Advice for would-be Lovers Flashcards
Themes
> Natural Imagery > Love > The stories of early Rome > Ancient theatre > Ovid's humour and personality.
Lines 1-5
Hunting Imagery- Lovers must be like hunters.
‘… apta puella tuis’
A suitable girl has to be searched for with your eyes.
‘tuis’ is at the end of the line to impose responsibility on the recipient.
‘longo amori’
lasting love
Short love affairs were preferred by the poets at the time- Ovid is making a statement that the love he can find them will be different.
‘ANTE frequens quo sit DISCE puella loco’
First must learn the places where there are numerous girls.
Direct and forceful tone emphasised by the hyperbaton (unnatural word order) with ante being separated from disce.
‘puella’
Uses singular even though he means plural to fit the structure.
‘tot tibi tamque’
give you so many
Alliteration of ‘t’ sounds emphasises the abundance of girls.
‘haec habet quicquid in orge fuit’
Here has whatever there has been in the world.
‘fuit’ in the past tense emphasises how Rome in current day has as many girls as the entirety of the ancient world.
‘quot…quot…quot…quot…tot’
Anaphora emphasises number of women. Balanced by the tot.
‘stellas’ ‘puellas’
stars, women
Uses disyllabic rhyming (each word is two syllables) to strengthen the comparison between stars and women.
‘iuvenes, iuvenes’
young girls
Polyptoton.
Means young girls, even though the word is masculine, to add stylistic flair to the poem.
‘fertiliora’
fertile
Farming Imagery- common in Ovid’s didactic poems
‘illic invenies quod ames, quod ludere possis, quodque semel tangas, quodque tenere velis.’
There you will find one to love, one you can play with, one to touch once, and one you might want to hold on to.
> Uses an anaphora to again emphasise the amount of girls available.
‘quod’ is used for the same reason.
four phrases are arranged chiastically: love - lust, then lust - love
Ants- Bees- Women
Compares women to these insects.
Very stylistic arrangement with two lines for each.
‘copia iudicum saepe morata meum est’
My judgement is often hindered by abundance
Pretends to be perplexed by richness of choice.
Erotic sense to ‘copia’
‘spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae’
They come to watch, they come to be watched themselves
Chiasmus.
Word arrangement enforces Ovid’s claim that there will be a loss of virtue at the theatre.
‘casti’ and ‘pudoris’
chaste and modesty
Using two words where one would be enough (pleonasm) to force the point that the theatre destroys morals.
Meaning of the Sabine’s story in this poem.
If Romulus could take women from the theatre, so could he and his audience.
‘Romule’
Romulus
Addressing a character in this new story immediately turns the reader’s attention to the new subject.
‘simpliciter’
simply
Very unpoetic word- emphasises the primitiveness of the theatre.
What effect does the use of the Historic Present Tense have?
Gives a feeling of immediacy in the audiences minds.
‘virginibas cupidas iniciuntque manus’
and lay their desirous hands on the young women.
The -que is postponed from the beginning of the sentence to make other words more emphatic and to add drama.
What were doves often associated with in the Roman world?
Cowardice.
‘pars laniat crines, pars sine mente sedet’
Some tear at their hair, some sit with all will lost.
‘altera maesta silet, frustra vocat altera matrem.’
One is mournful in silence, another calls out for her mother in vain.
‘haec queritur, stupet haec, haec manet, illa fugit’
This one protests, this one is stunned, this one stays, that one flees.
> Contrasting reactions displayed through opposite pairs.
Middle two phrases use chiastic word order. First and fourth do not.
This makes the whole four part phrase chiastic as well.
All of this makes the passage stand out- it is the climax of the drama.
‘sine mente’
without their minds/ with all will lost
The girls are so overcome by fear as to be incapable of thought.
Presents women as overcome with sensibility.
‘… praeda, puellae’
reward, girls
placing these word next to each other makes it clear that the girls are the prize.
use of ‘genitals’ (merry)
A word associated with weddings, so poignant in the case of the Sabine women.
Many made even fear itself look fitting.
Paradoxical- Ovid points this out.
