elsewhere mentioned-whether she existed anywhere or under any name except in Horace's fancy-are questions that have been as fiercely debated as if they could be decided, or were of the slightest consequence if they could. The poem itself is charmingly pretty, and has much more the air of complimentary gallantry than of real affection.

CARM. XIX.

Mater sæva Cupidinum,

Thebanæque jubet me Semeles puer,
Et lasciva Licentia,

Finitus animum reddere amoribus.

Urit me Glyceræ nitor

Splendentis Pario marmore purius;
Urit grata protervitas,

Et voltus nimium lubricus adspici.1

In me tota ruens Venus

Cyprum deseruit; nec patitur Scythas,
Et versis animosum equis
Parthum dicere, nec quæ nihil attinent.

Hic vivum mihi cæspitem, hic
Verbenas, pueri, ponite thuraque
Bimi cum patera meri :

Mactata veniet lenior hostia.

''Voltus nimium lubricus adspici.' This bold expression, which will not bear a translation too literal, is, according to some recent commentators, taken from the glitter and smoothness of ice; as ice is too slippery for the foot, so Glycera's face is too slippery for the gaze. Earlier critics, coupling the previous reference to the Parian marble, suggest that the allusion is rather to a statue like that of Hecate in the temple of Diana at Ephesus, which Pliny tells us the spectators were warned by the priests not to suffer the eye to rest upon too intently, so blindingly bright was the shine of the marble.

ODE XX.

TO MECENAS.

Nothing can be more simple in form and spirit than this ode, in which Horace invites Maecenas to a homely entertainment in language equally unostentatious. In this, as in other of Horace's purely occasional odes, one feels the presence of the genuine poet by his abstemious avoidance of

Sabine wine poor thoul't drink in modest goblets,
Into Greek cask I myself racked and sealed it,
Knightly and dear Mæcenas, when the applausive
Theatre hailed thee;

So that the banks of thine ancestral river,
So that in choral symphony the Sprite-voice
Haunting the Vatican mountain-sportive Echo-
Rang back the plaudits.

Elsewhere the costly Cæcuban thou quaffest,
Or of the grape tamed in Calenian presses:
No Formian hill-side, no Falernian cluster,
Flavour my wine-cups.

the

the would-be poetical. The date of the poem has been variously conjectured. Judging by the reference to the Sabine wine which Mæcenas is invited to drink, and which came into use in its second year, reaching its prime in its fourth, the poem would have been written between two and four years after the reception that the audience at the theatre gave to Mæcenas on his recovery from his illness. But the date of that event is not determined. Franke and Lübker refer the composition of the ode to A.U.C. 729–730. Macleane favours the latter year. Orelli inclines to Weber's date, from A.U.C. 726-727.

CARM. XX.

Vile potabis modicis Sabinum
Cantharis, Græca quod ego ipse testa
Conditum levi, datus in theatro
Cum tibi plausus,

Care Mæcenas eques, ut paterni
Fluminis ripæ, simul et jocosa
Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani
Montis imago.

Cæcubum et prelo domitam Caleno
Tu bibes uvam: mea nec Falernæ

Temperant vites, neque Formiani
Pocula colles.

ODE XXI.

IN PRAISE OF DIANA AND APOLLO.

It was supposed by Franke that this hymn was composed for the first celebration of the quinquennial games-Ludi Actiaci-instituted by Augustus in honour of Apollo and Diana, when he dedicated a temple to Apollo on the Palatine after his return from the taking of Alexandria, A.U.C. 726. There are two objections to this supposition :-the one, observed by Macleane, is in the word 'principe,' for Augustus did not get that title till the ides of January A.U.C.

Hymn ye the praise of Diana, young maidens,
Hymn ye, O striplings, the unshorn Apollo,
And hymn ye Latona, so dear

To the Father Supreme in Olympus.

Maidens, sing her who delights in the rivers,
And the glad locks on the brow of the forests
That nod over Algidus cold,

Verdant Cragus and dark Erymanthus ;
Youths, sing of Tempè with emulous praises,
Delos, the fair native isle of Apollo,

And sing of the shoulder adorned

With the quiver, and shell of the Brother.2

Moved by your prayer, may the god in his mercy
Save, from war and from pest and from famine,
Our people, and Cæsar our prince,

And direct them on Persia and Britain.

727,

The epithet viridis' applied to Cragus is in opposition to 'nigris' applied to Erymanthus, from the different kinds of foliage on either moun

727, and therefore after the first celebration of the Actian games. The other objection is in the nature of the poem itself, which, as Orelli remarks, is of too light a quill for the ceremonial pomp of solemn games or earnest supplication. The reference to the Persians and Britons at the close would seem to intimate the same date as the 29th Ode of this Book, when Augustus was preparing a military expedition against Britain and the East, viz. A.U.C. 727. The notion of Sanadon, that the ode was an introduction to the Secular Hymn, has long been exploded.

CARM. XXI.

Dianam teneræ dicite virgines,
Intonsum, pueri, dicite Cynthium;
Latonamque supremo

Dilectam penitus Jovi.

Vos lætam fluviis et nemorum coma,
Quæcunque aut gelido prominet Algido,
Nigris aut Erymanthi

Silvis, aut viridis Cragi;1

Vos Tempe totidem tollite laudibus,
Natalemque, mares, Delon Apollinis,
Insignemque, pharetra
Fraternaque humerum lyra.2

Hic bellum lacrimosum, hic miseram famem
Pestemque a populo, et principe Cæsare, in
Persas atque Britannos

Vestra motus aget prece.

tain, Cragus being covered with oak and beech, Erymanthus with pine and fir.

Fraternaque humerum lyra '-the shell invented by his brother

Mercury.