wrath of venus

Latin Learning Latin
1

OK, I am still working on Cupid and Psyche. Perhaps its a bit too advanced for me, these long sentences are just killing me, but it is always pleasant when I can finally figure it out. So here is my newest problem, Venus is speaking to Cupid, asking him to avenge his mommy:
“Per ego te” inquit "maternae caritatis foedere deprecor per tuae sagittae dulcia vulnera per flammae istius mellitas uredines vindictam tuae parenti sed plemnam tribue et in pulchritudinem contumacem severiter vindica idque unum et pro omnibus unicum volens effice:
she goes on, but I’ll stop there (unless it is possible for grammer to be affected from beyond the punctuation)

“Per ego te” - i think this can be translated as ‘I beg you’

i am getting lost with all these genetive (or are they dative?) words

maternae caritatis foedere deprecor to avert ‘marring’ of your mother’s affection’, or rather to keep your mother from getting mad at you,

now I’m kind of lost as to what belongs to what, with that first declension all those -ae words can be either plural NOM, or singular GEN or DAT, ‘with sweet wound of your arrows’ (does dulcia belong with vulnera?, could vulnera be a verb, I assume it is in noun form)

urdines - blight ?? is there a better word, that is all my dictionary offered


I was going to go with “sweet (mellitas) revenge (vinditam) for your parent (tuae parenti) of blight through flame/passion of yours (per lammae istius)”

but, mellitas is plural ACC and vindictam is singular so my grammer senses are telling me I’ve goofed

is tribue a form of tribuo? to assign/allow/devote,
does plenam go with vidictam : ‘but assign plenty revenge for your parent’

“and severly punish that defiant beauty”

is volens the present part. of volo - wish, or is it an adj - willing, favorable?

I assume effice is somehow related to efficio-to make,

but I’m pretty lost on the last line et pro omnibus unicum volens effice

2

You have many good questions, but since I’m short on time just now I’ll address the preopsitional phrases beginning with “per”:

“Per ego te”

  • te is the object (accusitive) of per
  • ego is the subject (nominative) of deprecor

“per tuae sagittae dulcia vulnera”

  • dulcia vulnera - neuter pl. accusative object of per
  • tuae sagittae - gen. sing.

“per flammae istius mellitas uredines”

  • mellitas uredines - fem. pl. accusative object of per
  • flammae istius - gen. sing.

From Whitaker’s Words I found “blight/scorching on plants from frost; burning sensation” for “urendines”. The burning idea would connect with “flammae”.

I hope this analysis can help with those segments. The endings with multiple possibilities can be tricky. Try to look for a pattern. Here there is a parallel structure to guide you.

Magistra

3

I’ve not got a lot of time either, but in brief:

effice and tribue are the imperative singular forms of efficio and tribuo, respectively. Thus: see to it…! and assign…! These go along with vindica, another imperative.

Also,

maternae caritatis foedere deprecor to avert ‘marring’ of your mother’s affection’, or rather to keep your mother from getting mad at you,

Rather, “I beg you (deprecor) by the pact (foedere) of maternal affection (maternae caritatis)…”

Glad to see you’re still working with Apuleius!

-David

4

but I’m pretty lost on the last line et pro omnibus unicum volens effice

I think the point of this (and include the _idque unum_in it) is that Venus has done a lot for Cupid in the past, and this one favor will count “for everything” (pro omnibus). I’m not quite sure about the use of volens, which almost has to be the present participle nominative singular of volo.

Here’s a shot:

idque unum et pro omnibus unicum volens effice

Grant my only request after all I’ve done for you by doing me this favor.
volens unicum pro omnibus effice id

More literally,

And this one thing, even for all things one alone, willing, carry out.

-David