Under the name of Lalage two distinct persons are intended by Horace. In one ode (1.22, 10) a wolf appears to the poet as he is singing of his Lalage; but in another ode (2.5, 16) an unnamed friend is advised to defer making love to Lalage until she is older. It is evidently not a personal name, but the Greek λαλαγὴ, prattling, chattering (Oppian, Hal. 1.135), used as a term of endearment, "little prattler," which accords with the tender age of the Horatian damsel.