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ODE XXI.

TO HIS JAR.

O THOU goodly cask, that wast brought to light at the same time with me in the consulship of Manlius, whether thou containest the occasion of complaint, or jests, or broils and maddening amours, or gentle sleep; under whatever title thou preservest the choice Massic, worthy to be removed on an auspicious day; descend,75 Corvinus bids me draw the mellowest wine. He, though he is imbued in the Socratic lectures, will not morosely reject thee. The virtue even of old Cato is recorded to have been frequently warmed with wine. Thou appliest a gentle violence to that disposition, which is in general of the rougher cast. Thou revealest the cares and secret designs of the wise, by the assistance of merry Bacchus. You restore hope and spirit to anxious minds,76 and give horns77 to the poor man, who after [tasting] you neither dreads the diadems of enraged monarchs, nor the weapons of the soldiers. Thee Bacchus, and Venus, if she comes in good humour, and the Graces loth to dissolve the knot [of their union],78 and living lights shall prolong, till returning Phoebus puts the stars to flight.

ODE XXII.

TO DIANA.

O VIRGIN, protectress of the mountains and the groves, thou

75 The Romans had their wine-cellars at the top of their houses, that their wines might ripen sooner by the smoke. CRUQ.

76 Tormentum ingenio admoves. "You offer an agreeable violence to the mind." It is a metaphor taken from war, when a town was assaulted with batteries and machines. Others understand it of giving the torture to criminals to force a secret from them, and Doctor Bentley explains it, as if wine gave an eloquence and facility to the most heavy, barren understanding. FRAN.

77 The expression cornua addis is one of a proverbial character. Consult note on Ode ii. 19, 29. The "horn," was the symbol of power among all the eastern nations. See 1 Samuel ii. 1; Luke i. 69. ANTHON. e. never dissolving it." Eurip. Hippol. 1147, xápires ovšvyiai,

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ORELLI.

three-formed goddess, who, thrice invoked,79 hearest young women in labour, and savest them from death; sacred to thee be this pine that overshadows my villa, which I, at the completion of every year, joyful will present with the blood of a boar-pig, just meditating his oblique attack.

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ODE XXIII.

TO PHIDYLE.

My rustic Phidyle, if you raise your suppliant hands 80 to heaven at the new moon, and appease the household gods with frankincense, and this year's fruits,81 and a ravening swine ; the fertile vine shall neither feel the pestilential south-west, nor the corn the barren blight, or your dear brood the sickly season in the fruit-bearing autumn.82 For the destined victim, which is pastured in the snowy Algidus among the oaks and holm trees, or thrives in the Albanian meadows, with its throat shall stain the axes of the priests. It is not required of you, who are crowning our little gods with rosemary and the brittle gmyrtle, to propitiate them with a great slaughter of sheep. If an innocent hand touches the altar, a magnificent victim does not pacify the offended Penates more acceptably, than a consecrated cake and crackling salt.

79 Ter vocata. Horace mentions the number three, because it was always a mysterious number, or because women in labour invoked the goddess by three principal names. In the next line she is called triformis, as she was Luna in heaven, Diana upon earth, and Proserpine in hell; from whence she was painted with three heads, one, of a lion, another, of a bull, and the third, of a dog. SAN.

80 This was the usual gesture of the ancients when they prayed; but with this difference, that when they addressed themselves to the celestial gods they held the palms of their hands upwards, as if to receive a blessing; but turned them towards the earth in their prayers to the infernal gods, as if to avert an evil. CRUQ.

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81 Horna, i. e. spicis hornotinis, hujus anni." ORELLI.

"Annus": "" tempestas." Cf. Epod. ii. 39. Virg. Ecl. iii. 87.

ODE XXIV.

TO THE COVETOUS.83

THOUGH, more wealthy than the unrifled treasures of the Arabians and rich India, you should possess yourself by your edifices 84 of the whole Tyrrhenian and Apulian seas; yet, if cruel fate fixes its adamantine grapples upon the topmost roofs, you shall not disengage your mind from dread, nor your life from the snares of death.85 The Scythians that dwell in the plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their vagrant habitations, live in a better manner; and [so do] the rough Getæ, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and corn free to all, nor is a longer than annual tillage agreeable, and a successor relieves him who has accomplished his labour by an equal right. There the guiltless wife spares her motherless step-children, nor does the portioned spouse govern her husband, or put any confidence in a sleek adulterer. Their dower is the high virtue of their parents, and a chastity reserved from any other man by a stedfast security; and it is forbidden to sin, or the reward is death. O if there be any one willing to remove our impious slaughters, and civil rage; if he be desirous to be written FATHER OF THE STATE, on statues [erected to him], let him dare to curb insuperable licentiousness, and be eminent to posterity; since we (O injustice!) detest virtue while living, but invidiously seek for her after she is taken out of our view. To what purpose are our woeful complaints, if sin is not cut off with punishment? Of what efficacy are empty laws, without morals; if neither that part of the world which is shut in by fervent heats, nor that side which borders upon Boreas, and snows hard

33 It appears by the twenty-sixth verse, that this ode was written before the year 724, which ended the civil wars; at least it preceded the expedition of Arabia in 727. SAN.

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84 The term camenta, quasi cædimenta, literally means stones for filling up." Here, however, it refers to the structures reared on these artificial foundations.

85 The poet here represents death armed with a net, which he throws over the heads of those whom he attacks. This image is taken from the gladiators called Retiarii, whose antagonists had the figure of a fish upon their helmet, from whence they used in their combats to sing "Non te peto, piscem peto? Quid me fugis, Galle?" DAC.

ened upon the ground, keep off the merchant; [and] the expert sailors get the better of the horrible seas? Poverty, a great reproach, impels us both to do and to suffer any thing, and deserts the path of difficult virtue. Let us, then, cast our gems and precious stones and useless gold, the cause of extreme evil, either into the Capitol, whither the acclamations and crowd of applauding [citizens] call us, or into the adjoining ocean. If we are truly penitent for our enormities, the very elements of depraved lust are to be erased, and the minds of too soft a mould should be formed by severer studies. The noble youth knows not how to keep his seat on horseback,86 and is afraid to go a hunting, more skilled to play (if you choose it) with the Grecian trochus,87 or dice, prohibited by law; 88 while the father's perjured faith can deceive his partner and friend, and he hastens to get money for an unworthy heir. In a word, iniquitous wealth increases, yet something is ever wanting to the incomplete fortune.

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ODE XXV.89

TO BACCHUS.

A DITHYRAMBIC.

WHITHER, O Bacchus, art thou hurrying me, replete with

86 To remedy this evil, Augustus revived the mock-fights, which were carried by Ascanius to Italy, and which afterwards continued to the time of Claudius Cæsar. FRAN.

87 At the Grecian trochus. It was formerly thought that this was the same with the play of the top, or rather that of billiards; but this notion is now generally exploded. The trochus was properly an iron hoop, of five or six feet diameter, set round with rings. Kennet, in his Roman Antiquities, tell us, that the boys and young men used to whirl this along, as our children do wooden hoops, directing it with a rod of iron, having a wooden handle; which rod the Grecians called λarnp, and the Romans radius. There was need of great dexterity to guide the hoop right. In the mean time, the rings, by the clattering which they made, not only gave the people notice to keep out of the way; but contributed very much to the boys' diversion. WATSON.

38 All games of hazard were forbidden by several laws, except during the Saturnalia. FRAN.

89 As to the date of this ode, we can only be assured, that it was composed before the consecration of Octavius, and perhaps it was written for his consecration, in the year 725. SAN.

so The poet, recovering from the strong influence of the god, and sur

your influence? Into what groves, into what recesses am I driven, actuated with uncommon spirit? In what caverns, meditating the immortal honour of illustrious Cæsar, shall I be heard enrolling him among the stars and the council of Jove? I will utter something extraordinary, new, hitherto unsung by any other voice. Thus the sleepless Bacchanal is struck with enthusiasm, casting her eyes upon Hebrus, and Thrace bleached with snow, and Rhodope traversed by the feet of barbarians. How am I delighted in my rambles, to admire the rocks and the desert grove! O lord of the Naiads and the Bacchanalian women, who are able with their hands to overthrow lofty ash-trees;91 nothing little, nothing low, nothing mortal will I sing. Charming is the hazard, O Bacchus, to accompany the god, who binds his temples with the verdant vine-leaf.

ODE XXVI.

TO VENUS.

I LATELY lived a proper person for girls, and campaigned it not without honour; but now this wall, which guards the left side of [the statue] of sea-born Venus, shall have my arms

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veying with alarm the arduous nature of the theme to which he has dared to approach, compares himself to the Bacchant, whom the stern power of the deity, which she serves, has driven onward, in that blind career, through many a strange and distant region. Awakening from the deep slumber into which exhausted nature had at length been compelled to sink, she finds herself, when returning recollection comes to her aid, on the remote mountain-tops, far from her native scenes, and gazes in silent wonder on the prospect before her; the dark Hebrus, the snow-clad fields of Thrace, and the chain of Rhodope rearing its summits to the skies. Few passages can be cited from any ancient or modern writer containing more of the true spirit of poetry. ANTHON.

91 Probably alluding to the story of Pentheus. Cf. Eur. Bacch. 1109. 92 Ovid tells us, that every lover is a soldier, militat omnis amans; and as the ancients were accustomed to consecrate their arms to Mars, when they quitted the trade of war; so the poet here dedicates to Venus his lyre, his torches, and bows. He hangs up his midnight arms upon the eastern wall of her temple, on the left side of the goddess; for the statues of the gods were placed in such a manner as to look towards the south; so that the east, which was always esteemed the happy quarter of the heavens, was upon their left hand. LAMB.

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