Humanitext Reader

Horace · Epodes §8.1-8.20

Invective against an Aging Woman and Impotence

Passage 8 of 17 · Latin

Summary

The speaker relentlessly insults the physical decay of an aging woman who made sexual advances, explaining that his impotence is caused entirely by her withered body.

§8.1Rogare longo putidam te saeculo, §8.2viris quid enervet meas, §8.3cum sit tibi dens ater et rugis vetus §8.4frontem senectus exaret §8.5hietque turpis inter aridas natis §8.6podex velut crudae bovis.
That you, rotten from a long lifetime, should ask what it is that unnerves my strength, when you have a black tooth, and old age with wrinkles plows up your forehead, and a hideous anus gapes between your withered buttocks like that of a sick cow!
§8.7sed incitat me pectus et mammae putres §8.8equina quales ubera §8.9venterque mollis et femur tumentibus §8.10exile suris additum.
But what excites me (with disgust) is your breast, and your rotten tits like horse's udders, and your flabby belly, and your skinny thigh attached to swollen calves.
§8.11esto beata, funus atque imagines §8.12ducant triumphales tuom §8.13nec sit marita, quae rotundioribus §8.14onusta bacis ambulet.
Be rich, if you will; let triumphal images lead your funeral procession, and let there be no married woman who walks about laden with rounder pearls.
§8.15quid? quod libelli Stoici inter Sericos §8.16iacere pulvillos amant,
What of the fact that Stoic booklets love to lie among silken cushions?
§8.17inlitterati num minus nervi rigent §8.18minusve languet fascinum?
Does an unlettered muscle stiffen any less, or does the member languish any less because of that?
§8.19quod ut superbo provoces ab inguine, §8.20ore adlaborandum est tibi.
In order that you may rouse it from my proud groin, you must labor hard with your mouth.

Notes

  1. §8.1Rogare — An exclamatory or indignant infinitive expressing shock and disgust. The logical subject of this infinitive is the accusative *te*.
  2. §8.7incitat — The verb *incito* usually means 'to arouse' or 'to stimulate' sexually, but here it is used with biting irony, actually meaning 'arouses (disgust)' or 'drives (to impotence)'.
  3. §8.11esto — The future imperative second-person singular of *sum*, used in a concessive sense ('granted that you are...', 'let it be that you are...').
  4. §8.17num — An interrogative particle expecting a negative answer ('surely... not?'). The rhetorical question implies that having Stoic books around does not make the 'unlettered' muscle (*nervi*, meaning the penis) any less flaccid.
  5. §8.19quod — A connecting relative (*quod* in the accusative case) referring to the sexual arousal/energy described in the previous lines, serving as the direct object of *provoces* within the *ut* purpose clause.

Cite this passage

Horace, Epodes §8.1-8.20. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0893.phi003.humanitext-lat2:8.1-8.20

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