Ovid – Marsyas

Metamorphoses 6.387-400

clāmantī cutis est summōs dīrepta per artūs,

nec quicquam nisi vulnus erat; cruor undique mānat,

dētectīque patent nervī, trepidaeque sine ullā

pelle micant vēnae; salientia viscera possēs 390

et perlūcentēs numerāre in pectore fibrās.

illum rūricolae, silvārum nūmina, faunī

et satyrī frātrēs et tunc quoque cārus Olympus

et nymphae flērunt, et quisquis montibus illīs

lānigerōsque gregēs armentaque būcera pāvit. 395

fertilis inmaduit madefactaque Terra cadūcās

concēpit lacrimās ac vēnīs perbibit īmīs;

quās ubi fēcit aquam, vacuās ēmīsit in aurās.

inde petēns rapidum rīpīs dēclīvibus aequor

Marsya nōmen habet, Phrygiae liquidissimus amnis. 400

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Notes
Meter: dactylic hexameters
387 clāmantī (dat., with Marsyae understood) = “shouting”, i.e., from him as he is shouting dīrepta = “torn away”; artūs = “limbs”; summōs with this indicates the whole of his body388 nec quicquam nisi = “and … nothing except”; subject of erat is Marsyas389 dētectī = “uncovered” nervus, -ī, m.: “sinew” trepidus, -a, -um: “quivering, trembling”390 vēna, -ae, f.: “vein” salientia = “jumping”391 perlūcentēs = “glistening” possēs = “you could” fibra, -ae, f.: “fiber, filament”, and hence “entrails” pectore < pectus392 rūricola, -ae: “country dweller”; illum = “him”, with flērunt faunus, ī: “faun”394 flērunt = “wept” quisquis = “anyone; everyone who” montibus illīs is ablative, expressing location “in those mountains”395 lānigerus, -a, -um: “wool-bearing”; find gregēs under grex būcerus, -a, -um: “ox-horned”; pāvit = “has grazed”396 fertilis = “fertile” (with Terra) inmaduit (intransitive) = “has made wet” madefactus, -a, -um: “moistened” cadūcus, -a, -um: “fallen”397 concēpit = “received, took in” perbibit: intensive form of bibit – “drank up”398 quās ubi fēcit aquam = “when she converted them (the tears) into water” ēmīsit = “sent up”300 petēns = “seeking”; the subject is the water rīpīs dēclīvibus (ablative) = “by sloping banks” rapidum with aequor, unless it is to be amended (with W.S. Anderson) to the adverb rapidē, “swiftly”400 Marsya is a variant form of Marsyas; nominative as indeclinable in apposition to nōmen liquidissimus = “most well-watered”

Apollo flaying Marsyas, Luca Giordano

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