The corruption was natural enough, particularly in view of such passages as _Fast_ VI 334 'errantes _fertque refertque_ pedes', _Tr_ I vii 5-6 (to a friend who owned a ring with Ovid's portrait) 'hoc tibi ... senti ... dici, / in digito qui me _fersque refersque_ [_codd_: ferasque _Heinsius_] tuo', and _Tr_ V xiii 29 'sic _ferat ac referat_ tacitas nunc littera uoces'. =28. QVOD FECIT QVISQVE TVETVR OPVS.= 'Everyone protects the work he has created'. This is hardly a commonplace of ancient poetry, and the catalogue which follows of famous works of art does not serve to illustrate it. =29-34.= Ovid's description of the works of Apelles, Phidias, Calamis, and Myron was influenced by Propertius' catalogue of artists at III ix 9-16; in particular, he imitates 10-12 'exactis Calamis se mihi iactat equis; / in Veneris tabula summam sibi poscit Apelles; / Parrhasius parua uindicat arte locum', and 15 'Phidiacus signo se Iuppiter ornat eburno'. Professor E. Fantham points out to me the inclusion of Apelles, Calamis, and Myron as canonical figures in a catalogue of artists at Cic _Brut_ 70 and of all four in a similar catalogue at Quint XII x 6-9. =29. VENVS.= Ovid is speaking of the famous Aphrodite Anadyomene painted by Apelles (fourth century BC) in Cos; hence the epithet _Coi_ later in the line--Apelles was in fact from Colophon. Ovid had probably seen the picture in Rome, for Augustus brought it there from Cos (Strabo XIV 2 19; Pliny _NH_ XXXV 91). Ovid refers to the painting at _Am_ I xiv 33-34 and _Tr_ II 527-28. At _AA_ III 223-24 (quoted in the next note) Ovid seems to be describing a cut gem copied from the painting. =30. AEQVOREO MADIDAS QVAE PREMIT IMBRE COMAS.= _Imbre_ depends on _madidas_. _Premit_ is equivalent to _exprimit_, as is shown by _AA_ III 224 'nuda Venus madidas _exprimit_ imbre comas'. For _exprimere_ taking as object that out of which something is pressed or squeezed see Celsus IV 24 and Pliny _NH_ XXIX 31. The Romans would not have found _aequoreo ... imbre_ strange. Although the primary transferred sense of _imber_ would be rain-water, it is used of sea-water as early as Ennius _Ann_ 497-98 Vahlen 'ratibusque fremebat / imber Neptuni', and without defining qualifier at _Aen_ I 123. =31. ACTAEAE= = the metrically difficult _Atheniensis_. The word is generally confined to high poetry (_Ecl_ II 24, _Met_ II 554 & 720, VI 711, VII 681 & VIII 170), but its first occurrence is in prose, at Nepos _Thras_ 2 1 'hoc initium fuit salutis Actaeorum'; some manuscripts read _Atticorum_, which may be right. =31. VEL EBVRNA VEL AEREA CVSTOS.= There were at Athens two famous statues of Athena sculpted by Phidias: 'Phidias ... fecit ex _ebore auroque_ [_Mayhoff_: aeque _codd_] Mineruam Athenis quae est in Parthenone stans, ex _aere_ uero ... Mineruam tam eximiae pulchritudinis ut formae cognomen acceperit ['was named the Minerva Formosa']' (Pliny _NH_ XXXIV 54); the second, less famous statue is described at Pausanias I 28 2.