Many a lesson
about live. And interestingly without trying to make it complicated or some deeper
psychological struggle. Simply by acting the actors here reveal so much more
than a lot of introspection could ever reveal.
“Horace Walpole’s favourite saying, that life
is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” (Melville, in
Ovid, 1986, p. xix).
“And out on
soaking wings the south wind flew,
His ghastly
features veiled in deepest gloom.
His beard was
sodden with rain, his white hair drenched;
Mists wreathed
his brow and streaming water fell
From wings and
chest; and when in giant hands
He crushed the
hanging clouds, the thunder crashed
And storms of
blinding rain poured down from heaven.” (Ovid, 1986, p.9).
“The sun – how slow he seemed! –
Plunged in the
waves and from the waves rose night.” (Ovid ‘Diana and Actaeon’, 1986, p.77).
“The huge
three-angled isle of Sicily
Lies piled upon
the body of the giant,
Typhon, whose
hopes had dared heaven’s palaces,
And holds him
fast beneath its mighty mass.” (Ovid ‘The rape of Proserpine’, 1986, p.109).
“And with the boxwood shuttle in her hand
(Box of Cytorus)
three times, four times, struck
Arachne on her
forehead. The poor wretch,
Arachne on her
forehead. The poor wretch,
Unable to endure
it, bravely placed
A noose around
her neck; but, as she hung,
Pallas in pity
raised her, ‘Live!’ she said,
‘Yes, live but
hang, you wickedgirl, and know
You’ll rue the
future too.” (Ovid ‘Arachne’, 1986, p.1025).
“ … Nothing he
would not do,
Nothing not dare,
as passion drove unrefined,
A furnace barely
in his heart contained.” (Ovid ‘Tereus, Procne, and Philomela’, 1986, p.135).
“And then before
her eyes duty and honour
Stood clear and
love, defeated, turned away.” (Ovid ‘The rape of Proserpine’, 1986, p.146).
“Take, Athens,
take
Our help, don’t
ask it!” (Ovid ‘Minos, Aeacus, Plague at Aegina’, 1986, p.109).
“The morning star
revealed the shining day,
Night fled, the
east wind fell, the rain-clouds rose,
A steady south
wind speeded the return
Of Cephalus with
the Aeginetan force.” (Ovid ‘Scylla and Minos’, 1986, p.171).
“Then night, the
surest nurse of troubled souls.” (Ovid ‘Scylla and Minos’, 1986, p.173).
“and as a ship
That drives
before the breeze against the tide
Will feel twin
forces and obey them both,
So with both
feelings, swaying back and forth,
In turn Althaea
lulled and roused her wrath.” (Ovid ‘Meleager and Calydonian Boar’, 1986, p.185).
“Hunger did Ceres’
bidding …
(…
Entered the
scoundrel’s room and, as he slept
(The hour was
midnight), wrapped him in her arms
And breathed upon
him, filling with herself
His mouth and throat
and lungs, and channeled through
His hollow veins
her craving emptiness;
Then, duty done,
quitting the fertile earth
Returned to her
bleak home, her caves of dearth.” (Ovid ‘Erysichthon and his daughter’, 1986,
p.196).
“I wrote, I
wooed, I wanted wickedness.
Though no more’s
done, I’ll not seem innocent.
What lies ahead
may little add of sin,
But much, oh
much, of happiness to win.” (Ovid ‘Byblis’, 1986, p.218).
“The forest
failed; on the hard ground she fell,
Exhausted by her
quest, and lay face down,
With tumbled
hair, among the fallen leaves.” (Ovid ‘Byblis’, 1986, p.219).
“… And now a
hawk,
Benign to none,
he vents his savagery
On every bird
and, as in grief he goes,
Ensures that
others frieve and share his woes.” (Ovid ‘Daedalion’, 1986, p.259).
“(Ajax:)It’s
safer then to fight with lies than face
A foe in arms.
But I’ve no way with words,
Nor he with
action; in the battle-line
Of bloody war I’m
master, so is he
Master of
language. Yet, I’m sure, no words,
My friends, need
tell my exploits. Your own eyes
Have seen them.
Let Ulysses speak of his,
Done without
witness, only known to night!” (Ovid ‘Ajax and Ulysses and the arms of Achilles’,
1986, p.294).
“(Ulysses:) Good
comrades, had my prayers and yours prevailed,
There’d be no
heirship in dispute today
In this great
contest. Your arms there, Achilles,
You’d have
yourself; and we should still have you.
But since the
Fates’ unfairness has denied him
To me and you alike
(he wiped his eyes
As if he wept) ‘who’d
better win, as heir
Of great
Achilles, than the man who won
The aid of great
Achilles for the Greeks?” (Ovid ‘Ajax and Ulysses and the arms of Achilles’,
1986, p.299).
“With neither
sleep nor food, as chance might lead.
Tiber was last to
see her; tired and worn
With grief and
journeying, she laid her head
By his long
riverside, and there, in tears,
Breathed weak
faint words in cadences of woe,
As dying swans
may sing their funeral hymns;
Until at last,
her fragile frame dissolved
In misery, she
wasted all away
And slowly
vanished into empty air.” (Ovid ‘Ficus and Canens’, 1986, p.338).
“Both sides had
gods and, what’s as good as gods,
Courage; their
aim not realm for dowry now,
Nor royal marriage,
nor Lavinia,
Princess for
bride; they fought for victory,
Too proud to halt
the conflict.” (Ovid ‘Aeneas’ triumph and apotheosis’, 1986, p.342).
“…make my tale
Be told long ages
hence, so may the time
You shortened of
my life prolong my fame.” (Ovid ‘Pomona and Vertumnus, 1986, p.347).
“… gods are never
allowed
to undo what gods
have done.” (Ovid ‘Legends of early Rome; The Apotheosis of Romulus, 1986, p.349).
“… Though the
gods in heaven
live far removed,
he approached them in his mind,
and things that
nature kept from mortal sight
his inward eye
explored. When meditation
and vigils of
long study had surveyed
all things that
are, he made his wisdom free
for all to share.”
(Ovid ‘The doctrines of Pythagoras’, 1986, p.354).
“How vile a crime
that flesh should swallow flesh,
Body should
fatten greedy body; life
Should live upon
the death of other lives!” (Ovid ‘The doctrines of Pythagoras’, 1986, p.354).
“ … Can you not
placate
Without another’s
doom – a life destroyed –
The urgent
craving of your bellies’ greed?” (Ovid ‘The doctrines of Pythagoras’, 1986, p.355).
“Nature, the
great inventor, ceaselessly
Contrives. In all
creation be assured,
There is no death
– no death, but only chnge
And innovation;
what we men call birth
Is but a
different new beginning; death
Is but to cease
to be the same. Perhaps
This may have
moved to that and that to this,
Yet still the sum
of things remains the same.” (Ovid ‘The doctrines of Pythagoras’, 1986, p.359).
“We too
ourselves, who of this world are part
Not only flesh
and blood but pilgrim souls
Or of the farm.
These creatures might have housed
Souls of our
parents, brothers, other kin,
Or men at least,
and we must keep them safe,
Respected,
honoured, lest we gorge ourselves
On such a banquet
as Thyestes ate.” (Ovid ‘The doctrines of Pythagoras’, 1986, p.365).
“The shore of
Corinth’s bay when the sea rose
And a fantastic
mound of water swelled
And towered
mountain-high, with a loud noise
Of bellowing, and
then its crest split wide
And out there
burst, as the wave broke, a huge
Horned bull, that
reared beast-high into the air,
Its great wide
mouth and nostrils spouting brine.” (Ovid ‘The doctrines of Pythagoras’, 1986,
p.367).
