Discuss how Horace tried to bring Greek poetry forms to the Latin language. Do you agree with his assessment of his accomplishment in Ode 3.30? Cite no less than ten lines / examples from Horace (in Latin ). 8 pages.
Horace is not worthy of the praise that he gives himself in his poem, Ode 3.30. He was not the first poet to bring Greek poetry forms to Latin poetry, Catullus was. Catullus used the Sapphic verse in two of his poems, 11 and 51. Horace wrote more poems of Greek meter. Eighty- eight to be exact throughout his Odes I-III. Sapphic verse basically looks like this: - u - x - u u - u - - - u - x - u u - u - -
- u - x - u u - u - x - u u - -
Horace’s “great” “monumentum aere perennius” was writing his poetry in the Sapphic meter shown above.
Horace was partially accurate in saying that he has created a monument more lasting than bronze and loftier than the royal structures of the pyramids or “Exegi monumentum aere perennius reglalique situ pyramidum altius” simply because his words have stood the test of time, not because his poems featured Greek forms. They are a testimony to human emotions and how people have had the same emotions since the beginning of time. While it is true that Horace’s poems are studied for using Greek verse, is it not the content of a poem that is most important?
Horace’s poems give people a window into Roman life because he wrote about his everyday life. He wrote about the Roman Empire under the Augustan peace. “Tutus bos etenim rura perambulat / butrit rura Ceres almaque Faustitas”(Ode 4.5) He means that the countryside of the empire is flourishing and Ceres and Prosperity nourish the land. However many of his famous poems are about women that he was infatuated with; women that he wanted to have sex with. It is ironic that the poems by Catullus and Horace that feature those themes are censored or banned in schools, but the very students who are banned from those poems are listening to music that expresses the same sentiment. Horace and Catullus are the predecessors to modern musicians such as Dave Matthews, Lil Wayne, and Bare Naked Ladies (just to name a few). Take Dave Matthews’ “Crash into Me” for example.
“Touch your lips just so I know
In your eyes, love, it glows so
I’m bare boned and crazy for you
When you come crash
Into me”
Compare it to Horace’s lyric poetry from his Ode I.v.
“quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
perfusus liquidis urget odoribus
grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?”
“Which elegant boy, drenched with liquid
perfumes, is kissing you among many roses,
Pyrrha, in a pleasant grotto?”
Both artists write about love and desire, which are basic human emotions. However, Dave gets the girl and Horace is left alone. “qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea” (1.5).Horace asks her, “Who now enjoys you, credulous, all-gold?” Horace is dismayed because his love has left him for someone else. That is a feeling that most people go through in their lives, and not just in present times. The pain of heartbreak has afflicted people throughout the ages. Divorce rates have been high since the late 1960s. Students (and people in general) today are constantly having sexuality and other “bad” influences thrown in their face by the pop culture media. Yet most schools continue to ignore that teen pregnancy rates are rising; or instead of ignoring it, they give kids condoms and tell them not to use them (see video below). However, Horace talks about his emotions. He talks about how he misses Pyrrha, which is much more realistic than just saying that he should have never even gotten involved with her because sex is “bad”.
Horace does not deserve the praise that he gives himself in his Ode 3.30 for bring Aeolian verse to Italian poetry; he deserves it for the words that he left the world; words such as “carpe diem” (1.11.8) and “dum loquimur, fugerit invida aetas” (1.11.7-8). Horace himself said the he wanted his words to live forever “Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei vitabit Libitinam”(3.30.6). He says that his body may die, but that his soul will forever live in the pages of his poetry. The sentiment expressed in his Ode 1.11 will certainly live forever. “Carpe diem” is a well-known phrase that has inspired people over the ages to live for the day and not to trust that there will be a tomorrow. In the movie, “The Dead Poets’ Society”, it inspires young men from a strict, private boarding school to be passionate about life and to realize what their own desires are instead becoming the doctors and bankers and lawyers that their fathers want them to be. Those ancient words surround us in different forms; such as, the slogan for the American Eagle brand is “Live your life.”
Horace lived his own words. He said “carpe diem” to a girl that he wanted to sleep with because he did not want her to worry about what other people would think of her for being promiscuous. He wanted her to seize the day and to live the moment that they were presently in. Horace’s words have stood the test of time and they continue to be prevalent today. His words are his “mountain of bronze”, not the type of verse that he used.
