Horace complains to a promising young soldier – via his girlfriend, Lydia – that his preoccupation with her is ruining him. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post here.
In detached mood, Horace takes a look at the predicament of a once-popular courtesan who has begun to lose her looks, and with them, the attention of the virile young lovers she craves. The illustration is a Roman funerary portrait from the second century CE.
Hear Horace’s original Latin and follow in English translation here.
As well as acting as the messenger of the Gods, Hermes (Mercury to the Romans) was envisaged in the ancient world as the god of boundaries. Perhaps because of this, he is also sometimes represented as the guide who accompanies the souls of the dead to the underworld. Perhaps the most famous example is in the final book of the Odyssey, when he performs this function for the souls of Penelope’s suitors when Odysseus has killed them on his return to his home on the island of Ithaca.
Horace refers to this attribute of Mercury in an ode mourning the death of an upright and respected Roman named Quintilius. The academic evidence on precisely who Quintilius may have been is inconclusive, but Horace makes it clear that he was a dear friend of the poet Virgil.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
In a charming poem tinged with darker themes and written in elegant Alcaic metre, Horace reflects on the destructive power of anger, and promises a lovely mother and her even lovelier daughter that he will never return to writing iambics – a metre famed among the Greeks and Romans for personal attacks and lampoons. In the illustration by the Japanese woodblock print designer Utamaro, a lovely mother teaches her even lovelier daughter the art of calligraphy.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
All of the Horace Odes on Pantheon Poets – currently 20 of them – are now available as a single selection arranged consecutively in Book order. Access it here and use the links to hear the poetry in the original Latin and follow in English translation.
Recent additions to the Latin poetry pages include the first of what will be quite a few extracts from the works of Ovid, the last of the Big Four – the others being Horace, Virgil and Catullus – to feature. If you want to know more about them, there is information and the Augustan age in which the last three wrote on the “About the Poets” page. The piece – “Ovid’s broad-minded advice to his mistress” – is from his Amores and exemplifies his enthusiasm for good, old-fashioned sex. Continue reading “Ovid and Horace’s different takes on love”