Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Ohe, Iam Satis Est!
Horace, Satires 1.5.12-13 (tr. Emily Gowers):
I find it a useful expression these days, when so many things disgust me. To translate Donatus (quoted above by Moreno Soldevila), "Ohe is an interjection signifying surfeit to the point of disgust."
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Whoa, that's quite enough!Martial, 4.89.1 (tr. Rosario Moreno Soldevila):
ohe,
iam satis est!
Whoa, that's enough, whoa...Moreno Soldevila ad loc.:
ohe, iam satis est, ohe...
cf. Hor. S. 1.5.12–13. The interjection ohe (Gr. ὠή or ὠῆ) roughly means 'stop it' (OLD s.v. 1a), although it can simply imply impatience or tiresomeness (OLD s.v. 1b): cf. Don. ad Ter. Ph. 377 ohe interiectio est satietatem usque ad fastidium designans. It belongs to oral language; it is, therefore, highly common in comedy: Pl. As. 384; Bac. 1065; Ter. Ph. 418; 1001; cf. Pers. 1.23. It is normally reinforced by the adverb iam (Ter. Ad. 723; 769 [cf. Hau. 879]; Hor. S. 2.5.96), or even by iam satis (Pl. Cas. 248; St. 734). For its prosody, see TLL s.v. 536.36–43 (W.). Both here and in line 9, the first ohe has two long vowels, whereas the second has a short /o/ (cf. 1.31.1, for the different prosody of tibi: tĭbī and tĭbĭ). Martial further uses iam satis est in 7.51.14 et cum 'Iam satis est' dixeris, ille leget (Galán ad loc.); 9.6.4; cf. Pl. As. 329 iam satis est mihi; Hor. S. 1.1.120 iam satis est; Ep. 1.7.16; [Quint.] Decl. 6.7.The sentence is in A. Otto, Die Sprichwörter und sprichwörtlichen Redensarten der Römer (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1890), p. 309 (#1591), but not in Renzo Tosi, Dictionnaire des sentences latines et grecques, tr. Rebecca Lenoir (Grenoble: Jérôme Millon, 2010).
I find it a useful expression these days, when so many things disgust me. To translate Donatus (quoted above by Moreno Soldevila), "Ohe is an interjection signifying surfeit to the point of disgust."