perfumed locks, skilled to direct the Seric arrows with his father’s bow? Who will now deny that it is probable for precipitate rivers to flow back again to the high mountains, and for Tiber to change his course, since you are about to exchange the noble works of Panætius, collected from all parts, together with the whole Socratic family,[1] for Iberian armor, after you had promised better things?
ODE XXX.
TO VENUS.
O Venus, queen of Gnidus[2] and Paphos, neglect your favorite Cyprus, and transport yourself into the beautiful temple of Glycera, who is invoking you with abundance of frankincense. Let your glowing son hasten along with you, and the Graces with their zones loosed, and the Nymphs, and Youth possessed of little charm without you and Mercury.
ODE XXXI.[3]
TO APOLLO.
What does the poet beg from Phœbus on the dedication of his temple?[4] What does he pray for, while he pours from the flagon the first libation? Not the rich crops of fertile Sar-
- ↑ Socraticum domum. Horace calls the sect of Socrates Socraticum domum, as the schools of the philosophers were called familiæ. Dac.
- ↑ Gnidus, a town in Caria, a country in Asia Minor, between Lycia and Ionia, on the side of the mountain Taurus, where Venus was worshiped. Watson.
- ↑ In the year 726, u.c. Octavius dedicated to Apollo a temple and library in his palace on Mount Palatine; which having been struck with lightning, the augurs said the god demanded that it should be consecrated to him. Horace was then thirty-eight years old. Dac.
- ↑ "A god is said himself to be dedicated, to whom a new temple is consecrated. Cic. de N. D. 2, 23; ut fides, ut mens, quas in Capitoliis dedicatas videmus." Orelli.
