You meant when you went never to come back. You lied to me when you said the weather was favourable for your departure.'

91. oculis inhaeret: Tr. 4, 3, 19 Vultibus illa tuis tanquam praesentibus haeret. 1, 6, 3 pectoribus tu nostris, uxor, inhaeres.

92. premeret portus 'when your fleet on the point of starting was riding in my harbour.' Premerent portus seems to be a condensed expression for in portu premerent terram vel litus 'in harbour and close to shore.' Cf. Met. 14, 416 presserat occiduus Tartesia litora Phoebus 'was close upon.'

94. per longas moras: cf. on 1, 99. 'And to join your lips to mine with lingering pressure.'

98. face for fac is the more usual form in Plautus, but is rare in later Latin. For the construction of facere with subj. without ut cf. supr. 66. 13, 92, 144.

100. expectem: subj. used in rhetorical questions, or, questions implying a negation. Zumpt, § 530. See index.

101-2. 'Yet in spite of its futility I do expect you. Return however late. Let your pledged word be only forfeited so far as the date of your coming is concerned,' i.e. you promised to come within a month, that pledge is broken, but you can still keep your promise of return, though not at the time named.

modo is to be taken with redeas. lapsa sit is used as a word suitable to the gliding by of time, for fides really means the promise to return at a certain time. F. 6, 771 tempora

labuntur.

105. utque...excidimus 'and since I have fallen from your remembrance,' 'been forgotten.' Loers quotes Hom. Il. 23, 595 Èk Ovμoû πeσeîv. Cf. also infr. 12, 71. Tr. 4, 5, 10 excidit heu nomen quam mihi paene tuum. Tib. 3, 1, 20 an toto pectore deciderim.

nullam...Phyllida 'no such person as Phyllis.'

107. 'I am she, Demophoon, who when you had been drifting in long wandering ways gave you a Thracian harbour and entertainment.'

109-110. 'You-whose scanty means mine augmented, you to whom in your poverty I in my wealth gave many a boon and would have given many more.'

The relative passes irregularly to refer to Demophoon: a transition caused by the impassioned nature of the address as Palmer says. In the next line it goes back again to Phyllis.

111. Lycurgus, son of Dryas, a king of Thrace and persecutor of the followers of Bacchus, and slain by that god, Thracis et exitium Lycurgi Hor. O. 2, 19, 16.

112. A kingdom scarcely fit to be ruled by a woman." apta regii: cf. ferre apta 9, 116. nomine femineo=a feminâ. So nomen Romanum, Latinum, Aeolium for Romani, Latini, Aeolii, For the ablat, of agent without preposition, see index.

113-114. i. e. all Thrace. Thrace corresponds nearly to the modern Roumelia. Haemus is the Balkan range on the North separating Thracia from Scythia. Rhodope is a branch of the same range, hence fabled to be daughter of Haemus, and extending to the S.E. (mod. Despoto Dagh). The Hebrus (mod. Maritza) rises in the Haemus range and falls into the Aegean Sea, near Aenus (Enos). It is called sacer from the Bacchic orgies celebrated near it. In F. 3, 737 he calls it arenosus. It is a swift river, volucer Hebrus Virg. Aen.

1, 317.

admissas 'at full speed,' a metaphor from driving horses, cf. 1, 36.

115. cui 'You, Demophoon, for whom my maiden state was first resigned.' From its sense of 'offering firstfruits' libata here signifies the first marriage of a maiden. Cf. 4, 27.

avibus sinistris: the omens were taken at a marriage, the auspex attending for the purpose. Juv. 10, 336 veniet cum signatoribus auspex. M. 6, 433 Hac ave conjuncti Progne Tereusque. Birds on the left hand were an evil omen, but lightning on the left a good omen, tonitrus sinistri, Tr. 1, 9, 49. There seem however to have been wide differences among experts on the subject. Cic. de Div. 2, 39.

116. recincta 'unfastened.' A bride's dress was fastened round the waist by a woollen girdle cingulum, the untying of which was a part of the solemn ceremony. Loers quotes Odyss. 11, 244 λῦσε δὲ παρθενίην ζώνην.

117. pronuba 'Tisiphone the Fury presided at our marriage,' i.e. instead of Juno; cf. 6, 43. Pronuba also means the matron who conducted the bride to the thalamus. Ramsay P. 424.

118. devia avis the screech-owl, a bird of ill-omen. M. 10, 453 ter omen Funereus bubo letali carmine fecit. Devia 'lonely,'

shunning the haunts of men in the daytime. Ex P. 3, 1, 27 regio ab omni devia cursu.

119. Allecto 'the Fury with her collar of short adders.' Hor. Epod. 5, 15 Canidia brevibus implicata viperis crines. Cf. 6, 45.

120. And our marriage-torches waved, but the brand was snatched from a funeral pile.' mota refers to waving of the torches to keep them alight, A. 1, 2, 11 vidi ego jactatas mota face crescere flammas, et vidi nullo concutiente mori. The marriage procession to the bridegroom's house was at night, and therefore torches formed part of the necessary accompaniments. Cf. 12, 137. 6, 46. Anything connected with funeral ceremonies would be of bad omen at a marriage, especially that the torches should have been taken from or lighted at a funeral pile. Cf. M. 6, 430 Eumenides tenuere faces de funere raptas. Ovid is fond of contrasting the ceremonies of marriage and death: for instances in these Epistles see 12, 140. 14, 10, 32 and Rem. 38 non tua fax avidos digna subire rogos.

sepulchrali face: the ablative expresses the material, 'torches consisting of brands from the funeral pyre.' Such an ablative may often conveniently be translated as though in apposition to the word it describes.

121-2. 'I tread wearily over rocks and bushy shores, and wherever the broad seas lie open to my eyes.' 10, 25 mons fuit, apparent frutices in vertice rari, would seem to confirm Merkel's reading culmina, if it were not that culmina is not properly used of a mountain. Phyllis is climbing to all points of vantage, where she may take a wide view, cf. 10, 29 late Aequora prospectu metior alta meo: sometimes she comes down to the shore, sometimes climbs to the cliff. calco is not a usual word for 'walking:' it seems to refer to the heavy step of a weary person.

125. i. e. to see whether the wind was favourable for your return voyage.

126. 'I at once conjecture them to be the answers of the gods to my wishes,' lit. 'the gods propitious to me.' This is a difficult phrase, but I cannot think with Palmer that meos deos 'my ship,' the images of the gods on the stern being put for the whole vessel. It is rather to be explained by 12, 84 Sed mihi tam faciles unde meosque deos.

128. mobile: referring to the constant ebb and flow of the billows on the beach.

129-130. minus et minus: cf. 1, 42. utilis 'mistress of my limbs.' linquor 'I faint.' Cf. Tac. A. 3, 46 quasi exanimes linquebantur.

131. modice 'with a gradual curve.' Cf. M. 11, 229 Est sinus Haemoniae curvos falcatus in arcus: Brachia procurrunt.

132. rigent 'stand sheer up,' M. 11, 150 riget arduus alto Tmolus in ascensu.

137. ut 'though,' see on 1, 116. "Though in hardness you surpass iron and adamant and even yourself.' Cf. 10, 110. Am. 3, 7, 57 illa graves potuit quercus adamantaque durum Surdaque blanditiis saxa movere suis.

adamas (ádáμas) is properly the hardest steel, and then used poetically for the hardest conceivable substance.

141. 'My neck too, because it yielded itself to the embraces of your faithless arms, I long to tie close with a halter.'

142. praebuerunt: Heinsius at 7, 166 collects a great number of instances of this license in Ovid: steterunt, quaesierunt, exciderunt, absciderunt, horruerunt, expulerunt, fuerunt, mollierunt, profuerunt, contigerunt, annuerunt, audierunt, finierunt, polluerunt.

For the construction praebere nectenda cf. 13, 31.

143. stat 'I am resolved to atone for my frailty by an early death.' For stat cf. F. 4, 602 statque semel juncti rumpere vincla tori. For pensare M. 13, 192 laudem cum sanguine penset. tenerum pudorem 'frail modesty' stands for 'the frailty of my modesty.' tener is here that which is easily dissolved, as he speaks of snow ad Liv. 102 Solvuntur tenerae vere tepente nives.

144.

There shall be but small delay in choosing.'

futura est erit, cf. 7, 86.

145. invidiosa 'calculated to draw hatred upon you,' cf. 7, 120. 8, 49

147-8. For a similar inscription cf. 7, 195.

III.

BRISEIS ACHILLI.

WHEN Agamemnon had been forced in obedience to Calchas to send Chryseis back to her father, he consoled himself by taking Briseis from Achilles. And she was accordingly taken from the tent of Achilles by the heralds Talthybius and Eurybates (Il. 1, 217—350). When Achilles in wrath abstained from the battle, and the Greeks accordingly suffered defeats, Agamemnon sends Ajax, Ulysses and Phoenix to offer him reparation, and the restoration of Briseis, if he will fight. But Achilles refuses (Il. 9, 162-429).

Ovid acting on the statement (Il. 1, 348) that Briseis went from Achilles unwillingly imagines her to be writing this loving and reproachful letter immediately after the failure of the deputation, when Achilles might have recovered her.

ἡ δ ̓ ἀέκουσ ̓ ἅμα τοῖσι γυνὴ κίεν.

1-2. rapta alludes to Briseis being taken by force from Achilles, barbarica to her having been originally a captive and not a Greek. She was daughter of Briseus of Lyrnesus (Il. 2; 690) in Cilicia, which was plundered by Achilles, Met. 12, 108 cum Lyrnesia primus Moenia disjeci.

3-4. 'The blots you see are tear-stains, but my tears speak for me.' Tr. 1, 1, 12 Neve liturarum pudeat: qui viderit illas de lacrimis factas sentiet ille meis. Ib. 3, 1, 15 littera suffusas quod habet maculosa lituras, laesit opus lacrimis ipse poeta suum.

pondera 'force.' Cf. 2, 30.

5-6. 'About you my master and husband.' Ovid is fond of thus repeating his words. Instances will be found in vv. 8, 9, 140 of this Epist. and in 2, 99. 4, 44. 5, 120. 8, 80. 13, 166. Cf. Am. 2, 5, 59 non oscula tantum Juncta queror: quamvis haec quoque juncta queror.

7. regi: sc. Agamemnon.

8. quamvis...tua est: 'In Lucretius and post-Ciceronian writers (rarely in Livy) quamvis is found with the indicative.' Roby § 1627. Ovid uses it with both subjunctive and indicative, but with the former it means 'even if' (as a supposition); with the latter however much' 'although' (as a fact). Consider the distinction of meaning in these two lines: