V. The death of Lesbia’s sparrow. Catullus. Pass.
Lugete, o Veneres Cupidinesque,
et quantum est hominum venustiorum:
passer mortuus est meae puellae,
passer, deliciae meae puellae,
quem plus illa oculis suis amabat:
nam mellitus erat suamque norat
ipsam tam bene quam puella matrem;
nec sese a gremio ilius movebat,
sed circumsiliens modo huc, modo illuc
ad solam dominam usque pipiabat.
qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum
Illud, unde negant redire quemquam.
at vobis male sit, malae tenebrae
orci,quae omnia bella devoratis.
tam bellum mihi passerem abstulistis.
o factum male! O miselle passer!
tua nunc opera meae puellae
flendo turgiduli rubent ocelli.
Mourn, you Graces and Sons of Love and as many as there are loving
people. The sparrow of my lady is dead, the sparrow, the pet of my lady which she
loved more than her own eyes; for he was sweet as honey and knew his owner as
well as a girl knows her own mother. Nor did he move himself from her lap, but
hopping about now here now there, he chirped continually for his mistress alone.
Now he goes along that dark road from where they say no one returns. But curse
on you evil shades of Orcus which devour all pretty things. You have taken away
from me such a pretty sparrow. O evil deed! O poor little sparrow! All because of
you ( now by
your action) my lady’s eyes are swollen and red with weeping.
VI. Let us live and love, Lesbia! Catullus. Pass.
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,
rumoresque senum severiorum
omus unius asetimemus assis!
soles occidere et redire possunt;
nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,
nox est perpetua una domienda.
da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
dein milli altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.
dein, cum milia multa gecerimus,
conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,
aut ne quis malus invidere posit,
cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.
Let us live, my Lesbia and let us love and let us value at 1 penny all the
talk of old men who are too severe. Suns can set and rise again when our
brief light sets once and for all we must sleep 1 unending night. Give me 1000
kisses, then 100, then another 1000, then a second 100 then yet another 1000,
then 100. Then, when we have made up (given) many 1000’s, we will confuse
our counting so that we do not know [how many], or in case anyone evil
could envy us when he knows that our kisses are so many.
XXX. Daphne and Apollo. Ovid. Pass.
Tergoque fugacis
imminet, et crinem sparsum cervicibus afflat.
viribus absumptis expalluit illa, citaque
victa labore fugae, spectans Peneidas undas,
“fer, pater,” inquit, “opem, si flumina numen habetis.”
Vix preca finita, torpor gravis occupat artus;
in frondem crines, in ramos bracchia crescunt;
pes, modo tam velox, pigris radicibus haeret.
Hanc quoque Phoebus amat: positaque in stipite dextra
sentit adhuc trepidare novo sub cortice pectus.
Oscula dat ligno: refugit tamen oscula lignum.
Cui deus, “ at coniunx quoniam mea non potes esse,
arbor eris certe”, dixit, “mea”.
He was near to the back of the girl as she ran away and breathed on the
hair scattered on her neck. Her strength exhausted, she went pale worn out
by the toil of her swift flight. Looking at the waters of the Peneus river, she
said “ Help father, if o rivers you have divine power. Scarcely had she
finished her prayer when a heavy numbness seized her limbs. Her hair grew
into leaves, her arms into branches. Her foot, just now so swift, stuck still
with sluggish roots. Apollo loved this [form] also. When he placed his right
hand on the trunk he felt her heart still beating beneath the new bark. He
kissed the timber: nevertheless the wood shrank from his kisses. To whom
the god said “But since you are not able to be my wife, you will certainly
be my tree”.
XL.Orpheus dares to enter the underworld. Pass Virgil.
Ipse cava solans aegrum testudine amorem
te, dulcis coniunx, te solo in litore secum,
te veniente die, te decedente canebat.
Taenarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,
et caligantem nigra formidine lucum
ingressus, manesque adiit regemque tremendum
nesciaque humanis precibus mansuescere corda.
Orpheus, himself consoling his agonising love with his hollow lyre (tortoise-
shell). He was singing about you, his sweet wife, he was singing about you on
the lonely shore. He was singing about you when day was dawning and
about you when it was declining. He even entered the jaws of Taenarus, the
high entrance of the Underworld and the grove murky with black terror.
And he approached the shades(spirits) of the dead and the terrifying king
and hearts that do not know how to soften to human prayers.
XLI. The spirits of the dead stand amazed. Hons. Virgil.
At cantu commotae Erebi de sedibus imis
umbrae ibant tenues simulacraque luce carentum,
quam multa in foliis avium se milia condunt,
vesper ubi aut hibernus agit de montibus imber,
matres atque viri defunctaque corpora vita
magnanimum heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum.
Quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima Leti
Tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues
Eumenides,tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora,
atque Ixionii vento rota constitit orbis.
But moved by his music from the lowest mansions of Erebus(Hell) there
came thin shadows and phantoms deprived of light, as many of them as the
1,000’s of birds who hide themselves in the leaves when evening or winter
shower drives them from the mountains, mothers and husbands and the
bodies of great - souled heroes finished with life, boys and unmarried girls
and young men that had been placed on the funeral pyre before their
parents’ eyes. Indeed the very houses of Death and the inmost recesses of
Tartarus were amazed(to hear that song); so were the Furies having entwined
in their hair dark blue snakes; Cerberus held his 3 mouths gaping open;
Ixion’s wheel stopped circling in the wind.
XLII. Orpheus looks back. Pass. Virgil.
Iamque pedem referens casus evaserat omnes,
redditaque Eurydice superas veniebat ad auras,
pone sequens, [namque hanc dederat Proserpina legem],
cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem,
ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere manes:
restitit, Eurydicenque suam iam luce sub ipsa
immemor heu! victusque animi respexit. Ibi omnis
effusus labor atque immitis rupta tyranni
foedera, terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis.
And now retracing his steps he has avoided all dangers. Eurydice was given
back to him and was coming to the upper air, following behind for
Proserpina had imposed this condition; when a sudden madness caught her
lover off his guard, a forgivable madness indeed if the shades of the dead
knew how to forgive. He stopped and with his own Eurydice already close
to daylight itself, alas not remembering and with his resolution overcome,
he looked back. Then all his work was spilled out, the agreement with the
merciless tyrant was broken and 3 times thunder was heard in the pools of
Avernus.
XLIII. Eurydice is lost forever. Hons. Virgil.
Illa “quis et me,” inquit, “miseram et te perdidit, Orpheu,
quis tantus furor? En iterum crudelia retro
fata vocant conditque natantia lumina somnus.
Iamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte
invalidasque tibi tendens, heu! Non tua, palmas.”
Dixit et ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras
commixtus tenues, fugit diversa, neque illum
prensantem nequiquam umbras et multa volentem
dicere praeterea vidit; nec portitor Orci
amplius obiectam passus transpire paludem.
Quid faceret? Quo se rapta bis coniuge ferret?
Quo fletu manes, qua numina voce moveret?
Illa quidem Stygia nabat iam frigida cumba.
Eurydice said “what utter madness and who o Orpheus has destroyed both
wretched me and you? Look the cruel fates call me back and sleep closes
my swimming eyes. And now farewell. I am being swept away surrounded
by a vast darkness, stretching out to you hands that have no strength, alas
yours no longer.” Thus she spoke; and suddenly away from his eyes like
smoke mingling into a gentle breeze, she fled far away. Nor did she see him
again grasping in vain at shadows and wishing to say many things besides
to her. Nor did the ferryman of Orcus allow Orpheus again to cross the
marsh that lay between them. What could he do? Where could he take
himself, his wife taken from him twice? With what tears could he move the
shades of the dead, with what words could he move the divine powers? She
in fact, already cold, was floating on the Stygian boat.
XLIV. Orpheus is inconsolable. Hons. Virgil.
Septem illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses
rupe sub aeria deserti ad Strymonis undam
flevisse, et gelidis haec evolvisse sub antris,
mulcentem tigres et agentem carmine quercus;
qualis populea maerens philomela sub umbra
amissos queritur fetus, quos durur arator
observans nido implumes detraxit; at illa
flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
integrat, et maestis late loca questibus implet.
Nulla venus, non ulli animum flexere hymenaei.
solus Hyperboreas glacies Tanaimque nivalem
lustrabat, raptam Eurydicen atque inrita Ditis
dona querens.
They say that he wept for 7 whole months in succession under an airy cliff
at the waters of deserted Strymon and that he told this story beneath it’s
icy caves that charmed the tigers and made oak trees move with his
singing, like a nightingale mourning under the poplar’s shade, weeping for
her lost brood, which a hardhearted ploughman noticed in their nest and
dragged them out without plumage(featherless). But she weeps all night and
sitting on a branch she repeats her pitiable song and she fills the place far
and wide with sad laments. No love, no wedding songs change his mind.
All alone he was roaming the Northern ice and the snowy Tanais weeping
for Eurydice snatched from him and the worthless of Dis.
XLV. The death of Orpheus. Pass. Virgil.
Tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice revulsum
gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Hebrus
volveret, “Eurydicen” vox ipsa et frigida lingua,
“a miseram Eurydicen!” anima fugiente vocabat,
“Eurydicen” toto referebant flumine ripae.
Even then while the head torn off from the marble-like neck was being
carried along by Oeagrian Hebrus that was rolling it in mid-stream,
that voice and cold tongue was calling “Eurydice, o poor Eurydice”
as the soul [of the singer] fled. “Eurydice” echoed the banks down the whole
of the river.
X. Women against war. Pass. Ovid.
Iam steterant acies ferro mortique paratae,
iam lituus pugnae signa daturus erat;
cum raptae veniunt inter patresque virosque,
inque sinu natos, pignora cara, tenent.
ut medium campi passis tetigere capillis,
in terram posito procubuere genu.
et quasi sentirent, blando clamore nepotes
tendebant ad avos bracchia parva suos.
Tela viris animique cadunt, gladiisque remotis
dant soceri generis accipiunt manus;
laudatasque tenent natas, scutoque nepotem
fert avus: hic scuti dulcior usus erat.
And now the lines of battle had taken up position ready for death by a
sword. Now the trumpet was about to give the signal for battle; when the
women who had been snatched away came between their fathers and their
husbands and in the fold of their garments they held their sons, their dear
pledges[of love]. When they reached the middle of the plain with tossed hair
they sank down on their knees on the ground. And as if they understood
the grandsons were stretching out their little arms to their grandfathers
with pleasing cries. Weapons and anger fell from the men and after the
swords had been put away, the fathers-in-law gave their hands to the
sons-in-law and accepted theirs. They praised and hugged their daughters
and grandfather carried grandson on his shield. This was a more
pleasant (sweeter) use for a shield.
XII. The massacre of the Fabians. Pass. Ovid.
Sic Fabii latis vallem discuribus implant;
quosque vident, sternunt: nec metus alter inest.
Quo ruitis, generosa domus? Male creditur hosti.
Simplex nobilitas, perfida tela cave!
Fraude perit virtus. In apertos undique campos
prosiliunt hostes, et latus omne tenent.
Quid faciant pauci contra tot milia fortes?
Quidve, quod in misero tempore restet, habent?
Sicut aper, silvis longe Laurentibus actus,
fulmineo celeres dissipat ore canes.
Mox tamen ipse perit: sic non moriuntur inulti,
vulneraque alterna dantque feruntque manu.
So the Fabians filled the valleys with broad forays(charging right through it)
and those whom they saw, they laid low. They had no fear of anything else.
Into what did you rush o noble house [of Fabians]? It is rash to trust an
enemy. O simple nobility, beware of treacherous weapons! Courage perished
by trickery. The enemy leapt forward
onto the open plain from everywhere
and they held every side. What could a few brave men do against so many
thousands? Or what did they have which could last in such a wretched time?
Just as a wild boar driven afar from the Laurentian woods that has
scattered the swift dogs with it’s destructive mouth(tusks). Soon nevertheless
he perishes; So they do not die unavenged. They give and suffer wounds with
alternate blows.
XIII. The Fabian name lives on. Pass. Ovid.
Una dies Fabios ad bellum miserat omnes:
ad bellum missos perdidit una dies.
Ut tamen Herculeae superessent semina gentis,
credibile est ipsos consuluisse deos.
Nam puer impubes, et adhuc non utilis armis,
unus de Fabia gente relictus erat;
scilicet ut posses olim tu, Maxime, nasci,
cui res cunctando restituenda foret.
One day had sent all the Fabians to war. One day destroyed all those sent
to war. It is credible that the gods themselves made plans that nevertheless
the seed of the race of Hercules might survive. For a young boy, still not
useful in arms, alone from the Fabian family had been left; no doubt that
you, Maximus, could one day be born by whose delaying our state would
be restored.
Ovid in Exile.
XXXIV. Life among the barbarians. Hons. Ovid.
Vivere quam miserum est inter Bessosque Getasque
illum, qui populi simper in ore fuit!
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 veneno,
saevus anhelanti moenia lustrat equo.
How wretched it is to live among the Bessi and the Getae for a man whose
poetry was always on people’s lips! As a young man I fled from rough
contests of military service, nor did I handle weapons except weapons for
sport. Now when I am older, I expose(fit) my side to a sword, my left hand
to a shield and my white hair to a helmet. For when the guard from his
watchtower has given the signal of a raid(disturbance), with shaking hands I
immediately put on my armour. The enemy, holding his bow with arrows
dipped in poison rides fiercely round the fortifications on his panting horse.
XXXV. Attacks by barbarian tribes. Pass. Ovid.
Innumerae circa gentes fera bella minantur,
quae sibi non rapto vivere turpe putant.
Nil extra tutum est: tumulus defenditur aegre
moenibus exiguis, ingenioque loci.
Cum minime credas, ut aves, densissimus hostis
advolat, et praedam vix bene visus agit.
Saepe intra muros clausis venientia portis
per medias legimus noxia tela vias.
Est igitur rarus, qui rus colere audeat: isque
hac arat infelix, hac tenet arma manu.
Barbarus hic ego sum, qui non intellegor ulli,
et rident stolidi verbs Latina Getae.
Countless tribes around us threaten us with savage wars who think to
themselves it shameful to live without plundering. Nothing is safe outside [the
town] . The hill is defended with difficulty by small walls and the natural
situation of the place. When you would least believe it, our enemies swoop
at us like birds in very dense masses and when they have scarcely been
well seen, they are driving off their plunder. Often though the gates are
closed, we pick up harmful weapons in the middle of the streets that
come inside the walls. Therefore it is a rare man who would dare to
cultivate the countryside and he, unlucky man, ploughs with this hand
and with that hand holds a weapon. Here I am the barbarian who is
understood by nobody and the Getae smile stupidly at my Latin words.
XXXVI. Ovid laments his separation from his wife. Hons. Ovid.
Iam mihi deterior canis adspergitur aetas,
iamque meos vultus ruga senilis arat.
Iam vigor, et quasso languent in corpore vires;
nec, iuveni lusus qui placuere, iuvant.
Nec, si me subito videas, agnoscere possis;
aetatis facta est tanta ruina meae.
Confiteor facere hoc annos; sed et altera causa estanxietas animi, continuusque labor.
Caesaris ira mihi nocuit, quem solis ab ortu
solis ad occasus utraque terra tremit.
Te quoque, quam iuvenem discedens urbe reliqui,
credibile est nostris insenuisse malis.
O ego di faciant talem te cernere possim,
caraque mutatis oscula ferre comis.
Now I am at a weaker age, that’s sprinkled with grey hairs and already the
wrinkles of an old man are ploughing my face. Now vigour and strength weaken
in my battered body. Games which pleased me as a young man no longer delight
me. If you were to suddenly see me, you would not be able to recognise me, such
a great ruin has been made of my life. I admit that years do this but there is
another cause, stress of mind and continual hardship. The anger of Caesar has
injured me, at whom both ends of the earth tremble, from the rising of the sun
to it’s setting. It is credible that you whom I left behind as a young woman, as I
departed from the city, have also grown old at my disasters. O may the gods
grant that I am able to see you like this and give loving kisses to your altered
hair.
XXXVI. The aftermath of civil war. Hons. Virgil.
Meliboeus:
Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi
silvestrem tenui musam meditaris avena:
nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva;
nos patriam, fugimus; tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra
formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas.
Tityrus:
O Meliboee, deus nobis haec otia fecit.
Namque erit ille mihi simper deus, illius aram
saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus.
Ille meas errare boves, ut cernes, et ipsum
ludere quae vellem calamo permisit agresti.
Meliboeus:
Tityrus, you are reclining under the shelter of a spreading beech
tree, you practice your woodland song on your slender pipe. We leave the
bounds of our country and our pleasant fields; we fly our country. But you o
Tityrus, at ease in the shade teach the woods to re-echo with beautiful Amaryllis.
Tityrus:
O Meliboeus, a god has brought about this peace for us. For he will
always be a god to me, often a tender lamb from my sheep-folds will stain his
altar. He has allowed my cattle to wander, as you see, and myself to play
whatever I wish on my rustic(country) pipe.
XXXVII. A powerful benefactor. Hons. Virgil.
Meliboeus:
Sed tamen, iste deus qui sit, da, Tityre, nobis.
Tityrus:
Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Meliboee, putavi,
stultus ego huic nostrae similem, quo saepe solemus
pastores ovium teneros depellere fetus.
Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus haedos
noram, sic parvis componere magna solebam.
Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes,
quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi.
Hic illum vidi iuvenem, Meliboee, quotannis
bis senos cui nostra dies altaria fumant.
His mihi responsum primus dedit ille petenti:
“pascite, ut ante, boves, pueri; submitte tauros.”
Meliboeus:
But tell me Tityrus, nevertheless who is this god of yours?
Tityrus:
The city which they call Rome, o Meliboeus, I stupidly thought was
similar to this city of ours to which we shepherds are often accustomed to
drive down the tender offspring of our sheep. Just as I knew that puppies
are similar to dogs, thus kid goats to their mothers, so I was accustomed
to compare big things with small. But this city has raised her head up as
high among other cities as cypresses usually [lift their heads] among tough
viburnum. Here, Meliboeus, I saw that young man, for whom every year
for twice six days my altars smoke [with incense]. It is here that he first
gave an answer to my petition: feed your cattle as before, young men;
rear your bulls.
XXXVIII. Mixed fortunes. Pass. Virgil.
Meliboeus:
Fortunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt
fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota
et fontes sacros frigus captabis opacum.
Hinc alta sub rupe canet frondator ad auras:
nec gemere aeria cessabit turtur ab ulmo.
At nos hinc alii sitientes ibimus Afros,
pars Scythiam et rapidum Cretae veniemus Oaxen
et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.
Carmina nulla canam; non me pascente, capellae,
florentem cytisum et salices carpetis amaras.
Tityrus:
Hic tamen hanc mecum poteras requiescere noctem
fronde super viridi: sunt nobis mitia poma,
castaneae molles et pressi copia lactis;
et iam summa procul villarum culmina fumant
maioresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae.
Meliboeus:
Fortunate old man, so these fields will stay [in your possession].
Fortunate old man here among the well known streams and sacred fountains
you will take advantage of the cooling shade. From here the vine pruner
beneath the high rock will sing to the breezes and the turtledove beneath the
airy elms will not cease complaining. But some of us will go from here to
the parched Africans. Some of us will come to Scythia and Oaxes, the swift
[River] of Crete and the Britons utterly cut off from the whole world. I will
sing no songs. No more my she-goats, as I feed you will you crop the
flowering clover and the bitter willows.
Tityrus:
Here nevertheless you could rest with me this night on green leaves.
We have ripe apples, soft chestnuts and a supply of pressed cheese. And
already smoke rises from the rooftops in the distance and longer, larger
shadows fall from the high mountains.
Publius Ovidius Naso----- Ovid 43b.c.--a.d.18.
1. Ovid was born 90 miles east of Rome. He belonged to a wealthy family.
He was very well educated and travelled widely such as Athens, Asia
Minor and Sicily. He liked to write poetry.
2. He became part of the jet set in Rome, went to many parties and idled
his time away frivolously.
3. In a.d. 8 he was banished to Tomi on the Black Sea.
Reasons: Some of his writings were immoral and the emperor Augustus
was trying to reform morals in Rome. They would have angered
Augustus. Ovid was involved in some palace scandal, possibly involving
Julia, the grand daughter of Augustus.
4. Ovid lived in exile for 10 years complaining of the cold climate, the basic
food and the barbarians around him. He wrote many letters to
influential people to be recalled. He failed.
5. He wrote a famous work called the “Metamorphoses”. This work had
15 books and was made up of a collection of Greek and Roman myths
involving some form of transformation, e.g. Cadmus being changed into
a snake and Caesar turning into a star after his death.
Catullus 84b.c.—54b.c.
1. Catullus was born in Northern Italy of rich parents. Caesar on his
travels would call to his father’s house. Catullus went to Rome as a
young man and squandered his inheritance. He became part of the jet
set in Rome.
2. Catullus fell in love with Clodia, a wealthy infamous woman. He wrote
many love poems where he addressed her as Lesbia. She lost interest in
him quickly and he was devastated.
3. Catullus left Rome to forget her and worked on the staff of a governor
in Asia Minor. He made little money on his travels although he returned
on a yacht.
4. On his way home he travelled to the grave of his beloved brother who
had died on foreign service. His brother was buried near Troy.
Virgil 70b.c.—19b.c.
1. Virgil was born in Northern Italy. His father owned his own farm and
gave his son the best possible education of the day in various parts of
Italy.
2. The farm was confiscated to give to retiring soldiers but a close advisor
of Augustus became his patron. Virgil was given 3 different houses in
Italy and became wealthy.
3. Virgil wrote books about farming but he is most remembered for his 12
books of the “Aeneid”. This was about a Trojan called Aeneas who
wandered around the Mediterranean for 10 years after the sack of
Troy, landed in Italy and founded a settlement which would develop
into Rome. It was a masterpiece as the hero for the first time in this type
of book was seen as an ordinary man—weeping at the death of a friend,
shaking with fear as a storm approached—rather than as a superman.
4. Virgil was very patriotic and he wanted the Romans to feel proud of
their ancestry