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

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284 EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK I., ODE XV.
1-4. 1. Pastor. Paris, whose early life was spent among the skcj
herds of Moant Ida, in consequence of his mother's fearful dream. Sank
don, who is one of those that attach an allegorical meaning to this ode^
thmks that the allusion to Antony commences with the very first word of
the poem, since Antony was one of the Luperci, or priests of Pan, the god
of shepherds- Trakeret. "Was bearing forcibly away." Horace here
follows the authority of those writers who make Helen to have been carried
offby Paris against her will. (Compai-e Ovid^ Her., xvii,, 21.) Some
commentators, however, make tralieret here the same as raperet, i. e.,
tanquam pradam secum abdttceretj while others, again, regard the term
as equivalent to lenta navigatione circumduceret, since Paris, according
to one of the scholiasts and Enstathins, did not go directly from Laceda*
mon to Troy, but, in apprehension of being pursued, sailed to Cyprus,
Phoenicia, and Egypt. Navibus Idais. "In vessels made of the timber
of Ida."—3. Ingrato otio. "In «.n unwelcome calm." Unwelcome, say
the commentators, to the winds themselves, which are ever restless, and
ever love to bein motion. Hence they are styled by ^schylus KaKoOxo-
" That he might foretell their gloomy des-
Xoi.—4. Ut can&^t/erafata. -,
tinies."
5-13. 5. Mala a/oi. " Under evil omens." Compare Ode iii., 3, 61,
" alite luguhri ;" and Epod. x., 1, " mcda aliie."—7. Conjurata tuas rumpere
nuptias, &c. " Bound by a common oath to sever the union between
thee and thy loved one, and to destroy the ancient kingdom of Priam."
A GriBcism for qum cor^uravit se rwptwram- The term nuptias is here
used, not in its ordinary sense, but with reference to the criminal loves of
Paris and Helen.-;-9. Clv.ani'ns sudor. "Whattoil."-^10. Quantafumra.
"What carnage."— ^11. ^gida. "Her aegis." In Homer, the aegis {at-
yig) is the shield of Jove, which Minerva sometizues bears (iZ., v., 736),
and this signification is retained by Seneca [Here. Fur., 905). At a later
period, it is Minerva's corselet {^v^rip.. Ion, lOlS, ed. Herm. Ovid, Met.,
vi., 17). The term is used in this last sense on the present occaaioii.
12. JSt rahiem pa^at. " And is kindling up her martial fury." The zeugma
in parat, and the air of conciseness which it imparts to the style, are
peculiarly striking,
13-19. 13. Veneris pra^idio f&rox. "Proudly relying on the aid ol
Venus." This goddess favored hini, since to her he had adjudged the
prizeofbeauty over Juno and Minerva.—14. Orataquefeminis, Sec. "And
distribute pleasing strains among women on the unmanly lyre." The expression
carmina dividere feminis means nothing more than to execute
different airs for di&rent females in succession. This is Doring'a explana-
t^aa, and is adopted by Dillenburgjer. OreUi's interpretation appeals stiff
^^far-fetched. It it> as follows : " Cctntus vocaUs et cithartE, soni inter se
conjuncti totam efficiunt symphoniam ; ja/m singtUatim spectatis his par-
tibus, iioidriv dividit cithara canius, aoi^ri cithares- &onos, id. est, altera
utra dimidia totius symphonia pars est." The allegorical meaning is considered
by some as being still kept up in this passage : Antony, according
to Plutarch, lived for a time at Samos with Cleopatra, in the last excesses
of luxury, amid the delights of music and pong, while all the world around
were terrified with apprehensions of a civil war.—16. ThaXamo. "In thy
bed-chamber," i. e., by seeking shelter therein.—17. Calami spicula Cno-
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