FOOTNOTES BOOK ONE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Ovid and Riley, Henry T. (Henry Thomas)
777 (return) [ Should you give her.—Ver. 447. The meaning of this and the following line is very obscure; so much so that Burmann is in doubt on the subject. It, however, seems to be, that it is not discreet, on first acquaintance, to give presents, as the damsel may then have a reason for peremptoily giving you up; she carries off your gift, and gives no favour in return.]
778 (return) [ Upon an apple.—Ver. 457: See the twentieth and twenty-first Epistles in the present volume.]
779 (return) [ Extend their hands.—Ver. 462. This figure is taken from the gladiatorial games, where the conquered extended their hands in token of submission.]
780 (return) [ Ring of iron.—Ver. 473. The rings worn by the lower classes were of iron.]
781 (return) [ Under some of the columns.1—Ver. 490. The learned Heinsius absolutely thinks that 'columnas' here means 'mile-stones'! It is pretty clear that Ovid alludes to the columns of the Portico; and he seems to say, that the attentive lover, when he sees the damsel at some distance before him, is not to hesitate to escape the crowd by going into the open space outside of the columns, and then running on, for the purpose of overtaking her. See the Tristia, Book iii. El. iii, where he makes mention of the columns in the Portico of the Danaides.]
782 (return) [ Actor is dancing.—Ver. 501. See the Tristia, Book ii. i. 497.]
783 (return) [ With the irons.'—Ver. 505. See the Amores, Book i. El. xiv 1 25, and the Note. The effeminate among the Romans were very fond of having their hair in curls.]
784 (return) [ With the rough pumice.—Ver. 506. Pliny the Elder mentions pumice stone as 'a substance used by women in washing their bodies, and now by men as well.' Persius, in his Fourth Satire, inveighs against this effeminate practice.]
785 (return) [ Bid those do this.—Ver. 507'. He alludes to the Galli, the eunuch priests of Cybele.]
786 (return) [ Hippolytus.—Ver. 511. Phædra, in her Epistle, alludes to his neglect of dress, as one of the merits of Hippolytus.]
787 (return) [ Plain of Mars.—Ver. 513. The Roman youth practised wrestling, and other athletic exercises, on the Campus Martius Being often stripped naked, or nearly so, the oil, combined with t he heat, would tend to bronze the skin.]
788 (return) [ Not be clammy.—Ver. 515. Probably this is the meaning of 'lingua ne rigeat,' although Nisard's French translation has it, 'let your tongue have no roughness.' Dryden's translation is, of course, of no assistance, as it carefully avoids all the difficult passages.]
789 (return) [ The father of the flock.—Ver. 522. He alludes to the rank smell to the arm-pits, which the Romans called by the name 'hircus,' 'a goat,' from a supposed similarity to the strong smell of that animal.]
790 (return) [ Awaking from her sleep.—Ver. 529. See the Epistle of Ariadne to Theseus.]
791 (return) [ Mimallonian females.—Ver. 541. It is a matter of doubt why the Bacchanalian women were called Mimallonides. According to some, they are so called from Mimas, a mountain of Asia Minor, where the rites of Bacchus were celebrated. Suidas says that they are so called, from 'imitation,' because they imitated the actions of men. Bochart thinks that the word is of Hebrew origin, and that they receive their name from 'memelleran,' 'garrulous' or 'noisy'; or else from mamal,' a 'wine- press.']
792 (return) [ Drunken old man.—Ver. 543. See the adventure of Silenus, in the beginning of Book xi. of the Metamorphoses; and in the Fasti, Book iii. 1. 742. He seems to have been always getting into trouble.]
793 (return) [ Cretan Diadem.—Ver. 558. See the Fasti. Book iii. 1. 516.]
794 (return) [ Evie, Evoë!—Ver. 563. In the combat with the Giants, Jupiter is said, when one of them was slain by Bacchus, to have exclaimed 'Well done, son:' whence the exclamation 'Evie!' was said to have originated. See the Metamorchoses, Book iv. 1. 11 and 15, and the Note.]
795 (return) [ On the table.'—Ver. 572. See the Epistle of Paris to Helen; and the Amores, Book i. El. iv. 1. 20, and Book ii. El. v. 1. 17, and the Notes.]
796 (return) [ From the side.—Ver. 576. See the Amores, Book i. EL iv. 1. 32.]
797 (return) [ Touched with her fingers.—Ver. 577. The ancients are supposed not to have used at meals any implement such as a knife or fork, but merely to have used the fingers only, except in eating soups or other liquids, or jellies, when they employed spoons, which were denoted by the names 'cochlear' and 'ligula.' At meals the Greeks wiped their fingers on pieces of bread; the Romans washed them with water, and dried them on napkins handed round by the slaves.]
798 (return) [ Are drinking by lot.—Ver. 581. The 'modimperator,' or 'master of the banquet,' was often chosen by lot by the guests, and it was his province to prescribe how much each person should drink. Lots were also thrown, by means of the dice, to show in what order each person was to drink. This passage will show the falsity of his plea in the Second Book of the Tristia, addressed to Augustus, where he says that it was not his intention to address the married women of Rome, but only those who did not wear the 'vittæ' and the 'instita,' the badges of chastity.]
799 (return) [ Agent attends even too much.—Ver. 587. His meaning seems to be, that in the same way as the agent does more than attend to the injunctions of his principal, and puts himself in a position to profit by his office, so is the inamorato, through the confidence of the husband reposed in him, to make a profit that has never been anticipated.]
801 (return) [ Eurytion.—Ver. 593. At the nuptials of Pirithous and Hippoda-mia. See the Metamorphoses, Book xii. 1. 220, where he is called Eurytus.]
802 (return) [ Stealing up.—Ver. 605. This piece of impudence he professes to practise in the Amores, Book i. El iv. l. 56.]
803 (return) [ Bird of Juno.—Ver. 627. This fact, in natural history, was probably known only to Ovid, or the peacocks of the present day may be less vain than the Roman ones. See the Metamorphoses, Book i. 1. 723.]
804 (return) [ That there should be Gods.—Ver. 637. This was the avowed opinion of some of the philosophers and atheists of antiquity. We learn from Tertullian that Diogenes, being asked if the Gods exist, answered that he did not know anything about it, but that they ought to exist. The doctrine of the Epicureans was, that the Gods lived a happy and easy life, were not susceptible of anger, and did not trouble themselves about men.]
805 (return) [ Went to Busiris.—Ver. 649. See the Tristia, Book iii. El. xi. 1. 39, where the story of Phalaris is also referred to. Thrasius was the brother of Pygmalion, and was justly punished by Busiris for his cruel suggestion.]
806 (return) [ Phoebe suffered—Ver. 679. See the story of the rape of Phoebe, by Castor and Pollux, in the Fasti, Book v. 1. 699.]
807 (return) [ Work-baskets.—Ver. 693. See the Note to the seventy-third line of the Ninth Epistle.]
808 (return) [ Heroines of olden times.—Ver. 713. Such as Danaë, Europa Seraele, Alcmena, Io, Calisto, Antiope, Maia, Electra, and others.]
809 (return) [ Chaplet of Pallas.—Ver. 727. A crown of olive was presented to the victors in the athletic exercises at the Olympic games.]
810 (return) [ Love for Lyrice.—Ver. 731. If Lyrice here is a female name, it is not known who she was.]
811 (return) [ Daphnis.—Ver. 732. He was a Sicilian, the son of Mercury; and the inventor of Bucolic poetry.]
812 (return) [ Pylades.—Ver. 745: Hermione was the wife of Orestes, the friend of Pylades.]
813 (return) [ With a dart.—Ver. 763. It appears by this, that it was the custom to take fish by striking them with a javelin Salmon ere foretimes caught in a similar manner at the present day.]