Horace describes a lively party to welcome Numida home from Spain: hear the poem in the original Latin and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post 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”
In one of his odes, Horace refers to the legend that Thetis, the mother of Achilles, hid him disguised as a girl in the household of King Lycomedes of Skyros to prevent him from going to his death in the Trojan war; but that Odysseus and Diomedes tricked him into revealing himself by making him think the palace was under attack (he grabbed a weapon).
Hear the poem in Horace’s original Latin and follow in English here.
Photo by Chappsnet, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
In a poem swearing friendship to his patron Maecenas, Horace declares that not even the fabled Chimera could tear them apart.
Hear this moving poem and follow in English here.
Vineyards are a familiar sight in countries with climates gentle enough for grapes to grow: row upon row of wires stretched in parallel lines on metal frames, giving the countryside an orderly appearance and growing into a vast corduroy effect as the vines come into leaf. The rose bushes planted at the head of some of the rows look like a decorative touch, but in fact they are there to provide the wine-grower with early warning: roses are more susceptible than vines to mildew, and when he sees it, it is time to treat the vineyard with a protective dose of copper sulphate. Roman vineyards were very different: the supports that vines were grown over were trees, an arrangement that Horace and others represents as a marriage. See Horace’s Latin with an English translation here, as he describes an Italian countryside at peace and celebrating Augustus’s safe return from campaign.
Is the Roman to whom this poem is addressed, blameless for the crimes of the City but bound to atone for them, Augustus? Mentioned by name or not, this poem, with its dual emphasis on piety and rebuilding temples contrasted with the loose living of the current generation would immediately have made an audience think of him, since civic building and moral reform were high among his public priorities in the years following the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Antony at the battle of Actium. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.