All is over between Lydia and her old flame – or is it? Hear their dialogue in Horace’s Latin and follow in English here; see the illustrated blog post here.
Lydia has moved on and now idolises Calais, while her ex-lover now dotes on Thracian Chloe. The two exes vie with one another to celebrate how happy they are and the virtues of their new loves, but is the old flame really dead? Hear their dialogue in Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Horace has had a narrow escape: a tree on his estate has fallen and nearly crushed him. It was a serious matter for him – afterwards he celebrated his good luck on the anniversary of the incident every year – but he also uses the opportunity to heap half-humorous curses on the man who planted it. He reflects, rightly then and now, that you can manage risks that you know, but others may still catch you unawares. Then, pivoting to what he might have seen in Hades had he gone there, he evokes Alcaeus and Sappho (pictured) bringing everything to a halt with the beauty of their song. Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Horace has met a young woman, fiercely attractive and extremely unsettling. He is definitely interested, but appeals to the Gods of love and wine, Bacchus and Venus, to let him take matters more slowly and with a level head.
The illustration, from Pompeii, shows Venus and her lover, Mars.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Horace has, he says, been no slouch in pursuing love, in a poem which comes near the end of the sequence which he intended at the time to mark his farewell from lyric poetry in a new, Roman style based on the Greek greats of the past. As usual, however, Horace includes some uncertainty in what he says by praying to Venus to flick her whip and, just for once, make a recalcitrant woman fall in love.
The illustration of the birth of Venus is a fresco from Pompeii.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.
Horace shows respect and affection in this invitation-poem to his patron Maecenas and pays a compliment to the future Emperor Augustus into the bargain.
Hear the Latin and follow in English here.
In Apollo’s newly-dedicated temple, Horace prays for the things that matter to him. The dedication has been an important public occasion, but his poem has a very personal feel, as he looks ahead to an old age to which he is resigned – provided he retains health, his mental faculties and the ability to write and enjoy poetry. Hear Horace’s original Latin and follow in English here.
In the illustration , a fresco from Pompeii, a cithara player cradles her instrument.