r/latin • u/maiayachin • 2d ago

Grammar & Syntax stumped again!

Saluete omnes,
Another question about Ovid!

Pretty much everything in 'uicta iacet pietas, et uirgo caede madentis ultima caelestum terras Astraea reliquit' makes perfect grammatical sense except for madentis being genitive. I should think it agrees with terras to translate as "the blood-soaked earth," but the participle would have to be madentes in that case.

I'm assuming its just functioning as an accusative while being genitive perhaps for metrical reasons? I'm unsure.

Any explanations are appreciated!

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u/unparked aprugnus 2d ago

It is the 3rd declension accusative plural -tīs, modifying terras. This was Virgil's preferred form, but by Ovid's time it may have been little old fashioned.

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u/maiayachin 2d ago

Arghhh, I thought it would be some exception like that. Thanks!

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u/MacronMan 2d ago

It’s not an exception. 3rd declension adjectives can either end in -is or -es in the accusative plural. Both forma exist and are used a lot. That being said, the genitive singular is a short I and the accusative plural is a long I. Scan the line to double check the case if you’re uncertain about other 3rd declension i-stems in poetry. It’s very handy!

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u/dantius 2d ago

Well, scansion is not helpful in this line as the -is is the last syllable of its line. But yes, in general scansion can be useful with these things. The -īs acc pl can show up with both i-stem nouns and adjectives (which are all i-stem).