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Odas y épodos
Quinto Horacio Flaco, el gran poeta de Roma, es modelo y punto de referencia de las generaciones siguientes. Su obra nos revela en igual medida un testimonio histórico concreto y un paradigma artístico de alcance universal. Las "Odas" y los "Epodos" de Horacio pueden integrarse, desde el punto de vista de la teoría moderna, en el ámbito de la poesía lírica. Sin embargo, mientras las "Odas" siguen el modelo de Alceo, Safo, Anacreonte y Píndaro, los "Epodos" pueden considerarse como una poetización del insulto, aunque éste quede a veces en un segundo plano.
472 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 14
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About the author
Horacio
57 books3 followersQuinto Horacio Flaco a (Venusia, 65 a. C.-Roma, 8 a. C.), conocido como Horacio, fue un importante poeta lírico y satírico en lengua latina.
Poeta reflexivo, que expresaba aquello que deseaba con una perfección casi absoluta. Los principales temas que trató en su poesía: el elogio de una vida retirada («beatus ille») y la invitación de gozar de la juventud («carpe diem»), temas retomados por poetas españoles como Garcilaso de la Vega y Fray Luis de León. Escribió, además, epístolas (cartas), la última de las cuales, dirigida «A los Pisones», es conocida como Arte poética.
Poeta reflexivo, que expresaba aquello que deseaba con una perfección casi absoluta. Los principales temas que trató en su poesía: el elogio de una vida retirada («beatus ille») y la invitación de gozar de la juventud («carpe diem»), temas retomados por poetas españoles como Garcilaso de la Vega y Fray Luis de León. Escribió, además, epístolas (cartas), la última de las cuales, dirigida «A los Pisones», es conocida como Arte poética.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
May 14, 2025
Behold yon mountain’s hoary height
Made higher with new mounds of snow:
Again behold the winter’s weight
Oppress the labouring woods below...
- Horace, Ode I, 9: Dryden translation.
Old age is No Fun!
So seems to say the aging Roman master Horace in this excerpt. And I couldn’t agree more!
As well as being a time of myriad aches and pains and illnesses, it is a time when efforts at calm reflection are upset by “undisciplined squadrons of emotion” (Eliot)
For it is a time when your “Heart rises to the surface” (Elizabeth Hay).
Yikes! Is there a CURE for these Oldtimer’s Blues?
Yes! says Horace: just AC-CENT-U-ATE the Positive... for there ARE good times to be had in the Wintertime of Life!
Listen to the happy turn the wintry Ode 9 takes next:
With well-heaped logs dissolve the cold
And feed the genial hearth with fires,
Produce the wine that makes us bold,
And sprightly wit and love inspires.
And throughout these mature poems, Horace stresses the Golden Mean - neither getting out of hand with levity or getting wrapped up in your sorrows.
This is good advice indeed for me and all my friends “of a certain age.”
Old age is not for sissies - and neither is it a time to “measure our life in coffee spoons.”
Don’t dwell on what you’ve lost -
Be Happy for what you HAVE -
Right HERE & NOW.
https://youtu.be/AC0nu4ZFR7s
Made higher with new mounds of snow:
Again behold the winter’s weight
Oppress the labouring woods below...
- Horace, Ode I, 9: Dryden translation.
Old age is No Fun!
So seems to say the aging Roman master Horace in this excerpt. And I couldn’t agree more!
As well as being a time of myriad aches and pains and illnesses, it is a time when efforts at calm reflection are upset by “undisciplined squadrons of emotion” (Eliot)
For it is a time when your “Heart rises to the surface” (Elizabeth Hay).
Yikes! Is there a CURE for these Oldtimer’s Blues?
Yes! says Horace: just AC-CENT-U-ATE the Positive... for there ARE good times to be had in the Wintertime of Life!
Listen to the happy turn the wintry Ode 9 takes next:
With well-heaped logs dissolve the cold
And feed the genial hearth with fires,
Produce the wine that makes us bold,
And sprightly wit and love inspires.
And throughout these mature poems, Horace stresses the Golden Mean - neither getting out of hand with levity or getting wrapped up in your sorrows.
This is good advice indeed for me and all my friends “of a certain age.”
Old age is not for sissies - and neither is it a time to “measure our life in coffee spoons.”
Don’t dwell on what you’ve lost -
Be Happy for what you HAVE -
Right HERE & NOW.
https://youtu.be/AC0nu4ZFR7s
July 3, 2019
Not salacious enough for my Latin taste: I prefer Ovid (esp Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris) as did Shakespeare, I believe, and Martial as did Byron but not his mother. Rousseau in his Discours sur les Sciences blames my favorites for the decline of Rome from the "cradle of virtue to the theater of crime"(see my rev).
You can't accuse Horace of sumptuous corruption in taste, though you might accuse him of beginning what Wilfred Owen, dying in WWI called, the Old Lie: "Dulce'et decorum'st pro patria mori."(Alcaic form) It is most fitting, even sweet--to die for one's country. (Odes Bk III. #2, line 13) Horace reasons in the next line, "Death overtakes even the man who flees the battle, getting him in the back."
Though not witty enough (even, as Rousseau says of my Ovid and Martial, obscene enough) for my taste, Horace's Odes are undeniably great, especially his use of nineteen different poetic forms, and meters no longer used, meters which make his verse easy enough to memorize that Maj. Fermor and the German general they captured on Crete knew Horace's "Vides ut alta stet nive candidum," I.9. The German general, looking at snow capped Mt Ida, said the first line, and the British commando Major in a German uniform said the rest of the entire ode. The German general looked the Major in the eyes, and the war had ceased for a moment--like the famous Christmas truce.
You see how high piled the white mountain
stands snowed in; no longer even trying,
branches yield their burdens, icy
rivers harden, freezing wicked.
Burn up this freeze, these logs above the fire
piled high; and yet more liberally, my friend,
uncork that fine provincial wine
I've saved for four years bottled.
Leave all else to gods, who once
they still the brawling winds and waves,
maybe then the old cypress
and mountain ash no longer shake.
What's to be tomorrow, just forget it.
Whatever Fate gives you for days,
chalk 'em up for gain, nor spurn
sweet loves and dances, boy,
while ice-white hair neglects to snow,
and roots are green. Now go and seek
the park and square and whispers low
below the night, late hide and seek--
Now too, the squealer on the hidden girl,
her pleasing squeal itself, from private nook,
and something snatched from her...say, arm,
or finger, which resists so fiercely.
(my trans, 1968)
Later in Book I Horace exhorts wine-drinking and dancing, in Alcaic meter,
"Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero
pulsanda tellus, nunc Saliaribus..."
Now's the time for drinking. Beat
the ground with our feet, or lie
on the couch of the gods
for our feast, my fellows.
Not sure how well Horace would sell to the crowd now, since he proclaims,
"Odi profanum vulgus et arceo," (III.#1) I hate the profane crowd, and I shun them.
But this ode is largely a defense of his retired, Sabine fields over wealth and power. And he claims to write in a kind of reverence--recall that feasting was often for a ritual purpose. The Roman countryside was sacred to him, as it was centuries later to the English country gentlemen who learned Horace in their "public" schools.
But beware, the very next ode, after his rural Sabine evocation, celebrates war, and the
Old Lie (III.#2) Sorry, Rousseau, but Ovid does not buy dying for Caesar: Soldiers and lovers both hang out all night in the rain, they both suffer. So Ovid says, "You go sweetly die for your country, I'll stay home with the girls to die for." (See my Ovid rev)
The Epodes are very short, the easiest of Horace to translate; and, the easiest epode is "Beatus ille qui procul negotiis," Happy the man who lives far from business (Ep II, p.364). Country life follows, the herds mooing, "mugientem," the pruning and grafting, the harvesting of pears and olives, the seasons. Note: Horace expects thunder in winter! (Ep II, line 29). These simpler epodes chronologically precede the odes, and follow the satires, which they depart from, metrically. Like the odes, they use different, though simpler forms, Alcmanic, Pythiambic. They also approach the raucous Ovid and Martial, see VIII and XII (416).
You can't accuse Horace of sumptuous corruption in taste, though you might accuse him of beginning what Wilfred Owen, dying in WWI called, the Old Lie: "Dulce'et decorum'st pro patria mori."(Alcaic form) It is most fitting, even sweet--to die for one's country. (Odes Bk III. #2, line 13) Horace reasons in the next line, "Death overtakes even the man who flees the battle, getting him in the back."
Though not witty enough (even, as Rousseau says of my Ovid and Martial, obscene enough) for my taste, Horace's Odes are undeniably great, especially his use of nineteen different poetic forms, and meters no longer used, meters which make his verse easy enough to memorize that Maj. Fermor and the German general they captured on Crete knew Horace's "Vides ut alta stet nive candidum," I.9. The German general, looking at snow capped Mt Ida, said the first line, and the British commando Major in a German uniform said the rest of the entire ode. The German general looked the Major in the eyes, and the war had ceased for a moment--like the famous Christmas truce.
You see how high piled the white mountain
stands snowed in; no longer even trying,
branches yield their burdens, icy
rivers harden, freezing wicked.
Burn up this freeze, these logs above the fire
piled high; and yet more liberally, my friend,
uncork that fine provincial wine
I've saved for four years bottled.
Leave all else to gods, who once
they still the brawling winds and waves,
maybe then the old cypress
and mountain ash no longer shake.
What's to be tomorrow, just forget it.
Whatever Fate gives you for days,
chalk 'em up for gain, nor spurn
sweet loves and dances, boy,
while ice-white hair neglects to snow,
and roots are green. Now go and seek
the park and square and whispers low
below the night, late hide and seek--
Now too, the squealer on the hidden girl,
her pleasing squeal itself, from private nook,
and something snatched from her...say, arm,
or finger, which resists so fiercely.
(my trans, 1968)
Later in Book I Horace exhorts wine-drinking and dancing, in Alcaic meter,
"Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero
pulsanda tellus, nunc Saliaribus..."
Now's the time for drinking. Beat
the ground with our feet, or lie
on the couch of the gods
for our feast, my fellows.
Not sure how well Horace would sell to the crowd now, since he proclaims,
"Odi profanum vulgus et arceo," (III.#1) I hate the profane crowd, and I shun them.
But this ode is largely a defense of his retired, Sabine fields over wealth and power. And he claims to write in a kind of reverence--recall that feasting was often for a ritual purpose. The Roman countryside was sacred to him, as it was centuries later to the English country gentlemen who learned Horace in their "public" schools.
But beware, the very next ode, after his rural Sabine evocation, celebrates war, and the
Old Lie (III.#2) Sorry, Rousseau, but Ovid does not buy dying for Caesar: Soldiers and lovers both hang out all night in the rain, they both suffer. So Ovid says, "You go sweetly die for your country, I'll stay home with the girls to die for." (See my Ovid rev)
The Epodes are very short, the easiest of Horace to translate; and, the easiest epode is "Beatus ille qui procul negotiis," Happy the man who lives far from business (Ep II, p.364). Country life follows, the herds mooing, "mugientem," the pruning and grafting, the harvesting of pears and olives, the seasons. Note: Horace expects thunder in winter! (Ep II, line 29). These simpler epodes chronologically precede the odes, and follow the satires, which they depart from, metrically. Like the odes, they use different, though simpler forms, Alcmanic, Pythiambic. They also approach the raucous Ovid and Martial, see VIII and XII (416).
May 9, 2015
3.5
Lack of dictionary is a major downside. But the commentary itself quite good, especially helpful in clarifying Horace's more obscure mythological & historical allusions. Also has a good explanation of Horace's meters.
Wouldn't recommend it as someone's first 'real' Latin book. Garrison's Catullus & Cyril Pharr's Aeneid are more accessible.
Lack of dictionary is a major downside. But the commentary itself quite good, especially helpful in clarifying Horace's more obscure mythological & historical allusions. Also has a good explanation of Horace's meters.
Wouldn't recommend it as someone's first 'real' Latin book. Garrison's Catullus & Cyril Pharr's Aeneid are more accessible.
April 10, 2016
I highly recommend Horace's haunting Carpe Diem poems, and W.G. Shepherd's elegant translations do them justice. My favorite? Ode 1.4, Solvitur acris hiems. These lines in particular:
Pallid death kicks impartially at the doors
of hovels and mansions. O happy Sestius,*
the brief sum of life invalidates long-term hopes.
*Lucius Sestius, appointed Consul by Augustus in 23 B.C.
Pallid death kicks impartially at the doors
of hovels and mansions. O happy Sestius,*
the brief sum of life invalidates long-term hopes.
*Lucius Sestius, appointed Consul by Augustus in 23 B.C.
March 3, 2021
This holy day will truly drive away
All my black cares: I shall have no fear
Of war or violent death while Caesar
Is master of the world
With all the beautiful excess of the odes and epodes stripped away, this book can be narrowed down to two sayings: carpe diem and dulce et decorum est . Is there anything more Augustan?
I loved these poems. There were similar motifs: love poetry, the enjoyment of life, and of course Augustus, but the poems always felt fresh and unique. They are so playful and subtle. Patriotic and personal. A private man rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of Rome. I ask if anything is more Augustan because that’s what these poems are. Horace, the man who fought for Brutus against Octavian now writing playful odes as a friend of Maecenas. A period of intense civil war giving way to a period of never before heard of peace and prosperity. Life is fickle, and even in the prosperity there are all the issues that Horace constantly asks Maecenas to put down for a moment. So, take a moment and enjoy a wine created under a certain consul that highlights the point you’re trying to make and just enjoy.
The fates, who do not err, have cut your thread.
Your mother will not bring you home on her blue waters.
While there, be sure to lighten all your ills with wine and song
Sweet comforts for the ugliness of pain
All my black cares: I shall have no fear
Of war or violent death while Caesar
Is master of the world
With all the beautiful excess of the odes and epodes stripped away, this book can be narrowed down to two sayings: carpe diem and dulce et decorum est . Is there anything more Augustan?
I loved these poems. There were similar motifs: love poetry, the enjoyment of life, and of course Augustus, but the poems always felt fresh and unique. They are so playful and subtle. Patriotic and personal. A private man rubbing shoulders with the movers and shakers of Rome. I ask if anything is more Augustan because that’s what these poems are. Horace, the man who fought for Brutus against Octavian now writing playful odes as a friend of Maecenas. A period of intense civil war giving way to a period of never before heard of peace and prosperity. Life is fickle, and even in the prosperity there are all the issues that Horace constantly asks Maecenas to put down for a moment. So, take a moment and enjoy a wine created under a certain consul that highlights the point you’re trying to make and just enjoy.
The fates, who do not err, have cut your thread.
Your mother will not bring you home on her blue waters.
While there, be sure to lighten all your ills with wine and song
Sweet comforts for the ugliness of pain
May 25, 2017
"¿Para qué el enorme pino y el blanco chopo gustan de unir sus ramas en hospitalaria sombra? ¿Para qué el agua fugaz se abre camino, trepidante, por el quebrado arroyo? Manda que traigan vino, perfumes y encantadoras rosas -flores en demasía pasajeras-, mientras lo permiten tu patrimonio, tu edad y los negros hilos de las tres hermanas."
Lo que más sé y recuerdo de Roma son sus grandes batallas y héroes denodados como Marco Antonio, Julio César, Régulo, Escipión entre otros. Pero existe un lado de la Roma clásica menos estentórea, la de la vida del poblador común, del "hombre libre" tan grande orgullo del romano, de sus fiestas, de sus costumbres, de su amor por la patria y sus bondades, por sus sufrimientos amorosos particulares.
Por algo Horacio es llamado el maestro del corazón humano, sus Odas y épodos tienen una familiaridad y sencillez que parece que en tono paternal aconseja a sus amigos (como Mecenas) y a la juventud Romana con el famoso "carpe diem", vivamos el instante, no preocupándonos del porvenir y brindando con vino con los amigos. Habla al joven enamorado o critica a la mujer voluble de la manera más coloquial, pero también algunas Odas hablan de celebrar los triunfos de su emperador Augusto con el estilo clásico de Píndaro, recurriendo a temas mitológicos.
Horacio evidentemente toma muchos aspectos de líricos griegos que lo han precedido, no me pareciera que sea un gran fundador en la lírica como sostienen algunos, tampoco la verdad los temas tratados por él son de mi completo agrado, pero sí he aprendido mucho de la sociedad romana, de sus costumbres, de su vida diaria, de sus enemigos fieros. Y la soltura y talento con el que lo hace sí me gustó.
Lo que más sé y recuerdo de Roma son sus grandes batallas y héroes denodados como Marco Antonio, Julio César, Régulo, Escipión entre otros. Pero existe un lado de la Roma clásica menos estentórea, la de la vida del poblador común, del "hombre libre" tan grande orgullo del romano, de sus fiestas, de sus costumbres, de su amor por la patria y sus bondades, por sus sufrimientos amorosos particulares.
Por algo Horacio es llamado el maestro del corazón humano, sus Odas y épodos tienen una familiaridad y sencillez que parece que en tono paternal aconseja a sus amigos (como Mecenas) y a la juventud Romana con el famoso "carpe diem", vivamos el instante, no preocupándonos del porvenir y brindando con vino con los amigos. Habla al joven enamorado o critica a la mujer voluble de la manera más coloquial, pero también algunas Odas hablan de celebrar los triunfos de su emperador Augusto con el estilo clásico de Píndaro, recurriendo a temas mitológicos.
Horacio evidentemente toma muchos aspectos de líricos griegos que lo han precedido, no me pareciera que sea un gran fundador en la lírica como sostienen algunos, tampoco la verdad los temas tratados por él son de mi completo agrado, pero sí he aprendido mucho de la sociedad romana, de sus costumbres, de su vida diaria, de sus enemigos fieros. Y la soltura y talento con el que lo hace sí me gustó.
February 27, 2012
This book contains both the Odes and Epodes of Horace, written between about 30 and 13 b.c. 17 short poems make up the Epodes, which were modeled off of the poems of Archilochus. Topics include war (including some very good poems touching on the civil wars and the Roman victory at Actium), love, and abuse. The Epodes are proto-Augustan in the sense that they seek to glorify the Roman state and Roman ideals, but they avoid monotonously singing the praises of Fearless Leader Octavian (thankfully).
The Odes, which came later, do get bogged down in the dirty business of propaganda from time to time, and these tend to be the dullest poems in the collection. But there are some real gems too (such as i.vii and iv.vii), and the Odes contain Horace's finest work. The best of the Odes, which seek to replicate the great lyric poems of Greece, are truly exceptional. This book also contains the Carmen Saeculare, a short poem commissioned for a massive celebration of the Augustan regime in 17 b.c.
I preferred both the Odes and Epodes to Horace's other collections, the Satires and Epistles. 4.5 stars, highly recommended to anyone interested in Latin literature.
The Odes, which came later, do get bogged down in the dirty business of propaganda from time to time, and these tend to be the dullest poems in the collection. But there are some real gems too (such as i.vii and iv.vii), and the Odes contain Horace's finest work. The best of the Odes, which seek to replicate the great lyric poems of Greece, are truly exceptional. This book also contains the Carmen Saeculare, a short poem commissioned for a massive celebration of the Augustan regime in 17 b.c.
I preferred both the Odes and Epodes to Horace's other collections, the Satires and Epistles. 4.5 stars, highly recommended to anyone interested in Latin literature.
January 3, 2016
Some were pastoral, some dealt with the gods, others were about war or in praise of mighty Augustus or Horace's BFF Maecenas. For the most part the translation was fine but twice he scared me by using "spic and span" and "shanghai'd", luckily, he didn't go in that direction again...
May 25, 2017
"I have built a monument more long-lasting than bronze
and set higher than the pyramids of kings.
It cannot be destroyed by gnawing rain
or wild north wind, by the procession
of unnumbered years or by the flight of time."
(III.XXX.i-v)
Big fan. I studied Horace a bit in school and wrote a dissertation about themes of time and transience in his poetry. I impressed myself with my volume of mythological knowledge! (Was that from eight years' school study of Latin ... or reading Percy Jackson? Maybe both.) I especially enjoyed Volume 4, which is all about time.
"The cold melts in the Zephyrs, Summer tramples on the heels
of Spring, and will die the moment
Autumn laden with fruit pours out her crops, and soon
sluggish Winter comes running back."
(IV.VII.ix-xii)
and set higher than the pyramids of kings.
It cannot be destroyed by gnawing rain
or wild north wind, by the procession
of unnumbered years or by the flight of time."
(III.XXX.i-v)
Big fan. I studied Horace a bit in school and wrote a dissertation about themes of time and transience in his poetry. I impressed myself with my volume of mythological knowledge! (Was that from eight years' school study of Latin ... or reading Percy Jackson? Maybe both.) I especially enjoyed Volume 4, which is all about time.
"The cold melts in the Zephyrs, Summer tramples on the heels
of Spring, and will die the moment
Autumn laden with fruit pours out her crops, and soon
sluggish Winter comes running back."
(IV.VII.ix-xii)
January 12, 2024
I read a Dutch edition. The Epodes were less fresh than Satires and a bit more difficult. The Odes I liked more.
March 5, 2022
honestly horace is such a menace but he really did grow on me!! . 4.5
December 9, 2014
I read 22 selections of Horace's Odes from this book to discuss with my online bookclub.
March 28, 2022
"Te irá mejor, Licinio, si no buscas
siempre alta mar, ni, cauto ante el mal tiempo,
costras muy de cerca las orillas
accidentadas.
Quien busca la dorada medianía,
prudente, evita un techo viejo y sórdido;
sobrio evita un palacio que provoque
la envidia ajena.
El viento agita más los pinos grandes,
las torres elevadas se desploman
con estruendo mayor, los rayos hieren
las altas cimas.
Espera adversidad, teme ventura
quien se prepara bien para otra suerte.
Júpiter trae inviernos espantosos,
y él los aleja.
Sí mal ahora, no era así otro tiempo.
No siempre Apolo tensa el arco, a veces
despierta con su cítara la musa
que antes callaba.
En la dificultad muéstrate fuerte
y animoso. Recoge, sabio, velas
infladas por el viento favorable
en demasía".
siempre alta mar, ni, cauto ante el mal tiempo,
costras muy de cerca las orillas
accidentadas.
Quien busca la dorada medianía,
prudente, evita un techo viejo y sórdido;
sobrio evita un palacio que provoque
la envidia ajena.
El viento agita más los pinos grandes,
las torres elevadas se desploman
con estruendo mayor, los rayos hieren
las altas cimas.
Espera adversidad, teme ventura
quien se prepara bien para otra suerte.
Júpiter trae inviernos espantosos,
y él los aleja.
Sí mal ahora, no era así otro tiempo.
No siempre Apolo tensa el arco, a veces
despierta con su cítara la musa
que antes callaba.
En la dificultad muéstrate fuerte
y animoso. Recoge, sabio, velas
infladas por el viento favorable
en demasía".
January 18, 2026
Horace's character shines through wonderfully in this edition, but the translation of the verse itself feels a little too much like chopped up prose for my liking.
April 6, 2025
"Each night in my dreams
I hold you captive, or else pursue
your obdurate flight
across the Field of Mars, through swirling water."
Another lovely work friend book borrow
I hold you captive, or else pursue
your obdurate flight
across the Field of Mars, through swirling water."
Another lovely work friend book borrow
June 2, 2025
-1⭐️ por el peloteo a Augusto
December 12, 2012
First time I have ever read Horace. I was absolutely riveted all the way through! And I grew up despising poetry of any kind. Long may Horace be read.
July 20, 2014
Stunningly beautiful. Believe the hype.
January 5, 2022
"Where are you rushing me, Bacchus?
I am full of you. Into what woods or caverns do you drive me
so swiftly with a mind not my own?
In what caves shall I be heard practicing to set
the deathless glory of great Caesar
among the stars and in the council of Jupiter?"
Horace is like the friend you only really hang out with when you're drunk, but when you do see each other, you're vibing together all night, and he's just putting out banger after banger.
I am full of you. Into what woods or caverns do you drive me
so swiftly with a mind not my own?
In what caves shall I be heard practicing to set
the deathless glory of great Caesar
among the stars and in the council of Jupiter?"
Horace is like the friend you only really hang out with when you're drunk, but when you do see each other, you're vibing together all night, and he's just putting out banger after banger.
March 7, 2022
Just finished reading the Odes and Epodes for a university module. Having initially only set out to write the first 3 Odes, the contrast with Book 4 is very noticeable. While profaning to ignore political themes, Horace is not afraid to offer commentary on moral vices and military victories. At times inconsistent in tone, it is nonetheless easy to see the author through these poems.
November 3, 2025
came in looking for greater context for the leges Iuliae, left with reminders of some of my favorite lines . . . and even MORE context for the aforementioned laws! Horace has some incredible lines; would recommend
(also huge shout out to the Loeb Classical Library for saving my life when my latin is failing me)
(also huge shout out to the Loeb Classical Library for saving my life when my latin is failing me)
Read
April 29, 2022Some great verse, however it felt like I left a lot on the table as I don't know Roman history with particular fluency, so even with the help of generious footnotes much of it was over my head in terms of the use of references to figures and gods
August 17, 2025
8/10
Proof that Latin poetry could be good without being about horniness to the point of spiritual and physical death.
Proof that Latin poetry could be good without being about horniness to the point of spiritual and physical death.
January 29, 2026
Life asks so little. Smooth-faced youth
and beauty run away behind us.
When our hair is dry and grey, that puts an end
to love’s pleasures and easy sleep.
The glory of spring flowers is not for ever constant.
The blushing moon does not always shine
with the same face. Why weary your little mind
with eternal thoughts?
and beauty run away behind us.
When our hair is dry and grey, that puts an end
to love’s pleasures and easy sleep.
The glory of spring flowers is not for ever constant.
The blushing moon does not always shine
with the same face. Why weary your little mind
with eternal thoughts?
Read
September 30, 2025read mostly sporadically and completely by accident finished almost exactly a year after i started it
March 21, 2023
this sucked. book 4 poem 13 is the only one that was really good and original and doesn’t require an extensive knowledge of mythology to understand.
November 8, 2025
In doing a bit of research online, I learned that Horace's Odes are considered to be among the most difficult ancient texts to translate into English because the Latin is so concise and specific. So, I decided to read four different translations at the same time to compare and contrast:
1. W.G. Shepherd (Penguin Classics, with the Epodes)
2. David West (Oxford World Classics, also with the Epodes)
3. David Ferry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
4. J.D. McClatchy and others (Princeton University Press)
From what I can tell (keeping in mind that I cannot read Latin), Shepherd and West's translations tended to stay closer to the original text, even when that might make things a bit more opaque for a modern reader. I think that West's translation was clearer in terms of getting across the intent of the poem, but I think at times this clarity came at a cost to the poetry. Shepherd's renderings could be a little more confusing and the phrasing a bit more tortured, but his devotion to mimicing the concision and metric stamp of Horace's original ultimately made for the best read. That said, West had by far the best endnotes, and so the two actually make for a great complementary read, as together they provide both clarity and poesy.
Of the four, I think Ferry's translation was the weakest. It was clear that his translations veer the furthest from the original text and use strange repetitions that don't seem to be the product of trying to capture something in the feel of the Latin. The mythological references were also over-explained in the translation, taking brief specific allusions in the original and spelling them out for readers that might not get the reference (for instance, rendering the original's use of "Helen's brothers" as "Castor and Pollux"). Shepherd and West generally did not do this.
The McClatchey version is perhaps the most interesting of the four, as it brings together 35 modern poets who offer a variety of takes on the Odes. The sheer range of translation approaches and meters and styles (and even the occasional use of rhymes) keeps the collection interesting. In some ways it might be the best read, but it also means that the level of excellence varies from poem to poem depending on the translator, and strict fidelity to the original text is often not the principal concern (if this is important to you).
In all, it was a great experiment to read all four at the same time and really helped to illuminate each poem. But if I were to go back to read them again, it would definitely be the Shepherd translation from Penguin Classics.
1. W.G. Shepherd (Penguin Classics, with the Epodes)
2. David West (Oxford World Classics, also with the Epodes)
3. David Ferry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
4. J.D. McClatchy and others (Princeton University Press)
From what I can tell (keeping in mind that I cannot read Latin), Shepherd and West's translations tended to stay closer to the original text, even when that might make things a bit more opaque for a modern reader. I think that West's translation was clearer in terms of getting across the intent of the poem, but I think at times this clarity came at a cost to the poetry. Shepherd's renderings could be a little more confusing and the phrasing a bit more tortured, but his devotion to mimicing the concision and metric stamp of Horace's original ultimately made for the best read. That said, West had by far the best endnotes, and so the two actually make for a great complementary read, as together they provide both clarity and poesy.
Of the four, I think Ferry's translation was the weakest. It was clear that his translations veer the furthest from the original text and use strange repetitions that don't seem to be the product of trying to capture something in the feel of the Latin. The mythological references were also over-explained in the translation, taking brief specific allusions in the original and spelling them out for readers that might not get the reference (for instance, rendering the original's use of "Helen's brothers" as "Castor and Pollux"). Shepherd and West generally did not do this.
The McClatchey version is perhaps the most interesting of the four, as it brings together 35 modern poets who offer a variety of takes on the Odes. The sheer range of translation approaches and meters and styles (and even the occasional use of rhymes) keeps the collection interesting. In some ways it might be the best read, but it also means that the level of excellence varies from poem to poem depending on the translator, and strict fidelity to the original text is often not the principal concern (if this is important to you).
In all, it was a great experiment to read all four at the same time and really helped to illuminate each poem. But if I were to go back to read them again, it would definitely be the Shepherd translation from Penguin Classics.
September 2, 2025
Viva el carpe diem
May 20, 2012
It's great to have all of Horace in one collection, even if we are dependent upon David West's translation discretion (which is not exercised much during the epodes but seems to come in during the odes). At times, West's translation seems rather odd, as if he is neither trying to get the most out of Horace's poems nor trying to be as literal to Horace's language as possible within the not-as-rigid-as-most-foreign-language-learned-people-seem-to-think-it-is-confines of English. I'm no expert on either Horace or Latin, so I have no authority to make these claims other than just having read the book. It's a fairly enjoyable read, especially to get the scope of Horace's output (at least that which is extant in his lyrical oeuvre). West does not call the poems by the names high school textbooks do, so the monolingual fan will not find "Carpe Diem" or "The Golden Mean" in the index, though they are in the book. West does not make a big deal about them, even in the end notes. The end notes are another area driven solely by West's fancy, it appears - it seemed to me while reading it his end notes motivation were driven by how much he enjoyed the poem. Obviously I could be totally wrong, but since he almost glosses over the two famous poems and spends a great deal of time on other things (primarily the allusions to Maecenas), his preferences are fairly evident. I'm not complaining about this, since I appreciated the background information and West's desire to see the good in Horace and his work (as evidenced by his introduction, especially). West's optimistic treatment of Horace's output, and his desire to get us to think well of Horace as a man and a poet come through in a good way, even if we feel at times West is trying a bit too hard to push his interpretive/translation biases. If it weren't for translators, most of us wouldn't ever be able to get close to Horace (thanks American public schools), so overall I appreciate his work here. Horace's poems, I should mention, are usually fairly good, especially the ones West wants us to enjoy/understand more than "the two." Everyone will find at least a couple that will really speak to them. Horace is "a classic" for a very good reason. I recommend this to everyone, if nothing more than a beginning point before learning Latin and Greek oneself and reading him (and the rest of the classics) in the original languages.
March 27, 2018
This was my first exposure to the entirety of Horace’s odes and epodes. I’d encountered snippets before, such as “carpe diem” (1.11) and “dulce et decorum est pro patria mori” (3.2). The latter I came across when reading Wilfred Owen’s World War I poem “Dulce et Decorum est”, in which he rightfully called Horace’s phrase the “old Lie”.
I really enjoyed Odes 1.6, 3.1, 3.3 and 4.9. The last (“ne forte credas”) was really interesting, talking about immortality through writing. I love lines 25-28: “Many heroes lived before Agamemnon, / but all are oppressed in unending night, / unwept, unknown, because they lack / a dedicated poet.”
The introduction by Betty Radice and the Notes by Shepherd were helpful and most welcome. I liked Radice quoting from Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, where he wrote “Then farewell, Horace, whom I hated so…” (p.36; Canto IV.LXXV in Byron). In a note to that stanza, Byron added “I wish to express that we become tired of the task before we can comprehend the beauty; that we learn by rote before we can get by heart; that the freshness is worn away, and the future pleasure and advantage deadened and destroyed” (p. 37; Note 40 in Byron). A valid commentary, for then and now, on teaching foreign languages and literature.
Except for the few odes I highlighted, I wasn’t particularly taken with this translation. At first, I wondered if it was just Horace I didn’t like. So, I checked two other translations, one by Philip Francis (revised by H.J. Pye, 1806) and select odes by Lord Derby (1862). I found I liked both of those translations better than Shepherd’s version. Further, looking as best I could at the original Latin, I enjoyed those too.
So, I am sure I will return to Horace, in translation mostly but will also try to dig a little deeper into some of the odes in Latin.
I really enjoyed Odes 1.6, 3.1, 3.3 and 4.9. The last (“ne forte credas”) was really interesting, talking about immortality through writing. I love lines 25-28: “Many heroes lived before Agamemnon, / but all are oppressed in unending night, / unwept, unknown, because they lack / a dedicated poet.”
The introduction by Betty Radice and the Notes by Shepherd were helpful and most welcome. I liked Radice quoting from Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, where he wrote “Then farewell, Horace, whom I hated so…” (p.36; Canto IV.LXXV in Byron). In a note to that stanza, Byron added “I wish to express that we become tired of the task before we can comprehend the beauty; that we learn by rote before we can get by heart; that the freshness is worn away, and the future pleasure and advantage deadened and destroyed” (p. 37; Note 40 in Byron). A valid commentary, for then and now, on teaching foreign languages and literature.
Except for the few odes I highlighted, I wasn’t particularly taken with this translation. At first, I wondered if it was just Horace I didn’t like. So, I checked two other translations, one by Philip Francis (revised by H.J. Pye, 1806) and select odes by Lord Derby (1862). I found I liked both of those translations better than Shepherd’s version. Further, looking as best I could at the original Latin, I enjoyed those too.
So, I am sure I will return to Horace, in translation mostly but will also try to dig a little deeper into some of the odes in Latin.
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