Giusti, Elena (2016) Dithyrambic iambics : Epode 9 and its general(s’) confusion. In: Bather, Philippa and Stocks, Claire, (eds.) Horace’s Epodes: Contexts, Intertexts, and Reception. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198746058

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Abstract

Starting from analysis of the strongly ambiguous sympotic frame of the only frankly propagandistic poem in the Epodes collection, this paper exploits its mixture of musical harmonies and background Bacchic frenzy as key for interpreting its notorious historico-political complexities. First, I consider much debated difficulties such as the dubious identification of the Caecubum in line 1 with that in line 36 and the mysterious setting of the symposium through the potentially etymologically relevant ναυςea of the poet. I argue that they deliberately contribute to shape an ambiguous attitude towards the princeps, which is epitomised in the cura metusque Caesaris rerum in line 37. Then, after analysis of the poem’s musical harmonies, by considering the Epode the first example of ‘Horace’s Bacchic poetics’ as later displayed in the Odes, I underline the political significance of Dionysiac tunes in Horace’s poetry and argue that the explicit need for musical concoction (9.5 sonante mixtum tibiis carmen lyra) matches the fusion between duces displayed in the second half of the poem. In this frame, Horace’s debt to Sallust’s reflections on metus hostilis underscores the ambiguity of par in line 23 (to be read in connection with dispar at 7.12). This is a key-word in a poem that explicitly plays on its characters’ identities: is the par dux Marius or Jugurtha? Is the Africanus one of the Scipiones or Hannibal? Is the uictus hostis Hannibal or Antony? This is a game of mirrorings with the enemy which, far from being a recognised characteristic of both Sallust’s Jugurthine and Livy’s Hannibalic War and much emphasised in Virgil’s Aeneid, becomes more disquieting when put into play in a poem that deals with the ‘Art of Falsehood,’ propagandistic disguising of a civil war.

Item Type:	Book Item
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts > Classics and Ancient History
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Horace. Epodae, Dithyramb, Dionysus (Greek deity) in literature
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISBN:	9780198746058
Book Title:	Horace’s Epodes: Contexts, Intertexts, and Reception
Editor:	Bather, Philippa and Stocks, Claire
Official Date:	March 2016
Dates:	Date Event March 2016 Published
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Related URLs:	Publisher

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