The commentators very generally take for granted that Phidyle was Horace's villica-the stewardess of his Sabine farm. Possibly she was; but quite as possibly she may have been any other thrifty housewife, or even nobody at all, but a mere creature of the poet's fancy. IF suppliant hands, my rustic Phidyle, You raise to heaven when the new moon you see; If incense and firstfruits appease, And sucking pig, home's deities; Neither shall pestilent south-west wind smite Or fattening upon Alban grass, Are cattle doomed, whose throats shall pass Neath Pontiff's blood-stained axe. Crowning our little gods with myrtle's due XXIII. AD PHIDYLEN. CAELO supinas si tuleris manus Fruge Lares, avidaque porca; Victima, pontificum secures Cervice tinget: te nihil attinet Tentare multa caede bidentium Parvos coronantem marino Rore deos fragilique myrto. Immunis aram si tetigit manus, Non sumptuosa blandior hostia Mollivit aversos Penates Farre pio, et saliente mica. P This Ode, which is of the same class and was probably written about the same time as the first six of the third Book, deals with the licentious abuses of the times, and points to Augustus as the reformer of them.' ALTHOUGH With more of treasured wealth endowed Is fixed the adamantine nail of fate, Whose wandering homes are dragged along on wains, From grain and fruit grown on unmeted plains, And freely shared by all. Them pleases not Longer than yearly tenure. As his toil One yearling finishes, impartial lot Nor, dowried, o'er her husband domineers, And chastity, which with unyielding faith And sin is shame, and wage of sin is death. XXIV. INTACTIS opulentior Thesauris Arabum et divitis Indiae, Caementis licet occupes Tyrrhenum omne tuis et mare Apulicum; Si figit adamantinos Summis verticibus dira Necessitas Clavos, non animum metu, Non mortis laqueis expedies caput. Campestres melius Scythae, Quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos, Vivunt, et rigidi Getae, Immetata quibus jugera liberas Fruges et Cererem ferunt; Nec cultura placet longior annua, Defunctumque laboribus Aequali recreat sorte vicarius. Illic matre carentibus Privignis mulier temperat innocens : Nec dotata regit virum Conjux, nec nitido fidit adultero. Dos est magna parentium Virtus, et metuens alterius viri Certo foedere castitas; Et peccare nefas, aut pretium est mori. Ah! whoso would unnatural butchery |