clxiv

Theme for the remainder of the month: Alphabet Soup

mentior, mentiri, mentitus sum

Definition: to lie, deceive; to speak falsely

Sententia: Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 5, l.325-329

Huc quoque terrigenam venisse Typhoea narrat

et se mentitis superos celasse figuris;

'duxque gregis' dixit 'fit Iuppiter; unde recurvis

nunc quoque formatus Libys est cum cornibus Ammon.

To this place also she tells that earth-born Typhoeus came and that he hid the gods in figures having been deceived; 'and may the leader of the group be Jupiter, from which also now having been formed is Libyan Ammon [Jupiter's Egyptian counterpoint, Amun-Ra] with horns.

This bit of Ovid describes poetry of the daughters of Pireus, who equal in number to the Muses decided to challenge them. This poetry, which taken as a whole details how the Roman gods flew down to Egypt and turned into animals, was deemed so inflammatory by the Muses that the daughters of Pireus were turned into magpies.

"Mentior" is a more useful word than "leguleius" to be sure, found in Book 2 of the Aeneid and numerous other places. It probably comes from the stem "men," whence "mens," mind, came. "Mentior" originally just meant "to invent," and took its more negative connotation later.