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A punning reminiscence of Vergil, Ecl. 10.75–7 in Horace, Epist. 1.5.28–9
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
The fifth poem in Horace's first book of Epistles takes the form of an invitation to Torquatus to attend a dinner which the poet is preparing for that evening, the eveof the Emperor's birthday (line 9 eras nato Caesare). The fare will be simple but Horace will see to it that the furnishings, napkins, vessels and plates will be clean and bright and that the company and the seating-plan will be to Torquatus’ taste (21–6). Horace will get Butra and Septicius to be there, and Sabinus, too, as long as he is not kept away by a prior dinner engagement or by a girl he'd rather spend the evening with. With Torquatus and Horace, that makes four or five diners, so that there is room for others before the triclinium is full, although there shouldn't be too many; or, as Horace puts it (28–9):
locus est et pluribus umbris;
sed nimis arta premunt olidae conuiuia caprae.
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References
1 On the identity of this Torquatus, see Nisbet, R. G. M., ‘Notes on Horace, Epistles 1’, CQ 9 (1959), 73–6Google Scholar. Allen, W., Jr, et al, ‘The addressees in Horace's first book of Epistles’, Studies in Philology 67 (1970), 255–66Google Scholar.
2 Maecenas brought two umbrae with him to Nasidienus’ dinner-party: cum Seruilio Balatrone /Vibidius quos Maecenas adduxerat umbras (S. 2.8.21–2). Thepseudo-Acronian, scholia gloss these umbras as parasitos (ed. Keller, O. [Leipzig, 1904], Vol. 2, p. 199, 9)Google Scholar; the same scholia comment as follows on the umbrae in Epistles 1.5.: quia umbrae ut puto dicuntur quos secum ducunt qui rogantur ad prandium (ibid. p. 231, 4–6).
3 So Porphyrio, : ait arte discumbentium molestum esse odorem alarum eorum, qui hirci dicuntur (ed. Meyer, W. [Leipzig, 1874], p. 274, 14–15)Google Scholar; quite other, sexual, interpretations in the scholia of codd. Par. Lat. 7974, 7971 (ed. H. J. Botschuyver [Amsterdam, 1935], p. 355,27–9) and 17897 (ibid., Vol. 4, p. 345, 18–24). Among modern commentaries that of Wickham, E. C. (Oxford, 1891) stands out with this circumspect translation avoiding mention of armpits: ‘when a party is too crowded a flock of goats is disagreeably near’ (Vol. 2, p. 240)Google Scholar.
4 Not in Hosius, Carl, P. Vergili Maronis Bucolica cum auctoribus et imitatoribus (Bonn, 1915), nor inGoogle ScholarWeyman, Carl, ‘Similia zu Vergils Hirtengedichten. VIII’, WS 49 (1931), 142–8, nor in subsequent commentaries on Hor.Epist.Google Scholar.
5 For locus ‘a passage of literature', cf., Ter.Ad. 8, 9Google Scholar; , Hor.Ep. 2.1.223Google Scholar; , Quint.Inst. 1.1.36. 8.6.44, 47Google Scholar; and seeThLL s.v. VII. 2, 1592, 40ffGoogle Scholar.
6 The word, or a derivative, occurs elsewhere in the line only at 2.8 (umbras), 2.3 (umbrosa), 9.42 (umbracula) and 10.76 (iuniperi grauis umbra).
7 Cf. ThLL s.v. III, 304, 56ff., andAxelson, B., Unpoetische Wörter (Lund, 1945), pp. 44–5Google Scholar.
8 Pi. Ps. 738 hircum ab alls. Hor. S. 1.2.27 (= 1.4.92) pastillos Rufillus olet, Gargonius hircum (cf., Sen.Ep. 86.13 proinde..ac si hircum oleret)Google Scholar. , Plin.Nat. 27.107 herba cuius radix., uirus hirci redolet. Mart. 6.93.3 tarn male Thais olet, quam non.. ab amore recens hircusGoogle Scholar. , Sidon.Epist. 8.14.4 hircorum.. uirulentiamGoogle Scholar.
9 , PiCos. 1018Google Scholar ei pro scorto supponetur hircus unctus nausea. Catul. 69.6 ualle sub alarum trux habitare caper (cf. , Ov.Ars 3.193 admonui ne trux caper iret in alas); Catul. 71.1 sacer alarum obstitit hircusGoogle Scholar. , Hor.Epod. 12.5 polypus an grauis hirsutis cubet hircus in alis.Google Scholar.
10 In our earliest evidence for the word, caper means ‘castrated he-goat’ (Varro in Gellius 9.9.9–10; cf. Martial 3.24.14. Gloss. V 275, 17); this meaning would give additional bite to Catullus 69.6 and toHorace, Epodes 10.23! caper means ‘he-goat’ first in Verg. Eel.Google Scholar.
11 When he-goat and she-goat are together, it is the male that is smelly: , Ov.Ars 2.486 sustinet immundum sima capella marem. Mart. 4.4.4quod pressa piger hircus in capella [redolet].Google Scholar.
12 For hircus – ala, axilla see ThLL s.v. VI.3, 2822, 25ff. Note also subhircus (with reflexes in Romance, REW 8360). The adjective hircosus, which one would expect to mean ‘resembling a he-goat’ is attested (Apul., untilMet. 5.25) only with the specialized meaning ‘smelling like a he-goat’ (adj.) or (noun) ‘one smelling like a he-goat’ (ThLL VI.3, 2819, 77fi). The same sense is found also for hircinusGoogle Scholar(, PI.Poen. 873; see ThLL VI.3, 2819, 54ff.) which alone can mean also, neutrally, ‘coming from a he-goat’;: note especiallyGoogle Scholar, Plin.Nat. 28.165 caprini cornus..magisque hircini; 28.145 medulla..hircina et caprina. No such developed sense relating to bad odour in attested for caprinus or caprllis (see ThLL III, 360, 17ff., 42ff.)Google Scholar.
13 Q. Serenus (liber medicinalis 175 olidae graue quod minxere capellae) andSidonius, carm. 9.238 olidae marem capellae) are surely echoing Horace (the latter having perhaps misunderstoodGoogle Scholar, Hor.carm. 1.17.7 as olenth uxores maritil)Google Scholar.
14 See the commentary of Wilkins, A. S. (New York, 1885), ad loc.Google Scholar.
16 A less likely alternative is that Horace intends caprae to mean goats in general (as in e.g.Varro, , res rust. 2.1.5. 2.3.3). SeeGoogle ScholarAdams, J. N., ‘The generic use of mula and the status and employment of female mules in the Roman world’, RhM 136 (1993), 35–61, esp. 53–4Google Scholar.
16 For other instances of compliments paid to contemporaries by way of mention of or allusion to their ancestors seeHarrison's, S. J. commentary on Aeneid 10 (Oxford, 1991), on lines 345 and 752Google Scholar.
17 Cf. Livy 8.11.11 andNisbet, R. G. M., op. cit. [n. 1]Google Scholar.
18 On the epicureanism in the letter to Torquatus—a further possible link, I suggest, between the gens Manlia and Vergil—see nowEidinow, J. S. C., ’Horace's epistle to Torquatus(Ep. 1.5)’, in this volume ofCQ, above pp. 191–199.I am grateful to the author for showing me this article in advance of its publication. I would hear in Horace's line 2 hŏlŭs ōmnē pātēllā not merely Epicurean content but also Vergilian, especially bucolic, rhythm: the pattern [s-stem neuter] α;ūsα; omne in feet 4–5 of the hexameter occurs twelve times altogether in Vergil and the line-ending α;ella(—)α eighteen times in the Eel. Horace's choice of the words holus andpatella to fill these familiar Vergilian rhythmic slots will have been striking and funny.Google Scholar.
19 Mette, H. J., ‘genus tenue und ensa tenuis bei Horaz’, MH 18 (1961), 136–9Google Scholar.
20 On the turning already by Vergil of the connotations of umbra in the closing lines of the Eel., seeKennedy, D. F. in LCM 8 (1983), 124Google Scholar. Might Vergil's innovation have prompted Horace to go further?.
21 Cf. Wilkinson, L. P., ‘The language of Vergil and Horace’, CQ 9 (1959), 181–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarLyne, R. O. A. M., Words and the Poet (Oxford, 1989), pp. 4–7. On other puns in this poem of Horace, involving especially legal and rhetorical words, seeGoogle ScholarEidinow, J. S. C., op. cit. [n. 18]Google Scholar.
22 Fou r nice eaxamples from Epistles I are: 1.4.1 Albi nostrorum sermonum candide iudex; 1.8 on Celsus ‘Lofty’ (seeMacleod, C. W. in JRS 69 (1979), 21); 1.13.8–9 on Asina; and 1.13.19 (addressed to Vinnius Valens) uade, uale, caue ne titubes mandataque frangas (seeGoogle ScholarMcGann, M. J. in CQ 13 (1963), 258–9). Others include: Odes 3.28.8 on Bibulus, Odes 1.5.4 on Pyrrha and the jokes on the poet's own name in Epod, 15.12 and Serm. 2.1.18fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
23 So Porphyrio, ad loc, p. 273, 29–274, 3 MeyerGoogle Scholar.
24 To say nothing of the meaning of μόσχοζ!.
25 Alternativelyor in addition— premunt is appropriate in Horace's context as the metaphor of weight, heaviness, oppressiveness is frequently used of smells in Latin. Although I have not found parallels for premo of smells, a smell is often described as grauis: note, for example, Lucr. 4.125. Catull. 17.25., Verg.G. 4.49 odor caeni grauis. By extension, the source of the smell may be so described: for example the grauis..hircus inGoogle Scholar, Hor.Epod. 12.5Google Scholar.
26 This would also be an implication of Horace's instruction to Torquatus to leave for dinner.