ODE XIV. The poet diffuades the Romans from reviving the ci vil war. The republick is reprefented under the alle gory of a fhip. SHIP, fhall new waves bear thee back to fea again? O what are you doing? Bravely feize the port. Do you not perceive, that your fides are deftitute of oars, and your mast wounded by the violent fouth, and your main-yards groan, and your keel can fcarce fupport the impetuofity of the waves, without the help of cordage? Your fails are not entire; neither have you gods, whom you may again invoke in your diftrefs: notwithstanding you are made of the pines of Pontus, and, being the daughter of an illuftrious wood, you boaft of your race, and a fame now of no fervice to you. The timorous failor has no dependence on a painted ftern. Look to yourself, unless you are destined to be the fport of the winds. O thou, that waft lately my trouble and fatigue, but who now createft in me tenderness and folicitude, may'st thou efcape thofe dangerous feas, which flow amongst the shining Cyclades. ODE XV. Nereus's prophecy of the deftruction of Troy. WHI HEN the perfidious fhepherd (Paris) car ried off by fea in Trojan fhips his hoftefs Helen, Nereus fuppreffed the fwift winds, in an un→ C 3 pleafing The ftatues of the gods on the poop are broken off. Quam multo repetet Græcia milite, Eheu, quantus equis, quantus adeft viris Non Laertiaden, exitium tuæ (a) Teucerque, & Sthenelus fciens Pugnæ; five opus eft imperitare equis Nofces ecce furit te reperire atrox Quem tu, cervus uti vallis in altera Vifum parte lupum graminis immemor, Sublimi fugies mollis anhelitu, Non hoc pollicitus tuæ. Iracunda diem proferet Ilio, Matronifque Phrygum, claffis, Achillei Poft certas hiemes uret Achaicus Ignis Iliacas domos. (a) Excidium tuæ genti. CARMEN pleafing calm, that he might fing to them their dire fates. With unlucky omens do you convey home that woman, whom Greece fhall demand back again with a numerous army, having enter'd into a confe deracy to diffolve your nuptials, and the ancient kingdom of Priam. Alas! what fweat to horfes, what to men is just at hand! What a destruction are you preparing for the Trojan nation! Even now Pallas is fitting her helmet and her fhield, and her chariot and her fury. In vain looking fierce thro' the patronage of Venus, will you comb your hair, and run divifions upon the effeminate harp with fongs pleafing only to women. In vain will you efcape the fpears that disturb the nuptial bed and the poignance of the Cretan dart, and the din of battle, and Ajax swift in purfuit. Nevertheless, alas! the time will come, tho' late, when you fhall befmear your adulterous hairs in the dust. Do you not fee.... the fon of Laertes, fatal to your nation, and the Pylian Neftor, Salaminian Teucer, and Sthenelus fkill'd in fight; or, if there be occafion to manage horfes, an expert charioteer, purfue you with intrepidity. Meriones alfo fhall you experience. Behold! the gallant fon of Tydeus, even a better man than his father, glows to find you out: him, as the tag flies a wolf, which he has feen on the oppofite fide of the vale, unmindful of his pafture, fhall you effeminate fly grievously panting: not fuch the promises you made your mistress. The fleet of the enraged Achilles fhall defer for a time that day, which is to be fatal to Troy and the Trojan matrons: but after a certain number of years, Grecian fire fhall confume the Trojan palaces. ODE CARMEN XVI. a Gratidiam Tyntaridis matrem Horatius maledicis verfibus laceraverat. Offenfum filia animum lenire ag "greditur, iracundiæ impotentiam maxime caufando. Matre pulchra filia pulchrior, Quem criminofis cunque voles modum Pones iambis; five flamma, Sive mari libet Adriano. Non Dyndimene, non adytis quatit Sic (a) geminant Corybantes æra, Fertur Promotheus addere principi Vim ftomacho oppofuiffe noftro, Ire Thyeften exitio gravi 5 15 Stravere; & altis urbibus ultima Stetere caufæ cur perirent Funditus, imprimeretque muris Hoftile aratrum exercitus infolens. Compefce mentem, me quoque pectoris Tentavit in dulci juventa Fervor, & in celeras iambos (a) Si. BENTL. (b) Coactum. BENTL 20 Mifit ODE XVI. Horace had lampooned Gratidia, the mother of Tyndaris. He attempts to appease her offended daugh ter, chiefly by alledging the ungovernableness of paf fion. Daughter, more charming than thy charming mother, put what end you please to those injurious iambicks; either in the flames, or, if you choose it, in the Adriatic fea. Neither Cybele, nor Apollo, the poffeffor of the priests, so shakes the breaft in his inmoft fhrines; Bacchus does not do it equally, nor do the Corybantes fo redouble. their ftrokes on their fharp-founding cymbals, as direful anger; which neither the Noric fword can deter, nor the fhip-wrecking fea, nor dreadful fire, nor Jupiter himself rufhing from above in the tre mendous tumult of his thunder. It is reported that Promotheus was obliged to add to that original clay, with which he form'd mankind, fome ingredient taken from every animal, and that he applied the vehemence of the raging lion to the human breast. It was rage that deftroyed Thyeftes with an horrible perdition; and has been the final caufe, that lofty cities have been entirely demolished, and that an infolent army has drove the hoftile plough-fhare over their walls. Compofe your mind. An ardour of foul attacked me alfo in blooming youth, and drove me in a rage to the writing of fwift-footed iambicks C5 |
