Ovid 9 Flashcards
flete… casus… tristes tabellas…infelix… negat…ominas
weep… misfortunes… gloomy tablets… calamitious… cannot… omens
The tone is set very quickly that he has gotten bad news by placing these words at the start of each clause
omina sunt aliquid; modo cum discedere vellet ad limen digitos restitit icta Nape
There is something in omens: when Nape was about to leave just now, she stubbed her toes against the step and was brought to a halt
In contrast to flattering Nape in poem 8 Ovid is now disappointed and quick to blame her this time. It was thought bad luck to stub your toe at the beginning of a journey
missa foras iterum limen transire memento cautius atque alte sobria ferre pedem
Next time you are sent out remember to cross the step more carefully and to lift your foot high in sober fashion
he is scolding Nape and suggests that she had been drinking
ite hinc
Away with you
Begins to blame the tablets for being back bad news
difficiles tabellae
unhelpful tablets
funebria ligna
funeral wood
Ovid suggests that the tablets provide fuel for a pyre for cremating the dead
punto
I am sure
this suggests that he is not serious- ironic
negaturis cerca referta notis
wax packed with marks which mean refusal
there is bad news written on the tablet, we now know she refused his offer to meet up
quam, punto, de longae collectam flore cicutae melle sub infami Corsica misit apis
wax which I am sure a Corsican bee gathered from the flower of the long-stocked hemlock and sent here beneath its infamous honey
He suggests that the bees got the pollen from hemlock plant which poisoned the wax. He also suggests that it was Corsican bees who got the pollen and they were known for having bitter honey.
at tamque mino penitus medicata rubebas: ille color vere sanguinolentus erat
Yet you were red in colour, as if deep dyed with cinnabar: that colour was really of blood
wax tablets were usually black but here it is red, from the expensive cinnabar, but here the red gives it a deadly colour, colour of blood
proiectae triviis iaceatis, inutile lignum, vosque rotae frangat praetereuntis onus
lie throw out at the cross-roads useless firewood and let the weight of a passing wheel shatter you
crossroads were meant to be the haunt of witches and ghosts. Ovid also is being bitter here hoping for the tablets to get smashed
vos… verit
converted you
personifying the tablet as if he is physically talking to it
convincam puras non habuisse manus
I will prove that he did not have guiltless hands
Ovid is blaming the man who made the tablets and also makes refrence to the legal criminology profesion
praebuit illa arbor misero suspendia collo carnifici diras praebuit illa cruces
That tree provided a gallows for an unhappy neck it provided grim crosses for hangman
He blames the tree that the wax came from and to do this he has said it was a tree from the gallows which was bad luck, Ovid creates an image of the poor character who met their death there
turpes umbras
shameful shelter
the birds who lived on the tree the tablet came from were also bad luck
raucis bubonibus
noisy owls
they were associated with spooky and haunted environments. This was one of the three birds in the tree an three in one tree was unlucky
strigis
screech owls
they were associated with spooky and haunted environments. This was one of the three birds in the tree an three in one tree was unlucky
vulturis
vultures
often associated with death. This was one of the three birds in the tree an three in one tree was unlucky
ego commisi insanus
I did insanely entrust
He blames himself now for trusting the tablets
vladimonia garrula
wordy recognizances
Ovid thinks that the tablet would of been better of for a different purpose other that love so takes a swipe at dull lawyers
duro ore
stern tones
Ovid thinks that the tablet would of been better of for a different purpose other that love so takes a swipe at politicians
in quibus absunptas fleret avarus opes
in which a miser wept for his lost wealth
Ovid thinks that the tablet would of been better of for a different purpose other that love so takes a swipe at greedy accountants
quid precer iratus, nisi vos cariosa senectus rodat, et immundo cera sit alba situ?
What am I to pray on my anger, except that withering age may gnaw you and your wax grow white with ugly decay
the language in this line neatly mixes up the personification of the tablets with the reality. They have been eaten away suggests that they were old, so the idea of love not being for older people, so this is perhaps a mockery of himself
duplex
two faced
This is a pun- Ovid describes the tablets as two faced because they have two sides/ pages but someone is described as being two faced if they cannot be trusted so Ovid finds the tablets to be untrustworthy
