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Horace's voladictory: Carm. 2.20

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Howard Jacobson
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana

Extract

‘It is not likely that anything absolutely new can be added to the interpretation of this familiar poem.’ So G. L. Hendrickson forty five years ago. It need scarcely be noted that in spite of these cautionary words much has been written on this ode in the intervening years. With hesitation I add here a few words on what seems to me an overlooked yet central aspect of this poem.

Type
Shorter Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1995

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References

1 CP 44 (1949), 30Google Scholar.

2 For the influence of Platonic imagery in Carm. III. 5, see Harrison, S. J., CQ 80 (1986), 502–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See e.g. the red-figure vase (Brit. Mus. E477) depicting the death of Prokris, in which the bird-soul is seen flying away from the dying human (Weicker, G., Der Seelenvogel in der alten Litteratur und Kunst [Leipzig, 1902], 166–7Google Scholar. Further examples with illustrations and discussion at Fairbanks, A., Athenian Lekythoi (New York, 1907), 191–2Google Scholar.

4 The latter passage noted by Nisbet-Hubbard (Oxford, 1978), p. 333Google Scholar.

5 Bonfante, L., PP (1992), 39 n. 26Google Scholar.

6 The poem is cited by Syndikus, H. P., Die Lyrik des Horaz (Darmstadt, 1972), vol. 1, 482 n. 16Google Scholar.

7 See Porter, D., Horace's Poetic Journey (Princeton, 1987), 145Google Scholar.

8 Porter, ibid.