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{{short description|Collection of poems by Horace}}
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{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox poem
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The '''''Epodes''''' ({{
The 17 poems of the ''Epodes'' cover a variety of topics, including [[politics]], [[Magic (supernatural)|magic]], [[eroticism]] and [[food]]. A product of the [[Last war of the Roman Republic|turbulent final years]] of the [[Roman Republic]], the collection is known for its striking depiction of Rome's socio-political ills in a time of great upheaval. Due to their recurring coarseness and explicit treatment of sexuality, the ''Epodes'' have traditionally been Horace's least regarded work. However, the last quarter of the 20th century saw a resurgence in scholarly interest in the collection.
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Dating to the seventh century BC, the poems of Archilochus contain attacks, often highly sexualised and [[Scatology|scatological]], on other members of society. Two groups in particular are targets of his abuse: personal enemies and [[Promiscuity|promiscuous]] women. The above-mentioned Lycambes features in many of Archilochus' poems<ref>E.g. fr. 172–81 W.
Another significant iambic predecessor of Horace was [[Hipponax]], a lyric poet who flourished during the sixth century BC in [[Ephesus]], [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]]. Writing in the same vein as Archilochus, his poems depict the vulgar aspects of contemporary society. In contrast to the previous iambic tradition, he has been described as striking a discernibly satirical pose: through the use of eccentric and foreign language, many of his poems come across as humorous takes on low-brow activities.{{sfn|West|1993|p=xvii–xviii}} His influence is acknowledged in ''Epode'' 6.11–4. The Hellenistic scholar and poet [[Callimachus]] (third century BC) also wrote a collection of iambi, which are thought to have left a mark on Horace's poems. In these poems, Callimachus presented a toned-down, less aggressive version of the archaic iambus. Horace avoids direct allusions to Callimachus, a fact which has sometimes been seen as a strategy in favour of the style of Archilochus and Hipponax.{{sfn|Barchiesi|2001|p=18–9}}
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==Metre==
{{See also|Prosody (Latin)}}
The metrical pattern of ''Epodes'' 1–10 consists of an [[iambic trimeter]] (three sets of two iambs) followed by an iambic [[dimeter]] (two sets of two iambs). Possible [[caesura]]e are indicated by a vertical line. In the trimeter, all longs (—) before the caesura may be replaced by two shorts (∪ ∪) by [[resolution (meter)]]. In the dimeter, only the first long may be so replaced.{{sfn|Watson|2003|p=45–6}} Sometimes, for special effects (e.g. 2.35), even an {{lang|la|[[anceps]]}} element may be resolved into two short syllables.
x — ∪ — x | — ∪ | — x — ∪ —
x — ∪ — x — ∪ —
Poems 11–17 deviate from this pattern and, with the exception of 14 and 15, each exhibit a different metre. Most of these metres combine iambic elements with [[Dactyl (poetry)|dactylic]] ones and include: the [[Prosody (Latin)#Second Archilochian|second]] and [[Prosody (Latin)#Third Archilochian|third Archilochian]], the [[
==Contents==
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'''''Epode'' 4''' criticises the pretentious behaviour of a [[parvenu|social climber]]. The main charge levelled at the man is that he used to be a [[Slavery in ancient Rome|slave]] and has now risen to be a military tribune, thereby offending those who traditionally occupied such positions. The poem also imagines the heckling of passers-by on the [[Via Sacra]].<ref>''Epod.'' 4.7.</ref> Critics have stated that the target of the epode resembles Horace's own biography.{{sfn|Watson|2003|p=150–1}}
'''''Epode'' 5''' details the encounter of a young boy with the witch (''[[Venefica sorceress|venefica]]'') [[Canidia (gens)#Horace's Canidia|Canidia]]. Together with a group of fellow witches, she plans to bury him alive up to his chin and to use his [[bone marrow]] and [[liver]] to concoct a love potion.<ref>''Epod.'' 5.35–7.</ref> Unable to escape from his entrapment, the boy utters a vow to haunt the witches in his afterlife. The poem is the longest in the collection and is particularly notable for its portrayal of [[witchcraft]].{{sfn|Oliensis|1991|p=109}}
In '''''Epode'' 6''', Horace envisions himself as the successor of the Greek iambographers Archilochus and Hipponax. Should someone be brave enough to provoke him, he will bite back with the fervour of his Greek models.<ref>''Epod.'' 6.15–6.</ref>
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'''''Epode'' 7''' is addressed to the citizens of Rome. Set in the context of [[Last war of the Roman Republic|Octavian's civil war]], the poet scolds his fellow citizens for rushing to shed their own blood instead of fighting foreign enemies.<ref>''Epod.'' 7.3–10.</ref> The poem and its opening line ({{lang|la|Quo, quo scelesti ruitis?}} "Where, where are you rushing in your wickedness?") are famous for their desperate attempt to prevent renewed civil warfare.{{sfn|Fitzgerald|1988|p=1985–6}}
'''''Epode'' 8''' is the first of two 'sexual epodes'. In it, Horace lambasts a repulsive old woman for expecting sexual favours from him. Although she is wealthy and has a collection of sophisticated books, the poet rejects her ageing body. It has been argued that in this poem and in Epode 12, Horace is allegorically attacking the ugly over-embellished style of some earlier literature.<ref>
'''''Epode'' 9''' extends an invitation to Maecenas to celebrate Octavian's victory in the [[Battle of Actium]] of 31 BC. Octavian is praised for having defeated [[Mark Antony]], who is portrayed as an unmanly leader because of his alliance with [[Cleopatra]].<ref>''Epod.'' 9.11–16.</ref>
'''''Epode'' 10''' strikes a more traditionally iambic note. In the style of Hipponax's ''Strasbourg Epode'', the poet curses his enemy Mevius. Horace wishes that the ship carrying Mevius will suffer shipwreck and that his enemy's corpse will be devoured by [[gull]]s.<ref>''Epod.'' 10.21–24.</ref>
In '''''Epode'' 11''', the poet complains to his friend Pettius that he longer enjoys writing verses as he is mad with love for a boy named Lyciscus. The poem is a variation on the idea that love may make the lover's life unbearable. It thus has much in common with [[Elegy|Roman love elegy]].{{sfn|Luck|1976|p=122–3}}
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'''''Epode'' 12''' is the second of two 'sexual epodes'. In the first half the speaker is a youth who complains about an older woman who pesters him to have sex with her, but her unattractiveness makes it difficult for him to perform. In the second half he quotes the woman's complaint about him.{{sfn|Henderson|1999|p=6–7}}
'''''Epode'' 13''' is set at a [[symposium]], an all-male drinking party. Drinking with one's friends and listening to music is presented as an antidote to both bad weather and worries. The second half of the poem tells how the [[centaur]] [[Chiron]] gave the same piece of advice to his pupil [[Achilles]] before he set off for Troy.<ref>''Epod.'' 13.11–18.</ref>
'''''Epode'' 14''' returns to the theme of poem 11: the inhibiting effects of love. Horace apologises to Maecenas for not having completed as promised a set of iambics. The reason for this failure, he adds, is that he has fallen in love, this time with a courtesan called Phryne.
'''''Epode'' 15''' continues the motif of love by commenting on the infidelity of one Neaera. Having sworn an oath of loyalty to the poet, she has now run off to another wealthier rival. The poem contains a well-known pun on Horace's ''[[cognomen]]'' Flaccus ({{lang|la|nam si quid in Flacco viri est}} "... if there is anything manly in a man called floppy").{{sfn|Watson|2003|p=472}}
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'''''Epode'' 16''' weaves together strands from ''Epodes'' 2 and 7. After lamenting the devastating effects of civil warfare on Rome and its citizens, Horace exhorts his countrymen to emigrate to a faraway place. This vision of a [[Rural area|rural]] lifestyle as an alternative to a depressed state of affairs shows characteristics of [[escapism]].{{sfn|Watson|2003|p=20}}
The final '''''Epode'' 17''' takes the shape of a [[palinode]], a type of poem which serves to retract a previously stated sentiment.
==Themes==
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==Reception==
The ''Epodes'' have traditionally been Horace's least regarded work, due, in part, to the collection's recurring coarseness and its open treatment of sexuality. This has caused critics to strongly favour the political poems (1, 7, 9, and 16), while the remaining ones became marginalised.{{sfn|Watson|2007|p=93–4}} Leaving few traces in later ancient texts, the ''Epodes'' were often treated as a lesser appendix to the famous ''[[Odes (Horace)|Odes]]'' in the [[early modern period]]. Only the second ''Epode'', an idyllic vision of rural life, received regular attention by publishers and translators. Nevertheless, during the [[Victorian era]], a number of [[Public school (United Kingdom)|
The last quarter of the 20th century saw a resurgence of critical interest in the ''Epodes'', bringing with it the publication of several commentaries and scholarly articles.{{sfn|Watson|2007|p=93}} In the wake of this resurgence, the collection has become known for what the classicist [[Stephen Harrison (classicist)|Stephen Harrison]] describes as "hard-hitting analyses" of the socio-political issues of late-Republican Rome.{{sfn|Harrison|2019}}
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==Selected editions==
*{{cite book|author=Law, Andy|title=A Translation and Interpretation of Horace’s Iambi|location=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=2024|isbn=978-1036400279}} Latin text with translation and interpretation.
* {{cite book|author=Mankin, David|title=Horace: Epodes|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0521397742}} Latin text with a commentary and introduction.
* {{cite book|author-link=Niall Rudd|author= Rudd, Niall|title=Odes and Epodes|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0674996090}} Latin text with a facing English prose translation.
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*{{Cite book|title=The Complete Odes and Epodes|last=Shepherd|first=W. G.|year=1983|isbn=978-0-14-044422-3|location=London|publisher=Penguin Classics}} English verse translation.
*{{cite book|author=Watson, Lindsay|title=A Commentary on Horace's Epodes|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0199253241}} Latin text with a commentary and introduction.
*{{cite book
==References==
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* {{Cite book|title=Horace's Epodes: Contexts, Intertexts, and Reception|last1=Bather|first1=Philippa|year=2016|location=Oxford|pages=2–29|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198746058.001.0001/acprof-9780198746058-chapter-1|last2=Stocks|first2=Clare|editor-last=Bather|editor-first=Philippa|chapter=Horace’s Epodes|editor2-last=Stocks|editor2-first=Clare|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198746058.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-874605-8 }} {{Subscription required}}
* {{Cite book|title=Iambic Ideas: Essays on a Poetic Tradition from Archaic Greece to the Late Roman Empire|chapter=Horace and Iambos: The Poet as Literary Historian|last=Barchiesi|first=Alessandro|year=2001|location=Lanham, MD|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hu5gxcuaCHoC&dq=barchiesi+horace+2001&pg=PA141|editor-last=Cavarzere|editor-first=Alberto|pages=141–64|isbn=9780742508170|author-link=Alessandro Barchiesi|editor2-last=Aloni|editor2-first=Antonio|editor3-last=Barchiesi|editor3-first=Alessandro}}
*{{Cite journal |title=The genre Palinode and Three Horatian Examples: ''Epode'' 17; ''Odes'' I, 16, ''Odes'' I, 34 |journal=L'Antiquité Classique |last=Cairns |first=Francis |issue=2 |pages=546–52 |year=1978 |volume=47 |doi=10.3406/antiq.1978.1916 |issn=0770-2817 |jstor=41651332}}
* Clayman, D. L. (1975). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4348329 "Horace's Epodes VIII and XII: More than Clever Obscenity?"]. ''The Classical World'', 69(1), 55–61.
* {{Cite book|title=Horace. Satires, Epistles, Art of Poetry|last=Fairclough|first=H. R.|year=1926|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=9780674992146 |url=https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL194/1926/volume.xml}} {{Subscription required}}
* {{Cite journal|title=Power and Impotence in Horace's Epodes|journal=Ramus|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ramus/article/power-and-impotence-in-horaces-epodes/4F9249832CA76662967ED9775F84939D|last=Fitzgerald|first=William|volume=17|pages=176–91|issue=2|year=1988|doi=10.1017/S0048671X00003143|s2cid=191884035 }} {{Subscription required}}
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[[Category:Poems about sexuality]]
[[Category:1st-century BC
[[Category:Poetry by Horace]]
[[Category:Satirical poems]]
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