Odes

The Odes (in Latin, Carmina) are a collection of lyric poems in four books by the Roman poet Horace. Steeped in Greek literature, Horace set out to revive the Greek lyric tradition by adopting its metres: from Sappho and Alcaeus he took the stanza forms, and from Pindar, Stesichorus, Anacreon, Theognis and Simonides much of his subject matter. He believed lyric to be the noblest of genres and that every poet should cultivate it. The first three books, published around 23 BC, follow an order that reflects the author's inner life. The first, from youth and fantasy, mixes severe, epic or literary pieces with cheerful poems and invocations to Venus. The second is a book of pause and meditation, where the ideal of the golden mean is set out and reflections on the passing of time and the value of leisure appear. The third shows a more mature Horace who nonetheless returns to his old themes. A fourth book of fifteen poems appeared around 13 BC.

The subjects are wide-ranging: love, friendship, wine, religion, morality, patriotism, poems of praise for Augustus and his family, and verses on the uncertainty of life, the cultivation of tranquillity and moderation. Horace applied these ancient forms to the social life of Augustan Rome, and this is much of his achievement. The poems reflect currents of thought such as Epicureanism and Stoicism, and they contain some of the most famous commonplaces in Western literature, such as carpe diem and the golden mean.

Traditionally, English-speaking scholars have regarded the Odes as purely literary works, although more recent studies suggest they may have been conceived for performance, a Latin reinterpretation of Greek lyric song. The Roman writer Petronius, writing shortly after Horace's death, remarked on the studied spontaneity of the poems, and the English poet Alfred Tennyson praised them as jewels of few words that sparkle forever.

The work survives through some 850 manuscripts, which has allowed it to be preserved almost complete. Since antiquity its form and style have been imitated by other poets, and the Italian composer Giuseppe Antonio Paganelli set some of the Odes to music.