The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text. Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum               5 It’s written by a real awesome dude named Ovid, who lived approximately 43 BCE – 17/18 CE – so, really, he should get the writing credit… I’ve modified some things here and there, so I will always post the corresponding lines of the poem below, along with my translation. Oxford Approaches to Classical Literature (Series Editors: Kathleen Coleman and Richard Rutherford) introduces individual works of Greek and Latin literature to readers who are approaching them for the first time. mulcet aquas rector pelagi supraque profundum Publius Ovidius Naso. certa satis; terrent etiamnum nubila mentem. me miserum! inpiger umbrosa Parnasi constitit arce Brill's Companion to Ovid. dixit et inplicuit materno bracchia collo parte secant zonae, quinta est ardentior illis, When Saturn was banished to gloomy Tartarus, and Jupiter ruled the world, then came the people of the age of silver that is inferior to gold, more valuable than yellow bronze. diva metum timuitque Iovem et fuit anxia furti, navita, quaeque prius steterant in montibus altis, et densi frutices et vinctae cortice virgae. Vix ita limitibus dissaepserat omnia certis, Separat Aonios Oetaeis Phocis ab arvis, Her lips trembling she asks for pardon, fearing to offend her mother’s spirit by scattering her bones. It would take too long to tell what wickedness I found everywhere. nata mihi terras? terribilem picea tectus caligine vultum;               265 Friedr. Pan, whose head is crowned with a wreath of sharp pine shoots, saw her, coming from Mount Lycaeus, and spoke to her.’ Now Mercury still had to relate what Pan said, and how the nymph, despising his entreaties, ran through the wilds till she came to the calm waters of sandy Ladon; and how when the river stopped her flight she begged her sisters of the stream to change her; and how Pan, when he thought he now had Syrinx, found that instead of the nymph’s body he only held reeds from the marsh; and, while he sighed there, the wind in the reeds, moving, gave out a clear, plaintive sound. Seated here, in a rocky cavern, he laid down the law to the waters and the nymphs who lived in his streams. When Deucalion and his wife landed here in their small boat, everywhere else being drowned by the waters, they worshipped the Corycian nymphs, the mountain gods, and the goddess of the oracles, prophetic Themis. unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, haec domus, haec sedes, haec sunt penetralia magni Arcadis hinc sedes et inhospita tecta tyranni quodque cupit, sperat, suaque illum oracula fallunt, 1.2→ — Literal English Translation Original Latin Line I was preparing to tell about weapons and violent wars in serious meter, with the subject being suitable for the meter. THE METAMORPHOSES . et dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli. Latein Übersetzung Catull Horaz Phaedrus Caesar Cicero Ovid Martial Vergil Tacitus. 310 All means should first be tried, but the incurable flesh must be excised by the knife, so that the healthy part is not infected. regalemque domum: dextra laevaque deorum nix tegit alta duas; totidem inter utramque locavit               50 Bust of Ovid, the Latin Poet. Brookes More. parva mora est alas pedibus virgamque potenti But she followed the worship of the Ortygian goddess in staying virgin. nulla mora est: adeunt pariter Cephesidas undas, auro deterior, fulvo pretiosior aere. obviaque adversas vibrabant flamina vestes, He clasped the branches as if they were parts of human arms, and kissed the wood. I gave them signs that a god had come, and the people began to worship me. nec tibi grata minus pietas, Auguste, tuorum Iuppiter ut liquidis stagnare paludibus orbem 280 tela reponuntur manibus fabricata cyclopum; proque toro terrae non semper gramen habenti Cambridge : Open Book Publishers, 2016 (généré le 10 février 2021). He had a friend, Phaethon, child of the Sun, equal to him in spirit and years, who once boasted proudly that Phoebus was his father, and refused to concede the claim, which Inachus’s grandson could not accept. neve operis famam posset delere vetustas,               445 dicor, et herbarum subiecta potentia nobis. Here the powerful and distinguished have made their home. atque ita disparibus calamis conpagine cerae One man sails over his cornfields or over the roof of his drowned farmhouse, while another man fishes in the topmost branches of an elm. In due time she bore a son, Epaphus, who shared the cities’ temples with his mother, and was believed to have been conceived from mighty Jupiter’s seed. vertitur in pecudes et nunc quoque sanguine gaudet. 1-4 5-20 21-31 32-51 52-56 57-68 69-75 76-88 89-112 113-124 125-150 151-162 163-167 168-176 177-198 199-243 244-252 253-261 262-273 274-282 283-292 293-312 313-347 348-380 381-394 395 … cum sua quisque regat diverso flamina tractu, Tum deus 'Arcadiae gelidis sub montibus' inquit We use cookies for essential site functions and for social media integration. Boston. Deucalion lacrimis ita Pyrrham adfatur obortis:               350 occupat, unde sedens partes speculatur in omnes. He praises her wrists and hands and fingers, and her arms bare to the shoulder: whatever is hidden, he imagines more beautiful. When she wished to stretch her arms out to Argus in supplication, she had no arms to stretch. mulcet et 'aut fallax' ait 'est sollertia nobis, ut facibus saepes ardent, quas forte viator exclamat pater Inachus inque gementis omnibus audita est telluris et aequoris undis, Husbands longed for the death of their wives, wives for the death of their husbands. deinde torus iunxit, nunc ipsa pericula iungunt, AbeBooks.com: Ovid: Metamorphoses I (Bk.1) (English and Latin Edition) (9780862921446) by Ovid and a great selection of similar New, Used and Collectible Books available now at great prices. ede notam tanti generis meque adsere caelo!' et noctis faciem nebulas fecisse volucres ... Searching in Latin. detque sibi veniam pavido rogat ore pavetque solibus aetheriis altoque recanduit aestu,               435 When they reached the steps of the sanctuary they fell forward together and lay prone on the ground, and kissing the cold rock with trembling lips, said ‘If the gods’ wills soften, appeased by the prayers of the just, if in this way their anger can be deflected, Themis tell us by what art the damage to our race can be repaired, and bring help, most gentle one, to this drowned world!’, The goddess was moved, and uttered oracular speech: ‘Leave the temple and with veiled heads and loosened clothes throw behind you the bones of your great mother!’ For a long time they stand there, dumbfounded. Coniugis augurio quamquam Titania mota est,               395 75 Andr. Maenala transieram latebris horrenda ferarum creverunt faciemque aliquam cepere morando. P. OVIDI NASONIS METAMORPHOSEON LIBER PRIMVS In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas corpora; di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas) adspirate meis primaque ab origine mundi So he set aside the weapons the Cyclopes forged, and resolved on a different punishment, to send down rain from the whole sky and drown humanity beneath the waves. margine terrarum porrexerat Amphitrite; corporis indicium mutati triste peregit. dent ocius omnes, unda vehit tigres; nec vires fulminis apro,               305 Neptune himself strikes the ground with his trident, so that it trembles, and with that blow opens up channels for the waters. ora cacumen habet: remanet nitor unus in illa. pone metus' inquit: 'numquam tibi causa doloris 210 Jupiter had a presage of his wife’s arrival and had changed Inachus’s daughter into a gleaming heifer. mollia cum duris, sine pondere, habentia pondus. aere legebantur, nec supplex turba timebat Do not fly from me!’ She was already in flight. And just as my head with its un-cropped hair is always young, so you also will wear the beauty of undying leaves.’ Paean had done: the laurel bowed her newly made branches, and seemed to shake her leafy crown like a head giving consent. caelicolae clarique suos posuere penates; Iuppiter hoc iterum sermone silentia rupit: Nymph, Wait! and early C1st A.D., during the reign of the Emperor Augustus. The winds bared her body, the opposing breezes in her way fluttered her clothes, and the light airs threw her streaming hair behind her, her beauty enhanced by flight. caesariem, cum qua terram, mare, sidera movit. fluctibus ignotis insultavere carinae, flumine et 'o virgo Iove digna tuoque beatum hinc dissuadet Amor. atque suus coniunx ubi sit circumspicit, ut quae               605 Amores (16 BCE) by Ovid, translated from Latin by Wikisource The Theme of Love . montibus in liquidas pinus descenderat undas,               95 Buch (lateinischer Originaltext) Nos personalia non concoquimus. non socer a genero, fratrum quoque gratia rara est;               145 Foaming at the mouth, and greedy as ever for killing, he turned against the sheep, still delighting in blood. et terrena fuit, versa est in corporis usum; Next came air in lightness and place. The stones, and who would believe it if it were not for ancient tradition, began to lose their rigidity and hardness, and after a while softened, and once softened acquired new form. cornua, pertimuit seque exsternata refugit. finiat ut poenas tandem, rogat 'in' que 'futurum               735 surgit humus, crescunt sola decrescentibus undis,               345 te coma, te citharae, te nostrae, laure, pharetrae; Boyd, Barbara Weiden, ed. And now harmful iron appeared, and gold more harmful than iron. There was no fear or punishment: there were no threatening words to be read, fixed in bronze, no crowd of suppliants fearing the judge’s face: they lived safely without protection. oscula dat ligno; refugit tamen oscula lignum. A creator separated earth from heaven, sea from land, and lighter air from heavier air. nescis, temeraria, nescis, Your subjects’ loyalty is no less pleasing to you, Augustus, than theirs was to Jupiter. vota iacent, longique perit labor inritus anni. 'virginitate frui! hac agit, ut pastor, per devia rura capellas quas meruere pati, (sic stat sententia) poenas.' The Metamorphoses is an 8 AD Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. solvit; ille opifex rerum, mundi melioris origo, et, ne nulla suae stirpis monimenta manerent, Inminet his aer, qui, quanto est pondere terrae ossaque post tergum magnae iactate parentis!' Earth spontaneously created other diverse forms of animal life. litora voce replet sub utroque iacentia Phoebo; But if I am born at all of divine stock, give me some proof of my high birth, and let me claim my divinity!’ So saying he flung his arms round his mother’s neck, entreating her, by his own and her husband Merops’s life, and by his sisters’ marriages, to reveal to him some true sign of his parentage. Jupiter shortened spring’s first duration and made the year consist of four seasons, winter, summer, changeable autumn, and brief spring. Here the rivers of his own country first met, unsure whether to console with or celebrate Daphne’s father: Spercheus among poplars, restless Enipeus, gentle Amphrysus, Aeas and ancient Apidanus; and then later all the others that, whichever way their force carries them, bring down their weary wandering waters to the sea. Hoping it false I left Olympus’s heights, and travelled the earth, a god in human form. filius huic Veneris 'figat tuus omnia, Phoebe, 1993). Then Humankind was born. nubila disiecit nimbisque aquilone remotis Translated by Ian Johnston, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada [For publication and copyright details, please use the following link: Table of Contents. OVID. nocte gravem somno necopina perdere morte Nothing of the heifer is left except her whiteness. The third link directs users to a U.Va.-hosted version of the Latin text (apparently from Ehwald's edition, ca. densior his tellus elementaque grandia traxit non tuba derecti, non aeris cornua flexi, In fact when heat and moisture are mixed they conceive, and from these two things the whole of life originates. 90 exstantem atque umeros innato murice tectum The archer god, with lethal shafts that he had only used before on fleeing red deer and roe deer, with a thousand arrows, almost emptying his quiver, destroyed the creature, the venom running out from its black wounds. That one is suited to my shoulders, since I can hit wild beasts of a certainty, and wound my enemies, and not long ago destroyed with countless arrows the swollen Python that covered many acres with its plague-ridden belly. tum quoque visa decens; nudabant corpora venti, One of the most influential and popular works in all literature, Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a weaving-together of classical myths, extending in time from the creation of the world to the death of Julius Caesar. There, he takes off his cap, and doffs his wings, only keeping his wand. mollit aquis, partim subiecto torruit igni. You, gods, since you are the ones who alter these, and all other things, inspire my attempt, and spin out a continuous thread of words, from the world's first origins to my own time. The whole world calls me the bringer of aid; medicine is my invention; my power is in herbs. When the gods had taken their seats in the marble council chamber their king, sitting high above them, leaning on his ivory sceptre, shook his formidable mane three times and then a fourth, disturbing the earth, sea and stars. inter se iunctis nomen tenuisse puellae. poena metusque aberant, nec verba minantia fixo et posuit pennas, tantummodo virga retenta est:               675 ‘You there, whoever you are’ Argus calls ‘you could sit here beside me on this rock; there’s no better grass elsewhere for your flock, and you can see that the shade is fine for shepherds.’. Nereides, silvasque tenent delphines et altis an satis, o superi, tutos fore creditis illos, haec ubi disposuit, patria Iove natus ab arce talia quaerentes (sibi enim fore cetera curae)               250 The boar has no use for his powerful tusks, the deer for its quick legs, both are swept away together, and the circling bird, after a long search for a place to land, falls on tired wings into the water. BOOK 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4 Book 5 Book 6 Book 7 Book 8 Book 9 ... Ovid. 415 The harsh iron age was last. She looked around to see where her husband was, knowing by now the intrigues of a spouse so often caught in the act. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. dissimilem populo promittit origine mira. vela dabant ventis nec adhuc bene noverat illos obstabatque aliis aliud, quia corpore in uno et de femineo reparata est femina iactu. se mihi, sitque oculis lux ista novissima nostris!