2. Student Study Book - Cambridge School Classics Project

44. What is the literal translation of vides? Are Ovid’s listeners actually seeing Troy at the moment? Aiming atnatural English, pick one of the following translations of vides or another of your own choice:(a) You are aware that …(b) You can see the example of …(c) You can picture Troy …(d) In your mind’s eye, remember how Troy …45. Although it took a very long time, what still happened in the end? Which of these translations, in your opinion,makes Ovid’s point most clearly?(a) but it was captured(b) but it was captured(c) but captured it was(d) but it was captured(e) but it was captured all the same.More than one answer is possible, and you may prefer a translation of your own.46. Translate the whole line, concentrating on making Ovid’s point clear: he acknowledges one fact (sero) but saysthat another fact (second capta) matters more.47. Sum up as briefly as possible the advice Ovid is giving in lines 1-10. Can you reduce it to three words? to asingle word?48. Does the argument “Other people have succeeded by persistence: therefore so will you” actually prove thatOvid’s advice is sound? Should Ovid have said “… perhaps so will you”, or does this make his encouragingwords too feeble?49. Complete these proverbs and words of advice, each of which gives similar advice to Ovid’s:If at first …Remember Robert the Bruce and …Constant dr…. (this is very close to one of Ovid’s examples; there are two versions)Can you think of any others?50. In lines 3-10, does Ovid succeed in introducing variety into his list of examples? For instance, how do theexamples in lines 9-10 differ from all the others? Do the examples in 3-4 differ from those in 5-8? If so, how?Does Ovid vary his way of presenting the examples? (Hint: look at the punctuation at the end of each line.)51. Even in Roman times, Ovid was occasionally criticised for “not knowing when to stop”. Would the passage hereactually have more impact, not less, if it had one couplet fewer? (Disregard the fact that one less couplet wouldhave meant less work for you.) If it were felt that the removal of a couplet would improve lines 3-10, which wouldyou axe? Which would you most wish to keep?52* Is Ovid’s advice good? Is his opinion more often right than an opposite view, that “a girl can always make a manleave her alone if she wants to”?53. Do you think young Roman males actually needed advice on this topic? Or is Ovid simply seeking to entertainhis readers and listeners?54* In AD 8 the emperor Augustus, who passed a number of laws intended to improve Roman morals, sent Ovidinto exile in the distant and unappealing town of Tomis, on the Black Sea, for the last six years of his life. Thissevere punishment was partly to punish Ovid for writing the Ars. In your opinion, was the emperor’s reason thathe didn't want his laws to be made fun of, or that he thought the poem was a seriously corrupting influence onRoman behaviour?55. There has been a lot of argument amongst scholars about the women whom the men are chasing in the Ars.(i) Roman girls were married young, sometimes as young as twelve, and were closely supervised beforemarriage, so it is most unlikely that the women mentioned by Ovid were young unmarried girls.(ii) The Ars often refers to the vir of a girl, which suggests that she is married (as Lesbia was, if she is identifiedwith Clodia), in which case Ovid is writing about adulterous love-affairs. At the beginning of the Ars, he saysvery firmly that he is not writing about married women, but he may be saying this in an unsuccessful attemptto protect himself from Augustus’ anger (see question 54).(iii) Another possibility, which is claimed by Ovid himself, is that the women are meretrices, meaning“courtesans”, i.e. very high-class prostitutes, who were normally freedwomen, and often interested andtalented in art, music and literature. They generally lived in fashionable style, on money and gifts presentedto them by each one’s lover(s), and could afford to be choosy about the men they took up with.(iv) A final possibility is that Ovid has no particular group of women in mind. This would be especially likely if theArs was intended purely for entertainment.70 WJEC Level 2 Latin Literature Unit 9541 Love and Marriage