Odes 2.12

Licymnia

by Horace

As in the opening poem in Horace’s second book of Odes, a theme here is the unsuitability of lyric poetry as a medium for epic themes of war and high politics. In that poem Horace was disingenuous, because it demonstrated that he could in fact handle precisely those themes with great virtuosity: here the stress is more on the descriptions of love, beauty and desire in the second half, all standard lyric territory, where the proper names are all places and people famous for their wealth. He takes the opportunity to fit in compliments to his great patron, Maecenas, and the future Emperor Augustus, along the way.

The Victorian commentator T E Page, pointing out that the two names scan identically, thought that Licymnia was really Maecenas’s wife, Terentia, but it is hard to imagine one of the grandest of Roman grandes dames behaving in the way that Horace describes.

Metre: Asclepiad.

See the illustrated blog post here.

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Nolis longa ferae bella Numantiae
nec durum Hannibalem nec Siculum mare
Poeno purpureum sanguine mollibus
aptari citharae modis

nec saevos Lapithas et nimium mero
Hylaeum domitosque Herculea manu
Telluris iuvenes, unde periculum
fulgens contremuit domus

Saturni veteris: tuque pedestribus
dices historiis proelia Caesaris,
Maecenas, melius ductaque per vias
regum colla minacium.

me dulces dominae Musa Licymniae
cantus, me voluit dicere lucidum
fulgentis oculos et bene mutuis
fidum pectus amoribus;

quam nec ferre pedem dedecuit choris
nec certare ioco nec dare bracchia
ludentem nitidis virginibus sacro
Dianae celebris die.

num tu quae tenuit dives Achaemenes
aut pinguis Phrygiae Mygdonias opes
permutare velis crine Licymniae
plenas aut Arabum domos,

cum flagrantia detorquet ad oscula
cervicem aut facili saevitia negat
quae poscente magis gaudeat eripi,
interdum rapere occupet?

You don’t want the long and distant battles for untamed Numantia, merciless Hannibal or the waters of the Sicilian sea crimson with Carthaginian blood set to the gentle music of the lyre, nor the raging Lapiths or Hylaeus the centaur, raging with too much wine, or the Gigantes, sons of the Earth, conquered by Hercules’ hand, who brought danger at which the shining home of ancient Saturn shook: and you, Maecenas, will tell the story  better in prose accounts of Caesar’s battles and the once-threatening kings he led by the neck in triumph through the streets of Rome. Me? My Muse wants me to sing songs of mistress Licymnia, her flashing eyes and her heart truly faithful in requited love. How becoming for her to step out in the dance, join in the merriment, and link hands with the lovely girls as she joined in their play on renowned Diana’s feast-day! Surely, you would be willing to exchange all that rich Achaemenes had, or the fabulous wealth of fertile Phrygia, or the mansions of Arabia with all they contain for one lock of Licymnia’s hair, when she bends her neck to catch burning kisses, or with gentle cruelty refuses them, preferring her suitor to snatch them from her, and sometimes is herself the first to snatch them?

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More Poems by Horace

  1. Horace’s first Ode
  2. Here’s to Murena!
  3. The fleeting years slip by
  4. Horace’s monument
  5. Nereus prophesies the Trojan War
  6. Poscimur
  7. The tug-of-war for Nearchus
  8. Diffugere nives
  9. Horace’s Cleopatra ode
  10. A plea for burial
  11. Housman and Horace
  12. Horace’s prayer to a wine-jar
  13. Horace rests from his labours
  14. Glycera
  15. The Golden Mean
  16. Lalage is too young
  17. Don’t trust Barine
  18. Mourning for a good man
  19. Horace’s limitations
  20. Diana and Apollo: a hymn
  21. Horace, the wolf and the upright life
  22. Numida’s back
  23. Postumus, the years slip by
  24. What Roman youth should be
  25. The final ode
  26. Don’t worry, be happy
  27. The consolations of wine
  28. Soracte
  29. Valgius and Mystes
  30. Last love
  31. Some advice for Dellius
  32. Unrequited love
  33. Horace’s reverence to Bacchus
  34. Horace returns to lyric poetry
  35. Love a slave-girl? Oh, Xanthias!
  36. Fortuna
  37. A Prayer to the poetry-God
  38. Lovely mother, lovelier daughter
  39. Pollio’s histories of civil war
  40. Carpe diem, Sestius
  41. The country is best
  42. Awe for the Gods
  43. Jealousy
  44. Rome: disaster and salvation
  45. Luxury versus the simple life
  46. Lydia’s tragedy
  47. A Farewell to arms
  48. O Fons Bandusiae
  49. Horace’s wine
  50. Celebrating Neptune’s feast day
  51. Horace welcomes his army comrade
  52. Give me comfort, not riches
  53. Courage and decadence: the Regulus ode
  54. Augustus, master of the world
  55. A change of mind
  56. Pindar and Augustus
  57. Tibur or Tarentum: a poet’s dilemma?
  58. Pyrrha
  59. Stormy seas
  60. Horace the peacemaker
  61. A prayer to Venus
  62. A garland from the Muses
  63. The pleasures and dangers of wine
  64. Wealth should be used, not hoarded
  65. Horace’s Chloe
  66. Iccius goes soldiering
  67. Gathering rosebuds: carpe diem
  68. An invitation to Maecenas
  69. A prayer to Mercury
    70. View Latin Poems