Ars Amatoria

Ovid

Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John; Congreve, William; translators. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.

  1. Thus far the sportful muse, with myrtle bound,
  2. Has sung where lovely lasses may be found,
  3. Now let me sing, how she who wounds your mind,
  4. With art, may be to cure your wounds inclined.[*](The celestial Venus is more charming than the terrestrial, and divine love soon extinguishes carnal, which burns with an obscure fire: whereas the divine enlightens those that it warms with holy desires; it leaves no string behind it and never has an end.)
  5. Young nobles, to my laws attention lend,
  6. And all you vulgar of my school attend.
  7. First then believe, all women may be won;
  8. Attempt with confidence, the work is done.
  9. The grasshopper shall first forbear to sing
  10. In summer season, or the birds in spring;
  11. Than women can resist your flatt'ring skill;
  12. E'en she will yield who swears she never will.
  13. To secret pleasures both the sexes move;
  14. But women most, who most dissemble, love;
  15. 'Twere best for us, if they would first declare;
  16. Avow their passion, and submit to prayer.
  17. The cow by looing tells the bull her flame;
  18. The neighing mare invites her stallion to the game.
  19. Man is more temp'rate in his lust than they;
  20. And more than woman can his passion sway.
  21. Biblis, we know, did first her love declare,
  22. And had recourse to death in her despair.
  23. Her brother she, her father Myrrha sought;[*](Myrrha's love of her father Cinyras is not a fable. At least Pliny relates this adventure as a memorable story, and says Cinyras lived two hundred and ten years, and that his daughter took her mother's place, while she was busied about the sacrifices to Ceres. But that her father discovering her insolence, ran after her a long time with a sword in his hand. The fable adds, she got away by favour of the night, and fled to the Sabeans, where she was changed into a tree, which bears her name. See the 10th book of the Metamorphoses.)
  24. And lov'd; but lov'd not as a daughter ought.
  25. Now from a tree she stills her od'rous tears;
  26. Which yet the name of her who shed 'em bear.
  27. In Ida's shady vale a bull appeared,[*](Pasiphae, daughter of the sun, and wife to Minos king of Crete, is fabled to be enamoured of a bull: and Daedalus, the famous mechanic, assisted her to enjoy her detestable desires, by making a machine like a cow; within which she was caressed by her gallant. From this intrigue the Minotaur was born, half man and half bull, who was enclosed in a labyrinth, and by the assistance of Ariadne killed by Theseus.)
  28. White as the snow, the fairest of the herd;
  29. A beauty spot of black there only rose,
  30. Betwixt his equal horns and ample brows;
  31. The love and wish of all the Cretan cows.
  32. The queen beheld him as his head he rear'd;
  33. And envied ev'ry leap he gave the herd.
  34. A secret fire she nourished in her breast;
  35. And hated ev'ry heifer he caress'd.
  36. A story known, and known for true, I tell;
  37. Nor Crete, though lying, can the truth conceal.
  38. She cut him grass (so much can love command)
  39. She strok'd, she fed him with her royal hand;
  40. Was pleas'd in pastures with the herd to roam,
  41. And Minos by the bull was overcome.
  42. Cease, Queen, with gems t'adorn thy beauteous brows,
  43. The monarch of thy heart no jewel knows.
  44. Nor in thy glass compose thy looks and eyes;
  45. Secure from all thy charms thy lover lies:
  46. Yet trust thy mirror, when it tells thee true,
  47. Thou art no heifer to allure his view.
  48. Soon wouldst thou quit thy royal diadem
  49. To thy fair rivals; to be horned like them.
  50. If Minos please, no lover seek to find;
  51. If not, at least seek one of human kind.
  52. The wretched queen the Cretan court forsakes;
  53. In woods and wilds her habitation makes;
  54. She curses ev'ry beauteous cow she sees;
  55. "Ah, why dost thou my lord and master please!
  56. And think'st, ungrateful creature as thou art,
  57. With frisking awkardly to gain his heart."
  58. She said; and straight commands with frowning look,
  59. To put her, undeserving, to the yoke.
  60. Or feigns some holy rites of sacrifice,
  61. And sees her rival's death with joyful eyes;
  62. Then when the bloody priest has done his part,
  63. Pleas'd, in her hand she holds the beating heart;
  64. Nor from a scornful taunt can scarce refrain,
  65. Go, fool, and strive to please my love again"
  66. Now she would be Europa.—Io now;[*](This known fable is told us thus: Jupiter falling in love with Europa daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and taking the shape of a bull, ravished her in the Dictaean cave; and begot Minos and Radamanthus. The fable of Io is this; she is said to be the daughter of Inachus debauched by Jupiter and turned into a cow ; which jealous Juno perceiving, she begged the cow; and commanded Argos, who had a hundred eyes, to watch her; but Mercury killed her keeper by Jupiter's orders. Upon which Juno struck Io with madness, and she flung herself into the sea, which from her was called the Ionian, and swimming to Egypt, was there worshipped by the name of Isis, having first resumed her shape, and married king Osiris.)
  67. (One bare a bull. and one was made a cow.)
  68. Yet she at last her brutal bliss obtain'd,
  69. And in a wooden cow the bull sustained;
  70. Fill'd with his seed, accomplish'd her desire,
  71. Till, by his form, the son betray'd the sire.
  1. If Atreus' wife to incest had not run,[*](Atreus's wife's name was Aeropa. She suffered herself to be debauched by her brother-in-law, Thyestes.)
  2. (But ah, how hard it is to love but one!)
  3. His coursers Phoebus had not driv'n away,
  4. To shun that sight, and interrupt the day.
  5. Thy daughter, Nissus, pull'd thy purple hair;[*](Her name was Scylla, and she betrayed her father, in favour of her gallant, Minos.)
  6. And barking sea-dogs yet her bowels tear.
  7. At sea and land Atrides sav'd his life;
  8. Yet fell a prey to his adult'rous wife.[*](Clytemnestra, and the adulterer Aegistheus, murdered Agamemnon: upon whose death Seneca wrote the tragedy called Agamemnon.)
  9. Who knows not what revenge Medea sought,
  10. When the slain offspring bore the father's fault!
  11. Thus Phoenix did a woman's love bewail;[*](Phoenix the son of Amyntor, enjoyed a woman whom his father loved. His father was so enraged at him, that he imprecated all the miseries he could think of to light upon his son: whose children dying, he withdrew to Peleus, father of Achilles, who committed to him the care of his son's education.)
  12. And thus Hippolytus by Phaedra fell.[*](Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, was pulled to pieces by horses. Our author in his French observations says this fable is admirably well represented in the tragedy of Seneca.)
  13. These crimes revengeful matrons did commit!
  14. Hotter their lust, and sharper is their wit.
  15. Doubt not from them an easy victory;
  16. Scarce of a thousand dames will one deny.
  17. All women are content that men should woo;
  18. She who complains, and she who will not do.
  19. Rest then secure, whate'er thy luck may prove,
  20. Not to be hated for declaring love:
  21. And yet how canst thou miss, since womankind
  22. Is frail and vain; and still to change inclin'd?
  23. Old husbands, and stale gallants, they despise;
  24. And more another's than their own they prize.
  25. A larger crop adorns our neighbour's field,
  26. More milk his kine from swelling udders yield.