Catullus has heard that Aurelius and Furius are saying that, to judge from the erotic poetry that he writes, he is living an immoral life. Catullus responds in no uncertain terms. THIS POEM CONTAINS VERY BAD LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE.
Hear it in Latin and follow in English here.
When he wrote this poem, Horace believed he had completed the Odes, and felt fully entitled to claim pride and credit for them for himself and his muse: in fact he had another book to go. The picture of Melpomene, to whom the poem is dedicated, is by the Austrian painter Alexander Rothaug.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
As war with Turnus and the Italians looms for Aeneas and his Trojans, Father Tiber offers helpful advice. Hear the Latin from Book 8 of the Aeneid and follow in English here.
The immortal Marcel Proust was born on 10 July 1871. To celebrate, Pantheon Poets posts a recently-published love poem written when he was doing his military service. See the original and a parallel translation here.
Epic journeys need impressive beginnings. Virgil obliges. He uses the same stately metre as the Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odysssey, which stood at the pinnacle of both Greek and Roman literary culture, and echoes the opening lines of each.
There is a recording of the opening lines of the Aeneid here, along with links that you can use to compare it with the openings of both Homeric poems in Greek with a translation. Pantheon Poets also now contains many other extracts from the Aeneid, and you can follow them in narrative order by navigating from the links at the foot of Virgil’s poet page here.
The Trojan War, and all the trouble that came from it for both the Greeks and the Trojans, including Aeneas, began when the Trojan, Paris, was asked to judge a beauty contest between three goddesses. Understandably, but unwisely, he chose Venus, who promised him the most beautiful woman in the world as a reward. Juno, the Queen of the Gods and the goddess of marriage, was not amused. Siemiradski’s painting reconstructs the scene.
Horace shows respect and affection in this invitation-poem to his patron Maecenas and pays a compliment to the future Emperor Augustus into the bargain.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
With the help of the Fury Allecto, Juno, Aeneas’s enemy, has sabotaged King Latinus’s wish to welcome him and create an alliance by marriage to his daughter. Overcome, the old man withdraws from the fray and Juno herself intervenes to open the gates of war.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
The efforts of Juno, queen of the Gods, to sow dissension between Aeneas and his Italian hosts are in full swing, with the help of the Fury, Allecto. Disguised at first as an old woman, Allecto now reveals herself to Turnus in her full and terrifying reality.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
PantheonPoets.com is now one year old and recently posted its hundredth poem. Thank you for your company along the way.
There will be more to come in our second year from Horace and Virgil, Rome’s greatest lyric and epic writers. So far, there are 16 of Horace’s Odes, and extracts from the Aeneid have reached book seven (of twelve). There will be more Ovid, Catullus and Propertius, and new authors such as the scientist-philosopher Lucretius, from whom a first extract has recently been added.
The aim is to make the poetry as accessible and entertaining as possible, and finding an illustration for every poem is part of this. Another recent feature is a new series of selections of poems by different Latin authors on a common theme, so far including love, happy and unhappy, monsters, mourning and gods and demons. I hope that these will make it easier for you to go exploring if you are not necessarily a classicist. In time there will be a dozen or more of these selections: you will find them under the Latin Poetry tab.
“Modern” – in other words, post-classical – poetry continues to be an important part of Pantheon Poets. There is poetry from 16 authors so far, many chosen to show direct echoes or wider cultural influence from the classics. Do browse this “Other” poetry as well as the Latin and Greek. You may find surprises, including a mock-classical passage from Marcel Proust to celebrate his 150th birthday next month – he is not as widely appreciated for his jokes as he deserves to be.
You can keep informed about new poems using the “News” feed, which gives links to the poetry itself and to the illustrated blog. Or you can hear about new poems and see the illustrations by following us on Instagram (pantheon.poets): there is also a new feed there – realmsofgoldpoets – drawing attention to post-classical poetry at the Pantheon Poets website.
Poetry in modern languages other than English is performed at Pantheon Poets by mother-tongue readers, and I would like to give special thanks to my German, French and Italian friends Tatjana, Olivia and Daniel, as well as to Lahive Creative for their great work over the past year.
It has been a strange old year, but Boethius reminds us that the world keeps on turning:
semper vicibus temporis aequis
Vesper seras nuntiat umbras
revehitque diem Lucifer almum. *
Pantheon Poets and I wish you joy, fulfilment and freedom in the year to come.
Marcus Agrippa
*Forever, to the steady beat of time, the evening star says lateness and the dark, the morning star brings back the kindly day.