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

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470 EXPLANATORY NCTES. BOOK I., SATIRE IX.
to the ti'encli or the blood. The latter appears to ns more correct, and
inde will therefore be equivalent to hfic re, " by means of this." Nothing
was supposed to be more delicioas to the souls of the departed than blood.
They would not foretell any future events, nor answer any questions, until
they had tasted of it. Manes. The Dd Manes, of course^ are meant.
29-35. 29. Lanea et effigies erai, &c. There were two imagoes, one of
larger size, and made of wool, the other smaller, and composed of-wa±
The former represented Canidia, the latter the intended victim of the
charm; and this one stood in a suppliant posture before the other, as if
about to receive some signal punishment. The general rule in magic rites
seems to have been, to make the images of those who were to be bene-
fited of wool, and to employ wax in the case of those who were to he operated
upon. The wool was deemed invulnerable, whereas the wax was
either pierced with needles, or was made to melt away in magic fires.—
31. Qua pcenis compesceret inferiorem. "Which was to keep the smaller
one within bounds by certain punishments," i. e., was to keep the individual
whom the image represented from wandering in his affibctions, l^
the infliction of certain severe punishments.—^32. Servilibus modis. "Like
a slave," i. e., by the severest inflictions of suffering. Compare Orelli
"Mis^ahiliter peritura, liquejieri enim dehebat"—34. lAinarfigue rttJentem.
"And the blushing moon." The moon blushes with shame at these
abominable rites.—35. Magna sepulcra. Not, as some suppose, the highraised
graves in the gardens, for these had long since disappeared, if they
overbad been there at all, but probably the lofty tombs of some of the Bo
man nobility along the Via Tiburtina in tbe vicinity. [Keightley, ad foe'
37-39. 37. Umhrm. Tbe manes evoked by the incantations of the sr r
ceress. Resonarent triste et acutum. The spirits of the dead are here
represented, in accordance with the popular belief, as uttering a plaintive
and shrill sound when speaMng.—38. Lupi barbam. Pliny {H. N., xxviii.,
10) infoims us that the snout of a wolf [rostrum litp^ was thought to possess
the greatest virtue in repelling enchantments, and was therefore
fixed up over the doors of farm-houses. The modem belief respecting the
eflicacy of the horse-shoe is akin to this. On the present occasion, the
hags'buiy a wolTs beard in order to guard their own enchantments against
any counter-charm.—43. Cerea. To be pronounced, in metrical reading,
c&r-ya. Compare Sat. ii., 2, 21, where a similar contraction occurs in the
word ostrea.
SATIRE IX. Horace describes the unavailing efforts which he employs
to get rid of an importunate ffillow, a fop and poetaster, who tires and
overwhelms him with his loquacity. Sometimes he stops short, and then
walks fast, bat all his endeavors are vain to shake off the intruder. A
few of the touches of this finished portrait, which is surpassed by none in
delicacy of coloring and accuracy of delineation^ have been taken from the
characters of Theophrastus. The individual here described belonged to a
class of persons, then so numerous at Rome, who fancied themselves to
bo bel-espritSt men of talents and accomplishments, and entitled to be,
like Horace and Virgil, admitted to the society of the great. The poet
here depicts the mean artifices by which thay thought this was to be ef
;