48: De viro et uxore

Better known as the widow of Ephesus, the story in this fable is more familiar from its appearance in the Satyricon of Petronius. The fable here is told just as the earlier story; a widow is mourning over the body of her husband when she is seen by a soldier who is guarding the body of a thief on a cross. The soldier finds himself captivated by the widow, but while he is pouring out his love to her, the thief ’s body is taken off the cross. The soldier laments that he will surely be sent into exile for this, but the wife strategizes that the body of her husband might substitute for the thief ’s missing body. This tale is used by Petronius, and by countless others, to point out the fickleness of a woman’s love, and this version is no different; the woman is chastised in the moral for oppressing men with fear and pain. Later versions of the fable, beginning with Marie de France, praise the ingenuity of the widow and approve her logic of using her dead husband’s body to prevent the death of another.

Perry 543

amato viro ... amore: “deprives her of beloved husband,” ablative of separation after privat.

viri: “love for her husband”; objective gen.

ungue ... fletibus ... sono: “with her nail ... with tears ... with sound”; ablative of means.

dē sēde: “from the burial place,” or “from the resting place.” LS sedes B 1. DMLBS 6.  

revelli: “refuses to be pulled away”; pres. pass. inf. after nequit.

Grandine seu tenebrīs seu prece sīve minīs: ablatives of means with revellī. Polysyndeton. 

crux punit: “the cross punishes,” i.e., he is condemned to the cross; transferred epithet.

tempore noctis: (= nocte) “at night.”

hunc: direct object of vocat. 

cūra timōris: “the anxiety of fear calls”; nom. subject.

dulcēs monitūs intexit amaro cordi: “weaves advice into her bitter heart”; amaro cordi dat. after intexit.

victa castra: “the conquered fortress of grief,” an example of prolepsis.

furī fūrem: “fearing a thief for the thief,” i.e., that someone would steal the thief ’s body, which in fact happens; dative of disadvantage.

ligat ... ligurit: “he binds ... he tastes,” note the pun.

fūre: “lack the thief”; ablativeafter carent. Note the polyptoton.

hōc questū: “stirs her with this complaint”; ablative of means.

Nōn bene servātō fūre: “because the thief was not well guarded”; ablative absolute with a causal flair.

timōre: ablative of means with premor.

sevandum: “had given him in order to be guarded”; supine acc., expressing purpose.

extorrem: “orders me to be exiled”; acc. pred.

quae spem tibi suscitet: “a trick which would restore your hope”; pres. subj. in a relative clause of characteristic governed by artem. 

implēbit fūris onus: lit., “will fill the thief’s weight,” i.e. will replace the thief’s weight. 

virī, virum, virō: These are all actions she’s doing to the body of her deceased husband. 

virō: “she ties a cord to her husband”; dat. after subligat.

huic ... amori novo: “he yields to her ... she to a new love”; dat. after succumbit.

amore: abl. of specification, “firm with love”

vivosque ... sepultos : “oppresses men living ... and dead”; acc., sc. viros.

metu poenaque: “oppresses with fear and punishment”; ablative of means.

nīl bene fīnit: “ends well not at all,” indeclinable. Adv. with bene finit.