not think that anyone would naturally give such a special meaning to peditis in reading the stanza. 41. sive mutata...] 'Or if thou, O winged son of kindly Maia, dost change thy guise and take upon thee on earth the form of a youth (i.e. Augustus), submitting to be called the avenger of Caesar (Julius).' juvenem] Augustus was born в.c. 63, but juvenis includes the whole military age between 17 and 45. Virgil twice (Ecl. 1. 43; G. 1. 500) calls him juvenis; the word seems specially chosen to suggest hope and expectation. 42. ales] because of the petasus and talaria, the winged cap and anklets he wore as the messenger of the gods. 45. serus...redeas] May it be long before thou dost return.' Notice the flattery of redeas: Augustus being an incarnate deity does not merely go to heaven, but returns to it as his original dwelling. 50. pater] i.e. pa:er patriae, the title of which Cicero was so proud (see Mayor on Juv. 8. 244, Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit): it was only formally conferred on Augustus in B.C. 2, but had been long applied to him before in common talk, of. 3. 24. 27 n. princeps] See 4. 14. 6 n. 51. Medos] see 1. 22 n. The Median supremacy preceded the Persian, Astyages the last Median king having been overthrown by 'Cyrus the Persian,' but even Greek writers use the adjective as Persian (e.g. in Thuo. rà Mndiká=the Persian war), and in Horace it Parthian. No doubt it is not mere carelessness which makes the Roman poets speak of 'Medes' and 'Persians' instead of 'Parthians': by so doing they suggest a comparison between the exploits of Rome and the victories of Salamis and Marathon. equitare] The Parthian light horsemen amid their sandy deserts were the dread of the heavy-armed Roman legionaries, who were entirely incapable of resisting their rapid and desultory attacks. Cf. 2. 13. 18, and note on 1. 19. 11. The word equitare conveys also a collateral notion of 'careering' as if in scorn, cf. 4. 4. 44. 52. Caesar] Emphatically placed last. ODE III. 'O ship that conveyest Virgil to Greece, duly deliver up the precious life entrusted to thy care. Bold indeed was the man who first trusted himself to the sea, but his was only one of the 11--2 many impious attempts which men, such as Prometheus, Daedalus and Hercules, have made to transgress the limits which God in his providence has appointed: the constant renewal of these attempts prevents Jupiter from laying aside his thunderbolts of wrath.' For Virgil's intimacy with Horace see Sellar's Virgil, pp. 120-126. Virgil and Varius first introduced Horace to Maecenas: Horace speaks of them with singular affection in Sat. 1. 5. 41 as animae quales neque candidiores | terra tulit, neque quis me sit devinctior alter-'souls than which never did earth produce purer, souls to which no second man is more closely knit than I am.' So too Sat. 1. 6. 55 we have optimus Virgilius, and cf. also Ode 24 of this book. We only know of one visit of Virgil to Athens, namely in B.c. 19, on the return from which he died at Brundisium Sept. 21. All the Odes of the first three Books are probably of much earlier date, and therefore this Ode would seem to refer to an earlier voyage, such as may well have been undertaken by the poet of the Aeneid to visit the scenes he has aided to immortalize. editors feel the difficulty so much that they either suppose the Virgil mentioned not to be the poet, or even alter the name to Quintilius. For my own part I prefer to assume that Virgil visited Greece twice rather than to annihilate a link which connects Virgil with Horace as 'the half of life.' Some 1. sic...] The construction is navis, quae...debes, reddas precor..., sic te...regat pater: 'O ship that...owest, I pray thee duly deliver him up..., so may heaven direct...' sic so, i. e. on that condition, namely, that you duly deliver him up. Cf. our similar use of 'so help you God' in administering oaths: the Latins, however, throw the clauses with sic forward, instead of keeping them to the end. Cf. Virg. E. 9. 30, Sic tua Cyrneas fugiant exumina taxos...Incipe, but 1. 28. 25, ne parce...sic plectantur. For a similar invocation to a ship cf. Tennyson, In Mem. Canto 9 et seq., also Canto 17, 'So may whatever tempest mars Mid-Ocean spare thee, sacred bark.' diva potens Cypri] For the construction see 1. 6. 10 n. Venus is appealed to because having sprung from the foam of the sea (Appodirn, døpós) she was supposed to have an influence on the waves. So she is called Venus marina, 3. 26. 5 and 4. 11. 15. 2. fratres Helenae] Cf. Macaulay: 'Safe comes the ship to harbour Through billows and through gales, In thundery weather a pale-blue flame may sometimes be seen playing at the tips of the masts of ships, due to the fact that points' always tend to produce a discharge of electricity. The presence of this flame was held to indicate the presence of the Dioscuri and the safety of the ship. Italian mariners call it the fire of St Elmo. On coins, &c. Castor and Pollux are represented with a star on their foreheads. For lucida sidera, cf. 4. 8. 31. 4. obstrictis aliis praeter Iapyga] 'Keeping all but Iapyx bound in prison.' For a description of the prison-house in which Aeolus guards the unemployed winds see Virg. Aen. 1. 52 et seq. Iapyx is to be let loose because blowing from the Iapygian promontory in Apulia he would waft the traveller from Brundisium to Dyrrachium, whence he would coast along past Corcyra and then down to the Gulf of Corinth. From thence he would pass by land to Athens, so that finibus Atticis is not to be taken strictly; or else the ship might be dragged across the Isthmus of Corinth (cf. the word Stoλkos) and so actually enter the Peiraeus. The voyage to Greece round C. Matapan would be very exceptional: the most common plan was to proceed from Dyrrachium by land. aliis] 'others,' would usually be ceteris, 'the others,' 'the rest.' 5. creditum] Notice the same metaphor in debes, reddas and incolumem. 9. robur et aes triplex] 'oak and triple brass,' cf. 8. 16. 2 n. For a similar metaphor, cf. Aesch. Prom. 242, σidnpóøpwv σε κἀκ πέτρας εἰργασμένος. 10. fragilem truci] Notice how juxtaposition increases the force of the antithesis. So too pelago ratem, and cf. 2. 4. 6 n. 12. praecipitem] (prae-caput, head foremost) coming down in sudden squalls. Cf. St Luke 8. 23, katéßn Xaîλay, and the word καταιγίζειν. 18. decertantem] The preposition seems to give to the verb the additional force of fighting it out to the end. Horace seems to have a special fondness for these compounds, cf. 1. 9. 11, deproeliantes, 1. 18. 9, debellata, 3. 3. 55, debacchentur, 1. 33. 3, decantes. 14. Hyadas] Seven stars in the head of Taurus which portended rain or storm. The prose Roman term for them was Suculae, or the litter of little pigs, thus indicating a derivation from us, vòs, sus. The poets, as was to be expected, reject so natural and vulgar an etymology, and connect the word with ve, to rain. 15. arbiter Hadriae] 'lord of the Adriatic.' Cf. 2. 17. 19, tyrannus, and 3. 3. 5, dux, both used of the wind's 'mastery' over the sea. Arbiter ad-biter from ad and bito, an obsolete word meaning 'to go,' from the same root as Balrw. An 'arbiter' therefore one who is present (so in Milton 'the moon sits arbitress'), then 'one who stands by to witness and judge.' Here used of the wind, with whom it rests to decide whether there shall be storm or calm at sea. 16. tollere seu ponere volt freta] The first seu is omitted for convenience, as often in poetry: cf. 1. 6. 19, 1. 32. 7, and similar omissions of elre and oure in Greek. Translate whether he wish to rouse or calm the sea.' The winds are said to calm the sea by a curious idiom which speaks of them as causing that which their absence causes. So Sophocles, Aj. 674, δεινῶν ἄημα πνευμάτων ἐκοίμισε | στένοντα πόντον. freta = frith or firth. 17. quem gradum] 'what approach of death?''what form of death's approach?' 18. siccis oculis] i.e. without weeping. Others propose to alter siccis, urging that tears do not ordinarily accompany terror, but the ancients certainly in many respects had different modes of expressing the emotions to what we have. Wickham appositely quotes Hom. Od. 20. 349, daxpvópiv wiμπλavтo, of the eyes of the panic-stricken suitors. 22. prudens] i.e. providens, 'in his providence.' = dissociabili] Most adjectives in -abilis are passive, but not unfrequently the poets use them actively, and so here dissociabilis quae dissociat 'dividing.' Cf. 2. 14. 6, illacrimabilem Plutona, who does not weep,' but 4. 9. 26, illacrimabiles 'unwept for.' So flebilis 4. 2. 21, weeping,' but 1. 24. 9, flebilior 'more wept for.' Virg. G. 1. 93, penetrabile frigus, 'piercing cold,' Lucr. 1. 11, genitabilis aura life-giving breeze, see Munro ad loc. 25. audax perpeti] Horace is fond of this epexegetic or complementary infinitive after adjectives. It is very common in Greek, e. g. dewds Tλñval. Its use is to limit or determine the exact sense of the adjective; a man may be bold in many ways, e.g. in fighting, talking, &c., but when the infinitive is added what was deficient in the adjective is completed, a full explanation (¿wektrynais) is given. Dr Kennedy prefers to give it the name of the Prolative Inf. because it extends the use of the adj. to which it is attached. The adjectives after which it is used in the Odes are: sciens, nescius, metuens, timidus, audax, doctus, indoctus, indocilis, dignus, callidus, catus, sollers, pertinax, efficax, praesens, celer, fortis, firmus, segnis, dolosus, blandus, largus, lenis, impotens, nobilis. See Wickham's valuable appendix. For its use after verbs, see 1. 15. 27 n. 27. Iapeti genus] 'son of Iapetus,' i.e. Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven, hid in the stem of the vápně or ferula. 28. fraude mala] Probably a reminiscence of the legal phrase dolus malus, which is used in the sense of 'malice prepense,' when a criminal act is committed with full knowledge of its criminality, and of deliberate purpose. Others take fraus mala as a theft disastrous (in its results), as explained in the next lines. 30. nova febrium...] ‘a strange (hitherto unknown) troop of fevers brooded over the earth.' Incubuit is used of things pestilential, or abominable, e.g. ill-omened birds, thick darkness, plagues. Wickham, following Orelli, gives ¿xéoknyev, 'fell upon,' but incubuit (from cubare, cumbo) has a further meaning of resting, or remaining over, so as not to be got rid of. 32. semotique prius...] 'and what was before the slow necessity of distant death hastened its approach,' i.e. men, though necessarily mortal, before this lived to a great age, afterwards only for a brief span. A belief in the longevity of primaeval man seems universal. 34. Daedalus] (daldaλos, i.e. varied, or cunningly wrought) is the type of the over-ambitious man of science: 'over-flighty' in his ideas, we might say: the meaning of his name compels us to look for such an allegory in the legend. 36. perrupit] Final syllable made long by ictus. Notice the vigorous, rugged, laborious character of the line; accommodation of sound to sense. For similar instances of a syllable |