ODE XVIII. TO VARUS. Varus was no uncommon name, and it has been a dispute with commentators what Varus is here addressed. It is generally Of all trees that thou plantest, O Varus, the vine, holy vine be the first, On the soil that surrounds genial Tibur and Catilus' ramparted walls. To the lips of the dry does the godhead taint all with a taste of the sour, And only by wine are the troubles gnawing into the bosom dispersed. Fresh from wine who complains of the hardships he bears or in want or in war? Who not more hails thee, Bacchus, as father; thee, Venus, as linked with the Grace? But Evius himself has forewarned us by his curse on the Thracians of old, And the battle o'er riotous wine-cups which the Centaurs with Lapitha fought, How the drunkard divides right from wrong by the vanishing line of his lust, And not to pass over the limit the Unbinder of Care has imposed. 'Tis not I who will shake, comely Bacchus, the thyrsus against thy consent,1 Or drag forth to daylight thy symbols covered over with manifold leaves. 'Non ego te, candide Bassareu, Invitum quatiam, nec variis obsita frondibus Sub divum rapiam.' Quatiam,' poetically applied to the god himself, refers to the shaking generally believed to be the Quinctilius Varus for whose death Horace seeks to console Virgil, Ode xxiv. of this Book. By the way in which Bacchus and Venus are here addressed, Horace implies a temperate and elegant conviviality; Bacchus is hailed as 'father,' benignant, not cruel; and Venus as 'decens'-that is, accompanied with the Graces, 'ipsa decens est, cum comites sint decentes Gratiæ' (Carm. 1. 4, 6; Dillenburger); and the poet proceeds to contrast a Bacchus and a Venus so characterised with the brawl and lust of the Centaurs, who, invited to the marriagefeast of Peirithous, King of the Lapithæ, attempted in their drunkenness to carry off the bride and the other women, which of course led to a fight with the Lapithæ and with the Sithonians, a people in Thrace, who were afflicted by Bacchus with the curse of never drinking without fighting. CARM. XVIII. Nullam, Vare, sacra, vite prius severis arborem Circa mite solum Tiburis et mœnia Catili. Quis post vina gravem militiam aut pauperiem crepat? Deballata, monet Sithoniis non levis Evius, of the thyrsus, cymbals, or images in the wild dance of the Orgies. "Variis obsita frondibus' means the vessels in which the mystical symbols of Bacchus were concealed, covered over with various leaves, chiefly of vine and ivy. Silence! hush, savage horn Berecynthian! let the clash of the timbrel be hushed, Making music which Self-conceit follows, dull egotist reeling stone-blind, Idle Vainglory over-exalting her empty and arrogant head, And a Faith which is lavish of secrets,-with bosom more seen through than glass. Sub divum rapiam. Sæva tene cum Berecyntio Cornu tympana, quæ subsequitur cæcus Amor sui, Et tollens vacuum plus nimio Gloria verticem, Arcanique Fides prodiga, perlucidior vitro. ODE XIX. TO GLYCERA. Whether Glycera and Cinara be the same person-whether the Glycera here addressed be the same Glycera as is elsewhere Methought I had finished with love When the mother herself of the Cupids, a merciless mother she is, And the Theban boy, Semele's son, And the goddess called Wantonness bade me to love again render my soul. Me the beauty of Glycera burns, Shining out with a delicate light than the marble of Paros more pure; It burns me that dear saucy charm, And that face in its dazzle too sheen for the eye without danger to rest.1 All Venus, in rushing on me, Has deserted her temples in Cyprus. She will not permit me to sing Of Scythian, or Parth who exults In the feints of the swift-wheeling steeds, or of aught which belongs not to love. Quick, slaves, here! an altar in haste Pile it up with the green living sod; hither vervain and frankincense bring, And wine winters two have matured: Thus appeased by the blood of a victim, more gently the goddess may come. |