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praepetibus subitis, ‘birds of miracle.’ Cf. XIV. 508. Ovid uses the word very frequently thus of the sudden creation or metamorphosis of living beings; thus it is used of Lampetie turned to a tree, II. 349, “conata venire candida Lampetie subita radice retenta est”, of the ‘dragon warriors from Cadmean teeth,’ III. 123, “subiti fratres” (so Her.XII. 98), of drowning sailors transformed to dolphins, ib. 723, “subitos pisces Tyrrhenaque monstra”, of Cycnus transformed in mid-air to a swan Her., VII. 372, “subitus olor”, of the fall of Daedalion stayed “subitis alis” (xi. 341, and with Alcyone, Ibis, 276, “cui sunt subitae frater et uxor aves”), and of Tereus and Philomela, Trist. ii. 389, “fecit amor subitas volucres cum pellice regem”. So it is used of ‘hasty’ work sent as an instalment, Ibis, 639, “haec tibi tantisper subito sint missa libello”. Cf. Milton, P.l. VIII. 354, ‘with such knowledge God indued my sudden apprehension,’ and the use of novus, 406 n., XIV. 499.
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.
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