Week 8

Epicureanism on the Farm

Mar. 24

Primary Readings: Horace Odes 1.9 (Vides ut alta, "the Soracte Ode" - 24v.)

Readings in Translation: Horace Odes 1.4, Alcaeus 338

Listening Assignment: Odes 1.9 and 1.4 on CD; while you listen to the poem,

Addional Resources: Please look at this photograph and painting of Mt. Soracte

Secondary Readings: D. Palmer, "Hellenistic Philosophy" in Looking at Philosophy: The Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made Lighter, Mayfield Publishing. 1994 (second edition), pp. 80-93. Please focus on the sections on Epicureanism & Stoicism  (pp.80-90) as this is most relevant for our consideration of Horace.

Additional Resources: Further information on Epicureanism as available at The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and "The Philosophy Garden." You may also want to compare Epicureanism with Stoicism, the other major Hellenistic philosophy

Questions: A) This Ode appears at first glance to be a description of an idyllic winter scene. On closer examination, however, numerous tensions surface. What two different suggestions does the narrator give to Thaliarchus? (Stanzas 3 & 4-6)? What different weather situations and/or locales are mentioned? What other tensions can you identify? B) Alcaeus 338 is an obvious antecedent of Horace's Odes 1.9. Note all the phrases and ideas from Alcaeus 338 that appear in Horace's poem. What effect does this allusion have on your interpretation of Odes 1.9? C) In Odes 1.9 a winter scene gives way to thoughts of seizing the opportunity of friendship, love and youth. Compare this trajectory to that in Odes 1.4; how does this ode begin? What is its dominant theme? D) What Epicurean themes are present in Odes 1.4 & 1.9?

Mar. 26

Primary Readings: Epode 13 (Horrida tempestas - 18v.)

Readings in Translation: Archilochus 4, Alcaeus 332, 338, 346, 347, 366; Anacreon 356a, 356b

Additional Resources: A) A picture of a diota; B) Excavations have been conducted recently at Horace's Villa near Licenza, Italy. You can learn more about Horace's Villa here.This site includes a Quicktime VR of the ruins that allows you to stand on the site of the villa and look around and video tour of the Villa. Please watch this movie (runtime = 20 min.) and read the related article from the International Herald Tribune. You will encounter some technical archaeological terminology in the IHT article. Click on the following terms for more information: opus mixtum and opus reticularum.

Questions: A) Many of the poems of Alcaeus are explicitly political, while those of Anacreon seem decidedly apolitical. Would you say that Horace's treatment of the symposium on the winter day closer in substance and tone to Alcaeus or Anacreon? B) Alcaeus 338 is an obvious ancestor of Horace's Epode 13. Note all the phrases and ideas from Alcaeus 338 that appear in Horace's poem. What effect does this allusion have on your interpretation of Epode 13? C) Remember the multi-layered ambiguity Horace introduced in Odes 3.30 through his use of "exegi"? Look at the entry in Lewis & Short for "tempestas". What layers of meaning does this word introduce into Epode 13? D) Carefully examine the structure of the poem. What effect does the introduction of the Centaur in the final third of the poem have on the personal tone of lines 1-11?

Mar. 28

Primary Readings: Horace Odes 2.10 (Rectius vives, Licini - 24v.)

Readings in Translation: Horace Odes 2.15, 2.18; Archilochus 128

Additional Resources: Listen to Odes 2.18 on-line.

Questions: A) What relationship between wealth and happiness does Horace postulate? Does he advocate asceticism? B) Odes 2.18 will remind you of Odes 1.4; why does death figure so prominently in the poetry of a man who cautions others to "seize the day"? C) An important aspect of lyric poetry is the paraenesis: the exhortation of a friend to a particular course of action. What course does Odes 2.10 recommend? D) Note Horace's use of repetition of words and ideas in Odes 2.10. Moreover, note how the poem begins and ends with a sailing metaphor (and contains a latent sailing metaphor at its center with the secundis in v. 13. Consider these metaphors in light of the "Ship of State" imagery that we have seen in Horace, Alcaeus, and Archilochus. Is this allusion present in Odes 2.10, or is it closer to the imagery of the opening of Lucretius Bk.2?

Quiz: Vocabulary 501-550

PAPER DUE: Analysis and Comparison of Horace, Odes 1.1 & 3.30