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tot . . . potens, ‘rich in my many sons-in-law and sons.’ Cf. 22, XIV. 657, Virg. Aen.VII. 55, Turnus avis atavisque potens. The collocation generis natisque sounds strange in English, but cf. VI. 38, “audiat istas si qua tibi nurus est, si qua est tibi filia, voces”, Cat. LXXII. 3, “dilexi tum te non tantum ut vulgus amicum, sed pater ut gnatos diligit et generos”. (So matresque nurusque occurs III. 529, IV. 9, and nurus is very frequently used by Ovid in the sense of ‘bride,’ as in Her.VIII. 12). The relation between the gener and his wife's parents, especially her father, was at Rome peculiarly intimate, and even sacred, to a degree which was not true of the marriage tie itself. Indeed sentiment was largely transferred from the one relationship to the other. This comes out in many ways, as in the horror with which strife between those thus allied was regarded (cf. XIV. 801, Fast.III. 202, “tum primum generis attulit arma socer”), and in the praise bestowed on fidelity to this relationship. Thus in the description of the iron age, I. 144: “vivitur ex rapto; non hospes ab hospite tutus, non socer a genero; fratrum quoque gratia rara est”. So Tacitus ( Hist.I. iii. 1) recites among the redeeming features of the age: “comitatae profugos liberos matres, secutae maritos in exsilia coniuges; propinqui audentes, constantes generi”.
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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