The Epodes (Latin: Epodi or Epodon liber; also called Iambi) are a collection of iambic poems written by the Roman poet Horace.

Following the model of the Greek poets Archilochus and Hipponax, the Epodes largely fall into the genre of blame poetry, which seeks to discredit and humiliate its targets.

A product of the turbulent final years of the Roman Republic, the collection is known for its striking depiction of Rome's socio-political ills in a time of great upheaval.

In the ancient tradition of associating metrical form with content, the term had by Horace's time become a metonym for the genre of blame poetry which was habitually written in iambic metre.

[10] Horace, as is indicated in the above passage, largely followed the model of Archilochus with regards to metre and spirit, but, on the whole, the Epodes are much more restrained in their verbal violence.

[11] Another significant iambic predecessor of Horace was Hipponax, a lyric poet who flourished during the sixth century BC in Ephesus, Asia Minor.

In contrast to the previous iambic tradition, he has been described as striking a discernibly satirical pose: through the use of eccentric and foreign language, many of his poems come across as humorous takes on low-brow activities.

The Hellenistic scholar and poet Callimachus (third century BC) also wrote a collection of iambi, which are thought to have left a mark on Horace's poems.

[22] At the end of the poem, a money-lender named Alfius is revealed as the speaker of the epode, leaving the reader to ponder its sincerity.

[23] In Epode 3, Horace reacts to an excessive amount of garlic he has consumed at one of Maecenas' dinner parties: its strong taste has set his stomach on fire.

Together with a group of fellow witches, she plans to bury him alive up to his chin and to use his bone marrow and liver to concoct a love potion.

Set in the context of Octavian's civil war, the poet scolds his fellow citizens for rushing to shed their own blood instead of fighting foreign enemies.

[35] In Epode 11, the poet complains to his friend Pettius that he longer enjoys writing verses as he is mad with love for a boy named Lyciscus.

The second half of the poem tells how the centaur Chiron gave the same piece of advice to his pupil Achilles before he set off for Troy.

After lamenting the devastating effects of civil warfare on Rome and its citizens, Horace exhorts his countrymen to emigrate to a faraway place.

[40] The final Epode 17 takes the shape of a palinode, a type of poem which serves to retract a previously stated sentiment.

Although Horace assumes the strident persona of the iambic poet for most of the Epodes, critics have described that the roles of aggressor and victim are regularly reversed.

[45] The Latinist Ellen Oliensis describes her as a "kind of anti-Muse":[46] Horace finds himself forced to write poems in order to assuage her anger.

Anxiety about the outcome of the conflict manifests itself in several poems: while Epodes 1 and 9 express support for the Octavian cause, 9 displays a frustration about the precarious political situation more generally.

The wish to escape to a simpler, less hostile environment comes to the fore in two lengthy poems (2 and 16) and strikes a tone much like that of Virgil's early work, the Eclogues and Georgics.

One result of decades of civil war is the increasing confusion of friend and foe, which can be seen in Horace's attacks on Maecenas (3) and the upstart military tribune (4).

A good example of this is Epode 3: in response to an overly garlicky dinner, Horace hopes that Maecenas will suffer from a similar garlic overdose.

Here, the poet, apparently oblivious of his low social status, joins a mob of citizens in ridiculing a former slave who has risen to become a Roman knight.

[54] The Epodes have traditionally been Horace's least regarded work, due, in part, to the collection's recurring coarseness and its open treatment of sexuality.

[55] Leaving few traces in later ancient texts, the Epodes were often treated as a lesser appendix to the famous Odes in the early modern period.

Nevertheless, during the Victorian era, a number of leading English boarding schools prescribed parts of the collection as set texts for their students.

[7] In the wake of this resurgence, the collection has become known for what the classicist Stephen Harrison describes as "hard-hitting analyses" of the socio-political issues of late-Republican Rome.