Odes

Horace

Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. Conington, John, translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1882.

  • Grim Cerberus, round whose Gorgon head
  • A hundred snakes are hissing death,
  • Whose triple jaws black venom shed,
  • And sickening breath.
  • Ixion too and Tityos smooth'd
  • Their rugged brows: the urn stood dry
  • One hour, while Danaus' maids were sooth'd
  • With minstrelsy.
  • Let Lyde hear those maidens' guilt,
  • Their famous doom, the ceaseless drain
  • Of outpour'd water, ever spilt,
  • And all the pain
  • Reserved for sinners, e'en when dead:
  • Those impious hands, (could crime do more?)
  • Those impious hands had hearts to shed
  • Their bridegrooms' gore!