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

270 EXPLANATDRY NOTES. BOOK I., ODE VI.
handle so lofty a theme. " Varius will sing thy praises, Agrippa, with
all the fire of a second Homer. I'or my own part, I would as soon attempt
to describe in poetic numbers the god of battle, or any of the heroes of the
Iliad, as undertake to tell of thy fame and that of the royal Caesar." The
language, however, in which the bard's excuse is conveyed, while it speaks
a high eulogium on the characters of Augustus and Agrippa, proves, at the
same time, bow well qualified he was to execute the task wliich he declines.
Sanadon, without the least shadow of probability, endeavors to trace an
allegorical meaning throughout the entire ode. He supposes Pollio to be
meant by Achilles, Agrippa andMessfila by the phrase dupUcis Ulixei,
Antony and Cleopatra by the "house of Pelops," Statiliua Taurus by the
god Mars, Marcus Titius by Meriones, and Maecenas by the son of Tydeas.
1. Scribiris Vario, &c. "Thou shalt be celebrated by Varius, a bird
of Masonian strain, as valiant," &c. Vario and aliti are datives, put by a
Graecism for ablatives.—The poet to whom Horace here alludes, and who
is again mentioned on several occasions, was Lucius Varius, famed for his
epic and tragic productions. Quintilian (10, 1) asserts, that a tragedy of
his, entitled Thyestes, was deserving of being compared with any of the
Grecian models. He compose^ also, a panegyric on Augustus,