This text is part of:
missum . . . insequitur, ‘with hoarse growls runs snapping after the stones they throw.’ Saxum is perhaps collective, like arbor, 690, where see note. Hecuba's metamorphosis was foretold by Polymestor ( Eur. Hec.1265): “κύων γενήσει πύρσ᾽ ἔχουσα δέργματα”. Previously in his agony he called the Trojan women “τὰς μιαιφόνους κύνας”. Hecuba's fate was explained as an appropriate punishment, “propter animi acerbitatem quandam et rabiem” ( Tusc. Disp. III. 26, § 63.) Cf. “Plaut. Men.omnia mala ingerebat quemquam aspexerat: itaque adeo iure coepta appellarist canis.” But this explanation properly belongs to another version of the story given by Dictys Cretensis (v. 16): Hecuba, quo servitium morte solveret, multa ingerere maledicta, imprecarique infausta omina in exercitum: quare motus miles lapidibus obrutam necat. According to a third version she leaped into the sea from the ship of Ulysses, and this forms part of the prophecy of Polymestor ( Eur. Hec.1261-3).
Charles Simmons. Metamorphoseon XIII. xiv. The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII. and XIV. Edited, with introduction, analysis, and notes by Charles Simmons. New York. Macmillan. 1899.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.