=15. TAM MALA THERSITEN PROHIBEBAT FORMA LATERE.= For Thersites' ugliness, see _Il_ II 216-19 '[Greek: aischistos de anêr hypo Ilion êlthe· / pholkos eên, chôlos d' heteron poda· tô de hoi ômô / kyrtô, epi stêthos synochôkote· autar hyperthe / phoxos eên kephalên, psednê d' epenênothe lachnê]'. For the modern reader, Thersites' ugliness is hardly his leading characteristic; but at _EP_ III ix 9-10 Ovid again refers to his appearance: 'auctor opus laudat: sic forsitan Agrius [his father] olim / Thersiten facie dixerit esse bona'. Other mentions of Thersites' ugliness at Lucian _Dial Mort_ XXV (Thersites argues that he is now as handsome as Nireus) and Epictetus _Diss_ II 23 32 (Thersites is contrasted with Achilles), to which Professor C. P. Jones adds from Greek epigram _Greek Inscr. Brit. Mus._ IV ii 1114; other citations from late Greek authors at PW V A,2 2457 18-38 & 2464 23-66 and Roscher V 670 23 ff. =16. NIREVS.= For the beauty of Nireus, see _Il_ II 671-74 '[Greek: Nireus au Symêthen age treis nêas eïsas, / Nireus Aglaïês hyios Charopoio t' anaktos, / Nireus, hos kallistos anêr hypo Ilion êlthe / tôn allôn Danaôn met' amymona Pêleïôna]'. This is the only mention of Nireus in the poem; but Demetrius (_Peri Hermeneias_ 62; cited by Cope at Aristotle _Rhet_ 1414a) remarks that because of Homer's use of epanaphora (the repetition of Nireus' name) and dialysis (asyndeton) '[Greek: schedon hapax tou Nireôs onomasthentos en tôi dramati memnêmetha ouden hêtton ê tou Achilleôs kai tou Odysseôs]'. Ovid mentions Nireus again at _AA_ II 109-12 'sis licet antiquo Nireus adamatus Homero ... ingenii dotes corporis adde bonis'; see also Hor _Epod_ XV 22 'forma ... uincas Nirea', Hor _Carm_ III xx 15 (where Nireus is paired with Ganymede) and Prop III xviii 27 'Nirea non facies, non uis exemit Achillem'; from Greek epigram Professor C. P. Jones cites Peek _Griech. Versinschr._ 1728 (Merkelbach _ZPE_ 25 [1977] 281). =16. CONSPICIENDVS.= The word is metrically suited to the second half of the pentameter, before the disyllable: compare Tib I ii 70 & II iii 52, _Fast_ V 118 & V 170, and _Tr_ II 114. =17. MIRARI SI= is a colloquialism: most of the passages from verse cited at _TLL_ VIII 1067 14 are from Plautus and the hexameter poems of Horace; from Propertius compare II iii 33 'haec ego nunc _mirer si_ flagret nostra iuuentus?' and from Ovid _Her_ X 105 'non equidem _miror si_ stat uictoria tecum' and _Tr_ I ix 21 'saeua neque _admiror_ metuunt _si_ fulmina'. =19. A PVDET, ET GETICO SCRIPSI SERMONE LIBELLVM.= The rest of the distich after _a pudet_ explains the exclamation ('I have even written ...'), and so the punctuation should mark the break. The idiom is different from the _et pudet et_ construction seen at xv 29 'et pudet et metuo ['I am both embarrassed and afraid'] semperque eademque precari' and _Tr_ V vii 57-58 'et pudet et fateor ['I confess with embarrassment'], iam desuetudine longa / uix subeunt ipsi uerba Latina mihi'.