ovid baucis et philemon lines 12-25 translation and style

ergo ubi parvos tetigere penates

summissoque humiles intrarunt vertice postes,

Therefore, when the heaven-dwellers arrived at the small household and entered the lowly doorposts with lowered head,

membra senex posito iussit relevare sedili,

cui superiniecit textum rude sedula Baucis

the old man ordered them to relax their limbs on a couch which had been set out for them, over which the busy Baucis placed a rough, woven cloth.

inde foco tepidum cinerem dimovit et ignes

suscitat hesternoes foliisque et cortice sicco

nutrit et ad flammas anima producit anili,

Then she separated the warm ash in the hearth and rouses yesterday’s fires, feeds them with leaves and dry bark, brings forth flames with the breath of an old woman

multifidasque faces ramaliaque arida tecto

detulit et minuit parvoque admovit aeno,

and brought down torches split into many pieces and dry sticks from the roof, made them smaller and applied them to a small bronze pot;

quodque suus coniunx riguo collegerat horto

truncat holus foliis;

and she strips a cabbage of its leaves, which her husband had gathered from the well-watered garden;

furca levat ille bicorni

sordida terga suis nigro pendentia tigno

with a two pronged fork he lifts the sooty back of a pig which was hanging on a black beam,

servatoque diu resecat de tergore partem

exiguam sectamque domat ferventibus undis.

cuts off a thin slice from the long-preserved back and having cut it up, softens it in the boiling waters.

‘caelicolae (parvos)’ line 12

‘heaven-dwellers…small’ - caelicolae is a grand compound adjective, juxtaposing ‘small’ emphasises the ludicrous picture of gods going into a small house - more vivid

‘parvos…penates’ line 12

‘small…household’ - plosive alliteration creates almost derogatory sense and emphasises contrast, original meaning of ‘household gods’ - contrast with heaven-dwellers - power of mercury and jupiter

‘parvos….parvo’ - line 12/20

‘small’ - polyptoton emphasises how small the house was

‘summissoque humiles…vertice postes’ line 13

‘lowly doorposts with lowered head’ balanced arrangement - (a1a2n1n2) - emphasises small size of house/doors and thus how big and grand the Gods are

‘humiles…postes’ line 13

‘lowly doorposts’ - internal rhyme of ‘es’ links the two together and shows how low the doors were

line 13

spondaic line - emphasises the grandeur and size of the gods

‘posito iussit relevare sedili’ line 14

‘ordered them to relax (their limbs- earlier) on a couch which had been set out for them’ - enclosing word order - visual of gods being enclosed by the sofa - sitting on it

‘textum rude sedula Baucis’ line 15

‘the busy Baucis (placed) a rough, woven cloth’ - chiasmus (AnBaAB) - draws attention to Baucis and the cloth and their characteristics - stresses effort of busy Baucis even though she hasn’t much to work with

‘tepidum cinerem dimovit’ line 16

‘she separated the warm ash’ - alliteration of ‘m’ creates a sad sound - sympathy for Baucis working hard in her old age

‘ignes…flammas’ lines 16/18

‘fires…flames’ - variatio emphasising her hard work on the fire

‘suscitat hesternos’ line 17

‘she roused yesterday’s’ - sibilance of s sounds like the hissing of the flames - more vivid

‘suscitat/nutrit/detulit/truncat’ lines 17,18,20,22

‘she roused/feeds/brought down/she strips’ - verbs enjambed as 1st word - places emphasis on Baucis’s activity, creates suspense and sense of motion from one line to the next

‘sicco…arida’ lines 17/19

‘dry’ - variatio - care in setting fire, also description of firewood - gathered from different sources - making the most of what they have

‘ad flammas anima producit anili’

‘brings forth the flames with the breath of an old woman’ - assonance of a emphasises Baucis’s feeble breath - effort to set a fire

‘minuit parvo’ line 20

‘made smaller’ ’small’ - juxtaposition emphasises the small scale Baucis is working on - emphasises poverty but trying nonetheless

‘suus’ line 21

‘her (husband)’ - not needed - emphasises their closeness

‘riguo’ ‘collegerat’ ‘levat’ line 21/2

‘well watered’ ‘had gathered’ ‘he lifts’ - these verbs all show Philemon’s part - domestic harmony between the two - enclosed within Baucis’s efforts - she leads - togetherness

‘sordida terga suis’ line 23

‘the sooty back of a pig’ - sibilance of s emphasises how the pig meat itself is dirty

‘sordida…nigro’ line 23

‘sooty’ ‘black’ - emphatic position of these words at the start of half of the line stresses the smoky darkness of the cottage, pigs back and beams - poor - not idea of where gods should be staying

‘terga…tergore’ line 23/4

‘back’ - polyptoton - vivid mental image of care taken to prepare food

‘diu’ line 24

‘for a long time’ - made to last - emphasises poverty

‘exiguam’ line 25

‘thin’ - emphatic position and enjambement - thin slice shows poverty

‘domat’ line 25

‘soften’ - poetic use - means tames - links with idea of animal - not great quality

‘undis’ line 25

‘water’ - hyperbolic as means waves - perhaps meant to humour how little water there was