Hello everyone, I am having problems translating the bolded portion of the sentence below:
Interea Minos Lelegeia litora vastat
praetemptatque sui vires Mavortis in urbe
Alcathoi, quam Nisus habet, cui splendidus ostro
inter honoratos medioque in vertice canos
crinis inhaerebat, magni fiducia regni.
(Ovid Metamorphoses, Book 8, Lines 6-10).
My specific problem is figuring what agrees each other. In this instance, I think that the subject of inhaerebat is "splendidus ostro...crinis", and inhaerebat takes the dative "cui", so that the sentence reads:
"which Nisus reigns, and to whom adheres a lock, splendid with purple color, among the honored white hairs and in the middle of his head."
However, I have read else that cui is a possessive dative, and if true, sounds a lot better, I think, but I do not understand how this grammar would work.
Does inhaerebat take "cui" as a dative, or is "cui" just a possessive dative? In other words, which translation is the right one:
1. "whose lock, splendid with purple, clung amongst the honored white hairs and in the middle of his head"
2. "to whom(Nisus) a lock, splendid with purple, clung, amongst the honored white hairs and in the middle of his head"
The second alternative doesn't sound particularly right, especially since if it were right, I'd have to say that the lock of purple hair clung to Nisus, which doesn't make a lot of sense, as opposed to the lock of purple hair being Nisus' (possessive dative).
Cheers for the help, really appreciate it guys
