Ovid Amores 1.5 Two lovers meeting on a hot summer afternoon

Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC – 17/18 AD) -  Ovid for the English speaking world – is well-known to every student of Latin because of his Metamorphoses. With Caesar and Livy he belongs to the authors who are read at an early stage of learning Latin, but whereas the other two have often been cursed by students for their long sentences and boring descriptions of battles, Ovid has been popular through the ages because of his vivid descriptions of myths in the Metamorphoses.

Between his 17^th and late twenties he wrote his first collection of poems, the Amores, a series of love-poems in 3 books. They are dedicated to Corinna, a young married woman with whom Ovid had an affair and in which he describes their encounters. There has been much speculation about  the identity of Corinna, which was certainly not her real name  It is however quite possible that Corinna was purely a literary construction.

In Amores 5.1 Ovid describes an encounter with Corinna in his room on a warm summer afternoon. I think there is hardly a poem which describes with more passion and eroticism the meeting of two lovers.

This is how Christopher Marlowe (1564-94) has translated this poem:

In summers heate, and midtime of the day,
To rest my limbes, uppon a bedde I lay,
One window shut, the other open stood,
Which gave such light, as twincles in a wood,
Like twilight glimps at setting of the sunne,
Or night being past, and yet not day begunne.
Such light to shamefaste maidens must be showne,
Where they may sport, and seeme to be unknowne.
Then came Corinna in a long loose gowne,
Her white necke hid with tresses hanging downe,
Resembling faire Semiramis going to bed,
Or Layis of a thousand lovers sped.
I snatcht her gowne: being thin, the harme was small,
Yet strivde she to be covered therewithall,
And striving thus as one that would be cast,
Betrayde her selfe, and yeelded at the last.
Starke naked as she stood before mine eie,
Not one wen in her bodie could I spie,
What armes and shoulders did I touch and see,
How apt her breasts were to be prest by me,
How smoothe a bellie, under her waste sawe I,
How large a legge, and what a lustie thigh?
To leave the rest, all likt me passing well,
I clinged her naked bodie, downe she fell,
Judge you the rest, being tyrde she bad me kisse.
Jove send me more such afternoones as this.

But now the Latin!

Aestus erat, mediamque dies exegerat horam;
     adposui medio membra levanda toro.
Pars adaperta fuit, pars altera clausa fenestrae;
     quale fere silvae lumen habere solent,
5qualia sublucent fugiente crepuscula Phoebo,
     aut ubi nox abiit, nec tamen orta dies.
Illa verecundis lux est praebenda puellis,
     Qua timidus latebras speret habere pudor.
Ecce, Corinna venit, tunica velata recincta,
10      candida dividua colla tegente coma —
qualiter in thalamos famosa Semiramis isse
     dicitur, et multis Lais amata viris.
Deripui tunicam — nec multum rara nocebat;
     pugnabat tunica sed tamen illa tegi.
15Quae cum ita pugnaret, tamquam quae vincere nollet,
     Victa est non aegre proditione sua.
Ut stetit ante oculos posito velamine nostros,
     In toto nusquam corpore menda fuit;
quos umeros, quales vidi tetigique lacertos!
20      Forma papillarum quam fuit apta premi!
Quam castigato planus sub pectore venter!
     Quantum et quale latus! quam iuvenale femur!
Singula quid referam? nil non laudabile vidi
     Et nudam pressi corpus ad usque meum.
25Cetera quis nescit? lassi requievimus ambo.
     Proveniant medii sic mihi saepe dies!

aestus             summer

exigo               to pass.

The day has passed the middle hour, not the middle of the hour, but in the next line medio toro is an urbs condita construction

membra levanda        limbs to be lightened i.e. limbs to rest

torus               bed, sofa

Pars adaperta fuit, pars altera clausa fenestrae

Roman houses had no windows of glass, but shutters with horizontal louvers to let light through. This gives the pattern of  light and shade making the room half dark Ovid is describing in lines 4-6

adapertus       open

quale fere       almost like

silva                wood

subluceo         shine a little, gleam

qualia sublucent fugiente crepuscula Phoebo: qualifying lumen in line 4

crepusculum   (evening) twilight

Phoebus          the sun

ortus               risen

verecundus     shy, modest

praebeo          to offer

qua abl.

latebra            hidding-place

pudor              shame

tunica recincta abl. covered (only) in an ungirded tunic

candida dividua colla tegente coma abl. abs: her hair which is divided in two parts is covering her white neck. colla is a poetic plural. Roman women normally wore their tunic girded and their hair tied in a knot. Both the loose tunic and the loose hair of Corinna imply sexual readiness. This is of course in sharp contrast with the timidus pudor in line 8!

thalamus         bedroom (thalamos poetic plural)

Semiramis was a legendary Assyrian queen - though derived from the real queen Shammuramat (824-811 BC). In legend she was a warrior queen, leading her army into battlefields and also a lustful queen, therefore Ovid describes her as formosa `beautiful’.

isse dicitur      is said to have come

Lais was a famous courtisan of Corinth said to be the most beautiful woman of her time, around 430-400 BC.

deripio            to tear off

nec multum rara nocebat Corinna’s tunic was thin (rara), so it didn’t do much harm in hiding her body.

pugnabat tunica sed tamen illa tegi in english wordorder: sed tamen illa pugnabat tunica tegi

pugnaba the imperfect denotes that she is trying to fight

tunica abl.

tegi passive infinirive of tego to cover

quae cum (but) since she

tamquam quae vincere nollet like one who doesnt want to conquer – unlike Semiramis!

non aegre       without difficulty

proditio, -onis betrayal

posito velamine abl. abs, `with her clothing put aside’

menda             fault, blemish

umeros           shoulder

tango tetigi tactum    to touch

lacertus          upper arm

papilla             nipple, breast

quam               how

premi passive infinitive of premo to press

planus venter flat stomach

castigatus here `slender, well-formed’

latus, lateris   flank

iuvenale as Roman girls married at the age between 14 and 16, this needs not to be mere flatering

femur, - oris   thigh

corpus ad usque meum = ad usque (close to) corpus meum

lassus             fatiguated, tired

requiesco requievi to rest

provenio         appear

medii dies: urbs condita construction

saepe              often