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Philosophical Imagery in Horace, Odes 3.5

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

S. J. Harrison
S. J. Harrison
Affiliation:
St John's College, Oxford
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Extract

The high moral tone of Horace's Reguhls ode (3.5) makes it unsurprising that the poet should employ the traditional imagery of philosophers, both in the speech of Regulus and in the final simile. I should like here to point out some instances which seem to have escaped the notice of commentators.

This passage is intended to illustrate the lost ‘virtus’ of the prisoners in Carthage, who, Regulus claims, will be of no greater use to the Romans if ransomed since they were cowardly enough to surrender in the first place. For the first image of dyeing wool Kiessling–Heinze refer the reader to Lucretius 6.1074–7:

purpureusque colos conchyli iungitur una

corpore cum lanae, dirimi qui non queat usquam,

non si Neptuni fluctu renovare operam des,

non mare si totum velit eluere omnibus undis.

This gives the first hint that the image belongs to the philosophical tradition, though it does not seem to occur in the extant remains of Epicurus. This is confirmed by a passage of Plato, who at Rep. 429d ff. has an elaborate image taken from the dyer's art. The Guardians of the ideal city are to be carefully selected and prepared like wool for the dyeing process of education; then, as good wool keeps its colour after dyeing, so the Guardians will keep right opinions when they are taught them. The image is summarized by Socrates at 430a ff.:

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , December 1986 , pp. 502 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1986

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References

1 The more usual associations of dye — cf. Kornhardt, H., Hermes 82 (1954), 112Google Scholar. The metaphor of dyeing for education occurs elsewhere in Cicero and also in Quintilian — cf. Fantham, E., Comparative Studies in Republican Latin Imagery ([Phoenix Suppl. 10], Toronto, 1972), 162Google Scholar, Assfahl, G., Vergleich und Metapher bei Quintilian ([TüCbinger Beiträge zur Altertums-wissenschaft 15], Stuttgart, 1932), 103Google Scholar.

2 Cf. Hippocrates, op. cit. 2 (= Littré 4.80.23ff.):.ὃσοισι μ⋯ν οὖν πυκιν⋯ ⋯κπίπτει ⋯ ὦμος, ἱκανο⋯ ὡς ⋯π⋯ τ⋯ πλεῖστον αὐτο⋯ σφ⋯σιν αὐτοῖσιν ⋯μβάλλειν εἰσ⋯ν. For ‘excidere’ and ‘reponere’ in these medical senses cf. TLL 5.2.1235.82ff. and OLD s.v. ‘repono’ 1 respectively.

3 Conveniently illustrated in Majno, G., The Healing Hand: Man and Wounds in the Ancient World (Cambridge, Mass., 1975), 162–6Google Scholar.

4 Cf. Bramble, J. C., Persius and the Programmatic Satire (Cambridge, 1974), 35 n. 2–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Nisbet, and Hubbard on Horace, Odes 2.2.13Google Scholar.

5 Cf. Kornhardt, art. cit. (n. 1), 118, Blätter, P., Studien zur Regulusgeschichte (Diss. Sarnen, 1945), 61Google Scholar. For the later history of Regulus as an ‘exemplum’ cf. Mix, E. R., Marcus Atilius Regulus: Exemplum Historicum (The Hague/Paris, 1970)Google Scholar.

6 Williams, Gordon, The Third Book of Horace's Odes (Oxford, 1969), 59Google Scholar.

7 Thus the poet Pacuvius retired to Tarentum (as Horace, himself wished to — Odes 2.6Google Scholar).

8 Cf. Williams, op. cit. (n. 6), 60 ‘It is a sharply devised contrast to the grim reality’ and similarly Syndikus, H. P., Die Lyrik des Horaz: eine Interpretation der Oden (Darmstadt, 1972–1973), 2.84Google Scholar.

9 The simile is of course anachronistic (cf. Pasquali, G., Orazio Lirico (Florence, 1920), 706Google Scholar): the Regulus story, however much of it is true (see Walbank on Polybius 1.35 and Klebs, in RE 2.2086–92Google Scholar), belongs to the years 251–48 b.c., while the first pleasure-villa we hear of is that of Scipio Africanus at Litemum, whither he retired in 184 b.c. (Livy 38.52.1) — cf. D'Arms, J. H., Romans οn the Bay of Naples (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), 1–9Google Scholar. For other anachronistic siιniles in Augustan poetry cf. Vergil, , Aen 9.710–16Google Scholar (building piles) With Coffey, M., BICS 8 (1961), 69–70Google Scholar, Ovid, , Met. 1.200–5Google Scholar (Caesarian conspirators), 3.111 (the ‘aulaea’ — cf. Beare, W., Τhe Roman Stage, 3rd. ed. (London, 1964) App. E)Google Scholar.

10 Campbell, A. Y., Horace (London, 1924), 226Google Scholar.

11 The house of Hades, home of the dead: (e.g.) Iliad 15.251, Odyssey 12.21, Hesiod, , Th. 767Google Scholar, Aeschylus, , Persae 642Google Scholar, Sophocles, , El. 110Google Scholar, Euripides, , Her. 808Google Scholar, Callimachus, , Aet. fr.75.15ff.Google Scholar; for Latin uses cf. TLL 5.1978.79ff. For the characterization of death cf. Chaucer, , Knight's Tale fr. A 2809–10Google Scholar (the death of Arcite): ‘His spirit chaunged hous and wente ther, / As I cam nevere, I kan nat tellen wher’, and what looks like a parody of philosophical μετο⋯κησις at Petronius 71.7 (Trimalchio on his grand tomb) ‘valde enim falsum est vivo quidem domos cultas esse, non curari eas, ubi diutius nobis habitandum est’ (it has been suggested to me this may have more to do with house-shaped tombs than with μετο⋯κησις). Similar too is Bion's comparison of leaving the body to leaving a house (Bion, ap. Teles pp. 15.11–16.2 Hense), using the expression ⋯κ το⋯ σωματ⋯ου ⋯ξοικ⋯ζεσθαι.

12 The second edition of Nepos' Lives, in which he added the death-scene of Atticus (Att. 19.1), must be dated between the death of Atticus in 32 b.c. and that of Nepos himself in 24; it is likely to have been written before 27 b.c. since the ‘princeps’ is still preferred to as ‘Caesar’ (Att. 19.4) rather than ‘Augustus’; Odes 1–3 were probably ‘published’ in 23 b.c. — cf. Nisbet, R. G. M. and Hubbard, Margaret, A Commentary on Horace Odes Book I (Oxford, 1970), xxxv–xxxviiGoogle Scholar.

13 On five occasions (collected by Blattler, op. cit. in n. 5, 64): Dial. 1.3.4, 9.16.4. Ep. 67.7, 71.17,98.12.

14 Cf. Horace, 's placing of Regulus m his gallery of Roman heroes at Odes 1.12.37Google Scholar and Cicero's many mentions of him, collected by Blättler, op. cit. (n. 5), 59–63.

15 Its legendary founder was the Spartan king Phalanthus, as Horace, mentions at Odes 2.6.11Google Scholar — cf. Nisbet and Hubbard ad loc.

16 Cf. also Lycurgus, , in Leocr. 197Google Scholar, Cicero, , Tusc. 1.102Google Scholar.

17 My thanks to those who have helped me with suggestions and criticisms: Prof. R. G. M. Nisbet, Dr M. T. Griffin, Jasper Griffin, Dr N. M. Horsfall and the editors.