The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books VIII-XV

37.Ortygia.]—Ver. 337. Ortygia, or Deloe, was said to have floated till it was made fast by Jupiter as a resting-place for Latona, when pregnant with Apollo and Diana. The Symplegades, or Cyanean Islands, were also said to have formerly floated.

38.Far Northern Pallene.]—Ver. 356. Pallene was the name of a mountain and a city of Thrace. Tritonis was a lake in the neighbourhood. Vibius Sequester says, ‘When a person has nine times bathed himself in the Tritonian lake, in Thrace, he is changed into a bird.’ The continuous fall of fleecy snow in that neighbourhood is supposed by some to have given rise to the story.

39.Give any credit.]—Ver. 361. This was a very common notion among the ancients. See the story of Aristæus and the recovery of his bees, in the Fourth Book of Virgil’s Georgics, I. 281-314. It is also told by Ovid in the Fasti, Book I. l. 377.

40.The warlike steed.]—Ver. 368. Pliny the Elder, Nicander, and Varro state that bees and hornets are produced from the carcase of the horse. Pliny also says, that beetles are generated by the putrefying carcase of the ass.

41.Deadly moth.]—Ver. 374. Pliny, in the twenty-eighth Book of his History, says, ‘The moth, too, that flies at the flame of the lamp, is numbered among the bad potions,’ evidently alluding to their being used in philtres or incantations. There is a kind called the death’s head moth; but it is so called simply from the figure of a skull, which appears very exactly represented on its body, and not on account of any noxious qualities known to be inherent in it.

42.Deprived of feet.]—Ver. 376. He alludes to frogs when in the tadpole state.

43.Not a cub.]—Ver. 379. This was long the common belief. Pliny says, speaking of the cub of the bear, ‘These are white and shapeless lumps of flesh, a little bigger than mice, without eyes, and without hair; the claws, however, are prominent. These the dams by degrees reduce to shape.’

44.Into a serpent.]—Ver. 390. Pliny tells the same story; and Antigonus (on Miracles, ch. 96) goes still further, and says, that the persons to whom this happens, after death, are able to smell the snakes while they are yet alive. The fiction, very probably, was invented with the praiseworthy object of securing freedom from molestation for the bones of the dead.

45.Changes its sex.]—Ver. 408. Pliny mentions it as a vulgar belief that the hyæna is male and female in alternate years. Aristotle took the pains to confute this silly notion.

46.Which feeds upon.]—Ver. 411. The idea that the chameleon subsists on wind and air, arose from the circumstance of its sitting with its mouth continually open, that it may catch flies and small insects, its prey. That it changes colour according to the hue of the surrounding objects, is a fact well known. It receives its name from the Greek χάμαι λέων, ‘The lion on the ground.’

47.Changed into stone.]—Ver. 415. Pliny says, that this becomes hard, and turns into gems, like the carbuncle, being of a fiery tint, and that the stone has the name of ‘lyncurium.’ Beckmann (Hist. Inventions) thinks that this was probably the jacinth, or hyacinth, while others suppose it to have been the tourmaline, or transparent amber.

48.A soft plant.]—Ver. 417. Modern improvement in knowledge has shown that coral is not a plant, but an animal substance.

49.Sparta was famed.]—Ver. 426-30. These lines are looked upon by many Commentators as spurious, as they are omitted in most MSS. Besides, all these cities were flourishing in the time of Pythagoras. If they are genuine, Ovid is here guilty of a series of anachronisms.

50.But one born.]—Ver. 447. This was Octavius, the adopted son of Julius Cæsar. According to Suetonius, he traced his descent, through his mother, from Ascanius or Iülus.

51.Ought not to fill.]—Ver. 462. Clarke’s quaint translation is, ‘And let us not cram our g—ts with Thyestian victuals.’

52.Feather foils.]—Ver. 475. He alludes to the ‘formido;’ which was made of coloured feathers, and was used to scare the deer into the toils.

53.Voluntarily invited.]—Ver. 481. He was living at the Sabine town of Cures, when the throne was pressed upon him by the desire of both the Roman and the Sabine nations.

54.City of Pittheus.]—Ver. 506. Pittheus was the son of Pelops, and the father of Æthra, the mother of Theseus; consequently he was the great-grandfather of Hippolytus.

55.Phlegethon.]—Ver. 532. This was said to be one of the rivers of the Infernal Regions, and to be flowing with fire and brimstone.

56.Pæonian aid.]—Ver. 536. Pæon was a skilful physician, mentioned by Homer, in the Fifth Book of the Iliad. Eustathius thinks that Apollo is meant under that name.

57.Virbius.]—Ver. 544. This name is formed from the words ‘vir’ and ‘bis,’ twice a man.

58.Am I devoted.]—Ver. 546. In the same relation to her as Adonis was to Venus, Ericthonius to Minerva, and Atys to Cybele.

59.Son of the Amazon.]—Ver. 552. Hippolytus was the son either of the Amazon Hippolyta, or Antiope.

60.Slender pine.]—Ver. 603-4. The words ‘succinctis pinetis’ are rendered by Clarke, ‘the neat pine-groves.’

61.The tripod.]—Ver. 635. The tripod on which the priestess of Apollo or ‘Pythia,’ sat when inspired, was called ‘Cortina,’ from the skin, ‘corium,’ of the serpent Python, which, when it had been killed by Apollo was used to cover it.

62.Epidaurus.]—Ver. 643. There were several towns of this name. The one here mentioned was in the state of Argolis.

63.Polished steps.]—Ver. 685. Clarke translates ‘Gradibus nitidis,’ ‘the neat steps.’

64.Is conspicuous aloft.]—Ver. 697. ‘Deus eminet alte.’ This is rendered by Clarke, ‘The God rears up to a good height.’

65.Scylacean.]—Ver. 702. Scylace was a town on the Calabrian coast; it was said to have been founded by an Athenian colony.

66.Amphissian.]—Ver. 703. Amphissia was the name of a city of Locris; but that cannot be the place here alluded to on the coast of Italy. It is most probably a corrupt reading.

67.Caulon.]—Ver. 705. Caulon was a colony of the Achæa on the coast of Calabria. Narycia, or Naritium, or Naricia, was also a town on the Calabrian coast. The localities of Ceraunia and Romechium are not known.

68.Leucosia.]—Ver. 708. Leucosia was a little island off the town of Pæstum, which was in Lucania; it was famous for its mild climate, and the beauty of its roses, which are celebrated by Virgil.

69.Capreæ.]—Ver. 709. Capreæ was an island near the coast of Naples.

70.Surrentine.]—Ver. 710. Surrentum was a city of Campania, famed for its wines.

71.City of Hercules.]—Ver. 711. This was Herculaneum, at the foot of Vesuvius; the place which shared so disastrous a fate from the eruption of that mountain.

72.Stabiæ.]—Ver. 711. This was a town of Campania, which was destroyed by Sylla in the Social war. It was afterwards rebuilt.

73.The warm springs.]—Ver. 711. He alludes to the city of Baiæ, famed for its warm springs and baths.

74.Linternum.]—Ver. 714. This place was in Campania. It was famous as the place of retirement of the elder Scipio; he was buried there.

75.Vulturnus.]—Ver. 715. This was a river of Campania, which flowed past the city of Capua.

76.Snow-white snakes.]—Ver. 715. Sinuessa was a town of Campania; Heinsius very properly suggests ‘columbis,’ ‘doves;’ for ‘colubris,’ ‘snakes.’ We are told by Pliny the Elder, that Campania was famed for its doves.