Odes 1.30

A prayer to Venus

by Horace

Historically, this little poem has puzzled some commentators, especially the strait-laced ones. Why is Glycera’s a suitable place to summon Venus to? And why is Mercury there at the end? As the god of speech and persuasion, perhaps? It’s probably simpler than that: Romans often used “Venus” just to mean “sex”, and Mercury was the patron god of commerce. If Glycera’s house has sex for sale, other details – like why Cupid is so eager and why the nymphs and graces should come with their girdles undone – fall into place. This Victorian translation by John Conington catches the mood nicely:

Come, Cnidian, Paphian Venus, come,
Thy well-beloved Cyprus spurn,
Haste, where for thee in Glycera’s home
Sweet odours burn.

Bring too thy Cupid, glowing warm,
Graces and Nymphs, unzoned and free,
And Youth, that lacking thee lacks charm,
And Mercury.

See the illustrated blog post here.

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O Venus regina Cnidi Paphique,
sperne dilectam Cypron et vocantis
ture te multo Glycerae decoram
transfer in aedem.

fervidus tecum puer et solutis
Gratiae zonis properentque Nymphae
et parum comis sine te Iuventas
Mercuriusque.

O Venus, Queen of Cnidos and Paphos, spurn your beloved Cyprus and come to the house of Glycera, who is summoning you with clouds of incense. Let Cupid, burningly eager, hurry there with you, and the Graces and nymphs with their girdles loosed, and Youth – not pleasant enough if you are not there – and Mercury.

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More Poems by Horace

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