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

412 EXPLANATORY NOTES. EFODE XVIl
—
1-7. 1. Efficad do manus scientite. " I yield sabmissive to thy mighty
art," i. c, I acknowledge and submit to thy power, mighty sorceress. The
expression do manus is figurative, and is used commonly to denote the
submission ofthe vanquished to the victors on the field ofbattle.—2. Regna
per Proserpinm, &c. " By the realms of Proserpina, and by the power
of Hecate, not to be provoked with impunity, and by thy books of enchantments,"
&c. The poet here adjures Ganidia by the things which she most
revered, and with which, as a sorceress, she was supposed to be moat
conversant.—5. Dejlssa. " Bound by thy incantations to obey." The verb
d^go is- peculiar in this sense to magic rites. Hence it frequently answers
to our verb, "to bewitch."—7, Citwmque retro soloes &c. "And
torn backward, turn, thy swift-revolving wheel." The twrhot equivalent
to the Greek ^6f£^og, was a species of wheel, much used in magic rites.
A thread or yarn was attached to it, which began to wind around on the
wheel's being made to revolve, and, as this process was going on, the individual
who was the subject of the ceremony was supposed to come
more and more under the power of the sorceress. Horace, therefwe, en-
treats Ganidia to turn her magic wheel backward, and untwine the fatal
thread, that he may be freed from the spell in which she had bound him.
8-22. 8. Movit. Understand ad misericordiam. The poet heightens
the ridicule of the piece by citing Achilles and Glrce as examples of imitation
for the worthless Ganidia. Nepotem Nereium. AchilleH.— 2WeplmB.
A king of Mysia, who led an army against the Greeks when they
had landed on his coasts, and was wounded, and afterward cored, by
Achilles.— ^11. Unxere matres llias, &c. "The Trojan matrons anointed
the corpse of Hector, slaughterer of heroes, originally doomed to voracious
birds and dogs," ice. The idea intended to be conveyed is, that the TrojoD
matrons were enabled to perform the last sad offices to the corpse of Hec*
tor, in consequence of the relenting of Achilles at the supplications of
Priam.—14. Peroicads Achilla. " Of Achilles, however inflexible." Compare
Ode i., 6, 6.—15. Setosa d/uris, &c. " Divested their bristly limbs of
the hard skins of swine," z. e., ceased to be swine. An allusion to the
fable of Girce, and the transformation of the followers of TTIyBBes into
swine, as well as to their subsequent restoration by the sorceress, on the
interference of the chieftain of Ithaca.—17. Tunc mens et sonus, &c.
"Then reason and speech glided back, and their fomier expression was
gradually restored to their looks." The term relapsus {the zeugma in
which must be noted) beautifully describes, as it were to the eye, the slow
and gradual nature of the change.—19. Dedi satis superque, &x. "Enough
and more than enough have I been tormented by thee."—21. Reliquit
ossa pelle amicta Iwrida. " Has left behind only hones covered over with
a livid skin," i. e., has left me a mere skeleton.—22. Tuis captUus'-albus,
&c. " My hair is become white by the force qf thy magic herbs." The
poet ascribes this to the efiect produced on his mind and feelings by the
incantations of the sorceress, and noti as Gesner supposes, to any imguent
actually applied by her to his locks.
24-40. 24. Est. " Is it allowed me." An imitation of the Greek
nsage, by which iari, est, is put for hearty licet.-^Z5. Levare tenia, &c,
"To relieve by respiration my swellmg heart."—26, Negatum. "What
lonce denied." Understand a me.— ^27. Sabellapeetas increpare carmina,