| Primary Readings: Horace Odes 4.3 (Quem tu, Melpomene Ð
24v.)
Readings
in Translation: Horace Odes 4.2; Pindar Olympian 1
Secondary Readings: Putnam, Artifices of
Eternity: Horace's Fourth Book of Odes, Cornell, 1986,
p. 15-30
Additional Resources: Description and
Picture
of Melpomene; Brief guide to the Ancient
Olympics; More detailed discussion of Olympia
and the Ancient Olympics
Questions: A) In Odes 4.3,
what will grant the Roman poet fame? B) There
are obvious parallels between Odes 4.2 and 3.30.
How would you characterize his relationship to the Muse
in this poem? In what ways does the narrator proclaim
his success? C) According to the narrator in Odes
4.2, why is it dangerous to emulate Pindar? Since
much of Book IV does attempt to emulate Pindar Ð to bring
Pindaric song into Roman verse, as Horace had done with
the other Greek lyric poets Ð how does Odes 4.2
condition the reader for the remainder of the poems? D)
Consider Odes 4.1-3 as an extended introduction
to Book IV. What themes does each discuss? What
issues, prominent in Books 1-III, are considered
in these triad of poems?
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