Ovid Met. III:188

[Callaina]

Hi guys Popping back in with a quick question from my Ovid seminar (yes, I'm back in the world of Latin this term -- seminars in Ovid and Augustine!)

I'm wondering 1) how you take the ut in line 188 here (I'm thinking concessively makes the most sense) and 2) why habuisse is in perfect infinitive.

quae [i.e. Diana], quamquam comitum turba est stipata suarum,
in latus obliquum tamen adstitit oraque retro
flexit et, ut vellet promptas habuisse sagittas,
quas habuit sic hausit aquas vultumque virilem
perfudit...

"Who, though thronged about by the crowd of her companions, yet stood sideways and turned her face backwards and, though she wished she had arrows at hand, she scooped up the waters which she had and drenched the male face..."?

 

[Pacifica]

Hi!

1) I think you're right about ut.

2) The perfect infinitive is sometimes used with little difference in meaning from a present one, but, I think, in imitation of what is done with the Greek aorist participle. This happens most often in poetry, arguably metri gratia. In this particular case, though, I guess it's even possible to translate it as "though she wished she had had arrows at hand".

 

[Callaina]

Great! Thanks!

 

[Dantius]

Hi guys Popping back in with a quick question from my Ovid seminar (yes, I'm back in the world of Latin this term -- seminars in Ovid and Augustine!)

How are you liking them? I've never read much of Augustine, but I really enjoy Ovid.

 

[AoM]

The old translation on Perseus renders ut as 'how'. Viable?

 

[Dantius]

The old translation on Perseus renders ut as 'how'. Viable?

How (no pun intended) do they fit it into the rest of the sentence with that translation?

 

[AoM]

He seemed to take it as a sort of interjection.

 

[Dantius]

I think it could work, but I like "although" better.