CARMEN XV. NEREI VATICINIUM DE EXCIDIO TROJAE. A PLAY of Horace's fancy, written, as it appears, without any par. ticular reference to the state of the empire; though some have supposed it to contain an allusion to Antony, who was ruined by his love to Cleopatra, as Paris was by his to Helen. PASTOR Cum traheret per freta navibus Idaeis Helenen perfidus hospitam, Ventos, ut caneret fera Nereus fata: 'Mala ducis avi domum, Quam multo repetet Graecia milite, Conjurata tuas rumpere nuptias Et regnum Priami vetus. Heu! heu! Quantus equis, quantus adest viris Sudor! Quanta moves funera Dardanae Genti! Jam Galeam Pallas et aegida Currusque et rabiem parat. Nequicquam, Veneris praesidio ferox, 5 10 1. Construe thus: cum pastor (namely, Priam's son Paris, who, when tending his father's sheep, had given the well-known decision regarding the beauty of the three goddesses, Venus, Minerva, and Juno) perfidus (because he had violated the laws of hospitality towards Menelaus, king of Sparta) Helenen hospitam traheret per freta (was carrying over the sea') Idaeis navibus,in Idaean ships;' that is, ships built of the wood which grew on Mount Ida, near Troy.-3. Ingrato, because the winds love to rage, and roam, and rouse the sea.—5. Nereus, a sea-god, who presided especially over the Aegean. He possessed the gift of prophecy; and when he saw Paris fleeing with Helen, he uttered the prediction which Horace proceeds to give, announcing the dire fate (fera fata) that awaited Troy. Mala avi malo omine, omens being taken principally from the flight of birds.-7. Conjurata rumpere, poetical for quae universa juravit se rupturam esse.-10. Funera cladem, destruction.' Dardana gens means the Trojans, so called from Dardanus, one of their ancient kings.-11. Pallas, the enemy of the Trojans, is already preparing her helmet, her shield (the aegis, in the centre of which was the frightful head of Medusa), and her chariot, and the wild ferocity of war is rising in her bosom.-13. Ferox = confisus, trusting.' Venus was the constant friend of the Trojans. Imbelli cithara carmina divides; Hastas et calami spicula Cnosii Vitabis strepitumque et celerem sequi Non Laertiaden, exitium tuae Genti, non Pylium Nestora respicis? Pugnae, sive opus est imperitare equis, Non auriga piger. Merionen quoque Quem tu, cervus uti vallis in altera Visum parte lupum graminis immemor, Non hoc pollicitus tuae. Iracunda diem proferet Ilio Matronisque Phrygum classis Achillei; 15 20 25 20 15. Divides, as in i. 36, 6, is to be connected with feminis. We can carmina dividere even to a single person, by singing to her at different times.-16. Thalamo. An allusion to Homer's Iliad, iii. 381, where it is related that on one occasion, when Paris was fighting and hard-pressed, Venus concealed him in a cloud, and took him home to his chamber.-17. Calami spicula Cnosii. Cnosos was a town in Crete, whose inhabitants were famed during all antiquity as archers.- 18. Strepitum, 'the noise of war.' Celerem sequi Ajacem this construction is Greek-swift in pursuit.' The younger Ajax, the son of Oileus, is meant; his standing epithet in Homer being swift.'-19. Tamen, in spite of all this, in spite of the protection of Venus; and although thou avoidest the battle, yet, &c. Serus, a poetical construction for sero.-21. The poet enume. rates some of the chief heroes who fought against Troy; mention ing first Ulysses, son of Laertes, whose craftiness it was which de vised the wooden horse, the ultimate means of the taking of the city; next Nestor, from Pylos in Peloponnesus, famed for his elo. quence; then Teucer, from Salamis (compare i. 7, 21); Sthenelus, charioteer of Diomedes, and his companion in arms; Meriones, companion of Idomeneus of Crete; and lastly, Diomedes, son of Tydeus.-22. Non-respicis, 'dost thou not think of?'-25. Sive vel si, or, if, &c., also a good charioteer.'-27. Reperire. The infinitive, according to the Greek usage, instead of ut reperiat. 28. Melior fortior. Compare Iliad, iv. 405.-29. In altera parte vallis visum. The stag forgets the pasture and flees, as soon as it sees a wolf on the other side of the valley.-31. Sublimi anhelitu, with a deep-fetched breath; that is, panting heavily. -32. Tuae; namely, uxori Helenae, to whom Paris had boasted of his strength and valour. See Homer, Iliad, iv. 430.-33. Iracunda― classis Achillei. As Achilles and his companions (here 35 Post certas hiemes uret Achaicus 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 6 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. 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 thun. ders 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 LIB . Nunc ego mitibus Opprobriis animumque reddas. 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 VELOX amoenum saepe Lucretilem Usque meis pluviosque ventos. Nec virides metuunt colubras 5 10 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. We 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 λeyópevov, 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 |