m. j. edwards -- horace, homer and rome- _epistles_ i.2

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Horace, Homer and Rome: "Epistles" I.2Author(s): M. J. EdwardsSource: Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, Vol. 45, Fasc. 1 (1992), pp. 83-88Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4432112Accessed: 23-04-2015 04:54 UTC

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2/7

MISCELLANEA

83

18)

See

Gilmartin.

Cf.

Menander,

Perikeiromene

67 ff.

(where

the battle also

comes

to

nothing)

and Lucilius 773 ff. with the

commentaries of

Marx

and

Charpin.

19)

See E.

Fantham,

Comparative

Studies in

Republican

Latin

Imagery (Toronto

1972)

73

ff.,

107 ff. and E.

Segal,

Roman

Laughter:

The

Comedy

of

Plautus2

(Oxford

1987),

128

ff.

20)

It

is true that characters such as Dordalus at the conclusion

of Persa and

Pyrgopolynices

himself at

the end of Miles Gloriosus are

physically

assailed,

but not

in

strictly military

terms.

21)

Hanson,

61

ff.; Leach,

192.

22)

For

variants

on the

reading

of

the

fragment

see

Clift,

56

f.

This

particular

vituperative

vocabulary

is not found in S.

Lilja,

Terms

of

Abuse

in Roman

Comedy

(Helsinki

1965).

23)

Nonius

134,

Laverna dea cui

supplicant fures.

See G.

Wissowa,

Religion

and

Kultus der R?mer

(Munich

1912,

repr. 1971),

236,

and K.

Latte,

R?mische

Religions-

geschichte

Munich

1967),

139.

On

coqui

in Roman

comedy,

their

preparations

and

thievish

nature,

see

J.

C.

B.

Lowe,

Cooks in

Plautus,

CA 4

(1985)

76,

86-90.

See

also H.

Dohm,

Mageiros:

Die Rolle des Kochs in der

griechisch-r?mischen

Kom?die

(Munich

1964), esp.

243-275.

24)

See

Festus

313. As Lowe 76

notes,

agnina

is found

also at Aul.

374,

Cap.

819

and 849.

HORACE, HOMER AND ROME: EPISTLES 1.2

The second

in

Horace's first book of

Epistles begins

as an encomium

of

Homer;

it then

goes

on to illustrate the

didactic

powers

of

epic by

com-

mending

to

Maximus Lollius the virtues which it

is Homer's task to

impart.

Since Odes IV.9

resembles it

in

structure,

subjoining

the

praises

of an older Lollius to a

proof

that it is the

poet

who makes men

great by

commemoration,

it is

reasonable to

surmise,

with certain

scholars,

that

these Lollii are related as father and

son1).

The Ode

may

also furnish

an

illuminating

analogue

to the

Epistle,

since

in

praising

the office of Homer

as a vates the Roman vates makes

himself as

immortal as his

subjects;

in

the same

way,

I shall

argue,

the commendation of Homer in the

Epistle

is a

means

of

commending

the

genre

and the culture to which the

Epistle

itself

belongs.

This

poem

is most often

treated

in

modern

criticism as a

philosophical

manifesto for

Homer;

I shall

hope

to

show,

however,

that

it

represents:

(1)

a

consistent,

and

perhaps

innovative choice between two

allegorical

readings;

(2)

an infusion

of Roman sentiment which

tendentiously

distorts

the

plot

and tone of

Homer's

poems;

(3)

an

apology

for satire as a

genre

which is

important

enough

to

provide

the means of

evaluating

epic?an

apology

which reverses the conventions of the

Roman

recusatio

and

tacitly

affirms the

superiority

of

Horace and of Rome.

1. Horace

expects

his reader to know both the

poetry

of Homer and its

critics,

as is

evident from the

following

citation:

Mnemosyne,

Vol.

XLV,

Fase. 1

(1992)


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3/7

84

MISCELLANEA

Nos

numerus

sumus

et

fruges

consumere

nati,

Sponsi

Penelopae

nebulones,

Alcinoique

In

cute

curanda

plus aequo

operata

iuventus

(1.2.28-30).

Horace

is

making sport

when

he

glosses

fruges

consumere

nati

as an allu-

sion

to

the

gluttony

of

Penelope's

Ithacan suitors.

The

phrase

itself

is

taken from

the

challenge

addressed to

Glaucus

by

Diomedes in the

Iliad

(VI.

142-3),

but numerus

is

used in

Homeric

poetry

to

designate

both

the

animals

who are

shepherded by

Proteus

(IV.451)

and

the

concupiscent

rabble

whom

Odysseus

and

his

son

conspire

to

slay (XVI.

246)2).

Thus Horace knew Homer

well,

and

at line 30

the

simile from

the

Odyssey

which

supervenes

upon

the

echo

of

the

Iliad

shows

he

was also

well

acquainted

with

the

uses

to

which

philosophers

put

Homer

in

their

quar-

rels. The

Epicureans

are

represented

by

Plutarch

{Moralia 1087c)

as

appropriating

the lines

in

which

the Phaeacians confess their

addiction

to

leisure

{Odyssey

VIII.246,

248)

but

Horace,

who

can

mock

his

diurnal self

in

these

Epistles

as 'a

pig

from

the

Epicurean

herd',

ingenuously

sleek

in

his

bene curata cute

{Epistles

1.4.15-16),

is

here

espousing

the

claim

in

the

pejorative

sense

in which

Heraclitus

used the

word

Phaeacian

of

Epicurus

{Homeric Allegories

79.2.).

Horace

is

not

in

either case

professing

his

adherence

to a

dogma,

but

smiling candidly

at

his

enslavement to the

sen-

suous

propensities

of

the

ordinary man3).

In

this Horace is

conventional;

but

differences

appear

when from the

voyages

of

Ulysses

Horace selects

the

examples

of

sagacity

and

fortitude

which

had made

that

captain

a

hero for the

Cynics

and

the Stoics:

Sirenum

voces

et

Circae

pocula

nosti

quae

si

cum

sociis

etc.

(1.2.23-4;

see

below).

For

philosophic

allegory,

it

seems that while

the

Sirens'

song

and

Circe's chalice are

temptations

they

are

temptations

for

the virtuous and

wise.

Odysseus

was

admired

for

his

duplicity

by

Hippias {Hipp.

Min.

364c),

and

even

for

Antisthenes the

Cynic he is primarily a speaker of

many

tropes'

(Fr.

51

Caizzi).

If

Arist?n fathered

a

different

school,

ascrib-

ing only practical

virtues to

Odysseus,

no

trace

remains

before

Horace

himself

of

any

extended

specimen

of

this

criticism4).

Horace,

a

student in

Athens

and

a

contemporary

of

Cicero,

would

know

that

the

Old

Academy

had

almost

praised

the

Sirens

for

their

proffer

of a

wisdom

so

delightful

that

it

threatened

to

turn

Odysseus

from

his

patriotic

quest5):

Vidit

Homerus

probari

fabulam non

posse

si

canticulis

tantus irretitus

vir

teneretur;

scientiam

pollicentur,

quam

non

erat mirum

sapientiae

cupido

patria

esse

cariorem

(Cicero,

De

Finibus

V.49).

The

song

is

therefore

not

an

assault

upon

the

mariner's

resolution,

but

a

compliment

to

his

wisdom. The

speaker

is

a

pupil of Antiochus and

reckons Crantor

among

his

many

ancient

predecessors

(V.7).

His

reading

of the

Odyssey

is

in

keeping

with

the

practice

of

philosophers:

Heraclitus




4/7

MISCELLANEA

85

(an

intellectual

Stoic,

like

Chrysippus)

writes as

though

the wisdom of

Odysseus

were as

manifest

in his

hearing

of

the

Sirens as

in

his

shunning

them:

'His

sagacity

descended

to

Hades,

that not

even the

lower

world

might

remain

unexplored;

and

who is

the

man

who heard

the

Sirens,

learning

the

many

things

that

had been

experienced

in

all

ages?'

{Homeric

Allegories

70.

8-9).

Even when

he

interprets

Circe's

goblet

as a snare of

vice,

Heraclitus

makes his

hero

conquer through

the exercise of

reason,

and

(unlike

Horace)

insists

that

the

cup

was

drunk

(70.7,

73.12).

The

Ulysses

of our

Epistle,

whose

virtue it

is

to

be

proof

against

all

enervating pleasures (31-

2), who entertained no object but to bring his vessels home (21), could not

be

described

as

sapientiae

cupidus,

and

nosti

is addressed

to

the

reader

alone6).

Providus

ousts

the

Greek

p?????t??

at

1.2.19,

and

Horace's

would

appear

to be

the first

long

account of

Homer

which

praises Odysseus,

not

for

any

acquisition

of

wisdom,

but for

his

resolute

prosecution

of

one

goal.

2.

Like

patriotism, tenacity

is

a

Roman

virtue

(cf.

Odes

III.3.1);

and

in

this

poem

Horace

is a

custodian

of

Roman sentiments.

The

following

lines

are

perhaps

the most

tendentious

sketch

of the

Iliad

ever

written:

Fabula,

qua

Paridis

propter

narratur

amorem

Graecia barbariae

lento collisa

duello,

Stultorum

regum

et

populorum

continet

aestum.

Antenor

censet belli

praecidere

causam:

Quid

Paris?

ut salvus

regnet vivatque

beatus

Cogi

posse

negat;

Nestor

componere

lites

Inter Peliden festinat et

inter

Atriden:

Hunc

amor,

ira

quidem

communiter urit

utrumque.

Quidquid

d?lirant

reges, plectuntur

Achivi

(1.2.6-14).

It

is

Horace's

accusation

that

the Greek

kings

were

demented,

and

a

typically

Roman

diagnosis

that

imputes

Achilles'

rebellion

to

love

(cf.

Odes

II.4.3-4,

Propertius

II.8.35).

Homer wastes

no

poetry

on

the mob

which

fills

the

space

between

his

heroes;

if a

Thersites

rises

to

upbraid

an

Agamemnon

he

is

put

down with

a blow

and

a

word.

Nor

is it

Homer's

manner to

make

distinctions between

the

men and

those

who lead

them,

reserving

for the

former the name of

'Greeks'.

It

is Horace

(cf.

Odes

III.9.4,

Epistles

1.10.33)

who

gives

the word rex those

pejorative

connota-

tions

which

it was

said

to have

acquired

in Rome

at a

time

when

the

kings

were

foreign

to the

people;

the torments of

the

people

at

the hands

of its

noble

rulers

even after the

expulsion

of the

Tarquins

are,

for a

Roman

and

a

contemporary

of

Livy,

the

leading

theme

of

history,

and

in

contrast

to

Paris,

Achilles

and

Agamemnon,

Horace makes

Antenor

wear the

aspect

of a

senator

and

Nestor

that

of

a

judge.

The

Odyssey

is a

theatre

of

courage

and the

Iliad

(not

the

Odyssey,

as in

Antisthenes)

a

school

of

rhetoric;

one

is

fraught

with unsuccessful

blan-

dishments,

the

other with

conspicuous

crimes

conspicuously requited.




5/7

86

MISCELLANEA

Where

Acjiilles

and

Agamemnon

exemplify

the vices of

patricians,

Odysseus displays

the invincible rectitude

for which the same

patricians

were

remembered,

shunning

Circe

as

though

she were

not so much a

god-

dess and

a

sorceress

as the meretricious domina

of the

elegists:

Quae

[sc. pocula]

si cum sociis

stultus

cupidusque

bibisset

sub

domina meretrice fuisset

turpis

et

excors

vixisset canis

immundus vel

amica

luto sus

(1.2.24-6).

And so the

poet goes

on to

number

himself with the foolish

socii,

who

are born to live on truffles

(1.2.27).

Perhaps

it was

already

a

platitude

among the allegorists to vilify the siren as a prostitute7); but it lay with

the Roman

poet

to choose his

words.

Such notes of the

erotic

style

as

cupidus,

domina,

meretrix and

arnica were

suffering daily

attrition

in the

elegiac poetry

which Horace

professed

to disdain

(Cf.

Odes

1.33,

Satires

1.4.1).

It

is to make her a Roman

temptress

that Circe is called

by

a

term

which does not

express

her character

in

Homer.

3.

It

does

not occur to Horace

to

take

a lesson

from

the

Stoics, who,

striving

to make a

pedagogic

weapon

of the

Iliad,

were

forced

to treat

Achilles

and

Agamemnon,

not as

victims of their

^passions,

but

as the

types

of

passion itself8):

'For when

Achilles,

filled with excessive

anger,

rushed to

his

sword,

the

reasoning faculty in the head being overshadowed by the passions of the

breast,

his

mind soon

brought

him

back

from the intoxication

of

anger

to

a

better,

sober state. It is

quite right

that

repentance

under

the influence

of

wisdom

should be

styled

in

the

poems

Athene'

(Heraclitus,

Homeric

Allegories 19.6-7).

Poetry

seeks the

universal,

but

always

in the concrete?as

Aristotle

says, attaching

names

{Poetics

1451bl0).

Where Heraclitus

dissolves a

rag-

ing

hero into his

faculties,

reducing

a

theophany

to

a

motion of

the

intellect,

for Horace

it is

characters,

deeds

and

passions

in

their

vivid

singularity

that

convey

the

most fruitful

lesson

(Cf.

Ars Poetics

119f).

Horace's

cry

is therefore

not

for

philosophy,

but for

poetry.

But

what

species of poetry? And what becomes of Homer, to whom at first the

author seemed

inclined to award

a

place

among

the Greek

philosophers?

Qui,

quid

sit

pulchrum, quid

turpe, quid

utile,

quid

non

Plenius

et

melius

Chrysippo

et

Crantore dicit

(1.2.3-4).

We have

already

seen that the

Stoics

and Academics

are to

make

way

for the

poets.

If

any

form of

poetry

was

more Roman than

any

other,

and

more devoted

to the

study

of human

types,

it was the one of which Horace

himself

had made an

elegant profession.

'Horace's

Epistles',

said

Eduard

Fraenkel,

'are

an

organic

continuation

of his

Satires'9),

and,

though

the

Epistles

address

themselves

to a

single

correspondent

and

adopt

a

more

revealing

and

more amicable

tone,

the

exhortation

to virtue and a life cor-

rectly

ordered

is the

putative

aim

of

both. The

parallel

most

usually

cited




6/7

MISCELLANEA

87

for the

quoted

lines is from

Cicero,

the

most

eminent

of

latter-day

philosophers10):

Nee

enim

solum utrum

honestum an

turpe

sit deliberari

solet,

sed

etiam

duobus

propositis

honestis utrum

honestius,

itemque

duobus

propositis

utilibus utrum utilius

{De

Ojficiis 1.3.10).

But Cicero has

only

turpe

and

the

comparative

of

utile,

whereas

Lucilius11),

an author who wrote in verse and was

acknowledged

as the

precursor

of Horace's

Satires,

gives

us

utile,

turpe,

the

anaphoric quid

and

antithesis to match Horace's

quid

non:

virtus scire homini rectum utile

quid

sit

honestum,

quae

bona

quae

mala

item,

quid

inutile,

turpe,

inhonestum

(quoted

at

Lactantius,

Div.

Inst.

VI.5.2).

The

morality

which

Homer teaches better than the

philosophers

is

therefore one that the satirist

professes

to describe.

It is not a critic of

every

school

who would think

to credit

Homer with the

utility

of this

young

and humble

genre.

A

Roman author

who

cultivates

some other

form than

epic

will either excuse himself

from the

higher

calling

with the

plea

that

his

powers

are

inadequate

(cf.

Virgil, Eclogues VI.6-7)

or

deny

after all that

epic

is entitled to a

monopoly

of

praise (cf. Virgil, Georgics

III.

1-9;

Propertius

1.9.11,

Juvenal,

Satires

1.1-2).

For

epic,

as the oldest

and most bellicose of

genres,

was a

formidable

ancestor to be

deprecated

(cf. Epistles

II.

1.250-9),

never a

contemporary requiring

a

defence.

Horace is

recommending,

not so much

the

Iliad and the

Odyssey,

as a

certain

reading

of

them,

a

reading

which makes the

epic poems

a

prece-

dent for

the satirists. Odes

IV.9

may

flatter

Homer and the

reader,

but the

ostensible

aim of

satire

is to

edify. Only

in this

Epistle

is

epic

the

genre

that is

subject

to

valuation;

only

here is satire the source of evalutive

prin-

ciples.

Homer is a

laudable

philosopher?insofar

as his aims are those of

didactic

poetry;

an

excellent

guide

in morals?once we

impress upon

him

the

politics

of

a

Roman;

the

master?in a form unknown to the Greeks.

Oxford,

New

College

MJ.

Edwards

1)

Cf. the

commentary

of A.S. Wilkins

(London

1958),

99. But note the reserve

of E.

Fraenkel,

Horace

(Oxford

1957),

315 n.

2.

The

Epistles

are the latest

genre

to be

essayed by

Horace;

cf.

I.xx,

which refers to the

consulship

of the elder

Lollius,

datable to 21 B.C.

2)

The

density

of

allusion,

and the use of bestial

similes,

suggest

the Homeric

context,

but cf. also

Euripides,

Heracles

997 and

Aristophanes,

Clouds 1203. Also

for the Latin

usage

CIL

xiii

10017.53.

3)

On the

'Epicurean' epistles

of Horace see R.S.

Kilpatrick,

The

Poetry of

Friendship (Edmonton 1986),

xviii-xxi,

where the author remarks that the

Academic

philosophy

is

in

many ways

more

congenial

to the

poet. Epicurean




7/7

88

MISCELLANEA

maxims will often

support

the

poet's

counsels,

as C.W. MacLeod shows in 'The

Poetryof

Ethics:

Horace,

Epistles

I,

JRS

69

(1979),

16-27;

but most Greek

ethical

doc-

trines are

held

in

common,

and the use

of

Homer

for didactic

purposes

is

less

con-

genial

to

this

sect than to

any

other.

4)

Cf.

F.

Buffi?re,

Les

Mythes

d'Hom?re

(Paris

1956),

367-86.

5)

On

Horace

at the

Academy

see

Epistles

II.2.43-5. On

his

knowledge

of

Cicero

and

other

contemporary philosophers

see

e.g.

S

J.

Harrison,

Philosophy

and

Imagery

in Horace's

Odes,

CQ

36

(1986),

502-7.

For

a

circumspect

account

of

Antiochus and his

importance

see

J.

Barnes,

Antiochus

of

Ascalon in

J.

Barnes

and

M.

Griffin

(eds)

Philosophia Togata (Oxford

1989),

51-96.

6)

So

Kiessling

ad.

loc.

Quae

si... bibisset

implies

at least the

temporary

absten-

tion was

more fruitful

than the

drinking

of the

potion.

On

the

'inadequacy'

of

pro-

vidus see Wilkins

(1958),

100.

7)

Cf.

Clement

of

Alexandria,

Stromateis

1.10.48 and Buffi?re

(1956),

385-6.

Buffi?re

(1956),

236

quotes

the

exegesis

of

Palaiphatos,

an author

of

uncertain

date,

but

certainly

no

philosopher.

Heraclitus

(70.7, 73.12)

states that Circe

was

overthrown

by

the

superior

intelligence

of

Odysseus.

On

the

oddity

of

calling

Circe a

meretrix

see Wilkins

(1958),

100.

8)

On Heraclitus

and

the

Stoics see

the

edition of the former

by

F.

Buffi?re

(Paris 1962),

xxxviii-ix,

where,

though

the

editor

concludes

that

Heraclitus

'n'est

pas

vraiment

sto?cien,

ou ne l'est

que par

accident',

it

appears

that

the

exaltation

of the reason is distinctive

ofthat sect. For the Stoic

personification

of

the intellect

as Athena see

Philodemus,

De Pietate

1.16

=

H.

Diels,

Doxographi

Graeci

(Berlin

1879),

549-50.

9) Fraenkel (1957), 310; Kilpatrick (1986), xiv-xvi on the 'close relationship'

of the

Satires

and

Epistles. Kilpatrick

cites

Lucilius

V.186-9W as a token that

Lucilius himself

adopted

the

epistolary

form;

cf. the

commentary

of

Kiessling,

Heinze

and

Buick

(repr. 1977),

368-9.

10)

Cf. the

commentary

on the

Epistles

by

Orelli and

Mewes

(Berlin

1892),

ad

loc.

11)

Thus

G.C.

Fiske,

Lucilius and

Horace

(Madison

1920),

427

passes

too

quickly

over

this

poem.

It

is,

of

cource,

true that Satires

1.4 and 1.10 attest

a

qualified

admiration

for

Lucilius,

but he is Horace's master

nonetheless.

THE

FERTILE FIELDS OF UMBRIA: PROP. 1.22.10

Qualis

et unde

genus,

qui

sint

mihi,

Tulle,

Penates,

quaeris pro

nostra

semper

amicitia.

si

Perusina

tibi

patriae

sunt

nota

sepulcra,

Italiae duris fu?era

temporibus,

cum

Romana suos

egit

discordia

civis,

5

(sic

mihi

praecipue,

pulvis

Etrusca,

dolor:

tu

proiecta

mei

perpessa

es membra

propinqui,

tu

nullo miseri

contegis

ossa

solo),

pr?xima

supposito contingens

Umbria

campo

me

genuit

terris fertilis uberibus.

10

Mnemosyne,

Vol.

XLV,

Fase.

1

(1992)

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m. j. edwards -- horace, homer and rome- _epistles_ i.2

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