Ovid — Paris to Helen

Notes
This poem pretends to be a letter written by Paris to Helen, in which he tries to persuade her to elope with him. Here he recounts the epiphany he experienced.
Meter: elegiac couplets
53 nemorōsus, -a, -um = “well wooded” Īda (gen. Īdae) is the mountain near Troy54 dēvius = “out of the way, untrodden, unfrequented” picea, -ae f. = “pine” īlex, īlicis, f. = “oak” frequēns = “crowded”55 quī = “which”, referring to the locus carpitur (passive voice) = “is grazed” nec ovis … nec capellae … : the genitives depend on ōre understood: “by the mouths of …” capella, -ae, f.: “kid”, a young goat amantis saxa adjective phrase with capella = “fond of rocks”, i.e, rock-climbing56 patulus, -a, -um = “broad, wide”, with ōre bovis < bōs57 Dardania, -ae = “Dardania”, i.e., Troy, so called for Dardanus, ancestor of the Trojan kings58 prōspiciēns = “looking out upon” freta refers to the narrows of the Dardanelles arbore nixus eram = “I had reclined upon a tree”59 vīsa est = “seemed” mōvērī = “to be moved, shaken” pulsū (abl.) = “by the beat”; pedum, gen. pl. of pēs60 vēra loquar = “I shall speak true things” vix habitūra fidem vērī = “hardly likely to have the trustworthiness of truth”61 cōnstitit from cōnsisto: “stood” actus = “compelled, driven”, nominative with the subject of constitit62 Atlās, Atlantis = “Atlas” Plēionēs is a Greek genitive: “of Pleionē”; the grandson of Atlas and Pleione is Mercury63 fas fuit = “it was permitted”; vīdisse = “to have seen” fas sit = “May it be permitted …!”; vīsa referre = “to relate the things seen”65 dīva, -ae = dea, -ae: “goddess” Pallās, Palladis = “Pallas”, a title of Minerva 66 imposuēre = imposuērunt from impōnō67 obstipuī = “I was dumbfounded/amazed” gelidus, -a, -um = “chilly, cold” ērexerat (pluperf.) = “had raised up”68 cum … ait = “when the … said” ‘pōne metum’ = “lay aside your fear”69 siste (imperative) = “settle”70 quae digna sit = “which is worthy … ” formā vincere is literally to defeat them in her beauty, i.e. to surpass them …71 nēve recūsārem = “And lest I refuse” imperat (understand mihi): “he orders (me)”; verbīs Iovis – “with the …”72 sē tollit i.e., he rose up aetherius, -a, -um = “heavenly”

Balen van Hendrick, The Judgment of Paris