Penelope to Odysseus, part 3 (Ovid, Heroides 1.75-116)

http://blogs.dickinson.edu/latin-poetry-podcast/files/2020/06/Ovid-Heroides-1-podcast-3.mp3 This is the third and last episode on Heroides 1. If you love Ovid’s Heroides, consider joining Chun Liu (Professor of Comparative Literature at Peking University) and me at the Dickinson Summer Latin Workshop (online this year), July 15-20, 2020. http://blogs.dickinson.edu/dcc/2019/11/06/dickinson-summer-latin-workshop-ovid-heroides/
Penelope imagines that Odysseus, who has the same desires as most men, might have taken up with another woman and is now describing Penelope to this other woman in unflattering terms.
haec ego dum stult? metu?, quae vestra lib?d? est,                            75
esse peregr?n? captus am?re potes.
forsitan et n?rr?s, quam sit tibi r?stica coni?nx,
quae tantum l?n?s n?n sinat esse rud?s.
fallar, et hoc cr?men tenu?s v?n?scat in aur?s,
n?ve, revertend? l?ber, abesse vel?s!                                                             80
M? pater ?carius vidu? disc?dere lect?
c?git et imm?ns?s increpat usque mor?s.
increpet usque licet—tua sum, tua d?car oportet;
P?nelope coni?nx semper Ulixis er?.
ille tamen piet?te me? precibusque pud?c?s                                                85
frangitur et v?r?s temperat ipse su?s.
 
Only now does she get around to mentioning the suitors, whose dining and carrying in the home of Odysseus is the major cause of the crisis in the Odyssey. 
D?lichi? Sami?que et qu?s tulit alta Zacynth?s,
turba ruunt in m? luxuri?sa proc?,
inque tu? r?gnant n?ll?s prohibentibus aul?;
v?scera nostra, tuae d?lacerantur op?s.                                                90
quid tibi P?sandrum Polybumque Medontaque d?rum
Eurymach?que avid?s Antino?que man?s
atque ali?s referam, qu?s omn?s turpiter abs?ns
ipse tu? part?s sanguine r?bus ?lis?
?rus eg?ns pecorisque Melanthius ?ctor[1] edend?                                95
ultimus acc?dunt in tua damna pudor.
 
The letter ends with anxiety: first that Odysseus’ loyal family and servants are unequal to the task of fending off the suitors, and then, at the very last line as a surprise, worry that she is growing old in his absence. 
Tr?s sumus inbell?s numer?, sine v?ribus uxor
L?ert?sque senex T?lemachusque puer.
ille per ?nsidi?s paene est mihi n?per ad?mptus,
dum parat inv?t?s omnibus ?re Pylon.                                                       100
d?, precor, hoc iubeant, ut euntibus ?rdine f?t?s
ille me?s ocul?s conprimat, ille tu?s!
h?c[2] faciunt c?st?sque boum longaevaque n?tr?x,
tertius inmundae c?ra fid?lis harae;
sed neque L?ert?s, ut qu? sit in?tilis arm?s,                                              105
hostibus in medi?s r?gna ten?re valet[3]—
T?lemach? veniet, v?vat modo, fortior aet?s;
nunc erat auxili?s illa tuenda patris—
nec mihi sunt v?r?s inim?c?s pellere t?ct?s.
t? citius veni?s, portus et ara tu?s!                                                       110
est tibi sitque, precor, n?tus, qu? mollibus ann?s
in patri?s art?s ?rudiendus erat.
respice L?ert?n; ut t? sua l?mina cond?s,
extr?mum f?t? sustinet ille diem.
Cert? ego, quae fueram t? disc?dente puella,                                            115
pr?tinus ut veni?s, facta vid?bor anus.
 
[1] actor G? edd.: auctor E?
[2] hac Tyrrel Knox Loeb: haec Eg?: hoc ?
[3] valet E? Plan. Knox: potest G? Loeb