"Horace on the Origins of "Satura

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3939634
AutoresNiall Rudd (autor correspondente)
Ano1960
Volume14
Fascículo1
Páginas36
Data de publicação1960-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPhoenix (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1086882
OpenAlexW2313343962
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas26

THE PASSAGES which bear on our subject are the following: Serm. 1.4.1-9; 1.10.48-49; 2.1.63; and 1.10.66. They will be considered in this order so that the conclusions reached on the first three passages may be used to clear the ground for a discussion of the fourth. This discussion will end in an interpretation which is, I believe, slightly different from those usually proposed.' Serm. 1.4.1-9. To avoid a lot of tedious repetition I would refer the reader to CQ5 (1955) 142-156, and Mnemosyne 10 (1957) 319-336, where he will find these lines examined in detail. Briefly, what Horace says is that the work of Lucilius, except in point of metre, derives entirely from Old Comedy. In other words the fact that Lucilius was witty and forthright and had a moral purpose was due to the precedent which he found in the plays of Aristophanes and the rest. He departed from these models only in respect of his metre. If this is intended as a piece of well-considered, dispassionate criticism it is strangely inadequate. It ignores Lucilius' matter, which was taken from second-century Rome, not from fifthcentury Athens. And what of his language? If this was based on a study of Old Comedy it is odd that the fragments should contain scarcely a single echo. More serious still is the number of sources omitted-Homer, New Comedy, and the Cynic diatribe to mention only three. So it looks as if the passage was not meant as a balanced critical statement, but rather as a piece of special pleading undertaken on behalf of satirical writing in general and the author's own satires in particular.2 Since that is the case, these lines are not of central importance to our present investigation. Their relevance to Serm. 1.10.66 will be discussed when we reach the later passage. We now turn to the more specific reference in 1.10.48-49

Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical and Literary Studies · Philosophy