Editing Epode (section)

==''Epodes'' of Horace==
{{Main|Epodes (Horace)}}

The word is now mainly familiar from the {{lang|la|Epodon liber}} or the ''Book of Epodes'', one of the early works of [[Horace]]. He says in the course of these poems that in composing them he was introducing a new form, at least in [[Latin literature]], and that he was imitating the effect of the iambic [[distich]]s invented by Archilochus. Accordingly, the first ten of these epodes are composed in alternate verses of [[iambic trimeter]] and [[iambic dimeter]], as at, for example, ''Epode'' 5.1–2:<ref name=EB1911/>

:{{lang|la|At o deorum quicquid in caelo regit<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;terras et humanum genus}}<ref name=EB1911/>

:'But, o any of the gods in the heavens ruling<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the lands and the human race.'

In the seven remaining epodes Horace diversified the measures, while retaining the general character of the distich. This group of poems belongs mostly to the early youth of the poet and displays a truculence and a controversial heat which are absent from his more mature writings. As he was imitating Archilochus in form, he believed himself justified in repeating the sarcastic violence of his fierce model. These particular poems of Horace, which are short lyrical satires, have appropriated almost exclusively the name of epodes, although they bear little enough resemblance to the epode of early [[Greek literature]].<ref name=EB1911/>