Pyrrhus is captivated by his new love, Nearchus, but has he underestimated the lion-lady that he has stolen him from? Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here. The “Nearchus” in the illustration is the Emperor Hadrian’s favourite, Antinous.
Horace uses the metaphor of a ship in stormy seas to express his hope that Rome will win through to safety in a time of danger. Hear the Ode performed in the original Latin and follow in a new English translation here.
The illustration, by Rembrandt, is of Christ in the storm on the Sea of Galilee. If you happen to see this painting anywhere, please tell the Isabella Gardner Stewart Museum in Boston – it was stolen from them in 1990 and has not been returned.
Horace’s beautiful poem advises Dellius to make the best of life while it lasts.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
The lovers (or spouses) Asterie and Gyges are parted for the winter, and Gyges’s landlady is threatening to tell tales on him to her husband if he will not sleep with her – she sends a go-between to remind him that similar things happened to others in myth – not only the hero Bellerophon, but also Peleus, the father of Achilles. Asterie need not worry about Gyges’s faithfulness, as it turns out, but Horace feels the need to offer a word of advice to her as well.
In the illustration, Peleus struggles to maintain a hold on Thetis, Achilles’s mother, who was a goddess and a shape-shifter.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
See how Mount Soracte stands white with the deep snow … this is perhaps Horace’s most benign and attractive version of the carpe diem theme, with the stress on wine, warmth and love, rather than the inexorable journey to the grave. See and hear the poem here.
Tennyson combines his admiration for Milton’s poetry with his love of ancient poetry, and in particular his love of Alcaics, the Greek metre that Horace used for his loftiest themes in the Odes. You can decide for yourself how far the experiment succeeds, and use the links to compare Tennyson’s poem to some of Horace’s poems in the same metre, here.