Epode XVII: Dave to Sheila
(Iam iam efficacy)
[I Yield, I Yield]

Horace

‘Horace is addressing Canidia, the sorceress of Epodes iii and v, who is the leader of the Cotytian rites (line 56) which included wholesale sexual indulgence. In these rites Horace (lines 58-9) had been an important figure, but had revealed their secrets (ss Saire i.iii) He is now at Canidia’s mercy, begging for some respite from his punishment. Canidia refuses it, speaking from line 52. His punishment is presumably love.

swift wheel: the magician turned his wheel while uttering prayers and curses (Theocritus ii. 30)
the Nereid’s son: literally grandson of Nereus, god of the sea, that is Achilles, son of the goddess Thetis. Telephus, king of the Mysains, had been wounded by Achilles and was cured by the touch of the spear that had wounded him.
the king: Priam, king of Troy, who went by night to the camp of the Greeks in the last book of Homer’s Illiad, and touched the hands which had killed his son. Achilles accepted ransom for Hector’s body.
Circe’s blessing: in Homer’s Odyssey x. 233-43 Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs. At x. 390-5 she changes them back into men.
deceitful lyre: this part of the poem is heavily ironic. We are to understand from lines 19 and 39 that Canidia is anything but chaste; from line 45 that she is of low birth; from line 46 that at the end of the nine-day mourning period she collects pauper’s bones for her magic spells and potions; from line 48 that she does not respect the laws of hospitality (we think of the fifth Epode), and that she is sterile and pretends to have babies, in order to stand well with her lovers.
Sabellan…. Marsian: peoples of central Italy famous for expertise in magic.
Castor: Castor and Pollus blinded Stesichorus when he wrote a poem attacking their sister Helen. His sight was restored when he wrote a palinode.
Cotytian rites: Cotys was a Thracian goddess
Paelignian: the Paelignians were another people of central Italy famous for their skill in magic.
Noric: from Noricum in the Alps, famous for the excellence of its steel.’ (1)

Almond Version

Here I try to tie it in as tightly as I can with Epode V. The reference to a ‘green greasy-goggler too far’ is picked up from a non-epode poem called ‘The Cutting Place’ and is a reference to Kenny spitting (which he does in addition to the pissing) and for which, in ‘The Cutting Place’ Maureen manages to slash his calf with a bicycle mudguard. The reference to Maureen’s Mam and auntie Nellie comes from a non-epode poem called, ‘Mams at War’ (The Close Woman) in which the two mothers almost come to blows over their children. Fat Mary, though not named, is the narrator in ‘Landlady and Cleaner’ (Epode IV) and of course you’ll remember Aggie and Billy by their appearances in numerous epodes.

In the original the emphasis is very much on witchcraft (‘…she is giving him a hard time and haunting him, but not erotically) …The stress on her books of spells at the beginning of the poem is important here, as are the mythological comparisons with Telephus, Priam and Circe (all to do with witchcraft, not love)…Though some scholars do put more emphasis on love than witchcraft in this poem) (2)

I have Dave as the target of Sheila’s violent revenge. She is not seeking to get him back she just wants to make his life hell as revenge. My version does not imply her love for him, but rather her continuing magical power over him.

I have adapted mythology to my environment : ‘to the wolves’ for heroic lack of burial, ‘pigs in shit’ for Circe, fire and laceration for Prometheus, ‘rolling stone’ for Sisyphus.

The end of Dave’s speech is meant to be half-hearted ironic remarks, alluding to her lies and deceit etc.

I have concentrated on the idea of witchcraft, revenge, a woman scorned etc and making Dave a target for Sheila’s violent revenge.

‘The original text seems indeed to imply that Horace before accused Canidia of falsely pretending to be the mother of Pactumeius but now recants (the palinode is itself a trope of older Greek lyric poetry which helps)’. (3)

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(1) West, D. The Complete Odes and Epodes (1997) Oxford University Press: Oxford. (p.139-140)
(2) Harrison, S.J. (in personal correspondence)
(3) Harrison, S.J. (in personal correspondence)

Epode XVI: And Now the New Millennium Poet Speaks Out
(Altera iam territur)
[A Second Generation is Ground Down]

Horace

‘A second Generation: the first would have been those who fought in the war between Pompey and Caesar, which Horace dates as 60-46 BC… Now, sometime in 40-38 BC their sons seem to be about to begin the civil war fought between Octavian and Sextus Pompeius in 37-36 BC…

The Marsi were defeated in the Social War of 90-89 BCL Capua revolted against Rome after the battle of Cannae in 216 BC in the Second Punic War. Lars Porsena was the Etruscan king who according to one tradition besieged Rome, and according to another captured it, at the end of the seventh century BC; Spartacus was the leader of the slaves in the Servile War of 73-1 BC; the Allogroges were an Alpine people who were in contact with the Catilinarian conspirators in 63 BC and soon afterwards invaded Gaul; the Germans were the Ciimbri and Teutones who invaded Italy in 102-101 BC

The bones of Romulus: there was a tomb of Romulus in the Roman Forum.

you ask: here and elsewhere in this poem Horace purports to be addressing an assembly of the Roman people and used the formal language of the Roman Senate, but there was no Roman assembly which could have been addressed in this way. The pose is that of a political orator, but the scene is not realistic.
Phocaeans: in 534 BC the people of Phocaea in Asia Minor abandoned their city to escape the Persian yoke (Herodotus I, 165)
The Matine hills: these being in the south of Italy, would in normal circumstances have been safe from flooding by the River Po.
The Ocean: Oceanus was believed to be a river encircling the world. Here for the first time in surviving Latin the Isles of the Blest are called the Wealthy Isles.’ (1)

Almond Version

Here I transfer the Roman civil war to Iraq – (‘…shame that Horace doesn’t mention Parthia, which is basically the same part of the world (and people have pointed out that invading Iraq was a bad move for the Romans too).’ (2)

’The main (ironic) proposal in the original is fleeing to an impossible paradise to escape Rome’s disasters.’ (3) I’ve changed this to impossible paradisiacal features appearing in UK.

The proper names in Horace ‘…are mythological (Argo, Odysseus),’ (4) whereas mine are more historical/political : Cruise missiles, American bases/bombers etc.
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(1) West, D. The Complete Odes and Epodes (1997) Oxford University Press: Oxford. (p.138-9)
(2) Harrison, S.J. (in personal correspondence)
(3) Harrison, S.J. (in personal correspondence)
(4) Harrison, S.J. (in personal correspondence)

Epode XV: Aggie Speaks Out
(Nox erat et caelo)
It was Night and in the Cloudless Sky]

Horace

‘Twas night: The lofty tone draws attention to her impiety. Her perjury was committed on a moonlit night when nothing could be hidden.

Man..Flaccus… virtue. Horace often plays with the etymology of proper names. His own full name is Quintus Horatius Flaccus and flaccus is Lating for ‘slack’. Virtus, Latin ‘virtue’ is cognate with vir, ‘man’

Pythagoras: sixth-century Greek philosopher who believed in reincarnation.

Nireus: after Achilles, the fairest of the Greeks, who came to Troy.’ (1)

Almond Version

In my version I change the male speaker to a female one; Aggie, Billy’s long-suffering wife. I think this works, especially as she is a ‘little lamb’ (a name-pun; agnus means lamb) ‘I’m pretty sure Agnes derives from agnus/agna) meaning vulnerable/weak, just like the Horace of the Epodes.’ (2)

I transfer the storm-imagery from the eternal professions of love to the jealousy of female rivals.

I echo the opening night-scenario : because not only does this key into the beginning of the original and invite comparison and contrast, ‘…it also introduces a romantic cliche which was a cliche even in the 1st C B.C. (moonlit meeting of lovers).’ (3)

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(1) West, D. The Complete Odes and Epodes (1997) Oxford University Press: Oxford. (p.138)
(2) Harrison, S.J. (in personal correspondence)
(3) Harrison, S.J. (in personal correspondence)

Epode XIV: Billy Talks of Love
(Mollis inertia)
[Why am I So Ineffective?]

Horace

‘The opening word Mollis (soft, effeminate, inert) is a key term for the Epodes.

The point of the poem is that the writer is distracted by love/love-
poetry : the deus of line 6 is Cupid, and Horace suggests that both he and Maecenas are in love, and that writing love-poetry/being in love is what prevents him (Horace) from finishing his book. Maecenas is not writing love-poetry but is teased for being in love himself.

Horace’s poem says “I’m in love like a great Greek poet used to be, and so are you, Maecenas. You enjoy your better love: I’m in love with the promiscuous Phryne”’. (1)

‘the roller: The Roman book was a scroll on rollers. “To reach the roller” therefore means to get to the end of the book.’ (2)

Almond Version

Phyrne is a slave/tart name, which is why I introduce a local ‘bike’ here.

In the original it is Maecenas who is pressing Horace to finish his current poetry book – here I get Mrs L (whom I have likened to Maecenas in other poems in this collection) to exercise some pressure on Billy by nagging that his men aren’t spending enough in her shop.

Of course Billy is a union man and not a poet. And because the element of being diverted from finishing a project is key to original, I make the task he’s unable to finish into Union business, in other words he can’t concentrate his efforts into upping their wages, because he’s distracted by love.

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(1) Harrison, S.J. (in personal correspondence)
(2) West, D. The Complete Odes and Epodes (1997) Oxford University Press: Oxford. (p.138)

Epode XIII: Billy Calls a Union Meeting at the Burton
(Horrida tempestas)
[Fearsome Storm]

Horace

Quoting Mankin (1995 p.214) Harrison points out that in this poem ‘…banal philosophising and use of a mythological exemplum involving a speech all look back to the Greek lyric poets and forward to Horace’s Odes. The poem finished with an upbeat and consoling message in the mouth of the Centaur Chiron (17-18)’ (1)

‘Spry: in Latin “green”

My Torquatus: dates, including the vintages of wine, were given by the names of the consuls of the year. The Torquati were a distinguished Roman family. Lucius Manlius Torquatus is called “my Torquatus” because he was consul in 65 BC, the year in which Horace was born. Wine made from grapes pressed in that year would have been 35 years old when these poems were published.

Cyllenian: Mount Cyllene in Arcadia was the birthplace of Mercury, who invented the lyre.

Centaur… Assaracus: Cheiron the Centaur was the tutor of the young Achilles. Here he prophesises that Achilles will die at Troy of which Assaracus, great-grandfather of Aeneas, had been king.’ (2)

Almond Version

This poem really does epitomise Horace’s ‘seize the day’ thinking. Because things look as if they are going to get rough Horace suggests, as he often does, that they drown their sorrows with wine.

Whereas the original prophesises that Achilles will die at Troy, in my version Billy, the Trade Union leader, prophesies the death of Head Wrightson’s works in Thornaby and along with it, the death of the surrounding community. He advises the men to drown their sorrows in beer.

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(1) Harrison, S.J. Some Generic Problems in Horace’s Epodes: or, On (Not) Being Archilochus. http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sjh/document/epodes.doc (downloaded July, 2003)

(2) West, D. Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes (1997) Oxford University Press: Oxford. (p.137-8)

Epode XII: The Chapel Street Bike Makes a Scene
(Quid tibi vis?)
[What are you After?]

Horace

‘The format of Epode XII, a conversation between man and woman in a sexual context, mentioning another woman as a candidate for the man’s favours recalls the Cologne Epode of Archilochus, where the male speaker rejects the female speaker’s suggestion of Neobule as an alternative sexual partner; in Horace this scenario is modified, since the alternative sexual partner is not suggested but rather attacked by the female speaker. ‘…the fundamental problem is the poet’s sexual impotence, a physical manifestation of the general impotence and lack of power which [we have seen] as typical of the collection.’ (1)

In the original there is much emphasis on how disgusting the speaker finds the woman’s appearance;

‘The sweat and nasty smell get worse all over her wrinkled body, as my penis droops
and raging passion cools and all the while the powdered chalk
and crocodile-shit dye run on her face as she ruts away..’ (2)

‘Crocodile: according to Pliny’s Natural History xxviii. 108, the land crocodile likes to eat sweet-smelling flowers, and its intestines, being full of a fragrant juice called crocodilea, are much in demand, inter alia for clearing the complexion of blotches, freckles, pimples and spots.’
Lesbia: readers of Catullus would know that a Lesbia is a promiscuous woman. If she were still alive in 30 BC she would be in her mid-fifties.’ (3)

Almond Version

So too in my version there is much emphasis on impotence, and deriding remarks directed towards Billy’s one-time ‘bit-on-the-side.

The original has an allusion to bestiality (elephant-shagging) (4) whereas the Almond version refers to ‘Rockaby Donkeys’, the Rockaby being a public house in the area.
This bit-on-the-side is a well-ridden bike suitable only for large-size action.

In the original the speaker and the man were introduced by a madam (Lesbia) –
so in my version the bit-on-the-side puts a curse on the old bag who introduced them.

I give emphasis to impotence in my poem by the bit-on-the-side comparing Billy’s penis size with that of another man, Harry Chambers.
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(1) Harrison, S.J. Some Generic Problems in Horace’s Epodes: or, On (Not) Being Archilochus. http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sjh/document/epodes.doc (downloaded July, 2003)
(2) Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes (D. West Tr.) (1997) Oxford University Press: Oxford. {p.15)
(3) West, D. Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes (1997) Oxford University Press: Oxford. (p.137)
(4) Harrison, S.J. in personal correspondence.

Epode XI: Johnny’s Crush
(Petti, nihil me)
[It Gives me No Joy]

Horace

‘This epode is unusual in that the even lines are longer than the odd. In Epodes xi-xvi the metres are mixtures of iambics and dactyls. Dactylic metres do not work in English so this translation continues to use iambics, except in xi and xii, which blend iambics with prose to give some sort of sample of the flavour of the original.’ (1)

This really is the poem of someone who’s love-sick; someone who feels that his love is not reciprocated and that he has therefore made a fool of himself: ‘Through all the city-and I am ashamed of it- I was a laughing stock. I can’t face my friends.’

The poem boasts that he now loves a man: ’But now Lyciscus is my love and he boasts he’s prettier than any mere woman could be.

So in Epode XI the speaker is complaining; he’d had a passion for Inachia and now that’s ended and he’s wondering if all she was after was his money,
’Is money all she wants? And are a poor man’s qualities no good to her?’ In other words the suggestion is that he feels he may not be good enough for her. This tone is also reflected in my version.

The suggestion is that the advent of love has changed the kind of verse which he writes, i.e. that love will now be a theme – the serious topic of unrequited love.
This poem is the starting point for an obvious generic interaction with love-elegy:

the suffering lover
the subject of talk in the city
his sighs,
the rich rival,
the role of friends in trying to release the lover from an affair.

Almond Version

In the Almond version we meet Johnny, he’s embarrassed by his crush on a girl who hardly knows he exists let alone returns his love. He comes to realise that his feelings for her are unreciprocated and he unburdens himself to his grandma. He recalls how his grandmother used to tell him there were ‘plenty more fish in the sea’
He tells his grandmother that at that time he just couldn’t get over her – he confesses how he used to stand outside her front door, just hoping for a glimpse of her – how he sometimes stood there for hours.

The poem ends where he tells his grandmother that now he’s back in with his gang of lad friends – he says he’s dropping the idea of girls for a while because, ‘Girls tease and mix my head up’

He says in one breath that he’s finished with romance, but yet keeps the door open,
’unless a really special girl comes along’ and then there’s the hint that he’d also consider a relationship with a boy. This exactly reflects the end of the original Epode:
’Another passion might, for some lovely girl, or a slender boy with his long hair tied up behind in a knot.’

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(1) West, D. (1997) Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes. Oxford University Press: Oxford. (p.137)

Epode X: Kids’ Curse on Alice
(Mala solute navis)
[Under an Evil Star the Ship]

Horace

‘Maevius: Virgil attacks a poet of this name at Eclogues iii 90.

Orion: the setting of Orion in November often comes in stormy weather.

Ajax: the virgin goddess Pallas Athena championed the Greeks at Troy, but destroyed Ajax, son of Oileius, on his homeward journey, in retribution for his rape of Cassandra, the Trojan priestess of Apollo.

Randy: and therefore stinking, to make an offering appropriate to Maevius and an effective ring composition.’ (1)

This is a curse poem and many people think that in Horace 10 the butt is a rival poet.

Almond Version

As with the original Epode, my version is a curse poem, wherein the children put a curse on old Alice who seems all the time to want to put a stop to their progress and fun.

So, in mine, not so much a rival as in the original, but certainly Alice stops the children achieving what they want, just as a rival poet might throw another into the spotlight. Alice therefore becomes a legitimate target for a modern curse poem.
And just as Pallas Athena destroyed Ajax for his rape of Cassandra in the original, so the children take retribution on Alice for spoiling their games.

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(1) West, D.(1997) Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes. Oxford University Press: Oxford (p.137)

Epode IX: Martin and Mrs. L. Share a Gill
(Quando repostum?)
[When Can I Celebrate?]

Horace

‘It seems that Horace and Maecenas are on board ship after the battle of Actium … and have just heard of the flight of Anthony and Cleopatra.

Horace is wistfully looking forward to returning to convivial pleasures in Maecenas’ palace in Rome.
Neptune’s Admiral: Sextus Pompeius had been defeated at Naulochus in 36BC.

Stakes…eunuchs..mosquito nets: this satirizes the behaviour of Anthony’s troops at the court of Cleopatra & on campaign before battle of Actium. Roman soldiers carried stakes for building palisades.

Galli: these are not Gauls here, but Galatians from Asia Minor who came over to Octavian’s side just before the battle. Nevertheless, the thought of Galli singing the praises of Caesar would put a Roman reader in mind of other Galli and another Caesar, the Gauls whom Julius had conquered in the fifties BC

Seasickness: Roman writings on wine are heavily concerned with its medicinal effects. Wine is said by Pliny to check vomiting (Natural History xxiii. 38), but Horace can scarcely be serious here. It sounds like a cheerful excuse.
Lyaeus: a title of Bacchus, god of wine, in Greek, ‘the Releaser’.’ (1)

Almond

In my version Martin is pro- Second World War and acts as a foil for Billy. (See ‘Billy Drowns His Sorrows after the ’51 General Election’) In this pub conversation between Mrs. L (see the first poem ‘Mrs. L’) and Martin, he tries to impress Mrs. L who has once again taken on the role of Maecenas in my version. He is using the opportunity to praise Winston Churchill and at the same time score a point on Billy who takes an anti-war stance.

Martin’s racist abuse picks up the anti-Egyptian abuse about eunuchs etc. in the original, and just as the narrator in the original wants to know when victory can be celebrated and when they can return home, so too in my version Martin wants to know when he can proudly celebrate our victory in the Second World War.

Also look out for:
Winston Churchill as Augustus
Mussolini as Sextus Pompey
Hitler as Anthony
Eva Braun as Cleopatra

Anthony, like Hitler, died through suicide in a kind of bunker having retreated to his capital
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(1) West, David (1997) Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes. Oxford University Press, Oxford (p.136)

Epode VIII: Billy Puts his Cards on the Table
(Rogare longo)
[You Dare to Question Me!]

Horace

‘Effigies … triumphator: wax effigies of ancestors were carried in procession at Roman funerals. The lady is so old that Horace looks at her and thinks of her funeral. The triumph was the highest public distinction.

Stoic tracts: the Stoics prided themselves on their virtue and austerity. This woman is therefore exposed as a hypocrite, as well as a blue-stocking and a fool.’ (1)

Almond

Throughout this collection the relationship between the increasingly impotent trade-union leader, Billy and his long-suffering wife, Aggie, (who gets her first mention in ‘Grown-Up Girls Below the Railway) develops – and it is not an easy relationship. Horace’s poem with its strong invective against an old woman seemed to lend an ideal opportunity for Billy to blame his wife for their deteriorating sexual relationship.

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(1) West, D. (1997) Horace: The Complete Odes and Epodes. Oxford University Press. Oxford (p.135)