ABSTRACT
There are few sentences more elusive in all Horace than the couplet presented. It has elicited a good many conjectures, every possible (and impossible) punctuation, not to speak of widely differing interpretations. The Fifth Epode is one of the most appalling texts in Latin literature. It takes us right into a repulsive scene where a young boy is being tortured to death by a sorceress and her assistants so that his liver can be used for a magical brew. The epode starts with the abducted boy’s horror at the sinister dealings of the witches. The author admitted that the adjective magnum is not per se entirely impossible, although it seems quite otiose. It is only by pondering upon the consequences for the syntactical structure and overall meaning of the couplet that we come to consider it as a veritable stumbling block.
