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Horace and the Moral Function of Poetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. Tate
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Belfast

Extract

The modern admirers of Horace who take him seriously as a moralist are inclined to attribute an undue degree of originality to his views on the moral function of poetry. The conception of the poet as teacher was, of course, the traditional Greek view. But Professor A. Y. Campbell thinks—in spite of ‘passages from Strabo and Plutarch’ —that this conception ‘after the days of Plato and Aristophanes lapsed as completely as did the production of the sort of literature that had justified it.’ Strabo and Plutarch, he asserts, merely provide evidence that the older Greek view revived; the forces inspiring this ‘revival’ were ‘not Greek, but Roman.’ ‘The Greeks got it from the Romans, Strabo from the spirit of the Augustan age.’

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1928

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References

page 65 note 1 Horace (1924), p. 29.

page 65 note 2 In any case, how could we regard ‘the spirit of the Augustan age’ as the source of Strabo's belief (X. 3, 23) that sound physico-theological doctrines had been handed down by the poets ?

page 65 note 3 Philodemus über die Gedichte, fiinftes Buck (Berlin, 1923)Google Scholar.

page 65 note 4 Campbell, , op. tit., p. 68Google Scholar.

page 65 note 5 Strabo I. 2, 3; Heraclitus, Quaest. Horn. I: Dion Chrys. XI., etc. How the schoolmaster used the poets to enforce morality may be seen in Plutarch, De Audiendis Poetis.

page 65 note 6 Plato, , Prot. 326Google Scholar.

page 65 note 7 Op. cit. 33–34.

page 65 note 8 Loc. cit.

page 66 note 1 Prot. 317b.

page 66 note 2 Strabo I. 1, io.

page 66 note 3 Strabo I. 2, 3, from which it follows, as Strabo later (I. 2, 8) insists, that the good poet must be a virtuous man.

page 66 note 4 See Philodemus, quoted by Zeller, , Stoics, p. 323, n.iGoogle Scholar.

page 66 note 5 See von Arnim, , Stoic. Vet. Frr. II.. p. 255Google Scholar.

page 66 note 6 Cf. Cicero, , De Nat. Deorum I. 15, 41Google Scholar.

page 66 note 7 Strabo, loc.cit. E. held that all poets aim at ΨƲΧαƳ⍵Ƴα not δ⍳δασλĸαα, so that the poet must not be judged primarily by his knowledge. cf. Aristotle, , Poetics 1460bGoogle Scholar.

page 66 note 8 Strabo I. 2, 17.

page 66 note 9 He is, of course, more largely indebted than he acknoledges. See Schlemm, De Fontibus Plutarchi Commentationum De Aud. Poet., of which the concluding paragraphs may be consulted in Padelford, F. M., Essays on the Study and Use of Poetry by Plutarch, etc., pp. 121123Google Scholar.

page 66 note 10 Amat. 757c.

page 66 note 11 De Aud. Poet. 31E.

page 66 note 12 Frogs 1008 sqq.

page 66 note 13 See Jensen, op. cit.

page 66 note 14 That even the Alexandrians were far from holding any such theory as ‘art for art's sake’ might be illustrated by the fact that even Eratos thenes imitated the didactic vein of Hesiod. On his Hermes see Couat, , La Posie Alexandrine, pp. 465 sqqGoogle Scholar.

page 66 note 15 Jensen, , op. cit., pp. 131 and 135Google Scholar.

page 67 note 1 Op. cit., excursus I., especially p. 123:δЄîṿῷ ЄλЄỊῳ πо⍳ɳη μЄ ης ψʊχαƳ⍵Ƴας оχ оùς ὰκоúоƲς ὠΦЄλЄîƲ κα χ⍴⍴σ⍳μоλоƳЄἦƲ.

page 67 note 2 Of course the demand that the poet should charm is much older than Eratosthenes, who was perhaps merely the first to insist exclusively upon this (in the popular view) minor aspect of the poet's office.

page 67 note 3 Who says (I. 2,8) that the pleasure of poetry acts like a love-philtre in stimulating the desire of knowledge. Cf. Plutarch, De Aud. Poet., ad init.

page 67 note 4 Jensen, , op. cit., p. 113Google Scholar.

page 67 note 5 Op. cit., p. 108.

page 67 note 6 Cf. Tiraocles, (Meineke, Com. Frr. II. 800)Google Scholarapparently following Aristotle: ψƲχαƳ⍵Ƴη⍬Єς.

page 67 note 7 For this sense of pulchra, cf. Epist. II. I, 72.

page 67 note 8 Aristotle's Theory of Poetry, third edition, p. 208.

page 67 note 9 Even the author of the πЄ⍴ üψоƲς judging poetry by a purely literary standard. E.g., he censures the Theomachy though acknowledging the sublimity of its imagery (IX. 6–8) presumably on the ground that an impious passage, however awe inspiring, will not affect the normally moral man with the rapture which is the end of poetic imagery.

page 68 note 1 See supra, p. 67, n. 1.

page 68 note 2 Cf. Campbell, A. Y., op. cit., p. 64Google Scholar, who discusses the Horatian view of ‘the supreme duty of the poet.’ I cannot find anything in Horace about this ‘duty’.

page 68 note 3 Plato, Cf., Rep. 5g8de; Xen. Symp. IV. 67Google Scholar, etc.

page 68 note 4 Cf. Pindar, fr. 150 (Bergk); Plato, Apol. 22b, Laws 682, etc.

page 68 note 5 A.P. 311, where provisam rem = π⍴оƲооúμЄƲα of Neoptolemus (Jensen, , op. cit., p. 115)Google Scholar.

page 68 note 6 For this sense of sapere cf. Epist. I. 2, 40.

page 68 note 7 Campbell, A. Y. more or less agrees (p. 250)Google Scholar: e.g. Horace ‘himself used the works of the later schools much more than Plato's; and the following lines’(i.e. 312 sqq.) ‘suggest Stoicism.’;

page 68 note 8 Quaest. Horn. 79.

page 68 note 9 V. 37.

page 69 note 1 With the sense of sapere cf. sapiente bonoque(1. 5).

page 69 note 2 Supra, p. 66, n. 4.

page 69 note 3 Cf. Strabo I. 2, 4; Heraclitus, et al. , Quaest. Horn. 70Google Scholar; Seneca, , De Const. Sap. II. 1Google Scholar.

page 69 note 4 Cf. Xen. Mem. I. 3, 7. There is no need to assuppose (cf. Campbell, p. 276) that Horace had gone minutely into the study of Stoic allegories whether in the treatise of Heraclitus or else where. It should also be pointed out that the statement (ibid., n. 3) that Heraclitus' source was the Roman Varro though it has Zeller's countenance (Stoics, p. 336)–must be regarded as exploded. Consult, e.g., C. Reinhardt, De Graecontm Theologia.

page 69 note 5 Frogs 1034–1039.

page 70 note 1 541.

page 70 note 2 Symp. IV. 67.

page 70 note 3 Walz, , Rhetores Graeci III., p. 375Google Scholar.

page 70 note 4 Panegyr. 159.

page 70 note 5 This un-Homeric view of the Trojans as barbarians appears also in Horace (Epist. I. 2, 7, ‘Graecia barbariae lento collisa duello’).

page 70 note 6 There is no sign that Horace, any more than Aristophanes or Isocrates, found any difficulty in the praise of Homer as ‘excellent for recruiting purposes’ (cf.Campbell, , op cit., p. 60)Google Scholar.

page 70 note 7 Plato, Cf., Prot. 326Google Scholar; Phaedrus 245a:… оùςπ⍳Ƴ⍳βоμƲоuς παоЄúЄ⍳.

page 70 note 8 The reference is simply to the Greek choral lyric. Cf. Plato who obeys tradition so far as to retain ‘hymns to the gods’ in his ideal state {Rep. 607a). Cf. alsoPindar, , Pyth. I. 12Google Scholar.

page 70 note 9 Line 131: inopem solatur et aegrum. Cf.Hesiod, , Theogony 98 sqq.Google Scholar; Aristotle as quoted by Diog. Laert. V. i. 19; Cicero, , Pro Archia 16Google Scholar. Euripides (Medea 190 sqq.) denies that poets have yet learned to do this.

page 70 note 10 Cf. Cicero, Pro Archia 12: ‘suppeditat… ubi animus reficiatur.’

page 70 note 11 Odes IV. 8, 13 sqq., especially 11. 20 sqq. neque si chartae sileant quod bene feceris, mercedem tuleris etc. And 9, 25 sqq. (‘vixere fortes ante Agamemnona,’ etc.).

page 71 note 1 Cf. Cicero, Pro Archia 14; Theocritus XVI. 22–57; Pindar, 01. X. 91, Pyth. III. 114, Isthm. VII. 16.

page 71 note 2 Frr. 18 and 21 (Diels).

page 71 note 3 Phaedr. 245a, etc.

page 71 note 4 See Jensen, , op. cit., p. 123Google Scholar.

page 71 note 5 Di Divinat. I. 37, 80. Cf. Pro Archia 18, where ‘divine afflatus’ is to the Roman evidently a very bold metaphor.

page 71 note 6 Odes III. 1, 3. Cf. Efist. II. 1, 133.

page 71 note 7 Poetics 1455a.

page 72 note 1 Cf. Sikes, , Roman Poetry, p. 62Google Scholar. In the alliance of genius and art, Horace ‘certainly seems to regard Art as the predominant partner.’ Horace's attitude may in part be due to Roman hostility towards anything in the nature enthusiasm. This is still clearer if we compare Pseudo-Longinus (XIII.) who, although apparently as great a rationalist as Horace in treatment of inspiration, makes much of it in sense of high emotional power.

page 72 note 2 Cf. Plato, , Ion. 534c, Laws 682, 719Google Scholar, etc. course the philosophers who revered the early poetic traditions could still regard the works of alliance Homer and (in a lesser degree) of Hesiod as in some sense a divine revelation. Cf.Julian, , Or. IV., p. 149cGoogle Scholar(Homer was ⍬Єληπоς); Proclus, In Plat. Remp. 405 (Ʋ Òμ⍴оƲ πо⍳ɳ⍳κηƲ ηƲ π⍬ЄƲ ὠ⍳μɳμƲɳƲ). But such miracles were definitely relegated to the remote past, e.g. Dion Chrysostomus (XXXVI. 34) is careful to make his remarks on divine inspiration apply only to the very ancient poets.

page 72 note 3 For a point which Horace probably owes to the Homeromastiges see my note on Epist. I. 19,6 in C.R., December, 1927, p. 218.

page 72 note 4 A.P. 268.