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Horace · Epodes §13.1-13.18

Drinking amid the Storm and Chiron's Counsel to Achilles

Passage 13 of 17 · Latin

Summary

Amidst a raging storm, the poet urges his friends to seize the moment, enjoy wine, and banish anxieties with the lyre. He then quotes the Centaur Chiron advising the hero Achilles to soothe his tragic fate at Troy with wine and song.

§13.1Horrida tempestas caelum contraxit et imbres §13.2nivesque deducunt Iovem; nunc mare, nunc siluae §13.3Threicio Aquilone sonant.
A dreadful storm has condensed the sky, and rains and snow bring down Jupiter; now the sea, now the woods resound with the Thracian North Wind.
rapiamus, amici, §13.4Occasionem de die dumque virent genua §13.5et decet, obducta solvatur fronte senectus.
Let us snatch, my friends, the opportunity from the day, and while our knees are green and it is fitting, let gloom be released from our clouded brow.
§13.6tu vina Torquato move consule pressa meo.
You, bring out the wine pressed in the consulship of my Torquatus.
§13.7cetera mitte loqui: deus haec fortasse benigna §13.8reducet in sedem vice.
Cease to speak of other things: perhaps a god, by a benign change, will restore these things to their place.
nunc et Achaemenio §13.9perfundi nardo iuvat et fide Cyllenea §13.10levare diris pectora Sollicitudinibus, §13.11nobilis ut grandi cecinit Centaurus alumno: §13.12“invicte, mortalis dea nate puer Thetide, §13.13te manet Assaraci tellus, quam frigida parvi §13.14findunt Scamandri flumina lubricus et Simois, §13.15unde tibi reditum certo Subtemine Parcae §13.16rupere, nec mater domum caerula te revehet.
Now it is a pleasure both to be drenched with Achaemenian nard and, with Cyllenian lyre, to relieve our breasts of dreadful anxieties, just as the noble Centaur sang to his grand foster-son: “Invincible boy, mortal child born of the goddess Thetis, the land of Assaracus awaits you, which the cold waters of the small Scamander and the gliding Simois cleave, whence the Fates have broken your return by an unalterable thread, nor shall your azure mother carry you back home.
§13.17illic omne malum vino cantuque levato, §13.18deformis aegrimoniae dulcibus adloquiis. ”
There, lighten every trouble with wine and song, the sweet consolations of ugly melancholy.”

Notes

  1. §13.2deducunt Iovem — The sky-god "Jupiter" is used metonymically for the weather (rain and snow). A poetic expression where the sky itself is said to be brought down to earth by the falling rain and snow.
  2. §13.4de die — Though it can be translated as "from early in the day," here it means seizing the opportunity from "the present day" (today). It aligns with Horace's famous motif of "carpe diem."
  3. §13.5solvatur fronte senectus — `senectus` (old age) here symbolizes the "gloom" or "sternness" typical of old age. `solvatur` is a jussive subjunctive, meaning "let it be released" or "dispelled" from the clouded brow.
  4. §13.7mitte loqui — The verb `mittere` (to send, dismiss) when accompanied by an infinitive means "to cease" or "refrain from" doing something, serving as a poetic prohibition.
  5. §13.12mortalis dea nate puer Thetide — The adjective `mortalis` (mortal) modifies `puer` (Achilles), not the goddess. `dea nate... Thetide` means "born of the goddess Thetis" (with `nate` as the vocative of `natus`), taking the ablative of origin (`dea... Thetide` in apposition).

Cite this passage

Horace, Epodes §13.1-13.18. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0893.phi003.humanitext-lat2:13.1-13.18

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