5 Bacche, veni, dulcisque tuis e cornibus uva pendeat, et spicis tempora cinge, Ceres. luce sacra requiescat humus, requiescat arator, et grave suspenso vomere cesset opus. zens might employ the lesser suovetaurilia (pig, lamb, calf), or offer only one of these. The divinities especially worshiped were Mars (in early times), Ceres, and Bacchus. This description of the Ambarvalia must have been written after 27 B.C. (cf. v. 33), perhaps the next spring. Another picture of the same festival may be seen in Verg. Georg. 1, 338 sqq. For a modern description see Walter Pater's Marius the Epicurean, pp. 3 sqq. 1-14 Invitation to the feast: 'Keep silence all! Come, Bacchus ! Come, Ceres! This is a sacred day, a day of rest for man and beast. Come purified to the sacred altars! 15-26: The solemn procession advances. Gods of my father, accept this offering, defend field and flock, and grant prosperity to my estate. Lo! the prayer is heard. 27-36: Now let us enjoy the festal banquet, and drink our fill; and while each pledges thy health, Messalla, come thyself and inspire my song of praise. 37-66: My theme is agriculture and its gods. They taught men to lead a civilized life. How delightful is rustic life, with its plenty and its joys! Hence came the drama, the forms of worship, and the art of weaving. 67-90 : Cupid, too, they say, is a child of the fields. How skillful and bold he has grown! Neither old man, youth, nor maid is safe from his darts. Yet happy he who wins his favor! Come then, Cupid, to the feast, but leave thy quiver behind. Invoke, friends, the favor of this God for the flocks; for yourself too, if you will. Make merry! for night comes on apace.' 1. faveat: sc. lingua, i.e. let no inauspicious word fall. Cf. 2, 2, 1; Hor. Car. 3, 1, 2: favete linguis. fruges lustramus: i.e. by anticipation. 3. cornibus: Bacchus was sometimes represented with horns, as an emblem of power and abundance (cf. cornucopia); cf. Baum. Denk., p. 435; Prop. 3, 17, 19: per te et tua cornua, vivam; Hor. Car. 2, 19, 29: te vidit insons Cerberus aureo cornu decorum; K. P. H. in AJA., Vol. 5 (1901), p. 7. 4. spicis ... cinge: the wreath of ears of corn was a stated attribute of Ceres; cf. I, 1, 15; 1, 10, 22; Hor. Car. Saec. 30: spicea donet Cererem corona. Baum. Denk., p. 417. 5. luce die. = 5 sqq.: cf. Ovid, Fast. 1,663–665. 6. suspenso: so slight and simple an affair was the ancient plow solvite vincla iugis: nunc ad praesepia debe plena coronato stare boves capite. omnia sint operata deo: non audeat ulla lanificam pensis inposuisse manum. vos quoque abesse procul iubeo, discedat ab cui tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus. casta placent superis: pura cum veste venit et manibus puris sumite fontis aquam. cernite, fulgentes ut eat sacer agnus ad aras vinctaque post olea candida turba comas. di patrii, purgamus agros, purgamus agreste (for a description see Verg. Georg. 1, 169-175) that this word is literally correct. The plow was often hung on a limb in the same position as that of a scythe to-day. 7. iugis: the team,' just as we say, "a yoke of oxen." Best considered as a dat.; for the connection shows that everything is to be done on this occasion for the comfort and well-being of the cattle, as well as that of their owners. This does not prevent the emphasizing of the idea of separation in translation. Cf. A 229; H. 427. 8. Wreathing of cattle was practiced not merely when the animals were to be sacrificed. One of the most familiar decorative features in art is garlanded ox skulls. 9. operata: 'be performed in honor of,' i.e. 'praise'; cf. v. 65 ; 2, 5, 95; Prop. 2, 28, 45; Verg. Georg. I, 339. - non: instead of the regular ne, because it belongs 156 to ulla; nullus is qui vided in poetry. — ulla cf. 1, 3, 87. Woman's stop, as well as man's. 10. lanificam: a p tive, perhaps first fou passage. II. vos: explained lowing clause, where th tion changes; for a sim from plural to singula 39: tum procul absiti colit arte capillos. 14. fontis only li would do for purposes cation. 15. agnus: the victi led three times around and is now about to be 16. candida: cf. 1, turba: the whole famil etc. 17. di patrii: an term, including doubt Bacchus, and Ceres, and under whose protectio cestral estate had hither 20 25 vos mala de nostris pellite limitibus, significet placidos nuntia fibra deos? 18. pellite: 'avert': used instead of the obsolete averruncare of the ancient formula. 19. eludat: originally a gladiatorial term, to 'parry' an enemy's thrust; hence to disappoint.' We should have expected messorem; but the crop is represented as disappointed because it cannot fulfill its promise. herbis: the green blades which make only a fair show. 21. tum: 'in that case,' i.e. if my prayers are granted. — nitidus: 'trim.' 22. Cf. Hor. Epod. 2, 43: sacrum vetustis exstruat lignis focum. 24. ante: adverb, sc. fores. casas leafy bowers such as were often woven together on festal occasions, in which to enjoy the luxuries of idleness and winedrinking. Cf. 2, 5, 97; Pervigilium Ven. 6-7: inter umbras arborum inplicat casas virentis de flagello myrteo: Copa 8: et triclia umbrosis frigida harundin ibus; Ovid, Fast. 3, 528: e ramis frondea facta casa est; Class. Rev., Vol. 22 (1908), p. 39. 25. extis including theoretically the liver, heart, lungs, gall, and caul of the victims; but we need not suppose that a minute examination was made, if there were signs of a propitious omen. 26. fibra here in the proper signification of the filament terminating the exta; often by synecdoche for exta itself, as in 1, 8, 3: nec mihi sunt sortes nec conscia fibra deorum. 27. fumosos: wine was commonly left in a fumarium, or smoke-chamber, where it gathered a flavor much relished by the ancients; cf. Ovid, Fast. 5, 518: fumoso condita vina cado. B. G., p. 489. Falernos: sc. cados. Falernian and Chian wines are types of the choicest vintages, native and foreign. As the former was acid and the latter sweet, they were favorites for mixing. Cf. Intr. § 42, I (4). 30 35 consulis et Chio solvite vincla cado. vina diem celebrent: non festa luce madere huc ades adspiraque mihi, dum carmine nostro rura cano rurisque deos. his vita magistris 34. intonsis: a common epithet of the Romans of early times, before the tonsorial art was in vogue. Cf. Hor. Car. 1, 12, 41: intonsis Curium capillis. Cf. 1, 7, 16, n. 35 ades adspiraque: Messalla is invoked, as if he were one of the Muses. So Vergil called upon Maecenas in Georg. 2, 39: tuque ades, inceptumque una decurre laborem, o decus. . . Maecenas. 36. agricolis: 'patrons of husbandry.' 38. glande: for acorns as a staple of food in the Golden Age, cf. Ovid, Met. 1, 106; Am. 3, 10, 9; Fast. 1, 676; Tib. 2, 3, 68: 40 45 50 illi conpositis primum docuere tigillis exiguam viridi fronde operire domum, servitium et plaustro supposuisse rotam. 43. tum consita AG tunc consita V tunc insita w. glans alat, et prisco more bibantur aquae. glans aluit veteres. 41. Ovid, Am. 3, 10, 13: prima iugis tauros supponere colla coegit et veterem curvo dente revellit humum. — illi: for the elision cf. Intr. § 42. 44. inriguas: in the active sense, as in Ovid, Am. 2, 16, 2: inriguis ora salubris aquis. 46. securo: another poetical active instead of the ordinary passive use; cf. Verg. Aen. 6, 715: securos latices et longa oblivia potant. 47. rure: abl. without a preposition for the more usual locative ruri.. - terunt: the subject is indefinite = agricolae. — sideris : according to the usage of the Roman poets Tibullus can scarcely escape here the charge of ambiguity, as sidus might refer either to the sun, or to Sirius; most editors refer this passage to the sun, but without any very good reason think Horace is referring to the dog star in Epod. 1, 27: ante sidus fervidum. So Ovid, Met. 1, 424, aetherioque recens exarsit sidere limus, is quoted as referring to the sun; but Tibullus, 1, 7, 21, attributes the same result to Sirius as Vergil does in Aen. 3, 141: tum steriles exurere Sirius agros. 48. annua = quotannis, an odd adverbial use, with such a noun as terra. - comas: here used of the grain itself. 49. verno agreeing with alveo, but used in the adverbial sense. - alveo: synizesis. 52. certo... pede: 'regular rhythm.' |