dominī mīrantia fōrmam : describing the lūmina. What effect does such a stuttering rhythm have on the line and the passage?ĥ03 lūmina : eyes, as in 420. The line also scans unusually-in order to make the hexameter work, the second vale is scanned short-short (as opposed to the first valē ) and not elided with inquit. Ovid changes the repeated farewell to an echo. 3.79 has a similar structure ( et longum ‘formose, vale, vale,’ inquit, ‘Iolla’ : “and long she said, ‘beautiful Iollas, farewell, farewell’”).
solitam… spectantis in undam : he continues to gaze into the water until the moment of his death (and after!).ĥ01 ‘valē’ ‘vale’ inquit et Ēchō : Ovid is playing off of Vergil here: Ec. Unlike many of Ovid’s metamorphoses, after all, Narcissus does not just transform: he dies. Is Narcissus worthy of the reader’s pity, or is it only Echo who finds him pitiable?Ĥ97 cumque : introduces a temporal cum clause, “when….”Ĥ98 haec quoque reddēbat sonitum plangōris eundem : is it a problem that Echo can echo the sound of beating when only her voice remains to her? What effect does this visual/audio have on Ovid’s narration?Ĥ99 ultima vōx : though vox generally means “voice,” the sense given here is that these are Narcissus’s last words. Quae here is nominative and refers to Echo.Ĥ95 miserābilis puer : this is open to interpretation. 494 quae tamen, ut vīdit… indoluit : take ut as “when,” and tamen with indoluit.