Expert: Maria - 11/24/2009

Question
Where in ancient literature was the quote "via invia" originally written? Also, is there an online text of the original that you know of? Thanks for your help!

Answer
Hello,

We read the exact Latin expression  “via invia”  (literally, “impassable way /street”)  in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book 14, line 113, where the Sybil of Cuma refers to Aeneas impending descent to the Underworld to see his father's shade and says that this descent will be  difficult, but  “Est nulla via invia virtuti “ just meaning  “No way is impassable to virtue”.

Also, a similar use of “via invia” appears in in Virgil’s Aeneid, book 3, line 383 , where the soothsayer Helenus, son of Priamus and Hecuba, tells Aeneas that long tracts of seas divide him from Italy: “longa procul longis via dividit invia terris” (literally, “a long impassable /difficult way divides you from distant lands”).

As for the online original texts I’ve mentioned, you can go to the following sites:

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book 14, line 113
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0029%3Aboo...

Virgil’s Aeneid, book 3, line 383
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0055%3Aboo...

Finally, I have to tell you that  VIA ( way, street, road, path) is a feminine noun, nominative case, 1st.declension, while INVIA (impassable, difficult) is the feminine nominative of the masculine adjective INVIUS agreed with VIA.

Best regards,
Maria
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-Virgil (70BC-19BC) a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works : the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the Aeneid.

-Ovid (43 BC –17 AD) was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformations.