=29. VIRIDI ... IVVENTA.= Ovid is perhaps imitating _Aen_ V 295 'Euryalus
forma insignis _uiridique iuuenta_'. Similar phrasing at _AA_ III 557
'uiridemque iuuentam', _Tr_ IV x 17 'frater ad eloquium _uiridi_
tendebat ab aeuo', and _Tr_ III i 7-8 'id quoque quod _uiridi_ quondam
male lusit in aeuo / heu nimium sero damnat et odit opus'; at the last
passage Luck aptly cites _Met_ XV 201-3 'nam tener et lactens puerique
simillimus aeuo / uere nouo [_sc_ annus] est; tunc _herba nitens_ et
roboris expers turget'.
=30. ALBENTES ... COMAS.= For the synecdoche compare Callimachus _Ep_ LXIV
(=_Anth Pal_ V xxiii) 5-6 '[Greek: hê poliê de / autik' anamnêsei tauta
se panta komê]'.
Ovid would have been about sixty years of age at the time of this poem,
old by Roman standards; but his father lived to ninety, and was survived
by his wife (_Tr_ IV x 77-80).
=30. INLABEFACTA= occurs in classical Latin only here and at viii 9-10
'ius aliquod faciunt adfinia uincula nobis / (quae semper maneant
_inlabefacta_ precor)'.
=31-32. QVAE NISI TE MOVEANT, DVRO TIBI PECTORA FERRO / ESSE VEL INVICTO
CLAVSA ADAMANTE PVTEM.= Compare _Her_ II 137 'duritia _ferrum_ ut superes
_adamantaque_ teque', _Her_ X 109-10, and _Met_ IX 614-15 (Byblis on her
brother) 'nec rigidas silices solidumue in pectore _ferrum_ / aut
_adamanta_ gerit'.
Professor R. J. Tarrant notes the unexpected shift in the thought of the
poem: earlier it was Ovid who was guilty of delaying in sending
Tuticanus any sign of his friendship. Ovid might be postponing the real
point of the letter for reasons of tact: Tuticanus has acted as though
his long association with Ovid meant nothing to him, but Ovid does not
want to complain of this openly, and so stresses his own failure to send
Tuticanus a letter.
=33-36.= The set of _adynata_ is remarkable for the way Ovid makes each of
them relate to his own hardships; even Boreas and Notus have a specific
connection, since Ovid complains so often of the climate of Tomis.
=35. TEPIDVS BOREAS ... SIT.= A comparable inversion of nature described at
_Ibis_ 34 'et tepidus gelido flabit ab axe Notus' (before Ovid will
forgive his enemy).
=35. PRAEFRIGIDVS= appears here for the first time in Latin; it occurs
later in Celsus and the elder Pliny. _Praegelidus_, however, is found at
Livy XXI 54 7.
=36. ET POSSIT FATVM MOLLIVS ESSE MEVM.= The personal reference in the
last element of the series of _adynata_ is a clear break with the
conventions of the topic. The last (and therefore greatest) curse in the
_Ibis_ has a similar personal reference: 'denique Sarmaticas inter
Geticasque sagittas / his precor ut uiuas et moriare locis'.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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