The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

268 EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., ODE V.
bons, or with the inner rind of the linden-tree. These crowns, it waa
thought, prevented intoxication.—itfyrio. The myrtle was sacred to Venus.
10. Soluta. "Freed from the fetters of winter."— 11. Fwtmo.
Faunus, the guardian of the fields and flocks, had two annual festivals
called JfauwoZia, one on the Ides {13th) of February, and the other on th«
Vones (5th) of December. Both were marked by great hilarity and joy
—12. Sen po&cdt agna, &c. *' Either with a lamb, if he demand one, or
with a kid, if he prefer that offering," Many editions read agnam aod
kcBduTtt ; but most of the MSS., and all the best editions, exhibit the lep
tion which we have given.
13-16. 13. Pallida MOrs, &c. "Pale Death, advancing with impartial
footstep, knocks for admittance at the cottages of the poor and the lofty
dwellings of the rich." Horace uses the term rex as equivalent to beatus
or dives. As regards the apparent want of connection between this por-
tion of the ode and that which immediately precedes, compare what has
been said in the introductory remarks.—15. Jnchoare. " Day after day to
renew."—16, Jam tepremet 7U>x, &c. The passage may "be paraphrased
as follows : " Soon will the night of the grave descend upon thee, and the
manes of fable crowd around, and the shadowy home of Pluto become also
thine own." The zeugma in the verb premo, hy which it is made to assume
anew meaning in each clause of the sentence, is worthy of notice.
By the manes of fable are meant the shades of the departed, often made
the theme of the wildest fictions of poetry. Observe th&tfabules is not
the genitive here, but the nominative plural, and equivalent tofabulosi.
Compare Callimachusy Epigr.^ xiv., 3 : Ti d^ IlXoiirwv ; M-vOog: andPersiuSt
Sat., v., 153 : " Cinis et manes etftdmlajies."
17-18. 17. Simul. For Simul ac.-^18. Talis. This may either be the
adjective, or else the ablative plural of talus. If the former, the meaning
of the passage will be, " Thou shalt neither cast lots for the sovereignty
of such wine as we have here, nor," &c. ; whereas if talis be regarded as
a noun, the interpretation will be, " Thou shalt neither cast lots with the
dice for the sovereignity of wine, nor," &c. This latter mode of rendering
the passage is the more usual one, but the other is certainly more anima-
ted and poetical, and more in accordance, too, with the very early and
curious belief of the Greeks and Romans in relation to a future slate.
They believed that the souls of the departed, with the exception of those
who had offended against the majesty of the gods^ were occupied in the
lower world with the unreal performance of the same actions which had
Ibrmed their chief object of pursuit in the regions of day. Thus, the friend
jf Horace will still quaff his wine in the shades, but the cup and its con-
vents will be, like their possessor, a shadow and a dream: it will not be