=64. PONDVS= _B1CMFHT_ NOMEN _ILB2_. Wakefield conjectured MOMEN on the
basis of Lucretius VI 473-74 'quo magis ad nubis augendas multa uidentur
/ posse quoque e salso consurgere momine ponti'. But _pondus_ seems
appropriate to the context in a way that _momen_ 'heaving' does not.
_Nomen habe(n)t_ is a frequent line-ending in Ovid, occurring some
twenty-five times (once in _Her_ XVI). _Proprium nomen_ occurs in Ovid
at _Fast_ V 191-92 (Ovid is addressing Flora) 'ipsa doce quae sis.
hominum sententia fallax: / optima tu _proprii nominis_ auctor eris'
and _EP_ I viii 13-14 'Caspius Aegissos, de se si credimus ipsis, /
condidit et _proprio nomine_ dixit opus'. The phrase would have been
very familiar to the scribes from grammatical treatises ('proper noun').
A combination of these circumstances no doubt induced the error.
Professor A. Dalzell suggests to me that _momen_ is perhaps correct, the
notion being that the salt water keeps moving, and so does not freeze.
_Pondus_ would then be a (mistaken) gloss that has displaced _momen_
from the text; _nomen_ would be a simple misreading of _momen_.
=66. CERTIS ... MODIS.= 'Metre'; compare _Fast_ III 388 'ad _certos_ uerba
canenda _modos_', Tib II i 51-52 'agricola ... primum ... cantauit _certo_
rustica uerba _pede_' and Manilius III 35 '_pedibus_ ... iungere
_certis_'.
=67. DETINVI ... TEMPVS, CVRASQVE FEFELLI= _excerpta Politiani_ DETINVI
... TEMPVS CVRAMQVE FEFELLI _LT_ DETINVI ... CVRAS TEMPVSQVE FEFELLI
_BCMFHI_. _Tempus fallere_ 'make time pass unnoticed' is perfectly
acceptable Latin; compare _Tr_ III iii 11-12 'non qui labentia tarde /
_tempora_ narrando _fallat_ amicus adest', _Her_ I 9-10 'nec mihi
quaerenti spatiosam _fallere noctem_ / lassaret uiduas pendula tela
manus', _Met_ VIII 651 'interea medias _fallunt_ sermonibus _horas_',
_Tr_ IV x 112-14 'tristia ... carmine fata leuo. / quod quamuis nemo est
cuius referatur ad aures, / sic tamen absumo _decipioque diem_', and
_Her_ XIX 37-38 'tortaque uersato ducentes stamina fuso / feminea tardas
_fallimus_ arte _moras_'. The difficulty with the manuscript reading in
the present passage is that _detinui curas_ is without parallel.
Heinsius therefore accepted Politian's reading, citing in its support
_Met_ I 682-83 'sedit Atlantiades et euntem multa loquendo / _detinuit_
sermone _diem_'. The Auctor Electorum Etonensium objected that _detinui
tempus_ was inappropriate: 'poeta tempus detinere noluit, quod scilicet
per se morari atque haerere uidebatur inuisum'. He conjectured DISTINVI
CVRAS and Burman DIMINVI CVRAS, which he later found in one of his
manuscripts. But _detinere_ here can have the same meaning 'occupy, keep
busy' as it has at the _Metamorphoses_ passage, where A. G. Lee cites
the present passage (with Politian's reading) and _Tr_ V vii 39
'_detineo studiis animum_ falloque dolores'.
The interchange of adjoining metrically and grammatically equivalent
substantives is very common.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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