Week 10

Erotic Odes

Apr. 7

Primary Readings: Horace Odes 3.12 (Miserarum est neque amori dare ludum - 12v.), 1.19 (Mater saeva Cupidinum - 12v.)

Readings in Translation: Alcaeus 10, 45; Sappho 102; Horace Odes 1.8, 1.13

Listening Assignment: Odes 3.12 on CD

Additional Resources: Diagram and vase painting of an ancient loom; Map and pictures of Lipari; The myth of Bellerophon; Description and picture of Parian Marble

Questions: A) How would you characterize the structure of Odes 3.12? What are the foci of the different stanzas? B) What effect does the sudden ending of Odes 3.12 have? C) Given what we know of Neoboule from Archilochus (revisit Archilochus 196a if necessary), what is the significance of her presence as narrator/narratee? D) Compare Neoboule, Hebrus, and Sybaris (Odes 1.8); Note their respective activities or lack thereof. E) Consider the scene of Hebrus bathing idyllically in the Tiber. Why is this a fantastic image for a person of Horace's time? This is only one aspect of the poem's kaleidoscope of time and space. Can you identify any of the others? F) The narratorial persona in Odes 1.13 is similar to that in Odes 3.12 and that of many Catullus poems what we have read; what similarities can you identify? G) How would you characterize the narrator's relationship with love in Odes 1.19?

Apr. 9

Primary Readings: Horace Odes 1.5 (Quis multa gracilis - 24v.)

Readings in Translation: Horace Odes 1.25, Epode 8, Milton's Ode 1.5

Listening Assignment: Odes 1.5 on LAT226 CD-1

Additional Resources: A nifty personal commentary on the Pyrrha Ode (lines 1-3), complete with illustrations of the Horatian scene. Read about possible mythological namesakes: Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, and Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion who repopulated the world after the great Flood. Read an interpretation from a Rutgers University literature class that looks at the Catullan aspects of Odes 1.5. An odd gloss of Odes 1.5 uses pictures of supermodels to explain the imagery of the poem.

Questions: A) Pay special attention in Odes 1.5 to word order which is handled here with consummate perfection by the poet. Note, for example line 1 and the second and last stanzas. B) A major shift in the poem occurs at line 13. What is the shift and how do the two sections of the poem relate to each other? How does Horace tie the two sections together? C) This poem contains some significant allusions to Catullus. What allusions can you identify and what impact do they have? D) Odes 1.25 and the raunchy Epode 8 pick up a standard Catullan theme that is also present in Odes 1.5, although in a subtler vein. Reading Odes 1.25 in context with Odes 1.5, how do the two poems play off of and reinforce one another? Milton's rendition of Odes 1.5 had a significant influence on English poetry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Having read Horace's original, how successful do you find Milton's poem?

Apr. 11

Primary Readings: Horace Odes 3.26 (Vixi puellis nuper - 12v.), 4.1.1-8 (at least read as much as possible in Latin) (Intermissa, Venus - 40v.)

Readings in Translation: 4.1 (all); Handout on Hellenistic Literary Dedicatory Epigrams

Questions: A) Note that Odes 3.26 is the 5^th poem from the end of the first collection of Odes, compare it with Odes 1.5, the 5^th poem from the opening of the collection. B) Given the scene at the opening of Odes 3.26, why is his prayer at its close unexpected? C) How do the two incongruous threads of Odes 3.26 manifest tropes common in Hellenistic Literary Dedicatory Epigrams? D) What metaphor does Horace employ for the craft of love in Odes 3.26 and 4.1? Is this a common metaphor for love in contemporary culture? E) Do you see an allusion in the tange in line 12 to tactus atatro at the close of Catullus 11?

Quiz: Vocabulary 601-650