Horace Odes And Epodes

The Complete Odes and Epodes

Horace (65-8 BC) is one of the most important and brilliant poets of the Augustan Age of Latin literature whose influence on European literature is unparalleled. Horace's Odes and Epodes constitute a body of Latin poetry equalled only by Virgil's, astonishing us with leaps of sense and rich modulation, masterly metaphor, and exquisite subtlety. The Epodes include proto-Augustan poems, intent on demonstrating the tolerance, humour and the humanity of the new leaders of Rome, robust love poems, and poems of violent denunciation; the Odes echo Greek lyric poetry, reflecting on war, politics and the gods, and celebrating the pleasures of wine, friendship, love, poetry and music. Steeped in allusion to contemporary affairs, Horace's verse is best read in terms of his changing relationship to the public sphere, and David West's superb new translation is supplemented by a lucid introduction illuminating these complexities, extensive notes, a chronological survey and a glossary of names.

Horace: Odes and Epodes

This collection of recent articles provides convenient access to some of the best recent writing on Horace's Odes and Epodes. Formalist, structuralist, and historicizing approaches alike offer insight into this complex poet, who reinvented lyric at the transition from the Republic to the Augustan principate. Several classic studies in French, German, and Italian are here translated into English for the first time. A thread linking many of the pieces is the recurring debate over the performance of Horace's Odes. Fiction? Literal reality? A figurative appropriation of Greek tradition within the bookish culture of late Hellenism? Arguments both for and against gain a hearing. Michele Lowrie's introduction surveys the state of current scholarship and offers guidance on the seminal issues confronting the interpretation of Horatian lyric today. Suggestions for further reading and a consolidated bibliography open avenues for more extensive research.

The Complete Odes and Epodes with the Centennial Hymn