Horace and Callimachus

1. Horace and Callimachus Self-conscious poetry

2. The Prologue to the Aetia

3. Callimachus + Hellenstic Poetry • Fl.300-250BC in Alexandria • Aristocrat • Closely linked to the Great Library, though never Head Librarian • Hellenistic poetry = self-conscious poetry

4. Callimachean Poetry • Anti-Epic (prologue to the Aetia) The malignant gnomes who write reviews in Rhodes are muttering about my poetry again - tone-deaf ignoramuses out of touch with the Muse- because I have not consummated a continuous epic of thousands of lines on heroes and lords but turn out minor texts as if I were a child although my decades of years are substantial. … So evaporate, Green-Eyed Monsters, or learn to judge poems by the critic's art instead of by the Persian mile. • Craft vs. lengthcarmine perpetuo celebrare (1.7) • Recusatio (1.6)

5. Callimachean Playfulness • Instructed by Apollo (ibid) When I first put a tablet on my knees, the Wolf-God Apollo appeared and said: Fatten your animal for sacrifice, poet, but keep your muse slender." And "follow trails unrutted by wagons, don't drive your chariot down public highways, but keep to the back roads though the going is narrow. We are the poets for those who love the cricket's high chirping, not the noise of the jackass.” • Slender Muse (1.6) conamur, tenues grandia, dum pudor imbellisque lyrae Musa potens vetat

6. Episodic Epic • Callimachus wrote longer poems by breaking down into finely crafted episodes (Hecale) • Many speeches, little action • Obscure myths included to show knowledge • Humble view of epic heroes (Achilles in 1.8) 1.15 Pastor cum traheret per freta navibus Idaeis Helenen perfidus hospitam, ingrato celeris obruit otio ventos, ut caneret fera Nereus fata:… • A poem without an ending!

7. Enigmatic Epic • Callimachus is characterised by obscurity requiring his reader to be clever enough to work out his point. • 1.7: obscure myth introduced Teucer Salamina patremque      cum fugeret, tamen uda Lyaeo tempora populea fertur vinxisse corona,      sic tristes adfatus amicos: ’quo nos cumque feret melior fortuna parente,   25      ibimus, o socii comitesque. nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice: Teucri      certus enim promisit Apollo ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram.       o fortes peioraque passi mecum saepe viri, nunc vino pellite curas;       30      cras ingens iterabimus aequor.’ • Not naming names: ‘pastor’ = Paris (1.15), Achilles not mentioned by name in 1.10

8. Horace’s development • Horace uses the recusatio of Epic to refuse political poetry and focus on lyric love poetry (1.19)   in me tota ruens Venus Cyprum deseruit, nec patitur Scythas        aut versis animosum equis Parthum dicere nec quae nihil attinent. (1.6) nos conuiuia, nos proelia virginum sectis in iuvenes unguibus acrium cantamus vacui, siue quid urimur       non praeter solitum leves.