Wheelock's Latin Reader by Richard A. LaFleur

Author:Richard A. LaFleur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

“Ovid” Luca Signorelli, 15th century Duomo, Orvieto, Italy

Scala/Art Resource, NY.

55. Pyramus et Thisbe: there were rivers with these names in Cilicia, but the two characters are known from no source earlier than Ovid.

iuvenum…alter…altera…puellis (56): CHIASMUS; the device is very common in Ovid.

56. quas: antecedent is puellis.

praelata: praeferre, to prefer.

57. tenuere: = tenuerunt (so also vetuere, potuere, etc., below).

dicitur: the subj. is Semiramis, wife of the Assyrian king Ninus, reputed to have been the builder of Babylon.

altam: with urbem, both positioned at line’s end; adj.-noun pairs are often widely separated in Ovid, frequently for some special effect (as here, perhaps, to suggest the grandeur of the city).

58. coctilibus: lit., cooked or baked, hence made of brick.

muris: murus, wall.

cinxisse: cingere, to surround.

59. notitiam: notitia, acquaintance.

gradus: acc. pl., steps; sc. amoris, or this may be, with notitiam, a HENDIADYS (the first steps of their relationship).

vicinia: proximity, i.e., their being neighbors.

60. taedae: taeda, torch, marriage torch (carried in the wedding procession).

iure: here, (legal) bond.

coissent: coire, to come together, be joined; POTENTIAL SUBJUNCT.

61. vetuere: vetare, to forbid, prevent.

quod: what, that which; the following cl. is antecedent.

62. ex aequo: idiom, equally; the line’s symmetry and the spondaic rhythms help to emphasize the equality and intensity of the lovers’ feelings.

captis…mentibus: sc. amore.

63. conscius: witness.

abest: note the shift from the perf. tenses of the preceding sent. to the HIST. PRES. in this sent., lending further intensity and vividness to the narrative.

nutu: nutus, nod.

64. quoque: = et quo, ABL. OF DEGREE OF DIFFERENCE; quoque magis…(eo) magis, and the more…the more.

magis tegitur, tectus magis: CHIASMUS.

aestuat: aestuare, to burn, blaze; ignis is subj. of both this vb. and tegitur.

65. fissus erat: findere, to split; the subj. is paries, wall (of a house).

tenui: slender, thin.

rima: crack.

duxerat: here, had developed.

66. utrique: each.

67. vitium: here, flaw, defect.

nulli: dat. with notatum, known (to).

saeculum: age, generation.

68. primi: as often, Lat. employs an adj. where Eng. would use an adv. (so also tutae, safely, in 69).

amantes: the partic. functions as a noun, lovers; Ovid addresses the two in a dramatic APOSTROPHE.

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