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Horace

Epodes

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Horace's early work, and his angriest. Seventeen poems in iambic metre — the rhythm of abuse. Targets include witches, an ex-slave who's got above himself, a woman who smells bad, garlic, and the entire Roman civil war. The tone lurches from savage to comic. This is Horace before the Sabine farm, before Maecenas, before the mellowing. He bites.

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Books

  • Epode 1

    Horace offers to accompany Maecenas to Actium. A poem of loyalty disguised as reluctance.

    34 lines
  • Epode 2

    Beatus ille — Happy the man who lives far from business. Revealed to be spoken by a moneylender.

    70 lines
  • Epode 3

    A comic assault on garlic. Horace treats a condiment as if it were poison.

    22 lines
  • Epode 4

    An attack on an upstart freedman who parades his wealth.

    20 lines
  • Epode 5

    The witch Canidia and her coven kidnap a boy for a love-potion. The darkest poem in the collection.

    102 lines
  • Epode 6

    A warning to a coward who attacks the weak but flees the strong.

    16 lines
  • Epode 7

    Rome is tearing itself apart. The curse goes back to Romulus's murder of Remus.

    20 lines
  • Epode 8

    A savage attack on an ageing woman who still pursues young men.

    20 lines
  • Epode 9

    Horace celebrates the victory at Actium.

    38 lines
  • Epode 10

    A mock send-off for the bad poet Mevius. Horace prays for his ship to sink.

    24 lines
  • Epode 11

    Horace confesses a new love. He has sworn off women before but is undone again.

    28 lines
  • Epode 12

    Another attack on an unappealing sexual partner. Iambic poetry as licensed invective.

    26 lines
  • Epode 13

    A storm rages. Horace counsels his friends to drink and let wine drive out care.

    18 lines
  • Epode 14

    Horace apologises to Maecenas for the delay in completing his book. Love is the culprit.

    16 lines
  • Epode 15

    A faithless woman has broken her oath. Horace threatens to turn his invective on her new lover.

    24 lines
  • Epode 16

    Rome's civil wars will destroy the city. The only hope is the Blessed Isles — possibly ironic.

    66 lines
  • Epode 17

    Canidia returns. Horace begs for mercy. She refuses. The collection ends in unresolved darkness.

    81 lines
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