A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

72 OVIDIUS. OVIDIUS.
point evidently to one of a much inferior station to 5. XNzx. The elegiac complaint of a nut-tree
Corinna; and the seventh and eighth of the second respecting the ill-treatment it receives from waybook are addressed to Cypassis, Corinna's maid. farers, and even from its own master. This little
2. l)Pistolae Heroidum, twenty-one in number, piece was probably suggested by the fate of a nutwere an early work of Ovid. By some critics the tree in Ovid's own garden.
authenticity of the last six has been doubted, as 6. Mletamorphoseon LibiXV. This, the greatest
also that of the fifteenth (Sappho to Phaon), be- of Ovid's poems in bulk and pretensions, appears
cause it is found only in the most recent MSS. to have been written between the age of forty and
But Ovid mentions having written such an epistle fifty. He tells us in his Tristia (i. 6) that he had
(Amor. ii. 18. 26), and the internal evidence is not pat the last polishing hand to it when he was
sufficient to vindicate it. From a passage ill the driven into banishment; and that in the hurry and
Ars Amatoria (iii. 346 —Ignotum hoc allis ille vexation of his flight, he burnt it, together with
novavit opus) Ovid appears to claim the merit other pieces. Copies had, however, got abroad,
of originating this species of composition; in which and it was thus preserved, by no means to the
case we must consider the epistle of Arethusa to regret of the author (Trist. i. 6. 25). It consists of
Lycotas, in the fourth book of Propertius, as an such legends or fables as involved a transformation,
imitation. P. Burmann, however, in a note on from the Creation to the time of Julius Caesar, the
Propertius, disallows this claim, and thinks that last being that emperor's change into a star. It is
Ovid was the imitator. He explains novavit in thus a sort of cyclic poem made up of distinct
the preceding passage of the Ars as follows:- episodes, but connected into one narrative thread,
" Ab aliis neglectum et omissum rursus in usinn with much skill. Ovid's principal model was, perinduet." But this seems very harsh, and is not haps, the'EepooI/,vcssEa of Nicander. It has been
consistent with Ovid's expression " iqnotumn allis." translated into elegant Greek prose by Mlaximus
We do not know the date of Propertius's death; Planudes, whose version was published by Boisbut even placing it in B. c. 15, still Ovid was then sonade (Paris, 1822), and forms the 46th vol. of
eight and twenty, and might have composed several, Lemaire's Biblioihece Lticna.
if not all, of his heroical epistles. Answers to 7. FustoruZ7 Libri Xii., of which only the first six
several of the Llero7des were written by Aulus are extant. This work was incomplete at the time
Sabinus, a contemporary poet and friend of Ovid's, of Ovid's banishment. Indeed he had perhaps.viz. Ulysses to Penelope, Hippolytus to Phaedra, done little more than collect the materials for it;
Aeneas to Dido, Demophoon to Phillis, Jason to for that the fourth book was written in Pontus
Ilypsipyle, and Phaon to Sappho (see Amores, ii. appears from ver. 83. Yet lie must have finished
18, 29). Three of these are usually printed with it before he wrote the second book of Tristia, as
Ovid's works; but their authenticity has been he there alludes to it as consisting of twelve books
doubted, both on account of their style, and because (Sex ego Fastorum scripsi totidemque libellos, v.
there are no MSS. of them extant, though they 549). Masson, indeed, takes this passa ge to means
appear in the Editio princeps. From the passage that he had only written six, viz. "I have written
in the Ars Ame. before referred to (iii. 345) it six of the Fasti, and as malny books"'; and holds
would seem as if the Heroides were intended for that Ovid never did any more. But this inlterpremusical recitative. (V el tibi com7posita ccenettur tation seems contrary to the natural sense of the
epistola voce. Comp. Alew. ab Alex. (Gez. Dier. ii. 1.) words, and indeed to the genius of the language.
A translation of these epistles into Greek by The Fasti is a sort of' poetical Roman calendar.
Maximus Planudes exists in MS., but has never with its appropriate festivals and mythology, and
been published. the substance was probably taken in a great
3. Ars Amatoria, or De Acte Azciandi. This measure from the old Roman annalists. The study
work was written about B. C. 2, as appears from the of antiquity was then fashionable at Rome, and
sham naval combat exhibited by Augustus being Propertius had preceded Ovid in this style of
alluded to as recent, as well as the expedition of writing in his Oriiyines, in the fourth book. The
Caius Caesar to the East. (Lib. i. v. 171, &c.) model of both seems to have been the A'irta of CalOvid was now more than forty, and his earlier linlachus. The Fosti shows a good deal of learning,
years having been spent in intrigue, he was fully but it has been observed that Ovid makes frequent
qualified by experience to give instruction in the mistakes inl his astronomy, from not understanding
art and mystery of the tender passion. The first the books from which he took it.
two books are devoted to the male sex; the third 8. Tristium Libri V. The five books of elegies
professes to instruct the ladies. This last book was under the title of Tristia were written during the first
probably published some time after the two pre- four years of Ovid's banishment. They are chiefly
ceding ones. Not only does this seem to be borne made up of descriptions of his afflicted condition,
out by vv. 45, &c., but we may thus account for and petitions for mercy. The tenth elegy of the
the Ars (then in two books) being mentioned fourth book is valuable, as containing many parin the.4nores, and also the Amores, in its second ticulars of Ovid's life.
edition of three books, in the third book of the 9. Epistolaruz ex Ponto Libri IV. These epistles
AArs. At the time of Ovid's banishnlent this are also in the elegiac metre, and much the same
poem was ejected from the public libraries by in substance as the Tristia, to which they were subcommand of Augustus. sequent (see lib i. ep. 1, v. 15, &c). It must be
4. Remedia Amoris, in one book. That this confessed that age and misfortune seem to have
piece was subsequent to the Ars Am. appears from damped Ovid's genius both in this and the preceding
v. 9. Its subject, as the title implies, is to suggest work. Even the versification is more slovenly,
remedies for the violence of the amatory passion. and some of the lines very prosaic.
Hence Ovid (v. 47) compares himself to the spear 10. Ibis. This satire of between six and seven
of Telephus, which was able both to wound and hundred elegiac verses was also written in exile.
heal. The poet inveighs in it against all enemy who had