Thursday, August 2, 2012

Words interspersed with kisses


In Metamorphoses 10, Orpheus sets the enframed tale of Atalanta and Hippomenes as told by Venus to Adonis:
                                                         "...ecce,
opportuna sua blanditur populus umbra,
datque torum caespes: libet hac requiescere tecum"
(et requievit) "humo" pressitque et gramen et ipsum
inque sinu iuvenis posita cervice reclinis
sic ait ac mediis interserit oscula verbis:  (Meta. 10.554ff)

"...look, a poplar tree entices us with its welcome shade, and the turf yields a bed. I should like to rest here on the ground,” (and she rested) “with you.” She hugged the grass, and him, and leaning her head against the breast of the reclining youth, she spoke these words, interspersing them with kisses: (Kline)
Poussin obviously read his Ovid with care:

Venus and Adonis



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