Q. Horatius Flaccus, Odes, ed. Paul Shorey, ed. Gordon J. Laing, 4.8.4

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Graiorum, neque tu pessuma munerum

Odes. Q. Horatius Flaccus. ed. Paul Shorey, ed. Gordon J. Laing. Chicago. 1919.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Carmina (Horace, Odes and Epodes. Shorey, Paul,editor; Laing, Gordon Jennings, joint editor. Chicago: B.H. Sanborn and Company, 1919.)

Translations (1)

Odes Perseus (Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. Conington, John, translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1882.) — 4.8 focus

Ah Censorinus! to my comrades true

Rich cups, rare bronzes, gladly would I send:

Choice tripods from Olympia on each friend

Would I confer, choicer on none than you,

Had but my fate such gems of art bestow'd

As cunning Scopas or Parrhasius wrought,

This with the brush, that with the chisel taught

To image now a mortal, now a god.

But these are not my riches: your desire

Such luxury craves not, and your means disdain:

A poet's strain you love; a poet's strain

Accept, and learn the value of the lyre.

Not public gravings on a marble base,

Whence comes a second life to men of might

E'en in the tomb: not Hannibal's swift flight,

Nor those fierce threats flung back into his face,

Not impious Carthage in its last red blaze,

In clearer light sets forth his spotless fame,

Who from crush'd Afric took away—a name,

Than rude Calabria 's tributary lays.

Let silence hide the good your hand has wrought,

Farewell, reward! Had blank oblivion's power

Dimm'd the bright deeds of Romulus, at this hour,

Despite his sire and mother, he were nought.

Thus Aeacus has 'scaped the Stygian wave,

By grace of poets and their silver tongue,

Henceforth to live the happy isles among.

No, trust the Muse: she opes the good man's grave,

And lifts him to the gods. So Hercules,

His labours o'er, sits at the board of Jove:

So Tyndareus' offspring shine as stars above,

Saving lorn vessels from the yawning seas:

So Bacchus, with the vine-wreath round his hair,

Gives prosperous issue to his votary's prayer.

Q. Horatius Flaccus Odes 4.8.4

ed. Paul Shorey, ed. Gordon J. Laing

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