Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD
But the red-haired boar is not so fierce in mid-anger.
when he turns and threatens the rabid pack,
or the lioness giving suck to un-weaned cubs,
or the tiny viper crushed by a careless foot,
as a woman when a rival’s caught in her lover’s bed:
she blazes, her face the colour of her heart.
She storms with fire and flame, all restraint forgot,
as if struck, as they say, by the horns of the Boeotian god.
Wronged by her husband, her marriage violated,
savage Medea avenged herself through her children.
Another fatal mother was that swallow, you see there:
look, her breast carries the stain of blood.
Well-founded and firm loves have been dissolved so:
these are crimes to make cautious men afraid.
Not that my censure condemns you to only one girl:
the gods forbid! A wife could hardly expect that.
Indulge, but secretly veil your sins, with restraint:
it’s no glory to you to be seeking out wrongdoing.
Don’t give gifts another girl could spot,
or have set times for your assignations.
And lest a girl catch you out in your favourite haunts
don’t meet all of them in one place.
And always look closely at your wax tablets, whenever you write:
lest much more is read there than you sent.
Wounded, Venus takes up just arms, and hurls her dart,
and makes you lament, as she is lamenting.
While Agamemnon was satisfied with one woman, Clytemnestra
was chaste: evil was done through the man’s fault.
She had heard how Chryses, with sacred head-bands,
and laurel in his hand, failed to win back his daughter:
she had heard of your sorrows, captive Briseis,
and how scandalous delays had prolonged the war.
She heard all this: She saw Cassandra for herself:
the victor the shameful prize of his own prize.
Then she took Thyestes to her heart and bed,
and wrongfully avenged the Atrides’s crime.
Even if the acts, you’ve well hidden, become known,
though they’re known, still always deny them.
Don’t be subdued, or more fond than usual:
those are the signs of many guilty thoughts.
But don’t forgo sex: all peace is in that one thing.
The act it is that disproves a prior union.
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved
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