horace Flashcards
(2 cards)
power of poetry in comparison with physical monuments in Horace
1.2: Tiber takes the form of a flood and threatens the structural integrity of the Temple of Vesta and several shrines - Augustus had a vigorous building program and the flood explicates the threat to his physical legacy but this is only an incidental portion of Horace’s work
In a sense he is more enduring than Augustus because of his poetics - which are harder to destroy (explicit in 3.30 - his monument, as in his poetry, is more durable than bronze, the pyramids etc)
Tiber reappears across all 3 books - an impending/encrouching threat upon Augustus’ legacy
horace’s relationship with the muse
grapples for control against the muse at several points - 2.1, wants to write in a lighter style
equally explicitly addresses his patron in 3.8 and 3.29 (to name but two examples)
lyric metre used to explore homosocial bonding, romantic loss and erotic love alongside the death of young soldiers, war and conflict - the text is at war with itself, struggling to rest upon a subject matter
