obviously very late already.

2. The causes of his exile are unknown to us, in spite of the numerous references to them that the poet himself makes and the infinite efforts by the numerous students since then. I mentioned something about it in the previous article http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/ovid-bimillenary-exile-euxine-pontus.

It is also unknown and unexplained why this destination was chosen: Tomis in the Euxine Pontus.
In various passages he attributes his sentence to "error" and an "indiscretion". For example very clearly in Tristia II, 207 et seq .:

Though two crimes, a poem and a blunder, have brought me ruin, of my fault in the one I must keep silent, for my worth is not such that I may reopen thy wounds, O Caesar ; 'tis more than enough that thou shouldst have been pained once. The other remains : the charge that by an obscene poem I have taught foul adultery. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

perdiderint cum me duo crimina, carmen et error,
alterius facti culpa silenda mihi :
nam non sum tanti, renovem ut tua vulnera, Caesar,
quem nimio plus est indoluisse semel.
altera pars superest, qua turpi carmine factus
arguor obsceni doctor adulterii.

Thus in his time, as Ovid himself reports, he is known as "teacher of impudent adultery," and this was directly in line with the program of morality of Augustus and the Leges Iuliae of 18 BC. To 9 d.C. which sought to defend the family and the ancient traditions, punishing adultery with exile and fineing those who had no children. These are in particular the lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis, the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus and the lex Papia Poppaea.

It is clear that his mistake was to write the "Art of loving" (Ars amandi), as already he makes clear in the poem that serves as a presentation to his Tristia: I, 1, 67-68 and then on multiple occasions:

Examine the title. I am not the teacher of love; that work has already paid its deserved penalty. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

'inspice' dic 'titulum. non sum praeceptor amoris;
quas meruit, poenas iam dedit illud opus'.

But he defends himself by affirming the difference between literature and life, that it is one thing to write and another to maintain certain behavior. In the elegy addressed to a friend orator, he says in Tristia I, 9,55 et seq:

It had been best that light had failed my pursuit. And just as you are aided, my eloquent friend, by serious arts, so arts unlike them have injured me. Yet my life is well known to you ; you know that with those arts their author's character had no connexion ; you know that this poem I was written long ago, an amusement of my youth, and that those jests, though not deserving praise, were still mere jests. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

at nostrum tenebris utinam latuisset in imis !
expediit studio lumen abesse meo.
utque tibi prosunt artes, facunde, severae,
dissimiles illis sic nocuere mihi.
vita tamen tibi nota mea est. scis artibus illis
auctoris mores abstinuisse sui :
scis vetus hoc iuveni lusum mihi carmen, et istos
ut non laudandos, sic tamen esse iocos.

He repeats this idea that it was an error and not a crime, the fault he committed, at least six or seven times in addition to that quoted: Tristia I, 1,51-52; II, 109; III 1,7-8; III, 14,5-6; III, 7,29-30; IV, 1,24; IV, 10, 99 et seq .; In Pontics II, 2,15-16; II, 3,91-94; III, 3,71-72

As Catullus had to defend himself as forced to defend himself with his poems before, and then Martial with some of his epigrams, and so many other writers since then, Ovid sets the record straight in Tristia, on Book II, 345 ff. :

This wantonness has caused thee to hate me on account of the arts which thou didst think disturbed unions that all were forbidden to attack. But no brides have learned deceptions through my teaching ; nobody can teach that of which he knows too little. I have composed songs of pleasure and love but in such fashion that no scandal has ever touched my name. No husband exists even amid the common people who doubts his fatherhood through sin of mine. 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. A book is not an evidence of one's soul, but an honourable impulse that presents very many things suited to charm the ear. Else would Accius be cruel, Terence a reveller, or those would be quarrelsome who sing of fierce war. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

haec tibi me invisum lascivia fecit, ob artes,
quis ratus es vetitos sollicitare toros.
sed neque me nuptae didicerunt furta magistro,
quodque parum novit, nemo docere potest.
sic ego delicias et mollia carmina feci,
strinxerit ut nomen fabula nulla meum.
nec quisquam est adeo media de plebe maritus,
ut dubius vitio sit pater ille meo.
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.
nec liber indicium est animi, sed honesta voluntas
plurima mulcendis auribus apta ferens.
Accius esset atrox, conviva Terentius esset,
essent pugnaces qui fera bella canunt.

In this book Tristia II, 237 et seq. he tells Emperor Augustus, engaged in the important tasks of governing such a great empire, that he is not responsible for the misuse of his poems:

Can I wonder, then, that under this weight of great affairs thou hast never unrolled the volume of my jests ? Yet if, as I could wish, thou hadst chanced to have the leisure, thou wouldst have read no crimes in my " Art." That poem, I admit, has no serious mien, it is not worthy to be read by so great a prince ; but not for that reason is it opposed to the commandments of the law, nor does it offer teaching to the daughters of Rome. And that thou may'st not doubt for whom I write, one of the three books contains these four verses* : " Far from me ! ye narrow fillets, badge of modesty ! and thou, long ruffle covering half the feet** ! I shall sing of naught but what is lawful, of loves which men allow. There shall be in my song no sin." Have I not strictly excluded from this " Art " all women whom the assumption of the robe and fillet of wedlock protect ?

But, thou mayst say, the matron can use arts intended for others and draw therefrom instruction, though she be not herself the pupil. Let the matron read nothing then, for from every song she can gain wisdom for sin. From whatever she touches, be she inclined to wrongdoing, she will equip her character for vice. Let her take up the Annals -naught is ruder than they- she will surely read by whom Ilia*** became a mother. So soon as she takes up the " Aeneadum genetrix," she will ask by whom fostering Venus became the mother of the Aeneadae****. I will show later, if only I may present it in order, that it is possible for the soul to be injured by every kind of poem. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Notes:
* The verses are in Ars Amandi, I 31-34, Art of loving, Remedia amoris 285-86
** The ribbons are the ties with which the free Roman women are tied and the purple steering wheel is worn by the matrons in the stole, which is their characteristic dress. The poet is telling us that his work is not for free Roman girls or midwives, but for slaves and professionals of love.
*** Ilia or Rea Silvia was a vestal priestess, therefore with a vow of chastity, who became pregnant with the god Mars and gave birth to the most famous Roman twins, Romulus and Remus.
**** The goddess Venus or Aphrodite, the wife of Hephaistos or Vulcan, fell in love with the mortal Anchises, she was presented to him like the daughter of Otreus, king of Phrygia and Aeneas was born from him.

mirer in hoc igitur tantarum pondere rerum
te numquam nostros evoluisse iocos ?
at si, quod mallem, vacuum tibi forte fuisset,
nullum legisses crimen in Arte mea.
illa quidem fateor frontis non esse severae
scripta, nec a tanto principe digna legi :
non tamen idcirco legum contraria iussis
sunt ea Romanas erudiuntque nurus.
neve, quibus scribam, possis dubitare, libellos,
quattuor hos versus e tribus unus habet :
" este procul, vittae tenues, insigne pudoris,
quaeque tegis medios instita longa pedes !
nil nisi legitimum concessaque furta canemus,
inque meo nullum carmine crimen erit."
ecquid ab hac omnes rigide summovimus Arte,
quas stola contingi vittaque sumpta vetat ?
" at matrona potest alienis artibus uti,
quodque trahat, quamvis non doceatur, habet."
nil igitur matrona legat, quia carmine ab omni
ad delinquendum doctior esse potest.
quodcumque attigerit, siqua est studiosa sinistri,
ad vitium mores instruet inde suos.
sumpserit Annales -nihil est hirsutius illis-
facta sit unde parens Ilia, nempe leget.
sumpserit Aeneadum genetrix ubi prima, requiret,
Aeneadum genetrix unde sit alma Venus,
persequar inferius, modo si licet ordine ferri,
posse nocere animis carminis omne genus.

And he does itso extensively, reviewing in many verses the most scurrilous episodes of Greco-Latin mythology, before which the advice of his “Art of love” may pale.

It is the idea that he also reiterates in Pontics III, 3, 49 et seq. speaking imaginatively with Eros who has appeared to him in dreams:

Yet thou knowest, and thou couldst swear it with a clear conscience, that I have not disturbed lawful wedlock. This I wrote for those who have no modest locks to be touched with the fillet nor a long stole descending to their feet. 3 Speak, I beg thee hast thou at any time learned to deceive brides, rendering descent uncertain by my precepts ? Or has not every wo nan been strictly excluded from these books whom the law protects from stealthy paramours ? Yet of what avail is this if men believe that I have composed directions for that adultery which is forbidden by stern laws ? (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

scis tamen, et liquido iuratus dicere possis,
non me legitimos sollicitasse toros.
scripsimus haec illis, quarum nee vitta pudicos
contingit crines nee stola longa pedes.
die, precor, ecquando didicisti fallere nuptas,
et facere incertum per mea iussa genus ?
an sit ab his omnis rigide summota libellis,
quam lex furtivos arcet habere viros ?
quid tamen hoc prodest, vetiti si lege severa
credor adulterii composuisse notas ?

He insists on the same idea soon after, Tristia II, 303 ff.

Far from the " Art," written for courtesans alone, its first page warns the hands of upright women. Any woman who breaks away to a place forbidden by a priest, forthwith removes from him the sin and becomes herself guilty. Nevertheless it is no crime to read tender verse ; the chaste may read much that they should not do. Often matrons of serious brow behold women nude, ready for every kind of lust. The eyes of Vestals behold the bodies of courtesans* nor has that been the cause of punishment to their owner. Yet why is my muse so wanton ? Why does my book advise anybody to love ? There is naught for me but confession of my error and my obvious fault : I repent of my talent and my tastes. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Note:
* Because they attended the Floralia festivities between April 28 and May 3, when prostitutes were exhibited naked according to the work of Ovid Fasti V, 159-378.

et procul a scripta solis meretricibus Arte
summovet ingenuas pagina prima manus.
quaecumque erupit, qua non sinit ire sacerdos,
protinus huic dempti criminis ipsa rea est.
nec tamen est facinus versus evolvere mollis ;
multa licet castae non facienda legant.
saepe supercilii nudas matrona severi
et veneris stantis ad genus omne videt.
corpora Vestales oculi meretricia cernunt,
nec domino poenae res ea causa fuit.
at cur in nostra nimia est lascivia Musa,
curve meus cuiquam suadet amare liber ?
nil nisi peccatum manifestaque culpa fatenda est :
paenitet ingenii iudiciique mei.

The whole book II is really a defense of his poetry, which in no way pretends to be a stimulus for the immorality of the Roman matrons, because it is not addressed to them. On the other hand, their alleged immoralities do not clash in the Greco-Roman cultural, religious and social context, in the context of their mythology, plagued by scabrous episodes, and their way of life.

Already at the beginning of this book II, verse 1 and ss. tells us:
What have I to do with you, ye books, illstarred object of my toil, -I, ruined and wretched through my own talent ? Why do I seek once again the Muses so recently condemned, the causes of my guilt ? Or is one well-earned penalty not enough ? Verse gave men and women a desire to know me, but 'twas no good omen for me ; verse caused Caesar to brand me and my ways by commanding that my " Art” be forthwith taken away. Take away from me my pursuit and you will take away from my life also the charges against it. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Quid mihi vobiscum est, infelix cura, libelli,
ingenio perii qui miser ipse meo ?
cur modo damnatas repeto, mea crimina, Musas ?
an semel est poenam commeruisse parum ?
carmina fecerunt, ut me cognoscere vellet
omine non fausto femina virque meo :
carmina fecerunt, ut me moresque notaret
iam demi iussa Caesar ab Arte mea.
deme mihi studium, vitae quoque crimina demes ;

But despite the problems that his poems have caused him, the poetry is a passion that he can not renounce. That passion is what made him no listening the advice of his father. See the article in this blog where I quote the famous verse what ever I tried to write was verse." "quod temptabam dicere versus erat” http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/poetry-is-a-godsend-horace-ovid-virgil

In an expressive and heartfelt way he explains why he resorts to poetry in his exile. He says in Tristia, IV, 1, 19 and ss.:

Me also the Muse comforted while on my way to the appointed lands of Pontus ; she only was the steadfast companion of my flight the -only one who fears neither treachery, nor the brand of the Sintian soldier, nor sea nor winds nor the world of the barbarians.
…………..
Well could I wish, since they were destined to work me harm, that I had ne'er set hand to the holy service of the Pierian ones. But now, what am I to do ? The very power of that holy service grips me ; madman that I am, though song has injured me, 'tis still song that I love. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

me quoque Musa levat Ponti loca iussa petentem :
sola comes nostrae perstitit ilia fugae ;
sola nee insidias, Sinti nec militis ensem,
nec mare nec ventos barbariamque timet.
…………….
non equidem vellem, quoniam nocitura fuerunt,
Pieridum sacris inposuisse manum.
sed nunc quid faciam ? vis me tenet ipsa sacrorum,
et carmen demens carmine laesus amo.

Could be the cause of exile this book, Ars Amandi, Ars amatoria, which had been circulating in Rome for more than eight years? The poet himself is surprised that the punishment has come so late. He tells us in Tristia. II, 539-546:

I too sinned in that style of composition thus a fault not new is suffering a new penalty and I had published verse when thou wert censuring our sins and I passed thee so many times, a knight uncriticized. Thus the writings which in my youth all thoughtless I supposed would harm me not, have harmed me now that I am old. Late and overfull is the vengeance for that early book, distant is the penalty from the time of the sin. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

nos quoque iam pridem scripto peccavimus isto:
supplicium patitur non nova culpa novum;
carminaque edideram, cum te delicta notantem
praeteriit totiens inreprehensus eques.
ergo quae iuvenis mihi non nocitura putavi
scripta parum prudens, nunc nocuere seni.
sera redundavit veteris vindicta libelli,
distat et a meriti tempore poena sui.

The truth is that the poet was not so young: he was 42 years old.

It does not seem, therefore, that the real cause was to have written the Ars Amandi (Ars Amatoria), but another one of more substance and gravity, as the poet himself reflects when he makes Eros himself, whom he recurs to justify his poetry, to say in Epistulae ex Ponto , III, 3, 65 et seq.

Thus methought I spoke to the winged boy, in these words methought he answered me, " By my weapons, the torch and arrows, by my mother I swear, and by Caesar's head, that I have learned naught but what is lawful from thy mastership, that there resides no crime in thine ‘ Art.' As I defend thee on this score, would I could on the rest! Thou knowest there is another thing that has injured thee more. Whatever this is (for neither should the painful tale itself be repeated nor canst thou say that thou art free from guilt), though thou dost veil thy crime under the guise of ' error ' the wrath of the judge was not too severe. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

haec ego visus eram puero dixisse volucri,
hos visus nobis ille dedisse sonos :
" per mea tela, faces, et per mea tela, sagittas,
per inatrem iuro Caesareumque caput,
nil nisi concessum nos te didicisse magistro,
Artibus et nullum crimen inesse tuis.
utque hoc, sic utinam defendere cetera possem !
scis aliud, quod te laeserit, esse, magis.
quicquid id est (neque enim debet dolor ipse referri,
nee potes a culpa dicere abesse tua)
tu licet erroris sub imagine crimen obumbres,
non gravior merito iudicis ira fuit.

There was something more serious, an indiscretion that had to do directly with Augustus, to which he refers clearly in Book II, 103 et seq .:

why did I see anything ? Why did I make my eyes guilty ? Why was I so thoughtless as to
harbour the knowledge of a fault ? Unwitting was Actaeon when he beheld Diana unclothed ; none the less he became the prey of his own hounds. Clearly, among the gods, even ill-fortune must be atoned for, nor is mischance an excuse when a deity is wronged. On that day when my ruinous mistake ravished me away, my house, humble but stainless, was destroyed humble indeed. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Cur aliquid uidi? cur noxia lumina feci?
      Cur imprudenti cognita culpa mihi?
Inscius Actaeon uidit sine ueste Dianam:
      Praeda fuit canibus non minus ille suis.
Scilicet in superis etiam fortuna luenda est,
      Nec ueniam laeso numine casus habet.
Illa nostra die, qua me malus abstulit error,
      Parua quidem periit, sed sine labe domus:

The allusion to the myth of Acteon, who saw naked Diana or Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt and was transformed into deer devoured by their own dogs, unleashed the speculations and made several think that Ovid saw something that offended to the emperor, such as Livia, his wife; Or perhaps he saw some ceremony of the Goddess or Isis cults, forbidden to men.

He insists on the guilty fact of having seen something that was not due in Tristia, III, 5, 45 et seq .:

I never sought to wreck everything by assailing the life of Caesar, which is the life of the world. I have said nothing, divulged nothing in speech, let slip no impious words by reason of too much wine : because my unwitting eyes beheld a crime, I am punished, and 'tis my sin that I possessed eyes. I cannot indeed exculpate my fault entirely, but part of it consists in error. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Non mihi quaerenti pessumdare cuncta petitum
      Caesareum caput est, quod caput orbis erat:
Non aliquid dixiue, elataue lingua loquendo est,
      Lapsaque sunt nimio uerba profana mero:
Inscia quod crimen uiderunt lumina, plector,
      Peccatumque oculos est habuisse meum.
Non equidem totam possum defendere culpam:
      Sed partem nostri criminis error habet.

And again in Tristia III, 6, 27 ff.

Tis not a brief tale or safe to say what chance made my eyes witness a baleful evil. My mind shrinks in dread from that time, as 'twere from its own wounds, and the very thought of it
renews my shame ; whatever can bring such sense of shame should be covered and hidden in the darkness of night. Nothing then will I say except that I have sinned, but by that sin sought no reward ; folly is the proper name for my crime, if you wish to give the true title to the deed. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Nec breue nec tutum, quo sint mea, dicere, casu
      Lumina funesti conscia facta mali:
Mensque reformidat, ueluti sua uulnera, tempus
      Illud, et admonitu fit nouus ipse pudor:
Sed quaecumque adeo possunt afferre pudorem,
      Illa tegi caeca condita nocte decet.
Nil igitur referam nisi me peccasse, sed illo
      Praemia peccato nulla petita mihi,
Stultitiamque meum crimen debere uocari,
      Nomina si facto reddere uera uelis.

Seen and read this whole story, apparently so detailed and so often repeated, it seems only an attempt to leave everything in the most absolute nebula and ambiguity, and consequently we are not really aware of the lack.

As I mentioned in the previous article quoted, several explanations or solutions have been proposed to the enigma of what Ovidio saw, what was his indiscretion, which evidently had to do directly with Augustus. It has been thought that perhaps Ovid was a connoisseur or participant in some scabrous episode of the imperial family, in particular of his daughter Iulia, who had been from Scribonia, or her granddaughter, Iulia also daughter of the same Scribonia and Agrippa, or even that the own Augustus had committed incest with them (remember that in the same year that the poet the Young Iulia was banished to a remote island probably by adultery); Or at some point saw the wife of Augustus naked, perhaps in the bathroom; Or saw something forbidden to men at festivals in honor of Isis or the Good Goddess; Or that he even had some love affair with the emperor's daughter; Or was a connoisseur and participant in some meeting of some group that was not a supporter of Augustus, or participated in the conspiracy of Fabius Maximus in favor of the succession of Agrippa Postumus, grandson of Augustus, and supporters of Germanicus and not of Tiberius in succession in the context of the rivalries between the "Iulii" and the "Claudii". This last hypothesis has been raised by numerous and recognized scholars. All these are unsupported hypotheses, which in any case have not been confirmed.

There is even a somewhat absurd assumption that would not deserve to be quoted unless it was the work of an expert and famous person in the study of Roman History, Jerome Carcopino (1881-1970), member of the French Academy among many other titles.

According to the imaginative proposal of this author, Ovid would actively belong to a kind of secret Neopythagorean sect that celebrates meetings where using the magic power of the numbers they conspire or they try to harm Augustus; It should be noted that Augustus had also prohibited certain divinatory practices.

3. Their participation in a plot against the emperor and the characteristics of the sentence is not well agreed. As Ovid himself tells us on several occasions, he was not exiled but relegated or confined (relegatus) without confiscation of property or loss of other rights.

Although his works were removed from the libraries and his reading was forbidden, Ovid did not suffer a "damnatio memoriae" or elimination of any reference that kept his memory, because his works have almost reached us in their totality; And all this is also somewhat contradictory to the stubbornness of Augustus and then Tiberius not to grant him forgiveness, not even to bring his destiny closer to Italy or Rome:

Tristia, II, 121 and ff.

Fallen then is my house, though pleasing to the Muses, beneath one charge albeit no small one -yet so fallen that it can rise again, if only time shall mellow the wrath of injured Caesar whose leniency in the penalty that has befallen is such that the penalty is milder than I feared. Life was granted me ; thy wrath halted ere it achieved my death : O sire, with what restraint hast thou used thy power ! Then too there is added for thou takest it not away my inherited wealth, as if life were too small a gift. Thou didst not condemn my deeds through a decree of the senate nor was my exile ordered by a special court. With words of stern invective -worthy of a prince- thou didst thyself, as is fitting, avenge thine own injury. And thy command, though severe and threatening, was yet mild in naming my punishment, for it calls me relegatus, not exile, and thou dost use therein language especially adapted to my fate. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Corruit haec igitur Musis accepta, sub uno
      Sed non exiguo crimine lapsa domus:
Atque ea sic lapsa est, ut surgere, si modo laesi
      Ematuruerit Caesaris ira, queat.
Cuius in euentu poenae clementia tanta est,
      Venerit ut nostro lenior illa metu.
Vita data est, citraque necem tua constitit ira,
      O princeps parce uiribus use tuis!
Insuper accedunt, te non adimente, paternae,
      Tamquam uita parum muneris esset, opes.
Nec mea decreto damnasti facta senatus,
      Nec mea selecto iudice iussa fuga est.
Tristibus inuectus uerbis (ita principe dignum)
      Vltus es offensas, ut decet, ipse tuas.
Adde quod edictum, quamuis immite minaxque,
      Attamen in poenae nomine lene fuit:
Quippe relegatus, non exul, dicor in illo,
      Priuaque fortunae sunt ibi uerba meae.

He reiterates the same idea that he was not declared exul, ie "exiled" with loss of rights, but relegatus (relegated, expelled from the country maintaining fundamental rights) and almost in the same terms in Book V, 2bis, 11 et seq .; I avoid what would be a mere redundancy.

Recall how at the beginning of Tristia II, in verse 8, cited above he tells us that his works have been taken off:

; verse caused Caesar to brand me and my ways by commanding that my " Art” be forthwith taken away.

carmina fecerunt, ut me moresque notaret
iam demi iussa Caesar ab Arte mea.

In Tristia III, 1, 65 ff. he exposes the very fact of the exclusion of his books from public libraries in Rome. It is the book itself, that goes to Rome and has arrived at the temple of Apollo in which the books are exposed, the one who speaks and tells us:

I was seeking my brothers, save those indeed whom their father would he had never begot, and as I sought to no purpose, from that abode the guard who presides over the holy place commanded me to depart. A second temple I approached, one close to a theatre : this too might not be visited by my feet. Nor did Liberty allow me to touch her halls, the first that were opened to learned books.

The fate of our unfortunate sire overflows upon his offspring, and we suffer at our birth the exile which he has borne. Perhaps sometime both to us and to him Caesar conquered by long years will be less severe. O gods, or rather (for it is not meet that I should pray to a throng), Caesar, mightiest of gods, hearken to my prayer ! . (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

quaerebam fratres, exceptis scilicet illis,
quos suus optaret non genuisse pater,
quaerentem frustra custos e sedibus illis
praepositus sancto iussit abire loco,
altera templa peto, vicino iuncta theatro :
haec quoque erant pedibus non adeunda meis.
nec me, quae doctis patuerunt prima libellis,
atria Libertas tangere passa sua est.
in genus auctoris miseri fortuna redundat,
et patimur nati, quam tulit ipse, fugam.
forsitan et nobis olim minus asper et illi
evictus longo tempore Caesar erit.
di, precor, atque adeo neque enim mihi turba roganda est-
Caesar, ades voto, maxime dive, meo !

And something similar in Epistulae ex Ponto, I, 1,1 and ss .:

Naso, no recent dweller now in the land of Tomis, sends to you this work from the Getic shore. If you have leisure, entertain and harbour, Brutus, these poems from a foreign land ; hide them away where you will, yet somewhere. They venture not to enter a public memorial for fear their master has closed for them this way. Ah, how often have I said, " Surely you give no base instruction ! Go ! Clean verse may freely enter that place ! " Yet these verses go not thither, but as you see they deem it safer to lie in the seclusion of a private household. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Naso Tomitanae iam non novus incola terrae
hoc tibi de Getico litore mittit opus,
si vacat, hospitio peregrinos, Brute, libellos
excipe, dumque aliquo, quolibet abde loco.
publica non audent intra monimenta venire,
ne suus hoc illis clauserit auctor iter.
a ! quotiens dixi " certe nil turpe docetis :
ite, patet castis versibus ille locus ! "
non tamen accedunt, sed, ut aspicis ipse, latere
sub Lare privato tutius esse putant.

4. There is also a whole series of data that the poet contributes that we can consider as incompatible with reality, such as the last night in Rome and his farewell, the description of the trip, the starting point, the storm at sea, the route followed. Everything seems riddled with rhetorical elements and literary topics (that of the storm especially significant and with long tradition in epic poetry), and consequently everything seems exaggerated, distorted, false, hardly credible to the reader.

We do not know all the data about the trip that we could consider objective: we do not know the exact point in which it embarked: Ostia, Brindisi, another port more on the north? The route does not seem adequate for a Roman merchant ship; The duration seems excessively long.

5. The supporters of the hypothesis of the non-reality of exile find many arguments that we can consider as objectives in the geographical description of Tomis and its location, its port, the arid landscape, its always wintry climate according to the poet in a locus horribilis and does not coincide with what the modern paleoclimatic studies of the Istria or Danube and its waters indicate, the wrong location of the Polar Star that he says it is on the head of its inhabitants and that would place much more to the north. The place on the other hand had been visited from many hundreds of years before by Greek merchants and then by Romans.

The description of such a horrible place is made especially in Tristia III, 10, a poem dedicated precisely to this description, which all critics consider exaggerated and topical. Even the poet himself must have noticed his exaggerations when in verses 35 et seq. he warns us:

I may scarce hope for credence, but since there is no reward for a falsehood, the witness ought to be believed. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

vix equidem credar, sed, cum sint praemia falsi
nulla, ratam debet testis habere fidem :

For the rest, scholars have pointed out how this description is absolutely indebted to Virgil's description of Scythia and its climate in Georgics, III, 349-366. I will avoid reproducing the texts so as not to lengthen an already excessive article.

Curiously Ovid himself also makes a quick reference to frozen Scythian at the beginning of his Metamorphosis I, 61 et seq.

At His command
to far Aurora, Eurus took his way,
to Nabath, Persia, and that mountain range
first gilded by the dawn; and Zephyr's flight
was towards the evening star and peaceful shores,
warm with the setting sun; and Boreas
invaded Scythia and the northern snows;
and Auster wafted to the distant south
where clouds and rain encompass his abode.
(Traslated by Brookes More, 1922)

Eurus ad Auroram Nabataeaque regna recessit
Persidaque et radiis iuga subdita matutinis;
vesper et occiduo quae litora sole tepescunt,
proxima sunt Zephyro: Scythiam septemque triones
horrifer invasit Boreas: contraria tellus
nubibus adsiduis pluviaque madescit ab Austro.

The Boreas is the frigid north wind and the Seven Trions (seven oxen) is the constellation of the Great Bear or the Wagon.

According to these authors, as Berchez, in the choice of destiny, so distant, so inhospitable, so inexplicable, the poet seeks to increase the feeling of mourning in the reader.

6. It also disconcerts the description of its inhabitants, exaggeratedly ferocious and semi-savage, the poor differentiation of the various ethnic groups, and above all the affirmation that there was no one to speak with in Latin or Greek and had to do so only in the languge of the Getae or in Sarmatian, languages in which he tells us that he got to compose poems. Certainly there would be some Greek merchant or some Roman official there

In any case, if we are to believe in the reality of the exile, Ovid was fully devoted to his poetic passion in this very adverse environment; There wrote his Tristia, Epistulae ex Ponto, Ibis, Nux, Halieutica and it is possible that he continued with the writing of the Fasti, which he had only completed for the first six months of the year. All these works were sent to Rome. Of course the poet presents his task as a way to forget and make bearable his misfortune. He tells us in several passages as Tristia IV 10, 111-132, or in Tristia V, 7, 39 et seq. which I reproduce:

I busy my mind with studies beguiling my grief, trying to cheat my cares. What else am I to do, all alone on this forsaken shore, what other resources for my sorrows should I try to seek? If I look upon the country, 'tis devoid of charm, nothing in the whole world can be more cheerless ; if I look upon the men, they are scarce men worthy the name ; they have more of cruel savagery than wolves. They fear not laws ; right gives way to force, and justice lies conquered beneath the aggressive sword. With skins and loose breeches they keep off the evils of the cold ; their shaggy faces are protected with long locks. A few retain traces of the Greek tongue, but even this is rendered barbarous by a Getic twang. There is not a single man among these people who perchance might express in Latin any common words
whatsoever. I, the Roman bard -pardon, ye Muses ! -am forced to utter most things in Sarmatian fashion. Lo ! I am ashamed to confess it ; now from long disuse Latin words with difficulty occur even to me ! And I doubt not there are even in this book not a few barbarisms, not the fault of the man but of the place. Yet for fear of losing the use of the Ausonian tongue and lest my own voice grow dumb in its native sound, I talk to myself, dealing again with disused words and seeking again the ill-omened currency of my art.

Thus do I drag out my life and my time, thus do I withdraw myself from the contemplation of my woes. Through song I seek oblivion from my wretchedness. If such be the rewards I win by my pursuit, 'tis enough. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

detineo studiis animum falloque dolores,
experior curis et dare verba meis.
quid potius faciam desertis solus in oris,
quamve mails aliam quaerere coner opem ?
sive locum specto, locus est inamabilis, et quo
esse nihil toto tristius orbe potest,
sive homines, vix sunt homines hoc nomine digni,
quamque lupi, saevae plus feritatis habent.
non metuunt leges, sed cedit viribus aequum,
victaque pugnaci iura sub ense iacent.
pellibus et laxis arcent mala frigora bracis,
oraque sunt longis horrida tecta comis.
in paucis remanent Graecae vestigia linguae,
haec quoque iam Getico barbara facta sono.
unus in hoc nemo est populo, qui forte Latine
quaelibet e medio reddere verba queat.
ille ego Romanus vates ignoscite, Musae !
Sarmatico cogor plurima more loqui.
en pudet et fateor, iam desuetudine longa
vix subeunt ipsi verba Latina mihi.
nee dubito quin sint et in hoc non pauca libello
barbara : non hominis culpa, sed ista loci,
ne tamen Ausoniae perdam commercia linguae,
et fiat patrio vox mea muta sono,
ipse loquor mecum desuetaque verba retracto,
et studii repeto signa sinistra mei.
sic animum tempusque traho, sic meque reduco
a contemplatu summoveoque mali.
carminibus quaero miserarum oblivia rerum :
praemia si studio consequar ista, sat est.

It does not seem, therefore, that the place was as "horribilis" as the poet repeatedly draws it.

7. The authors who question the reality of the exile add other important ones that they deduce from the literary study of the texts themselves to all these reasons. Thus the information about the Pontus has been obtained from various literary sources. As I have commented, the influence of Virgil and the description of Scythia and its climate in Georgics III, 349 et seq. is evident.

Other purely literary reasons are the disposition and structure itself of the Tristia I, as if it were a piece of speech, the forms and reiterations used.

It is also argued that the amorous elegy had reached its exhaustion after the works of Catullus, Propertius, Tibulus, and Ovid himself, who now uses his capacity to create works of fiction, as he had done in his Heroids or imaginary letters of mythical heroines

In this creative work he also finds that there are many literary possibilities offered by the rhetorical resources he handles so well, such as the oppositions present / past, friends / loneliness, civilization and Roman security / barbarism, etc. With all this he creates a new poetry very attractive, the poetry of exile, which sometimes mixes and confuses fiction with reality and was inspired and served as a model later to the present day.

The scholars deduce from all this that there was no exile of Ovid or at least it is not proven to exist. But a study also critical of all these reasons would force us to conclude that they are neither definitive nor conclusive, and all can be denied from the perspective of the historical truth of exile. We can also ask ourselves why if the exile was not real, nobody made it see, no one denounced it, nobody noted that it was a fiction?

To be more exact, all except the argument that we can call “ex silentio”, that is, the really striking fact that neither the poets of his time and later until the fourth century nor the historians, especially Suetonius and Tacitus, make reference to this exile and punishment when instead they reflect the convictions of several other authors. This is probably the strongest argument in favor of the possible non-reality of exile.

In any case it is difficult to forget the sown doubt and a new reading of these poems from the perspective of their unreality is very suggestive and disturb. The wide selection of texts offered is certainly enough to leave open the question.

We can note as a curiosity that the exile of Ovid has ever been fictionalized in modern times. Sometimes this is a good way to get closer to the reality of the story. I will cite only three:

God was born in exile (1960) (Dieu est né en exil), by Vintila Horia, who received the Goncourt Prize in 1960 and also provoked the controversy and reaction of the cultural left captained by Sartre.

The Austrian Christoph Ransmayr wrote The Last World (1989)

The Spanish Pablo Montoy, wrote Far from Rome (2008, reissued in 2016) (Lejos de Roma)

In any case and to end this series on the two-thousandth anniversary of the death of Ovid I will reproduce what is considered to be the epitaph that the poet himself left written for himself and commissioned his wife in Tristia, III, 3, 73-76; It may be a joke more, the result of his powerful imagination, but this will not prevent us, travelers through his works two thousand years later, wherever he is, we want him to "rest peacefully in peace."

I, WHO LIE HERE, WITH TENDER LOVES ONCE PLAYED,
NASO, THE BARD, WHOSE LIFE HIS WIT BETRAYED.
GRUDGE NOT, O LOVER, AS THOU PASSEST BY,
A PRAYER I " SOFT MAY THE BONES OF NASO LIE !

HIC EGO QUI IACEO TENERORVM LVSOR AMORUM
INGENIO PERII NASO POETA MEO
AT TIBI QVI TRANSIS NE SIT GRAVE QVISQVIS AMASTI
DICERE NASONIS MOLLITER OSSA CVBENT

The post Was the Ovid’s exile real or mere fiction? (Ovid IV) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Ovid among the barbarians of the Euxine Pontus. (Ovid III)

Antonio Marco Martínez — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 00:36:38 +0000

In the eighth year of our era, the cheerful and worldly Latin poet Ovid was in Elba island in the company of his friend Maximus whose full name was Marcus Aurelius Cotta Máximus, son of Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus, the protector of some literates. There Ovid received from the emperor Augustus a letter with the charge of serious crimes and the order to appear quickly in Rome, where he received the immediate condemnation of exile to the frontiers of the Empire.

Before the end of the year, he must to leave Rome and Italy to the coasts of the Euxine Pontus, to the city of Tomis, present Constanza in Romania, on the border of the Getae and Sarmatians. A soldier accompanied him only on the outward journey. He was born on February 20, 43 BC, the next year after the murder of Julius Caesar; He was 52 years old. There he died 9 years later, in 17, sad and melancholy because he never got the forgiveness of Augustus nor of Tiberius to return to Rome or to leave at least that destiny so inhospitable.

In a letter to his friend Cotta Máximus, years later, collected in Pontic, II, 3.83-90, he reminds us of the day he received the unfortunate news:

Aethalian Ilva last saw us together and received the tears as they fell from our sorrowing cheeks. Then at your question whether the news was true which the ill repute of my sin had brought, I wavered between dubious confession and dubious denial, fear telling the tale of my timidity, and like the snow which rainy Auster melts tears of dismay welled up and coursed along my cheeks.
(Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

ultima me tecum vidit maestisque cadentes
excepit lacrimas Aethalis Ilva genis :
cum tibi quaerenti, num verus nuntius esset,
attulerat culpae quem mala fama meae,
inter confessum dubie dubieque negantem
haerebam, pavidas dante timore notas,
exemploque nivis, quam mollit aquaticus Auster,
gutta per attonitas ibat oborta genas.

As I said in an earlier article, http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/ovid-bimillenary-of-death-of-ovid we do not know precisely the exact day of his death, which should have been in winter, and the year we know from the information that Jerome includes in his book Eusebius Chronicles, Chronicon 2033, which he makes corresponding with the year 18 of Christ, with the Olympics 199th, with the 4th of the reign of Herod and with the 4th also of Tiberius. Interestingly in that same year Livy also died, but in his homeland Patavium, the Padova of today. As a result, two thousand years of his death are now fulfilled.

Jerome says in Chronicon 2033:

Ovid the poet died in exile, and is interred near the town of Tomi.

“Ovidius poeta in exsilio perit, et juxta oppidum Tomos sepelitur”

Ovid wrote there one of the most famous poems in Latin literature: one in which he remembers his last day in Rome, which has also been a subject of study and exercise for every student of Latin for centuries; I refer to the Elegy 3th of the book I of his Tristia. At the end of the article I will reproduce the whole poem, because it is not too long, only 102 verses, to be exact.

Ovid was not devoted to the forum or rhetoric, as his father intended, but to the poetry for which he was especially gifted. In Rome he led the life of the members of a wealthy society, carefree and ready to live in leisure and permanent fun.

In consonance with this kind of life, he first wrote love or rather erotic poems or elegies, since they refer to physical and carnal love and not to the idealized and romantic. Amores, The Art of Love (Ars amandi or Ars Amatoria), "The Cure for Love" (Remedia amoris) and Women's Facial Cosmetics" (Medicamina Faciei Femineae) are the works of this period and this theme, and he will then tackle other themes of more substance such as The Metamorphoses, and Fasti, a work not without irony. I have spoken briefly about that in the previous article.

Well, the works of erotic-love content undoubtedly impacted Roman society and clashed with the imperial policy of moralizing public life and marriage that Augustus intended to develop, according to the “mos maiorum” or customs of the ancestors. These books soon earned him the reputation of "immorality", which has not abandoned him to this day. The Christianity, that was becoming a religion of the Empire, contributed decisively to this severed judgment.

But was Ovid really an "immoral"? Time and again he tells us that his life was blameless. But then, what crime had he committed to suffer the harsh punishment? The poet himself gives us some clues in his own works and from the antiquity to the present day we continue searching in the texts to find the cause, which we do not really know. In fact, the most valuable information is the one that the poet himself brings in his Tristia (Sadnesses) and his Pontics (Letters from the Pontus) and it is in them where it is searched again and again.

He repeats in these works to the satiety and monotony three ideas: the description of his painful situation, inmany dangers and lacking any comfort to produce in his family and friends the feeling of absolute abandonment; The confession of which he was guilty, but only of an error and stupidity that not of a crime or malicious behavior; And the praise of the majesty and benevolence of the emperor and his family to await forgiveness.

The poet himself is aware and knows the criticism he has for repeating over and over again the same: his request for forgiveness od the emperor. Thus he says in Ex Ponto III, 9, 39-45:

Because these compositions of mine contain the same thought, Brutus, you report that somebody is carping at my verse : nothing (he says) but petitioning that I may enjoy a land nearer home, and talk of the throng of enemies encircling me. Ah, how the critic seizes on but one of many shortcomings ! If this is the only blemish of my Muse, 'tis well. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Quod sit in his eadem sententia, Brute, libellis,
      Carmina nescio quem carpere nostra refers:
Nil nisi me terra fruar ut propiore rogare,
      Et quam sim denso cinctus ab hoste loqui.
O, quam de multis uitium reprehenditur unum!
Hoc peccat solum si mea Musa, bene est.

On several occasions he describes his plight in exile. It is sufficiently expressive the reference in Tristia V, 7,11-24, that some editions titrate precisely "Ovid among the barbarians." He says there in a letter of uncertain date and also addressed to a person not known by us:

" AMONG THE GOTHS "

The letter which you are reading has come to you from that land where the broad Hister adds his waters to the sea. If you are blessed with life and the sweetness of safety, bright is still one spot in my life. Doubtless you are asking, as ever, dearest one, how I fare, though this you can know even if I speak not. I am wretched -this is the brief sum of my woes- and so will all be who live subject to Caesar's wrath. What the people of the land of Tomis are like, amid what customs I live, are you interested to know ? Though upon this coast there is a mixture of Greeks and Getae, it derives more from the scarce pacified Getae. Greater hordes of Sarmatae and Getae go and come upon their horses along the roads. Among them there is not one who does not bear quiver and bow, and darts yellow with viper's gall. Harsh voices, grim countenances, veritable pictures of Mars, neither hair nor beard trimmed by any hand, right hands not slow to stab and wound with the knife which every barbarian wears fastened to his side. Among such men, alas ! your bard is living, forgetful of the loves with which he played : such men he sees, such men he hears, my friend. Would he might not live, but die among them, and yet so that his shade might leave this hated place ! (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Quam legis, ex ilia tibi venit epistula terra,
latus ubi aequoreis additur Hister aquis.
si tibi contingit cum dulci vita salute,
candida fortunae pars manet una meae,
scilicet, ut semper, quid agam, carissime, quaeris,
quamvis hoc vel me scire tacente potes.
sum miser; haec brevisest nostrorum summa malorum,
quisquis et offenso Caesare vivit ? erit.
turba Tomitanae quae sit regionis et inter
quos habitem mores, discere cura tibi est ?
mixta sit haec quamvis inter Graecosque Getasque,
a male pacatis plus trahit ora Getis.
Sarmaticae maior Geticaeque frequentia gentis
per medias in equis itque reditque vias.
in quibus est nemo, qui non coryton et arcum
telaque vipereo lurida felle gerat.
vox fera, trux vultus, verissima Martis imago,
non coma, non ulla barba resecta manu,
dextera non segnis fixo dare vulnera cultro,
quem iunctum lateri barbarus omnis habet.
vivit in his heu nunc, lusorum oblitus amorum,
hos videt, hos vates audit, amice, tuus :
atque utinam vivat non et moriatur in illis,
absit ab invisis et tamen umbra locis.

And then in Ponticae I, 3, 57-60 he completes the description of the unfortunate situation, although he certainly seems to be exaggerating reality because the shores of the Black Sea are a summer destination appealing to many people in neighboring countries:

" But," I suppose, " though I am separated from the land of my birth, I have yet had the good fortune to be in a place where men dwell ! " At the edge of the world I lie abandoned on the strand, where the buried earth supports constant snows. No fields here produce fruit, nor sweet grapes, no willows are green upon the bank, nor oaks upon the hill. Nor can you praise the sea more than the land, for the sunless waters ever heave beneath the madness of the winds. Wherever you gaze, lie plains with no tillers, vast steppes which no man claims. Close at hand on the right and left is a dreaded enemy terrifying us with imminent fear on both sides. One side is on the eve of feeling the Bistonian spears, the other the darts sped by the hand of the Sarmatian. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

at, puto, qua genitus fueram, tellure carenti
in tamen humano contigit esse loco,
orbis in extremi iaceo desertus harenis,
fert ubi perpetuas obruta terra nives.
non ager hic pomum, non dulces educat uvas,
non salices ripa, robora monte virent.
neve fretum laudes terra magis, aequora semper
ventorum rabie solibus orba tument.
quocumque aspicies, campi cultore carentes
vastaque, quae nemo vindicat, arva iacent.
hostis adest dextra laevaque a parte timendus,
vicinoque metu terret utrumque latus.
altera Bistonias pars est sensura sarisas,
altera Sarmatica spicula missa manu.

In various passages he attributes his sentence to an "error" and an indiscretion. For example, in Tristia II, 207 et seq.

Though two crimes, a poem and a blunder, have brought me ruin, of my fault in the one I
must keep silent, for my worth is not such that I may reopen thy wounds, O Caesar ; 'tis more than enough that thou shouldst have been pained once. The other remains : the charge that by an obscene poem I have taught foul adultery. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

perdiderint cum me duo crimina, carmen et error,
alterius facti culpa silenda mihi :
nam non sum tanti, renovem ut tua vulnera, Caesar,
quem nimio plus est indoluisse semel.
altera pars superest, qua turpi carmine factus
arguor obsceni doctor adulterii.

Thus in his time, as Ovid himself reports, he is known as "teacher of impudent adultery," and this was directly in conflict with the program of morality of Augustus and the Leges Iuliae which sought to defend the family and ancient traditions, punishing adultery with exile and fining those who had no children. But he defends himself by affirming the difference between literature and life, that it is one thing to write and another to maintain certain behavior. In the elegy addressed to a friend orator, he says in Tristia I, 9,55 and ss:

It had been best that light had failed my pursuit. And just as you are aided, my eloquent friend, by serious arts, so arts unlike them have injured me. Yet my life is well known to you ; you know that with those arts their author's character had no connexion ; you know that this poem I was written long ago, an amusement of my youth, and that those jests, though not deserving praise, were still mere jests. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

at nostrum tenebris utinam latuisset in imis !
expediit studio lumen abesse meo.
utque tibi prosunt artes, facunde, severae,
dissimiles illis sic nocuere mihi.
vita tamen tibi nota mea est. scis artibus illis
auctoris mores abstinuisse sui :
scis vetus hoc iuveni lusum mihi carmen, et istos
ut non laudandos, sic tamen esse iocos.

Could it then be the cause of exile this book, Ars Amandi, which also had already more than eight years circulating in Rome?

Rather it seems an added excuse to another motive of more substance, to the indiscretion to which shortly after, in the same book II, 103 and ss the poet makes reference:

why did I see anything ? Why did I make my eyes guilty ? Why was I so thoughtless as to harbour the knowledge of a fault ? Unwitting was Actaeon when he beheld Diana unclothed ; none the less he became the prey of his own hounds. Clearly, among the gods, even ill-fortune must be atoned for, nor is mischance an excuse when a deity is wronged. On that day when my ruinous mistake ravished me away, my house, humble but stainless, was destroyed humble indeed, (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Cur aliquid uidi? cur noxia lumina feci?
      Cur imprudenti cognita culpa mihi?
Inscius Actaeon uidit sine ueste Dianam:
      Praeda fuit canibus non minus ille suis.
Scilicet in superis etiam fortuna luenda est,
      Nec ueniam laeso numine casus habet.
Illa nostra die, qua me malus abstulit error,
      Parua quidem periit, sed sine labe domus:

The allusion to the myth of Acteon, who saw Diana or Artemis naked, the virgin goddess of the hunt and was transformed into deer devoured by their own dogs, unleashed the speculations and made several think that Ovide saw something that offended to the emperor, such as Livia, his wife; Or perhaps he saw some ceremony of the Good Goddess or Isis cults, forbidden to men.

Several other explanations or solutions have also been proposed to the riddle of what Ovid saw, what his indiscretion was. It has been thought that Ovid might have been acquainted with, or participated in, some scurrilous episode in the imperial family, in particular of his daughter, or granddaughter, or of the emperor himself; Or at some point he saw the wife of Augustus naked; Or that he even had some love affair with the emperor's daughter; Or that he was a connoisseur and participant in some meeting of some group not in favor of Augustus, or of supporters of Germanicus and not of Tiberius in succession in the context of the rivalries between the Julians and the Claudians. All these are unsupported hypotheses, which in any case have not been confirmed.

There is even a somewhat absurd assumption that would not deserve to be quoted unless it was the work of an expert and famous person in the study of Roman history, Jerome Carcopino (1881-1970), member of the French Academy with many other titles.

According to the imaginative proposal of this author, Ovid would actively belong to a kind of secret Neopythagorean sect that celebrates meetings where using the magic power of the numbers conspire or try to harm Augustus.

I do not want to go any further into this question, because I leave for another article the analysis of possible causes and a really striking proposal that appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century and which has resurfaced more recently with some force: I am referring to the possible non-existence of exile so famous, that it would have been but a fiction more of a creative poet that so many things fictioned or imagined, as the Heroides or letters of mythological women to their lovers.

Thus, in various passages he insists on the guilty fact of having seen something he should not have seen, but never clarifies it and we remain unknowingly despite the efforts that scholars have made since then to this day. And so we remained without knowing the fault.

The poet himself also explains the conditions of his sentence, in Tristia, II, 121 et seq.

Fallen then is my house, though pleasing to the Muses, beneath one charge albeit no small one -yet so fallen that it can rise again, if only time shall mellow the wrath of injured Caesar whose leniency in the penalty that has befallen is such that the penalty is milder than I feared. Life was granted me ; thy wrath halted ere it achieved my death : O sire, with what restraint hast thou used thy power ! Then too there is added for thou takest it not away my inherited wealth, as if life were too small a gift. Thou didst not condemn my deeds through a decree of the senate nor was my exile ordered by a special court. With words of stern invective -worthy of a prince- thou didst thyself, as is fitting, avenge thine own injury. And thy command, though severe and threatening, was yet mild in naming my punishment, for it calls me relegatus, not exile, and thou dost use therein language especially adapted to my fate. (Translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library.)

Corruit haec igitur Musis accepta, sub uno
      Sed non exiguo crimine lapsa domus:
Atque ea sic lapsa est, ut surgere, si modo laesi
      Ematuruerit Caesaris ira, queat.
Cuius in euentu poenae clementia tanta est,
      Venerit ut nostro lenior illa metu.
Vita data est, citraque necem tua constitit ira,
      O princeps parce uiribus use tuis!
Insuper accedunt, te non adimente, paternae,
      Tamquam uita parum muneris esset, opes.
Nec mea decreto damnasti facta senatus,
      Nec mea selecto iudice iussa fuga est.
Tristibus inuectus uerbis (ita principe dignum)
      Vltus es offensas, ut decet, ipse tuas.
Adde quod edictum, quamuis immite minaxque,
      Attamen in poenae nomine lene fuit:
Quippe relegatus, non exul, dicor in illo,
      Priuaque fortunae sunt ibi uerba meae.

He reiterates in almost the same terms the same idea that he was not declared exul, ie "exiled" with loss of rights, but relegatus (relegated, expelled from the country maintaining fundamental rights) in Book V, 2bis, 11 And ss .; I avoid what would be a mere redundancy.

So the poet, without any process, was not actually exiled but confined to Tomis, without confiscation of property or loss of any other right.

As I said above, on the road to exile and in his own exile he continued to write poems and finding in it the only consolation. In that village, far from Rome, in a harsh and inhospitable climate inhabited by Getae and Sarmatians, who speak a language unintelligible by a Roman or Greek, Ovid wrote his famous poems "Tristia" ; His Letters from Pontus or Pontics (Ex Ponto) addressed to his wife and friends in Rome and also to some enemy, and in them some of the most exciting verses of Latin literature. There he also wrote a harsh invective, Ibis, against an individual who harmed his situation in exile.

Some literary critics, excessively cruel, consider these works as a mere exercise of empty rhetoric and servile petition for clemency. But they are absolutely unjust, because in these elegies is one of the most beautiful and exciting poems of Latin poetry, which can not tarnish some cooler and more formal literary and rhetorical resources.

I refer in particular to the third poem of the first book of his "Tristia", in which he reminds us of his last night in his house in Rome and his departure for exile. There are many other passages in which he shows a sense of love and gratitude to his wife, who has remained in Rome for not to suffer the hardships of a hostile land and take care of the family home; Or the consolation that poetry gives him, that he must declaim in the wind alone, in order not to forget Latin, his tongue, because no one speaks it there. He even learned the language of those barbarians and wrote some poem in it. Or the little consolation that gives him the fact that your parents have died and have not seen the misfortune of your child.

Passages and moments of interest are many. I will reproduce, fulfilling the objective of this blog, the aforementioned third complete elegy, in which the poet remembers the last night that happened in Rome and the sad moment of the departure. This elegy has excited thousands of students of Latin who had to translate and comment as a school exercise. To paraphrase the poet, I will also say that "when I remember those years in which I had to translate this poem, I still feel the emotion of that moment". May this elegy encourage the reader to a complete reading of the works of Ovid.

Tristia I, 3 THE NIGHT OF EXILE

When steals upon me the gloomy memory of that night which marked my latest hours in the
City – when I recall that night on which I left so many things dear to me, even now from my eyes the teardrops fall.

Already the morning was close at hand on which Caesar had bidden me to depart from Ausonia's furthest bounds. No time had there been or spirit to get ready what might suit best ; my heart had become numb with the long delay. I took no thought to select my slaves or my companions or the clothing and outfit suited to an exile. I was as dazed as one who, smitten by the fire of Jove, still lives and knows not that he lives. But when my very pain drove away the cloud upon my mind and at length my senses revived, I addressed for the last time as I was about to depart my sorrowing friends of whom, just now so many, but one or two remained. My loving wife was in my arms as I wept, herself weeping more bitterly, tears raining constantly over her innocent cheeks. My daughter was far separated from us on the shores of Libya, and we could not inform her of my fate. Wherever you had looked was the sound of mourning and lamentation, and within the house was the semblance of a funeral with its loud outcries. Men and women, children too, grieved at this funeral of mine ; in my home every corner had its tears. If one may use in a lowly case a lofty example, such was the appearance of Troy in the hour of her capture.

Now the voices of men and dogs were hushed and the moon aloft was guiding her steeds through the night. Gazing up at her, and by her light at the Capitol, which, all in vain, adjoined my home, I prayed : "Ye deities that dwell near by and ye temples never henceforth to be seen by my eyes, ye gods of this lofty city of Quirinus, whom I must leave, receive from me this my salutation for all time ! And although too late I take up the shield when wounded, yet disburden of hatreds this banishment of mine ; tell to that man divine what error beguiled me, that he may not think a fault to be a crime and that what you know he too, the author of my punishment, may feel. If the god be appeased I cannot be wretched."

With such prayer as this I appealed to the gods, my wife with many more, the sobs interrupting her cries half uttered. She even cast herself with flowing hair before the Lares, touching the cold hearth with quivering lips and pouring forth to the Penates before her many words not destined to avail the spouse she mourned.

Now night hurrying to her close refused me time for lingering, and the Parrhasian bear had
wheeled about her axis. What was I to do ? The enthralling love of country held me, yet that was the last night before the exile that had been decreed. Alas ! how many times did I say, as somebody hastened by, " Why do you hurry me ? Consider whither you are hastening or whence ! " Alas ! how many times did I falsely say that I had a definite hour suited to my intended journey. Thrice I touched the threshold, thrice did something call me back, and my very feet moved slowly to gratify my inclination. Oft when I had said farewell once again I uttered many words, and as if I were in the act of setting forth I gave the final kisses. Oft I gave the same parting directions, thus beguiling myself, with backward look at the objects of my love. At last I said, " Why hasten ? Tis Scythia whither I am going, 'tis Rome that I must leave. Both are good reasons for delay. My wife lives and 1 live, but she is being denied me forever and my home and the sweet inmates of that faithful home, and the comrades I have loved with a brother's love, O hearts knit to me with Theseus' faith ! Whilst I may I will embrace you. Never more perhaps shall I have the chance. The hour granted me is so much gain."

No longer delaying I left my words unfinished and embraced each object dearest to my heart.
During my talk and our weeping, bright in the lofty sky Lucifer had arisen, to me a baneful star.
I was torn asunder as if I were leaving my limbs behind a very half seemed broken from the body to which it belonged. Such was the anguish of Mettus when the steeds were driven apart, punishing his treachery. Then in truth arose the cries and laments of my people ; sorrowing hands beat upon naked breasts. Then in truth my wife, as she hung upon my breast at parting, mingled these sad words with my tears, " I cannot suffer you to be torn away. Together, together we will go ; I will follow you and be an exile's exiled wife. For me too the journey has been commanded, for me too there is room in the faraway land. My entrance will add but a small freight to your exile ship. You are commanded to flee your country by Caesar's wrath, I by my loyal love. This love shall be for me a Caesar."

Such was her attempt, as it had been before, and with difficulty did she surrender her resolve
for my profit. I set forth if it was not rather being carried forth to burial without a funeral
unkempt, my hair falling over my unshaven cheeks. She, frenzied by grief, was overcome, they say, by a cloud of darkness, and fell half dead in the midst of our home. And when she rose, her tresses fouled with unsightly dust, raising her body from the cold ground, she lamented now her deserted self, now the deserted Penates, and often called the name of her ravished husband, groaning as if she had seen the bodies of her daughter and myself resting on the high-built pyre; she wished to die, in death to lay aside all feeling, yet from regard for me she did not die. May she live ! and when I am far away -since thus the fates have willed -so live as by her aid to bring constant relief. (Translated by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS. LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD .MCM XXXIX)

Cum subit illius tristissima noctis imago,
      Qua mihi supremum tempus in urbe fuit,
Cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui,
      Labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis.
Iam prope lux aderat, qua me discedere Caesar
      Finibus extremae iusserat Ausoniae.
Nec spatium nec mens fuerat satis apta parandi:
      Torquerant longa pectora nostra mora.
Non mihi seruorum, comites non cura legendi,
      Non aptae profugo uestis opisue fuit.
Non aliter stupui, quam qui Iouis ignibus ictus
      Viuit et est uitae nescius ipse suae.
Vt tamen hanc animi nubem dolor ipse remouit,
      Et tandem sensus conualuere mei,
Alloquor extremum maestos abiturus amicos,
      Qui modo de multis unus et alter erat.
Vxor amans flentem flens acrius ipsa tenebat,
      Imbre per indignas usque cadente genas.
Nata procul Libycis aberat diuersa sub oris,
      Nec poterat fati certior esse mei.
Quocumque aspiceres, luctus gemitusque sonabant,
      Formaque non taciti funeris intus erat.
Femina uirque meo, pueri quoque funere maerent,
      Inque domo lacrimas angulus omnis habet.
Si licet exemplis in paruis grandibus uti,
      Haec facies Troiae, cum caperetur, erat.
Iamque quiescebant uoces hominumque canumque,
      Lunaque nocturnos alta regebat equos.
Hanc ego suspiciens et ad hanc Capitolia cernens,
      Quae nostro frustra iuncta fuere Lari,
"Numina uicinis habitantia sedibus," inquam,
      "Iamque oculis numquam templa uidenda meis,
Dique relinquendi, quos urbs habet alta Quirini,
      Este salutati tempus in omne mihi.
Et quamquam sero clipeum post uulnera sumo,
      Attamen hanc odiis exonerate fugam,
Caelestique uiro, quis me deceperit error,
      Dicite, pro culpa ne scelus esse putet.
Vt quod uos scitis, poenae quoque sentiat auctor,
     Placato possum non miser esse deo."
Hac prece adoraui superos ego: pluribus uxor,
      Singultu medios impediente sonos.
Illa etiam ante lares passis astrata capillis
      Contigit exstinctos ore tremente focos,
Multaque in aduersos effudit uerba Penates
      Pro deplorato non ualitura uiro.
Iamque morae spatium nox praecipitata negabat,
      Versaque ab axe suo Parrhasis Arctos erat.
Quid facerem? blando patriae retinebar amore:
      Vltima sed iussae nox erat illa fugae.
A! quotiens aliquo dixi properante "quid urges?
      Vel quo festinas ire, uel unde, uide."
A! quotiens certam me sum mentitus habere
      Horam, propositae quae foret apta uiae.
Ter limen tetigi, ter sum reuocatus, et ipse
      Indulgens animo pes mihi tardus erat.
Saepe "uale" dicto rursus sum multa locutus,
      Et quasi discedens oscula summa dedi.
Saepe eadem mandata dedi meque ipse fefelli,
      Respiciens oculis pignora cara meis.
Denique "quid propero? Scythia est, quo mittimur," inquam
      "Roma relinquenda est. utraque iusta mora est.
Vxor in aeternum uiuo mihi uiua negatur,
      Et domus et fidae dulcia membra domus,
Quosque ego dilexi fraterno more sodales,
      O mihi Thesea pectora iuncta fide!
Dum licet, amplectar: numquam fortasse licebit
      Amplius. in lucro est quae datur hora mihi."
Nec mora, sermonis uerba imperfecta relinquo.
      Complectens animo proxima quaeque meo.
Dum loquor et flemus, caelo nitidissimus alto,
      Stella grauis nobis, Lucifer ortus erat.
Diuidor haud aliter, quam si mea membra relinquam,
      Et pars abrumpi corpore uisa suo est.
Sic doluit Mettus tunc cum in contraria uersos
      Vltores habuit proditionis equos.
Tum uero exoritur clamor gemitusque meorum,
      Et feriunt maestae pectora nuda manus.
Tum uero coniunx umeris abeuntis inhaerens
      Miscuit haec lacrimis tristia uerba meis:
"Non potes auelli. simul hinc, simul ibimus:" inquit,
      "Te sequar et coniunx exulis exul ero.
Et mihi facta uia est, et me capit ultima tellus:
      Accedam profugae sarcina parua rati.
Te iubet e patria discedere Caesaris ira,
      Me pietas. pietas haec mihi Caesar erit."
Talia temptabat, sicut temptauerat ante,
      Vixque dedit uictas utilitate manus.
Egredior, siue illud erat sine funere ferri,
      Squalidus immissis hirta per ora comis.
Illa dolore amens tenebris narratur obortis
      Semianimis media procubuisse domo:
Vtque resurrexit foedatis puluere turpi
      Crinibus et gelida membra leuauit humo,
Se modo, desertos modo complorasse Penates.
      Nomen et erepti saepe uocasse uiri,
Nec gemuisse minus, quam si nataeque uirique
      Vidisset structos corpus habere rogos,
Et uoluisse mori, moriendo ponere sensus,
      Respectuque tamen non periisse mei.
Viuat, et absentem, quoniam sic fata tulerunt.
      Viuat ut auxilio subleuet usque suo.

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Bimillenary of Ovid’s death, Autobiography (Ovide II)

Antonio Marco Martínez — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 10:36:04 +0000

The Latin poet Publius Ovidius Naso, desperate and sick, died in exile in 17 AD in Tomis, the present Constanza, in Romania, by the Black Sea, then called Pontus Euxinus, the Euxine Sea (favorable sea). He was born on March 20, 43 BC, the year after the assassination of Julius Caesar, in the city of Sulmona, in the center of Italy, east of Rome and about 130 km from the Urbe, the City, from an old and rich family; He was 60 years old when he died, much less than his father who died at 90 years old.

As it is fitting for the life of a forgotten exile, we do not know precisely the exact day of his death, which probably occurred in the winter. They have passed since the day he marched to Hades 2,000 years, according to the information that St. Jerome includes in his book “Chronicles of Eusebius”, in Chronicon 2033, which he makes it correspond with the year eighteenth year (18) of Christ, with the hundred and ninety-ninth Olympiad (199), with the fourth (4) of the reign of Herod and with the fourth (4) also of Tiberius.

Curiously the historian Titus Livius died also in the same year, but in his homeland Patavium, the Padua of today. Jerome says in Chronicon 2033, in accordance with http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0347-0420__Hieronymus__Chronicun__MLT.pdf.html

Ovid the poet died in exile, and is interred near the town of Tomi.

Ovidius poeta in exsilio perit, et iuxta oppidum Tomos sepelitur”

Ovid, together with Virgil and Horace, they are the three great poets of the time of Augustus who triumphed under cover of great protectors like Caius Clinius Maecenas, whose name has come to call all protector of the arts, and Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus.

All three, although distinct, they are the highest figures of classical poetry and have played a decisive role in the configuration of Western culture. Perhaps the most read, imitated and influential in all the arts and not only in literature, is Ovid, although this is the least valued literarily.

Undoubtedly with excessive rigor and judging him with criteria of modern taste, J. Bayet says about Ovid in his Littérature Latine:

“Reading his poems in succession, they are found monotonous”

“a lire ses poemes de suite, on les trouve monotones” .

And Paladini and Castorina in his “Storia della letteratura latina”:

"Ovid, in short, appears as a great versifier but a mediocre poet, if we except some elegies of" Amores "and" Tristia "and some parts of the" Metamorphosis. "

(Ovidio, in definitiva, appare un gran verseggiatore e un mediocre poeta, ove si eccettuino alcune elegie degli "Amores" e dei "Tristia", più qualche parte delle "Metamorfosi").

With less severe criteria, his ease of versification and the abundance of formal resources, the poet's exhaustive knowledge of mythology, of literary tradition and its topics, his playful and ironic spirit, his sincere personal sentiment must be in some of his poems positively valued.

Well, we have scattered biographical data of Ovid in his works and above all an "autobiography", which without being complete and exhaustive, does offer us numerous data of interest that the poet wants to transcribe in his exile at the end of his life. I will reproduce it below entirety.

We have also two important Ovid’s anecdotes: one happy, which is the ease with which he composed verses, about which I wrote an article in this blog, to which I refer: http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/poetry-is-a-godsend-horace-ovid-virgil

The other one is more than an anecdote: in the year 8 of our era the Emperor Augustus, irritated we do not know exactly why, banished the poet without remission and forced him to leave the city, Rome, forever; accompanied by a soldier he undertook the journey before the end of the year to Tomis, at the Euxine Pontus, on the border of the Empire, on the border with barbarian peoples, and he died there sadly.

Infinite efforts have been devoted for centuries for find the concrete cause of the cruel decision of a dictator, who on the other hand seems to have had a good sense of humor. In another article I will deal with this question a little more extensively.

It will suffice on this occasion to say that from exile he sent to Rome, to his wife and to his friends, numerous letters that we keep under the title of Pontics or Epistulae ex Ponto, and wrote five books of elegies, some really exciting, tthe tradition gave them the name of "Tristia" (Sadness, sad things, sad poems, as you prefer to interpret them).

It is precisely in book IV that he includes the aforementioned autobiography which I will reproduce below in English and in Latin. But first I want to relate his works and make a small reference to his importance in the culture of the West.

The first, Amores (a set of 50 poems, written in "elegiac couplet" or set of two verses (δίστιχον , di-stichon, =two lines), a hexameter and a pentameter, was written and recited by Ovid at age 18. He sings the imagined loves, with his dear Corinna and they are a reflection about the social and loving life of the Romans in the time of Augustus.

(Art of loving) The poet proposes in the first two books of the Art of loving (Ars amandi or Ars amatoria) teach men to conquer loved women and in the third to teach women how to get their beloved. We would say today that it is a kind of "manual to flirt". It is also a portrait of Roman society. It seems that this work served Augustus as a pretext to condemn the poet to exile, although it was circulating for several years before Rome.

Remedia amoris pretends just the opposite of Ars amandi, that is, to liberate and heal the sick of love. Perhaps he wrote it to please those who were especially annoyed by the audacity of the previous felt.

"Women's Facial Cosmetics" (Medicamina faciei feminae) is a small rarity of which only 100 verses are preserved, dedicated to offering recipes and remedies to preserve the good, also spiritual, tone of women in love. It seems as if Ovid already suspected the extraordinary importance that the cosmetics industry would have later.

These works are those that gave him the unjust reputation of poet and dissolute man. It is true that when the poet speaks of "love," he does not refer to the Platonic and romantic, but to the physical and carnal; But his jocular, brash tone does not justify the moral judgment that Christianity, which later imposed itself, has dictated from him as an "obscene" poet, even though his influence in the "Christian" Middle Ages and Renaissance was enormous .

The Heroides are a collection of 21 love letters of women protagonists of the mythology
that the poet makes come out of his mouth, stylus or calamus. Ovid proclaims himself an inventor of this curious literary genre, from which, naturally, there was a precedent, such as the letter of Aretusa to her husband Lycotas, which Propertius offers in his Elegy IV, 6.

As a curiosity I will comment that one of the letters is of the poetess Sappho, unique non-mythological character and three are replies of the men loved. Many critics think that these letters are monotonous, despite the efforts of the poet's imagination.

Medea is a tragedy that is not preserved, highly valued by Ovid himself and by ancient authors such as Quintilianus or Tacitus. The tragic story of this woman, priestess, magician, madly in love with Jason, who once abandoned is capable of killing the fruit of that love, impressed Euripides, Seneca and countless authors ever since.

They have also been lost a Gigantomachy or epic poem about the struggle of the giants and an abbreviated translation of the Phaenomena of Aratus, that also had translated Cicero and later Germanicus.

The Metamorphoses (Metamorphoseis, from the Greek μεταμόρφωσις, 'transformation'), is undoubtedly his great creation and one of the masterpieces of Latin literature, whose reading can fascinate the reader. He versifies in 11.991 hexameters the transformations in stars, plants, animals of 250 Greco-Roman myths that follow a chronological order from the creation of the world until Augustus. He leaves in this work the love elegy and its characteristics and he mixes characteristics of the epic, other lyrics, bucolic or tragic. In this book, converted into a manual of mythology, painters like Velázquez, Tiziano and Rubens were inspired and current artists continue to be inspired.

The Fasti had to be written before the exile, although they were published about the year 12 AD. In the six books that he wrote, there are commented every day the festivities and myths of the first six months of the year, having planned to complete the year. The Latin word "fasti", in plural, designates lists of religious events or persons based on the chronological order of the calendar. Paulus Festus, 78.4-5 L, defines them when he says:

They are called books of Fasts to those in which a description of the whole year is made. The festive days are therefore the holidays

Fastorum libri appellantur, in quibus totius anni fit descriptio, fasti enim dies festi sunt

This first part was published in the year 8, the year of the exile and he did not feel strong enough or sufficient enough to complete the work, which is of exceptional historical and documentary interest. From a literary point of view he tries in some sense to emulate Virgil's Aeneid and to serve the greater glory and honor of the emperor Augustus, from whom in any case neither obtained the pardon nor permission to leave Tomis, nor did he succeed it from Tiberius.

The three book, that I comment below, correspond to his time in the exile:

Ibis is an invective or elegiac poem of 644 verses, written during exile, in which, using mythical stories, he curses and attacks an individual who is hurting him and whom he desires the terrible punishment of myths.

I have already referred to the poems “Tristia” and Letters from Pontus or Pontics (Epistulae ex Ponto) at the beginning of the article. They are works consisting of letters to his relatives and friends in which he asks that they intercede with the emperor to obtain the pardon and also describes his life between Scythians and Sarmatians and Getae, nomadic people related to the Dacians and Thracians.

The “Tristia”, the name is expressive enough, are five books that revolve around the sadness that produced the exile and the insistent request to the emperor to forgive him. Some of the passages, like that of the last night in Rome, are the best known and valued of the poet.

The Letters from Pontus (the Black Sea) are epistles to his wife and friends in Rome, in which the themes of the Tristia and the request for clemency are repeated. The poetic form of these letters and their own content is what keeps him alive in a hostile and dangerous land, harsh nature in which he lacks all the comforts that he loved, including any person to speak with in Latin or Greek.

There are also preserved a few works that were attributed to Ovid and are now considered spurious: Consolation to Livia (Consolatio ad Liviam),On fishing (Halieutica), The Walnut Tree (Nux), The Dream (Somnium).

I must advise the reading of this immense production that for two millennia has interested and influenced the whole western culture. He influenced Latin authors who followed him as Seneca, Lucan, Statius … although he weighed on him the moral judgment of his erotic works and he is the pagan poet par excellence for Christians. The Middle Ages, since the Carolingian era venerated Ovid, especially the Metamorphoses and their erotic books, until the twelfth century was called "Ovidian Aetas. At this time the poets considered him the great master of love to imitate, like the Chrétien de Troyes in about 1160. But also they use of Ovid to express the rejection to the sexuality, the amorous reprobation (reprobatio amoris), from his Remedia amoris.

He was, therefore, indispensable in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, although it was not only necessary to purge him of some elements but also to find clear references to the Christian religion. So the famous L ' Ovide moralisé, Christianized adaptation in French of the Metamorphoses in 72,000 octosyllabic verses was created in the beginning of the 14th century.

Boccaccio, Dante, Tasso, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderón, Camoens were attracted by the works of Ovid, which have continued to remain present until our days.

Perhaps the poet himself foresaw the importance of his work and its perennial influence when he tells us at the end of the Metamorphoses, in book XV, 871-879:

And now, I have completed a great work, which not Jove's anger, and not fire nor steel, nor fast-consuming time can sweep away. Whenever it will, let the day come, which has dominion only over this mortal frame, and end for me the uncertain course of life. Yet in my better part I shall be borne immortal, far above the stars on high, and mine shall be a name indelible. Wherever Roman power extends her sway over the conquered lands, I shall be read by lips of men. If Poets' prophecies have any truth, through all the coming years of future ages, I shall live in fame.
(Ovid. Metamorphoses. Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.)

Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis
nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas.
Cum volet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius
ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi :
parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis
astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nosgtrum,
quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris.
Ore legar populi perque omnia saecula fama,
siquid habent veri vatum presagia, vivam

Moreover the sadness and melancholy of his writings from Tomis have inspired many other authors who have also suffered exile, such as Cesare Pavese (1908-1950) with his Land of Exile (Terra d'esilio, 1936) from his residence in Brancaleone, in Calabria where he was confined by anti-fascist activities, and Ossip Mandelstam (1891-1938), deported by Stalin to Gulag, died in Vladivostock, who wrote precisely a work entitled "Tristia" in 1922.

The Elegy 10th of the book IV of the Tristia is an autobiography that in little more than 130 verses makes a journey from his childhood to his old age. It is, of course, the best source of data to know the life of the poet. This is a very peculiar work of Ovid, in elegiac couplet s (a hexameter plus a pentameter), similar in structure to a rhetorical piece, written from exile, almost at the end of his life, of which there is no precedent in history of Latin Literature.

In the first part he gives a description of his family: his parents, his brother, his wives, his daughter, his stepdaughter, his relatives, his literary friends, his political-administrative activity or "cursus honorum" that he soon abandoned. Then, until the end, he refers again and again to the committed "mistake", (error) that caused the exile and his stay in Tomis.

The excess of rhetorical elements, typical of Ovid's style, which sometimes make him somewhat obscure, his monotony and his general tone of worldly poet preoccupied only with a comfortable life and dock, have often earned him negative criticism, as I said at the beginning of this article; But he also has poems of a deep feeling and lyricism, like the third Elegy of the book I of the Tristia, that I will comment in a later article.

Tristia, IV, 10. The poet’s autobiogrphy.

That thou mayst know who I was, I that playful poet of tender love whom thou readest, hear my words, thou of the after time. Sulmo is my native place, a land rich in ice-cold streams, thrice thirty miles from the city. There first I saw the light, and if thou wouldst know the date, 'twas when both consuls fell under stress of like fate. I was heir to rank (if rank is aught) that came from forefathers of olden time-no knight fresh made by fortune's gift. I was not the first born, for my birth befell after that of a brother, thrice four months my senior. The same day-star beheld the birth of us both : one birthday was celebrated by the offering of our two cakes -that day among the five sacred to armed Minerva which is wont to be the first stained by the blood of combat. While still of tender age we began our training, and through our father's care we came to attend upon men of the city distinguished in the liberal arts. My brother's bent even in the green of years was oratory : he was born for the stout weapons of the wordy forum. But to me even as a boy service of the divine gave delight and stealthily the Muse was ever drawing me aside to do her work. Often my father said, " Why do you try a profitless pursuit ? Even the Maeonian left no wealth." I was influenced by what he said and wholly forsaking Helicon I tried to write words freed from rhythm, yet all unbidden song would come upon befitting numbers and whatever I tried to write was verse.

Meanwhile as the silent-pacing years slipped past we brothers assumed the toga of a freer life and our shoulders put on the broad stripe of purple while still our pursuits remained as before. And now my brother had seen but twice ten years of life when he passed away, and thenceforth I was bereft of half myself. I advanced so far as to receive the first office granted to tender youth, for in those days I was one third of the board of three. The senate house awaited me, but I narrowed my purple stripe: that was a burden too great for my powers. I had neither a body to endure the toil nor a mind suited to it ; by nature I shunned the worries of an ambitious life and the Aonian sisters were ever urging me to seek the security of a retirement I had ever chosen and loved.

The poets of that time I fondly reverenced : all bards I thought so many present gods. Ofttimes Macer, already advanced in years, read to me of the birds he loved, of noxious snakes and healing plants. Ofttimes Propertius would declaim his flaming verse by right of the comradeship that joined him to me. Ponticus famed in epic, Bassus also, famed in iambics, were pleasant members of that friendly circle. And Horace of the many rhythms held in thrall our ears while he attuned his fine-wrought songs to the Ausonian lyre. Vergil I only saw, and to Tibullus greedy fate gave no time for friendship with me. Tibullus was thy successor, Gallus, and Propertius his ; after them came I, fourth in order of time. And as I reverenced older poets so was I reverenced by the younger, for my Thalia was not slow to become renowned. When first I read my youthful songs in public, my beard had been cut but once or twice. My genius had been stirred by her who was sung throughout the city, whom I called, not by a real name, Corinna. Much did I write, but what I thought defective I gave in person to the flames for their revision. Even when I was setting forth into exile I burned certain verse that would have found favour, for I was angry with my calling and with my songs.

My heart was ever soft, no stronghold against Cupid's darts a heart moved by the slightest impulse. And yet, though such my nature, though I was set aflame by the littlest spark, no scandal became affixed to my name. When I was scarce more than a boy a wife unworthy and unprofitable became mine -mine for but a short space. Into her place came one, blameless, but not destined to remain my bride. And last is she who remained with me till the twilight of my declining years, who has endured to be the mate of an exile husband. My daughter, twice
fertile, but not of one husband, in her early youth made me grandsire. And already had my father completed his allotted span adding to nine lustra a second nine. For him I wept no otherwise tan he would have wept for me had I been taken. Next for my mother I made the offerings to death. Happy both ! and laid to rest in good season! since they passed away before the day of my punishment. Happy too am I that my misery falls not in their lifetime and that for me they felt no grief. Yet if for those whose light is quenched something besides a name abides, if a slender shade escapes the highheaped pyre, if, O spirits of my parents, report of me has reached you and the charges against me live in the Stygian court, know, I beg you -and you 'tis impious for me to deceive- that the cause of the exile decreed me is an error, and no crime. Be these my words to the shades. To you, fond hearts, that would know the events of my life, once more I turn.

Already had white hairs come upon me driving away my better years and mottling my ageing locks ; ten times since my birth had the victorious rider, garlanded with Pisan olive, borne away the prize, when the wrath of an injured prince ordered me to Tomis on the left of the Euxine sea. The cause of my ruin, but too well known to all, must not be revealed by evidence of mine. Why tell of the disloyalty of comrades, of the petted slaves who injured me ? Much did I bear not lighter than exile itself. Yet my soul,disdaining to give way to misfortune, proved itself unconquerable, relying on its own powers. Forgetting myself and a life passed in ease I seized with unaccustomed hand the arms that the time supplied : on sea and land I bore misfortunes as many as are the stars that lie between the hidden and the visible pole. Driven through long wanderings at length I reached the shore that unites the Sarmatians with the quiver-bearing Getae. Here, though close around me I hear the din of arms, I lighten my sad fate with what song I may ; though there be none to hear it, yet in this wise do I employ and beguile the day. So then this living of mine, this stand against the hardness of my sufferings, this bare will to view the daylight's woes, I owe, my Muse, to thee ! For thou dost lend me comfort, thou dost come as rest, as balm, to my sorrow. Thou art both guide and comrade : thou leadest me fur from Hister and grantest me a place in Helicon's midst ; thou hast given me while yet alive (how rare the boon !) a lofty name -the name which renown is wont to give only after death. Nor has jealousy,that detractor of the present, attacked with malignant tooth any work of mine. For although this age of ours has brought forth mighty poets, fame has not been grudging to my genius, and though I place many before myself, report calls me not their inferior and throughout the world I am most read of all. If then there be truth in poets' prophecies, even though I die forthwith, I shall not, O earth, be thine. But whether through favour or by very poetry I have gained this fame, 'tis right, kind reader, that I render thanks to thee. (Translated by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. The Loeb Classical Library. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETPS. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS. LONDON. WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD. MCM XXXIX)

Tristia, IV, 10

Ille ego qui fuerim, tenerorum lusor amorum,
quem legis, ut noris, accipe posteritas.
Sulmo mihi patria est, gelidis uberrimus undis,
milia qui novies distat ab urbe decem.
editus hic ego sum, nec non, ut tempora noris,
cum cecidit fato consul uterque pari
si quid id est, usque a proavis vetus ordinis heres
non modo fortunae munere factus eques,
nec stirps prima fui; genito sum fratre creatus,
qui tribus ante quater mensibus ortus erat.
Lucifer amborum natalibus affuit idem:
una celebrata est per duo liba dies;
haec est armiferae festis de quinque Minervae,
quae fieri pugna prima cruenta solet.
protinus excolimur teneri curaque parentis
imus ad insignes urbis ab arte viros.
frater ad eloquium viridi tendebat ab aevo,
fortia verbosi natus ad arma fori,
at mihi iam puero caelestia sacra placebant,
inque suum furtim Musa trahebat opus.
saepe pater dixit ‘studium quid inutile temptas :
Maeonides nullas ipse reliquit opes.’
motus eram dictis, totoque Helicone relicto
scribere temptabam verba soluta modis.
sponte sua carmen numeros veniebat ad aptos,
et quod temptabam scribere versus erat.
interea tacito passu labentibus annis
liberior fratri sumpta mihique toga est,
induiturque umeris cum lato purpura clavo,
et studium nobis, quod fuit ante, manet.
iamque decem vitae frater geminaverat annos,
cum perit, et coepi parte carere mei.
cepimus et tenerae primos aetatis honores,
eque viris quondam pars tribus una fui.
curia restabat . clavi mensura coacta est,
maius erat nostris viribus illud onus.
nec patiens corpus, nec mens fuit apta labori,
sollicitaeque fugax ambitionis eram,
et petere Aoniae suadebant tuta sorores
otia, iudicio semper amata meo.
temporis illius colui fovique poëtas,
quotque aderant vates, rebar adesse deos.
saepe suas volucres legit mihi grandior aevo,
quaeque nocet serpens, quae iuvat herba. Macer.
saepe suos solitus recitare Propertius ignes,
iure sodalicii, quo mihi iunctus erat.
Ponticus heroo, Bassus quoque clarus iambis
dulcia convictus membra fuere mei.
et tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius aures;
dum ferit Ausonia carmina culta lyra.
Vergilium vidi tantum : nec avara Tibullo
tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae.
successor fuit hic tibi, Galle, Propertius illi;
quartus ab his sene temporis ipse fui.
utque ego maiores, sic me coluere minores,
notaque non tarde facta Thalia mea est.
carmina cum primum populo iuvenalia legi,
barba resecta mihi bisve semelve fuit.
moverat ingenium totam cantata per urbem
nomine non vero dicta Corinna mihi.
multa quidem scripsi, sed, quae vitiosa putavi,
emendaturis ignibus ipse dedi.
tunc quoque, cum fugerem, quaedam placitura cremavi,
iratus studio carminibusque meis.
molle Cupidineis nec inexpugnabile telis
cor mihi, quodque levis causa moveret, erat.
cum tamen hic essem minimoque accenderer igni,
nomine sub nostro fabula nulla fuit.
paene mihi puero nec digna nec utilis uxor
est data, quae tempus per breve nupta fuit.
illi successit, quamvis sine crimine coniunx,
non tamen in nostro firma futura toro.
ultima, quae mecum seros permansit in annos;
sustinuit coniunx exulis esse viri.
filia me mea bis prima fecunda iuventa,
sed non ex uno coniuge, fecit avum.
et iam complerat genitor sua fata novemque
addiderat lustris altera lustra novem.
non aliter flevi, quam me fleturus ademptum
ille fuit. Matri proxima busta tuli.
felices ambo tempestiveque sepulti,
ante diem poenae quod periere
meae! me quoque felicem, quod non viventibus illis
sum miser, et de me quod doluere nihil!
si tamen extinctis aliquid nisi nomina restat,
et gracilis structas effugit umbra rogos,
fama, parentales, si vos mea contigit, umbrae,
et sunt in Stygio crimina nostra foro,
scite, precor, causam (nec vos mihi fallere fas est)
errorem iussae, non scelus, esse fugae.
Manibus hoc satis est: ad vos, studiosa, revertor,
pectora, quae vitae quaeritis acta meae.
iam mihi canities pulsis melioribus annis
venerat, antiquas miscueratque comas,
postque meos ortus Pisaea vinctus oliva
abstulerat deciens praemia victor eques,
cum maris Euxini positos ad laeva Tomitas
quaerere me laesi principis ira iubet.
causa meae cunctis nimium quoque nota ruinae
indicio non est testificanda meo.
quid referam comitumque nefas famulosque nocentes?
Ipsa multa tuli non leviora fuga.
indignata malis mens est succumbere seque
praestitit invictam viribus usa suis;
oblitusque mei ductaeque per otia vitae
insolita cepi temporis arma manu;
totque tuli terra casus pelagoque quot inter
occultum stellae conspicuumque polum.
tacta mihi tandem longis erroribus acto
iuncta pharetratis Sarmatis ora Getis.
hic ego, finitimis quamvis circumsoner armis,
tristia, quo possum, carmine fata levo.
quod quamvis nemo est, cuius referatur ad aures,
sic tamen absumo decipioque diem.
ergo quod vivo duosque laboribus obsto,
nec me sollicitae taedia lucis habent,
gratia. Musa, tibi: nam tu solacia praebes,
tu curae requies, tu medicina venis.
tu dux et comes es, tu nos abducis ab Histro,
in medioque mihi das Helicone locum;
tu mihi, quod rarum est, vivo sublime dedisti
nomen, ab exequiis quod dare fama solet,
nec, qui detractat praesentia, Livor iniquo
ullum de nostris dente momordit opus.
nam tulerint magnos cum saecula nostra poetas,
non fuit ingenio fama maligna meo,
cumque ego praeponam multos mihi, non minor illis
dicor et in toto plurimus orbe legor.
si quid habent igitur vatum praesagia veri,
protinus ut moriar, non ero, terra, tuus.
sive favore tuli, sive hanc ego carmine famam,
iure tibi grates, candide lector, ago.

The post Bimillenary of Ovid’s death, Autobiography (Ovide II) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Poetry is soul medicine. (Ovid I)

Antonio Marco Martínez — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 12:13:20 +0000

The 21st of March of each year it is celebrated the World Poetry Day . It is a day to sing the excellences of the poetic work. In this blog they are numerous times that I have talked about poetry.

I will remember just a couple of articles:

http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/poetry-is-a-godsend-horace-ovid-virgil

http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/aut-insanit-homo-aut-versus-facit-horace

Well, in this year 2017 it is commemorated the bimillenary of the death of the Latin poet Ovid in his exile in Tomis, on the shores of the Euxine Pontus, then the Black Sea. He was expelled there by a severe emperor Augustus, displeased with the poet.

I will also say as a curious detail that Ovid was born on March 20, 43 BC, the year before the assassination of Julius Caesar, the day before that than later, in 1999, the UNESCO set the day to celebrate the poets of the world and their creative ability.

Again and again Ovid tells us in his poems that he wrote in the exile, in his Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, (Letters from the Black Sea), that one of the causes of his sentence was to have written a booklet of erotic poetry , his celebrated Ars Amatoria or Ars amandi ("The Art of Love"). The other, undoubtedly more serious cause was a certain indiscretion or vision of something prohibited that he does not clarify.

In that exile among half-savage barbarian peoples where he lacks all the comforts of his life in Rome, he has only the consolation of poetry, as he himself confesses. So if poetry was the cause of his ruin, it was also his comfort in difficult times. As the popular saying goes: "the one who sings his evils scares", also collected by Cervantes in his Don Quixote, I, 22.

"What are gurapas?" asked Don Quixote.
"Gurapas are galleys," answered the galley slave, who was a young man of about four-and-twenty, and said he was a native of Piedrahita.
Don Quixote asked the same question of the second, who made no reply, so downcast and melancholy was he; but the first answered for him, and said, "He, sir, goes as a canary, I mean as a musician and a singer."
"What!" said Don Quixote, "for being musicians and singers are people sent to the galleys too?"
"Yes, sir," answered the galley slave, "for there is nothing worse than singing under suffering."
"On the contrary, I have heard say," said Don Quixote, "that he who sings scares away his woes."
"Here it is the reverse," said the galley slave; "for he who sings once weeps all his life."
"I do not understand it," said Don Quixote; but one of the guards said to him, "Sir, to sing under suffering means with the non sancta fraternity to confess under torture; they put this sinner to the torture and he confessed his crime. ((DON QUIXOTE, by Miguel de Cervantes. Translated by John Ormsby (1829-1895))

El cual era un mozo de hasta edad de veinte y cuatro años, y dijo que era natural de Piedrahíta. Lo mesmo preguntó don Quijote al segundo, el cual no respondió palabra, según iba de triste y malencónico; mas respondió por él el primero, y dijo:
–éste, señor, va por canario; digo, por músico y cantor.
–Sí, señor –respondió el galeote–, que no hay peor cosa que cantar en el ansia.
–Antes, he yo oído decir –dijo don Quijote– que quien canta sus males espanta.
–Acá es al revés –dijo el galeote–, que quien canta una vez llora toda la vida.
–No lo entiendo –dijo don Quijote.
Mas una de las guardas le dijo:
–Señor caballero, cantar en el ansia se dice, entre esta gente non santa, confesar en el tormento.

The poet reiterates this idea again and again in his poems, but he has a poem especially focused on this question, the first elegy of Book IV of his Tristia (Sorrows). As much of Ovid's poetry, this elegy is somewhat rhetorical, plagued in addition to references to Greco-Latin mythology, which can make its reading somewhat difficult and heavy in modern times. But it seems a good way to commemorate in this year 2017 the World Poetry Day, celebrating also the bimillenary of the death of Ovid.

I transcribe, therefore, in full the elegy Tristia, IV, 1 ,with enough notes to clarify the meaning even at the risk of destroying the poem.

BOOK IV I. A PLEA FOR INDULGENCE

Whatever faults you may find -and you will find Them- in my books, hold them absolved, reader, because of the time of their writing. I am an exile ; solace, not fame, has been my object that my mind dwell not constantly on its own woes. This is why even the ditcher, shackled though he be, resorts to song, lightening with untutored rhythm his heavy work. He also sings who bends forward over the slimy sand, towing against the stream the slow-moving barge, or he who pulls to his breast in unison the pliant oars, timing his arms with measured strokes upon the water. The weary shepherd leaning upon his staff or seated upon a rock soothes his sheep with the drone of his reeds. At once singing, at once spinning her allotted task, the slave girl beguiles and whiles away her toil. They say too that when the maid of Lyrnesus was taken from him, sad Achilles relieved his sorrow with the Haemonian lyre(1). While Orpheus was drawing to him the forests and the hard rocks by his singing, he was sorrowing for the wife twice lost to him(2).

Me also the Muse comforted while on my way to the appointed lands of Pontus ; she only was the steadfast companion of my flight -the only one who fears neither treachery, nor the brand of the Sintian(3) soldier, nor sea nor winds nor the world of the barbarians. She knows also what mistake led me astray at the time of my ruin, -that there is fault in my deed, but no crime. Doubtless for this very reason is she fair to me now because she injured me before, when she was indicted with me for a joint crime. Well could I wish, since they were destined to work me harm, that I had ne'er set hand to the holy service of the Pierian ones(4). But now, what am I to do ? The very power of that holy service grips me ; madman that I am, though song has injured me, 'tis still song that I love. So the strange lotos tasted by Dulichian palates gave pleasure through the very savour which wrought harm(5). The lover is oft aware of his own ruin yet clings to it, pursuing that which sustains his own fault. I also find pleasure in my books though they have injured me, and I love the very weapon that made my wounds.

Perchance this passion may seem madness, but this madness has a certain profit : it forbids the mind to be ever gazing at its woes, rendering it forgetful of present mischance. As the stricken Bacchante feels not her wound while in ecstasy she shrieks to the accompaniment of Idaean(6) measures, so when my heart feels the inspiring glow of the green thyrsus, that mood is too exalted for human woe ; it realizes neither exile nor the shores of the Scythian sea nor the anger of the gods, and just as if I were drinking slumber-bringing Lethe's draughts(7), I lose the sense of evil days.

‘Tis right then for me to revere the goddesses who lighten my misfortunes, who came from Helicon(8) to share my anxious flight, who now by sea, now by land, deigned to follow my route on ship or afoot. May they at least, I pray, be propitious to me ! For the rest of the gods take sides with mighty Caesar, heaping upon me as many ills as the sands of the shore, the fishes of the sea, or the eggs of the fish. Sooner will you count the flowers of spring, the grain-ears of summer, the fruits of autumn, or the snowflakes in time of cold(9) than the ills which I suffered driven all over the world seeking in wretchedness the shores to the left l of the Euxine. Yet no lighter since my coming is the lot of my misfortunes ; to this place also fate has followed my path. Here also I recognize the threads of my nativity, threads twisted for me from a black fleece. To say naught of ambushes or of dangers to my life -true they are, yet too heavy for belief in truth- how pitiable a thing is living among Bessi and Getae(10) for him who was ever on the people's lips ! How pitiable to guard life by gate and wall, and scarce to be safe-guarded by the strength of one's own position ! The rough contests of military service I shunned even as a youth and touched arms only with a hand intending to play ; but now that I am growing old I fit a sword to my side, a shield to my left arm, and I place a helmet upon my gray head. For when the guard from the lookout has given the signal of a raid, forthwith I don my armour with shaking hands.

The foe with his bows and with arrows dipped in poison fiercely circles the walls upon his panting steed, and as the sheep which has not found shelter in the fold is carried and dragged through field,through forest by the ravening wolf, so 'tis with him whom the barbarian finds not yet sheltered within the hedge of the gates, but in the fields : that man either follows into captivity and submits to the bonds cast about his throat or he dies by an envenomed missile. This is the place in which, a new colonist in an abode of anxiety, I lie secluded -alas ! too long is the period of my fate !

Nevertheless my Muse has the heart to return to rhythm, to her old-time rites, a friendly guest amid these great misfortunes. But there is none to whom I may read my verses, none whose ears can comprehend Latin words. I write for myself -what else can I do ?- and I read to myself, and my writing is secure in its own criticism. Yet have I often said, " For whom this careful toil ? Will the Sauromatae and the Getae read my writings ? " Often too my tears have flowed as I wrote, my writing has been moistened by my weeping, my heart feels the old wounds as if they were fresh, and sorrow's rain glides down upon my breast.

Again when I bethink me what, through change of fortune, I am and what I was, when it comes over me whither fate has borne me and whence, often my mad hand, in anger with my efforts and with itself, has hurled my verses to blaze upon the hearth. And since of the many not many survive, see thou readest them with indulgence, whoever thou mayst be ! Thou too take in good part verse that is not better than my lot, O Rome forbidden to me ! (Translated by Arthur Leslie Wheeler. (The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachussets Harvard University Press/London William Heibemann LTD. MCM XXXIX

Notes:
1. Briseis was the daughter of Brises, a priest of the city of Lyrnessus. Slave and spoil of Achilles, she was taken away by Agamemnon; Achilles, angry, abandoned the fight in the siege of Troy. It is called "Haemonian" the lyre because Haemonia was a province of Thrace and it was the gift of Hermes to the Thracian Orpheus.
2. Orpheus is the musician and singer par excellence, who with his lyre and zither attracted the beasts and plants and rocks leaned in his path. He went down to the hells in search of his beloved Eurydice, killed by the sting of a snake when he fled Aristeo's harassment. Hades and Persephone agree to give him his wife on the condition that Orpheus should go ahead on his way out of hell and not look back to see her until the arrival to earth; But Orpheus doubts whether his wife follows him and turns to see her. At that moment Eurydice dies again, returns to Hell and Orpheus can no longer recover her.
3. The "Sintians" are inhabitants of Macedonia and by extension the name also designates the Thracians.
4. The Muses

5. It is allusions to the episode of Odyssey IX, 82 et seq. in which Ulysses or Odysseus and his companions stop in the country of the lotophages, or lotus eaters, plant that makes you forget. Dulichian was an island neighboring Ithaca and that's because Ulysses and his companions are called so.

6. By the relationship of the Phrygian hill Ida with the rites of the cult to Cibeles.

7. The Lethe (from which derives "lethal") is a river of the Hells, whose waters made forget to the dead his previous life.

8. It is the sacred mountain where the Muses live.

9. They are examples of "adynata" or impossible facts (from the Greek ἀδυνατον, "impossible thing"), of α- (a- "without") + δύναμαι (dynamai, "power, to be powerful"). They are rhetorical resources to which the poet is so fond of.

10. They are two of the barbarian peoples of Pontus.

Tristia IV, 1

Siqua meis fuerint, ut erunt, vitiosa libellis,
excusata suo tempore, lector, habe.
exul eram, requiesque mihi, non fama petita est,
mens intenta suis ne foret usque malis.
hoc est cur cantet vinctus quoque compede fossor,
indocili numero cum grave mollit opus.
cantat et innitens limosae pronus harenae,
adverso tardam qui trahit amne ratem;
quique refert pariter lentos ad pectora remos,
in numerum pulsa brachia pulsat aqua.
fessus ubi incubuit baculo saxove resedit
pastor, harundineo carmine mulcet oves.
cantantis pariter, pariter data pensa trahentis,
fallitur ancillae decipiturque labor.
fertur et abducta Lyrneside tristis Achilles
Haemonia curas attenuasse lyra.
cum traheret silvas Orpheus et dura canendo
saxa, bis amissa coniuge maestus erat.
me quoque Musa levat Ponti loca iussa petentem.
sola comes nostrae perstitit illa fugae;
sola nec insidias, Sinti nec militis ensem,
nec mare nec ventos barbariamque timet.
scit quoque, cum perii, quis me deceperit error,
et culpam in facto, non scelus, esse meo,
scilicet hoc ipso nunc aequa, quod obfuit ante,
cum mecum iuncti criminis acta rea est.
non equidem vellem, quoniam nocitura fuerunt,
Pieridum sacris inposuisse manum,
sed nunc quid faciam? vis me tenet ipsa sacrorum,
et carmen demens carmine laesus amo.
sic nova Dulichio lotos gustata palato
illo, quo nocuit, grata sapore fuit.
sentit amans sua damna fere, tamen haeret in illis,
materiam culpae persequiturque suae.
nos quoque delectant, quamvis nocuere, libelli,
quodque mihi telum vulnera fecit, amo.
forsitan hoc studium possit furor esse videri,
sed quiddam furor hic utilitatis habet,
semper in obtutu mentem vetat esse malorum,
praesentis casus inmemoremque facit,
utque suum Bacche non sentit saucia vulnus,
dum stupet Idaeis exululata modis,
sic ubi mota calent viridi mea pectora thyrso,
altior humano spiritus ille malo est.
ille nec exilium, Scythici nec litora ponti,
ille nec iratos sentit habere deos.
utque soporiferae biberem si pocula Lethes,
temporis adversi sic mihi sensus abest.
iure deas igitur veneror mala nostra levantes,
sollicitae comites ex Helicone fugae,
et partim pelago partim vestigia terra
vel rate dignatas vel pede nostra sequi,
sint, precor, haec saltem faciles mihi! namque deorum
cetera cum magno Caesare turba facit,
meque tot adversis cumulant, quot litus harenas,
quotque fretum pisces, ovaque piscis habet,
vere prius flores, aestu numerabis aristas,
poma per autumnum frigoribusque nives,
quam mala, quae toto patior iactatus in orbe,
dum miser Euxini litora laeva peto.
nec tamen, ut veni, levior fortuna malorum est :
huc quoque sunt nostras fata secuta vias.
hic quoque cognosco natalis stamina nostri,
stamina de nigro vellere facta mihi.
utque neque insidias capitisque pericula narrem,
vera quidem, veri sed graviora fide,
vivere quam miserum est inter Bessosque Getasque
illum, qui populi semper in ore ruit .
quam miserum est, porta vitam muroque tueri,
vixque sui tutum viribus esse loci!
aspera militiae iuvenis certamina fugi,
nec nisi lusura movimus arma manu;
nunc senior gladioque latus scutoque sinistram,
canitiem galeae subicioque meam.
nam dedit e specula custos ubi signa tumultus,
induimus trepida protinus arma manu.
hostis, habens arcus imbutaque tela venenis,
saevus anhelanti moenia lustrat equo,
utque rapax pecudem, quae se non texit ovili,
per sata, per silvas fertque trahitque lupus,
sic, siquem nondum portarum saepe receptum
barbarus in campis repperit hostis, habet:
aut sequitur captus coniectaque vincula collo
accipit, aut telo virus habente perit.
hic ego sollicitae lateo novus incola sedis .
heu nimium fati tempora longa mei!
et tamen ad numeros antiquaque sacra reverti
sustinet in tantis hospita Musa malis,
sed neque cui recitem quisquam est mea carmina, nec qui
auribus accipiat verba Latina suis.
ipse mihi—quid enim faciam?—scriboque legoque,
tutaque iudicio littera nostra suo est.
saepe tamen dixi cui nunc haec cura laborat?
an mea Sauromatae scripta Getaeque legent?
saepe etiam lacrimae me sunt scribente profusae,
umidaque est fletu littera facta meo,
corque vetusta meum, tamquam nova, vulnera novit,
inque sinum maestae labitur imber aquae,
cum vice mutata, qui sim fuerimque, recordor,
et, tulerit quo me casus et unde, subit,
saepe manus demens, studiis irata sibique,
misit in arsuros carmina nostra focos,
atque ita de multis quoniam non multa supersunt,
cum venia facito, quisquis es, ista legas.
tu quoque non melius, quam sunt mea tempora, carmen,
interdicta mihi, consule. Roma, boni.

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