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