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Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) OCR Latin Anthology

LATIN. IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS. Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) OCR Latin Anthology. Click here for the complete text you are studying. A modern poem about Ovid in exile.

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Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) OCR Latin Anthology

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  1. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) OCR Latin Anthology Click here for the complete text you are studying A modern poem about Ovid in exile N B neither the questions nor the answers here are definitive in any way; they merely try to get you to think about the sorts of things that you may get asked questions on; hopefully they will along the way help you appreciate just what a clever poet Ovid is! G Evans September 2010

  2. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 1.cum subit illius tristissima noctis imago, 2.   quae mihi supremum tempus in Urbe fuit, 3. cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui, 4.   labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis. Click here for the complete text you are studying Why was this night so significant to Ovid? This was the night by the end of which he had to leave Rome, his home, his family and go far away to the edge of the Empire, with no certainty that he would return. He had been exiled for, in his words, a carmen and an error; it is thought the carmen was the Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) which was not supportive of the moral regeneration that the emperor Augustus wanted to see and that the error was possibly that Ovid had seen or knew of some scandalous behaviour concerning the emperor’s daughter Julia; we will never know. Comment on the choice and position of tristissima The word put into the superlative expresses the depth of Ovid’s sadness at what is going to happen. The position, immediately after the caesura, is emphatic; read aloud, the sibilance of the preceding ‘s’ sounds emphasises further the sibilance of tristissima. Julia, daughter of Augustus

  3. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 1.cum subit illius tristissima noctis imago, 2.   quae mihi supremum tempus in Urbe fuit, 3. cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui, 4.   labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis. Click here for the complete text you are studying Comment on the position of supremum tempus in the line. The words are either side of the caesura which makes them very emphatic; that this is Ovid’s last time in Rome gives the phrase great pathos and resonance. Discuss the phrase in Urbe; what does it tell us about Ovid’s feelings? The City is of course Rome; rather like people talk of going to London as going to Town. For Ovid and people of his set Rome really was the centre of the universe; with its entertainments and leisure activities it was the only place he wanted to be; the people for whom he is writing would know that he was talking about Rome. cum subit ... cum repeto ~ what is the effect of the repetition of cum? The cumulation of cum clause + relative clause, cum clause + relative clause before the main clause makes us wait three lines before finding out what happens which emphasises that Ovid can still (nunc quoque) cry about the events; the repetition also further emphasises to us that it was his last night in the city and also the night when he had to leave so many things that were dear to him.

  4. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 1.cum subit illius tristissima noctis imago, 2.   quae mihi supremum tempus in Urbe fuit, 3. cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui, 4.   labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis. Click here for the complete text you are studying cum subit ... cum repeto discuss the significance of the difference between subit and repeto subit expresses that situation when images or events seem to just pop into our minds without any action on our part; repeto suggests a more active recall of events. Ovid is saying that one way or another the memory of that night is constantly with him. What is the effect of the verb tenses in the first three lines? There are two pairs of present tense and perfect tense: subit and fuit, repeto and reliqui. The contrast in each case powerfully conveys how Ovid still constantly thinks about events which are final and finished and cannot be brought back – the leaving of the city and the leaving of his family and city life. How does Ovid build up the emotion in these four lines? He reminds us that it was a very sad night in his life; he then builds on that by saying that it was his last night in the city (for Ovid, a ‘living death’ to be deprived of Rome); he then reminds us of what he has lost – tot cara includes family, friends, his social life, the cultural environment of the city. For a Roman reader certainly there would be huge resonance in the thought of leaving the city and leaving the family.

  5. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 3.cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui,4.    labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis. 5.iam prope lux aderat, qua me discedere Caesar 6.    finibus extremae iusserat Ausoniae. Click here for the complete text you are studying qua is repeated in line 3 and line 5: comment on the position and the sound. In both cases it comes in a strong position immediately after the caesura, introducing a clause about Ovid’s loss and one about the reason for that loss and thereby emphasising both those points. It is a long ‘a’ and read aloud could have the effect of almost a groan, to increase the pathos that Ovid wants us to feel. Comment on Ovid’s choices of word positions in line 4. nunc quoque guttais sandwiched inside oculis meis so there is a clever picture of the tears being squeezed from his eyes; nunc quoque comes in the strong position immediately after the caesura – this emphasises that even now he cries when he thinks back to the night of his departure from Rome. Statue of Ovid in Constanza in Romania (the ancient Tomis) ~ the place to which Ovid was exiled

  6. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 3.cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui,4.    labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis. 5.iam prope lux aderat, qua me discedere Caesar 6.    finibus extremae iusserat Ausoniae. Click here for the complete text you are studying Translate lines 5 and 6: iam prope .... Ausoniae. Now the dawn was almost come on which Caesar had ordered me to leave the borders of the furthest part of Italy. Who is Caesar? Why had he given this order to Ovid? Caesar is the emperor Augustus. He had given this order to Ovid because of, in Ovid’s words, a carmen and an error; the carmen was probably the Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), a poem which did not support Augustus’ project to morally regenerate Rome; his error, it is speculated, had something to do with Augustus’ rather ‘wild’ daughter, Julia. Comment on the position of the word Caesar. The end of the line is always an emphatic position and Ovid wants to emphasise that it was Caesar who had banished him (to be fair Augustus had treated him relatively leniently – see further in the annotations)

  7. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 3. cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui, 4.   labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis. 5. iam prope lux aderat, qua me discedere Caesar 6.    finibus extremae iusserat Ausoniae. Click here for the complete text you are studying Comment on the choice and position of the words finibus and extremae. Both words on their own give the idea of outer limits, the back of beyond; put next to each other gives them even more power and underlines even more strongly just what a total loss of everything he loves Ovid is now facing – “I am going to fall off the edge of the known world!” Why do you think Ovid uses Ausoniae rather than the more usual Italiae? Ausonia is an ancient word for Italy; Vergil also uses it often. It has an epic quality about it and although Ovid’s poetry here is intensely personal and about his misfortune, he is still a poet and is perhaps trying to make us feel that there was something epic about what had happened to him; just a bit later he draws some comparison between his situation and the capture of Troy, the ultimate epic event.

  8. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 1.cum subit illius tristissima noctis imago, 2.   quae mihi supremum tempus in Urbe fuit, 3. cum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui, 4.   labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis. 5. iam prope lux aderat, qua me discedere Caesar 6.    finibus extremae iusserat Ausoniae. Click here for the complete text you are studying How effective are these lines in setting the scene for the poem and making us sympathetic to Ovid? In your answer comment on: choice of words position of words stylistic features There are a number of words, each with great resonance for someone being forced to leave the city he loves: tristissima, supremum tempus, in Urbe, tot cara, reliqui, gutta, finibus, extremae; the use of these words sets the scene for the emotions to follow and from most of Ovid’s readers there would probably be much sympathy created by this picture. tristissima, supremum and tempus are all in strong positions in their lines around the caesura, as are nunc and quoque; all of them help to underline just how emotional was and still is the experience that Ovid suffered. The repetitions (anaphora) of cum and of qua serve to tie together this build up of emotion and, from Ovid’s point of view, disaster.

  9. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 7. nec spatium nec mens fuerat satis apta parandi:8.     torpuerant longa pectora nostra mora. 9. non mihi servorum, comitis non cura legendi, 10. non aptae profugo vestis opisve fuit. Click here for the complete text you are studying Translate lines 7 and 8 There had not been time or desire sufficiently suitable for getting ready; my heart had become sluggish through the long delay. What is the effect of the repetition of nec? The repetition emphasises that it was not lack of time that meant Ovid was not really prepared for leaving; he wants to remind us that there was also his state of mind to consider – he had not been able to summon up the energy or interest to make proper preparations Comment on the order of the words in line 8. torpuerant (had become sluggish) starts the line and sums up what Ovid has said in the previous line; his heart, his feelings (pectora nostra) were restricted, confined by the long delay (longa mora) and the order of the words graphically represents that idea of his heart ‘fenced in’ by the long delay. What is the effect of finishing the first line of each couplet with a gerundive – parandi/legendi? Having these two words which look and sound very similar, and putting them in the emphatic position at the ends of the lines helps tie together these four lines which describe how Ovid behaved and felt in the period leading up to the event described in the poem.

  10. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 9. non mihi servorum, comitis non cura legendi, 10. non aptae profugo vestis opisve fuit. 11. non aliter stupui, quam qui Iovis ignibus ictus12. vivit et est vitae nescius ipse suae. Click here for the complete text you are studying How in these lines does Ovid use rhetorical devices to arouse pity for his plight? In the first two lines he emphasises how unable he was to put together the essentials for a reasonably civilised life – slaves, a companion, clothes and money; he underlines what he says by repetition (anaphora) of the non and by giving three examples of what he did not/ could not do, employing the powerful device of the tricolon; he emphasises the idea even more by placing servorum and comitis either side of the caesura in line 9, thus highlighting them. Comment on the position and power of the word profugo in line 10. The position before the caesura is emphatic; Ovid is underscoring the core of what is happening to him, that he is being banished from Italy; because he was subject to relegatio rather than exilium he was not deprived of citizenship and retained citizen rights, except the right to return to Rome. However for a city boy like Ovid it is still like a “living death” and the position of profugo underlines that.

  11. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 9. non mihi servorum, comitis non cura legendi, 10. non aptae profugo vestis opisve fuit. 11. non aliter stupui, quam qui Iovis ignibus ictus12. vivit et est vitae nescius ipse suae. Click here for the complete text you are studying Comment on the simile in lines 11 and 12: what points of similarity exist? In the simile the person struck by lightning is “alive and is ignorant of his own life” (this could mean unconscious or “out of it”); Ovid has said he was the same: he was alive but his situation and the depression it had created had slowed him right down and made it impossible for him to get on with anything. The person struck by lightning is “alive and yet not alive”; Ovid, being sent away from everything he loves, also sees himself as condemned to a “living death”. In the simile the cause of the person’s problem is that Jupiter, supreme leader of the gods, has hurled his thunderbolt. In Ovid’s case, the supreme leader of the Romans, the emperor Augustus, has hurled a metaphorical thunderbolt in the shape of the decree of banishment.

  12. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 13. ut tamen hanc animi nubem dolor ipse removit,14.     et tandem sensus convaluere mei, 15. adloquor extremum maestos abiturus amicos, 16.     qui modo de multis unus et alter erant. Click here for the complete text you are studying What is the nubem to which Ovid refers? This is the ‘cloud’ of depression which has hung over him since he learned that he was to be banished from Rome. Comment on the positions of extremum and abiturus. extremum (for the last time) is in the strong position immediately before the caesura and also placed next to maestos to convey even more strongly the pathos of the situation. abiturus (on the point of leaving) is surrounded by maestos amicos (the sad friends): thus the word order reflects the situation of Ovid surrounded by his grieving friends. Comment on the tense of adloquor. All the other verbs are in the perfect tense but in order to highlight and make immediate the pathos of the final farewell and the few remaining friends, Ovid comes back to the present tense. You could say locutus sum would not scan but hey! Ovid is a very clever poet. How does Ovid’s language convey how abandoned he felt at this point? The last line ‘(friends) who now were (only) one or two from many’ shows Ovid thinking “I used to be so popular and knew anybody who was anybody but they were all ‘fair weather friends’ and as soon as I fell out of favour with the emperor they were off”.

  13. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 17. uxor amans flentem flens acrius ipsa tenebat, 18.     imbre per indignas usque cadente genas. Click here for the complete text you are studying Comment on the word order in line 17 with particular reference to flentem. The juxtaposition of flentem with flens and their placements either side of the caesura is very powerful in conveying the emotion of this moment when Ovid has turned from describing his own emotions to describing the emotions of his wife and their mutual crying; the uxor amans .. flens surrounding the flentem husband graphically conveys through the word order the picture we have of the wife holding on to the husband. How else here does Ovid convey the pathos of the situation he describes? He uses the word imbre (a shower) to describe the volume of tears shed by his wife; he describes her cheeks as undeserving – he thinks his banishment is unfair and therefore the grief it causes his wife is unnecessary and undeserved.

  14. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 17. uxor amans flentem flens acrius ipsa tenebat, 18.   imbre per indignas usque cadente genas. 19. nata procul Libycis aberat diversa sub oris, 20.     nec poterat fati certior esse mei. Click here for the complete text you are studying Who is the nata referred to in line 19. This is his only child, a daughter with his second wife. The uxor is his third wife. Why was she Lybicis ... sub oris? She was married to a senator, Cornelius Fidus, who had gone as governor of the province of Africa. Comment on the choices of words to start lines 17 and 19. Here Ovid highlights the two most important people in his personal life and gives them both prominence by placing them as first words in the two lines. What are the words that Ovid uses to emphasise just how far away his daughter is? procul (far away) and diversa (apart, separated).

  15. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 17. uxor amans flentem flens acrius ipsa tenebat, 18.   imbre per indignas usque cadente genas. 19. nata procul Libycis aberat diversa sub oris, 20.     nec poterat fati certior esse mei. Click here for the complete text you are studying Identify words that convey just how upset Ovid’s wife was. flens ~ crying; imbre ~ with a shower (of tears); acrius ~ rather fiercely. How does the mention of his daughter being overseas in Libya add to the pathos of the situation? There is huge pathos in the fact that all this is happening to Ovid and his daughter, the ‘apple of his eye’, is too far away to even know about it. There is pathos in the different circumstances for them both. Ovid is going overseas against his will; his daughter went (presumably) willingly as the wife of the new governor of the province. Ovid is going somewhere off on the edge of the empire where he does not see that he will have any of the trappings of a really civilised life; his daughter, as the wife of the governor, will have all the items for a civilised life that she can want. Ovid is leaving Rome in shame, having offended the emperor, even if he was let off lightly; his daughter, we can assume, left Rome with excitement that she was going to a high status position in an important and long standing province of the empire.

  16. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 21. quocumque aspiceres, luctus gemitusque sonabant,22. formaque non taciti funeris intus erat. 23. femina virque meo, pueri quoque funere maerent,24.     inque domo lacrimas angulus omnis habet. Click here for the complete text you are studying How effective is line 21 in conveying the situation it describes? There are several long syllables and ‘oo’ sounds in this line if it is read aloud; these mirror the sounds of lamentation which fill the house. Explain why the funeris is described as non taciti. In the Roman view, and in the view of many cultures, noise drives away evil spirits; therefore at a funeral, the more noise the better to drive away ghosts and other spirits and, in a sense, the more genuine is the grief. Plenty of noise also usually means that the family have been able to afford plenty of professional mourners, so that big noise equals big status. Ovid seems to be implying not only that the grief at his departure was huge and genuine but that the noise was appropriate for someone of his status. Mourning - Statue from a grave site. Attica. About 360 BCE. - Glyptothek (Munich)

  17. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 21. quocumque aspiceres, luctus gemitusque sonabant,22. formaque non taciti funeris intus erat. 23. femina virque meo, pueri quoque funere maerent,24.     inque domo lacrimas angulus omnis habet. Click here for the complete text you are studying What is the word Ovid uses to describe his situation? Why? funere ~ funeral; in the previous line he has likened what is happening to a noisy funeral; he sees it as a funeral because what is going to happen to him is for him “a living death”, the end of everything that gives his life meaning and enjoyment. What is the effect of the singular nouns femina and vir in line 23? He is using the part for the whole ~ there were probably a number of women and men involved, just as there were a number of slaves (pueri), but by making them singular he can again convey the feeling expressed earlier that almost everybody had deserted him. Comment on the word order of line 24. The tears (lacrimas) are closed within the house (domo) and all the corners (angulus omnis); this graphically describes how the house is full of lamentation. Comment on the effect of the tenses of maerent and habet. After many lines with verbs in the past tense, Ovid deploys two verbs in the present tense; these are ‘historic presents’, used to emphasise and make more immediate the mourning and lamentation he is describing.

  18. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 25. si licet exemplis in parvo grandibus uti, 26.   haec facies Troiae, cum caperetur, erat. 27. iamque quiescebant voces hominumque canumque28.     Lunaque nocturnos alta regebat equos. Click here for the complete text you are studying Translate lines 25 and 26 Make comparisons between the capture of Troy and Ovid’s leaving Rome. If I am allowed to use a great example for a small thing, this was the appearance of Troy when it was captured. Here are a few: It was the end of everything the Trojans had known; Ovid feels the same about what is going to happen to him. The Trojans had to go into an uncertain exile; so does Ovid. Aeneas took his family; Ovid cannot take anyone. Troy was burnt to the ground; Ovid thinks that (metaphorically) his household is also being destroyed. Troy was full of lamentation; so is Ovid’s household. What is the effect of the juxtaposition of parvo and grandibus? Fresco from Pompeii showing Aeneas carrying his father, Anchises, with his son Ascanias by his side after the fall of Troy. By juxtaposing the destruction of Troy and his own banishment from Rome, Ovid, by association, makes his own predicament more ‘grandis’ than perhaps it really is. Is there an implied similarity to Aeneas? That would be very arrogant!

  19. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 25. si licet exemplis in parvo grandibus uti, 26.   haec facies Troiae, cum caperetur, erat. 27. iamque quiescebant voces hominumque canumque28.     Lunaque nocturnos alta regebat equos. Click here for the complete text you are studying Explain line 28. Luna is the goddess of the moon; in Greek and Roman popular belief she rode high (alta) across the sky each night in a two horse chariot (nocturnos equos); she is visualised simultaneously as a young female and as a yellow orb. Selene steps from her chariot to meet Endymion. Getty Museum Roman sacrophagus, marble, 210 CE Selene the moon Antikensammlung, Berlin Attic red figure kylix, attrib Brygos Painter 500 – 450 BCE Why does Ovid do his description of the moonlit night in this “roundabout” way? Ovid here clicks into ‘epic’ mode; he has mentioned the fall of Troy, the subject of the Iliad, the greatest of epic poems, and the start point for the Roman epic, Virgil’s Aeneid; he continues with phraseology which would be appropriate in epic – the voices of men and dogs being silent has an epic (or mock epic?) ring; the image of Luna and her chariot goes back certainly as far as the Homeric and Orphic Hymns of classical Greece and has a good epic pedigree. The epic flavour continues as Ovid looks at the Capitol and makes his elaborate prayer to the gods.

  20. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 29. hanc ego suspiciens et ab hac Capitolia cernens,30.     quae nostro frustra iuncta fuere Lari, 31. 'numina vicinis habitantia sedibus', inquam, 32.     'iamque oculis numquam templa videnda meis,33. dique relinquendi, quos Urbs habet alta Quirini, 34.     este salutati tempus in omne mihi’. Click here for the complete text you are studying Who or what is referred to by hanc? Luna, the moon. Translate lines 29 and 30. I looking up at her and seeing by her light the Capitol which was in vain facing our house. Why frustra? The Capitolium was the citadel of Rome and in early times had been where Romans retreated when under attack; since the Capitol faces Ovid’s house, Ovid thinks that that power of protection should be protecting his house and household but it clearly is not. Explain Lari A Lar was a mix of household spirit, a boundary protector, an ancestor spirit; Ovid is using it to convey the idea of his household; it is an example of synecdoche where a part (the Lar) is used to describe the whole (the house) The Capitoline Hill with the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (reconstruction by Alan Sorrel)

  21. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 29. hanc ego suspiciens et ab hac Capitolia cernens,30.     quae nostro frustra iuncta fuere Lari, 31. 'numina vicinis habitantia sedibus', inquam, 32.     'iamque oculis numquam templa videnda meis,33. dique relinquendi, quos Urbs habet alta Quirini, 34.     este salutati tempus in omne mihi’. Click here for the complete text you are studying Urbs alta Quirini ~ discuss Ovid’s use of this phrase The city is Rome; it is described as lofty, both in a literal sense because of the Capitoline Hill and the other hills of Rome, but also in a metaphorical sense of magnificent, great (gods are described sometimes as alti). Romulus, along with Remus was the mythical founder of Rome; when he died he became the god Quirinus. Panorama of the Forum with the Capitoline beyond (a reconstruction by Alan Sorrel) In lines 31 to 34 Ovid makes a very formal sounding prayer; what is his purpose? He invokes the spirits, the temples, the gods of Rome and says he will always hail them (este salutati tempus in omne); he is saying that wherever he ends up in the world in his exile he will always look back and think of these gods and temples; for him they will always be the most important. In a literary sense, he uses very formal language and the reference to Quirinus to give some epic feel to this part of the story; he has just mentioned Troy and he wants us to think of his departure from Rome as echoing Aeneas’ departure from Troy and being similarly significant: is he being playful or does he mean it?

  22. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 35. hac prece adoravi superos ego, pluribus uxor,36.     singultu medios impediente sonos. 37. illa etiam ante Lares passis adstrata capillis38.     contigit extinctos ore tremente focos, 39. multaque in adversos effudit verba Penates 40.     pro deplorato non valitura viro. Click here for the complete text you are studying Comment on the effects created in lines 35 and 36: discuss significant: positions of words, contrasts, word order Positions of words: uxor at the end of the line in a strong, emphatic position to signpost the next five lines where his wife is the focus; singultu is emphatic at the start of the line, with its three long syllables echoing her lamentation. Contrasts: ego and uxor close together makes a powerful contrast; is Ovid contrasting his formal restrained prayer to the gods and his wife’s rather more hysterical behaviour? Word order: postponing ego to the end of its clause gives it emphasis and puts it close to uxor; impediente interrupting the medios sonos (choking her half-heard cries, as Tony Kline translates it) makes the word order echo the sense. Ovid referred to the Lares earlier; there is now a repeated focus on the Lares and the Penates. Why? The Lares and the Penates are the literal, concrete shrines in front of which his wife is praying; they are also metaphorically the essence of his household and family and make a good shorthand to focus the reader/ listener’s attention on the fact that his household/family is being torn apart. They also provide a contrast between the public gods of Rome, to which Ovid has prayed, and the more intimate household gods to which his wife is praying – both sets of gods, as Ovid sees it, have abandoned him.

  23. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 35. hac prece adoravi superos ego, pluribus uxor,36.     singultu medios impediente sonos. 37. illa etiam ante Lares passis adstrata capillis38.     contigit extinctos ore tremente focos, 39. multaque in adversos effudit verba Penates 40.     pro deplorato non valitura viro. Click here for the complete text you are studying Comment on the position of exstinctos This is a word of great power and pathos and its position just before the caesura reflects that; in the Roman house, the hearth fire had a sacred significance and like the eternal flame in Vesta’s temple it never normally went out or was exstinguished. Now that Ovid’s house is being torn apart, losing its paterfamilias, the fire has literally (?) and symbolically been exstinguished. Ovid’s wife blows on/ kisses the cold ashes in a pathetic symbolic attempt to revive the good luck of the house. Comment on the position of adversos Like exstinctos in an emphatic position before the caesura; emphasised because the Penates have become unfavourable, hostile and are not listening to the pleas of Ovid’s wife. Lar statuette Early 1st cent CE National Archaeological Museum, Madrid What are the different ways in which Ovid tells us about his wife’s behaviour and emotions? She makes many prayers, she sobs while praying, she undoes her hair to show her grief, she lies in front of the Lares, she tries to relight the hearth fire, she poured out many words to the Penates, she tried to intercede for her husband

  24. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 41. iamque morae spatium nox praecipitata negabat,42. ter limen tetigi, ter sum revocatus, et ipse 43.    indulgens animo pes mihi tardus erat. Click here for the complete text you are studying Translate these lines so re What is the effect of the lack of connections (asyndeton) in lines 41 and 42? And already hurtling night was denying any space for delay, I touched the threshold three times, three times I was called back, even my actual foot being kind to my mind was slow. It makes the action ‘jerky’ and gives a picture of Ovid endlessly going towards the door and flinching back from crossing the threshold. What word tells us how little time he now had left? Discuss the repetition of ter in line 42 praecipitata The limen of a town house in Pompeii Combined with the lack of connection, six actions in one short line gives a strong feeling of Ovid moving erratically back and forth, unable or unwilling to make up his mind about what to do. What effect does Ovid achieve by making his foot an active subject? With how he personifies the foot he is emphasising that his whole being, not just his conscious mind, is so reluctant to take the step that his rational mind knows he has to: this is an illustration of the expression “dragging his feet”.

  25. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 44. saepe 'vale' dicto rursus sum multa locutus, 45.     et quasi discedens oscula summa dedi. 46. saepe eadem mandata dedi meque ipse fefelli, 47.    respiciens oculis pignora cara meis. Click here for the complete text you are studying How in these lines does Ovid communicate his emotions. Comment on the actions he describes and the repetitions he includes. He emphasises how “up in the air” he is: he keeps on saying goodbye then talking some more; he keeps on giving the final kisses; he keeps on giving the same orders and looking back at the members of his family. He emphasises how he “drags out” his departure by the repetition of saepe at the beginning of each couplet What is the effect of Ovid using 1st person singular verbs throughout these lines? The poem alternates between a focus on his wife and on himself. Following from this section the poem goes back to describing the emotions of his wife; the relentless 1st person verbs here help to bring the focus narrowly onto Ovid and his emotions; that makes what follows, - the pathos of his wife’s emotions, - all the more moving. What are the cara pignora? ‘pledges of love’: they are his close relatives and in particular his wife. Comment on the word order of oculis pignora cara meis. Ovid paints a moving word picture of his dear relatives being embraced by his eyes as he looks on them for the last time.

  26. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 48. dividor haud aliter, quam si mea membra relinquam,49.     et pars abrumpi corpore visa suo est. 50. sic doluit Mettus tum cum in contraria versos51.     ultores habuit proditionis equos. Click here for the complete text you are studying Discuss the position and the voice (active or passive) of dividor. It is in an emphatic position at the beginning of the line. It is passive and expresses that Ovid is being torn apart by having to leave his family and Rome and at the same time he is suffering this, it is being done to him, rather than being something he is doing. Why does Ovid in lines 48 and 49 use this very graphic and violent simile? How else to express the huge pain of leaving everything you love – wife, relatives, house, Rome, friends ....? Metaphorically all these things are part of him, part of what he is, and comparing their loss to losing parts of his body is very apposite. The martyrdom of St Hippolytus Dieric Bouts (b cir 1410, d 1475) Groenigemuseum, Bruges Who was Mettus? Mettus was the king of Alba Longa, a town near Rome. Having betrayed the Romans in a battle against Fidenae, Tullus Hostilius, the king of Rome, directed that he be punished by being torn apart. The story of Mettus is probably a commonplace – it also appears in Virgil Book 8 where he describes the pictures on Aeneas’ shield. What points of comparison can you see between the story of Mettus and Ovid’s situation. They are both being torn apart, Mettus literally and Ovid metaphorically. Mettus had been clearly guilty of treachery/betrayal (proditionis); Ovid, in his own view, was guilty of stupidity but not of a crime deserving the death penalty

  27. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 52. tum vero exoritur clamor gemitusque meorum, 53.     et feriunt maestae pectora nuda manus. 54. tum vero coniunx umeris abeuntis inhaerens 55.     miscuit haec lacrimis tristia verba suis: Click here for the complete text you are studying What is the effect of the repetition of the phrase tum vero at the beginning of both couplets? At this point Ovid turns from describing his emotions to describing what his relatives and his wife in particular is feeling. The repetition helps to emphasise these changes of viewpoint, firstly to the relatives and then to his wife. Comment on the effect of the present tenses used in lines 52 and 53. In the previous lines Ovid used a present tense, dividor, to describe himself; using the present tense in past time (the historic present) is a way of making an action more immediate, and Ovid continues that graphic use of the present into the description of what his relatives did, in order to emphasise just how upset everyone was at his departure. Translate lines 54 and 55 and comment on the word order of line 55 Then indeed my wife clinging to the shoulders of her departing husband mixed these sad words with her tears. By the order of verb Acc Abl Acc Acc Abl Ovid paints a picture in words of his wife’s words mixed with and interrupted by her tears.

  28. LATIN IUGLANTES VITAI FERIMUS Grief at parting: Ovid Tristia 1.3.1 – 84 (abridged) 54. tum vero coniunx umeris abeuntis inhaerens 55.     miscuit haec lacrimis tristia verba suis: 56. 'non potes avelli: simul ah! simul ibimus', inquit,57.     'te sequar et coniunx exulis exul ero. 58. et mihi facta via est, et me capit ultima tellus:59.     accedam profugae sarcina parva rati. Click here for the complete text you are studying Comment on the repetition of simul. It comes immediately after the caesura so in an emphatic place; the repetition underlines how much Ovid’s wife wants to accompany him. Discuss Ovid’s use of words in line 57. coniunx usually means ‘wife’; Ovid here uses it in the sense of ‘partner’ while still reminding us that it is his wife he is talking about. He uses the word exul to describe himself; he overstates it since strictly speaking he is relegatus. However it allows him to create the nice juxtaposition of exulis and exul. What is the effect of the repetition of et in line 58 Read aloud for the full effect; it helps to emphasise the mihi and the me and strengthen the build up of emotion towards the last line. Discuss the pathos of the last line ‘I will board your ship of exile as a small cargo’; in the previous line she has described his destination as ultima tellus (the furthest land); now she adds a reminder that the ship will take her husband into exile and finally includes herself but as a little thing who will be no bother.

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