The Odes and Carmen Saeculare

Summary

The Odes are Horace's four books of lyric poems, the first three published together in 23 BC and the fourth about ten years later, printed here with the Carmen Saeculare, the hymn he wrote for the Secular Games of 17 BC. Horace boasted that he was the first to bring the metres of the Greek lyric poets Alcaeus and Sappho into Latin, and his hundred and three odes range from drinking songs and love poems to hymns to the gods and grave public poems on the state of Rome after the civil wars. The library's text is John Conington's rhymed verse translation, first published in 1863, which turns each ode into English stanzas. Book I opens with a dedication to Maecenas, Horace's patron, and moves through invitations, warnings and portraits: the girl Pyrrha who will break a new lover's heart, snowy Mount Soracte calling for a fire and wine, and the ode to Leuconoe that ends with the advice to seize the present day, the famous carpe diem. The upright man of the Integer vitae ode needs no weapons because his innocence protects him. Book II gathers poems of moderation and mortality: the golden mean that avoids both the miser's hovel and the palace, the river of years that no piety can stop in the ode to Postumus, and the poet's hope of being changed into a swan. Book III begins with the six Roman Odes, Horace's most serious civic poems, which call young Romans back to frugality, courage, justice, reverence for the gods and steadiness before mobs and tyrants; the second contains the line that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. The book ends with Horace's proud claim that he has raised a monument more lasting than bronze. Book IV, written at the emperor's request, praises Augustus and his stepsons and returns to spring, age and the fame that poetry gives. Throughout, Horace speaks as a friend at table: urbane, self-mocking, aware of death, grateful for a small Sabine farm, and suspicious of greed and ambition. For Christian readers the Odes offer the finest pagan picture of natural wisdom about contentment and the brevity of life, and they invite comparison with Ecclesiastes and with the teaching of Jesus on treasure and tomorrow. Medieval monks copied them, Renaissance schoolboys memorised them, and English poets from Milton to Tennyson imitated them.

Plot or Argument

• Book I (38 odes)

  A dedication to Maecenas, hymns, love poems, invitations to friends, the ode to Leuconoe (carpe diem) and the Integer vitae ode on the protection of a blameless life.

• Book II (20 odes)

  Poems of moderation and mortality: the golden mean, the ode to Postumus on the flight of years, and the poet transformed into a swan.

• Book III (30 odes)

  The six Roman Odes on the civic virtues, further lyrics of friendship and love, and the closing boast of a monument more lasting than bronze.

• Carmen Saeculare and Book IV (15 odes)

  The hymn to Apollo and Diana sung by a choir of boys and girls in 17 BC, and a late book praising Augustus and his family and meditating on age and fame.

Characters

• Maecenas, patron

  Augustus's adviser, Horace's friend and benefactor, addressed in the first ode and many others.

• Augustus, emperor

  The ruler whose peace after the civil wars the public odes celebrate.

• Leuconoe, addressee

  The young woman told not to consult astrologers but to seize the day.

• Postumus, addressee

  The friend reminded that the years flee and death spares no one.

• Licinius, addressee

  The friend counselled to steer a middle course, the golden mean.

Lessons

• The golden mean

  Horace praises the man who avoids both extremes of wealth and want and who keeps a steady heart in good and bad fortune. This is the classical virtue of temperance in lyric form.

  • What two dangers does the ode to Licinius warn against?
  • Why are high towers and pine tops in more danger?
  • How does the golden mean compare with Proverbs 30:8-9?

• Seize the day

  The ode to Leuconoe tells her not to pry into the future but to use the present well. Readers have taken this as a call to pleasure, but Horace mainly urges wise use of limited time.

  • What does Horace forbid Leuconoe to do?
  • Is carpe diem a call to pleasure or to responsibility?
  • How does James 4:13-15 answer and correct Horace?

• Poetry and lasting fame

  In the last ode of Book III Horace claims his verse will outlast pyramids. The Odes ask what in a human life can last.

  • What does Horace think will survive him?
  • Was he right?
  • How does Matthew 6:19-21 change the question of what lasts?

Context

Horace wrote the Odes in the years after the battle of Actium (31 BC), when Augustus was restoring order after a century of civil war and promoting a revival of old Roman religion and morals. Maecenas, his patron, gathered poets such as Virgil, Horace and Propertius around the new regime.

Composition

Books I-III were published together in 23 BC. Augustus chose Horace to write the hymn for the Secular Games of 17 BC, sung by twenty-seven boys and twenty-seven girls; Book IV followed about 13 BC. John Conington, Corpus Professor of Latin at Oxford, published his rhymed translation in 1863 and revised it in later editions; the Gutenberg text includes his prefaces to the second and third editions.

Reception

The Odes were less read than the Satires and Epistles in the Middle Ages but became central to Renaissance education. Milton translated the Pyrrha ode, and Pope, Johnson and Tennyson imitated Horace. In the First World War Wilfred Owen turned the line from the second Roman Ode into the bitter title of his poem Dulce et Decorum Est.

Comparisons

• The Satires of Horace and Persius

  Horace's conversational Satires and Epistles show the same voice in a lower, plainer style.

• The Art of Poetry (Ars Poetica)

  Horace's verse letter on the craft of poetry explains the care with which the Odes were made.

• Eclogues and Georgics

  Virgil, Horace's friend, praises the same farm life and Augustan peace in pastoral and didactic verse.

• On the Nature of the Universe

  Lucretius's Epicurean poem stands behind Horace's teaching on death and moderate pleasure.

• Sonnets

  Shakespeare's Sonnet 55, Not marble nor the gilded monuments, answers Horace's claim to a monument more lasting than bronze.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Whom each ode addresses, and what advice or request it makes.
• Images of seasons, wine, ships and the underworld as reminders of time.
• The six Roman Odes at the start of Book III and their civic tone.
• Horace's view of his own poetry in I.1 and III.30.
• The way many odes end with a quiet, unexpected turn.

Key terms and names

Ode

A formal lyric poem, often addressed to a person or thing, in a fixed stanza pattern.

Alcaic and Sapphic stanzas

Greek lyric stanza forms Horace adapted to Latin; Conington renders them in rhymed English stanzas.

Carpe diem

Seize the day: the phrase from the ode to Leuconoe (I.11).

Golden mean

Aurea mediocritas: the virtue of the middle way between excess and defect (II.10).

Patron

A wealthy supporter of a poet; Maecenas was Horace's.

Roman Odes

The first six odes of Book III, on the virtues Rome needs.

Carmen Saeculare

The Song of the Age, a hymn for the Secular Games of 17 BC.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What does Horace tell Leuconoe not to do, and what does he tell her to do instead?
2. Comprehension What two extremes does the golden mean avoid in the ode to Licinius?
3. Comprehension What does Horace claim for his poetry in the last ode of Book III?
4. Interpretation Why does Horace keep returning to death in poems about wine and friendship?
5. Interpretation Do the Roman Odes sound like the same poet as the love poems? Why or why not?
6. Interpretation Is the man of Integer vitae protected by the gods, by luck, or by his own innocence?
7. Big Question Can a wise pagan teach Christians how to live, and where must his teaching be completed?

Faith Connections

• James 4:13-15 (Scripture)

  You do not know what tomorrow will bring; James agrees with Horace on uncertainty but answers it with If the Lord wills.

• Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 (Scripture)

  The Preacher, like Horace, urges joy in bread and wine in the brief days given, but under God.

• Matthew 6:19-21 (Scripture)

  Treasure in heaven corrects the hope that poetry or bronze can make a person last.

• Basil the Great, Address to Young Men on Greek Literature (Church Fathers)

  Basil urges students to gather from pagan poets what is good, as bees take honey from flowers, and to leave the rest.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Life is short and the future hidden; therefore the wise man keeps to the middle way, is content with little, uses the present well, honours the gods and friends, and trusts that good verse can outlast him.

Rhetorical device: apostrophe. Ah, Postumus! they fleet away: Horace speaks directly to a friend so that a general truth about death becomes personal.

Debate: Resolved: that Horace's carpe diem is compatible with Christian hope.

Memory Work

Seize the present; trust to-morrow e'en as little as you may.

Who makes the golden mean his guide, Shuns miser's cabin, foul and dark, Shuns gilded roofs, where pomp and pride Are envy's mark.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Using at least three odes, explain what Horace thinks a good life looks like, and evaluate his view in light of Scripture.

Comparison with The Satires of Horace and Persius: Compare Horace the lyric poet of the Odes with Horace the conversational satirist: what changes, and what stays the same?

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Assign each student one ode from Book I; each reads it aloud, names the addressee, and states its advice in one sentence.

• Essay

  Is the golden mean a Christian virtue? Answer from the ode to Licinius, Aristotle and Proverbs 30:8-9.

• Poetry

  Write a short ode in four-line stanzas addressed to a friend, giving one piece of advice about how to use time.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation between Horace and the Preacher of Ecclesiastes about what makes a life well spent.

Further Reading

• The Odes of Horace, David Ferry (trans.)

  A modern verse translation with facing Latin.

• Horace and His Lyric Poetry, L. P. Wilkinson

  A classic short introduction (1945).

• Horace, Eduard Fraenkel

  A standard scholarly study (1957).

• Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica, Horace

  The companion volume of Horace's hexameter poems.