The dissertation includes a general introduction and commentaries on <I>C. </I>4.1, 2, 10, 11 and 15. A detailed essay, including an overview of recent literary criticism, prefaces the commentary proper on each of the selected odes. In each case line-by-line exposition is offered on literary, linguistic, textual, metrical, historical and generic matters. In the general introduction verbal and thematic connections between <I>Odes</I> Four and Ennius <I>Annals</I> Book Sixteen are highlighted and examined. Horace's self-representation as a poet, particularly with regard to Augustus, is also discussed. The introduction to <I>C. </I>4.1 explains how the central stanzas of the poem are an idealized rehearsal of epithalamial festivities; this is a development from a hypothesis first expounded by Kiessling that Paullus is commended to Venus in terms suitable for a bridgegroom. In the commentary, an ancestral precedent for Paullus' dedication of a shrine to Venus is demonstrated. The introduction to <I>C. </I>4.2 focuses on the problem of how the addressee, Iullus Antonius, could plausibly be requested to play a Pindaric role in the stead of Horace himself. This entails both a discussion of peotic <I>aemulatio</I> and an analysis of the relationship of <I>laudator</I> and <I>laudandus</I> as depicted by Pindar, with a consideration of how this relates to Horace's modes of praise in <I>Odes</I> Four. The introduction and commentary on <I>C. </I>4.10 show how Horace takes a situation familiar from Greek epigram, and introduces verbal and thematic novelties into the standard framework. The introduction to <I>C. </I>4.11 demonstrates the unity of what is usually seen as one of Horace's most starkly disjointed odes, by illustrating how the theme of Maecenas' birthday and the limits of mortal life extends even into the <I>exempla</I> and advice ostensibly directed only at Phyllis. In the commentary, the importance of the context of the Bellerophon <I>exemplum </I>in Pindar <I>I. </I>7.38ff, is highlighted for the first time.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:604066 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Hills, P. D. |
| Publisher | University of Cambridge |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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