by Ovid
Translated by A.S. Kline, © 2003
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Table of Contents:
• Ibis:1-40 Preliminaries at the Altar: The Enemy.
• Ibis:41-104 Preliminaries at the Altar: The Invocation.
• Ibis:105-134 The Litany of Maledictions: The Denial Of Benefits
• Ibis:135-162 The Litany of Maledictions: Vengeance From The Grave
• Ibis:163-208 The Litany of Maledictions: His Enemy After Death.
• Ibis:209-250 The Litany of Maledictions: His Enemy’s Fate
• Ibis:251-310 The Litany of Maledictions: Ancient Torments
• Ibis:311-364 The Litany of Maledictions: Ancient Torments
• Ibis:365-412 The Litany of Maledictions: Ancient Torments
• Ibis:413-464 The Litany of Maledictions: Ancient Torments
• Ibis:465-540 The Litany of Maledictions: Ancient Torments
• Ibis:541-596 The Litany of Maledictions: Ancient Torments
• Ibis:597-644 The Litany of Maledictions: Concluding Words
• Index
Librarian's Comment: Although Wikipedia (2010) states that "no scholarly consensus exists as to whom the poet was directing" this verbal assault, the article identifies Titus Labienus, a renowned advocate of free speech who ended his own life when his works were suppressed, as a possible target. This speculation, like the one that identifies his friend Sabinus as the target of Ovid's wrath, strikes the librarian as off the mark. It seems much more likely that "Ibis" was Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (Octavius/Octavian), who exiled Ovid to Tomis on the Black Sea, since the poem is almost entirely directed against evil kings and their progeny, with curses of exile: "May you be in a place far from Elysian Fields, and be exiled, where the guilty host abide." "Like Hippolytus, Aethra’s grandson, killed by Venus’s anger, may you an exile, be dragged away by your terrified horses." Another clue as to Ibis' great power and influence appears in the verse: "Ibis’s day brought ruin to our people." Examples of death and misfortune to kings and their children follow:
• "And Ixion, beaten, driven by his wheel’s swift circling." [Ixion: King of Lapithae, was bound by Jupiter to a fiery wheel that turns in the underworld.]
• "Nor let your grief be less than Telephus’, who drank from the doe’s teat, and armed received a wound, unarmed help." [Telephus: King of Teuthrantia, was wounded by Achilles’ spear.]
• "Nor see more than Oedipus whom his daughter guided, both her parents being acknowledged sinners." [Oedipus: King of Thebes, unwittingly killed his parents, then blinded himself, was led around by his daughter.]
• "And as that man, Phineus, by whose command a dove of Pallas was sent out to lead the way, and be a guide to the Argo."[Phineus: King of Salmydessus in Thrace, was blinded by the gods and plagued by Harpies for prophesying the future accurately.]
• "Or like Cychreus, who snatched Eurylochus’ crown, let your body be food for ravenous serpents." [Cychreus: King of Salamis, was killed by a serpent.]
• Or like Phoenix, child of Amyntor, the loved will be hated through shameful desire, and the son wounded by the cruel sword.[Amyntor: King of Ormenium, blinded his son Phoenix and cursed him with childlessness after the king's concubine accused him of violating her.]
• "Or like Achilles’ scion, known by a famous name, struck down by a tile hurled from an enemy hand." [Achilles: Son of Peleus, King of Thessaly; Pyrrhus was his son.]
• "May you send those dearest to you to the pyre, an ending to his life that Sardanapalus knew." [Sardanapalus: King of Assyrian Ninevah, set fire to his palace and killed himself after his court was besieged by the Medes.]
• "May your mother be no more chaste than her whom Tydeus would have blushed to have as a daughter-in-law." [Tydeus: King of Calydon, mortally wounded and gnawed on the skull and ate the brains of his opponent, was killed by Athene; his son, Diomedes, loved Helen.]
• "And may the gods grant you have such joy in your wife’s loyalty as Talaus, or Agamemnon." [Talaus: King of Argos;Agamemnon: King of Mycenae, murdered by his wife Clytaemnestra.]
• "If you’ve a daughter, may she be what Pelopea was to Thyestes, Myrrha to her father, Nyctimene to hers. Nor let her be more pious and careful of her father’s life than yours was Pterelaus, or yours Nisus, towards you." [Thyestes: Son of Pelops, feuded with his brother Atreus over the kingship of Mycenae, his brother Atreus and his wife killed his children, cooked them, and served them to him at a banquet; Myrrha: mother of Adonis through incest with her father Cinryas, King of Panchaeia; Nyctimene: daughter of Epopeus, King of Lesbos, unknowingly slept with her father, and was changed by Minerva into an owl; Pterelaus: Son of Poseidon, King of Taphos, his daughter Amphitryon cut off his golden locks and killed him; Nisus: King of Megara, his daughter Scylla cut off his purple lock which betrayed the city.]
• "As Oenomaus who stained that soil more deeply, himself, that was often drenched by the blood of wretched princes." [Oenomaus: King of Pisa, was killed by Myrtilus, his charioteer, in a crash.]
• "Like Antaeus’s brother, Busiris, bound by that blood, who stained the field, and died by his example." [Antaeus: King of Lybia; his brother Busiris, King of Egypt, sacrificed strangers to Jupiter, was killed by Hercules]
• "May you repeat the vile banquet at a Lycaonian table, trying to mislead Jupiter with a deceptive food: and I beg someone to test the power of the god, serve you as Tantalus’s son, or the son of Tereus." [Lycaon: King of Arcadia, presided over cannibalistic practices, and was transformed into a wolf by Zeus; Tantalus: King of Phrygia, served his son Pelops to the gods at a banquet and was punished with eternal thirst in Hades; Tereus: King of Thrace, raped his wife Procne’s sister, cut out her tongue, Procne then served him the flesh of his murdered son and turned him into a bird.]
• "As Aegeus who saw the deceptive sail of Theseus’s ship." [Aegeus: father of Theseus, King of Athens, leapt to his death when Theseus forgot to raise a white sail on his return to Athens.]
• "May the wild boar that killed Lycurgus’s son, and Adonis born of a tree, and brave Idmon, destroy you too." [Lycurgus: King of Edoni of Thrace, opposed Bacchus’ entry into his kingdom so was driven mad, then killed his son Dryas and hewed his own foot with an axe thinking both were vines of Bacchus, torn to pieces with wild horses on the orders of Bacchus; Adonis: son of Myrrha by her father Cinyras, was killed by a wild boar; Idmon: son of Apollo, was killed by a wild boar.]
• "May you be buried in a falling house, like the offspring of Aleus, when Jove’s star befriended a scion of Leoprepeus." [Aleus: King of Tegea.]
• "Or may you give your name to the flowing waters, like Evenus or Tiberinus, drowned in the rushing river." [Evenus: son of Mars, drowned himself in the river Lycormas after his daughter was stolen; Tiberinus, king, drowned in the river Tiber.]
• "Or be torn apart and scattered in the woods by your kin, as Pentheus at Thebes, grandson of the serpent, Cadmus." [Pentheus: King of Thebes, rejected the worship of Bacchus, was torn to pieces by the Bacchantes; Cadmus: Son of the Phoenician King Agenor.]
• "Nor may you be happier than Haemon in your love." [Haemon: King of Thebes, committed suicide when his love Antigone died.]
• "And may that kind of weapon cling to your bones, with which they say Ulysses, the son-in-law of Icarius, was killed." [Ulysses, King of Ithaca, was killed by Telegonus with a spear armed with the spine of a sting-ray.]
• "As a host, Polymestor, killed his foster-child Polydorus, for his great wealth, may a host murder you for your scant riches."[Polymestor: King of Thrace, killed his nephew Polydorus, was blinded and murdered by Polydorus’ mother Hecuba.]
• "May you have no quieter a sleep than Rhesus, and his comrades before him on death’s road." [Rhesus: King of Thrace, was killed by Ulysses and Diomedes in a night raid at Troy.]