Odes 2.12

Licymnia

by Horace

As in the opening poem in Horace’s second book of Odes, a theme here is the unsuitability of lyric poetry as a medium for epic themes of war and high politics. In that poem Horace was disingenuous, because it demonstrated that he could in fact handle precisely those themes with great virtuosity: here the stress is more on the descriptions of love, beauty and desire in the second half, all standard lyric territory, where the proper names are all places and people famous for their wealth. He takes the opportunity to fit in compliments to his great patron, Maecenas, and the future Emperor Augustus, along the way.

The Victorian commentator T E Page, pointing out that the two names scan identically, thought that Licymnia was really Maecenas’s wife, Terentia, but it is hard to imagine one of the grandest of Roman grandes dames behaving in the way that Horace describes.

Metre: Asclepiad.

See the illustrated blog post here.

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Nolis longa ferae bella Numantiae
nec durum Hannibalem nec Siculum mare
Poeno purpureum sanguine mollibus
aptari citharae modis

nec saevos Lapithas et nimium mero
Hylaeum domitosque Herculea manu
Telluris iuvenes, unde periculum
fulgens contremuit domus

Saturni veteris: tuque pedestribus
dices historiis proelia Caesaris,
Maecenas, melius ductaque per vias
regum colla minacium.

me dulces dominae Musa Licymniae
cantus, me voluit dicere lucidum
fulgentis oculos et bene mutuis
fidum pectus amoribus;

quam nec ferre pedem dedecuit choris
nec certare ioco nec dare bracchia
ludentem nitidis virginibus sacro
Dianae celebris die.

num tu quae tenuit dives Achaemenes
aut pinguis Phrygiae Mygdonias opes
permutare velis crine Licymniae
plenas aut Arabum domos,

cum flagrantia detorquet ad oscula
cervicem aut facili saevitia negat
quae poscente magis gaudeat eripi,
interdum rapere occupet?

You don’t want the long and distant battles for untamed Numantia, merciless Hannibal or the waters of the Sicilian sea crimson with Carthaginian blood set to the gentle music of the lyre, nor the raging Lapiths or Hylaeus the centaur, raging with too much wine, or the Gigantes, sons of the Earth, conquered by Hercules’ hand, who brought danger at which the shining home of ancient Saturn shook: and you, Maecenas, will tell the story  better in prose accounts of Caesar’s battles and the once-threatening kings he led by the neck in triumph through the streets of Rome. Me? My Muse wants me to sing songs of mistress Licymnia, her flashing eyes and her heart truly faithful in requited love. How becoming for her to step out in the dance, join in the merriment, and link hands with the lovely girls as she joined in their play on renowned Diana’s feast-day! Surely, you would be willing to exchange all that rich Achaemenes had, or the fabulous wealth of fertile Phrygia, or the mansions of Arabia with all they contain for one lock of Licymnia’s hair, when she bends her neck to catch burning kisses, or with gentle cruelty refuses them, preferring her suitor to snatch them from her, and sometimes is herself the first to snatch them?

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More Poems by Horace

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