Ovid, Heroides 7.33–52

aut, ego quae coepī (neque enim dēdignor), amōrem,

māteriam cūrae praebeat ille meae!

Fallor, et ista mihī falsae iactātur imāgō; 35

mātris ab ingeniō dissidet ille suae.

tē lapis et montēs innātaque rūpibus altīs

rōbora, tē saevae prōgenuēre ferae,

aut mare, quāle vidēs agitārī nunc quoque ventīs,

quā tamen adversīs flūctibus īre parās. 40

quō fugis? obstat hiemps. hiemis mihi grātia prōsit!

adspice, ut ēversās concitet Eurus aquās!

quod tibi mālueram, sine mē dēbēre procellīs;

iūstior est animō ventus et unda tuō. 

Nōn ego sum tantī—quid nōn cēnsēris inīquē?— 45

ut pereās, dum mē per freta longa fugis.

exercēs pretiōsa odia et cōnstantia magnō,

sī, dum mē careās, est tibi vīle morī.

iam ventī pōnent, strātāque aequāliter undā 

caeruleīs Trītōn per mare curret equīs.50

33 coepī (amāre); amōrem: understand praebeam (optative subjunctive, carried over from the second line of the couplet).

34 materiam: often appears in Ovid with the sense of (literary) plot or theme; we are reminded throughout the letter that Dido is not just a grieving lover but an elegiac poet who is immortalizing her love in verse (like Ovid!)

35 Fallor…mihī falsae: note the polyptoton (the appearance of a word in multiple forms).

falsae: dative with mihi, “to me having been deceived.”

36 ingeniō: here in the sense of “character” or “disposition”; Dido claims Aeneas is nothing like his mother.

37-74. Dido again addresses Aeneas directly to beg him to postpone his departure from Carthage, expanding Vergil’s brief description of her bewilderment in Aeneid 4.309-11.

37-38 Dido paraphrases her rejection of Aeneas’ divine parentage  in Aeneid 4.365-7. 

38 prōgenuēre: syncopated perfect = prōgenuērunt; a rare word in Augustan poetry.

39-44 A digression about the dangers of traveling by sea.

40 quā (viā): “by which way”, a common idiom in Ovid.

adversīs flūctibus: ablative absolute.

41 quō: the verb of motion, fugis, confirms that quō is the interrogative adverb, “to where, whither” and not a relative pronoun.

42 ut ēversās concitet Eurus aquās: the entire (jussive noun clause) is the object of aspice.

43 mālueram: the subjunctive would be expected (“what I had wished (would be owed, debēre) to you”) but this and related expressions in the pluperfect (e.g., melius fecerat) are common in hypotheticals; as common, the relative clause appears first and its antecedent in the main clause (id) is inferred.

sine mē dēbēre [id] procellīs: since dēbēre requires a verb to control it, sine must be the imperative of sinō (“allow…!”) and not the preposition; and so mē is not an ablative object but the accusative subject of dēbēre.

44 animō…tuō: ablative of comparison with iūstior.

44 tantī: genitive of value, “I am not worth so much”; introducing a result clause in the next line, ut pereās.

quid nōn cēnsēris inīquē: an ironic question.

47 exercēs: “you are practicing” in the sense of “cultivating”.

constantia: since it cannot be the subject of exercēs, it must be neuter plural (modifying odia).

magnō: ablative of price, “by a lot, extravagantly”.

48 sī…est tibi vīle morī: understand morī as the subject, making vīle the predicate nominative.

dum mē careās: “lack” in the sense of “be rid of, free from”; ***a proviso clause?***

49 pōnent: English uses a different metaphor, “die down”; note the tense of the verb and remember that iam intensifies time (i.e., it doesn’t always translate as “now”!).

strātāque aequāliter undā: ablative absolute.

50 utinam mūtābilis essēs: an optative subjunctive (cued by utinam, AG 442).