35 Post certas hiemes uret Achaicus Ignis Iliacas domos.' called classis, because they had come in ships) were angry with Agamemnon, they withdrew from the Grecian camp; and thus the day of the fall of Ilium, here called simply the day,' was put off. Achillei, genitive from the form Achilleus.-35. Post certas hiemes, 'after the fixed number of winters;' that is, 'years.' Ten years had been fixed by the fates as the time during which the siege of Troy was to last. CARMEN XVI. PALINODIA. A POEM of recantation or retractation, addressed to a female friend whom he had injured and offended by his Epodes, which were written in iambics, and were chiefly satirical. The poet addresses his retractation to a single person; but we should be wrong in considering it as having reference to her alone. Horace had in his youth attacked various persons in his poems: in his riper years he repented of this, and wished to become reconciled to them all. The present ode is therefore a retractation, intended for the public in general, of all the rash and violent words which disfigured his early poems. O MATRE pulchra filia pulchrior, Sive mari libet Hadriano. Non Dindymene, non adytis quatit 2. Quemcunque modum voles (ponere) iambis (dative), pones. The epodes are called criminosi iambi, because they are full of crimina, charges against people.-4. Mari Hadriano, a less frequent form for Hadriatico. Fire and water are two great means by which destruction can be effected: therefore, 'burn or drown my poems.' -5. Dindymene; that is, Cybele, the mater magna Deorum, so called from Dindymus, a mountain of Phrygia, near Pessinus, where she was chiefly worshipped. Her priests, in their fancied inspiration, often behaved like maniacs.-6. The Pythian Apollo, who dwells (hence incola; namely, adytorum) in the inmost sanctuary of the temple at Delphi, does not, in that inmost sanctuary (adytis, ablative of place where'), so agitate the minds of the priestesses' (for sacerdos, a noun of common gender, is here to be taken as feminine.) When the Pythia, or priestess of Apollo, had seated herself on the tripod in the temple, she uttered certain strange sounds, which were Non Liber aeque, non acuta Tristes ut irae, quas neque Noricus Fertur Prometheus, addere principi Vim stomacho apposuisse nostro. Funditus imprimeretque muris Hostile aratrum exercitus insolens. Compesce mentem: me quoque pectoris Fervor et in celeres ïambos interpreted by the priests, and issued as oracles.-7. Liber. The wild proceedings of the Bacchantes, or priestesses of Bacchus, when under fancied inspiration from the god, are well known, and often mentioned by the poets.-8. Corybantes, the priests of Cybele, who, at the festivals of their goddess, held cymbals of brass (hence called aera) in their hands, and struck them together. This beating together is poetically expressed by geminant: the priest has a cymbal in each hand, and when he strikes them together, the instrument is of course double.-9. Noricus ensis. The mines of the Roman province of Noricum furnished, in ancient times, the best iron: hence Norican steel' is frequently used to indicate the best, hardest steel.-12. Jupiter ruens tremendo tumultu. Jupiter, when he thunders and sends down his lightnings.-13. The following is the poet's story:-Prometheus formed all living creatures of clay, and came at last to man. But here the clay which he had failed him, and he was forced to add something to that which he had at first taken to make man (called by Horace princeps limus, original clay.') He therefore cut some clay from the animals previously formed (undique; that is, ex omnibus animalibus desecuit), and hence comes the odd mixture of qualities in the human character. The poet observes particularly that Prometheus took a piece of clay from the lion: hence the choler or tendency to anger in man. This idea of the origin of man and his passions is often taken up by the Greek poets.-17. Thyesten. The story of the quarrel between Thyestes and Atreus, which ruined the royal house of the Pelopidae, is well known. Stravere-prostravere.-18. Ultimae causae, the final cause.' Others had gone before, internal dissensions and disorders: but at last war came, and had its usual effect. Stetere extitere -21. Aratrum. According to an old Roman custom, the boundaries of a city which was to be built were marked out by the plough; so also, when a city had been razed to the ground, the place on which its walls had stood was ploughed up.-22. Mentemiram.-A. Celeres เ Misit furentem. Nunc ego mitibus Mutare quaero tristia, dum mihi Opprobriis animumque reddas. 25 iambos. The iambi are called quick, because the verse is a quick, dancing measure.-26. As to the construction of mutare, see Gram. $294, note. CARMEN XVII. AD TYNDARIDEM. INVITATION of a female friend to his Sabine estate. Description of his life there, and of his enjoyments in the summer. VELOX amoenum saepe Lucretilem Mutat Lycaeo Faunus et igneam Defendit aestatem capellis Usque meis pluviosque ventos. Nec virides metuunt colubras 5 10 We 1. Velox-Faunus. The Pan of the Greeks, called Faunus by the Roman shepherd, is represented with the feet of a goat, being lusty the god of grazing and climbing cattle; hence veloz. Lucretilis, a hill in the district of the Sabines, not far from Horace's villa, and now called Monte Gennaro. Lycaeus, a mountain in Arcadia; the region where, according to the poets, Pan usually resided. expect, properly, mutat Lucretili Lycaeum, exchanges Lycaeus for Lucretilis; the place to which he goes being put in the ablative. Both constructions, however, are used in Latin, with the same sense. See Gram. 294, note.-3. Defendit arcet. Faunus protects the flocks from the heat of the sun and from the rain, both of which are hurtful to them. Capellis meis, dative, a capellis meis. 4. Usque semper.-6. Deviae, wandering.'-7. Olentis uxores mariti, a circumlocution for 'she-goats.' The expression appears to us neither poetical, nor in good taste. Horace, however, living in the country, and an admirer of pastoral life, may be pardoned for using it.-9. Martiales lupos: the wolf was sacred to Mars. Haeduleae,young kids,' an ära λɛyóμevov, received into the text here from a happy conjecture of Bentley. 10. Utcunque, 'whenever.' The sense is this: my flocks are safe upon their pasture, under the protection of Faunus, whenever, &c. The fistula, or syrinx, is the Valles et Usticae cubantis Di me tuentur, dis pietas mea Hic in reducta valle caniculae Hic innocentis pocula Lesbii Suspecta Cyrum, ne male dispari 15 20 25 flute, on which shepherds used to play.-11. Usticae cubantis. The name does not occur elsewhere: it appears, however, to have been that of a valley in the neighbourhood of Horace's villa, since it is called cubans, low-lying.-12. Levia―saxa, the smooth chalkrocks which surrounded it. Personuere must be taken intransitively, 'the rocks ring with the sweet flute.'14. Construe thus: copia opulenta honorum ruris (that is, of those things which honour or adorn the country; namely, flowers and fruits of all kinds) tibi hic manabit (ex) cornu benigno ad plenum (out of the horn of plenty, which is richly filled even to the brim.') Cornu is the cornu Fortunae, generally known under the name of Cornu Copiae.-18. Fide Teia, with the Teian lyre.' Teos was a city of Ionia, and the birthplace of Anacreon. To sing with the Teian lyre' means, therefore, 'to sing songs such as once Anacreon sang.'-19. Laborantes in uno unum amantes, loving one;' namely, Ulysses. He was beloved both by his wife Penelope, and by the goddess Circe, who wished to keep him on her island. Circe is called vitrea from the colour of the sea, which is like glass; for she was a sea-goddess. -21. Lesbii, scil. vini.-22. Nec Semeleius, &c. The sense is this: it will not happen, as often occurs at drinking bouts, that quarrels will break out. This sentiment is thus expressed: Bacchus, in conjunction with Mars (cum una cum), will not stir up battles.' The proper originator of the fights is Mars, who associated himself with Bacchus. The mother of Bacchus was Semele, who was deified under the name of Thyone: here the two names are connected.-25. Male dispari; namely, tibi, on thee, who art lamentably unable to cope with him.' Cyrus is the name of one whose love Tyndaris had despised.-28. Immeritam vestem, the innocent garment,' the garment which has committed no offence on account of which it deserves to be torn. 6 THE praises of the vine, and an exhortation to moderate drinking. Quintilius Varus, to whom the poem is addressed, is otherwise unknown: he is probably the same friend of Virgil and Horace whose death is bewailed in the 24th Ode. NULLAM, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem Quis post vina gravem militiam aut pauperiem crepat? 5 10 sooner, rather, more Catilus, or properly = 1. Vite prius; that is, prius quam vitem, willingly than the vine.'-2. Moenia Catili. Catillus, who was a son of Amphiaraus, one of the seven heroes who made war against Thebes, was, according to tradition, the founder of Tibur.-3. Siccis sobriis, 'sober men, abstainers;' opposed to madidi vino. — 4. Aliter, otherwise than by wine-drinking.-5. Crepat seems simply to mean 'talks about,' for the te in line 6 is dependent on the same verb.-6. Decens pulchra.-7. Ne quis.... Liberi, 'that no one may overleap the gifts of Bacchus;' that is, may transgress the bounds of moderation.-8. Centaurearixa. The fight between the two fabulous Greek tribes, the Centaurs and the Lapithae, is often described by the poets. It was fought out or decided (debellata) over the wine (super mero); that is, at a drinking-bout, at the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodamia. -9. Sithoniis. The Sithonians were a Thracian tribe, here used for the Thracians generally, who were notorious in antiquity for their drunkenness, and, as a natural result, their tendency to quarrel. Evius, an epithet of Bacchus, from evoe, the cry which the Bacchantes uttered.-10. Cum .... avidi, when, greedily anxious for the gratification of their passions (libidinum avidi being connected) they see right and wrong as separated by but a narrow boundary. This is a very beautiful description of men who, inflamed and blinded by wine, are led on to crime.-11. At the festivals of Bacchus, the Bacchantes, clad in fox-skins (bassareus, hence given here as a name of Bacchus himself), and swinging thyrsus-staves in their hands, used to carry about in procession chests, in which lay the |