66 his passion's behalf; "What wouldst thou? Do I ever, when my rage is at its worst, ask you for a dame clad in a stola," the offspring of a great consul? What would he answer? The girl is a noble father's child." But how much better-how utterly at variance with this-is the course that nature, rich in her own resources, prompts, if you would only manage wisely, and not confound what is to be avoided with what is to be desired! Do you think it makes no difference, whether your trouble is due to your own fault or to circumstances? Wherefore, that you may have no reason to repent, cease to court matrons, for thence one may derive pain and misery, rather than reap enjoyment in the reality. Though this may not be your opinion, Cerinthus, yet not softer or finer are a woman's limbs amidst snowy pearls and green emeralds—nay, often the advantage is with the strumpet. She, moreover, presents her wares without disguise; what she has for sale she openly displays; and if she has some charm, she does not boastfully show it off, while carefully concealing all unsightliness. This is the way with the rich when they buy horses; they inspect them covered, so that if a beautiful shape, as often, is supported by a tender hoof, it may not take in the buyer, as he gapes at the comely haunches, the small head, the stately neck. In this they act wisely. So do not survey bodily perfections with the eyes of a Lynceus ↳ and be blinder than Hypsaea, when you gaze upon deformities. What a leg! what arms! 66 you cry, a The stola was a long over-garment, caught in at the waist by a girdle. The keen-sighted Argonaut. Nothing is known of the blind Hypsaea. depugis, nasuta, brevi latere ac pede longo est. ad talos stola demissa et circumdata palla, 95 100 quam mercem ostendi? "leporem venator ut alta 105 in nive sectetur, positum sic tangere nolit," cantat et apponit "meus est amor huic similis ; nam transvolat in medio posita et fugientia captat." hiscine versiculis speras tibi posse dolores atque aestus curasque gravis e pectore pelli3 ? 110 Nonne, cupidinibus statuat natura modum quem, quid latura sibi, quid sit dolitura negatum, quaerere plus prodest et inane abscindere1 soldo ? 2 officiunt prl. 4 abscedere B. 1 dum, II. 3 tolli VBK. a A kind of transparent silk was made in the island of Cos. Horace makes use of an epigram of the poet Callimachus (Anthologia Palatina, xii. 102), in which the lover is compared to a hunter who will go to great trouble to catch game, but scorns it when it is caught and lies outstretched upon the ground (so Orelli). The Greek runs thus: ὡγρευτής, Επίκυδες, ἐν οὔρεσι πάντα λαγωὸν but there are thin hips, a long nose, a short waist and a long foot. In a matron one can see only her face, for unless she be a Catia, her long robe conceals all else. But if you seek forbidden charms that are invested with a rampart-for this it is that drives you crazy-many obstacles will then be in your wayattendants, the sedan, hairdressers, parasites, the robe dropping to the ankles, and, covered with a wrap, a thousand things which hinder you from a clear view. In the other-no obstacle. In her Coan silk you may see her, almost as if naked, so that she may not have a poor leg, an unsightly foot; you may measure her whole form with your eye. Or would you rather have a trick played upon you and your money extorted before the wares are shown? The gallant sings how "the huntsman pursues the hare mid the deep snow, but declines to touch it when thus outstretched," and adds: My love is like unto this, for it passes over what is served to all, and chases flying game." Do you suppose that with verses such as these, sorrow and passion and the burden of care can be lifted from your breast? 111 Would it not be more profitable to ask wha limit nature assigns to desires, what satisfaction she will give herself, what privation will cause her pain, and so to part the "void" from what is "solid"? Or, when thirst parches your jaws, do you ask for cups of στίβῃ καὶ νιφετῷ κεχρημένος· ἢν δέ τις εἴπῃ, τῆ, τόδε βέβληται θηρίον,” οὐκ ἔλαβεν. χομὸς ἔρως τοιόσδε· τὰ μὲν φεύγοντα διώκειν οἶδε, τὰ δ ̓ ἐν μέσσῳ κείμενα παρπέτεται. The positum sic represents τόδε βέβληται θηρίον, while in medio posita translates εν μέσσῳ κείμενα. A reference to Epicurean physics, according to which the universe is composed of "void" (inane) and "solid" atoms. 115 num, tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quaeris pocula ? num esuriens fastidis omnia praeter pavonem rhombumque? tument tibi cum inguina, num, si ancilla aut verna est praesto puer, impetus in quem continuo fiat, malis tentigine rumpi? non ego: namque parabilem amo Venerem facilem que. 99 66 119 125 illam" post paulo," "sed pluris," si exierit vir," Gallis, hanc Philodemus ait sibi, quae neque magno stet pretio neque cunctetur cum est iussa venire. candida rectaque sit; munda hactenus, ut neque longa nec magis alba velit quam dat1 natura videri. haec ubi supposuit dextro corpus mihi laevum, Ilia et Egeria est; do nomen quodlibet illi, nec vereor2 ne, dum futuo, vir rure recurrat, ianua frangatur, latret canis, undique magno pulsa domus strepitu resonet, vepallida3 lecto desiliat1 mulier, miseram se conscia clamet, cruribus haec metuat, doti deprensa, egomet mi. discincta tunica fugiendum est et pede nudo, ne nummi pereant aut puga aut denique fama. deprendi miserum est: Fabio vel iudice vincam. 2 metuo, II. 3 vae pallida мss.: vepallida known to Acron: ne pallida Bentley. 4 dissiliat, II. 1 det D. 130 a These were priests of Cybele, who mutilated themselves, cf. the Attis of Catullus. Horace is here quoting and summarizing an epigram by Philodemus, a Greek philosopher, and a client of the L. Calpurnius Piso who was assailed by gold? When hungry, do you disdain everything save peacock and turbot? When your passions prove unruly, would you rather be torn with desire? I should not, for the pleasures I love are those easy to attain. "By and by," Nay more,' If my husband goes out a woman who speaks thus is for the Galli," says Philodemus; for himself he asks for one who is neither high-priced nor slow to come when bidden. She must be fair and straight, and only so far arranged that she will not wish to seem taller or fairer than nature allows. When she and I embrace, she is to me an Ilia or an Egeria: I give her No fears have I in her company, that a husband may rush back from the country, the door burst open, the dog bark, the house ring through and through with the din and clatter of his knocking; that the woman, white as a sheet, will leap away, the maid in league with her cry out in terror, she fearing for her limbs, her guilty mistress for her dowry, and I for myself. With clothes dishevelled and bare of foot, I must run off, dreading disaster in purse or person or at least repute. To be caught is an unhappy fate: this I could prove, even with Fabius as umpire. any name. Cicero in his In Pisonem, where Philodemus is characterized in 68 ff. The epigram is discussed by G. L. Hendrickson in A.J.P. xxxix. (1918) pp. 27 ff., and by F. A. Wright, xlii. (1921) pp. 168, 169. Ilia, mother of Romulus, and Egeria, the nymph who inspired Numa, here represent women of highest rank. Cf. Sat. i. 1. 14. This writer on Stoicism is said to have been detected in adultery. |
