Odes (Horace)

The Odes were developed as a conscious imitation of the short lyric poetry of Greek originals – Pindar, Sappho and Alcaeus are some of Horace's models.

[2] The Roman writer Petronius, writing less than a century after Horace's death, remarked on the curiosa felicitas (studied spontaneity) of the Odes (Satyricon 118).

The English poet Alfred Tennyson declared that the Odes provided "jewels five-words long, that on the stretched forefinger of all Time / Sparkle for ever" (The Princess, part II, l.355).

I.2, Iam satis terris nivis atque dirae... – To Octavian, The Deliverer and Hope of the State – The subject of this ode is the overflowing of the Tiber, which recalls to the poet the flood of Deucalion.

Horace urges his friend Sestius – vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam (The brief sum of life forbids us cling to far-off hope).

I.5, Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa... – To the flirt Pyrrha, who is as faithless as the winds or seas, and whose fancy no lover can hold onto.

I.6, Scribēris Vario fortis et hostium victor... – Horace pleads his inability to worthily sing the praises of M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the distinguished Roman Commander.

I.9, Vides ut alta stet nive candidum... – Winter Without Bids Us Make Merry Within (Soracte) – (with borrowing from an original by Alcaeus) – To Thaliarchus.

I.16, O matre pulchra filia pulchrior... – An Apology – The poet has offended some lady by the intemperate utterances of his verse; he now seeks forgiveness for the fault.

I.21, Dianam tenerae dicite virgines... – Hymn to Diana and Apollo and their mother Latona I.22, Integer vitae scelerisque purus... – Upright of Life and Free from Wickedness – Addressed to Aristius Fuscus – Begins as a solemn praise of honest living and ends in a mock-heroic song of love for sweetly laughing "Lalage" (cf.

I.27, Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis... – Let Moderation Reign – At a wine party, Horace endeavors to restrain his quarrelsome companions – He asks the brother of Megilla of Opus to confide the object of his affections.

[7] I.29, Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides... – The Scholar Turned Adventurer – A remonstrance addressed to Iccius on his intention of giving up philosophy and of joining the expedition to Arabia Felix.

I.36, Et ture et fidibus iuvat – An Ode of Congratulation to Plotius Numida, on his safe return from Spain, where he had been serving under Octavian in a war against the Cantabrians.

II.4, Ne sit ancillae tibi amor pudori... – To Xanthias Phoceus – Horace encourages his friend on his love for Phyllis, his slave.

[11] II.6, Septimi, Gadis aditure mecum et... – Fairest of All is Tibur – Yet Tarentum, Too, Is Fair – To Horace's friend, the Roman knight Septimius, who would go with him to the ends of the earth.

II.7, O saepe mecum tempus in ultimum... – A Joyful Return – An ode of congratulation to Pompeius Varus, once the poet's comrade in the army of Brutus, on his restoration to civil rights.

II.12, Nolis longa ferae bella Numantiae... – The Charms of Licymnia – Horace pleads the unfitness of his lyric poetry to record the wars of the Romans or the battles of mythology.

– To Maecenas on His Recovery from Illness – Horace says that the same day must of necessity bring death to them both – Their horoscopes are wonderfully alike and they have both been saved from extreme peril.

II.18, Non ebur neque aureum... – The Vanity of Riches – The poet, content with his own moderate fortune, inveighs against the blindness of avarice – for the same end awaits all men.

The ancient editor Porphyrion read the first six odes of this book as a single sequence, one unified by a common moral purpose and addressed to all patriotic citizens of Rome.

Ode III.5 Caelo tonantem credidimus Jovem makes explicit identification of Augustus as a new Jove destined to restore in modern Rome the valor of past Roman heroes like Marcus Atilius Regulus, whose story occupies the second half of the poem.

– Horace condemns the prevailing domestic immorality and contempt of the institutions of religion, and earnestly urges a speedy return to the simpler and purer manners of ancient times.

III.21, O nata mecum consule Manlio... – To a Wine-Jar – Horace, preparing to entertain his friend the orator Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, sings of the manifold virtues of wine.

[19] The breezes and birds have returned – An invitation to a feast of Spring – The poet agrees to supply some fine wine, if Virgil will bring a jar of perfume.

[31] For example, in the first (1.1) and last ode (3.30), which are both in the same rare metre and both addressed to Maecenas, Horace boasts of being the first poet to imitate aeolic-style lyric poetry in Latin.

In both the 5th poem (1.5) and the 5th from the end (3.26) Horace signals his retirement from love affairs by stating that he has dedicated his clothes or lyre in the temple of the god or goddess of the sea.

The six odes which begin book 3, all in the Alcaic metre, and on serious subjects such as the Roman Empire, virtue, and Augustus, have long been recognised as forming an independent group within the collection.

[39] According to this arrangement, the first ode, 3.1, serves as an introduction to the other five; its first eight lines in particular anticipate the themes of 3.4, marking out Horace as the priest of the Muses, and equating the victory of Jupiter over the giants with Augustus's rule over the empire.

For book 4, several schemes have been suggested, such as pentadic or triadic,[43] but a number of scholars such as Eduard Fraenkel have seen the central three poems (4.7–4.9), dealing with the inevitability of death, as forming a separate group.

Horace himself (Odes 3.30.13–14) claimed to be "the first to have brought Aeolic song to Latin poetry" (prīnceps Aeolium carmen ad Ītalōs/ dēdūxisse modōs); which is true if two poems written by Catullus (11 and 51) in Sapphic stanzas are not counted.