Thisbe, fleeing from a lioness, loses her veil, which the lioness then finds and tears to shreds with her bloody mouth.
“Thisbe” J.W. Waterhouse, 1909 Private collection
Whitford & Hughes, London, UK/Bridgeman Art Library.
Callida per tenebras, versato cardine, Thisbe egreditur fallitque suos, adopertaque vultum 95 pervenit ad tumulum dictaque sub arbore sedit. Audacem faciebat amor. Venit ecce recenti caede leaena boum spumantes oblita rictus, depositura sitim vicini fontis in unda; quam procul ad lunae radios Babylonia Thisbe 100 vidit et obscurum timido pede fugit in antrum, dumque fugit, tergo velamina lapsa reliquit. Ut lea saeva sitim multa compescuit unda, dum redit in silvas, inventos forte sine ipsa ore cruentato tenues laniavit amictus.
100. timido: logically applying to Thisbe, a TRANSFERRED EPITHET, another common poetic device.
fugit: perf. in this line, pres. in the next, as the meter indicates.
antrum:cave; the adj.-noun pair, obscurum (shadowy, continuing the imagery of darkness)…antrum, surrounds the rest of the cl., creating a typically Ovidian WORD-PICTURE that helps depict the girl’s enclosure within the cave.
101. tergo: tergum, back; sc. de. With lapsa, Eng. would use a cl. rather than a participial phrase, which had slipped (from).
velamina: velamen,veil; poetic pl. for sg. (see note on pacta in 91).
102. lea: = leaena.
saeva:savage, fierce.
compescuit: compescere,to check, restrain; with unda, to satisfy, quench.
103. inventos: with amictus, robe, veil, poetic pl.; the two words frame the cl.
forte: abl. of fors as adv., by chance.
ipsa: i.e., Thisbe.
104. cruentato: stained with blood.
laniavit: laniare,to tear (to pieces).
105. serius: compar. of sero, adv., late.
vestigia: vestigium,track, footprint.
106. pulvere: pulvis, dust.
ferae:wild, savage; sc. bestiae.
expalluit: expallescere,to turn very pale.
107. vestem: vestis, clothing, clothes, garment.
sanguine: sanguis,blood.
tinctam: tingere,to wet, dip, dye, stain.
108. una…amantes: the INTERLOCKED WORD ORDER neatly juxtaposes the contrasting numerals una duos.
110. nostra: = mea.
nocens: partic. of nocere employed as an adj., harmful, guilty.
111. venires: sc. ut, JUSSIVE NOUN CL. instead of the usual inf. with iussi.
112. divellite: divellere, to tear apart.
113. scelerata…morsu: a special sort of interlocking word order known as a GOLDEN LINE, with a vb. at the center, adjs. preceding, and nouns following in an ABCAB arrangement (adj.A, adj.B, vb.C, nounA, nounB).
viscera: n. pl., vitals, entrails, flesh.
morsu: morsus,biting, bite, teeth.
114. quicumque: whatever; the suffix -cumque added to a rel. makes it indef.
habitatis: habitare,to live, dwell.
rupe: rupes,rock, cliff.
115. timidi est: it is (the part) of a cowardly person; PRED. GEN. OF POSSESSION.
necem: nex,murder, violent death.
