by Horace
PROETUS See Bellerophon.
PROMETHEUS A Titan of early Greek legend. He created man out of clay, taught him the arts, and stole fire for him from heaven. He was punished by Zeus (Jupiter) by being chained to Mt Caucasus with an eagle continuously pecking at his liver.
PROSERPINA Queen of the underworld.
PROTEUS A sea-god who tended the ‘flocks’ of Neptune.
PUNIC Carthaginian. The Poeni (whence Punic) were the Phoenicians who founded Carthage.
PYRRHA She and her husband Deucalion were the sole human survivors of the great flood sent by Zeus (Jupiter).
PYRRHUS (a) King of Epirus who invaded Italy. The greater part of his army was destroyed at Asculum (279 B.C.), though the victory was his (hence the expression ‘Pyrrhic victory’). (b) Unknown addressee of 111.20.
PYTHAGORAS A Greek philosopher and mathematician who flourished about 530 B.C. He was a strict vegetarian, holding that in the course of purification souls transmigrated between animal and man through successive reincarnations.
PYTHIA(N) See Delphi.
QUIRINUS See Romulus.
QUIRITES Roman citizens in full possession of their civil rights.
REGULUS M. Atilius Regulus, Roman consul and general and national hero. His army was defeated by the Carthaginians in 255 B.C., and he and many of his men were captured. In 250 B.C. he was sent back to Rome on parole to arrange a peace. He advised Rome to continue the war, returned to Carthage, and was tortured and executed with the remainder of his army.
REMUS Twin brother of Romulus, who killed him in a quarrel over seniority.
RHAETI (ANS) An Alpine tribe.
RHODOPE A mountain in Thrace.
RHOETUS One of the Giants.
ROMULUS (QUIRINUS) Son of Mars. The legendary founder and first king of Rome, he was said to have disappeared in a thunderstorm in a chariot drawn by Mars’ horses.
SABAEA A region of Arabia. An unsuccessful expedition was made into Arabia Felix (Sabaea) in 24 B.C.
SABELLIAN The Sabellians were an Italian mountain tribe from which many witches seem to have originated.
SABINE The Sabine people occupied a district just north of Rome, where (at Tibur) the farm that Maecenas gave to Horace was located.
SALAMIS (a) Teucer’s native Greek island; the Persian fleet was defeated off its shores in 480 B.C. (b) Having been banished from this Salamis by his father for having ‘allowed’ his brother Ajax to die, Teucer founded a second Salamis in Cyprus.
SALII ‘Jumpers’. The dancing priests of Mars.
SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS, C. Friend of Augustus, nephew of the historian Sallust.
SAPPHO Lyric poet of Lesbos (q.v.), fl.. 600 B.C. Her celebration of homosexual love accounts for the modern term ‘lesbian’.
SATURN The ruler of the gods and heaven preceding and deposed by Jupiter.
SATYRS Mythical goat-men hybrids, often highly sexed.
SCAMANDER A river near Troy.
SCAURI This family was often linked with the Fabii, Curii, and Fabricii as an example of old-fashioned morality. M. Aemilius Scaurus was consul in 115 and censor in 109 B.C.
SCOPAS A celebrated Parian sculptor who flourished about 375 B.C.
SCYTHIANS Inhabitants of Scythia, a region to the north of the Black Sea.
SERES The Chinese, who were already in Horace’s time organizing the silk trade to Parthia.
SESTIUS Lucius Sestius, consul in 23 B.C.
SIBYL A variously localized prophetess, e.g. the Campanian Sibyl at Cumae.
SIDONIANS The Phoenicians, the sea-traders of antiquity.
SILVANUS God of woodlands. (In epode 2, line 22, he is evidently identified with Terminus, god of boundary stones.)
SIMOIS A river near Troy.
SISYPHUS A king of Corinth who for his sins was condemned in the underworld to push a great rock up a hill, from which it continually rolled down.
SORACTE (Monte Soratte) A mountain some twenty-five miles north of Rome.
SPARTACUS The gladiator who led the slave rebellion in 73–71 B.C. He was eventually captured by Crassus and crucified with many of his followers.
STESICHORUS A Greek lyric poet who lived c. 600 B.C.
STHENELUS Charioteer of the Greek hero Diomedes (Tydides) at the siege of Troy.
STYX One of the four rivers of the underworld. Charon ferried the shades of the dead across the Styx so that they could gain admittance to the underworld.
SUBURA A street of bad repute in Rome.
SYBARIS A Greek colony in southern Italy which became a byword for luxurious living.
SYGAMBRI A German tribe who defeated a Roman army under M. Lollius in 16 B.C., but sued for peace when they heard Augustus himself was marching against them.
SYRTES Dangerous shoals off the coast of North Africa. Also the desert of the hinterland.
TAENARUS A promontory of Laconia (Cape Matapan) where there was supposed to be an entrance to the underworld.
TANTALUS The father of Pelops. A notorious sinner in myth, he was punished in the underworld by being stuck fast near food and water which receded when he tried to eat or drink.
TARENTUM (Taranto) A Spartan colony on the ‘heel’ of Italy.
TARQUIN(S) The Etruscan noble family which provided two kings of early Rome. Tarquinius Superbus was the last of the kings of Rome; his fall in 510 B.C. led to the foundation of the Republic.
TARTARUS A region of the underworld devoted to the punishment of evil.
TECMESSA A Trojan princess whose father was killed by Ajax.
TELEGONUS Legendary founder of Tusculum in Latium; a son of Ulysses and Circe; he killed his father by mistake.
TELEPHUS (a) a king of the Mysians; Achilles wounded him with a spear, but then (as had been foretold by an oracle) healed him with rust from the same weapon. (b) Unknown young man/men of I.13, III.19 and IV.11.
TEMPE A beautiful valley in Thessaly.
TERMINUS God of boundary stones.
TEUCER A Greek hero at the siege of Troy; brother of Ajax. See also Salamis.
THALIA The Muse of comedy.
THEBES A Boeotian city; the scene of various Greek myths, including those of Cadmus and of Oedipus.
THESEUS Legendary king of Athens, father of Hippolytus. With his friend Pirithous, he attempted to abduct Proserpina from the underworld. Pirithous was caught and put in chains.
THESSALY A region, of northern Greece notorious for being only semi-civilized and for magical goings-on. See Centaurs, Lapiths and Peleus.
THETIS A sea-goddess. Mother of Achilles by Peleus.
THRACE (THRACIANS) A primitive region north of Greece. Horace habitually associates the Thracians with drunkenness, presumably on account of their cult of Dionysus (Bacchus), god of wine and ecstasy.
THYESTES His own children were served up to him at a banquet given by his brother Atreus (father of Agamemnon and Menelaus), on whose house he laid a curse of revenge (cf. Aeschylus’ Oresteia).
THYONEUS An epithet of Bacchus.
TIBERIUS The elder stepson of Augustus (the younger was Drusus); later emperor.
TIBULLS Albius Tibullus, elegiac poet, d. 19 B.C.; friend of Horace and Ovid; friend and protégé of M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus.
TIBUR (Tivoli) Town twenty miles north-east of Rome, near Horace’s Sabine farm.
TIRIDATES (II) Usurper to the throne of Parthia; in 30–29 B.C. a refugee in Syria, supported by Octavian (later Augustus).
TITANS In early Greek legends gods or demi-gods; the children of Heaven and Earth (Uranus and Ge); often identified or confused with the Giants.
TITHONUS A mortal who was granted eternal life – but not (owing to an oversight) eternal youth, so his doom was perpetual ageing.
TITYOS A Giant who attempted to violate Latona and was killed by her children Apollo and Diana.
TORQUATUS (a) Addressee of IV.7 and Epistles I.5, otherwise unknown. (b) L. Manlius Torquatus – see Manlius.
TROILUS A son of Priam, king of Troy; killed by Achilles in the Trojan War.
TUSCULUM (Frascati) A mountain town ten miles south-cast of Rome founded by Telegonus, son of Ulysses and Circe.
TYDIDES Son of Tydeus, i.e. Diomedes, a Greek warrior at the siege of Troy.
TYRE Eastern Mediterranean city and sea-port famous for its woollen fabrics and its dyes.
ULYSSES (Odysseus) Greek hero whose many adventures in the course of his return from Troy to his native Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope form the subject of Homer’s Odyssey.
USTICA A valley (or perhaps a hill) near Horaces Sabine farm.
VALGIUS C. Valgius Rufus, a member of Maecenas’ circle of poets (cf. Satires I.10.81–2).
VENAFRUM A town in Campania, famous for its olive-groves.
VENUS Goddess of love.
VENUSIA (Venosa) A town on the borders of Apulia and Lucania; Horace’s birthplace.
VESPER (Hesper) The evening star.
VESTA Roman goddess of the hearth.
VINDELICI Tyrolean tribe defeated by Tiberius and Drusus in 15 B.C.
VIRGIL (a) Illustrious poet, author of the Aeneid, contemporary and friend of Horace. (b) Unknown addressee of IV. 12.
VULCAN The blacksmith-god, husband of Venus.
VULTUR A mountain in Apulia, near Venusia.
XANTHUS The name of several rivers in Asia Minor – in IV.6 probably that in Lycia where Apollo had an oracle at Patara, on its banks.
ZEPHYR The west wind of spring.
INDEX TO POEMS
EPODES
Altera Iam Teritur
16
At, o deorum
5
Beatus ille
2
Horrida tempestas
13
Iam iam efficaci
17
Ibis Liburnis
1
Lupis et agnis
4
Mala soluta navis
10
Mollis inertia
14
Nox erat et caelo
15
Parentis olim
3
Petti, nihil me
11
Quando repostum Caecubum
9
Quid immerentis hospites
6
Quid tibi vis
12
Quo, quo, scelesti ruitis?
7
Rogare longo
8
ODES
Aeli vetusto
III.17
Aequam memento
II.3
Albi, ne doleas
I.33
Angustam amice
III.2
Audivere, Lyce
IV.13
Bacchum in remotis
II.19
Caelo supinas
III.23
Caelo tonantem
III.5
Cum tu, Lydia
I.13
Cur me querelis
II.17
Delicta maiorum
III.6
Descende caelo
III.4
Dianam tenerae
I.21
Diffugere nives
IV.7
Dive, quem proles
IV.6
Divis orte bonis
IV.5
Donarem pateras
IV.8
Donec gratus eram
III.9
Eheu fugaces
II.14
Est mihi nonum
IV.11
Et ture et fidibus
I.36
Exegi monumentum
III.30
Extremum Tanain
III.10
Faune, Nympharum
III.18
Festo quid potius die
III.28
Herculis ritu
III.14
lam pauca aratro
II.15
Iam satis terris
1.2
Iam veris comites
IV.12
Icci, beatis
I.29
Ille et nefasto
II.13
Impios parrae
III.27
Inclusam Danaen
III.16
Intactis opulentior
III.24
Integer vitae
1.22
Intermissa, Venus
IV.1
Iustum et tenacem
III.3
Laudabunt alii
1.7
Lydia, dic, per omnis
I.8
Maecenas atavis edite
1.1
Martiis caelebs
III.8
Mater saeva Cupidinum
1.19
Mercuri, facunde
I.10
Mercuri – nam te
III.11
Miserarum est
III.12
Montium custos
III.22
Motum ex Metello
II.1
Musis amicus
I.26
Natis in usum
I.27
Ne forte credas
IV.9
Ne sit ancillae
II.4
Nolis longa ferae
II.12
Non ebur neque aureum
II.18
Non semper imbres
II.9
Non usitata
II.20
Non vides quanto
III.20
Nondum subacta
II.5
Nullam, Vare, sacra
I.18
Nullus argento
II.2
Nunc est bibendum
I.37
O crudelis adhuc
IV.10
O diva, gratum
I.35
O fons Bandusiae
III.13
O matre pulchra
I.16
O nata mecum
III.21
O navis, referent
I.14
O saepe mecum
II.7
O Venus, regina
I.30
Odi profanum vulgus
III.1
Otium divos
II.16
Parcius iunctas
I.25
Parcus deorum cultor
I.34
Pastor cum traheret
I.15
Persicos odi
I.38
Phoebe
Centennial
silvarumque
Hymn
Phoebus volentem
IV.15
Pindarum quisquis
IV.2
Poscimur. Si quid
I.32
Quae cura patrum
IV.14
Qualem ministrum
IV.4
Quantum distet
III.19
Quem tu, Melpomene
IV.3
Quem virum aut heroa
I.12
Quid bellicosus
II.11
Quid dedicatum
I.31
Quid fles, Asterie
III.7
Quis desiderio
I.24
Quis multa gracilis
I.5
Quo me, Bacche, rapis
III.25
Rectius vives
II.10
Scriberis Vario
I.6
Septimi, Gades aditure
II.6
Sic te diva
I.3
Solvitur acris hiems
I.4
Te maris et terrae
I.28
Tu ne quaesieris
I.11
Tyrrhena regum
III.29
Ulla si iuris
II.8
Uxor pauperis I byci
III.15
Velox amoenum
I.17
Vides ut alta
1.9
Vile potabis
1.20
Vitas
inuleo
I.23
Vixi puellis nuper
III.26
1. See Appendix, p.194.
2. All translations quoted of the Satires and Epistles are by Niall Rudd.
3. See Gilbert Highet, Poets in a Landscape pp. 121–6 and Giuseppe Lugli, La Villa d’Orazio nella valle del Licenza.
4. L. P. Wilkinson, Horace and his Lyric Poetry, p.46.
5. Introduction to The Odes of Horace.
6. See references in Wilkinson, pp. 109 ff.
7. Wilkinson, p.28.
8. Annals, 1.2, translated by Michael Grant.
9. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Augustus 66.3.
10. See Appendix, p. 195.
11. Fraenkel, p. 382.
12. See further K. Quinn in Latin Explorations, Chapter 1: ‘Horace’s Spring Odes’ (IV. 12, I.4, IV.7).
13 Quintilian, X. 1.96.
14. Juvenal, Sàtires VII.266–7, translated by Peter Green; cf. Quintilian I.8.6.
15. Sec further Wilkinson, pp. 159 ff.; Gilbert Highet, The Classical Tradition, pp. 124–5, 244–50; and R. M. Ogilvie in Latin and Greek, Chapter 2: ‘Horace and the Eighteenth Century.’
