P. Ovidius Naso Ars Amatoria 1

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Ars Amatoria. P. Ovidius Naso. New York. 1855.

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Current edition Perseus

The Art of Love (English) (Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John; Congreve, William; translators. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.)

Editions (1)
Ars Amatoria Perseus (Ovid. P. Ovidius Naso, Volume 1: Amores, Epistulae, Medicamina faciei femineae, Ars amatoria, Remedia amoris. Ehwald, Rudolf; Merkel, Rudolph; editors. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1907.) — 1 focus

Notes on the current edition

Art of Love

1. The poet here lays down the proposition of the work, which he comprehends in the two first verses: he then invokes the assistance of the gods and begins his narration.
2. One must learn to love, and what to love: for love is so far from being forbidden, that there is nothing so commendable, provided the object is good.
3. He speaks of love who is very seldom guided by reason.
4. This alludes to his killing Hector, as in the 22nd book of Homer's Iliads.
5. Achilles, when he was a lad, was put to this centaur to be educated.
6. Cupid was the son of Venus, and Achilles of Thetis. Both were children alike, and both hard to govern. For, indeed, the passions of love and glory are not easily overcome by reason, which ought always to be mistress.
7. This he says to show us that love may also be tamed by habit. Ovid is full of these sort of similes.
8. From whence the ancients drew their auguries. To which the poet here alludes.
9. Ovid names Clio only, of all the nine, in this place. The fable tells us, she and her sisters were born of Jupiter 's caresses of Mnemosyne, that is, memory.
10. It has been before observed, that Ovid invokes the goddess of love to assist his song, as Lucretius does the same divinity for his world of nature, as being the mother of all generations, and all productions.
11. The author forewarns all virgins, and chaste persons, not to follow, in all things, the precepts of his book.
12. The poet here gives his advice as to three things: to seek after an amiable object: to win it by respect and complacency, and not to lose it after once gotten.
13. That is, while you are a freeman, unmarried, and not engaged to any other mistress. The truest meaning that can be given, is, that while you are young, and are not yet troubled with the infirmities of age (for an old man in love is ridiculous) choose where you please.
14. This was a shady walk which Pompey built for the people; and there were several in Rome of the same sort; but the most admirable one of all the porticos, was the Corinthian, near the Flaminian cirque, built by Cneius Octavius.
15. It was the custom among the Romans, to meet in the temples of Venus to mourn Adonis; of which the prophet Ezekiel speaks, ( Ezek. viii. 14. ); and infamous acts of lewdness were there committed, if we may believe Juvenal in his sixth satire .
16. There were great numbers of the Jews at Rome in Augustus's reign, who were allowed full liberty to exercise their ceremonies, according to the law of Moses . And the Roman ladies went often to see them out of curiosity, which gave occasion for assignations at their synagogues.
17. That is, many women were debauched by Isis's means, as she was by Jupiter under the name of Io.
18. The following verses are a happy paraphrase of Ovid ; in whose time we find the long robe dealt as much with the stola, etc., as it does in our own.
19. We see these assemblies were composed of all sorts of persons; upon which our French author remarks thus: " This does not very well agree to the practice in our days; and I cannot comprehend how gallant women could frequent the courts of justice : where it is to be supposed, nobody came but such as had business and suits depending."
20. It must be owned, the theatres, amphitheatres, cirques, hippodromes, and all places where the public feasts and rejoicings were kept, were very fatal to the chastity of the women of old.
21. This idea of the Roman theatres in their infancy, may put us in mind of our own which we read of in the old poets, in Black-friars, the Bull-and-mouth, and Barbican, not much better than the strollers at a country-fair. Yet this must be said for them: that the audience were much better treated; their fare was good, though the house was homely. Which cannot be said of the Roman infant-stage, their wit and their theatres were alike rude; and the Shakspeares and Jonsons of Rome did not appear till the stage was pompous, and the scene magnificent.
22. At which the soldiers were to fall on the women. The poet and his translators make an agreeable description of this rape. Some say there were thirty of these Sabines ravished: others, as Valerius Antius, make the number to be four hundred and twenty-seven: and Jubas, as Plutarch writes in the life of Romulus , swells it to six hundred.
23. It is plain by this, the ancient Romans used to make love by signs on their fingers like the modern Spaniards and Portuguese; and this talking on the fingers is very common among us ever since Dr. Holder and Dr. Wallis taught by Mr. Popham, who was born deaf and dumb, with whom I have, however, myself held a conversation of many hours, and that many hundred times, by the help of our fingers. But the poet says there was no occasion of this dumb language at the cirque; for there was so much noise, that lovers might entertain one another as they pleased, without fear of being overheard.
24. Young men are apt enough to do this of themselves, and need no advice; yet Juvenal, like Ovid , puts them in mind of it.
25. The naval combats were represented in a place dug on purpose on the banks of the Tiber ; it was called Naumachia; and when occasion required the river water was let into it. Tacitus, in his twelfth book , makes mention of a representation of the naval battle of Actium .
26. Augustus having put an end to the war in Spain , undertook an expedition into Asia , and began the Parthian war; in which he recovered the ensigns that had been taken from the Romans in the defeat of Crassus, which these verses refer to.
27. He alludes to the triumphs of the Roman conquerors: they were wonderfully magnificent, accompanied with rich spoils and pictures of rivers, mountains, cities, and provinces conquered by them: not to speak of the captive kings and great captains that followed the victor's car in chains: but there is so much insolence in this custom, that, with all its magnificence, we cannot in our own times relish it.
28. The night is an ill time to choose a mistress in. We have a saying in England , "Women and linen look best by candle-light."
29. The Phrygian shepherd, to judge the beauty of these three goddesses demanded to see them naked; and the goddess were so eager to have the question decided by him, that they made no scruple to satisfy his demands.
30. This temple was in the neighbourhood of Rome , in a valley, where there is also a sacred wood. There were abundance of candles used in it, as we read in Ovid de Fastis .
31. The sovereign priest of Diana, Aricina, called himself king, and often got that dignity by gaining the better of his opponent in single combat.
32. The celestial Venus is more charming than the terrestrial, and divine love soon extinguishes carnal, which burns with an obscure fire: whereas the divine enlightens those that it warms with holy desires; it leaves no string behind it and never has an end.
33. Myrrha's love of her father Cinyras is not a fable. At least Pliny relates this adventure as a memorable story, and says Cinyras lived two hundred and ten years, and that his daughter took her mother's place, while she was busied about the sacrifices to Ceres . But that her father discovering her insolence, ran after her a long time with a sword in his hand. The fable adds, she got away by favour of the night, and fled to the Sabeans, where she was changed into a tree, which bears her name. See the 10th book of the Metamorphoses.
34. Pasiphae, daughter of the sun, and wife to Minos king of Crete , is fabled to be enamoured of a bull: and Daedalus, the famous mechanic, assisted her to enjoy her detestable desires, by making a machine like a cow; within which she was caressed by her gallant. From this intrigue the Minotaur was born, half man and half bull, who was enclosed in a labyrinth, and by the assistance of Ariadne killed by Theseus.
35. This known fable is told us thus: Jupiter falling in love with Europa daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia , and taking the shape of a bull, ravished her in the Dictaean cave; and begot Minos and Radamanthus. The fable of Io is this; she is said to be the daughter of Inachus debauched by Jupiter and turned into a cow ; which jealous Juno perceiving, she begged the cow; and commanded Argos, who had a hundred eyes, to watch her; but Mercury killed her keeper by Jupiter 's orders. Upon which Juno struck Io with madness, and she flung herself into the sea, which from her was called the Ionian, and swimming to Egypt , was there worshipped by the name of Isis, having first resumed her shape, and married king Osiris.
36. Atreus's wife's name was Aeropa. She suffered herself to be debauched by her brother-in-law, Thyestes.
37. Her name was Scylla, and she betrayed her father, in favour of her gallant, Minos.
38. Clytemnestra, and the adulterer Aegistheus, murdered Agamemnon: upon whose death Seneca wrote the tragedy called Agamemnon.
39. Phoenix the son of Amyntor, enjoyed a woman whom his father loved. His father was so enraged at him, that he imprecated all the miseries he could think of to light upon his son: whose children dying, he withdrew to Peleus, father of Achilles, who committed to him the care of his son's education.
40. Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, was pulled to pieces by horses. Our author in his French observations says this fable is admirably well represented in the tragedy of Seneca .
41. That was a very unfortunate day for the people of Rome , their army being cut in pieces by the Gauls near the river Allis, the 15th of the calends of August, in the year of the city 363.
42. On the mistress's birthday: these presents were commonly cakes; but we find the ladies were not satisfied with cakes only, they wanted pendants for the ears; and the way to get them is much the same in the gallant world now as in Ovid's days.
43. There are few coquets who will lose anything for want of asking; they borrow what they never tend to restore; and this jilting humor is so livelily painted here by the poet, that one would think he had lived in another reign than that of Augustus.
44. In this expression, which is Ovid's in the main, the Romans bore with an idea that perhaps the delicacy of the moderns will be offended with. The smell of a ram or goat is very rank, and from those animals the proverb came.
45. Wine is favourable to lovers, inspiring them at once with boldness and vigour.
46. Cymbals. drums, little bells, and pipes, were Bacchus and mother Cybele's consort.
47. It was an ancient custom to sing hymns of joy at weddings; which hymns were called epithalamius, or hymeneans, from a certain Athenian named Hymen, who, as Servins reports, delivered maids from a terrible trouble, or which they used to invoke him when they married, as the god who eased them of the burden of their maidenheads: le liberateur de leur virginité as my French author has it; and whether it is more a slavery or a burden, let the satirists determine.
48. The poet's directions how the lover should behave himself at table, are very considerable in the affair he is speaking of.
49. Spill some wine and write her name. This is not worthy the Roman elegance in all things; and, as a late commentattor observes upon this occasion they could have no tablecloths; for otherwise Ovid 's advice is not feasible.
50. This and the verses that follow show that Ovid did not mean very honestly, and the decree of the senate was obtained against him for this crime, as it is pretended, because it was strictly forbidden by the Roman laws to corrupt married women, to prevent the abuses which might happen in succession, and the injuring another man in taking from him what only belongs to himself.
51. Eurythus, or Eurytion, was one of the centaurs at Pirithous's wedding, who got so drunk that he attempted to ravish Hippodamia, the bride; but Theseus knocked him down with a bowl, and made him bring up his wine again with blood.
52. Modesty is a vice, when it hinders us from doing anything that is profitable to us; and the misfortune is, it generally comes upon us most unseasonably, and when it should not. When it should, we commonly miss it; and when we do not want it, it is impertinent.
53. He talks of modesty, and says, if the lover banishes it, he has no occasion for eloquence; for love and fortune favour the bold.
54. Speaking of the gods, according to the stoics' opinion, which, contrary to the Epicureans, asserted that the deities concerned themselves in the affairs of this world.
55. This is a very severe reflection on the sex, and it is hoped, whatever it might be in Ovid 's time, the scandal will not stick now.
56. To their dull mates the noble ravisher. Phoebe and Ilara were two daughters of Leucippus, both famous for their beauty. Their father promised them in marriage to Idas and Lynceus, but Castor and Pollux stole them away from him. Idas and Lynceus pursuing the ravishers, Caster fell by the hands of Lynceus, and Lynceus was himself slain by Pollux: Idas running upon the latter to revenge the death of his companion, was struck to the ground thunder at Pollux feet; which Ovid has elegantly described in his de Fastis.
57. Minerva or Pallas was not only the goddess of arms, but of arts and manufactures. The poet means he has learnt of her enough to spin, let him now learn of her the more glorious exercise of arms.
58. Orion fell in love with the nymph Lyrice, some name her Lynce, from a lynx, a wild beast so called, which is Merula's interpretation. But though who this Lyrice was is not very well known, yet it is not likely that Orion should be so passionately enamoured of a wild beast, and it is very probable he might be so charmed with a beautiul damsel.
59. Patroclus, son of Menoeceus, and grandson of Actor, who having killed Clytonymus, son of Amphidamus, was banished his country, and came to Phthia, where he remained with Peleus, Achilles's father, his kinmnan. By these means he contracted a strict friendship with Achilles, and accompanied him to the siege of Troy , where he was killed.
60. Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen, who married her cousin-german, Orestes. Pylades was her husband's friend, and therefore he would not offer to corrupt his wife. This king was the son of Strophius king of Phocis.
61. This is one of Ovid 's happy ways of making use of common similes, and this and others are brought in here, to show a lover must comport himself variously, according to the various humors of women.
62. This gives us a various idea, and livelily expresses the author's thoughts, that women are to be caught several ways.
63. To cast anchor, as Ovid says,
Hic teneat nostras anchora iacta rates
, as one arrived at a port, where, though he is not to stay long, he intends to refresh himself.