we may compare Homer's vijes pλroñápŋoi, and Aeschylus' converse : use of πρώρα and καλλίπρωρος, of the human face.

18. duci seems to imply that an expedition was at that time fitting out against Sextus Pompeius and his 'gang of brigands and slaves'; cp. Epod. 9. 9, 10.

EPODE V.

Canidia, with her crew of witches, Sagana, Veia, and Folia, is engaged in the task of drawing to her, by spells of magic, a miserable old man named Varus. vv. 1-10, the poem opens with the terrified prayers of a boy, who sees dimly that the hags have some dreadful intent, though he knows not what. 11-14, he is stripped and set in the midst to await their further purposes. 15-24, Canidia gives her orders for the brewing of the magic bowl. 25-28, Sagana sprinkles the house with water from Avernus. 29-40, Veia, meanwhile, is digging in the garden a hole where, if this spell proves insufficient, the boy is to be buried up to his chin, and left to starve, that his marrow and liver may be ingredients in a more potent philtre. 41-46, Folia plays her part in the incantation. What it was, is left to our imagination; we are only told of her power-she could draw the moon and stars from the sky. 47-60, Canidia, half afraid already that her spells are not successful, appeals to the powers that witness her black arts, that her beloved (an old fop, on whom she is made to pour contempt in her very prayer) may come to her. 61-82, 'he comes not; what has happened? No herb has been omitted, nothing that could make him forget other charms. Aha! she sees it all. He is under the spell of some more skilful witch. He shall not get off, however. She has a stronger charm yet to try, and heaven and earth shall change places before she lets his love go.' 85-102, the boy understands her, and interrupts the scene with a burst of despair, in which he threatens his torturers with the vengeance of spirits and men.

The scene is laid in the interior of a house in Rome, apparently in the Subura; see on vv. 25, 30, 58. A misunderstanding of v. 43 led Porph. to lay the scene at Naples.

Line 1. at, a common particle in exclamations. It implies of course a previous train of thought of which the speaker is conscious in himself, or which he imagines in another. The exclamation introduced by it is of the nature of an appeal ('provocatio ad deos'; cp. Virg. Aen. 2. 535 'At tibi pro scelere, exclamat, pro talibus ausis Di,' &c., and cp. the

we fica e g in Arsch Cho. 306 or of an answer. Here, if with Vat 3 mi Parça, we read ‘regit" (the majority of later MSS. have *regs", the actual address is not to the gods, but to the witches, the irst on laes being an exclamation. At introducing the adjuration, marks the change that has come over him. He can bear it no longer; he must know what they mean.

1. deorum quicquid; Sat. 1. 6. 1 'Lydorum quicquid.'

3. et quid. So apparently V, bet the other MSS. are fairly divided between "et" and "ax'; Crelli, preferring ant,' compares Epod. 7. 1. 4. unum contrasts with omnium, so many against one.' With the constraction *veltus in me cp. Od. 1. 2. 40 acer Mauri.. cruentum voltas in bostem

3. te, singles oct Canidia as the principal.

6. veris; cp. Epod. 17 50. The words are doubtless meant in the boy's mouth to have an innocent meaning, ‘if you really know what it is to be a mother."

7. purpurse, the 'toga praetexta'; 'sacrum illud praetextarum quo sacerdotes velantur, quo magistratus, quo infirmitatem puerorum sacram facimus ac venerabilem,' Quint. Decl. 340. It and the 'bulla,' a thin Flate of gold hung round the neck (Pers. Sat. 5. 30, 31), are the 'insignia' which in v. 12 are snatched from him.

11. ut constitit, when, notwithstanding this appeal, he was stripped and set in the midst to await their further pleasure.

15. viperis, 'furiali habitu,' Schol. Canidia and her fellow witches are called Furies in Sat. 1. 8. 45

17. caprificos, a common growth of cemeteries; Juv. 10. 145.

19, 20. The construction is 'uncta ranae sanguine ova strigis plumamque.' Compare a charm for a similar purpose in Prop. 3. 6. 27 'Illuc turgentis ranae portenta rubetae Et lecta exsuccis anguibus ossa trahunt, Et strigis inventae per busta iacentia plumae.' 'Strix' is the screech-owl; the 'rana turpis' is the 'rubeta,' a toad, so called because found in bramble-thickets; it was believed to be poisonous. Plin. N. H. 32. 5, Juv. 1. 69.

21. Iolcos, in Thessaly; cp. v. 45, and Od. 1. 27. 21 Thessalis Magus venenis.'

Hiberia, strictly the country lying between the Caucasus on the north, Armenia on the south, Colchis, which separated it from the Euxine, on the west, and Albania, which separated it from the Caspian, on the east. Its inhabitants professed (Tac. Ann. 6. 34) to be descendants of the Thessalians who sailed with Jason; Virg. E. 8. 95 'Has herbas atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena.'

23. ossa, perhaps human bones, the dogs being those that prowled about a graveyard. Orelli quotes Apul. Met. I, who mentions among

the ingredients of a philtre, 'a skull torn from between the teeth of a wild beast.' In any case they are appropriate to this 'desideri poculum,' as typical of the rage of disappointed animal passion. Compare in this respect the more potent spell of vv. 37-40.

24. Colchicis' magicis,' such as Medea might have kindled. 25. expedita = 'succincta,' Sat. 1. 8. 23.

26. Avernales, as the witch in Virg. Aen. 4. 512 Sparserat et latices simulatos fontis Averni.'

28. currens. The epithet seemed out of place to Bentley, as the boar's bristles do not rise more when he is running, and he advocates Heinsius' conjecture 'Laurens.' But 'currens' is in point as completing the whole resemblance of the boar to Sagana bustling about. It has the more place, as we have had no definite verb to express her movements. 29. abacta nulla conscientia, 'not one whit deterred by her consciousness of what she was doing,' i.e. of its cruelty and wickedness. For the use of 'nulla' see on Od. 3. 20. 7.

30. duris, not quite an inert epithet, if we compare Od. 3. 11. 31, 4. 4. 57. The 'hardness' of the iron is in a way identified with the persistence of her purpose-she would dig till the iron was tired.

humum, the soil in the impluvium' of the house (v. 25) in which the scene is laid.

33. bis terque. So all the good MSS., and editors since Bentley, against the v. 1. 'bis terve.' He points out that the two readings differ materially in sense. 'Bis terque''saepe,' cp. A. P. 440 melius te posse negares, Bis terque expertum frustra'; 'bis terve'=' raro,' cp. A. P. 358.

34. inemori spectaculo, évanodvýσkei tỷ ég. 'Inemori' is a ἅπαξ λεγ.

6

36. suspensa mento explains 'quantum exstant aqua,' as much as is above water of a swimmer's body, when it floats as though it hung by the chin.'

37. exsecta. This (or execta') is the reading of V and B, and of the MSS. of Acr. and Porph. Bentley's objection that we require rather an epithet to correspond with 'aridum' is very well answered by Ritter. We do not require one, for 'aridum' is intended to cover both substantives, as is exsecta' also; see on Od. 2. 10. 6, 2. II. I, 2. 15. 18-20, 3. 4. 18, 4. 9. 29. The other MSS. offer many variants: 'exsucta,' 'exsucca,' ' exuta,' 'exerta.' Bentley preferred a conjecture of Heinsius, 'exesa.'

39. interminato, pass. part. of the usually deponent 'interminor,' a stronger word than 'interdico,' 'forbidden with threats.'

semel with 'cum,' 'as soon as ever,' as 'ut semel,' Sat. 2. I. 24. 41. non defuisse, 'was not wanting to her part'; see argument. The

mention of Folia of Ariminum (a town of Umbria on the Adriatic), apparently a real person, and the appeal to the gossip of Naples, are intended to give an air of truthfulness to the story.

43. otiosa, a town of Greeks and seaside loungers, who is ouder ἕτερον εὐκαίρουν ἢ λέγειν τι καὶ ἀκούειν καινότερον: ep. Liv. 8. 22 'gentem lingua magis strenuam quam factis.' The Comm. Cruq. says that Naples was also called 'fabulosa,' 'gossiping.'

45. sidera excantata; Epod. 17. 5 and 78, Virg. E. 8. 69.

47. irresectum, 'grown long'; Sat. 1. 8. 26 'scalpere terram Unguibus.' It is another attribute of the Furies; see on v. 15, and cp. v. 93.

dente livido, 'black from age,' to add to the repulsiveness of the picture; or like' dente invido,' Od. 4. 3. 16, the passion of jealousy being attributed to the tooth. The action is intended to express her excitement as she awaits impatiently the issue of her spells.

49. quid dixit aut quid tacuit, a proverbial way of expressing want of restraint in speaking, whether, as here, from passion, or as in Epp. 1. 7. 72 dicenda tacenda locutus,' from garrulity; cp. ¡nтà ápρητá te. 50. Cp. Medea's invocation Ov. Met. 7. 192 foll. 'Nox, ait, arcanis fidissima.. Tuque triceps Hecate quae coeptis conscia nostris Adiutrixque venis,' Theocr. 2. 10. 12.

arbitrae, in Cicero's sense of witnesses,' Off. 3. 31.

53. in hostiles domos, perhaps only the common formula for 'avert from my home'; cp. Od. 1. 21. 15 'in Persas atque Britannos,' 3. 27. 21. If special enemies' must be found, they will be her rivals in the love of Varus.

55. formidolosis. The MSS. vary between this reading and the nominative formidolosae.' B, A, and the Queen's Coll. MS. have the ablative. Bentley interprets the evidence as to V more fairly than Keller. Cruquius found, it appears, the ablative in all the Bland MSS., and with it the annotation 'propter horrorem noctis et ferarum'; but inasmuch as there was also the contradictory annotation which he prints in the Scholia, 'timendae, quod timorem incutiant,' he did not think it worth while, in a matter of slight importance (quod parum interesset '), and where the evidence of his authorities was thus divided, to alter the received text. If we read the ablative, it will have an active meaning, as Virg. G. 4. 468 caligantem nigra formidine silvam.' This is Horace's use of the adjective in Od. 2. 17. 18. If we have the nominative, it will have a passive sense, timorous,' as in Ter. Eun. 4. 6. 18, &c. In either case its force seems to lie, as the Scholiast implies, in its suggestion of the awfulness' of night, 'now that your spell is on the woods and their inhabitants.' The two verses combine the ideas of the hour of midnight as the time when magic powers are strongest, and

of the lover awake when all the rest of the world is asleep, as Dido in Virg. Aen. 4. 525 Dum tacet omnis ager, pecudes pictaeque volucres,' &c.

57-60. The prayer of the next four lines is not quite clear. Why does she wish the dogs to bark? As a sign that the scented old fop is coming to her door? or to frighten him from the doors of her rivals as he comes through the Subura? The first view would be illustrated by the sign of Daphnis' approach in answer to the spells in Virgil's Pharmaceutria, E. 8. 107Hylax in limine latrat.' The second, however, gives a better explanation of 'quod omnes rideant,' and of the care with which she has herself prepared the perfumed unguent, which he uses in his vanity without guessing its purpose. She is meant to make him (and herself thereby) ridiculous to the reader; but she would not wish him to be laughed at, except as a means of keeping him to herself.

58. Suburanae. 'Subura' was the broad hollow formed by the junction of the valleys between the Quirinal, Viminal, and Esquiline hills, and opening on the Fora. It was a busy part of Rome, but has a bad name in the poets; Prop. 4. 7. 15, Mart. 6. 66, Juv. 3. 5.

59. 'Of such sort as my hands could never bring to greater perfection'; cp. Sat. I. 5. 41 animae, quales neque candidiores Terra tulit neque quis me sit devinctior alter,' 'souls of such sort as never walked the earth more purely white,' &c.

60. laborarint, potential. The reading of V and MSS. of Porph., 'laborarunt,' has also strong authority.

61. quid accidit? She perceives that her spells have failed.

62. venena Medeae, philtres such as Medea's, as 'flammis Colchicis,'

v. 24.

63. Cp. Epod. 3. 13.

superbam is the reading of V, and sound and sense support it. But 'superba,' the reading of B, has almost better authority, as it was found by Acr., who interprets 'potens.'

67. latens asperis; I have not omitted any herb of power, because it was hard to find or grew in a difficult place.'

69, 70. The best interpretation seems to be, 'the bed he sleeps on has been smeared with a drug to make him forget all other mistresses.' It is a continuation of her assurances to herself, that no precaution has ⚫been omitted.

71. ah ah! The truth suddenly occurs to her.

solutus; Od. 1. 27. 21.

ambulat, 'walks where he will '; i.e. is not bound by the spell to

come to me.

75. nec vocata. . vocibus, nor shall it be at the summons of Marsian spells that thy heart shall come back to me,' 'Marsis vocibus'