Longas, O utinam, dux bone, ferias Præstes Hesperia! dicimus integro Sicci mane die, dicimus uvidi, Cum Sol Oceano subest. ODE VI. TO APOLLO. This ode may be considered the prooemium to the Secular Hymn, A.U.C. 737, although evidently written after it. As that hymn celebrates Apollo and Diana, so this ode appropriately commences with an invocation to Apollo, whom Horace invokes (line 27) to defend the dignity of the God, in whom Niobe's sad offspring felt Almost the victor of high Troy (to thee Roman Though warring with dread spear the Sea-nymph's son As falls a pine beneath the biting steel, The false horse, duping, in Minerva's name, His prey, alas! he slew with open hand Had not the Father of the gods, subdued Roman Muse. The poet lingers specially on the praise of Apollo as the slayer of Achilles; because, had he who spared not the babe in the womb survived, Æneas, ancestor of Augustus, and the Trojan exiles who founded the Roman empire, would have perished. Horace, then, after a brief reference to Diana, turns, as choragus, to address the chorus of the Secular Hymn. CARM. VI. Dive, quem proles Niobea magnæ Ceteris major, tibi miles impar ; Ille, mordaci velut icta ferro Pinus, aut impulsa cupressus Euro, Ille non inclusus equo Minervæ Falleret aulam ; Sed palam captis gravis, heu nefas! heu! Ni, tuis victus Venerisque gratæ Pledged to Æneas by his solemn nod Tuneful Thalia's sovereign melodist, Phoebus on me bestowed the soul, on me Wards of the Delian goddess, with her bow Chanting, with ritual due, Latona's son, Say, maid, then wedded, 'In that hallowed year Song dear to gods I sang-song taught by him, Horace the poet.' 1 The name of Agyieus seems here very appropriately invoked, because Apollo takes that name from the Greeks, as presiding over the thoroughfares of cities, 'quasi viis præpositus urbanis;' and all the streets of Rome would have been alive with the festival and processions connected with the Secular Hymn which the ode refers to. Here Horace turns to the chorus of the Secular Hymn. By 'pollicis ictum' is meant the motion of the thumb in marking the rhythm or time of the song, not the striking of the lyre. Rebus Æneæ potiore ductos Doctor argutæ fidicen Thaliæ, Phoebe, qui Xantho lavis amne crines, Spiritum Phoebus mihi, Phoebus artem Delia tutela deæ, fugaces Lyncas et cervos cohibentis arcu, Rite Latonæ puerum canentes, Nupta jam dices: Ego dis amicum, 'Nupta jam dices.' Horace here admonishes those who were young virgins in the chorus at the date of the Secular Hymn to remember, when wedded wives, their part in the festival, with which he associates his name. |