Ode XI
Come, Phyllis, and help me keep Maecenas' birthday, dearer than my own. Telephus is a youth out of thy star. Fling away ambition; by that sin fell--Phaethon and Bellerophon. Come, last of my loves, and learn a song to drive dull care away. Cf. the motif of 3.28. Maecenas was out of favor at court, during the last years of his life, and is not elsewhere mentioned in this book devoted especially to Augustus.
Albani: in Sat. 2.8.16, Maecenas is given his choice of Albanian or Falernian. Cf. Juv. 13.214, Albani veteris pretiosa senectus.
nectendis: dat. of purpose. Cf. gerundive in legal expressions (A. G. 505. b; G. L. 429).--apium: cf. 1.36.16; 2. 7.24. But see Sargeaunt, Class. Rev. 16.121.
vis=copia is Ciceronian. Nauck doubts multa vis, and construes multa with fulges.
qua: with fulges only.--religata: cf. 2. 11. 24. --fulges: present of fulgeo rather than future of fulgo.
ridet: cf. Il.19.362; Hes. Theog. 40; Lucret. 2.326, aere renidescit tellus, Catull. 64. 284; Milton's 'pleased with the grateful smell, old ocean smiles'; splendet (Epist. 1.5.7). --ara: of turf, caespite vivo.
verbenis: cf. on 1.19.14.--avet: faint personification.
spargier: archaic inf. pass. only here in odes. In Sat. 1. 2.35, 78; 2.8.67; Epist. 2.1.94; 2.2.148.
manus: band; as Verg. Aen. 6.660. Cf. 3.6.9. Cf. the bustle of preparation for the guest in Juv. 14.59.
cursitant: developing festinat.--pueris: dat.
sordidum: sooty, αἰθαλόεντα.--trepidant: bicker, quiver with eagerness; personifying, as avet.
rotantes vertice: whirling in eddies. Cf. Homer's ἑλισσομένη περὶ καπνῶ (Il.1.317); Apoll. Rhod. 1.438, λιγνὺν|πορφυρέαις ἑλίκεσσιν ἐναίσιμον ἀίσσουσαν Lucret. 6.202; Milt. P. L. 6, 'smoke to roll | In dusky wreaths reluctant flames;' Herrick, 871.18, 'And (while we the gods invoke), |Reade acceptance by the smoake.'
ut tamen noris: cf. Epp. 1. 12.25, ne tamen ignores.
Idus: thought to be derived from iduare, to divide; cf. findit.
Veneris marinae: cf. 1.4.5; 3.26.5.
Aprilem: perhaps, because of false etymology, ἀφρός, Ἀφροδίτη.
sollemnis=anno redeunte festus (3.8.9).--mihi: more closely with sanctior. Cf. Tibull. 4.5.1, qui mihi te, Cerinthe, dies dedit hic mihi sanctus| atque inter festos semper habendus erit.
"'This is the birthday of Maecenas,' is expressed by words which should mean "from this day forth Maecenas revises the calendar,"' says Tyrrell captiously (Latin Poetry, p. 197).
adfluentis: the years that flow to us on the stream of time; not quite the venientes anni of A. P.175. Cf. Tennyson's 'There's somewhat flows to us in life'; Persius, Sat. 2. 1-2, Hunc, Macrine, diem numera meliore lapillo| qui tibi labentis apponit candidus annos. Or it may be the rich or bounteous years.
Telephum: cf. 1.13.1; 3.19.26.--occupavit: cf. on 1.14.2.
non tuae sortis: of a higher station in life, with juvenem.
grata compede: cf. 1.33.14.
The tone is mock heroic.
ambustus Phaethon: cf. ἡμιδαὴς Φαέθων (Apoll. Rhod. 4.598); Catull. 64.291, flammati Phaethontis. Shakspere also uses the myth to symbolize a too ambitious love: 'Why, Phaeton (for thou art Merop's son), Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car, And with thy daring folly burn the world? Wilt thou reach stars because they shine on thee?' (Two Gent.3.1). Cf. Rich. II.3.3, 'Down? Down I come; like glistering Phaeton Wanting the manage of unruly jades'; Marlowe, 'Clymene's brain-sick son |That almost brent the axle-tree of heaven'; Ov. Met. 2.1-328.
Bellerophonten: cf. on 3.12.8; 3.7.15. Pindar first made the myth a symbol of vaulting ambition (Isth. 6. 44): 'Thus did winged Pegasus throw his lord Bellerophon, when he would fain enter into the heavenly habitations and mix among the company of Zeus. Unrighteous joyance a bitter end awaiteth.' Pegasus opened the fountain Hippocrene with his hoof, and is called Πειρηναῖς Πῶλος by Eurip. (El. 475). This and Persius' Prologue would readily suggest the conception of him as the poet's steed. It has not been traced back of the Spanish poet Juan del Enzina, who uses it in a poem of the year 1497. See Mustard, Modern Language Notes, 23 (1908), p.32. Spenser has it (Ruins of Time): 'Then who so will with virtuous deeds assay |To mount to heaven on Pegasus must ride,|And with sweet poets' verse be glorified.'
semper ut . . . vites: this is pure prose, with all the logical links exposed. Exemplum praebet=monet . . . ut sequare . . . et putando=putans . . . (ut) vites. For the form, cf. Pindar, Pyth. 4.90, 'Yea, and the swift shaft of Artemis made Tityos its prey in order that men may set their desires on permitted loves.' For the general sentiment disparem vites, ef. the proverbial κηδεῦσαι καθ᾽ ἑαυτόν of the Greek (Aesehyl. Prom. 890).
putando: for this use of the abl. of gerund, cf. A. G. 507; G. L. 431. n. 3; Cf. also Propert. 1.1.9; 1.4.1.
finis: cf. Propert. 1.12.20, Cynthia prima fuit, Cynthia finis erit.
calebo: cf. 3.9.6; 1.4.19.
condisce: cf. on 3.2.3.--modos: this ode, or any other song.
reddas: of. 4.6. 43.--atrae: cf. 3.1.40; 3.14.13.
