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

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EXPLANATORY NOTES. EPODE XVII. 411
la Hrst to lie throngh the Mare Tyrrhenum, after leaving which they are ta
make ibr the main ocean.—41, Nos manet Oceanns circumvagus. " The cir
camambient Ocean awaits us." Horace here adopts the Homeric notion
that the ocean was a vast river flowing completely lonnd the earth, which
latter was a circular plane. Arva, beata petamus arva, &c. " Let us seek
the fields, the blessed fields, and the rich isles," &.c. The poet advises his
countrymen to seek the Fortunate Isles of the ocean. These are generally
supposed to have been identical with the modem Canaries. It is more
than probable, however, that they were merely a part of the group.—
43. jReddit nbi Cererem, &c. "Where theearth.thoughnntouchedbythe
plough, yields its annual produce, and the vines, though unproned, evef
flourish."—46. Suamgue puila, &c. " And the dark fig graces its own
tree," i. e., the natural or ungrafted tree. The epithet p»Z2a alludes to the
color of the fig when ripe.—48. Crepante pede. "With rustling footstep,"
». e., with a pleasing murmur.—50. Alliens. A pleasing reference to the
kind and friendly feelings with which, to the eye of the poet, the flock is
supposed to bestow its g^fts upon the master.—53. Nulla nocentpecori contagia.
Alluding to the salubnW of the atmos{>here. Nullius astri testuosa
impoisniia. "The scorcmng violence of no Mar." Consult note on
Ode iii., 13, 19, and i., 17, 17.—55. Ut negve largis^ &c. " How neither
rainy Enrus wastes the fields with excessive showers," &c. Compare the
description of the Homeric Elysium in the western isles (Od., iv., 566,
seqq^.—58. Utrvmque temperante. " Controlling each extreme," i. e., of
rainy cold and scorching heat.
59-65. 59. Non hiic Argoo, &.c. " The pina sped not hither its way
with an Argoan band of rowers," i. e., the Argoan pine (the ship Argo)
never visited these happy regions to introduce the corruptions of other
lands. The allusion is to the contagion of those national vices which
commerce is so instrumental in disseminating.—60. Impudica Colchis.
Alluding to Medea, and her want of female modesty in abandoning her
home.—61. Comna. " Their sail-yards." Literally, " the extremities
of their sail-yards," aniennanimheing understood.—62. Lahoriosa cohors
Ulixei. " The followers of Ulysses, exercised in hardships," i. e., Ulysses
and his followers schooled in toil.—63. Jupiter ilia piae, &c. " Jupiter
set apart these shores for a pious race, when he stained the Qolden Ago
with brass ; when, alter this, he hardened with iron the Brazen Age," i.
c, when the Brazen and the Iron had succeeded to the Qolden Age. Tha
verb secreviti as used in the text, well expresses the remote situation of
these blissM regions, far from the crimes and horrors of civil dissension.
—65. Quorum piis secunda, &c. " From which age of iron, an auspicious
escape is granted to the pious, according to the oracle which I pronounce."
With quorum understand siBculorum. The language of the poet is here
based upon the custom, followed in the most ancient times, of leading forth
colonies under the guidance of some diviner or prophet, after the orads
had been duly consulted and its will ascertained.
Bfode XVII. a pretended recantation of the fifth Epode, to which
succeeds the answer of Canidia, now rendered haughty and insolent by
success. The submission of the bard, however, and the menaces of the
sorceress, are only irony and satire, so much more severe and violent as
tiiey are more disguised
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