Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/84

72 point evidently to one of a much inferior station to Corinna; and the seventh and eighth of the second book are addressed to Cypassis, Corinna's maid.

2. Epistolae Heroïdum, twenty-one in number, were an early work of Ovid. By some critics the authenticity of the last six has been doubted, as also that of the fifteenth (Sappho to Phaon), because it is found only in the most recent MSS. But Ovid mentions having written such an epistle (Amor. ii. 18. 26), and the internal evidence is sufficient to vindicate it. From a passage in the Ars Amatoria (iii. 346—Ignotum hoc aliis ille novavit opus) Ovid appears to claim the merit of originating this species of composition; in which case we must consider the epistle of Arethusa to Lycotas, in the fourth book of Propertius, as an imitation. P. Burmann, however, in a note on Propertius, disallows this claim, and thinks that Ovid was the imitator. He explains novavit in the preceding passage of the Ars as follows:—"Ab aliis neglectum et omissum rursus in usum induxit." But this seems very harsh, and is not consistent with Ovid's expression "ignotum aliis." We do not know the date of Propertius's death; but even placing it in B. C. 15, still Ovid was then eight and twenty, and might have composed several, if not all, of his heroical epistles. Answers to several of the Heroïdes were written by Aulus Sabinus, a contemporary poet and friend of Ovid's, viz. Ulysses to Penelope, Hippolytus to Phaedra, Aeneas to Dido, Demophoon to Phillis, Jason to Hypsipyle, and Phaon to Sappho (see Amores, ii. 18, 29). Three of these are usually printed with Ovid's works; but their authenticity has been doubted, both on account of their style, and because there are no MSS. of them extant, though they appear in the Editio princeps. From the passage in the Ars Am. before referred to (iii. 345) it would seem as if the Heroïdes were intended for musical recitative. (Vel tibi composita cantetur epistola voce. Comp. Alex. ab Alex. Gen. Dier. ii. 1.) A translation of these epistles into Greek by Maximus Planudes exists in MS., but has never been published.

3. Ars Amatoria, or De Arte Amandi. This work was written about B. C. 2, as appears from the sham naval combat exhibited by Augustus being alluded to as recent., as well as the expedition of Caius Caesar to the East. (Lib. i. v. 171, &c.) Ovid was now more than forty, and his earlier years having been spent in intrigue, he was fully qualified by experience to give instruction in the art and mystery of the tender passion. The first two books are devoted to the male sex; the third professes to instruct the ladies. This last book was probably published some time after the two preceding ones. Not only does this seem to be borne out by vv. 45, &c., but we may thus account for the Ars (then in two books) being mentioned in the Amores, and also the Amores, in its second edition of three books, in the third book of the Ars. At the time of Ovid's banishment this poem was ejected from the public libraries by command of Augustus.

4. Remedia Amoris, in one book. That this piece was subsequent to the Ars Am. appears from v. 9. Its subject, as the title implies, is to suggest remedies for the violence of the amatory passion. Hence Ovid (v. 47) compares himself to the spear of Telephus, which was able both to wound and heal.

5. Nux. The elegiac complaint of a nut-tree respecting the ill-treatment it receives from wayfarers, and even from its own master. This little piece was probably suggested by the fate of a nut-tree in Ovid's own garden.

6. Metamorphoseon Libri XV. This, the greatest of Ovid's poems in bulk and pretensions, appears to have been written between the age of forty and fifty. He tells us in his Tristia (i. 6) that he had not put the last polishing hand to it when he was driven into banishment; and that in the hurry and vexation of his flight, he burnt it, together with other pieces. Copies had, however, got abroad, and it was thus preserved, by no means to the regret of the author (Trist. i. 6. 25). It consists of such legends or fables as involved a transformation, from the Creation to the time of Julius Caesar, the last being that emperor's change into a star. It is thus a sort of cyclic poem made up of distinct episodes, but connected into one narrative thread, with much skill. Ovid's principal model was, perhaps, the of Nicander. It has been translated into elegant Greek prose by Maximus Planudes, whose version was published by Boissonade (Paris, 1822), and forms the 46th vol. of Lemaire's Bibliotheca Latina.

7. Fastorum Libri XII., of which only the first six are extant. This work was incomplete at the time of Ovid's banishment. Indeed he had perhaps done little more than collect the materials for it; for that the fourth book was written in Pontus appears from ver. 88. Yet he must have finished it before he wrote the second book of Tristia, as he there alludes to it as consisting of twelve books (Sex ego Fastorum scripsi totidemque libellos, v. 549). Masson, indeed, takes this passage to mean that he had only written six, viz. "I have written six of the Fasti, and as many books"; and holds that Ovid never did any more. But this interpretation seems contrary to the natural sense of the words, and indeed to the genius of the language. The Fasti is a sort of poetical Roman calendar, with its appropriate festivals and mythology, and the substance was probably taken in a great measure from the old Roman annalists. The study of antiquity was then fashionable at Rome, and Propertius had preceded Ovid in this style of writing in his Origines, in the fourth book. The model of both seems to have been the of Callimachus. The Fasti shows a good deal of learning, but it has been observed that Ovid makes frequent mistakes in his astronomy, from not understanding the books from which he took it.

8. Tristium Libri V. The five books of elegies under the title of Tristia were written during the first four years of Ovid's banishment. They are chiefly made up of descriptions of his afflicted condition, and petitions for mercy. The tenth elegy of the fourth book is valuable, as containing many particulars of Ovid's life.

9. Epistolarum ex Ponto Libri IV. These epistles are also in the elegiac metre, and much the same in substance as the Tristia, to which they were subsequent (see lib i. ep. 1, v. 15, &c). It must be confessed that age and misfortune seem to have damped Ovid's genius both in this and the preceding work. Even the versification is more slovenly, and some of the lines very prosaic.

10. Ibis. This satire of between six and seven hundred elegiac verses was also written in exile. The poet inveighs in it against an enemy who had