Classical World

ABSTRACT:

In Odes 2.9, Horace advises Valgius Rufus to stop mourning for his lost Mystes and instead sing encomium of Augustus. This article argues that Mystes ("The Initiate") is a pseudonym for the recently deceased poet Cornelius Gallus—a theory that could explain the poem's strong allusions to Vergil's Orpheus, who is a character with its own interpretive history of Gallan allegory. On this reading, Horace's message to Valgius becomes astute advice to temper his subversive elegy about Mystes with more politically prudent poetry.