Odes 1.7

The consolations of wine

Plancus, this ode’s dedicatee, was a political and military heavyweight whose achievements included founding the city of Lyons, a consulship and proposing the title of Augustus for Octavian. He was a supporter of Mark Antony who defected to Octavian shortly before the Battle of Actium.

Commentators have puzzled over the purpose of the poem, but a simple explanation is available. Horace prefers Tibur to the famous spots of the Greek world; Plancus is also associated with Tibur and (by implication) might wish to spend his time there, but he is a man with public responsibilities which are likely to take him away. Horace (again by implication) likens him to Teucer, a flattering comparison as Teucer was a hero who bravely bore circumstances which kept him, too, unwillingly away from his home. In the meantime, wine offers a solution, albeit a temporary one.

Teucer’s father, Telamon, exiled him from his home, Salamis, when he returned from the Trojan war without avenging his brother, Ajax, who killed himself after failing to be awarded the arms of the dead Achilles. The poplar that Teucer wears as a garland was sacred to Hercules.

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Laudabunt alii claram Rhodon aut Mytilenen
aut Epheson bimarisve Corinthi
moenia vel Baccho Thebas vel Apolline Delphos
insignis aut Thessala Tempe;
sunt quibus unum opus est intactae Palladis urbem
carmine perpetuo celebrare et
undique decerptam fronti praeponere olivam;
plurimus in Iunonis honorem
aptum dicet equis Argos ditisque Mycenas:
me nec tam patiens Lacedaemon
nec tam Larisae percussit campus opimae
quam domus Albuneae resonantis
et praeceps Anio ac Tiburni lucus et uda
mobilibus pomaria rivis.
albus ut obscuro deterget nubila caelo
saepe Notus neque parturit imbris
perpetuos, sic tu sapiens finire memento
tristitiam vitaeque labores
molli, Plance, mero, seu te fulgentia signis
castra tenent seu densa tenebit
Tiburis umbra tui. Teucer Salamina patremque
cum fugeret, tamen uda Lyaeo
tempora populea fertur vinxisse corona
sic tristis adfatus amicos:
“quo nos cumque feret melior fortuna parente,
ibimus—o socii comitesque,
nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro:
certus enim promisit Apollo
ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram.
o fortes peioraque passi
mecum saepe viri, nunc vino pellite curas;
cras ingens iterabimus aequor.”

Others will praise famous Rhodes or Mytilene or Ephesus, or the walls of Corinth on her two seas, Thebes or Delphos famous for Bacchus and Apollo, or Thessaly’s Tempe; there are some whose only occupation is to celebrate the city of virgin Pallas with perpetual song and place olive, gathered from all around, on their brow; some in the greatest numbers will tell in Juno’s honour of Argos, so fit for horses, and wealthy Mycenae: but on me, neither hardy Sparta nor the farmland of Larisa, fertile as she is, makes such an impression on me as the grotto of Albunea’s echoing [oracle], the river Anio plunging down, the groves of Tibur and her orchards watered by the branchings of the river. As the south wind may often blow clear and drive clouds away from a lowering sky, and does not always give birth to rains, so you, if you are wise, Plancus, remember to put an end to sadness and the trials of life with the gentleness of wine, whether it is the camp, gleaming with its standards, that holds you, or the deep shade of your native Tibur. Even when he was leaving Salamis and his father for exile, they say that Teucer bound his temples, fuddled with wine, with a crown of poplar, and said to his unhappy friends: “Wherever fortune, kinder than a father, may take us, we shall go – friends and comrades, there is no call for despair when Teucer is your leader and Teucer your protector: Apollo was clear when he promised that there would be a second Salamis in a new land. Men, you are hardy, and have often gone through worse with me: for now drive away your cares with wine – we will brave the mighty sea again tomorrow.”

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