Ode IV
Horace banters with heroic precedents a gentleman who has fallen in love with a serving-maid. Xanthias of Phocis is as real or unreal as Gyges of Cnidus (2.5. 20); or Hebrus of Lipara (3.12.6); or Calais, the son of Ornytus of Thurium (3.9.14), or the brother of Opuntian Megilla (1.27.10). For theme, of. Ov. Am. 2.8.9. Translations by Duke, Johnson's Poets, 9. 215; by Hamilton, ibid., 15.638. Imitations, by Rowe, ibid., 9.471; by Smart, ibid., 16.76. Cf. also Ronsard's pretty ode, 'Si j'aime depuis naguiere| Une belle chambriere.' l. ne sit: don't blush. Cf. 1.33.1; 4.9. l.
prius: you are not the first. Cf. Theoc. 13.1-3.-insolentem: proud, as portrayed, A. P.122, Iura neget sibi nata nihil non arroget armis. 3. Briseis: Hom. Il. 1.346, 9.343. Cf. Landor, 'and never night or day could be his| Dignity hurt by dear Briseis.' -niveo colore: abl. instr. with movit, Cf. Theoc. 11.20, λευκοτέρα πακτᾶς; supra, 1. 19. 5, Pario marmore purius. νιφόεσσα Ἑλένη is quoted from Ion. Cf. also 'Her brow is like the snawdrift'; Shakspeare's 'Hide, oh, hide those hills of snow'; 'nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow' (Othello, 5.2); and F.Q. 2.1. 11,'Snowy breast'; and 'The daisies . . . looked dark against her feet; the girl was so white' (Aucassin and Nicolette); Anth. Pal. 5. 84.
movit: cf. 1.2.5.--Telamone natum: Τελαμώνιος Αἴας Cf. on 1.7.21 and 1.15.19.
captivae: app. with Tecmessae. Antithetic juxtaposition with dominum. Têcmessae: note Greek prosody. Tecmessa was a Phrygian princess who was captured by the Greeks and given to Ajax, son of Telamon. On her, cf. Soph. Ajax, 211.
Atrides: Agamemnon.
virgine rapta: Cassandra, from altar of Athena, by Ajax Oileus, Verg. Aen. 2.404. The syntax wavers between abl. abs. and that of 3.9.6 and 4.11.33.
barbarae . . . turmae: the Trojans and their allies; so frequently in Euripides and in Latin tragedy. Cf. Epp. 1.2.7, Graecia barbariae lento collisa duello.
Thessalo victore: abl. abs., before their Thessalian conqueror. Achilles, Neoptolemus, or the Thessalians collectively, according to the point of view. Achilles' slaughter of the Trojans, in the later books of the Iliad, is probably meant.- ademptus Hector: the death of Hector. The concrete Latin reserves the noun for the real thing or person, and denotes relations or aspects by limiting adjectives or participles, thus avoiding the abstract verbals of English idiom. Cf. 1.3.29-30, ignem . . . subductum; 1.18.9; 1.36.9; 1.37.13; 2.9.10; 3.7.17; 3.8.14; 4.4.38-39; Hasdrubal devictus, 4.11.7. Cf. also n. on 3.24.42.
leviora tolli: cf. 11.24.243; Anony. Apud Sen. Suas, 2. 19, Ite triumphantes, belli mora concidit Hector, and Verg. Aen. 9.155.
Grais: with both tradidit and leviora tolli (epexegetic).
nescias an: Thou canst not know but that, i.e. very likely. Contra 4.7.17, Quis scit an, who can feel sure that? generum: Horace playfully asks when he is to offer congratulations. beati: well-to-do, rich. Cf. 3.7.3.
flavae: cf. on 1.5.4. The fine lady in Juvenal, Sat. 6. 354 has flavam cui det mandata puellam.
regium: as who should say her sires were kings in the Emerald Isle. genus: with maeret, no need to supply est. She mourns her (lost) royal rank and the unkindness of her household gods.
Rest assured that in her thou hast not chosen a love from the base plebeian throng.
scelesta: cf. the expressions infidum, profanum, malignum, volgus.
dilectam: with dat. 1. 21.4.
aversam: perhaps playful, as the rapacity of her class was proverbial.
pudenda: of. 1.27.15, erubescendis.
teretes: shapely.
integer: heartwhole; Contactus nullis cupidinibus, Propert. 1.1.2. Cf. 3.7. 22. fuge: cf. 1.9.13.
octavum: Horace was forty years old B.C. 25. Cf. 4.1.6, about ten years later, circa lustra decem. The technical phrase suggested and avoided is condere lustrum. Cf. condere diem, 4.5.29. For thought, cf. Thackeray's Age of Reason: 'Then you know the worth of a lass| Once you have come to forty year.' Landor lowers the danger line by eight years: 'I know those ankles small and round| Are standing on forbidden ground;| So fear no rivalry to you| In gentlemen of thirty-two.' trepidavit: has all too quickly reached, i.e. is hovering on the verge of. A favorite word. Cf. 2.11.4; 2.3.12; 2. 19.5; 3.27.17; 3.29.32; 4.11.11.
