Product Description

Horace (65-8 bc) was one of the greatest poets of the Golden or Augustan age of Latin literature, a master of precision and irony who brilliantly transformed early Greek iambic and lyric poetry into sophisticated Latin verse of outstanding beauty. Offering allusive and exquisitely crafted insights into the brief joys of the present and the uncertain nature of the future, his Odes and Epodes explore such diverse themes as the virtues of pastoral life, the joys of wine, friendship and love, and the poet’s personal anguish following Brutus’ defeat at the battle of Phillipi. Ranging from subtle and tender hymns to the gods to bawdy celebrations of human passions, they remain among the most influential of all poems, inspiring poets from the Roman era to the European Renaissance, the Enlightenment and beyond.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153511 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-27
• Original language: Latin
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

A translation with conscious archaisms
The problem with this translation for the reader ignorant of the original poems is that W G Shepherd deliberately uses English archaisms. This gives the poems a sense of antiquity but can render them difficult to understand. Whilst the notes illuminate some of the allusions made by Horace, they do not clarify some of the words actually used in the translation. For example, the poem I was most interested in was Epode II, in which Horace presents the idea of pastoral retreat. A key figure in the poem is described as a 'helpmeet', which made me uncertain - is this a 'helpmate' or something subtly different? - my dictionary confirmed that 'helpmeet' is simply an archaic version of 'helpmate'. But elsewhere we find words not in a standard dictionary: 'intercipient' - is this like incipient?; and 'enchaf'd' - as in chafed?. The word 'scar' appears without a footnote to explain what it means in the context - a type of fish? If you want to read archaisms and struggle with the English, it would seem as worthwhile going back to seventeenth or eighteenth century translators of Horace as to use this book.