No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Vides ut alta stet nive candidum
Soracte, nec iam sustineant onus
silvae laborantes, geluque
flumina constiterint acuto.
dissolve frigus ligna super foco
large reponens atque benignius
deprome quadrimum Sabina,
o Thaliarche, merum diota:
permitte divis cetera, qui simul
stravere ventos aequore fervido
deproeliantis, nec cupressi
nec veteres agitantur orni.
quid sit futurum eras fuge quaerere et
quern Fors dierum cumque dabit lucro
appone, nec dulcis amores
sperne puer neque tu choreas,
donec virenti canities abest
morosa. nunc et campus et areae
lenesque sub noctem susurri
composita repetantur hora,
nunc et latentis proditor intimo
gratus puellae risus ab angulo
pignusque dereptum lacertis
aut digito male pertinaci.
‘This poem has been destroyed by the critics,’ David West has written. And certainly a familiar dilemma arises in relation to it. We admire and remember the poem; but, when we turn to some of its interpreters, we may feel our confidence diminished. We may wonder if we overlooked something on first and later reading and if our impressions, however favourable, were ill-grounded.
1 Reading Horace (1967), 3.
2 Horace: The Odes, ed. with an introduction, revised text and commentary (repr. 1984), 139–40.
3 This point is sensibly and briefly made by Harrison, Bernard, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language (1979), 13–14Google Scholar.
4 Bentley regarded the first sentence as a statement rather than an interrogative and has been generally followed. Nisbet, R. G. M. and Hubbard, Margaret, however, believe that ‘in fact a question seems much more likely’, A Commentary on Horace: Odes, Book I (1970)Google Scholar, ad loc. (p. 118). A Roman reader would have been no more certain than ourselves on this point.
5 In general, see the remarks of John Warden, Fallax Opus: Poet and Reader in the Elegies of Propertins (Phoenix Suppl. Vol. 14, 1980), vii–viii, 11–12. As M. M. van de Pitte has recently written: ‘The theoretical impossibility of propositionally extrapolating the meaning of literary works has never prevented theorists from trying to systematize the whole business, much less deterred critics from analysing the unsayable’ (‘Hermeneutics and the “crisis of literature”’, British Journal of Aesthetics 24 (1984), 99–112Google Scholar at 100). Van de Pitte discusses and cogently criticizes the various schools of ‘hermeneutic’ criticism. The Soracte Ode has been examined in the light of such approaches in a series of papers by J. P. Sullivan, Charles Segal, Michael Murray and Richard Palmer, E., in Contemporary Literary Hermeneutics and the Interpretation of Classical Texts, ed. Kresič, Stephanus (= Univ. Ottawa Quart. 50 (1981), 325–642)Google Scholar, 277–98. Others may find them more helpful than the present writer has done.
6 Eduard Fraenkel, Horace (1957), 176–7 fixes the location with some precision; West, op. cit. (n. 1), 3 and Quinn, op. cit. (n. 2), 139 (among others) are no less sure that the mise-en-scène is to be visualized as in the country.
7 J. G. Orelli, 4th ed., rev. J. G. Baiter and W. Hirschfelder (1886), ad loc. (p. 62).
8 Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), p. 118; they add that ‘stet nive candidum makes a single and characteristically Horatian complex’(118–19).
9 cf. Nisbet and Hubbard, ad loc. (p. 119); Porphyrio, p. 15 Holder; pseudo-Acro, p. 32 Keller.
10 See OLD s.v. candidus, 264–5, 1 and (b) for the epithet's association with light and gleaming reflection. There might here be an element of personification, as candidus is used of garments (OLD, 4), especially, of course, of the ceremonial toga worn by aspirants for office; Soracte is clothed in snow.
11 cf. Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 118), who appositely cite Dryden's translation. For altus, see OLD s.v., 110; its meanings include ‘having a great extension upwards’ and ‘downwards’, as well as ‘high’, ‘deep’, ‘thick’. Its derivation from alo suggests extension (‘swelling’) in any direction from a fixed point.
12 Laboro (OLD, 991–2, 1, 2), onus (OLD, 1250, 1) and sustineo (OLD, 1892, 5) are all used of human labours—particularly, perhaps, of servile tasks. Carrying burdens was notoriously a job for slaves.
13 cf. Pasquali, G., Orazio Lirico: Studi (1966), 78–9Google Scholar; West, op. cit. (n. 1), 4 (on Wilamowitz); Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 120).
14 Nisbet and Hubbard, ad loc. (p. 113). For consisto, see OLD s.v. 416, 1 (b); for acutus, OLD s.v., 32: its connection with acuo makes clear its primary sense of ‘sharpened to a point’.
15 See OLD s.v. flumen, 716, 1 (d) for examples.
16 Greek Lyric I (Loeb Class. Lib., 1982), 375Google Scholar.
17 There are some twenty instances to be found in the Horatian corpus. Some are linked to the names of specific rivers, others having defining epithets or verbs; none stands isolated. In other words, when flumen/flumina means ‘river(s)’ the context leaves no doubt that this is the case.
18 Familiar to many today principally from the decoration (known as ‘lametta’) hung on Christmas trees. It is worth adding that acutus, as indicated by OLD s.v. 2(c) is ‘especially [used] of pine and similar trees having sharp needles’: cf. Ovid, AA 11. 42; Ep. V. 137. Horace, in this instance, may be seen as hinting, through the choice of the word, that the conifers on Soracte have pointed icicles in addition to or in place of their normal pointed needles. The Latin word for icicle, stiria, is rare and used in classical poetry once, by Virgil, Georg. III. 366 (cf. Martial VII. 37. 5). To mention them presented, therefore, a lexical problem: but they are, after all, ‘flow-things’ that have been ‘immobilized’.
19 cf., e.g., Henry, James, Aeneidea or Critical, Exegetical and Aesthetical Remarks on the Aeneid (1889, repr. 1969) III, 112–13Google Scholar (quoting tu in line 16 of this ode); and the views of Tyrrell, R. Y., Latin Poetry: Lectures delivered in 1893 … in the Johns Hopkins University (1895), 202–3Google Scholar on Horace's supposed habit of ‘filling in gaps’ on a larger scale.
20 Iam was fairly exhaustively discussed by Handius, F. in Tursellinus seu de particulis Latinis commentarii (1886, repr. 1969) III, 110–58Google Scholar; see, esp., 112, 130–3, 136. Cf. also OLD s.v. iam, 815, 6 on iam ‘emphasizing the reason for a change of situation’.
21 Campbell, op. cit. (n. 16), 375. For ἒνθεν, see LSJ9 566, 1, 3.
22 cf. Collinge, N. E., The Structure of Horace's Odes (1967), 65–6Google Scholar.
23 For Horace's use of and attitude to inanimate nature in the odes, see the writer's ‘The fons Bandusiae and the problem of the text’, forthcoming in Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History 4 (1985)Google Scholar.
24 The meaning of Alcaeus' κάββαλλε is not quite certain, owing to a lack of parallels: Page, D. L., Sappho and Alcaeus: An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Lesbian Poetry (repr. 1959), 309–10Google Scholar. For dissolvo as ‘melt’, see OLD s.v., 557, 2 and (b).
25 cf. Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 120): ‘re- does not imply a repeated action; it may suggest that the wood is being put where it belongs, or perhaps that it is replacing burnt logs …’ Alcaeus' meaning is not absolutely clear; Page, op. cit., 310: ‘The general sense seems to be “build up a fire”; literally, perhaps, “put fire on (the hearth)”.’ The subtle point in Horace is the responsion between reponens (ἐπιἰθεις) and appone in line 15 (cf. παρτίθημι). Stoking up the fire and putting each day to profit are both activities that are available to man in the face of powers beyond his direct control (frigus, fors).
26 For ἐγκίρνημι, cf. LSJ9 427 ‘mix by pouring in’; depromo (OLD s.v., 521) means something like ‘fetch up from the cellar’.
27 cf. Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 120).
28 See West, op. cit. (n. 1), 6; Gordon Williams, Figures of Thought in Roman Poetry (1980), 202, for comments on such ideas. An example of wild realism may be found in Charles W. Lockyer, ‘Horace, Odes 1. 9’, CJ 63 (1967), 304–8 at 307–8, on which see Connor, Peter, ‘Soracte encore’, Ramus 1 (1972), 102–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar at 107–8. But Connor cannot resist the temptation of developing an account of the supposed qualities of the speaker's personality beyond what is present in the text.
29 Williams, op. cit., 202.
30 For the range of meanings of θαλία, see LSJ9 s.v., 782; these include public festivals as well as private drinking parties and other forms of merriment.
31 cf. Robinson, D. M. and Fluck, K. J., A Study of Greek Love-Names, including a Discussion of Paederasty and a Prosopographia (Johns Hopkins Univ. Stud, in Arch. 23 (1937)). 183Google Scholar.
32 Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 121). For similar borrowings from the Greek, cf. Weise, O., Die griechischen Wörter im Latein (1882, repr. 1964), 172–3Google Scholar.
33 Only two literary uses of a relevant type are cited by LSJ: Plato, Hipp. Maj. 288d (applied to Χυτρά); Anticlides ap. Athenaeus 473c (applied to καδίσκος, in a semi-technical context).
34 cf. Balsdon, J. P. V. D., Romans and Aliens (1979), 43 with nGoogle Scholar.
35 As implied by Lockyer, loc cit. (n. 28), 307; a similar, though more delicate, train of thought may be found in Williams, op. cit. (n. 28), 202.
36 cf. Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 121); Leonard Moskovit, ‘Horace's Soracte ode as a poetic representation of an experience’, St. in Ph. 74 (1977), 113–29 at 123.
37 The alliterative pattern, which supports the sense, should also be observed: simul / stravere ventos aequore fervido / deproeliantis.
38 Horazische Lyrik: Interpretations (1970), 39.
39 cf. Meiggs, Russell, Trees and Timber in the Ancient Mediterranean World (1982), 33–4Google Scholar.
40 ibid., 42.
41 See OLD s.v. aequor, 68, I; TLL s.v., 1022–3.
42 OLD s.v. aequor, 68, 2. Cf. Virgil, Aen. V. 456; VII. 781. For other uses, see e.g., Virgil, Georg. 1. 50, 11. 105, 541; Juvenal VIII. 61.
43 For fervidus, see OLD s.v., 692 1 and (d); cf. Odes 11. 15. 9. Niall Rudd has remarked that ‘fervidus … suggests violent emotion and this appears to be the first known instance of its application to the sea’ (‘Patterns in Horatian lyric’, AJP 81 (1960), 373–92 at 389). But, as we have suggested, this uniqueness may be illusory. The parallel of Virgil, Aen. VII. 24 is inexact: vada obviously appear to boil or seethe, and may therefore be termed fervida.
44 Orelli, ed. cit. (n. 7), ad loc. (p. 64); Williams, op. cit. (n. 28), 203. The epithet veteres implies that the trees survive for a long period despite such assaults from outside; cf. Virgil, Aen. X. 766. If there is a connection with canities in the next stanza, it is a slight one. Longevity and old-age are not the same concept.
45 Collinge, op. cit. (n. 22), 66.
46 Pöschl, op. cit. (n. 38), 40.
47 For lucro appone, see OLD s.v. appono, 153, 8; Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 122); Pöschl, op. cit., 41.
48 Parallels quoted in Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit., ad loc. (p. 122). Cf. Giangrande, Giuseppe, ‘Sympotic literature and epigram”, in L'Epigramme Grecque (Entret. Fond. Hardt 14 (1967)), 93–174Google Scholar at 139: ‘The themes of youth being short, and the need to enjoy life before it is too late, were in themselves banal and in any case already exploited to the full, by the time the Alexandrian epigrammatists were writing …’; also, now, David Campbell, A., The Golden Lyre: The Themes of the Greek Lyric Poets (1983), 132 ffGoogle Scholar.
49 The full force of quaere has not been noticed by commentators or translators; Nisbet and Hubbard's ‘forbear’ for fuge is probably too weak (op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc., p. 122); fugio retains its sense of ‘run away from’, ‘flee from’. The sentiment is paralleled in I. 11: ‘Tu ne quaesieris …’
50 See n. 47 above; the backward glance to reponens in line 6 has been indicated in n. 25.
51 Orelli, ed. cit. (n. 7), ad loc. (p. 64).
52 ‘Ethics and poetry in Horace's odes (1, 20; 2, 3)’, GR 26 (1979), 21–31; ‘… (1, 7; 2, 9)’, ibid., 28 (1981), 236–44 = Collected Papers (1983), 225–35, 236–44 at 225.
53 For an instance, see the author's ‘Horace's Archytas ode: a reconsideration’, Ziva Antika 16 (1976), 73–87Google Scholar.
54 Macleod, op. cit. (n. 52), 226.
55 Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 123). Dancing was—it hardly needs stressing—generally looked on with disdain and suspicion by the Romans. For Horace's use of motifs from Greek poetry, see the author's ‘Pyrrha's grotto and the farewell to love: a study of Horace, Odes 1. 5,’ AJP 105 (1984), 457–69.
56 cf., e.g., Lockyer, loc. cit. (n. 28), 204; Commager, Steele, The Odes of Horace: A Critical Study (1962), 270Google Scholar; more generally, Pöchl, op. cit. (n. 38), 45–6; Williams, op. cit. (n. 28), 203.
57 As is pointed out by Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 123). Fora full discussion of virens and viridis, and their connections with springtime and youth, see André, J., Étude sur les termes de couleur dans les langues latines (Et. et Comm. VII (1949)), 185–7,Google Scholar esp. at 187.
58 See OLD s.v. morosus, 1135; other verse citations only from Horace, Serm. n. 5. 90; Ovid, AA II. 323.
59 For candidus, see n. 10 above. Its connection with candeo ‘to shine, gleam’ in itself separates it from canities, from canus, ‘of white or grey colouring’ (see OLD s.v., 268), which suggests a dull surface, even if white. Cf. West, op. cit. (n. 1), 11.
60 The criticism, trenchantly expressed by Campbell, A. Y., Horace (1924), 224Google Scholar, was endorsed by Fraenkel, op. cit. (n. 6), 177.
61 A facet unduly stressed by Pöschl, op. cit. (n. 38), 43.
62 For susurrus, see OLD s.v., 1893; of bees, Virgil, Ecl. 1. 55.
63 Moskovit, loc. cit. (n. 36), 127.
64 cf. OLD s.v. proditor, 1473; there appears to be no instance of its appearance in verse prior to Horace.
65 See OLD s.v. lateo, 1005, 1, 4: this nuance is strengthened by the proximity of proditor: cf. Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (p. 124).
66 See OLD s.v. deripio, 522.
67 The lack of specificity adds to the non-‘objective’ tone of the stanza. Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. (n. 4), ad loc. (pp. 124–5) rightly stress that angulo does not imply that the encounter takes place indoors: see OLD s.v. angulus 130, 6 and (b).
68 cf. Nisbet and Hubbard, op. cit. ad 21, 22 (pp. 124–5); Moskovit, loc. cit. (n. 36), 127.
69 See OLD s.v. pignus, 1377, 1, 3. For the legal significance of pignus and the circumstances under which such a pledge might be taken, see Watson, A., The Law of Obligations in the Later Roman Republic (1965), 179 ffGoogle Scholar.; Nicholas, B., An Introduction to Roman Law (1962), 151–3Google Scholar.
70 See OLD s.v. pertinax, 1360, 1 and (c), 2; the word, with its twin connotations of tight-fistedness and intransigence is a perfect epithet to apply to a debtor who seeks to avoid payment.
71 It is hard to see how the stanza can be properly termed ‘titillating’, with Moskovit, loc. cit. (n. 36), 127.