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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. BOOK IV., ODE VI. 379
Ihe Peuates.—37. Longas O utinam, &.a. " Auspicious prince, mayest
thoa afford long festal days to Italy," i. e., long mayest thou rule over na.
—38. Didmus inlegro, *o. " For this we pray, in sober mood, at early
dawn, while the day is' still entire ; for this we pray, moistened with the
juice of the grape, when the sun is sunk beneath the ocean." Integer
dies is a day of which no part has as yet been used.
Ode VI. The poet, being ordered by Augustus to prepare a hymn for
the approaching Secular celebration, composes the present ode as a sort
of prelude, and entreats Apollo that his powers may prove adequate to
the task enjoined upon him.
1-23. 1. Magrus vmdicem linguiB "The avenger of an arrogant
tongue." Alluding to the boastful pretensions of Niobe, in relation to
her offspring.—2. Tityosque raptor. Compare Ode ii., 14, 8.—3. Sensit.
"Felt to be." Supply' esse. TrojtB prope victor tdta. Alluding to bis
having slain Hector, the main support of Troy.—4. Phthius Achilles. The
s^n of Thetis, according to Homer [II., xxii., 359), was to fall by the hands
of Paris and Phoebus. "Virgil, however, makes him to have been slain by
Paris, [^n., vi., 56, seqq.)—5. CtBteris major, tibi miles impar. "A
warrior superior to the rest of the Greeks, but an unequal match for thee."
—7. Mordaeiferro. "By the biting steel," i. e., the sharp-cutting axe.
10. ImpuUa. " Overthrown."—11. Posuitque. "And reclined."—13, Hie
non, incltisus, &c. The poet means that, jf Achilles had lived, the G-reeks
would not have been reduced to the dishonorable necessity of employing
the sti'atagem of the wooden horse, but would have taken the city in open
fight. Equo Minei-vec sacra mentito. " In the horse that belied the worship
of Minerva," i. e., which was falsely pretended to have been an offering
to the goddess.—14. Maleferiatos. " Giving loose to festivity in an
evil hour."—16. Falleret. IPar fefellisset. So, in the 18th verse, ureret
for ussisset.—17. Palam gra/»is. ' Openly terrible."—18. Nescios fari
infantes. An imitation of the Greek form, ji^ma tIkvo.—21. Plexus.
" Swayed." Bent from his purpose.—22. Vocibus. " Entreaties." Adnuisset.
" Granted."—23. Potiore iuctos alite. " Beared under more
favorable auspices."
25-39. 25. Doctor A-jiv Ir „. " Qcd of the lyro, instructor of the
Grecian Muse." Tkaiiis is ^ zt'> equivalent to Musas lyricte, and Apollo
is invoked as the deity who taught the Greeks to excel in lyric numbers,
or, in other Fords, was the xopoSiidcrka^o; Movadv.—26. JCantho. Alluding
)o Che Lycian, not tne Trojan Xanthns. This stream, though the
largest in Lycia, was yet of inconsiderable size. On its banks stood a
city of the same name, the greatest in the Whole country. About sixty
stadia eastward fi-om the month of the Xanthus was the city of Patara,
famed for its oracle of Apollo.—27. Daunias d^fende deeus Camanie.
" Defend the honor of the Komon Muse," i. e., grant that in the Siscnlar
hymn, which Augustus bids me compose, I may si'ppirt the honor of the
Boman lyre. As regards Dauniie, put here tar Itala, i. e., Romana,
consult the notes on 0(feii.,l, 34, and i., 22, 13.— 20 Levis Agyiea. "O
youthful Apollo." The appellation Agyisus is of yreek origin l^kyviei;),
and, if the common derivation be correct ({ro3i dr.);a, " a street"), denotea