Odes 3.21

Horace’s prayer to a wine-jar

by Horace

This poem takes the form of a prayer, first to a wine-jar, then to the virtues of wine in general, poking gentle fun at Horace’s serious philosopher-friend Corvinus along the way. Part of the joke is to invite the wine-jar to “descend”like a god, as Romans often kept wine in attics, rather than cellars. Good humour pervades the poem, in a playful tribute to the Gods, friendship and the good things in life.

Metre: Alcaic

See the blog post with a fresco of a banquet from Herculaneum here.

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O nata mecum consule Manlio,
seu tu querellas sive geris iocos
seu rixam et insanos amores
seu facilem, pia testa, somnum,

quocumque lectum nomine Massicum
servas, moveri digna bono die,
descende, Corvino iubente
promere languidiora vina.

Non ille, quamquam Socraticis madet
sermonibus, te negleget horridus:
narratur et prisci Catonis
saepe mero caluisse virtus.

Tu lene tormentum ingenio admoves
plerumque duro; tu sapientium
curas et arcanum iocoso
consilium retegis Lyaeo.

Tu spem reducis mentibus anxiis
viresque et addis cornua pauperi,
post te neque iratos trementi
regum apices neque militum arma.

Te Liber et si laeta aderit Venus
segnesque nodum solvere Gratiae
vivaeque producent lucernae,
dum rediens fugat astra Phoebus.

O faithful wine-jar, born with me when Manlius was consul, whether you bring complaints, hilarity, brawls, frantic lovemaking or restful sleep,

though you’re fit to bring out on a special day, and whatever you may be keeping your choice vintage for,
come down to us, since Corvinus tells me to bring out mellower wines.

He is marinated in Socratic dialogue, but even he is not bristly enough to neglect you: they say that even old Cato’s virtue was often warmed up with wine.

Wine, you work your gentle torture even on the hardest natures; with the wine-God’s cheerful help, you reveal the worries and the inmost thoughts of the wise;

you bring back hope to anxious minds and give the poor man strength and horns – after you, he does not fear kings’ angry crowns or the soldiers’ weapons.

Bacchus, and, if she will graciously attend, Venus, and the Graces, slow to part the knot that binds them,
and the living lanterns shall lead you on until the Sun, returning, chases off the stars.

`

More Poems by Horace

  1. Some advice for Dellius
  2. Tibur or Tarentum: a poet’s dilemma?
  3. O Fons Bandusiae
  4. Awe for the Gods
  5. Don’t trust Barine
  6. Horace, the wolf and the upright life
  7. Horace’s first Ode
  8. Soracte
  9. Stormy seas
  10. A change of mind
  11. Horace’s reverence to Bacchus
  12. Horace rests from his labours
  13. Lovely mother, lovelier daughter
  14. Luxury versus the simple life
  15. Last love
  16. Horace’s limitations
  17. Lydia’s tragedy
  18. Horace’s monument
  19. The final ode
  20. What Roman youth should be
  21. Gathering rosebuds: carpe diem
  22. Horace welcomes his army comrade
  23. Here’s to Murena!
  24. Give me comfort, not riches
  25. Housman and Horace
  26. Jealousy
  27. Horace returns to lyric poetry
  28. An invitation to Maecenas
  29. Carpe diem, Sestius
  30. Courage and decadence: the Regulus ode
  31. Pindar and Augustus
  32. The tug-of-war for Nearchus
  33. Pyrrha
  34. Horace’s Cleopatra ode
  35. Celebrating Neptune’s feast day
  36. Rome: disaster and salvation
  37. Poscimur
  38. Diffugere nives
  39. Horace’s Chloe
  40. The fleeting years slip by
    41. View Latin Poems