Quod facere ausa mea est non audet scribere
“Quod facere ausa mea est, non audet scribere dextra: ” Medea’s agency and self-perception in Metamorphoses 7 and Heroides 12 Sophia Warnement The College of William and Mary
si possem, sanior essem If I were able [to do it], I would be healthier. (Ovid Met. 7. 18) sed trahit invitam nova vis, aliudque cupido, /mens aliud suadet: video meliora proboque, / deteriora sequor But a strange force drags me unwilling, and desire urges [me] one way, my mind urges me another; I see better things, and I approve of [them], [but] I follow worse things. (Ovid Met. 7. 19 -21)
di meliora velint! quam non ista precanda, / sed facienda mihi Let gods want better things! Though this is not for me to pray about, but for me to do. (Ovid Met. 7. 37 -8) quid tuta times? accingere et omnem / pelle moram Why do you fear secure things? Gird [yourself] and banish all delay… (Ovid Met. 7. 47 -48)
tibi se semper debebit Iason, / te face sollemni iunget sibi perque Pelasgas / servatrix urbes matrum celebrabere turba Jason will always owe himself to you, and he will join you to him [accompanied] by a solemn torch and through the Pelasgian cities you will be celebrated as his savior by a crowd of women. (Ovid Met. 7. 48 -50).
non magna relinquam, / magna sequar… I will not leave great things behind, / I will follow great things. (Ovid Met. 7. 51 -56) quid enim non carmina possunt For what are your spells unable to do? (Ovid Met. 7. 167)
ut culpent alii, tibi me laudare necesse est, / pro quo sum totiens esse coacta nocens As others may blame me, it is necessary for you to praise me, [you] for whom I was compelled to be harmful so many times. (Ovid Her. 12. 131 -2) dos mea tu sospes, dos est mea Graia iuventus. i nunc, Sisyphias, inprobe, confer opes My dowry is your security, my dowry is Greece’s youth. Go, now, wicked one, compare that to Corinthian riches. (Ovid Her. 12. 203 -4)
deficit hoc uno littera nostra loco: / quod facere ausa mea est, non audet scribere dextra My words are lacking in this one place: that which it dared to do, my right hand does not dare to write. (Ovid Her. 12. 114 -5)
Bibliography Davis, P. J. “‘A Simple Girl’? Medea in Ovid Heroides 12. ” Ramus 41, no. 1 -2 (2012): 33– 48. Gildenhard, Ingo and Zissos, Andrew. “The transformations of Ovid’s Medea (Metamorphoses VII. 1 -424). ” In Transformative change in western thought: a history of metamorphosis from Homer to Hollywood, Edited by Gildenhard, Ingo and Zissos, Paul Andrew. , 88 -130. London: Legenda, 2013. Jacobson, Howard. "Heroides 12: Medea. " In Ovid's Heroidos, 109 -23. Princeton University Press, 1974. Newlands, Carole Elizabeth. “The metamorphosis of Ovid's Medea. ” In Medea: essays on Medea in myth, literature, philosophy, and art, Edited by Clauss, James J. and Johnson, Sarah Iles. , 178 -208. Princeton (N. J. ): Princeton University Pr. , 1997. Nugent, S. Georgia. “Passion and progress in Ovid's « Metamorphoses » . ” In Passions and moral progress in Greco-Roman thought, Edited by Fitzgerald, John T. Routledge classical monographs, 153 -174. London; New York: Routledge, 2008. Ovid. Heroides. Translated by Grant Showerman. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 41. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Volume I: Books 1 -8. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library 42. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916. Rosner-Siegel, J. A. “Amor, metamorphosis, and magic. Ovid's Medea (Met. 7. 1 -424). ” The Classical Journal LXXVII (1982): 231 -243. Williams, Gareth D. “Medea in Metamorphoses 7: magic, moreness and the « maius opus » . ” Ramus 41, no. 1 -2 (2012): 49 -70.
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