The Epodes of Horace: A Study in Poetic Arrangement

114 Pages·2011·2.719 MB·English

by  Robert W. Carrubba

STUDIES IN CLASSICAL LITERATURE, 9

THE EPODES
OF
HORACE
A STUDY IN POETIC ARRANGEMENT
by
ROBERT W. CARRUBBA
Columbia University
1969
MOUTON
THE HAGUE · PARIS
© Copyright 1969 in The Netherlands.
Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague.
No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print,
photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the
publishers.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 68-31897
Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Printers, The Hague
Joanne
Vxori Optimae
χρήμα θαυμαστόν γυναικός

PREFACE
This little book of interpretative criticism attempts in its own way
to pay hommage to one of Horace's most vital little books of
poetry. The Epodes have in our own century and long before that
not received the attention so exciting and varied a collection of
poems deserves. There is no critical book in English devoted
primarily to the Epodes. In German and French the last and only
books went to press in 1904 and 1917 — too many years ago.
Meanwhile, scholars have been at work in less ambitious publica-
tions. This present study, by incorporating not all but a consider-
able amount of the accumulated and worthwhile contributions to
the appreciation of the Epodes, hopes to demonstrate that there is a
great deal more of art and pleasure in the six hundred and twenty-
five lines of seventeen epodes than has been suspected and that as
much is easily discernible for those with eyes, time and concern.
The nearly two hundred bibliographic citations may also prove
useful to students, scholars and readers of Horace.
So many individuals and institutions are responsible in one way
or another for this publication that to attempt simply to list all
of them is beyond question. My gratitude is due to Professor James
H. Reid of Fordham University under whom I first read Horace.
My very sincere thanks are also extended to Professors George E.
Duckworth and F. R. B. Godolphin of Princeton University who
supervised, encouraged and criticized my dissertation from which
this present study stems. Generous grants from the Danforth
Foundation and Lake Forest College made possible its completion.
Finally, to my parents and to my wife I am especially indebted for
their kind understanding of my preoccupation with Horace.
New York City August 1965 R.W.C.

CONTENTS
Preface 7
Abbreviations for Periodicals 11
I. Principles of Arrangement 13
II. Chronology 15
III. Metre 18
IV. Theme 22
V. Some Aspects of Balance in the First and Second
Halves of the Book of Epodes 84
VI. The Influence of the Metrical Order of the Archilochian
Epodes 87
Bibliography 104
Index 110