Salis avarus? Pellitur paternos

In sinu ferens deos

Et uxor, et vir, sordidosque natos: Nulla certior tamen

Rapacis Orci fine destinata

Aula divitem manet

Herum. Quid ultra tendis? Aequa tellus Pauperi recluditur,

Regumque pueris;' nec satelles Orci

Callidum Promethea

Revexit auro captus.

Hic superbum

Tantalum, atque Tantali

Genus coërcet: hic levare functum

Pauperem laboribus,

Vocatus, atque non vocatus, audit.

XIX. IN BACCHUM.

BACCHUM in remotis carmina rupibus
Vidi docentem (credite posteri)
Nymphasque discentes, et aures
Capripedum Satyrorum acutas.

Evoe! my soul with recent terror quakes,
And joy of heart, by Bacchus stirred, partakes.
Evoe! Spare, Liber, pr'ythee spare,

Tremendous with thine ivied spear!

To me, of wanton Thyades to sing

'Tis given, of jets of wine, of brooks that bring
Streams of milk down, and of the cells
In hollow trees, whence honey wells:
And of the glory added to the sky
By thy blest bride, and the inclemency
That Pentheus' palace could efface

And crush Lycurgus, Prince of Thrace. O'er rivers and barbarian sea thou reign'st. Thou, dewy, mid sequestered cliffs, constrain'st Bistonides their hair to tie

With knotted vipers harmlessly.

Thou, when the impious band of giants scaled The heavens, and thy father's realms assailed, Did'st Rhoetus with thy terrible

Leonine jaws and tusks repel.

Although more fit for play and jokes and dance Reported, and to warlike dalliance

Unequal, as in peace, e'en so

In conflict thou thy might did'st show. On thee did Cerberus benignly look

Decked with thine horns of gold, and gently shook

His tail; and with his tongue three-peaked
Thy legs and feet departing licked.

Evoe! recenti mens trepidat metu
Plenoque Bacchi pectore turbidum
Laetatur. Evoe! parce Liber,

Parce, gravi metuende thyrso !
Fas pervicaces est mihi Thyadas,
Vinique fontem, lactis et uberes
Cantare rivos, atque truncis

Lapsa cavis iterare mella: Fas et beatae conjugis additum Stellis honorem, tectaque Penthei Disjecta non leni ruina,

Thracis et exitium Lycurgi.

Tu flectis amnes, tu mare barbarum:
Tu separatis uvidus in jugis
Nodo coërces viperino

Bistonidum sine fraude crines. Tu, cum parentis regna per arduum Cohors Gigantum scanderet impia, Rhoetum retorsisti leonis

Unguibus, horribilique mala:
Quamquam, choreis aptior et jocis.
Ludoque dictus, non sat idoneus
Pugnae ferebaris sed idem
Pacis eras mediusque belli.
Te vidit insons Cerberus aureo
Cornu decorum, leniter atterens
Caudam; et recedentis trilingui
Ore pedes tetigitque crura.

Horace knew as well as most poets how to praise himself and his works, but on this occasion he seems to have thought that it would be as well to appear to be only half in earnest in doing so.

A BIFORM poet, not on wings outworn

Or frail, shall I through aether's lymph be borne.
No! lingering upon earth no more,

To envy's taunts superior,

I will quit cities. I, Maecenas dear,
Whom for my humble parentage they jeer,
I shall not perish, nor shall I

Pent within Stygian waters lie.

E'en now rough fleeces on my legs alight,

And, from above, into a snowy white

Swan, I am changed, and with light down.
Fingers and shoulders are o'ergrown.

Now, songbird, than Daedalian Icarus
More fleet, to shores of murmuring Bosphorus,
And to Gaetulian shoals, will I,
And Hyperborean meadows, fly.

Me Colchian, far Gelonian, Dacian who
His fear of Marsian cohort hides, shall know :
My teaching, drinkers of the Rhone
And erudite Iberian, own.

Away with dirge, and empty obsequies,
And mean regrets, and querimonious cries!
Clamour repress-omit for me

The tomb's superfluous vanity.

XX.

NON usitata nec tenui ferar

Penna biformis per liquidum aethera
Vates; neque in terris morabor
Longius, invidiaque major

Urbes relinquam. Non ego, pauperum
Sanguis parentum, non ego quem vocant,
Dilecte Maecenas,, obibo,

Nec Stygia cohibebor unda. Jam jam residunt cruribus asperae Pelles, et album mutor in alitem Superne, nascunturque leves

Per digitos humerosque plumae.

Jam Daedaleo ocior Icaro
Visam gementis litora Bospori
Syrtesque Gaetulas canorus

Ales Hyperboreosque campos.
Me Colchus, et qui dissimulat metum
Marsae cohortis Dacus, et ultimi
Noscent Geloni; me peritus.

Discet Hiber, Rhodanique potor.

Absint inani funere neniae,

Luctusque turpes et querimoniae ;
Compesce clamorem, ac sepulcri

Mitte supervacuos honores.