This selection is on the theme of Carpe diem – these days usually translated as “seize the day”, but you could equally well translate it as “pluck” the day – as if it were a flower. Most of the examples here are from the Odes of Horace, the absolute master of the genre, and they include some of his most beautiful and atmospheric poems. For contrast, the final one is by a different poet – just possibly Virgil, but more probably by a gifted but anonymous writer whose poem became attached at some point to a manuscript of Virgil’s works.

To begin, here is a famous version with some of Horace’s best descriptions of nature and the simple pleasures of life (Soracte, Odes 1.9).

Next, here is the short piece in which Horace coins – or uses – the famous phrase (Odes 1.11).

Here , Horace combines the message with another recurring theme: the ultimate futility of accumulating great wealth (Odes 2.3).

Here is another in the form of a wistful piece addressed to a friend, Postumus (“Eheu fugaces”, Odes 2.4).

The poem here, from the fourth and last book of Odes is perhaps the most sombre of Horace’s “carpe diem” pieces (“Diffugere nives”, Odes 4.7).

Finally, the theme in other hands: here is a description. possibly by Virgil but more likely not, describing the Syrian hostess of a pub which is my favourite in all literature (Appendix Vergiliana, “Copa Syrisca”).

This selection introduces us to beasts and monsters, starting gently with the wolf that Horace met one day. He was clearly frightened, but with the benefit of nature documentaries we know that the wolf was probably more afraid of him.

Horace’s wolf

A wise Trojan priest pays a terrible price for warning the Trojans about the Trojan horse.

Laocoon

Troy is doomed to fall at the fateful moment when the horse enters the city.

The Trojan Horse

On their wanderings, Aeneas and his band encounter a flock of foul flying creatures.

The Harpies

On his journey to the underworld Aeneas sees Tisiphone, tormenter of the damned in Tartarus.

Tisiphone

The underworld again: this time the poet is Horace, and the visitor the God Bacchus. Fortunatey he is good with dogs, as he must pass the kennel of the fearsome three-headed guardian, Cerberus.

Cerberus

In the illustration, the sea-nymph Thetis is using her shape-changing gift to try to escape the hero Peleus: they became the parents of Achilles.

See the index to Latin selections on PantheonPoets.com here.

Here is a selection of poetry about the Gods – in a variety of moods.

First, Jupiter, King of the Gods, in the mood for love as

Europa’s bull.

After Aeneas and Dido begin their doomed affair, the news is spread by the God of

Rumour.

Aeneas has to be reminded of his divine mission to found a city in Italy by the Gods’ messenger,

Mercury.

All ends badly for Dido. Taking pity, Juno ordains her final release from her agony by

Iris, the rainbow-messenger

Some deities are more glamorous than others. Aeneas meets the ferryman of Hades,

Charon.

Horace has a mystical experience with a vision of

Bacchus.

Arachne discovers that challenging a God is unwise in the course of her weaving contest with

Minerva.

Juno rouses King Turnus of the Rutuli to arms against Aeneas with the help of

Allecto the Fury

Aeneas receives some welcome strategic advice from

the river-God Tiberinus

Under Mount Etna, a might forge resounds with the laboursof

Vulcan and his workmen the Cyclopes

See the index to Latin selection pages here.

Horace

This is Pantheon Poets’s selection of twenty-four of Horace’s poems in the order in which they appear in his four Books of the Odes. Click on the description of each Ode to link to the page where you can hear it in Latin and follow an English translation.

Odes 1.3 Horace wishes his friend Virgil bon voyage and a safe return from a trip to Athens. Metre: second Asclepiad

Odes 1.5: Pyrrha has a new lover. Metre: fourth Asclepiad

Odes 1.9: Mount Soracte under winter snows inspires a reflection on the good things of youth and life. Metre: Alcaic

Odes 1.11: Horace coins (or recalls) the famous phrase, “carpe diem.” Metre: fifth Asclepiad

Odes 1.13: An admirer’s jealousy for a pretty girl’s stormy new affair. Metre: second Asclepiad.

Odes 1.16: In a compliment to a lovely mother and her lovelier daughter, Horace renounces the libellous poems of his youth

Odes 1.22: an encounter with a wolf reminds Horace of the need to lead a decent life. Metre: Sapphic

Odes 1.32: the “poscimur” ode – Horace affirms his mission to create an entirely new form of Latin poetry by transmuting Greek models. Metre: Sapphic

Odes 1.37: Horace’s rejoicing at the future Emperor Augustus’s victory over Cleopatra, the dangerous but brave oriental Queen. Metre: Alcaic

Odes 2.3: Dellius seems to be a rich landowner: Horace draws on Epicurean philosophy to remind him that there are some good things in life that money can’t buy. Metre: Alcaic

Odes 2.6: Horace concedes that his friend’s beloved Tarentum is a fine place, but it will not make him forsake his own Sabine farm. Metre: Sapphic

Odes 2.7: Horace welcomes an old comrade-in-arms – at the personal level the poem celebrates friendship, along with the clemency of the new Augustan regime. Metre: Alcaic

Odes 2.8: beware of Barine, the femme fatale! Metre: Sapphic

Odes 2.19: Horace pays an impassioned and elegant tribute to Bacchus, God of wine and intoxication. Metre: Alcaic

Odes 3.5: Horace uses the example of Regulus, a Roman legend of unshakeable courage and devotion to duty from the wars against Carthage, to assert the need for the same qualities in his own time. Metre: Alcaic

Odes 3.8: a compliment from Horace to Maecenas, his patron and friend, in the form of an invitation to dinner. Metre: Sapphic

Odes 3.13: O fons Bandusiae – Horace venerates a spring for the Roman festival of Fontinalia. Metre: fourth Asclepiad

Odes 3.19: Horace is throwing a party to celebrate Murena’s election to the college of augurs. Metre: second Asclepiad

Odes 3.20: Horace warns Pyrrhus that the lady from whom he has stolen the gorgeous Nearchus will be coming after him. Metre: Sapphic

Odes 3.21: Horace’s prayer to a wine-jar. Metre: Alcaic

Odes 3.28: Horace celebrates Neptune’s feast-day. Metre: second Asclepiad

Odes 3.30: Horace signs off from the Odes – or so he thought – by asserting that in them he has created a monument more lasting than bronze. Metre: first Asclepiad

Odes 4.1: returning to poetry in lyric metre after a break of perhaps ten years, Horace in middle age is now past love – or so he thinks. Metre: second Asclepiad.

Odes 4.7: Horace mourns the transience of life in this poem to the dark side of “carpe diem.” Metre: Hexameters followed by an Archilochius minor

Odes 4.11: Horace tries out his powers of seduction for one last time. Metre: Sapphics

Odes 4.15: Horace brings his last book of Odes to a close with a final panegyric on the success and legacy of Augustus. Metre: Alcaic.

This is a landscape selection from the Latin poets (see the selections index here). The ancients would have assumed that the world was boundless and nature was inexhaustible, in contrast to our modern realisation that the world is small and fragile in a way that was unimaginable as recently as the 1960s.

First (see a shield used as an umbrella in the illustration from a 5th-century Virgil), in the wild and storm-swept Carthaginian hunting country, Dido and Aeneas find a fateful shelter from the rain in

Dido’s cave..

On the occasion of the festival of Fontinalia, Horace celebrates the beauty of

the Spring of Bandusia.

Horace flatters a friend over the attractions of his beloved Tarentum, but makes it clear that he will be staying at his Sabine farm near

Tibur.

Catullus gives us a complete account of the changing seascape from the Black Sea all the way to Italy as told by his

yacht.

In Book 8 of the Aeneid, and centuries before it was built, Virgil gives us a

guided tour of the future Rome.

Zooming out, Boethius reminds us that prospects are not only Earthly and local, but

Cosmic and eternal.

In this second selection of poems on a theme, love is not going so smoothly. Dido is being consumed by a passion for Aeneas which as yet is unrequited:

Dido falls in love

Propertius is obsessed by Cynthia, but she only seems to make him unhappy:

Cynthia

Catullus was so blissfully happy with Lesbia, but his luck has changed:

poor Catullus

Propertius is still camped on his lady’s doorstep, and her door doesn’t seem to care:

the lover’s complaint to the door

But doesn’t Horace say that he is glad that it is over with Pyrrha? Yes, but you can see that he still misses her:

Pyrrha

Even in Hades when human life is past, Dido harbours a grudge:

Aeneas finds Dido among the shades

Propertius again – he says he’s invincible, but it doesn’t sound much fun to be

insatiable.

Follow this link to see:

the index of Latin selections

This is the first of a new series of Pantheon Poets Latin medleys – a selection of Latin poems which share a common theme. The first is love, and specifically love that is happy – so far. You can hear the Latin and follow in English by following the links, and on each poem page you will find another link if you would like to see a blog post with an illustration.

We start – where else – with one of the most celebrated love poems in any language: Catullus inviting Lesbia to live and love, and not to mind the gossip or count the kisses.
Vivamus, mea Lesbia

Next, Virgil in the Aeneid describes Dido, the Queen of Carthage, falling for Aeneas, the brave and noble Trojan Prince who is her guest.
Dido falls in love

In this extract, Ovid expresses some of the free and easy attitudes to love that we believe got him into trouble with the Emperor Augustus – a great believer in conservative family values – and earned him a one-way ticket to an unhappy exile by the Black Sea.
Ovid’s broad-minded advice to his mistress

Propertius has been out for a night on the tiles and makes a dawn visit to his lady-love, Cynthia.
Propertius and his sleeping beauty

Ovid has been courting. Finally he has had his wicked way, and seems not to care who knows about it.
Ovid’s triumph

Back finally to Catullus, doyen of love poets. How many kisses are enough for him and too much. How many??!!
How many kisses

Links to new selections will be posted in the index here.

This is a short selection about the poet Lucan, destined to die young by Nero’s orders, and his epic poem about the civil war, “De Bello Civile”.

You can read about Lucan’s life and modern and ancient critical views of his work here.

Lucan sums up the contestants, Caesar and Pompey.

Lucan describes Caesar crossing the Rubicon.

In no uncertain terms, Caesar’s troops pledge their loyalty.

The loss of a loved one is hard, but it has inspired some very beautiful poetry. This selection begins with Catullus’s

farewell to a beloved brother.

In this poem, the inspiration for a famous English translation, Callimachus remembers his

poet-friend, Heraclitus.

Catullus expresses both consolation and desire in his half-serious lament for

Lesbia’s sparrow.

Archilochus, the seventh-century BCE warrior-poet, explains that

loss must be endured.

Finally, in the Elysian fields Aeneas is shown Marcellus, Augustus’s tragically short-lived

heir-to-be.

See the index to Pantheon Poets’ selections of poetry on a theme here.