V. THE ODES. 21. Sources. Horace's tastes had made him an earnest student of Greek literature, particularly of Greek poetry, and we thus find Greek models exercising the most potent influence over the form and content of his verse. So far as form is concerned, Horace's Odes are founded mainly on the measures employed by the Lesbian poets Alcaeus and Sappho (about 600 B.C.). In the content and motives of his Odes, as well as in many bits of phrase and epithet, he is also profoundly indebted to the same writers. But while the influence of Alcaeus and Sappho was paramount, as is not merely confessed but proudly boasted by Horace himself, there is scarcely one of the Greek poets to whom he is not indebted in some degree. To Homer and Pindar, Anacreon and Archilochus, Stesichorus and Bacchylides, his obligations are clear and often great, while the influence of the tragic poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, was likewise considerable. CLASSIFICATION OF HORACE'S ODES. 22. Gnomic Poems. These deal with fundamental principles of life and conduct, and form one of the largest and most characteristic classes of Horace's Odes. Favorite motives are the uncertainty of life, the wisdom of a rational enjoyment of its pleasures, the cultivation of a spirit of tranquillity and contentment, and the observance of the 'golden mean.' The growing taste for luxurious living, and the spirit of greed that attend it, are also often touched upon. Special themes are the satisfaction of the gods with the spirit of the giver rather than the gift (iii. 23), and the superiority of the righteous man to all the buffetings of Fortune (iii. 29). 23. Patriotic Poems. Horace's earnest patriotism and keen solicitude for the weal of the state, together with his personal devotion to Augustus and his faith in Augustus's wisdom, led him to devote his gifts to stimulating the national sense and quickening the national conscience. Some of the loftiest and most successful of his poems were the outcome of this purpose. Foremost in this class are to be ranked the six odes at the beginning of Book III., in which the poet emphasizes the cardinal Roman virtues that had made Rome great in the past, and to which, he urges, the rising generation must steadfastly cling in order to insure the perpetuation of that greatness for the future. These virtues are simplicity of living, endurance, fidelity, steadfastness of purpose in a righteous cause, a wise restraint, martial courage, piety, and purity. The horrors of civil war, already repeatedly touched upon in the Epodes, are treated again in the fine apostrophe to the ship of state (i. 14), while the song of triumph celebrating the victory of Actium (Epode 9) is far surpassed by the brilliant ode (i. 37) on the defeat and suicide of the Egyptian queen and her paramour. - 24. In Praise of Augustus. In the odes classed as patriotic poems, the name and fame of Augustus are also often incidentally alluded to, but there are many odes in which Augustus's glory is the exclusive theme. The fourth book in particular abounds in such, yet they are not lacking in the earlier books, especially Book I. Among the most successful are i. 2, addressed to Augustus as the hope and deliverer of the Roman state; i. 12, in which a review of 'the long glories of majestic Rome' culminates in a lofty tribute to the Emperor; also iv. 5 and 15, both of which recount the blessings of Augustus's sway, under which fertility, peace, honor, uprightness, and chastity reign everywhere. 25. Love Poems. Love had been the most conspicuous theme in the Aeolic lyric poetry on which Horace's Odes are chiefly modelled. The love-poems of Alcaeus and Sappho, so far as we can judge from the scanty remains of their verse that have come down to us, were successful, because they dealt with genuine sentiment and genuine experience. Horace's passion, on the other hand, lacks, as a rule, every token of sincerity; in the case of those love-poems dealing with alleged experiences of his own, the reader with difficulty escapes the conclusion that the experience is fictitious, or else that the poet lacked all depth of feeling. Other poems of this category and they are by far the more numerous deal with the experiences of others. Many of these last are more successful, the gem of all being the little three-act drama in twenty-four verses in which estrangement passes to a happy reconciliation (iii. 9). 26. Convivial Poems. - Besides love, the two favorite themes of the Aeolic lyric poets were the praises of wine and of the gods. True to his models, Horace has a number of poems under each of these heads. Of the poems in praise of wine, perhaps the most striking is iii. 21, where its various beneficent effects are enumerated. Yet i. 18 urges that Bacchus's gift is not to be profaned, but is to be used with moderation. 27. Poems in Praise of Gods and Goddesses. These include odes to Apollo and Diana, to Faunus, to Mercury, to the Muse, to Venus, and two stirring dithyrambics in honor of Bacchus (ii. 19; iii. 25). 28. Personal Poems. Under this head fall those odes in which Horace gives definite expression to his own ambitions or records some item of personal experience. Thus, in i. 1, he aspires to excel in lyric composition; in i. 31 his prayer to the newly enshrined Apollo' is not for lands or gold, but for a contented spirit and an old age of honor and of song; ii. 13 tells of his escape from the falling tree. In ii. 20 and iii. 30 we have lofty prophecies of the poet's eternal fame. 29. In Honor of Persons and Places. Here belong the poems celebrating the rustic beauties of the Sabine Farm (i. 17), the exquisite ode to the fount Bandusia (iii. 13), along with ii. 6, in praise of Tarentum. In ii. 12 we have a description of the personal charms of Terentia, the newly wedded wife of Maecenas. A part of iv. 9 also is devoted to the praise of the integrity of Lollius, a quality to which unfortunately his title is not altogether clear. 30. The Glory of Poetry. Two odes, iv. 8 and the earlier part of iv. 9, are devoted to a glorification of the poet's function. Tis the poet that lends glory to the great; 'tis he that consigns heroes to the Happy Isles, and rescues virtue from oblivion.' 31. Mythological Poems. — Two poems (i. 15 and iii. 27) are but the elaboration of mythological themes, the Flight of Paris with Helen and the Adventure of Europa; iii. 11, also, is mainly taken up with an account of the Danaids, particularly of that Hypermnestra who, 'gloriously false to her perjured father,' spared the life of her lover. 32. Miscellaneous. - Nearly all of the odes will be felt to fall naturally under one or another of the foregoing classes. The few remaining pieces treat of miscellaneous themes. One is addressed to Pollio, who is venturing the rash experiment of writing a history of the civil wars. Another rallies Iccius on deserting philosophy for schemes of adventure in the East. Two celebrate the return of old comrades. Another is an invocation to the lyre; another a warning to Maecenas that, though welcome if he comes, he must expect plain fare at Horace's home. 33. Characterization of Horace as a Lyric Poet. As a master of lyric form, Horace is unexcelled among Roman poets. In content, also, many of his odes represent the highest order of poetry. His patriotism was genuine, his devotion to Augustus was profound, his faith in the moral law was deep and clear. Wherever he touches on these themes, he speaks with conviction and sincerity, and rises: often to a lofty level. But the very qualities of reason and reflection that made him successful here, naturally limited his success in treating of love and sentiment - the themes most frequently chosen for lyric treatment by other poets. On this account, he has not infrequently been challenged as without title to high poetic rank. But fortunately the question of his eminence is not an academic one. Generation after generation continues to own the spell of Horace's verse. So long as this is true, while recognizing his limitations and defects, we may properly ignore any theoretical discussions concerning the character of his lyric work. VI. LANGUAGE. FORMS. 34. a) About the time that Horace's Odes and Epodes were published, certain orthographical changes were being consummated in endings where v, qu, u were originally followed by o. Horace, however, seems to have clung still to the older spelling in the case of the following endings:1) -vos, -rom, -vont, vontur, e.g. flavos, flavom, solvont, sol vontur. 2) -uos, -uom, -uont, -uontur, e.g. mutuos, mutuom, metuont, metuontur. 3) quos, quom, quont, -quontur, e.g. iniquos, iniquom, relin quont, relinquontur. |