Tag Archives: Horace

In the open­ing poems of Books 1 and 3 of Horace’s Odes, we find a use of the adjec­tive sub­limis near the end. The two usages high­light two dif­fer­ent types of achieve­ment with a lofty result. In 1.1, to Mae­ce­nas, … Con­tinue read­ing →

Words related to the verb ulcis­cor (pf. ppl. ultus) appear three times in Odes 1.2, the poem in which Horace makes the inter­est­ing tran­si­tion, dur­ing the ‘kletic’ part of the ode, from Mer­cury to Augus­tus in what West calls (I … Con­tinue read­ing →

Horace Odes 2.10 is appro­pri­ately given the Eng­lish title ‘The Golden Mean’ in Garrison’s edi­tion of the Epodes and Odes. The famous Latin phrase aurea medi­oc­ritas occurs in line 5, with the phrase’s two words per­fectly bal­anced around quisquis and … Con­tinue read­ing →

2.1: For Pol­lio; civil wars; Horace [’H.’ here­after] prefers to sing of lighter sub­jects. 2.2: For Cris­pus Sal­lustius; moral poem; van­ity of riches and supremacy of virtue. 2.3: For Delius; Golden Mean; enjoy life; death the great equal­izer. 2.4: For … Con­tinue read­ing →

The other day I posted a snip­pet of Horace that was appro­pri­ate to our snowy con­di­tions. Since it’s warmed up and every­thing has started to melt, I thought I’d post another snip­pet, even though it’s not quite spring yet. These … Con­tinue read­ing →

We’ve been get­ting some snow here in the Philadel­phia area today, so I thought I would post the win­try open­ing stan­zas of Horace Odes 1.9, fol­lowed by David West’s trans­la­tion: Vides ut alta stet niue can­didumSoracte nec iam sustineant onus … Con­tinue read­ing →