GCSE Latin: Horace: Pyrrha

Latin

quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
perfusus liquidis urget odoribus
grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?
cui flavam religas comam,

simplex munditiis? heu quotiens fidem
mutatosque deos flebit || et aspera
nigris aequora ventis
emirabitur insolens,

qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea,
qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem
sperat, nescius aurae
fallacis. miseri, quibus

intemptata nites. me tabula sacer
votiva paries indicat uvida
suspendisse potenti
vestimenta maris deo.


English

NB A line-by-line correspondence in the translation is practically impossible.

Which slim young man, drenched in liquid perfumes,
Is embracing you, Pyrrha, amidst many roses beneath a welcoming grotto?
Whose honey-golden hair are you tying up, simple in your elegance?
Ah, how often will he weep over fickle fidelity and the capricious gods
And in his naivete be amazed at the waves made harsh by the dark winds,
[He] who now trustingly enjoys you, all gold,
Who hopes that you will always be spare, always open to love -
Unaware of the treacherous breeze.
Wretched are the ones for whom you sparkle when you haven't been sampled.
The sacred wall with its votive tablet shows that I have hung up my wet clothes
To the god who has power over the sea.

Discussion

The poem is from Horace's Odes. The metre is asclepiads, which requires the verse to be set out in formal stanzas. Perhaps the poet chooses this form because it enables him to depart from all semblance of prose order. The subject matter is appropriately convoluted: an adolescent is sexually initiated by a 'working girl' and gullibly imagines that he has found lasting affection. In the final stanza the older and wiser speaker (Horace himself? is he bitter or amused?) shows how he has learnt the disappointing truth from experience.

The Greek name Pyrrha suggests red-gold hair – a scarlet woman?! It is not so important to speculate about the actual identity of the two characters, since the poem works as a general admonition to inexperienced youths. She appears innocent (simplex munditiis l.5, aurea l.9, nites l.13), but looks are not always a good indication of character!

Horace injects new life into the established themes of lost love and the unfaithful girl. It was customary for a young Roman man's first encounter with a woman to be commercial, but it is always a shock for him to realise this fact and the consequent downside of love.

Pyrrha: line-by-line

1: Rose petals, emblematic of an erotic scene (American Beauty?) are sprinkled around what was almost certainly an artificial grotto (l.3). The line is artfully constructed with te (Pyrrha) embraced by gracilis...puer within the setting multa...in rosa.

5: Does simplex munditiis qualify as an oxymoron? Perhaps not; it is possible to be gracefully attractive without elaborate dress and make-up.

7: Weather metaphors for love are common in many contemporary songs and films. Horace returns to the sea metaphor in ll.11-12 and throughout the last stanza.

8: This is the only occurrence of the word emirabitur in Classical literature, emphasising the boy's utter astonishment at realising he's been had.

9: credulus is juxtaposed with aurea - maybe a reference to Pyrrha's hair but more likely to the sweet moments of affection shared by the couple. aurae (l.11) would appear to be a play on words as the 'golden' veneer is blown away.

13: intemptata nites can apply both to the girl and to the sea. 13-16: votum = vow; bronze votive tablets, or pictures, were hung on temple walls to commemorate an escape from danger, in fulfilment of a promise ("Save me, O gods, and I promise I'll be good"). Votive tablets are still seen on the walls of Catholic churches on the Continent. Sailors saved from peril could hang up their tackle, even their clothes.

SyntaxWizard TM

Key:
Nominatives in bold
Main Verb in bold and underlined
Accusatives bold and italicised
Other noun/adjective agreements in italics or underlined
Words needs "^" to be supplied. (ie: an unusual or compact form is used, and to understand you need to add this bit on the end)
|| indicates breaks between clauses, or a new unit of sense.

quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
 perfusus liquidis urget odoribus
 grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?
cui flavam religas comam,
simplex munditiis? heu quotiens fidem
mutatosque deos flebit || et aspera
 nigris aequora ventis
 emirabitur insolens,
qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea,
qui semper ^ vacuam, semper amabilem [^te]
sperat, nescius aurae
fallacis. miseri ^, quibus [^sunt]
intemptata nites. me tabula sacer
 votiva paries indicat uvida
 suspendisse potenti
 vestimenta maris deo.