Longas, O utinam, dux bone, ferias Præstes Hesperia! dicimus integro Sicci mane die, dicimus uvidi,

Cum Sol Oceano subest.

ODE VI.

TO APOLLO.

This ode may be considered the prooemium to the Secular Hymn, A.U.C. 737, although evidently written after it. As that hymn celebrates Apollo and Diana, so this ode appropriately commences with an invocation to Apollo, whom Horace invokes (line 27) to defend the dignity of the

God, in whom Niobe's sad offspring felt
The stern chastiser of the vaunting tongue,
And Tityos vast, the ravisher,—and he,
Phthian Achilles,

Almost the victor of high Troy (to thee
Unequal, over other force supreme);

Roman

Though warring with dread spear the Sea-nymph's son
Shook Dardan towers,

As falls a pine beneath the biting steel,
Or cypress wrenched by Eurus from its root,
He fell, and wide and far on Trojan dust
Stamped his great image.

The false horse, duping, in Minerva's name,
Lost Trojans mirthful at their feast of death,
With choral dances blithe in Priam's hall,
Hid not Achilles.

His prey, alas! he slew with open hand
His wrath, alas! had given to Argive flames
The harmless infants ev'n within the womb,
Smiting the unborn,

Had not the Father of the gods, subdued
By thee and Venus, with imploring prayer,

Roman Muse. The poet lingers specially on the praise of Apollo as the slayer of Achilles; because, had he who spared not the babe in the womb survived, Æneas, ancestor of Augustus, and the Trojan exiles who founded the Roman empire, would have perished. Horace, then, after a brief reference to Diana, turns, as choragus, to address the chorus of the Secular Hymn.

CARM. VI.

Dive, quem proles Niobea magnæ
Vindicem linguæ, Tityosque raptor,
Sensit, et Trojæ prope victor altæ
Phthius Achilles,

Ceteris major, tibi miles impar ;
Filius quamvis Thetidis marinæ
Dardanas turres quateret tremenda
Cuspide pugnax.

Ille, mordaci velut icta ferro

Pinus, aut impulsa cupressus Euro,
Procidit late posuitque collum in
Pulvere Teucro.

Ille non inclusus equo Minervæ
Sacra mentito male feriatos
Troas et lætam Priami choreis

Falleret aulam ;

Sed palam captis gravis, heu nefas! heu!
Nescios fari pueros Achivis
Ureret flammis, etiam latentem
Matris in alvo;

Ni, tuis victus Venerisque gratæ
Vocibus, divum pater annuisset

Pledged to Æneas by his solemn nod
Walls more auspicious.

Tuneful Thalia's sovereign melodist,
Laving in Xanthian waves thy golden hair,
Support the honour of the Daunian Muse,
Beardless Agyieus ! 1

Phoebus on me bestowed the soul, on me
The art of song, on me the poet's name.
2 O noblest virgins, and O ye young sons
Of noble fathers,

Wards of the Delian goddess, with her bow
Striking the flight of stags and lynxes still,
The Lesbian3 measure timed and tuned by me,
Guard unforgetful,

Chanting, with ritual due, Latona's son,
And her who kindles night with crescent beam,
Prospers the harvests, and the sliding months
Speeds in their circle.

Say, maid, then wedded, 'In that hallowed year
Which did the secular feast-lights reillume,

Song dear to gods I sang-song taught by him,

Horace the poet.'

1 The name of Agyieus seems here very appropriately invoked, because Apollo takes that name from the Greeks, as presiding over the thoroughfares of cities, 'quasi viis præpositus urbanis;' and all the streets of Rome would have been alive with the festival and processions connected with the Secular Hymn which the ode refers to.

Here Horace turns to the chorus of the Secular Hymn.
Lesbium servate pedem, meique
Pollicis ictum.'

By 'pollicis ictum' is meant the motion of the thumb in marking the rhythm or time of the song, not the striking of the lyre.

Rebus Æneæ potiore ductos
Alite muros.

Doctor argutæ fidicen Thaliæ,

Phoebe, qui Xantho lavis amne crines,
Dauniæ defende decus Camenæ,
Levis Agyieu.1

Spiritum Phoebus mihi, Phoebus artem
Carminis, nomenque dedit poëtæ.
Virginum primæ, puerique claris
Patribus orti,2

Delia tutela deæ, fugaces

Lyncas et cervos cohibentis arcu,
Lesbium servate pedem, meique
Pollicis ictum,3

Rite Latonæ puerum canentes,
Rite crescentem face Noctilucam,
Prosperam frugum, celeremque pronos
Volvere menses.

Nupta jam dices: Ego dis amicum,
Sæculo festas referente luces,
Reddidi carmen, docilis modorum
Vatis Horati.

'Nupta jam dices.' Horace here admonishes those who were young virgins in the chorus at the date of the Secular Hymn to remember, when wedded wives, their part in the festival, with which he associates his name.