Ovidius, Amores 3.2.1–32: a female spectator at the Roman races is compared to Hippodamia and Atalanta

Ovidius, Amores 3.2.1–32: a female spectator at the Roman races is compared to Hippodamia and Atalanta

43 BCE - 17 CE

Love-elegy

Literary source

I am not sitting here an admirer of the spirited steeds; still I pray that he who is your favourite may win. I have come here to chat with you, and to be seated by you, that the passion which yea cause may not be unknown to you. You are looking at the race, I am looking at you; let us each look at what pleases us, and so let us each feast our eyes. O, happy the driver of the steeds, whoever he is, that is your favourite; it is then his lot to be the object of your care; might such be my lot; with ardent zeal to be borne along would I press over the steeds as they start from the sacred barrier. And now I would give rein; now with my whip would I lash their backs; now with my inside wheel would I graze the turning-place. If you should be seen by me in my course, then I should stop; and the reins, let go, would fall from my hands.

Ah! how nearly was Pelops falling by the lance of him of Pisa, while, Hippodamia, he was gazing on thy face! Still did he prove the conqueror through the favour of his mistress; let us each prove victor through the favour of his charmer. Why do you shrink away in vain? The partition forces us to sit close; the Circus has this advantage in the arrangement of its space. But do you on the right hand, whoever you are, be accommodating to the fair; she is being hurt by the pressure of your side. And you as well, who are looking on behind us; draw in your legs, if you have any decency, and don't press her back with your hard knees. But your mantle, hanging too low, is dragging on the ground; gather it up; or see, I am taking it up in my hands. A disobliging garment you are, who are thus concealing ancles so pretty; and the more you gaze upon them, the more disobliging garment you are. Such were the ancles of the fleet Atalanta, which Milanion longed to touch with his hands. Such are painted the ancles of the swift Diana, when, herself still bolder, she pursues the bold beasts of prey.

Henry T. Riley, Ovid's Heroides, Amours, Art of Love, Remedy of Love, and minor works, London 1919.

Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum;
cui tamen ipsa faves, vincat ut ille, precor.
ut loquerer tecum veni, tecumque sederem,
ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor.
tu cursus spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque
quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos.
O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum!
ergo illi curae contigit esse tuae?
hoc mihi contingat, sacro de carcere missis
insistam forti mente vehendus equis,
et modo lora dabo, modo verbere terga notabo,
nunc stringam metas interiore rota.
si mihi currenti fueris conspecta, morabor,
deque meis manibus lora remissa fluent.
at quam paene Pelops Pisaea concidit hasta,
dum spectat vultus, Hippodamia, tuos!
nempe favore suae vicit tamen ille puellae.
vincamus dominae quisque favore suae!
Quid frustra refugis? cogit nos linea iungi.
haec in lege loci commoda circus habet —
tu tamen a dextra, quicumque es, parce puellae;
contactu lateris laeditur ista tui.
tu quoque, qui spectas post nos, tua contrahe crura,
si pudor est, rigido nec preme terga genu!
Sed nimium demissa iacent tibi pallia terra.
collige — vel digitis en ego tollo meis!
invida vestis eras, quae tam bona crura tegebas;
quoque magis spectes — invida vestis eras!
talia Milanion Atalantes crura fugacis
optavit manibus sustinuisse suis.
talia pinguntur succinctae crura Dianae
cum sequitur fortes, fortior ipsa, feras.

Grant Showerman (ed.), Ovid, Heroides and Amores (= Loeb Classical Library; 41), London 1914.