GCSE Latin: Ovid: A good place to find a girl

Latin

sed tu praecipue cirvus venare theatris;
haec loca sunt voto fertiliora turo.
illic invenies quod ames, quod ludere possis,
quodque semel tangas, quodque tenere velis.
ut redit itque frequens longum formica per agmen,
granifero solitum cum vehit ore cibum,
aut ut apes saltus suos et olentia nactae
pascua per flores et thyma summa volant,
sic ruit ad celebres cultissima femina ludos;
copia iudicium saepe morata meum est.
spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae;
ille locus casti damna pudoris habet

English

But you, go hunting especially at the rounded theatres;
These places are even more productive than you could wish for.
There you will find someone for you to love, someone you could string along,
Somone for you to touch once, someone you'd like to hold on to.
As the ant goes back and forth in number in a long column,
While it transports its familiar food in its grain-carrying mouth,
Or as bees, once they've found their own glades and fragrant pastures,
Fly through the flowers and the thyne tips,
So the very wekk-dressed woman rushes to the crowded plays;
Their sheet number has often delayed my choice.
They come to watch, they come that they may themselves be watched;
That place involves the loss of many pure reputation.

Notes on the Poem

This is an extract from a longer poem, Ars amatoria (= The art of loving). Perhaps we assume that Ovid's addressee is male, but in this extract there is nothing gender-specific until femina (l.9) and ipsae (l.11). In the poem overall, however the sense is quite clear.

Instead of "go hunting" (l.1), a modern-day Ovid would surely say "go on the pull". The first word sets most of the poem in the second person, as advice from an older "player" to a younger "buck". Be sure to appreciate the chiastic arrangement - the noun is chiasmus - in ll.3-4. The outer pair of phrases conveys the intention of a steady date; the inner pair that of a one-off flirt.

There are two extended similies in ll.5-9. The percussive sound of ut redit itque (l.5) helps us to imagine the ants repeated, scuttling action. (Although it logically preceeds redit, the metre demands the words be in the order written). The superlative cultissima suggests that the women have dressed up specially for the occasion, looking to be picked up.

In what ways do the similes of the ants and of the bees correspond to the women at the theatre?
Ovid includes his own experience (l.10), retaining control of the narrative following the imagery of ll.5-9. He has himself been spoilt for choice. More chiasmus in l.11. This is hard to reproduce effectively in a translation, and in spectatum what might they have come to watch?

Is it fair to accuse the poet of sexism? Is there any hint in the poem that women were also "on the pull" in that setting? Surely it is unlikely that a female poet of the time could have summoned her Muse on the topic of picking up men. Compare this with 21st century views.

Notes on the Poet

Metre

There are no notes on the Metre of this poem.