An quae movere cereas imagines,

Ut ipse nosti curiosus, et polo

Deripere lunam vocibus possim meis, Possim crematos excitare mortuos Desiderique temperare pocula,

Plorem artis in te nil agentis exitus?

APPENDIX I.

ON THE UNKNOWN NAMES IN THE Odes.

It is hardly necessary to read Estré's summary of the many and mutually destructive theories that have been proposed in order to perceive the futility of attempting to construct out of the Pyrrhas, Lalages, Lydias of the Odes a history of Horace's loves and disappointments. Whatever foundation any Ode may have had in the feelings or facts of the moment, it is impossible now to distinguish shadow from substance; and there is much to indicate that Horace did not wish it to be otherwise. Whatever be their origin, he treats his love Odes as artistic studies. He arranges them not, we can feel sure, in any chronological order as remembrances of his own life, but where they will be most useful to relieve more serious poems or to stand side by side as companion pictures. We may see as much as this from the nature of the names which he employs. A certain number owe their selection obviously to their etymological meaning, such as Pyrrha in 1. 5, Chloë in 1. 23, Lyce in 3. 10, Phidyle in 3. 23 (cp. Sybaris in 1. 8; the list may possibly be extended by the names of Lalage in 1. 22, Leuconoc in I. 11, and of Telephus 1. 13, etc. Horace is fond of playing on the meaning of names, 'Glycerac immitis,' 1. 33. 2, 'Bibuli consulis amphoram,' 3. 28. 8, 'Dulci Lyaco solvere,' Epod. 9. 38). Some more are suspiciously well adapted to the metre of the special pocm; Leuconoe has this reason at any rate for her existence, so has 'Asterie' in 3. 7, and 'Neobule' (cp. the name of her lover, 'Liparacus Hebrus ') in the Ionic a minore metre of 3. 12. With one or two exceptions the unknown male names in the

Odes (the names of Horace's rivals, as in 1. 13, on any theory of a real Lydia) are Greek names, Telephus, Gyges, Calais; mythological names; sometimes the names of Greek rivers, Hebrus 3. 12, Enipeus 3. 7. We may add perhaps that where the designation is most full and precise we seem to see most definitely the purpose of giving momentary substance to an acknowledged shadow; see on 'Thurini Calais filius Ornyti,' 3. 9. 14, and cp. Introd. to 2. 4. In a few cases we seem to sec the appropriation of the name to a special character, as 'Cyrus,' 1. 17. 25, 1. 33. 6; 'Pholoc,' 1. 33. 7, 9, 2. 5. 17, 3. 15. 7; 'Telephus,' 1. 13. 1, 3. 19. 26, 4. 11. 21; 'Lyce,' 3. 10, and 4. 13; but this last instance (viewed in the light of the general relation of Book iv to the earlier Books) points to the explanation that it is in all cases a literary identity, a reminiscence of a previous poem, not of a living person. On the other hand, the same name is at times given to people of such different characters or ages, that those who would give them real existence are obliged to recognise more than one owner of the name; cp. the Phyllis of 2. 4 and 4. 11, the Chloris of 2. 5 and 3. 15, the Lalage of 1. 22 and 2. 5, not to say the Glycera of 1. 30 and 1. 33. There are cases, doubtless, where a reality is given to unknown names by their being brought into close relation with real persons and events, such as 'Mystes,' the lost friend of Valgius, in 2. 9; ‘Damalis,' who is to rival Bassus in draughts of wine at the feast on Numida's return, 1. 36; 'Glycera,' to whom Tibullus is supposed to write piteous clegics, 1. 33. In this last case we note that Glycera is not a name that occurs in Tibullus' extant elegies, which suggests the possibility that even in such instances as these, though the reference be real, the name may be fictitious. This is of course the ultimate refuge of those who would see in the heroines of the Odes real persons. The names they give up; but Horace, it is argued, may have concealed the true names, as tradition tells us (see 2. 12 Introd.) Catullus concealed the name of Clodia under that of Lesbia, Propertius that of Hostia under that of Cynthia, Tibullus that of Plania under that of Delia, etc.; and Horace himself, in the Epodes and Satires, the name of Gratidia under that of Canidia; it is

even added (sec ibid.) the name of Terentia, Maecenas' wife, under that of Licymnia. The possibility cannot be denied, but the suggestion leaves us much where we were as to any canon by which to know true persons from imaginary ones. No tradition helps us, and Estré observes that the only instances of such concealment of real names for which any tradition vouches are instances where the true and false names were metrically equivalent, a requirement which makes havoc of several schemes of 'amores Horatiani.' We should still have to leave as the representatives of different persons names which suit almost every metrical foot of two, three, or four syllables.

There is one unknown name in the Odes, that of Cinara (Od. 4. 1. 4, 4. 13. 21, 22, Epp. 1. 7. 28, 1. 14. 33), which is perhaps redeemed from this shadowy existence, both by the personal feelings that seem to accompany its mention and by its recurrence among the reminiscences of the poet's own life in the Epistles. That a mere literary reminiscence, an echo of his amatory poems rather than of his feelings, is intended seems unlikely in the absence of the name from all his carly pocms. The exception, however, tells rather against than for the reality of the personages who are not similarly recalled; and Buttmann draws attention to the fact that this one unknown person who seems more than a shadow is the subject only of allusion, not of a substantive poem.

What has been said will obviously not apply with equal force to the Epodes, where, in idea at least, personality is the essence of the poem. The introduction of Horace's own name, as in Epod. 15, and the pursuance of his attack upon Canidia through three Epodes and three Satires seem to indicate more real and definite objects. But the use of poetical names for characters who have no existence save at the moment begins doubtless in the Epodes, as do other features of the Odes.