Ovid, Heroides 7.53-68
tū quoque cum ventīs utinam mūtābilis essēs!
et, nisi dūritiā rōbora vincis, eris.
quid, quasi nescīrēs īnsāna quid aequora possint,
expertae totiēns tam male crēdis aquae?
ut, pelagō suādente viam, retinācula solvās, 55
multa tamen lātus trīstia pontus habet.
nec violāsse fidem temptantibus aequora prōdest;
perfidiae poenās exigit ille locus,
praecipuē cum laesus amor, quia māter Amōrum
nūda Cythēriacīs ēdita fertur aquīs. 60
Perdita nē perdam, timeō, noceamve nocentī,
neu bibat aequoreās naufragus hostis aquās.
vīve, precor! sīc tē melius quam fūnere perdam;
tū potius lētī causa ferēre meī.
finge, age, tē rapidō—nūllum sit in ōmine pondus!— 65
turbine dēprēndī; quid tibi mentis erit?
prōtinus occurrent falsae periūria linguae,
et Phrygiā Dīdō fraude coācta morī;
tū quoque cum ventīs utinam mūtābilis essēs!
et, nisi dūritiā rōbora vincis, eris.
quid, quasi nescīrēs īnsāna quid aequora possint,
expertae totiēns tam male crēdis aquae?
ut, pelagō suādente viam, retinācula solvās, 55
multa tamen lātus trīstia pontus habet.
nec violāsse fidem temptantibus aequora prōdest;
perfidiae poenās exigit ille locus,
praecipuē cum laesus amor, quia māter Amōrum
nūda Cythēriacīs ēdita fertur aquīs. 60
Perdita nē perdam, timeō, noceamve nocentī,
neu bibat aequoreās naufragus hostis aquās.
vīve, precor! sīc tē melius quam fūnere perdam;
tū potius lētī causa ferēre meī.
finge, age, tē rapidō—nūllum sit in ōmine pondus!— 65
turbine dēprēndī; quid tibi mentis erit?
prōtinus occurrent falsae periūria linguae,
et Phrygiā Dīdō fraude coācta morī;
52 eris: the switch to the indicative is surprising and suggests Dido’s erratic state of mind.
vincis: here in the sense of superās, the conquering is metaphorical.
dūritiā: ablative of respect or specification.
53 quid… quid…: question words are often repeated for emphasis (e.g., “why, why are you doing this”); but here the first quid introduces the general question (quid = cur tam male crēdis); the second quid is part of the indirect question, quid īnsāna aequora possint, introduced by quasi nescīrēs.
quasi nescīrēs: a Conditional Clauses of Comparison (AG 524), “as if you didn’t know”; the imperfect subjunctive because of sequence of tenses.
possint: understand facere.
55 ut…solvās: another concessive ut-clause.
pelagō suādente viam: ablative absolute with the participle taking a direct object.
57 prōdest: when 3rd singular commonly has an infinitive as a subject and a dative of interest: “violāsse fidem does not profit temptantibus”; temptantibus is a substantive (“those trying / testing…”) but because it is an active participle it can still take a direct object (aequora).
58 poenās exigit: a common idiom in later Latin, “demands punishment for” + genitive (of charge, AG 352).
59 praecipuē: the adverb modifies the preceding clause, “especially when…”.
cum laesus…[fuerit]: the cum must be causal or circumstantial and so infers a subjunctive of “to be”.
amor…Amōrum: note that Ovid’s original audience would have seen these words as AMOR…AMORUM, collapsing distinctions between “love” and the god(s) of Love; both meanings are always in play.
60 fertur: “it is said, so the story goes”, a method of citing folk mythology or previous written versions of a story (the so-called Alexandrian footnote); the description recalls the famous painting of the birth of Venus (māter Amōrum) rising from the sea, Venus Anadyomene, that Augustus placed in the temple of the deified Julius Caesar.
61 nē perdam…timeō: a fear clause; remember that negative fear clauses (nē perdam) reveal what the subject fears.
noceam-ve: another fear clause introduced by timeō; remember that noceō takes the dative.
62 neu bibat: a third fear clause introduced by timeō; note the tricolon crescens of the three fear clauses.
63-64 Dido constructs a complex hypothetical in which Aeneas lives so as to suffer the infamy of being the cause of Dido’s death.
63 vīve, precor: reverses Dido’s prayer in Aeneid 4.382-7 that Aeneas perish at sea; she has discovered a crueler fate for him.
perdam: likely potential, “in this way I might destroy you”
64 ferēre: 2nd person singular passive of ferō (cf. line 60), “you will be called, said to be.”
tū potius: introduces the last phase of the hypothetical, “you rather”
65 age: with an imperative (finge), age becomes idiomatically adverbial, “come on! keep it up!”, etc.
tē: accusative subject of dēprēndī; how can you know that dēprēndī is the passive infinitive and not the 1st person perfect active?
sit: hortatory or optative subjunctive, “let / may there be no…”
66 quid tibi mentis erit: what would be a good idiomatic rendering of this idea?
67 periūria linguae: since occurrent is intransitive, we know that periūria is the subject and so linguae (falsae) is a limiting genitive; occurrent (i.e., in mente tuā).
