you shall quaff, under the shade, cups of unintoxicating Lesbian. Nor shall the raging son of Semele enter the combat with Mars; and unsuspected you shall not fear the insolent Cyrus, lest he should savagely lay his intemperate hands on you, who are by no means a match for him; and should rend the chaplet that is platted in your hair, and your inoffensive garment.
ODE XVIII.
TO VARUS.
O Varus, you can plant no tree preferable to the sacred vine, about the mellow soil of Tibur, and the walls of Catilus. For God hath rendered every thing cross to the sober; nor do biting cares disperse any otherwise [than by the use of wine]. Who, after wine, complains of the hardships of war or of poverty? Who does not rather [celebrate] thee, Father Bacchus, and thee, comely Venus? Nevertheless, the battle of the Centaurs[1] with the Lapithæ,[2] which was fought in their cups, admonishes us not to exceed a moderate use of the gifts of Bacchus. And Bacchus himself admonishes us in his severity to the Thracians; when greedy to satisfy their lusts, they make little distinction between right and wrong. O beauteous Bacchus,[3] I will not rouse thee against thy will, nor will I hurry abroad thy [mysteries, which are] covered
- ↑ A people of Thessaly, near Mount Pelion, who first broke horses for war; whence it came to pass that they, being seen by other people on horseback at a distance, were supposed to be but one creature, who had the upper part like a man, and the other part of his body like a horse. Watson.
- ↑ Lapithae, a people of Thessaly, near Mount Olympus. Pirithous was their king, who having drank to excess at his wedding, the Centaurs endeavored to ravish Hippodamia. the king's new-married queen; or, as some say, attempted to ravish the wives of the Lapithæ at the wedding, and were therefore all put to death. Watson.
- ↑ The epithet candide is here very expressive, and refers to the unfading youth and beauty which the mythology of the Greeks and Romans assigned to the deity of wine. Compare Broukhus. ad. Tibull. iii. vi. 1, and Dryden (Ode for St. Cecilia's day), "Bacchus, ever fair and young," and Ovid. Fast. iii. 772:
"Candida formosi venerabimur ora Lyaei." Anthon.
