Horace Odes 1.4- Solvitur Acris Hiems
Channel: fiantlapides
Date: 2021-05-22

Horace Odes 1.4- The changing seasons warn us of the shortness of life.

1. 0:12 recited in Latin (as I can't seem to refrain from dancing a bit to the silent ictus)  
2. 2:24 recited again with ictus indicated by snapping. This was a rather impulsive, unrehearsed decision but I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  
3.  5:00 English'd  into a metrically equivalent semi-archilochian heptameter verse. 

Horace here addresses Lucius Sestius, the consul in 23BCE-- the year which books 1-3 of H's Odes were published.  Like Horace, Sestius had fought with Brutus at Philippi and so was also conspicuous beneficiary of Augustus' policy of clemency. He came from a wealthy family that owned pottery forges on the coast north of Rome; the hauling of ships down to the beaches in preparation for the sailing season would be a familiar sight there. 

what a peculiar Metre--   the '3rd Archilochian' is interspersed with Iambic Trimeter (cataleptic) every other line (i.e. distich). This creates a fascinating polyrhythm which never recurs in H's odes! The end of each long line carries a heavy limping beat, which my English translation attempts to imitate. 

wikipedia about the meter:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archilochian

 (or, for real nerds) Allen and Greenough about the meter:
 https://books.google.com/books?id=CBsXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA418#v=onepage&q&f=false 

some textural notes (just my opinion after meditating on this poem a bit):

lines 1-7:  The return of Spring brings with it the return of dancing, fertility festivals, etc, with the appropriate poetic imagery. (cf. catullus- iam ver egelidos refert tepores, etc)

7-12: it's worth mentioning the "Cyclopian forges" or "workshops of Etna"--  In Mythology, the Cyclopes were Sicilian giants employed in the forging of thunderbolts for Jupiter in foundries beneath Mt. Etna, under the supervision of Vulcan-  god of fire and husband to Venus.  H's reference to workshops or forges might be an allusion to the Sestian potteries as well. 

13-17: The transition from thoughts of spring to thoughts of death is implied by the succession of the seasons (cf. odes 4.7) along with a conspicuous retardation of the meter-- nearly all dactyls here are substituted with spondees. 

18-20:  The (Epicurean?) moral drawn in the last stanza is that earthly pleasures ought to be enjoyed before they are lost.

-GL
5/22/2021