ODE I.

Introductory. 'Why summon me, Venus, to enter again the lists of love? I am verging on fifty and not the man I once was. It would be more seasonable for thee to lead thy revels to the house of Paulus Maximus: he has a hundred qualities which will make him thy worthy champion, and in return for thy favours will dedicate to thee a temple. To me love and gaiety have lost their charms. And yet, even as I write, I find the old emotions retain their sway, I betray every sign of passion.'

Horace professes that he resumes his pen merely to celebrate again the power of love: he thus endeavours to veil his real purpose, which has been already explained.

1. intermissa] The first three books of the Odes cannot have been published later than B.C. 24: in the present book there are continual references to the events of the years B.C. 17-13.

2. bella moves] Thou stirrest up war.' The comparison of a lover to a warrior is very common; cf. Od. 3. 26, and Ov. Am. 1. 9. 1, militat omnis amans, and see also 1. 16.

3. bonae...]'in the days of kindly Cinara's sway.' Forregno cf. Od. 3. 9. 9, me nunc Thressa Chloe regit.

4. dulcium saeva] Note the antithesis, and cf. mollibus... durum immediately afterwards.

6. flectere] Dependent on desine: 'Cease to guide one who (being) close upon the fifties is by now too hard for thy gentle government.' The metaphors are derived from the art of riding: an old hard-mouthed horse is unfit for the light hand of a lady.

As regards the construction of circa lustra decem it should be observed that Latin often suffers from the want of a pres. part. of the verb 'to be'; the Greeks would write in a similar case ὄντα περὶ ἔτη ἤδη πεντήκοντα.

Horace was born Dec. 8. B.c. 65. He uses a similar phrase to describe his age, Od. 2. 4. 24, cujus octavum trepidavit aetas | claudere lustrum.

8. revocant] Venus has left the young men to attack Horace; revocant therefore is simply='call back.'

10. purpureis ales oloribus] 'winged with thy gleaming swans,' i.e. borne through the air in a chariot drawn by them: cf. Od. 3. 28. 15, junctis visit oloribus.

purpureus: The ancient purpura had two characteristics, (1) its deep colour, the colour of clotted blood, (2) its peculiar sheen or brilliancy: the adj. purpureus is frequently used of anything of whatever colour which possesses a similar sheen: cf. Virg. Aen. 1. 590, lumenque juventae purpureum; and Mayor, Juv. 1. 27 n.

11. comissabere] This word represents as nearly as possible in Latin letters the Greek kwμáše. Before the Romans added the letters x, y, and z to the end of their alphabet to represent , v, s, they habitually represented this by ss e.g. in badisso, tarpessita; hence words borrowed at an early period e. g. by Plautus present this spelling, those borrowed later have z, e. g. zona. a has passed into i by assimilation, i having a strong attraction for dental spirants. The word is derived from κuos a procession of revellers' and may therefore take the construction of a verb of motion, as here 'in domum.'

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Paullus Maximus cannot be adequately identified.

12. si torrere...] 'if thou dost seek to fire a congenial heart.' "The fire of love' is a commonplace with all poets, and phrases derived from this metaphor are continually recurring. The ancients placed the seat of the affections in the liver. Ben Jonson's rendering 'If a fit liver thou dost seek to toast' is a curious morsel of 'classical English.'

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14. non tacitus] 'not silent' i. e. very eloquent. instance of the well-known rhetorical figure Litotes, by which a mild and negative form of expression is used instead of a very strong affirmative one. It is very frequent in Thucydides, e.g. oùκ ȧvážios=ažiúraros, and cf. St Paul's famous 'Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.' 1 Cor. xi. 22. Cf. too Od. 1. 24. 17, non levis 'most severe;' 2. 7. 10, non bene; 2. 19. 15, non leni.

15. centum puer artium] The gen. is descriptive. puer= 'a youth.' feret = 'will advance.'

17. et quandoque.....]

'And when he shall with smiles behold

His native charms eclipse his rival's gold.'

Martin. The use of quandoque as=quandocunque seems peculiar to Horace, cf. 2. 34.

19. te ponet marmoream] 'he shall place thy statue in marble,'i.e. in return for the victory gained by thy favour he shall dedicate a temple in thy honour. The practice was common, e.g. Postumius dedicated a temple to Castor and Pollux after the victory of Lake Regillus.

For ponet marmoream cf. Sat. 2. 3. 183 aeneus ut stes, and cf. 8. 8.

Albanos prope lacus] probably mentioned because Paullus had a villa near them.

20. trabe]='a beam' i. e. 'a roof.' Cf. Od. 3. 2. 28, sub trabibus isdem 'beneath the same roof-tree.'

21. naribus duces] 'thou shalt inhale.'

22. Berecyntiae] Berecyntus was a mountain where Cybele was worshipped: the pipe with its shrill and exciting notes was a favourite instrument in Asia Minor, and was especially used in the orgiastic rites of Cybele.

There can be no doubt that lyrae and tibiae are genitives after carminibus 'thou shalt be delighted with the mingled strains of the lyre and Berecyntian pipe.' Orelli however says 'unice recti dativi, ut Epod. 9. 5. Sonante mixtum tibiis carmen lyra;' but this is merely creating difficulties. Some editors read lyra and Berecyntiâ tibiá thus crediting Horace with lines which for their confusion of ablatives and poorness of sound would discredit a schoolboy.

24. fistula]=σúpy, 'Pan's pipe.' The tibia is illustrated in Smith's Dict. Ant.

27. pede candido...] 'with gleaming feet shall thrice shake the ground after the fashion of the Salii.' Candido refers not merely to the whiteness of the feet, but to the way in which they flash and gleam in the movements of the dance. For the Salii see Dict. Ant. and cf. Od. 1. 36. 12: dancing accompanied by music is among the earliest forms of worship, cf. 2 Sam. 6. 14, 'David danced before the Lord' and Ps. 150. 4, 'Praise him with the timbrel and dance.'

28. ter] because there was a triple beat in the dance, cf. Od. 3. 18. 16: the words tripudium and tripudiare were used from very ancient times in connection with these religious dances, and, whatever their real derivation, they were no doubt popularly connected with tres and pedes.

29. me] Note the position in pointed contrast to illic...illic at the commencement of the two previous stanzas: Paullus will worship thee, I on the contrary have no enthusiasm left.

30. spes animi...] 'the fond hope of a heart to answer mine' Wickham. mutuus='interchanged'; animus mutuus=a heart that communicates its every feeling to me and to which I in return communicate mine.

31. certare mero]='to join the drinking bout.'

34. rara] Notice the force of the adjective: he tries to conceal his feelings but still every now and then 'the rare tear trickles down his cheek' (cf. 1. 13. 8, umor et in genas furtim labitur). So below he represents himself as trying to talk as usual but 'even as he talks his (usually) ready tongue halts in unseemly silence.'

35. decoro] Notice that the verse is hypermetric. Horace clearly designs it to express the effect of a lover breaking off in the middle of a word. For this as a sign of emotion, cf. the conduct of Dido, Virg. Aen. 4. 76, Incipit effari mediaque in voce resistit.

38. captum] Sc. te, Ligurine.

40. aquas] The afternoon's exercise in the Campus was regularly followed by a bathe in the Tiber, cf. Od. 3. 7. 26,

12. 7.

ODE II.

'To attempt to rival Pindar is like the attempt of Icarus to fly. He is like a mountain-torrent swollen by the rain, rushing and roaring along with deep-mouthed thunder. He is the prince of poets whether he composes dithyrambs, paeans, hymns of victory or dirges which make the fame of the dead undying. He like a swan soars into the sky, I am but like a bee laboriously gathering a little honey. You, Iulus, are more fitted in statelier strains to sing of the return of Caesar from his triumphs over the Sygambri-Caesar the greatest blessing

P. H. IV.

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that heaven has ever conferred on earth. You shall sing of the festivities that celebrate his return, and then perhaps my voice shall join in the chorus that swells his triumph, and, while you offer your noble offering I shall perhaps dare to present my humble gift.'

Iulus Antonius was the son of M. Antonius the triumvir and Fulvia, and was brought up by his step-mother Octavia the sister of Augustus, through whose influence he obtained the favour of the Emperor and was made praetor B.c. 13 and consul B.c. 10. He is said to have written an epic poem called the Diomedeia.

The whole Ode is a lyric apology for attempting the task to which he devotes himself in Odes 4, 5, 14 and 15, and at the same time affords him the opportunities of paying a compliment to Antonius and indirectly celebrating the victory of Augustus. 1. aemulari Pindarum] aemulari with the acc. is used of an honest and noble rivalry, with the dative of mean and ignoble

envy.

2. Iule] If this word is correct the name must have been given him to mark his connection with the great Julius (Julius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo, Virg. Aen. 1. 288), the mother of M. Antonius having been Julia, sister of L. Caesar, cons. B. C. 64, but considering, (1) that Horace addresses him in 1. 26 as Antoni, (2) the difficulty of either eliding the initial i or treating the word as a dissyllable, (3) the fact that the word seems elsewhere applied only to the son of Aeneas, there seems great probability in favour of Peerlkamp's conjecture ille.

ceratis...] 'rests on wings joined with wax by the skill of Daedalus, doomed to give a name to the glassy sea.'

For the story see Class. Dict. s. v. Daedalus. Apart from metaphor the poet means that he who seeks to rival Pindar is attempting what nature has forbidden and will fail disastrously: Horace has no sympathy with human enterprise, and Daedalus (daídaλos, i. e. varied, cunningly wrought) is his favourite type of the vanity of scientific ambition, see Od. 1. 3. 21-40.

ope] in the sing. this word indicates the effort, skill, ability, necessary to obtain anything; in the plural it represents that which is obtained, 'wealth.'